XCom2 Guide on How to Engage One Pod at a time (How to prevent pulling multiple enemies)

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This guide covers an in-depth look behind the scenes of Xcom2 and how to become better at managing to only pull one pack at a time. Works for both vanilla XCOM2 and WOTC.

[Story_Yeller]

This is possibly the most impactful guide video on XCOM2. Most XCOM youtubers will have recommendations for class builds, tech order, etc. But as far as winning the mission on a tactical level theres nothing more important than this... Once a pod is triggered the fighting is pretty straight forward: use flanks, use highground, use your abilities to remove their cover, etc. But I dont think many people know about the AI as in depth as you!

[Carlos-M]

"8) Regularly review missions and learn from your mistakes." THIS. Absolutely THIS.

When I picked up the game, half the reviews that I read complained a lot about the timer mechanic. But on my first playthrough of the game, I found the timers to be a total non-issue, regularly taking the objectives with 3-5 turns remaining. So I was like, what's the big deal, these timers are no big deal!

On my second playthrough, I upped the difficulty from Rookie to Veteran, and also went from the vanilla game to WOTC. Suddenly, the timers gave me a lot of trouble. I still won the missions but ended up really close (like 1-2 turns left) and tended to get my squad injured because I'd then need to double-move someone to the objective while there are still some enemies active. I did up the difficulty, but I thought what the hey, I must be doing something wrong.

I started debriefing myself and realized I got into the "too smart for his own good" part of the learning curve; on my second playthrough I tended to be a bit too perfectionist in setting up the initial ambush. So what ended up happening especially in the early game when the squad is weak, is I would see a pod in concealment, then decide I'd take an extra turn to position myself optimally... and then the alien turn comes around and a second pod would get into visual range. I was now in a conundrum: do I spend turns repositioning so I don't end up engaging two pods, or do I start the encounter so I can continue moving towards the objective? Most often I'd end up in 1) a bad position 2) engaging too many enemies and 3) getting massively delayed, anyway. I adjusted my approach so that I'd start the encounter in a "good enough" position instead of making the perfect the enemy of the good, and ended up being able to deal with timers once again with little issue.

And I feel like this is where the majority of all the "that's xcom baby" players end up, blaming the timers, or "why did I just miss 3 85% shots in a row", etc. for losing. XCOM 2 is engaging and is surprisingly well-tuned for being such a rushed buggy mess lol, but one really needs to be constantly analyzing one's own game to get better at it.

[arsenalles]

This is by far the best tutorial on XCOM, you explain excellently things that are the very core of the combat. Although I was familiar with most of the concepts it's nice to see them in such a nice format. I knew your name through reddit but I started watching your channel when you did a jagged alliance 3 playthrough and discovered you have a great channel overall. Great content

[SD_Games]

This is a great video, all these things I learned the hard way when trying my way doing Commander diffculty. Very good video for most advance and new players, much to learn. Thanks.👍

[lNightbringerl]

Love this format! Thanks for the help!

[Runs_With_Bear]

Great explanations. Allthough I knew most stuff, because I follow your other vids closely, this condensed format ist great to recapture some things.

Keep it going, please!

[justinmoseley]

Thank you very much, I am getting injured/dead far too often as I am pulling packs. Replaying again and thinking about Commander for the next run but would just get rinsed with my poor tactics atm. This video is really helpful thanks.

[robocastgames]

Wow, thanks for the help, i am playing my first playthrough of xcom 2, and this guide is incredible!

[fortyshades]

Been playing the game since ps1 era and after watching a couple of your videos …my gameplay has improved drastically to the point that I need to jump to the next difficulty

[avgplayer]

I saw you on reddit telling a guy who was asking this exact question that you would make a video on that

[subbie-eye]

I was thinking about this video and I cannot emphasise how important this is, together with the target prioritization video. I share a case study to show why I feel this video is arguably more important:

I was playing (on Veteran) a Resistance Operative (+2 soldiers) VIP mission earlier with the Lost Sitrep, non-timed. Stupid me saw 3 patrolling pods and was not willing to shift my troops for another 3-4 turns cos I thought high ground = OP. I ended up activating them all (+1 more pod cos Very Difficult) cos cover situation could not accomodate my whole squad (so I accidentally stepped on a tile not mentioned to be covered by the Lost) + 1 Advent Lancer, less 1 reaper who went to pick up the VIP. (Skirmisher was there in case Assassin shows up, which she did not until the next Mission)

I was lucky and unlucky enough to escape with only 2 soldiers wounded from a single grenade. Lucky because I watched your target video and it could have been a lot worse. (1 Archon, 5 Mutons, 2 Vipers and 2 Sectoids + Lost, so I am happy I only got 2 wounded soldiers)

But unlucky because it took me 3 Mimic Beacons, 1 Frost Bomb, 1 base level Hunter's Axe, a lot of Bond benefits (had 1 lvl 3 and 1 lvl 2 bond) and generally very skilled soldiers (Sergeant - Major level soldiers, one promoted to first Colonel after an outstanding performance this mission) and I still ate a grenade. Using these consumables is the best I could do action economy wise.

Key point is that even having a good kit and materials cannot fully override the mistake of activating more than one pod at a time, and you could get wounded soldiers at best (and dead units at worse). If done right, prioritizing targets keeps your soldiers healthy. If done wrong, prioritizing targets is mitigating damage and hoping no one dies.

I took some lessons from that mission, but I can say that tactically, this and the target video is essential viewing if you want to play Xcom and on legendary.

[ausdoug]

Excellent. I enjoyed watching this video and learned a lot form it. Thanks for putting in the time to create it for us.

You made a couple of references to a video explaining more details about the practicalities of the actual fighting. Can I please ask where it’s located? I’ve searched for it, but unfortunately haven’t found it yet. Thank you.

[Malacite]

My preferred method is to have a Ranger with Phantom in a position where they will not be detected by the incoming Pod once attacked and let one of my snipers engage the ambush, either manually if I can get away with it/Killzone is down, or through Overwatch.

I've found that on some maps you can seriously abuse this. It doesn't always happen, but sometimes the AI will just completely derp out and it is hysterical when it does.

Basically if you are too far away, they won't even move forward - they will just dart back and forth allowing you to chip at them with your sniper(s). Obviously this is only really good on non-timed missions but it's still awesome.

Having a Grenadier with a Flashbangs and advanced GL is also great, as the upgraded launcher actually does increase the already significant radius of the Flashbang and again if you do it from far away enough you might not even fully aggro the pod (or at least avoid linking others)

[Shattered-Realm]

Love the guides. Very helpful. I understand all these concepts. but still I sometimes have trouble knowing how far my sight range will expand. It's quite unpredictable in some situations where a stray window can give you away.

Also when dealing with these scenarios it's fine if the last man standing is a sectoid. Sectoid is harmless and gets cleaned up on the next turn.

But what do you do if the last man standing is a muton or worse and you have the option to go up just a few squares and get a flank --> thus likely kill the muton. On the other hand we all know expanding vision just by one tile can mean

Also is there a way I can review my missions? That would be tremendously helpful

[Drecon]

On the other hand, sometimes it can be loads of fun to engage multiple pods at the same time. I was assaulting a Chosen stronghold yesterday and on my second move 3 pods triggered at the same time because one of them went through a door, but two other doors out there were already open. Those were a lot of enemies to engage at the same time and there didn't seem to be anything I could have done about it.
I did wipe the floor with most of them on turn 1. Leaving a Mind Controlled Andromedon, A Purifier and a Codex alive, along with a Spectre I think. Killed them all on the next turn.

That said, this is pretty late in the campaign with a high level Psi soldier, end game gear and my entire squad having a host of abilities, but it was still a ton of fun. I even ended that mission flawless without a single damage on any of my soldiers :P

[lucagubernati]

Can this software extract enemy placement and movement from plays? Or is this just a 2d map for references?
How did you figured out all this video content without seeing the whole map while playing... PC mods?
Great video!

[lyrrakell]

Nice guide.

If you're me, you understand all of this but still pull all packs on the map at the same time. ;) Have you ever messed around with the yellow alert mod? I'm still really on the fence about whether this mod is any good or not.

Also, there is a mod that will keep track of the number of enemies you have killed and are active (and if you have the shadow chamber, how many are left). I like it, as it's just one less thing I have to manually keep track of. It's called TacticalUI KillCounter.

[RupeeRoundhouse]

How did you figure out how the XCOM 2 engine/AI works?

[jakob]

What I need to know is when you do run into enemies out of concealment does them scrambling for cover count as their move and then it comes back to me? Because sometimes it seems like that’s the case but then other times they get to have a whole turn and take out most of my guys purely because I revealed them on the screen. It’s easily the most confusing and frustrating thing for me in this game

[AnimePigeon]

Is there a link to your video on Overwatch Traps? I can't see it 😅