Jawad Saeed
Xenonauts 2 is an action strategy-based video game that takes inspiration from the widely acclaimed XCOM series. It involves the player fighting to protect Earth against an invasion by an alien species. Players can research alien technology to improve their weapons alongside building their bases as strongholds to launch attacks while making sure that their soldiers do not die. This article provides tips and tricks to help you have a good start in the game.
Complete Beginner’s Guide
This guide will be divided into sections, with each one focusing on one particular tip for beginners. Let’s jump right into it!
Additional Interceptor
Immediately after starting the game, the first thing that we would recommend doing is to get your third aircraft. This means building an additional hangar and acquiring an Interceptor. The reason for this is because of how overpowered the UFOs are in this game. A base-tier Scout UFO required multiple attempts on our part to take down, so investing in an additional aircraft should definitely be one of your top priorities.
This will help to make the early game slightly easier by allowing you to take out your enemies from the skies.
MARS
The second tip refers to an underrated combat unit named MARS that comes from the Engineering Department. This unit is capable of doing most of the heavy lifting early on and helping assist your soldiers and prevent their deaths. These units cost 250,000 Dollars to build but are definitely worth the investment.
The MARS can be equipped with either a Rocket Launcher Turrent or a Heavy Armor Piercing Cannon, which can help to level the playing field with the aliens. These are arguably the most overpowered unit that you can get in the early game due to their combat potential. The only downside that we could find is that you can only take one of these into battle.
Riflemen and Snipers
The entire premise of the game revolves around making sure that your soldiers survive after each mission since, in this game, if the health bar of a soldier drops to zero, they die. This means that they cannot be brought back. This forces players to contemplate each of their moves in order to weigh the consequences of their actions. At the beginning of the game, you start with two soldiers of the Assault Class.
We recommend that you swap these units out for soldiers from the Sniper or Rifleman class. The reason for this is due to the intricate and complex combat system of the game. From our testing, we observed that it is much easier to take down enemies from a distance rather than moving into their faces and using the Shotgun from the Assault class. This does not mean that Assault soldiers should not be utilized. Once you have mastered the combat, then you can start experimenting with them and implementing them in your strategies.
Base Specialization
The game features an Adjacency Bonus system meaning that rooms that are built next to each other gain bonus stats that help in the overall efficiency of the base. This is a very good mechanic since it not only encourages players to build several bases but also encourages them to theme each base around a particular room.
Income
Carrying on from the previous point, Income is the most important resource in the entire game since it dictates the layout of your base and what units you have at your disposal. At almost all times of your playthrough, you won’t have enough money to purchase what you want, so it is crucial to maximize your income and not spend it carelessly. From building facilities to researching everything in the game is dependent on money. We recommend researching into abilities that directly increase your Monthly Funding.
Lastly, do keep an eye on your Terror levels and try to increase your income as much as you can since you are already at a disadvantage when compared to the strength of the aliens.
Second Base
The first big milestone in your Xenonauts 2 journey is your Second Base. We refer to this as the first big milestone since we do not recommend rushing into this base upgrade. The second base does not have priority over the tips, as mentioned earlier in this guide, to make sure to work through them. A good point to build the second base is after you have acquired around 3 Interceptors.
The second base is a milestone because it also allows you to expand your coverage across the planet. This helps you fight the invasion since, in this game, although it may not seem like much is happening but we can guarantee you that something is always happening behind the scenes. The second base will help you out immensely but identifying more infiltration opportunities and taking on more missions.
Leave Room for Defense Buildings
Our next tip is to always leave room for defense systems when planning the layout of your base. It is foolish to assume that your base will not be attacked because it will happen sooner or later. To minimize your losses having Defense Systems is a must. Just make sure you do not over plan while keeping the Adjacency Bonuses of the game in mind.
Spare Soldiers
We cannot emphasize the importance of soldiers in the working of this game, so making sure that you have spare ones is a must. Even if your preparation is on point, you never know what might happen in the game. Hence you should be prepared in advance with replacements.
Maintaining a good exchange roster is crucial since more than one of your soldiers is bound to get injured or killed in action. Hence you need additional soldiers that can help with your mission. Just make sure to rotate your rosters to help the replacements gain more experience as well.
Armor
Armor is extremely important in this game since it helps your soldiers to survive and tank additional hits. According to us, it is even more important than guns in the game. A good strategy is to start off with research on armor before better weapons since, in the early game, you have to focus on survival.
Another reason for researching armor early on is that you will encounter some enemies capable of killing your soldiers in one hit if they have the base Tactical Suit equipped. Since you encounter these enemies early on in the game, we recommend investing in armor to increase the longevity of your soldiers.
Save and Load A Lot
Saving and loading the game often is one of the most well-known mechanics of these strategy games. Players often refer to this as Save Scumming since you can load the game again if a specific course of action does not go your way. For beginners, we recommend this course of action since this is one of the best ways to learn the combat system and mechanics of this game without suffering the consequences of your actions.
We hope that this guide was helpful for you as you begin your journey into Xenonauts 2. Let us know in the comments below if you have additional questions or content suggestions.
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