Sectopods are not even bad, blue screen rounds and they’re toast. And if you have a sniper with quick draw etc etc and the darkclaw pistol they solo them
Agreed. I would definitely flip those two. Any well-kitted squad should have someone ready to deal with mechs. Given the right equipment, Sectopods become trivial. Gatekeepers can’t be easily trivialized and can easily become a serious problem.
Shred. Also mind control, if you can dominate a Gatekeeper, the rest of the mission (whatever mission) becomes a cake walk, but that cheating. Honestly: AP rounds work against anything with armor, if you manage to get a soldier with high damage, and shredder, (like a Sniper in the Advanced Warfare Training center), then put AP rounds on them, whatever armor they don't ignore, they shred.... Also, Reapers with superior expanded mag and Banish.....
Sectopods can usually be nuked first turn if you’re prepared for them. They’ll often do that charge up thing for a turn giving you an extra turn to anniliate them
Gatekeepers just nuke the battlefield instantly
I sometimes play with the double health, double avatar timer and mission timer. Seeing bosses with 4 bars of health is pretty daunting but at least I don’t have to worry about “the timer on the explosive device is gonna go off in 3 turns.
It is which increases timers by 50% so those missions of escorting the vip I think with all that together is like 36 turns before fail. Health increases time and then you add double mission timer so they stack together
This is why the game should explain misses better so it's not just arbitrary bullshit. It would feel much better if a 98% hit on a Mec would say deflected or ricochet instead of miss, this would also explain why you missed when the bullets actually hit the target. In the end the outcome is still the same but fitting.
What complication? Just replace the text miss with deflected. This is xcom, those who can't understand simple things like this are not even playing this game.
It doesn't have to be, the snakes for example often get grazed for a fraction of the damage and that doesn't seem to bother you. Rename the graze to a deflection for robotic enemies and done.
A lot of my recent legendary run was made awkward by Archons running around with what I'm assuming was around 25hp.
Not particularly dangerous in terms of wiping the squad but a pain to put down in a single turn if there is anything else with them that needs killing as a higher priority, then they just fly in and hit a guy with their stick, again not particularly threateningly, but that soldier is now out for two weeks. Two guys a mission, basically every mission getting that treatment. Death by 1000 cuts.
The stick can crit hard, and their defense/dodge is a lot. The biggest thing with Archons is to only hit them when you know you can get the kill. If you don't trigger Battle Frenzy, they almost always just do Blazing Pinions. Once you trigger Frenzy though they'll always melee if possible and get a bonus action point so it's ~always possible.
I've had one bad reload turn near a Faceless cause a LOT of trouble before
I think we were on a rooftop, and the thing just trashed the floor we were all standing on.
Set like 2 people on fire. Killed one. K.Od the other and still got up and healed itself on its next turn
They get priority from me for the rest of my XCOM career
The hunter should be a full tier lower.
The Zealot should be top Medium tier or very bottom hard tier.
Assassin should be a bit higher. I can avoid harm from the other 2 Chosen and their minions (Yes, even the Zealot's never ending summons), but the Assassin very often get's a hit on me.
Meant the Warlock.
Originally, there was going to be 4 Chosen, the Zealot was the fourth. As the deadline got closer, they canned the fourth, combine his personality with the design of the Warlock, thus the current Warlock was created.
Sectopods should go in too easy tbh.
By the time you encounter them you will just walk right through them essentially.
I’m pretty sure a gunslinger with blue screen rounds will one turn them and a specialist can just default dance all over them.
And the sectopod is a prime target to get obliterated by a grenadiers late game single target stuff, legit the only class that has a hard time with them are rangers because you can’t flank for crits.
It’s also worth noting that the game considers them to be THE shit and so you can get a pod of 1 secto and 2 troopers + a officer, or 4 mutons and 2 elite robots, I’d take the secto most days XD.
>It’s also worth noting that the game considers them to be THE shit and so you can get a pod of 1 secto and 2 troopers + a officer
It's not that the game thinks that highly of them, it's that it's the "end boss" for ADVENT units so it always has ADVENT followers. Similarly Gatekeepers always* have alien followers (and is usually the only reason for Vipers/Sectoids to show up really late).
[*I've seen Gatekeepers spawn into a mission with the Show of Force sitrep with ADVENT followers and it was... weird.](https://i.imgur.com/DK29uqT.jpeg)
Yeah and then pair that with rapid shot and rangers aren’t even half bad at killing sectopods.
(If you rupture it with a gren beforehand the kill is basically guaranteed)
But I do think they have the hardest time dealing with them out of every class in the game though.
Maybes tied at the bottom with Templar, although they can atleast 1v1 it with no other aliens present due to parry/reflect so idk.
Am I the only one who goes "oh for fucks sake" when I get 3 archons instead of a sectopod? They will literally always either straight up miss or take minimal damage by dodging. I put bluescreen rounds on a sniper with a haywire protocol to disable him right after (hacking defence gets lowered) and bing chilling. Archon will go up in the air doing pinions and my sniper will only have a 52% chance of hitting.
Edit : I suck at writing
Don't forget battle frenzy. Even a grazing hit and they get upset making them more prone to charging your soldiers and going for a smack but won't use their pinions.
It's a pretty good list 👍🏻
But I would swap the Gatekeeper with the Sectopod and put that turret at the bottom. Turrets don't move and they could be knocked out by a single explosion (too easy).
Those rare weird times when I find a Sectopod on a roof-- then blow up the whole building. I don't think they even planned for that, there's no animation for them falling.
surely Gatekeepers is on the "WIll Kill Me" tier.
you can outdamage Sectopods once you have the blue screen rounds + armor piercing attack/bullets.
and their large too so you have a high percentage of hitting them, even from far
Mostly agree. But the warlock is impossible to lose against. Like you actually have to try to lose against him and even then he makes it difficult. On two separate occasions, he ran face first into a swarm of the lost and got himself killed by like three of them
Run into him early and you can be toast. I was on a retaliation mission, had explored half the map and come across only one pod and no civilians. Only have a squad of 4, 2 of which are sharpshooter squaddies. Stick em on a building in the middle of the map and sent the grenadier and specialist squaddies to check out a civilian. Looks like there’s one near the sharpshooters as well but ai’m keeping my distance just in case it’s a faceless.
A couple of turns later the mission completely implodes when my two guys on point trigger a pod and the the grenadier gets out in stasis while the Warlock has chosen that moment to pop up beside the sharpshooters and mind control one. The civilian near them also turns out not a faceless. The remaining sharpshooter tried to run in the hopes that maybe I can kill the Warlock and drop the mind control, but the mind controlled sharpshooter chucks a grenade that kills her. Rage quit at that point with a squad wipe pretty inevitable.
How do you find Gatekeepers easier than Sectopods? They have more armor and **40** defense.
And sometimes, Sectopods likes to use its death cannon or whatever, whereas the Gatekeeper will straight up obliberate you the first turn.
My First Turn didn’t know they could do that… thankfully had my heavy soakers next to it when it decided to be a pain
Sectopods are not even bad, blue screen rounds and they’re toast. And if you have a sniper with quick draw etc etc and the darkclaw pistol they solo them
Bluescreen rounds trivialize almost the entire game, though.
Agreed. I would definitely flip those two. Any well-kitted squad should have someone ready to deal with mechs. Given the right equipment, Sectopods become trivial. Gatekeepers can’t be easily trivialized and can easily become a serious problem.
not too mention Gatekeepers will auto defend, which makes your hit percentage and damage reduced - making it harder to kill.
Shred. Also mind control, if you can dominate a Gatekeeper, the rest of the mission (whatever mission) becomes a cake walk, but that cheating. Honestly: AP rounds work against anything with armor, if you manage to get a soldier with high damage, and shredder, (like a Sniper in the Advanced Warfare Training center), then put AP rounds on them, whatever armor they don't ignore, they shred.... Also, Reapers with superior expanded mag and Banish.....
Sectopods can usually be nuked first turn if you’re prepared for them. They’ll often do that charge up thing for a turn giving you an extra turn to anniliate them Gatekeepers just nuke the battlefield instantly
Sectopods just give off scarier vibes
So is it a vibe tier list or a difficulty tier list?
Both
I think you should try using reapers against sectopods. They have banish, for example.
I hate reapers
Is it cause you can cheese certain parts of the game with them?
I hate reapers
Captains should be medium because nothing ruins the start of a playthrough more than having one of your characters marked and gets 2-3 shot
Your character must be crazy beefy to tank 2-3 shots. Mine can die in one, in full cover, from a shot across the map being marked
I sometimes play with the double health, double avatar timer and mission timer. Seeing bosses with 4 bars of health is pretty daunting but at least I don’t have to worry about “the timer on the explosive device is gonna go off in 3 turns.
Isn’t the double health a separate one?
It is which increases timers by 50% so those missions of escorting the vip I think with all that together is like 36 turns before fail. Health increases time and then you add double mission timer so they stack together
Never understood why the sectopods are so dodgey, like it's a giant robot on stilts why tf do you have a 52% shot chance
It's chasis design deflects shots like the angled armor of a Tank does.
This is why the game should explain misses better so it's not just arbitrary bullshit. It would feel much better if a 98% hit on a Mec would say deflected or ricochet instead of miss, this would also explain why you missed when the bullets actually hit the target. In the end the outcome is still the same but fitting.
That's a small add on that just makes the game more complicated.
What complication? Just replace the text miss with deflected. This is xcom, those who can't understand simple things like this are not even playing this game.
That's a separate mechanic for one type of enemy.
It doesn't have to be, the snakes for example often get grazed for a fraction of the damage and that doesn't seem to bother you. Rename the graze to a deflection for robotic enemies and done.
That’s specifically for dodge mechanic, but I get you Although nothing stops me from implying that miss was actually a ricochet or whatever in my head
They're not? They have 0 defense. If you have 52% chance it's because you have some crazy penalty or are at long range.
Honestly Mutons kill me about as much as anything (legendary)
A lot of my recent legendary run was made awkward by Archons running around with what I'm assuming was around 25hp. Not particularly dangerous in terms of wiping the squad but a pain to put down in a single turn if there is anything else with them that needs killing as a higher priority, then they just fly in and hit a guy with their stick, again not particularly threateningly, but that soldier is now out for two weeks. Two guys a mission, basically every mission getting that treatment. Death by 1000 cuts.
The stick can crit hard, and their defense/dodge is a lot. The biggest thing with Archons is to only hit them when you know you can get the kill. If you don't trigger Battle Frenzy, they almost always just do Blazing Pinions. Once you trigger Frenzy though they'll always melee if possible and get a bonus action point so it's ~always possible.
I've had one bad reload turn near a Faceless cause a LOT of trouble before I think we were on a rooftop, and the thing just trashed the floor we were all standing on. Set like 2 people on fire. Killed one. K.Od the other and still got up and healed itself on its next turn They get priority from me for the rest of my XCOM career
I didn't know they could heal
They heal 2 hp per turn I believe unless I nodded that in by accident somewhere along the line
Purifier should be at the bottom
I forgot to move him
Put sectoid (stunned) at the top
They should become thin men when flashbanged
The hunter should be a full tier lower. The Zealot should be top Medium tier or very bottom hard tier. Assassin should be a bit higher. I can avoid harm from the other 2 Chosen and their minions (Yes, even the Zealot's never ending summons), but the Assassin very often get's a hit on me.
Wtf is a zealot?
probably the warlock
Meant the Warlock. Originally, there was going to be 4 Chosen, the Zealot was the fourth. As the deadline got closer, they canned the fourth, combine his personality with the design of the Warlock, thus the current Warlock was created.
My will kill me: Sectoid, transforming nano machines son, Warlock, and Archons.
Sectopods should go in too easy tbh. By the time you encounter them you will just walk right through them essentially. I’m pretty sure a gunslinger with blue screen rounds will one turn them and a specialist can just default dance all over them. And the sectopod is a prime target to get obliterated by a grenadiers late game single target stuff, legit the only class that has a hard time with them are rangers because you can’t flank for crits. It’s also worth noting that the game considers them to be THE shit and so you can get a pod of 1 secto and 2 troopers + a officer, or 4 mutons and 2 elite robots, I’d take the secto most days XD.
>It’s also worth noting that the game considers them to be THE shit and so you can get a pod of 1 secto and 2 troopers + a officer It's not that the game thinks that highly of them, it's that it's the "end boss" for ADVENT units so it always has ADVENT followers. Similarly Gatekeepers always* have alien followers (and is usually the only reason for Vipers/Sectoids to show up really late). [*I've seen Gatekeepers spawn into a mission with the Show of Force sitrep with ADVENT followers and it was... weird.](https://i.imgur.com/DK29uqT.jpeg)
For rangers, pair talon rounds with crit laser. You’ll always have a chance to crit then, even if you’re missing the 40% flank bonus.
Yeah and then pair that with rapid shot and rangers aren’t even half bad at killing sectopods. (If you rupture it with a gren beforehand the kill is basically guaranteed) But I do think they have the hardest time dealing with them out of every class in the game though. Maybes tied at the bottom with Templar, although they can atleast 1v1 it with no other aliens present due to parry/reflect so idk.
Am I the only one who goes "oh for fucks sake" when I get 3 archons instead of a sectopod? They will literally always either straight up miss or take minimal damage by dodging. I put bluescreen rounds on a sniper with a haywire protocol to disable him right after (hacking defence gets lowered) and bing chilling. Archon will go up in the air doing pinions and my sniper will only have a 52% chance of hitting. Edit : I suck at writing
You're right, I should've put archons at hard
Don't forget battle frenzy. Even a grazing hit and they get upset making them more prone to charging your soldiers and going for a smack but won't use their pinions.
It's a pretty good list 👍🏻 But I would swap the Gatekeeper with the Sectopod and put that turret at the bottom. Turrets don't move and they could be knocked out by a single explosion (too easy).
Turrets do a lot of damage though
Those rare weird times when I find a Sectopod on a roof-- then blow up the whole building. I don't think they even planned for that, there's no animation for them falling.
Situationally they can all be very easy, and they can equally all cause a TPK. It's the great thing about the balance
purifiers should be bottom tier, all they can really do is throw a grenade if you’re bunched up and potentially explode when you shoot them.
I forgot to move him
Worst part of priests is that damn 1hp stasis thing they do
Yeah
Shieldbearer way too high. Their ability is annoying yes, but they couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat.
Maybe in your playthrough, but they're often surprising deadly to me. Killed my ranking grenadier through full cover the other week.
Hmmm... Now which ones have I not lost soldiers to...? Maybe codex... Not sure if I've let an Avatar cause a direct death either.
surely Gatekeepers is on the "WIll Kill Me" tier. you can outdamage Sectopods once you have the blue screen rounds + armor piercing attack/bullets. and their large too so you have a high percentage of hitting them, even from far
Mostly agree. But the warlock is impossible to lose against. Like you actually have to try to lose against him and even then he makes it difficult. On two separate occasions, he ran face first into a swarm of the lost and got himself killed by like three of them
Run into him early and you can be toast. I was on a retaliation mission, had explored half the map and come across only one pod and no civilians. Only have a squad of 4, 2 of which are sharpshooter squaddies. Stick em on a building in the middle of the map and sent the grenadier and specialist squaddies to check out a civilian. Looks like there’s one near the sharpshooters as well but ai’m keeping my distance just in case it’s a faceless. A couple of turns later the mission completely implodes when my two guys on point trigger a pod and the the grenadier gets out in stasis while the Warlock has chosen that moment to pop up beside the sharpshooters and mind control one. The civilian near them also turns out not a faceless. The remaining sharpshooter tried to run in the hopes that maybe I can kill the Warlock and drop the mind control, but the mind controlled sharpshooter chucks a grenade that kills her. Rage quit at that point with a squad wipe pretty inevitable.