so i think i'm far enough to consider this my second deep run. just rolling at this point.
This run, I had powered armor, pulse weapons, and blue scree rounds before hitting sectoids. Much easier this time around.

You mean sectopods?

yeah that.
plasma and powered armor before sectoids would be sweet though

Lollll

Yah Lightning Hands on everyone simply because your sharpshooter shouldn't be getting hit, and round after you can lightning hands anyways

Not worth it to use a specialist with scanner gremlin?

Xcom bad beats.

haven't had that happen, but definitely can relate to the feeling

how fast are you guys getting psi soldiers? I think the psi chamber is the last building i built. They seem pretty powerful, wondering if i should have grabbed them earlier.

anyone know if the UFO mission is standard and only temporarily delayed with the guerrilla side missions, or is it able to be avoided altogether? I hear it's one of the best missions in-game and want to make sure to not miss it on this or the next play-through.

I am experimenting with getting it before the AWC.

assuming standard run is guerrilla > AWC > Prove grounds

so you are just inserting it in front of AWC?

AWC important/prioritized so you can start getting the +1 and + 2 squad size, so I added it as early as possible. (2nd level so I could have the workshop help reinforce/speed up items in there as well.)

I built it before Proving Grounds, but nonetheless fairly late. They are pretty powerful, but not really necessary, mainly shining in the last fight of last mission. I never got one fully upgraded, although I think she was only missing one last skill.


For me it triggered right after I did an objective mission, might have been a coincidence, but I assume it will always happen at that point if it hasn't happened before, my team of 8 was pretty much Colonels and Majors only at that point.

I build proving grounds first, grenade upgrades are so powerful imo I want them asap. Two leveled grenadiers with 2 shots of Acid/Incendiary with a gas as the single and you are really set to bring the pain.

Cant imagine building proving grounds late, just would get wiped playing commander.

PSI gets some insane skills. No miss damage, enemy soldier control, stasis which totally locks an enemy for a turn, ability to give extra turns to friendlies (excellent for accidental pod wakenings). Love my PSI guy.

I find that a lot of the perks I get from AWC just are not that useful, sure there are some excellent combos, but there are a lot more skills you just wont use when on a different class.

Also building the AWC late has forced me to run two teams due to longer injuries, is not slowing the leveling to much on my main guys as I keep them safe, but it means I have better depth in the support guys I deem more expendable e.g. Ranger and Specialist.

shredder gun goat

I mainly built Proving Grounds late since it was mission objective and I didn't want to speed up the game since I didn't know what would happen if I did.

As OAF said that's seems like a bad idea. Grenades and ammo are incredibly powerful.

I haven't had much time to play lately but I'm hoping to get more time soon. Getting pretty close to having ironman commander down.

The Psi OP's kind of bug me. Everyone else in my team as earned their place with blood and sweat and then some alien witch just gets to walk in and have a guaranteed spot because they're a must for the last mission. Secretly I hope all my crew spit at them as the walk by in the ship

Can you watch what you say bout the last mission.

Least I know I am prepared.

Does not speed up the game and in fact helps you slow it down, e.g. avatar countdown.

Apologies

Shredder gun is nice but the guided blaster bombs are insane with their super long range (up to 45 I think) and a large radius and damage.

I'm a big fan of PSI Ops but would go GWC > Proving Ground > AWC > PSI Lab

GWC is awesome for increasing squad size and vulture to get extra loot

Proving Ground is awesome for upgraded grenades, heavy suits/weapons, and spider suits

AWC is awesome for faster healing but also for the bonus abilities which you'll miss if you delay it too long. Each soldier has a secret bonus ability unlocked at a certain rank and if that rank is achieved before the AWC is built you will never get that bonus ability unless you cheat with the AWC mod that alters how it works.

Some bonus abilities suck "Salvo on a specialist? lol, he always carries a skull jack and medkit so wtf" but there are so many incredible abilities that are amazing like Holo Targeting on a Specialist or Sharpshooter, Rupture on anyone, Shadow Step on a Specialist/Grenadier, Kill Zone on a Specialist, Guardian on a Sharpshooter, and so on.

Here's a list of the bonus abilities the AWC can grant. Some are meh but some are amazing. http://xcom2.wiki.fextralife.com/Adv...Warfare+Center

Someone, TheFly I think, said you can still learn that hidden talent if you missed it by retraining them

They are mistaken unless they use a mod. I've retrained colonels to see if I could get the extra ability and it doesn't work. Maybe the game was patched recently to allow this but as of a coupe weeks ago it definitely does not work.

Unless it was a bug, I've 100% gotten a AWC skill via retraining. I've also seen people on Reddit say the same thing, so it's a pretty common bug. Or maybe the retraining doesn't "activate" the retroactive AWC but rerolls and every so often that re-roll lands on the class they are currently at?

I believe it rolls some people as not getting a skill at all, right?

Basically I'm seeing the same thing as you, there's that "true retroactive AWC" mod which says I'm wrong, but I'm not sure if he's got it right either. I assume this has an answer, we need a native English speaker to look at the code and figure out how it works.

I think it can give skills to the people you leveled up without having the room and the people you recruit who are already level X.