Endgame tips?

[DELETEACCOUNT]

Hi,

I've been playing a single campaign for over a year now (our time, probably 6 years game time). I think I've done 82% of the research, so there is rarely anything else for my 100 scientists to do.

My problem is just that I am now just cycling through months, doing missions for the hundredth time to boost soldiers, then I often lose them all on one of the key missions I need to tackle, back to square one, and probably weeks of real time to get some decent soldiers again.

I'll give you a summary of my tech and tactics. It may be I am missing some game changing tech (such as something that blocks sanity loss). Or I have overlooked an obvious tactic.

Okay. There is only one alien base in the world. Ethereals at the north pole. I've destroyed every other base, embassy, colony. For some reason I lose each time I tackle this one, but maybe it is only a matter of time.

I have eight bases. Most have Tormentors and mass drivers. As soon as I detect an alien craft I launch one or more. A single Tormentor can take down anything except a battleship, so for those I launch three and let them wait in a huddle in the battleship's path. It attacks, they blow it up. So I totally rule the skies.

I generally blow aliens up over sea, since I have researched all the basic stuff, and often can't face doing the same ships for the zillionth time! Plus new versions of the mod have added turrets which seem really tough, so previously doable ships often lead to me losing soldiers, and that means more weeks to get new ones back up to speed.

I do most missions in a Lightning, since it's quicker to pop up and down and do crowd control at the start, especially if there's a sanity timer ticking away.

My standard armour is the Stormtrooper one (black, lets you fly), which I use as an upgrade for power armour. It has the advantage of working fine in zero-g. Any troops that do KYB training get to wear Shock Armour as our heavy stuff, so they carry the heavy gauss weapons, multi-blaster launchers, scatterlaser cannons (with a pistol in the other hand for opportunity fire, which they drop when they need to use teh scatterlaser). Troops have a range of grenades and mines on them for different situations, plus handcuffs and incapacitation stuff like stun maces and stun grenades. I am switching from alien plasma weapons to the X-com ones with grenades - any alien clips I find I now just send to my manufacturing base to strip for Elerium.

I think there are three big missions taht come up every month and need to be resolved.

- Vampire castle. I captured a vampire queen but I can't research her yet, needs a vampire knight. I know I researched dead ones, looks like I need a living one too. I'll try and get one next time. A tricky mission because of the rapid sanity loss. I tried sending in only an Enforcer AI, since he never went mad, but he got overran. In the old mod I could make new Enforcer armour without a shard, but now I need one shard to make it and one to put in it, so it's really rare I can make one. In fact, I have none in any of my bases at the moment, since alenium shards are so rare. I liked the Enforcer as, if it died, I could carry the body back and rebuild it. It's one of the reasons I hate 2x2 AI armours, as if they die in a lucky shot there's no way to bring them back apart from completing the mission, and since I am mostly left with the rock hard missions, that means a waste of another AI. Downside to the Enforcer is that if can't fly, so no good in zero-g.

- An alien satellite mission comes up every month. I have no idea how to tackle it. There's a huge wall embedded with doors and turrets. If I leave my ship and fly towards it, I get battered by turrets and floaters. If I stay back and use blaster launchers to take out all the turrets, then by the time that is done I have lost a third or half of my sanity, so I'm at the point where I need to retreat. If I started flying over I'd lose a few to floaters, get there with my morale dropping, and still have to face what looks like the largest multi-level base yet. I haven't even got halfway to it yet, after multiple attempts, and have lost my best soldiers that took months to build up more than once. So I have no idea how to tackle this. I can't use Enforcers (even if I had any left) because of zero-g. I could use the plasma hover AI armour, but if it is hit by a weapon then that will be lost for good too, and it is too big to fit in the base. Plus, unlike an Enforcer, it can't stun anyone and bring them back for research. Totally stuck here! I now just ignore that mission (since I still get such a big score for shooting down ships each month that I get positive scores and max money, and have over 2.5 billion in the bank - that's what I mean about me being in a stable setup that the aliens can't defeat, but I am not sure how to advance).

- I also have been making missions on the moon. I've now reached one that involves attacking a core alien base. But it is packed with Ethereals and Sectopods, so is worse than a normal Ethereal base. I just get battered. I don't have any tactic that really works well. Blaster bombs often don't even scratch an Ethereal when hit directly, and because they sometimes don't follow the route accurately, they can be a hazard to my own troops. Sectopods seem unharmed by EMP grenades and mines. My onyl way to bring them down is multiple bursts of a scatterlaer (or plasma weapon) at almost point blank range, but that usually means death to whoever shoots at it first, as it turns and fires, one hit kill often, even if my person is in shock armour or stormtrooper armour. And because I need the higher sanity from experienced troops, they're the only ones I can use on an Ethereal mission. And so, a single Sectopod might take out one or two good troops, setting me back weeks. Maybe there is another weapon I should be using against sectopods and ethereals. At present, I don't see how I can complete this mission, apart from grinding for months, have a stab, repeat the process.

- The shogg stuff seems finished - we have a sort of alliance. Can I sell the Viper now, or does it have other uses?

- Before I upgraded X-com Files I used to do all the troop boosts, such as TNI. They really helped make troops tougher, quicker. But the new version has a hit to sanity (or bravery) for most things, so I can't use them any more. I think there are about five boosts I don't risk. Because touch missions have a sanity drain, they basically have a time limit. The higher the sanity, the more time I have, and fewer risks I need to take. So I can't risk anything that actually lowers sanity, and therefore makes hard missions even harder, (If it wasn't for sanity I could probably do the hard missions above by careful use of defences and taking my time, but the sanity mechanic forces you to spread out and move fast, which makes you much more vulnerable.)

So, have I missed some killer tactic? Is there something I need that I haven't got? Or is it just the case of keep grinding, get troops to an even better level, then hope for luck on a hard mission? Any help is gratefully received! I have attached yesterday's save if it helps!

[DELETEACCOUNT]

Update! I played for a few more hours, got the satellite mission again. I didn't have much hope so just kept firing blaster launcher weapons from my Avenger. I don't know if I was just lucky, but they took out the turrets AND every floater came outside and got hit, so I went to the next stage! Unfortunately, because I hadn't expected to win, I just had a few blaster guys in stormtrooper outfits, and a few in default space uniforms with no armour. The six of them explored and killed a whole lot of aliens before taking losses and running out of sanity and retreating. Three survived (though the good three soldiers who died were the best ones, who'd been training for months). Still, it looks like I might have a chance at this if I do this tactic again and make sure everyone has stormtrooper armour, and I spend a few months grinding people through simple missions to try and get their morale up. Fingers crossed.

Still, if I have missed any decent tactics or research, feel free to let me know!

[unarmed drifter]

re sanitity loss: i haven't played the mod for quite some time but iirc there is sth called "nobelum"

[DELETEACCOUNT]

I'll switch to Windows and load it now, see what the UFOpedia says. It may be something I discounted when I discovered it. Thanks!

[Mrvex]

Nobellon is a drug that you can make cheaply, it restores sanity and takes miniscule HP from your soldier, if you have Helix Knights, you probably have enough HP to not actually matter in the end if they lose like 5-15 HP, though this does mean infimary once the mission is over.

[Bonakva]

One of the easiest and most versatile tactics in complex missions is a squad of psi soldiers. Simply taking over everything under mind control and destroying aliens with other aliens. As in the vanilla game, after opening psi research, there is a selection of soldiers. All non-gifted go into the reserves. The gifted become the elite, train en masse in psi labs and then go on particularly dangerous missions.

About sanity. The standard maximum for a regular soldier is 120 units. Higher can only be raised by some rewards total of 7, some of the easiest (Night Owl, Cavalier, Solid, Incapacitator). In total, these 4 awards will give 35 (3 gold marks). The gold marks are definitely hard to take, but by late game the silver ones will take care of themselves. A Cavalier with 3 gold marks is only 10 successful missions with no civilian losses.
And in general the easiest as said above is Nobellon.
From the calculation that 1 sanity = 1 move, over 100 sanity is enough for a protracted battle.

If your problem is that you're getting crushed by mind control and panic, then you need to buy more soldiers and pick up those who have 80-100 bravery. As a last resort, pump up your bravery with healing.

[Fomka]

...
Still, if I have missed any decent tactics or research, feel free to let me know!

Try using Psi abilities of your agents: mind control aliens to fight on your side. I've opened your save and noticed that you have the needed research done, but have neither tools, nor workforce to lead psi battles.

You have researched Psi–amp, but didn't produce it. For the latter you need a base equipped with Psi Lab and Workshop.

Psi Lab is needed to train psi skill of your soldiers and I personally have these facilities on every base busy for 100% since the moment I can build them. Newly recruited agents with high psi skill can become great psionics by training in safety of such base, without going to battles.

One of promising future psionics is situated in your first base, named Marijo Starcevic.

[DELETEACCOUNT]

Thanks everyone!

In vanilla UFO and TFTD I always used PSI a lot. I did experiment with it a bit in X-com Files but I assume there have been lots of changes, and I found it too fiddly e.g. I think I needed line of sight to use it? Also some people would be in PSI training for months and it didn't seem to boost their skill. In the end I decided to keep it simple, but this shows maybe I shouldn't have given up on it so quickly.

However, the nobelon is likely to be a game changer. I manufactured a load, and it did help survive a fair bit longer on some missions, so that may well be enough to help me tackle the larger missions. Back when I developed it I probably didn't need it much (lots of human enemies missions that didn't effect sanity); then I probably forgot about it, lumped with "items that have negative effects so I will not bother". The reminder here has led me back to it, and I hope it will be enough to help me get through some missions with careful planning!

Still, Sectopods are always a nightmare and kill a few troops. They seem immune to multi blaster bombs, and unscratched by EMP, grenades and mines. So I generally attack with a scatter laser, usually lose the shooter to opportunity fire, and hope the second soldier's volley is enough to finish it (often it takes three).

Still, I have hope again now. Ta!

[Bonakva]

EM grenades are useless against Sectopods. Sectopods have a huge EM resistance (35). This means that the lower armor (90), 90*1,65=149. EM grenades ignore armor (175%) and do at most 65*1,5=98*1,75=170. So it turns out that the grenades are practically useless, high-explosive grenades too... Resistance against high-explosive damage is 40. In addition, the results of the attack you learn only in the enemy's turn, which is very unreliable.
They are perfectly killed by lasers. Due to the fact that they have low resistance to lasers (150). This means that the frontal armor (145), 145*0,5=73. The Scatter laser doesn't kill them because of its low shot damage (50), i.e. 100. Probably some of the shots fly past, some of the shots go with low alpha. So it turns out that they survive. Hit them with other heavy laser weapons. Tanks with laser weapons (110=220 damage) are great.

[Fomka]

I think I needed line of sight to use it?

Beginner psi weapons do require line of sight, the latest doesn't.
It is

Spoiler:

Multi-Phased Psi-Amp

[DELETEACCOUNT]

Interesting re: lasers. I had trialled the Heavy Turbolaser, but stopped using it because it seemed inferior to other guns (e.g. against Ethereals) and had no autofire. The Scatter Turbolaser became one of my key Ethereal killers. But I never thought to use it against Sectopods. Maybe I would need my people in pairs on those missions, one with a Heavy turbolaser for Sectopods, one with a Scatter Turbolaser for Ethereals.

Also about the Multi-Phased PSI Amp. I see it has a sanity hit - perhaps that's another reason I stopped using it after a few missions. In the original game I don't think it had any penalty like that, it just used time units?

Is it safe to sell the Viper after making an alliance with Shogg, or is it worth keeping (does it have other uses)?

Lastly, I have never understood armour resistances. hey say something like "Electricity 10%", but the wording is ambiguous. Does that mean you only take 10% of the damage from any electrical weapon (which would be great, 10 damage rather than 100) or that it only reduces damage by 10% (so you take 90 damage rather than 100)? I tried comparing stats for different armours, hoping it would be obvious, but I always find it a bit hard to parse.

Thanks!

[krautbernd]

Also about the Multi-Phased PSI Amp. I see it has a sanity hit - perhaps that's another reason I stopped using it after a few missions. In the original game I don't think it had any penalty like that, it just used time units?

PSI in the original game was essentially cheating because it had no penalty. You could could clean out entire alien bases without ever firing a shot, simply by spotting a single alien unit (if you were lucky). From what I can tell PSI in XCF isn't meant to be an IWIN-button for every situation.

Lastly, I have never understood armour resistances. hey say something like "Electricity 10%", but the wording is ambiguous. Does that mean you only take 10% of the damage from any electrical weapon (which would be great, 10 damage rather than 100) or that it only reduces damage by 10% (so you take 90 damage rather than 100)? I tried comparing stats for different armours, hoping it would be obvious, but I always find it a bit hard to parse.

Armor resistance means how susceptible a unit is to certain types of damage. 100% means no damage mitigation, 150% means the unit takes 150% damage, 10% means the unit takes 10% damage. On top of that you have damage reduction due to armor. See also here.

[DELETEACCOUNT]

Thanks, that's really interesting. So for my own armours I should favour things with the lowest % possible, whereas for enemies I should try and use weapons where their autopsies show they have a high %. I probably interpreted it the wrong way sometimes. :-)

Trying to get my head round it, it looks like many armours roughly balance out. My old system was Juggernauts for top rankers, Power Armour for everyone else. I switched to Shock armour for KYB, and Stormtrooper for everyone else. But maybe I should drop the Shock armour, since only a few can wear it, and the Juggernaut seems just as good. So leaders get protective Juggernaut, everyone else gets Stormtrooper (so they can fly).

If an armour or enemy armour has no entry for a type, does that mean 100% (normal)? It is confusing that sometimes the UFOpedia lists a type at 100%, sometimes they don't mention it at all.

[krautbernd]

It is confusing that sometimes the UFOpedia lists a type at 100%, sometimes they don't mention it at all.

Which armor? Can you give me an example?

Because unless I am very much misinformed entries with 100% are automatically omitted.

[DELETEACCOUNT]

Apologies, you are right! I just switched to Windows to check, none said 100%. I must be misremembering when I saw 0% and assumed it meant "no adjustments". :-)