Campaign Report

[Irismono]

Hey all!

Started a new campaign the other day. Things are going decently but I've hit about the limit of what I know for progression and could use some advice on where to proceed.

Here's my current Geoscape, mid-March '98


We've got 2 manors known, Red Dawn and EXALT. Wouldn't be surprised if there are more lurking. I've avoided taking them on thusfar due to bad memories from campaigns I played sometime last year.

I've got two bases, NA and Japan



I've got both an Osprey and a Dragonfly at HQ, but can't crew both. I need the Dragonfly for the extended range. I still have a private car but plan to phase it out at some point. Right now it's useful for scouting and tagging small mission I don't want to bother with. I need to figure out what to put in Hanger 2 at Kiryu base. Right now it's there to house my Osprey for when I take on Black Lotus. Plan is to transfer it, crew, guns, and all to Kiryu, then transfer back once the operation is done.

Progression-wise, I've finished promo II, have black ops gear on all units, using armored vests on most everybody except the private car guys - they get Anzugs. I beat Durathread factory, have gotten spawn prompts for Root of All Evil but haven't been in a position to take it on, have completed all the Cult Operations research projects, have captured an EXALT Master and a Red Dawn Coordinator, so those HQs are within reach. I've also started doing some Cyberweb stuff, and have dealt with a few Cult of Apoc events. In January I got my first military UFO mission and successfully took it down. I have access to bio-enhancement but haven't used it much.

What I'm trying to figure out:
- Out of EXALT and Red Dawn, which is the better cult to take down first? In previous playthroughs the only cult HQ I took down was Dagon, who are proving decently elusive this run. I'd ideally like to take on the easier mission first.
- Do I need another base, if so, where and for what purposes? Storage space is limited at HQ, so a storage base sounds like the most logical plan, but I don't know what else is good to have.
- Research-wise: What do I need to beeline? What's the next major step weapons and armor wise? What things do I need before the aliens show up?
- How much should I bother with Cyberweb and Osiron respectively. I've skipped out on Osiron missions entirely so far (only had one spawn), and only done a couple Cyberweb missions, albeit with a large quantity of Technomad captures.
- For the into the dark Promo III requirement, is there anything I can do on my end to speed things up? Right now it seems like I'm just waiting for missions where I might be able to capture a Shambler and/or a Spider.
- How important is it to bio-enhance my units at the current stage?

Any and all advice is welcome. If you have questions about the campaign or things that need to be filled in, let me know and I'll do my best to respond.

Cheers,

Iris

[Stone Lake]

Out of EXALT and Red Dawn, which is the better cult to take down first?

The easiest overall, imo, lotus - fragile units. But both of these are beatable in your position. Red dawn HQ is hard to fully clear, there's APCs (use gas if you have it, mines or prox grenades/blops snipers otherwise) and a lot of grunts. It's better to find any coordinator, take a red card off his corpse and skedaddle - this is enough to destroy RD.
Exalt probably needs mastery of dogs/rats for comfortable clear. That is, spotting units with their motion scanner (hold ALT after to reveal enemies on map) is very handy for multi-level layouts. Very useful for other HQs too, especially RD and Lotus HQ's.

Do I need another base, if so, where and for what purposes?

You need at least single workshop base, and research/prison/radar bases. Good radar coverage is needed to spot UFOs in time. Main base is better built with a lot of stores. Don't workshop stuff there, it gets crowded with psi- labs, adv- labs and whatever labs and a lot of incoming loot and prisoners.

Research-wise: What do I need to beeline? What's the next major step weapons and armor wise? What things do I need before the aliens show up?

Hard to say. Aliens can be smashed in promo 2 gear just fine, but most comfortable way is probably tanks. You need to get some cyberweb to research them, and some alien alloys to build them. Some can be get through gertrude mission dossier -> mission/abductor ship.
It's important to aim for promo 3 prereq, easiest is probably through deep one communities (if RNG blesses you with one, perhaps through abyssal urn delivery. get alien containment!), or alternatively into the dark. There's no weapon tiers per se, but smart weapons are an upgrade over blops, if you get them in time through surfers -> osiron -> syndicate. Lasers need alien engineer interrogated. Sonic weapons pack a punch, and are quite useful underwater - get those via deep ones IIRC.

How important is it to bio-enhance my units at the current stage?

No idea why you ask, I just bio-ex everybody, no major downsides. It's you mean other transformation, you usually get piloting + bioex + martial arts + tactical implants (right, magma mission line is important too, and opens new armor) on everybody, then helix knight, then some advanced transformations.

[varajo411]

it would be easier if you uploaded your save so that the community can take a look at what you have in more detail, are you on a pure xcom files run or with submods? my advice is use shields, they are good to increase surrivival of your soldiers. explosives like grenade launchers and rockets are good and reliable, they can solve many problems and take down several foes in one hit. make use of the black ops auto sniper rifle, use gas grenades when you get the opportunity. dogs are nice to have even in my case I rarely use them but they are supposedly very good when deployed in missions appropriely.

[Chuckebaby]

The easiest overall, imo, lotus - fragile units.

While I do agree, Black lotus Assassins make up for any weaknesses.

[Irismono]

it would be easier if you uploaded your save so that the community can take a look at what you have in more detail, are you on a pure xcom files run or with submods?

Save is attached. Pure X-COM FIles with no Submods.

 I've played up through May with some major developments. I met and beat up some Wizkids, getting enough captures to get their Cult of Apoc prereq. Likewise got an Osiron Warehouse mission that went very well, scored a boss who spilled the beans on the syndicate and some crates that contained (among other loot) an Alenium Shard and a Zrbite container. I haven't researched either of those paths just yet.

Got another Lotus Shrine spawn and dropped a cool 3k in transport fees to move my Osprey over. Mission went incredibly well, only one loss and we captured the Avatar (took like 5 or 6 tasers, but very worth). Grenade launcher made the footmen snipers laughably easy. Lotus HQ is now well within reach, and I moved a few Vets to reinforce the Japan Base. A Dagon Manor popped up in Europe. That's three now that are visible.

I founded a third base to cover Europe. Northern Hemisphere is now looking very nice, southern is suffering. This base will be manufacturing and I plan to transfer all but one of my Engineers from HQ once the workshop at the new base is complete, alongside all my materials that don't need to be researched. With my next free 2 Mil I plan to build a large radar and a big warehouse. Will build a Hanger once I've got access to something to house in it. MiGs most likely.

Lastly, I cracked the military computers I had, and have the Sonic Weapons research option. I'm thinking I want to not return the research and see about getting my own Sonic guns. Would appreciate advice on this front.

Couple notes on my strategies so far:
1. US Base has been my important research base up to this point, will probably continue in that role for the foreseeable future. Japan base has labs and cells to handle interrogations and mostly deals with all the little files and acquisitions projects (largely a waste of time I know, but I hate how they clutter up the list.)
2. I have made absolutely no use of dogs. Wanted to try bats but ever since I interrogated my first bat they've been in hiding so I haven't been able to get any. I have access to motion scanners and have built one. Haven't needed to use it because I've been on (mostly) open maps.

Currently trying to figure out my next steps before Lotus HQ. I've started Bio-Enhancing, did most of the US base in one batch in early April. I'm happy with my weaponry for the moment, blops and my usual grenade shenanigans should handle everything they can throw at me. Money is a little bit of a concern right now. I'm flip-flopping between taking on one of the manors (would probably be Dagon for the Sorcerer) and just dealing with Lotus ASAP. Again, advice is welcome.

[Juku121]

What caught my eye is lack of ranking agents (manual promotions?) and generally an overflow of rookies. This is perhaps the biggest thing that can bite you in the rear. Veterans with lots of commendations and transformations are what enable your tactical ability in tougher missions. You're a year and a half in, and the vast majority of your agents are still pushing iron in the gym. There are maybe five people total who could be trusted with a sniper rifle.

Ironman might explain some of it.

Base building is somewhat anemic, but that might just be me. I'd have like 4 at least half-full bases by now.

Common use of BO Pistols but not shields, and a lot of just plain rifles instead of snipers, MGs, launchers and other specialist weapons.

You have Dart guns researched and electric darts available to research, these work reasonably well when you don't want to pop your HVT with blunt grenades.

Also, lack of dogs and other critters, but this was already explained. You're pretty close to having some AI scouts to liven things up.

Moreover, what do you have against the G11 and the OICW? Most people do have kinda low Bravery for the G11, though. No Milkors, either.

Only one transformation unlocked, too. Not sure how that came to be. Enhance the hell out of your agents, this is one way to make semi-rookies into proper soldiers.


Not saying any of this is necessary, but these are the things I usually do differently.


Promotion III should be the priority now. Nabbing a Deep One from a bigger Dagon compound is probably the easiest path, along with killing off either Dagon or Black Lotus. Dagon has some annoying indirect firepower in their grand pyramid temple, Lotus HQ is lots of CQB, which incidentally makes Assassins a little easier to handle. Dogs or Motion Scanners are recommended in any case.

If you want to go the Into the Dark route, getting Dr. Alpha's mission is a way to get guaranteed cryptids for capture. But for that, you need captives to spill the beans on him: high-ranking Osiron or Syndicate. Syndicate can unlock smartguns and other goodies, too.

Most of the better weapons and armour are gated behind Promo III.


As to human sonics, these are cool and kinda unique, but you won't be using them anytime soon. The cash you get from returning the data is not inconsiderable at this point of the game.


Do remember that manors grow. Two of them are still small, the sooner you kill them off the less pain they are.

Osiron is worth taking on, because they have those OP lootboxes that can allow you to skip to some pretty sweet stuff. Cyberweb also has lootbox equivalents, but not as good.


If I were you, with your ~40% casualty rate and Ironman, I'd hire a shitton of rookies and put them into many more gyms to train replacements. And be very conservative with my veterans. Armour them up more against cultists, you've got lots of agents in Kevlar vests.

[Irismono]

What caught my eye is lack of ranking agents (manual promotions?) and generally an overflow of rookies.

Manual promotions are on yes. I didn't realize that when I started the campaign. Explains why nobody's gone above Agent. Ironman really does bite and I've lost a good few vets. Also skipped a lot of missions that should probably have been training runs for rookies due to IRL fatigue - need to manage my time better.

You have Dart guns researched and electric darts available to research, these work reasonably well when you don't want to pop your HVT with blunt grenades.

I've been relying on Tasers so far. Hadn't really considered darts as I never used them in previous runs. May give them a shot.

Moreover, what do you have against the G11 and the OICW? Most people do have kinda low Bravery for the G11, though. No Milkors, either.

Admittedly I assumed they would be inferior to the blops stuff, and neglected to check their stats. Will put them under consideration.

Common use of BO Pistols but not shields, and a lot of just plain rifles instead of snipers, MGs, launchers and other specialist weapons.

I've not used too many pistols with shields. Mostly as sidearms on my grenade launcher people. Rifle usage is a problem I need to fix though.

Only one transformation unlocked, too. Not sure how that came to be. Enhance the hell out of your agents, this is one way to make semi-rookies into proper soldiers.

Severely underestimated their importance tbh, so haven't focused on them. Having seen the effect of Bio-Enhancement, I'll definitely be getting it earlier on future runs. What other early transforms are recommended?

RNG has so far screwed me over on the Dossier missions and Dagon temple. Dagon has been very quiet in general this run, with the exception of building their mansion. Only had one Osiron mission within my capabilities pop up (other one was a cruise ship out of my transport ranges), but I'll definitely pursue them in the future.

Given my current situation, with the invasion close, bases unprepared, and force underpowered, I'm thinking I'm going to reset and go with an altered strategy. Still going to go fairly minimal on animals, but might bring in a few dogs this time. Definitely going to build more bases early, especially for manufacturing. Going to be much more aggressive with my agent rotation and training as well. Will continue to report in this thread. This run has given me a much better sense of how to proceed.

[Stone Lake]

What other early transforms are recommended?

I've listed the classics.

Given my current situation, with the invasion close, bases unprepared, and force underpowered

Your "situation" is fine. There's still a lot of time before the invasion, and it's not as scary as you picture it out to be - you commonly may not see any UFOs until well into the middle of 99. You are NOT intended to go into it guns blazing with every piece of tech at your disposal. Looting aliens is one of the best ways to get money / advance techs / snowball in general. Rushing them with rookies works fine - you don't want your vets on frontlines getting one shot by plasma anyway. That's rookies job.

Then there's better ways to train experienced soldiers farther into the game - e.g. transformations. They're unlocked by defeating advanced cults - syndicate/cyberweb/apocalypse. They can be obtained fairly early into invasion, until things take a turn for the worse.

I do not recommend a reset, at least until you've tasted alien combat well enough and know how to deal with it. It does not require advanced techs or a lot of experienced soldiers. E. g. you can just rush aliens with dogs covered by smoke.
If you do, the optimal way to early game is steamrolling through every mission with _minimal equipment_ while progressing cults ASAP, it's not very comfortable anyway. And if you don't, you'll get things delayed and get into about same "situation" you're in. Which is still fine.

As for manors. If you're able to start wiping cults by mid-late 97-ish, you can prevent them. Otherwise I recommend just ignoring them, except those that spawn close to your bases or using them as a score boost. They are a nuisance and clearing them is a waste of time - you'll be getting similair hybrid bases until the end of the game. Probably single aspect I don't like about the mod.

While I do agree, Black lotus Assassins make up for any weaknesses.

As long as you master animal use as I've outlined, they do not present any real harm. To reiterate - dogs/rats/drones have motion scan (first two) and can see assassins from further away (7/9/9 tiles instead of regular 4) due to anticamo.

Spoiler:

[Juku121]

I concur that your situation isn't unsalvageable. I do think your high agent turnover and generally slow rate of getting replacements might make things challenging. I also understand the desire to restart and 'do better'. I start every sentence with "I...".

The 'Invasion' is much more hype than most players realise. The aliens aren't that scary, compared to all the rest, and don't even 'invade' much, given the slowed-down nature of XCF compared to the original where weeks could pass by without much happening.

Darts have range that Tasers lack, including both a sidearm and a primary version. You generally don't want to run up to your future captives all the time. The early darts are a trap, but chem and especially electric darts are kinda workable. One really good feature is that they also function underwater, where solid ranged weapons are hard to come by. Otherwise, Knockout grenades are the goto early-mid-game stun weapon.

My comment on shields was because a) shields are a good way to get some actual tankiness at the stage you're at and b) you seemed to have quite a few dual-wielding pistol/taser agents, who could dedinitely get good use out of a shield. Milkors, P-90s and maybe BO SMGs are also nice with a shield, since most big guns either don't work or take heavy penalties for one-handed use. Maybe you could even have a shield-wielding grenadier? Never tried it, since I hate the hand grenade meta and consequently nerf them myself so you can't use them as a primary weapon.

I've also never seen anyone use the BO pistols so extensively. DEagles, Magnum revovers of various kinds, light SMGs, yes. Not that I think they're bad, though.


Stone Lake was spot on with his transformation recommendations. My (somewhat dated) thoughts on transformations can be found here. Note that the new Spartan and Infernal transformations aren't covered. Spartans in particular seem to have taken Kyberos' spot as the go-to transformation.

Dogs are OP as hell. 'Nuff said.


I disagree with SL about the manors. If you let them snowball, your score takes a significant hit. And if you cannot make up for it, and don't get your airforce up in time to prevent the 20 manors on the globe from messing with your transports flying to other targets, you can be fairly boned. Killing a 'baby' manor is far easier than killing the full-grown manor and the other manor it spawned while you were idling.

[Stone Lake]

Afaik, manors don't spawn other manors. The only way to stop them is to terminate the corresponding cult early
(while at that topic, raiding tier 2 dagon manor for jarhead corpse-> emp is fairly important). I did two campaigns clearing out every manor from the globe, it's not a good play. You have to spent half to whole hour per manor, for up to 10-20 hours total. Check out my veteran playlist and see for yourself how many of these videos are manor issues. Early manors, at that. Since manors don't produce good loot or money, that's A LOT of work for nothing.

And after you clear the manors, you're being swamped with hybrid dwellings anyway. It never stops. I would see modding that annoyance out as perfectly justified.

Ignoring them is fine if you can tank the score hit. You usually can, apart from the months where isn't anything major happening - you do aforementioned manor-score-boosting at these times. The current score can be viewed from the graphs buttons, to have understanding of when you need to.

[psavola]

I'd probably suggest going forward at least a little bit more and/or (preferably) watching a couple of Stone Lake's SH/IM streams. That way you will learn much more, and if you eventually want to restart (not that you necessarily need to, but if you want to play the game better), you can do significantly better. Now you would just do a little bit better, but still not very good. At the minimum, you should read through the "how is superhuman to be played?" thread and really digest it (https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php?topic=11579.0). It is a gold mine of information.

It is very easy to deal with manors once you get Promo III. I usually delay dealing with them until then. You arrive at night and also deploy a dozen+ smoke grenades. You typically stay in the deployment area. You restart the mission for safety if an enemy unit gets visibility on you at the start of the mission or there are too dangerous buildings close to you (that you don't want to blow up with hi-ex or use as cover yourself, that is). You use dogs or preferably rats (or a bat if you're gotten lucky and feeling luxurious) to watch out for enemy units. And then you spam TAC grenade launcher gas grenades elsewhere, and blow up a few holes in the main building with hi-ex to let the enemies out faster.  This way you end up killing 10+ enemies per turn without them spotting you at all, and the mission is usually over by around turn 10 or 15. Sometimes you'll have to get a few guys to search for the stragglers in the buildings. Dealing with manors at tier 1 phase is preferable, as there won't be reinforcements which are a bit time consuming and sometimes tricky to deal with.

[Juku121]

I could have sworn I had seen manors with manor-generating missions, but apparently not. Only alien bases, and very rarely at that. Oh, well.


While manors are annoying to destroy until you get large enough craft and the tech to drown them in Mortar fire (or other explosives as psavola outlined, but I like Mortars for the impact), not doing them is also a PITA and can end your game if you're not a veteran player like Stone Lake. Sure, there are ways around them, and the rewards are generally meagre, but they don't go away on their own even if the parent cult is killed, generate extra missions while both are alive (and more for bigger manors), and always eat your score. 90-150 per month seems small, but multiply that by 20, add a new player who isn't yet on top of all the mission bullshit, and we've seen several people come here and basically say that the manorpocalypse killed their game.

Also, if they aren't yet up to speed with the air game and play ironman - as irismono does - then even one Osprey lost to cultist MiGs dotting the skies can spell essentially game over.

Finally, larger manors are significantly more annoying on the tactical map, with reinforcements, rarer cultist types, armored cars and all.



Otherwise, psavola had some good suggestions on how to improve your game.

[Irismono]

Lot of stuff to think on in this thread, thanks to all for the advice and the thoughts on position and manors. I'll admit I assumed the invasion would be a flood of UFOs, especially since I have memories of some of my OG X-COM runs starting with a base defense.

I don't mind having a few tedious manor missions later on, so I think I'm going to focus Black Lotus followed by Promo III. I think I'll play this campaign at least up until the invasion. If it gets unbearable then I'll reset and do a non-Ironman run, but for now I'll persevere.

Will read up on the threads and streams when I have some spare time. I'm going to start doing monthly reports with developments, posting them in this thread. I find doing one month or one major op (whichever comes first) to be a good play session fatigue-wise.

I'm going to err on the side of keeping the human sonics I think. Yes they're a way's away, but I checked on the wiki and they look pretty nice, plus I have a fondness for sonic weapons in general. Dart guns are now a priority, and I'm going to reexamine my current arsenal and see about making some additions. I've realized that I've been loading up almost all my units with tasers up until this point, which are becoming less and less important, and take up slots that could be used on actually useful weapons like grenades, bullets, or Hi-Ex. I'm still in an early game mindset equipment wise and I suspect that's the root of many of my problems.

I started a quick campaign yesterday just to play the first month for fun. I really like XCF's early game. Might keep it around as a "testing ground" save as it's not on Ironman. Got David Vincent as my first dossier, which was very amusing.

[Juku121]

Do note that Dart weapons are not the best stun weapon there is, even for your time frame. If you don't mind killing some of your targets, various launcher blunts are better. KO grenades are generally at least as good and easier to deploy.

There was a discussion of darts as 'best' stun weapons roughly here, with some interesting info.

[Irismono]

Do note that Dart weapons are not the best stun weapon there is, even for your time frame. If you don't mind killing some of your targets, various launcher blunts are better. KO grenades are generally at least as good and easier to deploy.

There was a discussion of darts as 'best' stun weapons roughly here, with some interesting info.

Fascinating read, and very useful. I've been ignoring Milkors completely up to this point, and mostly ignoring KO grenades. Will see about fixing that. Comparative stun weapons actually have some relevance to today's report.

May '98:


I'm going to start by mentioning a few research and production things that happened this month, along with a notable random event. I finally got Parapsychology, got Electric Darts, got Avatar but not BL HQ (due to some important distractions you'll read about momentarily), and received 2 Alenium Shards from a random excavation at Kiryu-Kai. This brings my total up to 4, and while I've been dilly-dallying on Awakening, the project is underway so AI bros are right around the corner. Base-wise, I got my Manufacturing base up, got rid of the workshop at my main base, and started moving all my miscellaneous materials over. I set a Large Radar and a Large storage to be built there as well. I also got my Alien Containment finished. This is a very good thing.

Now onto the missions. Month was decently quiet. A few SLFs, a few Cult missions, a Lunatic, several encounters with MiB... and a UFO that went incredibly well.

First SLF of the month turned out to be a landed MiB craft. Managed to take it with a grand total of zero death, albeit with a few nasty wounds. Shields and smoke really do save lives. We scored a grand total of five captures. Inside the craft I found running directly up to the sniper-wielding Enforcers more or less neutralized any counter-attack, and from there I used a mix of tasers and CAWS to bring them down. Ended up with 3 enforcers, a Pilot, and and Executor. These guys took a large portion of my Month's research and I'm honestly okay with that. Got a few new weapons off them (Smart Pistol, Multi-Launcher) that I'll need to assess, plus a UFO Power Source.

The second major mission was that UFO, which showed up right at the end of the month, about a week and a half after Alien Containment finished building. The first UFO I got was right when I first got Blops weapons, and the only craft able to reach it had been my 2-man car. I managed to complete that one, losing a guy in the process. This was was different. It spawned somewhere in Ohio, in morning US time, well in range of my Osprey. I loaded up a crack squad, got four shield guys up front with SMGs (A strat which I'm really liking. Shields really are amazing, can't believe I didn't try them before now) and decided, for once, to bring the taser cannon I built months before. With 16 guys I knew I would outnumber the enemy at least 2-1, so sacrificing all of one guy's combat potential for a big stun gun seemed worth it. Long story short, it 100% was.

We started aligned with the side of the UFO, door behind us, with a nice short run to the craft. Small scout, single room vessel. Total of 6 or so Sectoids on board. Wish I had thought to get screenshots but c'est la vie. First turn we said the chump's prayer, tossing a smoke grenade out the Osprey but staying inside. The aliens started shooting at the military boys. Next turn I started running boys out, keeping a line formation with my shields and my shotgun boys. Over the next couple turns we approached the craft, keeping TUs up for reaction shots. On turn 4, we had an alien outside the door, so I ran a shield up to eat his reactions (he had used all his TUs shooting but wanted to be safe), then moved the canon into range and scored my first capture. After that the aliens stayed inside as we ran up. Motion scan revealed a total of 3 toids inside the craft, one outside. Outside one was wreaking havoc with... I think a canister gun? I had a couple rookies sneak up behind him and give him the CAWS.

Breaching the UFO itself was probably the least fun part of the mission. I moved the taser into position one tile off the door with TUs to shoot, then moved a shield to do the actual breach. The door opened to reveal, as expected, 3 Sectoids. Only one was facing the door, so I shot at him first. Shield guy took plasma in the chest, took it like a man, and dropped with 5 fatal wounds, somehow still alive. Praise be to Bio-Ex, high armor values, and RNG. After taser-cannoning the foul alien I dashed in medical and between 3 people had enough TUs and Healing Gel to stabilize my wounded hero. Another shield guy stepped forward to hold the breach, killing an ayy but dying to reaction fire from the other one. We finished the mission the next turn, with only one actual loss and two captures -  a Soldier and a Navigator. The Navigator is getting interrogated now.

All in all a very productive month. Money is still kind of tight but I'm happier with my position overall. Still haven't acted on the sonic weapons. I figure they can wait. If I really need a cash infusion the 5 mil is still waiting, and if I don't, then human sonics are available once I start calibrating alien ones. AI is my big priority before Cult Bases, that and (ideally) Tritanium armor. I'm on the lookout for Dagon missions to snag a Sorcerer and hopefully a Gillman. I've got Large Radar up or building at 2/3 bases, Kiryu-Two being the main exception. I'm honestly considering taking on EXALT before Lotus simply because my CQC teams are in a pretty good state and it means I won't have to move the Osprey.

Unit cycling and weapons testing is going well. G11 is God-Tier on my Anzug Lady with total 100 Bravery, unimpressive on everyone else. Blops SMG is very solid. KS-23M is unimpressive thusfar, maybe I'm missing something. I got some Blops assault rifles from a Westman (I think? Might have just been loot) and testing them out I found them wholly superior to regular rifles, so I'm phasing those in and phasing regular blops rifles out. USAS-12 is heavy, but killy. Not fully sure if I love it yet, but early results are promising. Don't think it beats the CAWS, which is still my favorite. Auto-Snipers are very high quality weapons. I bought a minigun but am yet to test it, since the guy I bought it for cycled off.