XPiratez Information Compilation, Starter Guide & Weapon Spreadsheet

[Psyentific]

Okay, I've added an update to the main PDF, with the previously suggested progression requirements for Captain Ranks and Captain's Logs, and also a page with my redone version of Psyentific's brilliant shield chart idea.

I've flipped the colours so blue = bypass, green = good, yellow = less good, red = awful since I figure most often you're going to be referencing the chart to see what's good at killing it at a glance, but otherwise all credit to him for the idea.

It wasn't my idea; I don't know who the original creator was. It was pinned in the discord back when that was still extant.

[Fugazza]

A quick suggestion, maybe it can be a good idea:

A short cheatsheet on SHIELDS resistances, and some non obvious concepts like Camo, Sense, Pain Res, and XL targets (as some trappings state to be)

[eharper256]

A quick suggestion, maybe it can be a good idea:

A short cheatsheet on SHIELDS resistances, and some non obvious concepts like Camo, Sense, Pain Res, and XL targets (as some trappings state to be)

I literally just added in the shields chart (lol).

But sure, I also did an extra quick update on the same page adding in common terms seen on Armour; as you say it's fairly useful reference to have as well.

I included some of the standard values for that stat as well as the terminology. Though I'm not 100% sure on the normal Day spot distance~ 30 tiles sounds right but I could be wrong.

[Psyentific]

Pretty sure the daytime sight distance (and maximum possible) is 40 tiles

[Rokksta]

If you have too much time, you could make an armor spreadsheet like the weapon spreadsheet 

[eharper256]

If you have too much time, you could make an armor spreadsheet like the weapon spreadsheet 

I absolutely don't lol. I work full-time, see irl friends at least once a week, and maintain multiple guides and I should be doing work on various mods and stuff lol.

[Carcer]

Am I blind or have you not done comparasions for some of the heavy weapons like like cannons, LACC or the various missile launchers?

No pressure of course if you haven't, just don't want to go mad looking through the weapon list endlessly.

[Psyentific]

A quick rundown of various explosive weapons, starting at the more common and/or lower tier cannons:
A quick aside, but I will assume that all cannons are shooting HE instead of Piercing. You bring them for the boom, not the dakka, so they will be judged accordingly.

Assault Cannon: D-tier with Cannonballs, C-tier with other ammo. It's slow to shoot and slow to reload, so you'll usually only get one shot every other round. Pretty bad with the round shot cannonballs, but pretty decent with the explosive, incendiary, and chemical cannonballs. Cannon HE is the same 60 damage as a 40mm Grenade Launcher, but much heavier, less accurate, and slower to reload. Accuracy scales off bravery. Better used as armament for a Gunwagon.
Mini Cannon: D-tier, similar to Assault Cannon but smaller and worse. Similar mobility to the grenade launcher, but worse damage.

Spitfire: C-tier, a fun little shoota that sprays small explosions everywhere. More of an autogun that explodes than a real launcher. Typically seen in the hands of Spartan Heavys. Ammo belts can be worn on the head for true rambo style. Suffers from mediocre damage and struggles to penetrate mid-tier armors.

Light Cannon: B-tier, an average and reliable antipersonnel explosion projector. Can reliably chunk Osiron Security and other mid-tier armored goons. Slightly less damage than a grenade launcher.

LACC: C-tier, often seen in the hands of Osiron Security. It's like a Light Cannon mixed with a rifle, or a superheavy rifle with optional explosive shots. Special mention to WP ammo, good for lighting werewolves and ninjas on fire. Beaten by LC and other larger exploders, while the heavy automatics have better mid-tier kinetic shooting. That said, I respect its power to punch through Tac Armor and it has killed many gals.

Autocannon: Unrated, haven't used the oldxcom AC
Man-Portable Autocannon: C-tier, effective fire support but lacks mobility and punch. Can pretty much always put 3x autocannon shots downrange and the arcing fire helps it do so out of LoS. Park it on your flagship's roof and use it to demolish houses. Becomes B-tier when being used to deliver special ammo types: AC-GAS ammo excels against Deep Ones and Lobstermen (or unprotected humans), and rare AC-CRY ammo lights zombies, 'lids and vamps on fire.

Grenade Launcher: A-tier, genuinely one of my favorite guns. Never leave home without a grenade launcher (or two!) in your squad, and sprinkle your explosions around liberally. Park your grenadiers on elevated terrain, kneel for extra accuracy, and enjoy your budget artillery. The more exotic ammo types (shoutout to Black Napalm and 40mm Gas) help it stay relevant throughout the midgame, and later upgrades into Smart Grenade Launcher and 40mm Hellerium, Fusion, and EMP help keep it relevant even further beyond. It's single shot so you get to experience the tactile joy of reloading every shot, but the ammo is 1x1 so you can bring as much as you can carry.

Assault Grenade Launcher: B-tier, sidegrade to Grenade Launcher. Same damage, 8 round clips, better for frontline assaulting rather than fire support.

T-T Grenade Launcher: B-tier, upgrade to Grenade Launcher's indirect fire support role. More damage and more accuracy but without the exotic payloads. Would be A-tier if it had gas, EMP, and fusion shells.

Blizzard Pocket MLRS: C-tier, same punch as a Grenade Launcher in a meme-y package. Will yeet six rockets downrange and create some terrain gaps and smoke clouds for you to exploit, but struggles as an anti-personnel weapon.

RPG: A-tier, the other one of my favorite launchers. Never leave home without an RPG (or two!) in your squad. RPG /DP is an all-purpose problem solver that can be relied on to remove just about any battlescape trouble spot. I like to think of it as my "Bypass Encounter" tool. Its biggest advantage is the 1x2 ammo which can fit in the quickdraw slot and the belt slots; this allows it to reliably reload-and-snapshot or reposition-and-snapshot in most situations, so the RPG is very responsive for quickly putting a rocket on target. Upgrades to Advanced RPG.

Quad Launcher: B-tier, as seen in Commando. Slightly less damage than RPG and shares the same "reloads carried on belt" utility. Can pack 8 rockets while doing so instead of 3+1, but lacks the spicer ammunition to retain utility as the game progresses.

UAC Rocket Launcher: C-tier, mostly a mook weapon for doomguys. Similar 'portable light rocket launcher' niche as the RPG and Quad, but worse damage; only slightly better than the 40mm grenade launcher. Still worth using if it's your only rocket launcher.

Recoilless Rifle: B-tier, the complimentary weapon to RPG's "solves almost every problem". The R-Rifle does not produce any explosions which is why I put it in B-tier. Instead, the R-Rifle is a specialist weapon - This thing is your poor gal's lascannon. The basic R-Rifle shells deal slightly more damage than a Heavy Gauss with 40% armor penetration on top of that. If it's too heavy for the RPG to crack, get the R-Rifle. If it is at all vulnerable to piercing damage the R-Rifle will kill it. This thing is also the reason why you can safely discount the kinetic ammo on the mid-calibre cannons like LC and AC; in any situation where you would prefer a kinetic to an explosive you can skip straight to the R-Rifle.

Rocket Launcher: B-tier, the RPG's big sister. Suffers from larger ammo that must be carried on the back, so it's slower to reload and a bit more awkward to deploy. Generally able to fire every other turn in a shoot, reload & reposition, shoot cycle. Very killy, but not as mobile and responsive as the RPG. Becomes A-tier with upgraded ammo such as Anti-Tank Rocket, MAG, Gas, EMP, etc. When you absolutely need to remove a cluster of Deep Ones, Gas Rocket. When you absolutely need to remove a merc hovertank, crack the shield then use an AT Rocket.

Panzerfaust: A-tier, panzerfaust my beloved. Single shot, 20kg, fits into any empty back slot just like a sword. Same damage as the Rocket Launcher's ordinary ammo with 10% better armor penetration. A single shot rocket launcher that can be added to any gal loadout that can carry it. Arcing trajectory, so a miss usually hits somewhere nearbv. Sprinkle a few into your loadouts, they'll come in handy.
LASS: B-tier, as the Panzerfaust but RPG-sized instead of Rocket sized. A panzerfaust for your peasants and slave soldiers; give him two, point him towards the enemy and tell him not to come back.

Mortar: B-tier. Shares many of the rocket launchers mobility and reload problems, and so can usually only fire every other round. What a shot though. Damage is midway between RPG and Rocket, but has a large area effect and can reach the entire map. There are very few times when I feel justified grabbing the mortar (because other explosive projectors usually get it done quicker), but the few times you grab the mortar you will enjoy the show. Mortar Acid shells are excellent anti-structure munitions, while Mortar Gas will remove any unprotected biologicals (and especially deep ones) with extreme prejudice. Upgrades into Servo Mortar.
Hand Mortar: A-tier, for gals only. What if you didn't have to "set up" the mortar? What if, after emptying it, you could bludgeon somebody with it? It's so lovingly orky.

[eharper256]

Am I blind or have you not done comparasions for some of the heavy weapons like like cannons, LACC or the various missile launchers?

No pressure of course if you haven't, just don't want to go mad looking through the weapon list endlessly.

No you're right, I haven't ever got around to it.

I mostly agree with @Psyentific's opinions on this one though, that's a nice write-up they've done. Some extra thoughts of my own:

My personal opinion is that the RPG is your lord and saviour; easy SS-Tier. I've managed MERC Terror missions and their hovertanks, when I REALLY shouldn't be able to, all due to the combo of Heavy Laser barrage from my Catgirls to clear the shields then a Gal nailing it with the RPG. In any case, my Gals, and others with space available, will carry an RPG in their Backpack for me.

As mentioned, the standard X-COM Rocket Launcher is generally less desirable due to big ass ammo and general bulk (B-Tier). I'm also a bit less of a lover of the standard grenade launcher but it's a still fine enough A-Tier because no-one dislikes arcing fire and small ammo.

Honestly part of the reason I've not done a list for this, though, is that I've not actually tried many of the niche ones, I probably should (my XPZ run is on a break at the moment). But frankly, the above and of course, standard hand grenades (especially stick grenades for their simplified use) usually manage to solve most problems that need explosives to solve.

[Fugazza]

I literally just added in the shields chart (lol).

But sure, I also did an extra quick update on the same page adding in common terms seen on Armour; as you say it's fairly useful reference to have as well.

I included some of the standard values for that stat as well as the terminology. Though I'm not 100% sure on the normal Day spot distance~ 30 tiles sounds right but I could be wrong.

Thanks! Honestly, it's a nice thing to have for a quick reference!

@Psyentific: If you like the RPG, the Advanced one is.... oof! Amazing. And this is why I like this kind of threads: I'm not using the Grenade Launcher, but now, I'm giving it a shot.

[Carcer]

Thanks to both of you, very helpful. I really should start adding more explosive weapons to my normal loadouts.

With the LACC and the light auto, I like to equip one of each to my A team with AP ammo since I don't really have anything with better armor pen when they start becoming lootable from enemies, and its much cheaper than using a LASS or panzerfaust when high AP is needed

edit: Would you use a kustom handcannon over the LACC or Light cannon? I assume its an immediate yes over assault rifles or AMGs?

[eharper256]

Thanks to both of you, very helpful. I really should start adding more explosive weapons to my normal loadouts.

Thanks! Honestly, it's a nice thing to have for a quick reference!

No problemo. The more useful the better. I will eventually get around to an explosives section and actually completing the melee tab.

edit: Would you use a kustom handcannon over the LACC or Light cannon? I assume its an immediate yes over assault rifles or AMGs?

Kustom Handkannon is THE go to weapon for my Gnome elites (along with Linux), I do mention that on the sheet, as they're adding 15% of their 180-200 Bravery to each shot so doing like 72 a shot and with their nearly endless stamina they can constantly run to get into range. Is it an instant replace for AR's? Not really, it's shorter ranged and wants to badly use the double-fire up close where possible, it's a WH40K bolt-pistol, basically.

There MIGHT be a transitional point where, if you only have say the Battle Rifle as the best AR, and you DON'T Have Plasteel/Aqua rounds for it yet, that it might be best to temporarily not use AR's, but nearly all AR's have at least 15% armour pen, so that's quite rare. I found myself still using the occasional Light Cannon in mid Year 2, though mostly I was transitioned over to Heavy Lasers, Golden Rifles, and Custom Lasguns at that point.

[Psyentific]

Kustom Handcannon is exactly what it says on the name, a handcannon. That is, an overgrown handgun. I use it as a heavy sidearm for melee gals, same niche as Shiny Niner and Laspistol but bigger and meaner. Whenever someone Over There is giving a melee gal trouble and it's not practical or safe to close and melee, instead he gets the handcannon.

[Carcer]

Not sure if this is really in the scope of this thread, but what are the important techs/capabilities I should have by the start of year 2? With how the tech tree is I'm never sure what I really need to be pursuing and whats side stuff.

[eharper256]

Not sure if this is really in the scope of this thread, but what are the important techs/capabilities I should have by the start of year 2? With how the tech tree is I'm never sure what I really need to be pursuing and whats side stuff.

Since that's also related to Captain type, and what YOU want to do, and what you started with, I can't really give you a precise "THIS". However, Captain's Log #2 should IDEALLY be done, or approaching completion at month 12. I included that in the progression section, so you can look each of the items there up in the Xpedia or the in-game tech tree viewer. I managed it with 2 days to spare at the end of November (barely getting the "good" bonus, phew!) mostly because Smugglers Contact took a while, had stuff like Plotting and Onsen for quite a while.

I myself had got everyone in Tactical armour at that point, had 3 bases with a 4th being considered, an infiltration team, an underwater team, and then two primary squads. I had my Flagship around month 8-9, and a Hunter Killer/Corsair by month 10 end (a Tiger and a Buckaroo were still in the sub-bases). As I was dumbass captain, luxury spa was also in place in my main base. Primary fireteam was 7 gnomes and a 5 gals (I had Germany start so I had lots of Gnomes). Secondary team was 10 Catgirls, 5 gals. I cycled in some elite peasants/damsels that had joined via events when wounded. Underwater team was 2 gals and 5 peasants.

Firefox was transport in base 2 (previously primary transport as I was on catgirls route), and as I was grey codex, Jellyfish in Base 3 was the Underwater team's ride, and I was getting my first witches trained up in Minx outfit. I was predominantly at mid-tier weapons, the big laser transition started a little later.