Xenonauts 2 - Useful Tips for New Players

A few tips to help fellow players.

Tips for New Players

If you want to personalize your soldiers double click on the soldier’s name. This will bring up a menu allowing you to change the name.
In tactical combat, be sure to crouch to have your soldier kneel. The shortcut on the PC for this is the “C” key. This makes your soldier’s shots “much* more accurate and makes them a smaller target. Use the “I” key to access a soldier’s inventory, but be aware of the TU cost if you move items around.
At the very beginning, advancing slowly in tactical combat in a staggered skirmish line yields the best results. Getting shot carries a bunch of penalties, the least of which is having your soldiers out of commission for many days. Not getting shot is the best defense against this.
The accuracy and armor shield gear additions make a difference early in the game and it is advisable to get all your soldiers in Defensive armor asap.
Be very careful with your base growth and planning. Make sure you need what you are building and that you have power for it and think ahead about where you place the building because of adjacency bonuses. It is always a good idea to cluster build radars, generators, workshops and labs to get these bonuses, but it takes planning and patience. For those that are interested, I came up an ideal base expansion map for the main base since that base is the most difficult given that some buildings are already placed and would required demo to be moved around , so ask if you’d like me to post it.
Get rid of lower attribute soldiers immediately right at the start of the game. Pay for only decent replacements. Xenonauts 2 lists soldier attributes in a spreadsheet fashion, so click on the header for each attribute to list them from high to low and weed out the garbage. Any stat in red should disqualify the soldier. There are no garbage stats – all are useful, though yes some are more so as tip #7 outlines There are no “dump” stats in Xenonauts 2. Combat is a cut-throat environment and there is no place for the weak, so don’t waste your time. If you can’t field enough soldiers, it is better to wait for good ones and bomb the shot down ufos for $ and items rather than wasting your time in tactical combat with subpar soldiers. I save scum a few times until I get enough good soldiers. It is not hard to do when your transport craft only holds 9 soldiers.
Bravery, Accuracy and Strength are very important, so never take a soldier with less than 55 in Bravery and preferably 60 because mind attacks are brutal, A crazed soldier on the battlefield totally sucks and is a liability. Accuracy as high as you can get it because shooting a weapon is critical in combat, so never lower than 50 if possible, Strength should be high especially so you can carry more and use equipment that has strength requirements. I like to get strength above 50 if possible, Reflexes are important for reaction fire, but not as important as the first three. Time Units (TU) and Health are important, but as long as they are not red, you will be good. I tend to save scum, so TU is more important than health as long as your soldier isn’t one-shotted. Equipment and Armor will negatively effect your TU, which is again why Strength is important. To recap, Bravery above 60, Accuracy and Strength above 50 and the rest as high as you can get it, but at least 45. Red = Dead. Yellow might kill a fellow, but probably not. Green is pristine.
Have a balanced squad but pay close attention to weapon ranges. Short range weapons are excellent in UFOs and buildings, but terrible in the open at range. I tend to favor snipers because they are just so deadly in Xenonauts 2. Heavy weapons/LMG’s & Rocketeers are good, but you only need 1 or 2 of each on a team. Grenades are situational. Make absolutely sure 1 or 2 soldiers have medkits – you will get shot or hit no matter what you do. Save scumming helps but in some situations your soldier has to take a shot for the squad in order to get that incapacitation or nail that entrenched enemy. Approach combat as 1. Get to the UFO 2. Assault the UFO. Avoid buildings as much as you can. Always carry a longer range weapon and a short range weapon. You’ll be glad you did. Be smart about your assault tactics. Crouch before opening doors. Have all your soldiers prepped before opening a door (like a UFO main door). Have only 1 soldier up close near one edge, open the door and duck out of the way. The enemies inside are identified and your soldiers a distance away kneeling and behind cover can blow them away. Having a rocketeer with stun rockets can make incapactiations much much easier.
Be sure to get 3 Radar units up as soon as possible on a base because that is the max detection range. You only need 3, no more than that. The inner most concentric circle when you place a new base represents radar detection range for 1 radar, the middle concentric circle represents 2 radars and the max outer concentric circle represents 3 radar units and the max radar range for a base. More radars on a base beyond 3 have no effect and waste building space.
Be sure to prioritize the number bases in the world. It takes time to get a base set up and that should start asap. Each month you should be slapping down a new base so you can increase your radar and interceptor coverage and UFO shoot down rates.
Detecting and shooting down UFOs should be your number 1 priority, Everything in the game feeds off this activity. Shoot downs = Happier nations = more $ and less defections. Shoot downs = more combat assault opportunities which yields more $, more items and more advancement for your soldiers and more research. Shootdowns = Winning. You do not have to assault every UFO – in fact it is virtuallly impossibe to do so, but you can shoot down all UFOs and should make that a priority. You can then pick and choose the UFO assaults that benefit your soldier’s and strategy the most. I run just 1 assault team. I find that more than enough. Bomb every single UFO you can for $ and items. Be sure to follow the UFO until it is over land if possible (choose trail it) so that when you shoot it down you get the option to bomb it which only come up if it is downed over land. You will get much more $ and items by doing this simple step. If it looks like the UFO isn’t going to cross land, then blow it away – but try to shoot it down over land if you can.
Have your soldiers carry a couple of extra magazines especially snipers. Don’t go crazy because of TU penalties, but 1 extra magazine is usually good.