You should do a run using only blast padding level perks and abilities

I actually use Black Market very often. It's the best source of Superior weapon mods in the game - I never had any problems with filling my soldiers' guns with those, all thanks to Black Market. Extra resources can also come in clutch when you need them. I think that the discount is pretty good.

For me, information war is S tier. And here's why: 1) Hack chance formula is really, really weird. Enemy defence is *much* more important than your soldier hacking skill, so decreasing it by 20 roughly equates to increasing your soldier hack by about *50*. 2) Because of the first point, you can skullmine reliably. One or even two (to guarantee it) specialists equipped with skulljacks provide small Intel cache *every mission*. So you can just buy all the stuff on the black market every month, or make contacts early not worrying about losing retaliation mission. And information war even allows you to hunt for large cache in two specialist configuration lategame, making it as easy as it never was. 3) Hacking itself is incredibly OP with this order. You can turn off the enemy with 100% probability (usage example: shut down sectopod, kill everyone else and finish it on second turn, without wasting single use abilities). You can take last mechanical enemy under control to obtain free mimic beacon, and if hack fails you can still finish it in a standard way. You can grab any first tier reward with basically 100% chance using this order, turning hack from lottery to guaranteed reward thing.

been dealing with a sinus infection, appreciate the xcom-flavored distraction. i went on a binge of some of your earlier runs and its pretty obvious how much you've improved, nice work

Hacking in LWotC is actually very well balanced imo. the different way you prioritize things on the strategy layer alone often makes those rewards that are inconsequential in vanilla a lifesaver (and then of course there are more hacking specific perks which really turn the tables) same with a lot of these orders in general actually. if you enable them. they're disabled by default cause it 'makes it too easy', for the advanced players

I'm gonna make the case that Vulture deserves to be in Meme Bacon tier hands-down. 1. If you can combo it with a Proving Grounds bonus, having an excess of Elerium Cores can be a huge boon by providing an immediate power spike for your soldiers. Like pumping out a bunch of ammo in the early game or going straight to light and heavy armors instead of upgrading medium armor (especially useful, I've found, when upgrading to Predator given the supply cost). 2. More often than not you'll wind up with an excess of ADVENT datapads and data caches, either can be lifesavers by providing a big influx of intel or supplies if sold at the Black Market. 3. Additional weapon mods are always a plus (well, unless you keep rolling stocks and repeaters, then perhaps not), providing a much better chance of having the mods you want, when you need them. 4. As mentioned in the video, PCSs are hard to come by and Perception PCSs even more so. Vulture gives more opportunities to get them. In conclusion, for me there is almost never a situation in the early to mid game where I wouldn't have this order, unless it's competing with other Meme Bacon tier orders but by then getting more order slots is a better solution. P.S. This is coming from a weirdo who avoids explosives in most every situation and ergo doesn't tend to destroy loot. And no I'm not Vahlen in disguise.

ok, so I'm a little mixed on tactical analysis. It's working best when you break line of sight after revealing, but now that I play ironman legend the time pressure feels too big for me to back down so I often end up using meme beacon anyway. One situation that it helps with consistently is that it seems to prevent shadowbound from happening and it makes suppressing fire a lot more useful as it means that enemies with no more than 70 aim literally can't do anything unless you're in grenade/launcher range. Building faster feels like B to me. Yes, it's redundant, sure, but those stack and in certain situations your scanning time might be too valuable to spend it in any HQ.

It is always fun to see other people's thoughts on these things.

The orders that give a troop is 33% chance of happening I checked the ingame files. If you want the highest base chance without messing with stuff you would definitely run both together so you can get an extra troop on most of your missions. It has happened to me on switch, an advent trooper with decent hp and grenade. It's pretty cool. This was like my 3rd mission of having it on and it finally gave me a unit though

I just got XCOM 2 Collections for iOS, I’ve been binging your videos they have been awesome for my 1 out of 5 runs. The other 4 I just deleted, but I would have been lost without your vids. Thank you

Sorry for being late drifter but its good to see you continuing the tier list about the resistence ordes tiers now its only missing the templars orders and its perfect👍

Hacking Malus is nice imo; that's a whole GREMLIN upgrade, like 5 covert ops, or 4 promotions. If it applies to Skulljacking, you're also making it easier to get a small boost to supplies, Intel, facility leads, etc

Yo I really wanted to thank you for all the time and effort you put into yoru videos!!

Xcom 2 analytics videos are great! Keep them coming

I would be interesting in a tier list of unit skill tree perks. Blast padding, Run And Gun, etc.

It’s interesting how much these positions can change during challenge runs. Decoys and Deceptions gets much better on longer runs, and some of the strategic layer timesavers would get better if you’re trying to win as soon as possible. One challenge run I’ve been thinking about doing is a run where each soldier can only be used on one mission. I would allow them to do as many covert ops as possible, so I would be trying to use as few low-level soldiers as possible to keep my campaign afloat while training a team of super soldiers for the endgame. I imagine Live Fire Training and Recruiting Centers would get much better in that run to help me keep up with all the soldiers I would burn through.

Definitely feel putting Information War on D tier is harsh, mostly because of Haywire Protocol. I find that trying to hack an enemy mech to be your side has really crap value, but simply shutting down has good base chance and using Information War nearly makes it a guarantee. And mid-late game you're practically always seeing mech enemies who typically tank a lot of your shots, especially Sectopods.

I just got wotc and im having a blast

Oh yeah: The First Summon that the Chosen brings in on any mission will always have Loot.

Love this idea

Skirmisher runs will be very useful for you once you start your rookies only run

The one time i had the shred an extra point of armor, i didnt really notice any difference. But that might be due to me getting it right at the start of the campaign and therefore i didnt really have any points of comparision from that campaign.

Modular constuction: why use this when you can scan at the skirmisher HQ? because you can still have increased construction speed AND scan for increased healing or the other which i forgot it does, extra intel?

I think your takes on these are pretty solid, even better than the Reaper one (which was already quite good). Don't sleep too much on experimental grenades: incendiary grenades are a good secondary grenade option, with a bigger radius and aim reduction on organic enemies (from the burning effect), they just don't work against robots. But acid grenades/bombs are just awesome, they do the same base damage as the respective frag/plasma grenades, but with double the armor shred and a DoT that nothing resists.

I have +500h in the game, more than 5complete playthrough on wotc, and I have never ever seen the "sabotage" perk. Didn't even knew it existed, and I still doubt it!!!

Personally, I get a lot out of hacking. By the time I'm at tier 3, I usually have at least one specialist who has a 100% chance to disable a sectopod, and once or twice I've even had one with a 100% to control one.

Hi drifter I love your challenge videos!

I have to admit I'm surprised you put Decoys and Deceptions so low. I agree with your ranking here, but given your near-obsession with preventing Chosen Avenger Defenses in your various campaigns, I was expecting you to put it higher. 😁 I agree with Sabotage going in the top tier, but I don't think it's quite GOAT territory. The Avatar project isn't really that difficult to manage as long as you stay on top of it, and there's only a relatively narrow stretch during the midgame where the Avatar project has had enough time to fill to a threatening level but you don't have half the globe unlocked yet to hit facilities at will. For me, the top faction card in the game comes down to either Inside Knowledge or Trial by Fire (the Templar one that doubles AP rewards). I think those two provide the biggest and most significant power boosts, with maybe the slight edge going to Inside Knowledge since Trial by Fire is really only great if you get to use it from near the start. A couple others like Infiltrate, Tactical Analysis, and maybe Deeper Learning are in that GOAT conversation, with Sabotage part of the group just below them. Looking forward to the Templar list!

Can't say I agree on hacking. Hacking rules mid-endgame. Sectopod on a mission is an easier mission than without sectopod. Extra hacking skill helps, but you need a good base, so sending hackers on assignments is necessary. But every bit helps.I would put it in a solid mid tier

inside knowledge is just amazing vulture is amaze amazing to have sabotage is a no brainer some of my favorite orders, but is there 3 ways to get tactical analysis?

Another tier list? Short form Drifter? I enjoy this. Still not long war though, one day perhaps.

I think you should do Phoenix Point again with these suggestions The campaign is not doomed, basically the whole world needs to be covered for that to happen, you are not even close to the end of the world. You need to stop buying so many troops and level up the ones you have with the ability’s they can get ( I am including the strength speed and will) using even the Phoenix Point pool too.

Before watching video, i think that skirmisher orders are the strongest out of all faction orders.

Information War literally lowers the RNG bs from hacking since it tends to favorite the lowest value and make a middle gound as well. The biggest your number the better and more with MK3 Gremlings and the reward of increase hacking. This is made more for get most of the easier rewards on your main hacker specialist. This one is literally a B at least because is one of the most useful resistance cards if you had it sooner as well.

Information war is my personal pick all times. Hack is extremely underrated in XCOM 2 is all i can say for you now. Personally i would put it into A tier, but sometimes it can go all way up to S. You are not actually increasing YOUR chance to hack, you decreasing ENEMY's ability to resist to your hacks. It's much better in practice than it seems on paper. And if you will give skullmine to your specialist, not only it's his new ability to instantly kill enemy in case if his rifle have less than 70% chance to hit, but it also multiplies with stats and everything else that you have for hack stat, and besides you have ability to hack the same enemy you just "skullmined" with a decent result. It's totally fine to fail hack. It just depends on a situation.

To be honest, i often use the reaper order scavenger to get a lot of alien material if i am lucky and then under the table to sell all the extra alien material (i play on normal difficulty with no mod that gives me more and i get Hundred of alien alloy and crystals and sell them with a huge profit but it is luck based when you get this rumour)

Disagree on bomb squad and decoy deception as both are a tier and help save time in the long run.

But doesn't Information war also decrease the Tech defense of Crates in Timed detonator missions? Here sucsess is guaranteed and, even better, you can get +20 perma hack. The only way i got a Support to be good at hacking everything was running this Order and bringing him to stop all the detonators i could find, granting +60 hack. This lead to me hacking one secropod in the fi al mission fore some Pod on Pod action.

Hey Drifter, would love to hear your recommended (or most liked) mods.

hacking malus is a lot better when sectopods have 40 health and 3+ armor, and a lot worse on any lower difficulty (mods with tough mechs also make hacking less bad)

do you use a mod to make the healthbars look like that, cause they look different in my game??

Skirmisher supremacy

Is there a reason you always play on commander difficulty? You seem like you would easily be able to handle Legendary so I wondered if it was because it makes the game significantly longer Also would love to see you play with some of the difficulty increasing mods like A better advent etc. Aboslutely love the videos!

As I been watching Your runs. It for me think. Maybe you can try a run with units from the EXVENT mod. I would wait though on doing that as at this time of posting it only has 3 units. And only 2 of them have skill trees.

Hacking needs its own increase with each attempts before it can be considered close to good

i was building a specialist to 100% hack a sectopod. That -20 to hack sure would have helped a lot. Too bad stun lancers exist

Idk if someone said this before but what if you did a rookie only challenge which would be never leveling up soldiers

Sabotage is easily below Blast Padding tier. Just command console the Avatar Project lol, ez

3:40 I've gotten a shield bearer before dunno if it was a bug or what.

For me, S tier are Sabotage, inside knowledge, vulture and tactical analysis.

I agree that information war belongs in D tier because specialist aren’t that good anyway, especially in the early game, so the hack is just not being used anyway. I personally don’t use any specialist for the whole vanilla campaign.

I hacked a sectopod ones and used information wat got it by a tiny bit.

I gotta disagree with Decoys and Deception. Slowing knowledge gain is such a huge effect early on, imo it outweighs the fact it's not as useful late game. It's at least as useful as double agent, I'd put it in the good tier

"Decoy and Deception" are a "Blast Padding" tier, not "Decent". And "Information War" increases the chance to get more hacking stats on your troops through hacking rewards, so it's more of a "Decent" perk than a "Blast Padding". Other than that? Spot on.

Here is my own opinions when I typically prefer starting with Reapers. Information war is the only reason I'd ever use a Specialist after spending many covert ops boosting their hacking. Or I could just replace them with a Sharpshooter and Bluescreen rounds. This may be the worst order in the entire game. Integrated Warfare for me is actually on par with Inside Knowledge. Not for the +4 Mobility Ranger or Grendiers finally landing their shots. Health Boost and Dodge Chance are great since I tend to not do the armor research. Surviving hits and better using research time is huge. Slowly filtering out survival for Mobility/Aim. Quid Pro Quo stacks wonderfully with almost any order the Skirmishers get... but since Skirmishers have so many good ones it can become a poison. You will want better Weapon, better PCS, 10% more intel, and 33% cheaper costs, double loot drops. That and the reasons you mention. Sabotage is good for a reason you didn't mention... you won't trigger Codex being added to the enemy pool. This will keep enemy pods weaker. It helps you in both layers which is incredibly rare for mods. If not for that I'd argue a lower tier. Vulture is a flat out Mimic Beacon. You can get more cores. More weapon mods. More PCS. Get useless PCS or mods and sell them for money. It is a flat boost to tactical effectiveness and strategic supply and creation. Lastly, Weak Points is D tier and I am almost willing to die on this hill. Most enemies have low enough armor that you can shred them without this... the exception is mechs. Blue Screen Rounds do so much damage that with the 2 shredded already you'll obliterate the mech. Specialists ignore armor. When does this actually help you with all of the above? Any non-mech unit... where your Psi can ignore armor? Or anyone can shoot the enemy hit by a grenade with increased crit chance now? Remember this is effectively +1 damage for every follow up shot (Provided the extra Shred mattered) meaning you need an incredibly survivable enemy. If your Grenadier follows up and finishes removing the armor it is often completely negated.

I play on Legend but: 1) Information Warfare is (A). Hacking is far better than you gave it credit, most of the time you can level up hackers in the early game to then get those 100% Sectopod Shutdowns. Tower hacks are a bit useless I agree but shutting down robots gives you freedom because robots are some of the scariest enemy troop types in the game. 2) Vulture is (B) because it's bugged, like Scavengers. Sometimes it just doesn't proc on a mission and you only get the basic reward. It's hard to notice that though, as the rewards themselves are quite random in the first place. 3) Impact and Ballistics Modelling is (A) tier but I play on Legend. I've been saved multiple times by those orders because the gap between Normal and Mag weapons is HUGE. And the predator armor gives an extra item slot so you also want to RUSH that. 4) Modular Construction is (B) on Legend and Heavy Equipment is (A).

sabotage is the best one

Hacking only run: You can only attack robotic enemies with hacking

Man this just makes me dread how just awful most of the templar resistance orders are

11:03 my man you've been doing it wrong there. If you need supplies, don't buy the supplies from the black market. Instead buy the elerium from it and sell it. Right there you had the option of getting 39 elerium and each one sells for 5 supply. That's 39 x 5 = 195. That's a significant improvement over the simple supply cache for about the same Intel cost.

He thinks skirmishers are weak, even though they have the best mobility, two attacks per turn, & best orders? Crazy boi.

I could not disagree more about hacking. Send your specialists on the +hacking covert actions, and that +skulljack + skullmining + enemy-20 card makes most higher level specialists a 100% hack on at least one of the hack rewards if not both, and after a bluescreen hit, even sectopods can become a 100% shutdown. Maybe not mimic beacon tier, but damned close IMHO.

Reaper orders: kinda meh, mostly average. Skirmisher orders: power level all over the place 😂

> contacting regions Eww, cringe. Playing on a single continent most of the time unless you're ready to fight the chosen is the way to go. (Jk, there's more ways to play the game of course, I just find not contacting more regions more optimal)

"Double Agent" is literally a Mimic Beacon that doesn't expire at end of turn, how is it not a Mimic Bacon tier?