XCom:Enemy Unknown 2012 Tips and Hints

Xcom: Enemy Unknown Tips and Hints

 XCom: Enemy Unknown can be a rather difficult game, especially for those new to Turn Based Tactical games and Strategy, but the Video Game Cove is here to help! Read below for some tips and hints to better get your game on with Xcom! Check out our Review of Xcom: Enemy Unknown as well!

• Use full Cover as much as possible. It offers better defensive bonuses and give you a higher chance of not getting shot (as long as you aren't flanked). 
• If possible, try to keep the high ground over the enemies, it gives you better defensive bonuses, and a sniper, with the right perks, get even greater bonuses.
• Expanding Satellite coverage is a great idea, especially early on. Extra coverage means more funding cash, plus sending satellites to countries with high level panics, can save that country from removing themselves from the Xcom project.
• If possible, once you have an alien containment lab, try to capture aliens alive. Reduce their hitpoints down to 3 or under, then use an assaulter to get in close and stun it. (remember: Run and Gun does not allow item use when activated). Using a Heavy's or Support's suppression ability, and then having an assault come in for the stun is a great strategy combination. Capturing aliens alive offers you to interrogate them for more bonuses, plus they become a free corpse afterwards, allowing you to autopsy them. Another further bonus is you get to keep the weapon they were using, allowing you to use their plasma weapons later on once researched.
• Be sure to research according to your priorities. If aliens are getting rough for your troops, level the playing field by research better armor and weapons, if countries are panicking, expand your coverage and maintain control. 
• Have a balance of troop types for missions, and try to level up rookies for easier missions, by having a  higher level soldier to lead them.
• If you have an officer Training School, try to get your 6-man squad available as soon as possible. More soldiers, means a better chance of survival.
• Move slowly and carefully, and using a leap frog tactic (one soldier covering, while the other moves up), can mean the difference in case of finding aliens, as the overwatch soldier can take a shot against moving aliens if spotted.
• Use Dash carefully. Rushing and being careless can bring in some serious trouble if you dash without any backup or covering soldiers. A character who dashes will end his turn where he stops, which can allow any aliens to ambush and flank him easily if he spots aliens and cause them to get their free move afterwards.
• Try to flank! Assaulters, with their run and gun ability, can easily move around enemy positions to get into flanking position, allowing for higher critical chances and can obliterate them, especially with a shotgun.
• Use Hunker Down! If you are in a nasty firefight, sometimes hunkering down can mean the difference between life, and death! This is especially true if your soldier is wounded or suppressed. 
• Smoke Grenades are vital! If you need to get someone across a dangerous area or need to get a medic to a wounded or incapacitated soldier, or if you need a little extra defense in a huge fight!
• Keep them alive! This game has permadeath, so if you lose a trooper, he is gone for good, so try your best to keep them out of harms way as much as possible. Being Xcom, sometimes bad things happen that you can't control.
• When facing mutons, try to keep your troops seperated, because they can, and WILL, throw grenades and destroy terrain, plus doing damage to all soldiers in the radius. Fortunately, you can do the same with your own grenades, destroying cover, and doing damage! After that, you will get a good hit chance to decimate the aliens!

I hope you've enjoyed these Tips and Hints for Xcom: Enemy Unknown, and I hope these will help you achieve better success in your campaign!