XCOM: Chimera Squad – Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks

General Tips and Tricks

• Rotate the camera with Q and E, and you can move it around using WASD or by moving the mouse cursor to any of the screen’s sides.
• As per usual in past XCOM entries, the shield icon will indicate how much defense it will give to your character: either half or full cover.
• Reloading in XCOM: Chimera Squad is partially done automatically in between encounters, but you can purchase Auto-Loaders to help with this, granting one free reload that doesn’t require an action.
• You can not only restart missions, but also individual encounters.

HQ and City 31 Map Tips and Tricks

• You can advance one Assembly project at a time, which takes multiple days to complete and usually cost resources such as Elerium. If you change your mind, you can switch to another project and recover the spent resources.
• Leads are optional but can provide a significant progress boost, helping to reveal Hidden missions in districts before they become Unrest.
• The ability to upgrade Field Teams to rank 2 and 3 is unlocked via projects in the Assembly.
• Ignoring missions will increase Unrest in the district they took place, so keep an eye on this before making decisions.
• You can only have one on-going Spec Op in the works, but it can be cancelled at any time in case you need to prioritize another reward.

Combat and Breaching Tips and Tricks

• During breach’s targeting, you can cycle through available targets with either TAB and Left Shift, then use the selected Ability with ENTER or pressing the ability’s highlighted name on the menu.
• Alert enemies will use an ability at the end of the breach sequence, while those who are surprised get a defense penalty and won’t react during the breach. Aggressive enemies, on the other hand, will automatically attack before the encounter begins if you don’t tackle them down during breaching.
• During explosive entrances, the agent you choose to plant the bomb will also attack, so don’t worry about using your best character for this. Cherub will always have a charge with him by default, but you can obtain more in Supply.
• As per usual in past XCOM entries, the shield icon will indicate how much defense it will give to your character: either half or full cover.
• Units that are Poisoned take 2 damage at the start of their turn and suffer -2 mobility and -15 aim.
• If you have the bandwidth for them, subojectives in encounters grant worthwhile rewards. Just keep in mind that these have to be completed before taking all enemies down, otherwise the game will just move onto the next breaching point.
• You can Dash to an evacuation point, using your two actions per turn, and still use the evacuation action.
• Whenever a Praetorian activates Dual Active, it cannot miss the targeted agent. At the same time, said agent cannot miss the Praetorian.
• Carrying a Nanomedkit grants immunity to poison, which can be built in the Assembly to replace the regular medkits.
• Instead of using your last action to reload, and if you’re close enough to an injured enemy, use the Subdue action.
• Team Up is an excellent ability to make an enemy lose their turn by moving an ally up in the Timeline.

Characters’ Abilities Tips and Tricks

• Each time damage is blocked with a Kinetic Shield, Cherub gains Charge. Higher Charge increases the damage of Charged Bash and makes it deal damage in a conal area behind the target.
• When Verge successfully casts Stupor or Battle Madness, the enemy is added to Verge’s Neural Network. Verge gains +10 Aim for each enemy in the Neural Network.
• Phalanx reduces damage to Cherub and allies, and fully prevents damage from the targeted enemy. If any damage is blocked, the character will gain Charge.
• Alpha Strike moves Godmother’s first turn earlier on the Timeline and also grants a bonus action during said turn.
• Verge can Levitate enemies to negate their cover bonuses and cancel any breach behavior of Aggressive or Alert enemies.
• Torque can Bind adjacent enemies, dealing low damage and making them unable to act on their turn. The character’s next turn will grant them the choice to Sustain or Release the Bind, unless an enemy interrupts said action.
• Use Refresh to have Terminal’s bot heal all allies at their breach point, which is great to ensure Agents will be better prepared for the next encounter.
• If you have Verge on your team, make use of his stun ability when someone is under mind control to prevent them from attacking you.
• With Toxic Greeting, Torque can spit a poison blast directly at enemies during the breach, which will give them the Poisoned status right from the start of the encounter.
• While it is Torque’s passive ability, you can purchase an Infiltrator Weave to grant everyone else access to vents during breaching.
• After Verge stuns an enemy, you can still attack them without interrupting the status, so make sure to stun before shooting so you won’t lose the turn.