Missions 15 & 16: The Boy in the Bubble
So hey, it's time for another ADVENT retaliation mission. One thing I appreciate in XCOM 2 is the amount of worldbuilding that is achieved through the background scenery during the tactical missions. Here, for example, we have a resistance settlement that was apparently built around a downed UFO. Neat! They've got scaffolding around the edges and corrugated steel on the roof to make some sort of observation platform or something. You know, makes the place feel homey.
Aside from that detail, though, nothing very interesting happened on this mission. There were tons of mutons, the game crashed once, Joe got shot - no big deal. I'm going to try not to overwhelm this LP with screenshots of people shooting at random aliens, so lets fast-forward to the end of the mission.
Lookin' good, team. And don't worry about Joe, he'll be back in action before the next mission even comes up.
It's time to continue our pursuit of the Chosen. This mission against the Assassin is relatively safe for us to undertake, but there's still a chance of an ambush. I decided to send out a skilled party, just in case they have to fight their way out of a corner.
We completed some ammo research, netting us a set of talon rounds. These are really good for rangers, since they increase the already-high crit chance on shotguns at close range. Not that we have any shotguns at the moment.
The month is over, which means it's time for money and resistance orders! Also dark projects. None of these is terrible, but two of them are pretty annoying. We're perpetually short on supplies, so halving our monthly drop would be a bummer, and I don't feel quite comfortable enough yet to let ADVENT accelerate the Avatar project. I'm not quite sure which one poses the greater threat, but I have some time to mull it over before I'll need to decide.
I slotted in the resistance order that allows us to make contact instantly, and with that we quickly extend our network to New Chile. There's a big, juicy ADVENT base here, just waiting for us to destroy it!
Ooh, we've finished Elerium research. This opens up the top tier of weapons and armor, although we'll have to research each of them in turn. We also get an instant autopsy of the Muton, since we killed so many of them on that last mission. That opens up some improved grenades and grenade launchers for us to buy, and you know how much I love stuff that goes boom.
We could dive right into researching plasma weapons or powered armor, but I want to take a few days to unlock the Experimental Weapons first. It's a set of three ridiculous gadgets that comes with the Alien Rulers DLC, old-timey unique weapons that I've never had a chance to mess with before. It'll only take us three days to research and there's a possibility that we'll trigger some research inspiration once we're done, so let's go for it.
We just got our monthly supply drop, so let's go spend some of it! I finally upgrade Inquisitor's equipment to tier two like everyone else, and I pick up the advanced grenade launcher for funsies too. The upgrade increases the range that you can huck grenades, which is pretty useful - especially when you're trying to ambush enemies that haven't spotted you. I also start working on plasma grenades at the Proving Grounds, which will eventually replace our basic grenades squad-wide.
Unfortunately, that's most of our money spent. I really need to find a way to get us some more supplies, since we still don't have an infirmary or a training center. And that powered armor is going to cost a cool 300 supplies once I research it too.
No time to dwell on that, though, as Commander Riker has a mission for us. I'm getting to the point where I don't really need any more engineers, but that intel will be useful. Anyway, it's generally a bad idea to refuse missions in XCOM 2, although in this case I don't think there would be any consequences for chickening out.
A good chunk of our A-team is still out on that covert op, so I cobble together some experienced troops and some fresh faces to build a squad. Inquisitor is up, despite being tired, because there's a chance that we'll get a visit from the Warlock. And look, somebody finally let Spook out of his tank! He hasn't reached maximum readiness, but he has a few cool tricks up his sleeve and I'm kinda short on manpower right now. I load people up with as many mindshields as I can, but I think one of our covert operatives is wearing one, so we still don't have a full set.
Things look sketchy as soon as we touch down. We're in the underground tileset that was added with the War of the Chosen expansion, and that's a place where bad things tend to happen. I also recognize this mission from having done it a few times: we need to rescue a VIP and we can't leave until the mission is complete. With no option to turn back, we press on...
...right into the jaws of the lion. Once again, I moved a soldier up to the point where they entered the enemy's vision range despite being in cover. How bad is that for our squad?
well
uh
Pretty fucking bad, all things considered.
Now, you may recall that there was a screenshot not all that unlike this one in my last update. And that was a very bad situation, but this one is worse. Because this isn't a swarm or relatively inoffensive ADVENT soldiers, this is a mixed group of aliens with all kinds of nasty tricks up their sleeves. The mutons have grenades, tough armor and can't be melee'd. The robot also has grenades and is accompanied by a priest who can mind control my unshielded units. There's a spectre who can shadowbind one of our guys, turning the odds even further against us. And that weird looking flying dude with the spear is an archon, whose blazing pinions ability once definitively ended a campaign of mine. So we got problems, I guess is what I'm saying.
Well, one way of dealing with problems is the old divide-and-conquer. TBaum is pretty far up relative to the squad, so he's going to put this nearby muton into stasis in hopes that he'll live long enough to do something about it once it wakes up.
Meanwhile our biggest problem is that spectre, which can royally mess things up for us if it goes unchecked. Inquisitor uses Justice to yank it out of cover...
...and Sensenic puts it down. Hooray! Unfortunately, that's all that we manage to do before our turn runs out.
And the bad news keeps on coming!
Time for the aliens to have a go. The priest puts Inquisitor into stasis, which isn't great, but it's better than mind control.
Gerad gets in an overwatch shot on a lancer who makes a move on Sensenic. The lancer doesn't die, but thankfully they miss their melee attack.
No such luck with the archon, however, who hits Eric with a nasty blast of plasma...
...which is then followed up by the MEC's micro missiles. Sensenic has Blast Padding, which reduces the damage he takes from explosions, but he loses his one point of armor in the process. Eric takes two more damage and is now down to a single HP.
It's a darn good thing that we're back to our turn, then, isn't it? Eric heals up some.
Joe takes out the wounded lancer with a well-placed Lightning Hands pistol shot...
...before turning his sniper rifle on the archon and getting in a solid hit. Archons have like 20 HP, though, so this one is still kicking.
Spook uses Soulfire to do some guaranteed mind-damage to one of the mutons...
... and Gerad finishes the job. We've gotten a few lucky shots in here, although I've edited out some of the misses too.
Sensenic drops a grenade on the MEC to reduce its armor, but sadly can't manage to get any other baddies in the blast. This is followed by the priest mind-controlling Inquisitor, which hey, that's pretty bad?
Sensenic takes a shot from the MEC, but thanks to his high dodge stat the damage is reduced down to 2 HP. All his training in saving his own skin is paying off!
Archons can also use their spears (or staves?) for melee strikes, which this one demonstrates for us on poor Spook.
Not to be outdone, the remaining muton runs up and does the same thing. Geez, don't tell me we lost another soldier on their first mission?
But wait! Spook learned Sustain, which activates at the last instant to save his poor purple hide. He's alone and surrounded by bloodthirsty aliens, but he's still alive! For the time being, anyway.
Joe takes care of our MEC problem, leaving us with a priest, an archon, a muton. Oh, and a mind-controlled Skirmisher. Oh, and the Warlock summoned some phantasmal zombies. So, uh, no problem, right guys?
Spook comes out of stasis to find himself surrounded by an archon, a muton and a spectral zombie. I run him back a bit and kill the zombie, which detonates, damaging both of the other enemies. I didn't know that was going to happen, but I'll take it!
Baum is still at 1 HP, so Eric takes a second to heal him before taking a shot at the archon. Healing is nice because it doesn't end your turn, so you can heal twice in the same turn, or else heal and harm. Eric didn't take no Hippocratic oath.
Somewhere in there I killed the muton, so now we're down to the archon, one zombie and the priest. Things are looking up!
Gerad gets a lucky crit, which knocks out the archon. A regular shot wouldn't have been enough, so this is a rare bit of good fortune.
This, however, is bad news. Sensenic takes a nasty hit from the priest and is down to a sliver of health - plus he's standing right next to Inquisitor, who's still playing for the wrong team. Thankfully, our Skirmisher decides to toss a grenade at Eric rather than finish off our grenadier. That's not
great, but it's way less damaging than some of the things he could have done.
I'm good and fed up with this priest by now, so Sensenic shows him the door. Somebody else takes out the last zombie, meaning that we've effectively cleared the map of any wandering pods. I am legit astounded that we didn't lose someone in that battle. That said, the mission is far from over - we still have a Chosen running around, plus a VIP to rescue.
The VIP is holed up in some sort of office up ahead, surrounded by the Warlock and the ADVENT troops that he just summoned. I know from experience that Bad Things are going to happen as soon as we tag the VIP, so we'd better clear the place out first.
The Warlock, thankfully, is kind of pulling his punches so far. Which is to say, he hasn't mind-controlled anybody yet. Here, he's using some kind of psi-attack that chains from one of my soldiers to another, seemingly without harming either of them. Maybe it has a chance to cause panic or something?
Sensenic tosses a gas grenade into the office, where one of the ADVENT soldiers has posted up. He very carefully manages to hit the enemy without poisoning our VIP.
Gerad begins the long process of whittling down the Chosen's HP. The Warlock is Brittle, which means we get bonus damage if we hit him multiple times in the same turn. That makes free attacks like Lightning Hands extra useful, since we can get a combo chain going even with weak attacks that don't pierce his armor.
Thank god for mind shields! It's way worse to be mind-controlled by the Warlock, since he has such a big HP pool. At least a priest or a sectoid can generally be killed within a round or two.
Since he's still new to the crew, here's an extra shot of Spook using his cool brain powers on the enemy.
Sensenic finishes the job, then runs over to loot the enemy corpse.
Gerad has a plan and he's sticking to it. Unfortunately, the Warlock has some decent cover, so his next shot misses. And that's bad, because...
...the Warlock has a chance to return fire on any missed shots. Gerad and Spook both fall victim to this ability, taking 3-4 damage each.
I'm getting tired of missing my shots, so I have Sensenic use Demolition to destroy the Warlock's cover.
Now we're getting somewhere. Joe and Gerad pile on the pistol shots (including both of their Lightning Hands), putting the Warlock into Bewildered state, where he takes more damage.
Then we grapple Inquisitor onto the roof, where he can use his Adversary status to finish the job. Consider this redemption for his earlier betrayal.
And with that, the area is clear! Phew. Still not done, however. We take a second to reload everyone and get into position, then Inquisitor goes to tag the VIP (who has probably spent the last 10 minutes wondering what all the ruckus was).
To the surprise of nobody, grabbing the VIP triggers a bunch of ADVENT reinforcements. Well, to be fair, I absolutely
was surprised the first time I played this mission. Things, ah, didn't go so well that time.
A purifier and a MEC drop down on top of us, and a sectoid and an ADVENT soldier show up farther ahead of where we're stationed. This group doesn't stand a chance, as they're completely surrounded by troops on overwatch. I did have a moment of panic when Spook gunned down the purifier from point-blank range, though, as they have a chance to explode on dying. Good thing it didn't, or else he'd be dead!
As for the MEC, well, there ain't no MEC no more.
Down the hall we have this Sectoid, who is far enough away that we just can't friggin' hit it. I don't know how many shots I wasted on him, but I will tell you this - we never killed him.
His ADVENT buddy doesn't fare so well, though. Inquisitor yanks him up onto the roof, slashes him and then finishes him with his upgraded rifle.
We have to survive for three turns before we'll be able to evac out of the mission zone. Another group of ADVENT drops right into the middle of us, but they don't survive long enough to make it to cover. The stupid Sectoid is harrying us from down the hall, but our mind-shields are doing their job and no-one else has had any traitorous impulses.
At long last, our evac zone appears! This is a relatively good place for it to be, all things considered, not too far from the squad.
I immediately evac Spook and Eric, both of whom are in really bad shape. I also post Gerad in the evac zone but opt to keep him around for another turn in case anyone needs a shootin'.
The pace of the reinforcements accelerates and suffice to say that we need to GO.
On our next turn we get everyone to the evac zone...except for Sensenic. You can see him at the top of the screen, pinned down by some suppressing fire. The enemy will take a shot if he either shoots or moves, but unfortunately for Joan, we don't have any other options for him. Nobody else can see the enemy targeting him and we don't have any tricks to make his retreat safer. And waiting around until next turn would be a very bad idea.. No, I'm afraid we're just going to have to sprint him to the evac zone and roll the dice. And with only 2 HP left, even his high evade stat probably won't help him, as even a grazing shot could take him out.
Fingers crossed, I hit the button and Sensenic makes a break for it.
The shot goes wide! Joan must have several rabbits' worth of lucky feet in his pack; he has endured, dodged or evaded everything that the aliens can throw at him and he still lives to tell the tale.
Hot damn, they all made it out. Team Swiss Cheese has miraculously survived to fight another day, although it'll be weeks before they're all back in fighting shape. Even so, I'm can't believe I managed to get them all out without losing anybody. In the future I'll have to be a bit more conservative while I'm scouting, I've had two bad breaks in a row and I'm not sure how much more of this my heart can take.
Time for more upgrades! Inquisitor gets a cool electric lash ability - it's a free action that does extra damage to robotic enemies, but you only get one per mission. I have a strong anti-robot bias (just ask DESTIL), so you know I'm gonna take that. Sensenic gets an ability that lets him carry an extra grenade, because more explosions is always better.
After a mission like that, Joan is understandably a bit shaken. Seems misplaced for him to develop a fear of vipers, though.
Victories are great and all, but overall the team is in pretty rough shape. We'd better hope no other missions come up before Aquadeo, Matchstick and Nightwalker get back from their covert op. If I wasn't so broke I would start building an infirmary right away...
But hey, at least one good thing will come out of this: the psi training pod is going to be free until Spook recovers from his injuries, so we can start training Esha in the ways of the purple force! Psi operatives are super useful and I'll be happy to have a [STRIKE]spare[/STRIKE] backup for Torz.
Phew, OK, I'm all stressed out, time for a break. We'll reconvene next time, when I hope to put together a team to destroy the ADVENT facility in New Chile. Until then, vigilo confido!