XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough The Basics

September 12, 2016 (Last Updated: ) | Reading Time: 6 minutes

This XCOM: Enemy Unknown walkthrough is divided into 5 total pages.

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The Basics

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 9
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 9

Xcom: Enemy Unknown is a semi turn-based strategy shooter where all units have a limited amount of moves to make before the enemy acts. You select a soldier by clicking on them or by using (TAB) and then clicking on a location to make him relocate there. The blue outline symbolizes how far he can move.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 10
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 10

After moving once, you have the option to move even further at the cost of ending his action points. Special abilities unlocked later will allow you to act even after moving twice. More on that later.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 11
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 11

As attractive as It is to sprint further away, Xcom: Enemy Unknown is all about pacing yourself and proceeding with caution while arming yourself against all possible situations and outcomes.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 12
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 12

To demonstrate the importance of pacing, here I sent a soldier to sprint as far away from the landing zone as possible in one turn.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 13
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 13

This caused nearby aliens to react to his presence..

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 14

And he ended up getting shot dead out from cover in an instant.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 15

Knowing however, where the enemies are is important as It allows proper placement for the rest of the soldiers.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 16

Placing soldiers too far leaves them with little to no chance to hit the aliens. Especially with full-auto assault rifles.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 17

Missing is a big aspect of Xcom. It happens often, and you should do everything to avoid it as It leaves you with your pants down.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 18

When all of your action points are up, It's time for the aliens to act. They also act the moment you spot them so essentially, they get two turns when you get one at first.

In this situation, the alien way behind cover buffed his fellow man with bonus HP and damage by "Brain linking" themselves to eachother. Kill the one behind cover, however, and both aliens will die instantly.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 19

The linked alien shot one of my teammates behind cover against some hard odds..

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 20

And both of my soldiers taking cover ended up panicking. Panicking means that soldiers will stop following your orders on their own accord, sometimes before their turn. This can either end as a disaster or be a beneficial thing.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 21

In this scenario, one of the soldiers tried taking some potshots at the alien far away. No success there and he wasted his turn.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 22

Now instead of taking yet another 25% potshot from our other soldiers, we have three other alternatives. 1. Move up ahead, 2. switch to "Oversight" mode and shoot the aliens If they get any closer or 3. Hunker down for extra defense.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 23

Looking at the first alternative, our soldier has just enough range to make it to the front of the truck If he sprints. However, as the aliens are buffed and our allies panicked, It's not a very smart move as he can get flanked without any moves if the aliens move onto the other side of the truck.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 24

Instead, we go as close as possible while still having rounds..

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 25

And throw a frag grenate at the buffed alien.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 26
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 26

This will not only cause large amounts of damage to the alien but It also has two hidden factors. 1. The car is prone to explode, leaving it as unreliable cover and 2. The alien is prone to death without exploding to pieces, meaning he can still be shot down and his corpse recovered scarcefully for research.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 27

Aiming to finish the alien off, my ally unfortunately missed as he is untrained and with wrong weapons.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 28

Eventually, the panicked soliders will snap out of their state of mind and be able to receive orders again.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 29

Firing a couple of good rounds is all that It takes to K.O the smaller aliens.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 30

However, moving on, more appear suddenly inside and outside of the house to our left.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 31
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 31

Xcom is all about adapting to situations. Reallocating soldiers to apply cover between them and the threat is an absolute necessity for any and all kinds of survival.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 32

Even the previous exploded car is now safe and arguably an even better source of cover than before as the accelerant fuel is now exhumed.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 33
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 33

Sometimes soldier with close proximity but with no sight to the aliens themselves may be able to occassionally "hear" them. This will be symbolized as a couple of wave-lengths appearing on your HUD accompanied by alien-ish sounds.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 34
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 34

In this case, the sound was soon accompanied by plasma gun fire..

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 35

Which collided into the enviroment, destroying it but leaving my soldier alive in the process.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 36

It did however, leave him exposed to further attacks symbolized by the now yellow shield. It means that he's in cover, but enemies can shoot at him bypassing said cover.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 37

Moving him up next against the ruined wall gives him not only sight that wasn't there before but a new source of cover that lets him see the aliens without them seeing him.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 38

One clear shot later and It's another alien down.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 39

A short 1v4 later and the job is complete.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 40

You'll have a short briefing on what happened. In this case, one soldier died along with all the aliens.

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 41

Here's the post-modern report of what happened. One soldier who killed three aliens received a promotion as another soldier got wounded and another one died. All soldiers have nationalities, names and character traits & "classes".

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XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthrough - XCOM Enemy-Unknown 42

In this case, "RK Gerard DeWitt" ended up being a Sniper, more on classes later.

More XCOM: Enemy Unknown Walkthroughs

This XCOM: Enemy Unknown walkthrough is divided into 5 total pages.

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