How to Create a Port Forward in Your Router for XCOM 2

XCOM 2 is a Turn-Based, Strategy, Tactical, and Role-Playing game published by 2K Games released in 2016.

XCOM 2 has the following styles of play.

• In most turn based games each player has a turn to play while the other can simply manage their options for when their turn comes around.
• In a strategy game the player is required to use skillful thinking and a strong focus on planning ahead in order to achieve victory over their opponent. They can be either single player against bots or multiplayer against other players. They come in both turn-based and real-time versions, the former allowing each player a chance to complete their turn, the latter having a continuous running clock without stopping. Resource management and exploration are common themes in strategy games.
• Tactical games are a subgenre of strategy games that focus more on operational warfare, military style tactics, and troop placement. They focus more on logistics and production than on combat, and can at times feature complex battlefield tactics.
• Role-Playing Games give you hours on end of game play where you can explore a new world through the eyes of your own character. They tend to be the longest style of game with the most immersive story lines. Popular RPG titles include Skyrim, World of Warcraft, and Fallout.

When you are playing XCOM 2 you might need to forward some ports in your router. Forwarding ports is a useful trick in gaming because it can really help to make your network connection most stable and frequently even faster. Routers were not designed to allow incoming network requests and some games can play tremendously better if an incoming connection is forwarded through the router to the game.

Use a VPN Instead

Have you considered using a VPN instead of forwarding a port? For most users, a VPN is a much simpler and more secure choice than forwarding a port.

We use and recommend NordVPN because not only is it the fastest VPN, it includes a new feature called Meshnet that makes forwarding a port no longer necessary for most applications. With NordVPN Meshnet, you can connect to your devices from anywhere in the world, completely secure, over a highly encrypted VPN tunnel.

When shopping for a VPN, make sure that they meet the following criteria:

• Your VPN provider should have a no-logs policy. This means that they do not keep any logs of any kind.
• Make sure that your VPN provider has lots of exit nodes all around the world.
• Check that your VPN will not affect your speed.
• Verify that your VPN provider uses WireGuard as the underlying protocol.
• Many people prefer a VPN provider that is not based in the United States.

This is the list of requirements that we used when we were shopping around for a VPN provider. There are lots of free, shady VPN providers out there that we looked at and dismissed.

Based in Panama, using diskless servers, and with over 6,100 servers in 61 countries, we can safely say that NordVPN satisfies all of these requirements.

Once you've set up your NordVPN account on multiple computers and enabled Meshnet, you can seamlessly access all of your devices as if they were on the same network. You don't even have to log in to your router. It's very simple.

Every time you click on one of our affiliate links, such as NordVPN, we get a little kickback for introducing you to the service. Think of us as your VPN wingman.

Before you can forward a port you need to know the following things:

• Your router's IP address.
• The IP address of the device that the game will play on: either your computer or your console.
• The TCP and UDP ports to forward.

The easiest way to locate your router's IP address is to run our free Router Detector utility. It's a part of the Network Utilities suite of tools and it's completely free to use.

Don't have time? Use our Network Utilities software. It's the easiest way to both open and close ports in your router. Of you can do it manually if you want.

The process for forwarding a port is generally:

• Login to your router.
• Find your routers port forwarding section.
• Put the IP address of your computer or gaming console in the applicable box in your router.
• Put the TCP and UDP ports for your game in the corresponding boxes in your router.
• Intermittently you have to reboot your router for the changes to take effect.

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The specific ports for XCOM 2 are as follows:

XCOM 2 - PC

• We do not know the PC ports for XCOM 2 yet. If you know them please send us a message using our Message System.

XCOM 2 - Steam

• TCP: 27015-27030, 27036-27037
• UDP: 4380, 27000-27031, 27036

XCOM 2 - Xbox One

• TCP: 3074
• UDP: 88, 500, 3074, 3544, 4500

XCOM 2 - Playstation 4

• TCP: 1935, 3478-3480
• UDP: 3074, 3478-3479

XCOM 2 - Switch

• TCP: 6667, 12400, 28910, 29900, 29901, 29920
• UDP: 1024-65535

We have guides that are custom tailored for XCOM 2 that will show you the required ports that need to be forwarded.

• XCOM 2 - Steam
• XCOM 2 - Xbox One
• XCOM 2 - Playstation 4
• XCOM 2 - Switch

After following those steps your ports should be forwarded. Head to our applications and games list for more port forwarding guides.