EDIT: since starting writing this, XCOM 2 had a major multiplayer rebalance with the launch of the “Alien Hunters” DLC, so a few elements of what I wrote got somewhat outdated. However, most of what I write about is conceptual and independent of particular unit prices and damage range, or is, at the very least, useful to think about. I’ve stopped playing XCOM 2 now, due to personal reasons, but it felt a shame for what I wrote never to see the light of day, so I figured I’d publish it anyway, and wait for everyone’s feedback. I hope that this will still be helpful and useful.

The sections that suffered most from the changes made via the MP rebalance are the "Unit selection and squad composition" ones (though the thought processes apply still). The most deep and valuable sections are after that, I believe, especially if you already know the basics of XCOM 2 MP.

I want to start by saying that my goal is to make it so everyone can enjoy XCOM 2 multiplayer and get better at it, as I feel like it’s a very good turn-based multiplayer game with lots of depth and strategy. Also, bear in mind I’m not all-knowledgeable, I may not be THE best player out there, so use your own head and think about what is written. As I started to write this, I have 20 wins, 2 losses and 1 disconnect on the ranked playlists, but I’ve had a lot of experience playing XCOM 2 multiplayer, mainly unranked but also ranked. So, if you think something is wrong or have a different opinion or want to add anything to this guide, I’m happy for the comments and the feedback. Again, my goal is to make it so everyone enjoys it and can improve his/her game.

Way before making this guide, I started making YouTube videos with my XCOM 2 multiplayer matches where I explain my strategies/ideas for the squad I’m using, I commentate during gameplay and I do some analysis and conclusions after the match, trying to see what I did right and what I did wrong. My goal with these was, again, to improve my game, in particular by re-watching and analysing my own matches. Check my youtube channel here.

I would also like to point you to two very good reddit posts that I’ve found, with a lot of in-depth information: Open Discussion Regarding XCOM 2 Multiplayer and Here’s How Weapon Accuracy and Damage Works.

EDIT: first link outdated after the May 12th 2016 MP rebalance.

Last but not least I want to give a shout out to FireWaterGasoline, whose youtube videos inspired me to start making my own, which eventually led me here :)

Before entering an XCOM 2 multiplayer match, you need to build a squad of up to 6 units. People usually play either “quick match” or “ranked match”. Quick match will default to 90 second turns and 10.000 points squad, but if a player is waiting in a lobby with some other turn time and point settings you will join regardless. Ranked matches are always 90 second turns and 10.000 points. Note that you can only play “ranked” if you disable all your mods before launching the game, otherwise that option will be greyed out. Also, if you launch the game with any mods on, you will only be able to pair up with players that have the EXACT SAME mods as you do, even on “quick matches” or on the “custom match”. So, usually you want to disable all mods, unless you’re playing with a friend and both of you want to use the same mods.

It is important to build a balanced team, with some “main units”, more capable but more expensive, and also some “support units”, cheaper units that will help in scouting (trying to find where the opponent is) and fill up your 6 slots for units. Assuming you’re limited to 10.000 points, you can’t choose all XCOM units nor all powerful units, because that would be too expensive. And it is generally a good idea to go in with 6 units rather than less than that, unless you know what you are doing. Why? Short answer is you have more actions than your opponent if he has less units than you, even though he may have more powerful units, individually. (Check my video #6 here). It is also important to have a “strategy” or a “plan”, something along the lines “ok, how am I going to try and win my match with this squad?”. Think about how your units’ abilities play together, how they “combo” and/or synergize, I will expand on this later.

If you have only played the single player campaign, bear in mind that the style of play on multiplayer is a little bit different, so you need to approach it with a different/open mind. First of all, neither player starts the match with his/her units concealed (the XCOM Phantom Ranger unit does, but that’s the only one that has that ability). Second, when building your squad, you don’t have access to late game armor and weapons - you can only choose units from the available pool, which have fixed abilities, and customization (not the cosmetic kind) is restricted to one item per XCOM unit (not the cosmetic kind). That’s ok, don’t panic. Also, you usually don’t have enough points to load up every soldier with items (extra grenades, medikits, etc), which is also ok, it is usually a good idea to add one single item for your main unit, according to your needs or plan, maybe you have points for more. More on that later.



You can use voice chat or text chat (hit the “J” key) during the match. As is the case with every multiplayer game, don’t be a troll. I haven’t run into problems with that, though, so I think the community is mostly good. I’ve even met some nice people that were very talkative, and we chatted a bit about xcom 2 in general. I just hope that doesn’t hinder their quality of play.

In my experience, people usually say nothing at all, which is absolutely fine, and is understandable given how tense the matches usually are for both players. I feel that a “GG” at the end of a match is always nice.

Check if you have your microphone on, as the game is using mic “always on” by default. You can turn down the volume of the in-game chat and avoid hearing players that have their mics on without noticing. Or maybe you could leave it on and try to get a competitive edge that way (I’m kidding, lol, that’s not very nice...)

The only problem, really, that sometimes happens is when a player disconnect from the game prematurely, usually after losing their first unit. This is very frustrating, as it takes some time to find an opponent and then to think and play, and immediately quitting is such a waste of time! This is not like the single player campaign, you can’t expect to win flawlessly every time you go into a multiplayer match, especially if you don’t have a little experience. Also, and perhaps more importantly, it is perfectly OK to lose a unit! You win a match by having the last unit standing, you don’t automatically lose it by being the first one to lose a unit.

I understand it is frustrating to be losing, I get frustrated as well, especially since it takes some time for the turn to get passed back to you. But if you really want to give up at least say so to your opponent via the text chat (again, “J” key). It’s not that hard to do. Unfortunately, there is no “I concede button”, the only alternative is to dash all your units out of cover and into the view of your opponent, but I understand that takes time.

Every unit has its own stats and point price. Some units are “better” or more “efficient” than others, but that is always a little bit subjective and things depend on the “meta” (the type of squad people perceive to be the “best” and are using most often - especially in ranked), and, also, some units work really well against some types of units, but not others.

Anyway, every unit has some base stats like health, mobility aim, will, armor, dodge, hack. There’s also one other stat not shown on a character’s detail page, which is defense. Some abilities can grant temporary bonus to aim or defense, like the specialist’s aid protocol for bonus defense for a turn. These stats are almost all self-explanatory, except dodge and defense.

Dodge is the chance that if a units gets hit with a shot, the shot will “graze”, doing half damage instead of doing the full damage. For instance, the Chryssalids have 20 dodge, so, if a Chryssalid gets hit with a shot from a gun, there’s a 20% chance that that shot will “graze” and do half the damage. As far as I know, people aren’t sure if this is rounded up or down.

Defense is a measure of how hard it is to hit a unit with a shot from a gun. It works like this: if a unit has, for instance, 20 defense, that means your aim when targeting it will be 20 less. So, for a real in-game example imagine a Gatekeeper and an ADVENT Officer. Gatekeepers have 35 defense (when they are closed, if open maybe less, not sure) and ADVENT Officers have 75 aim. So, if there aren’t any other modifiers active, the Officer will have a 75-35 = 40% chance to hit the Gatekeeper.

It is important to note that XCOM units will have a few points of bonus aim called “weapon range”, if they are within “good range” of their target, and the closer they are the higher that bonus is. That range, of course, depends on the weapon. Also, the sharpshooters, in particular, have the “squadsight” ability that enables them to target units outside of their own range of vision, provided they are seen by squad mates. This means that if they are targeting a unit that’s outside of their “range”, they will have an aim penalty which increases with the distance from their target (not sure if that’s linearly or otherwise). Of course they still need to have “line of sight” to be able to fire at that target, and bear in mind there is a limit to their “squadsight” range.



Also check Open Discussion Regarding XCOM 2 Multiplayer on reddit. (EDIT: maybe outdated since "Alien Hunters" patch rebalance)

Not sure if I’ll take the time to extensively list all units and their stats and abilities, it’s a lot of work. Perhaps I will focus on the key aspects of each unit and how best to use it. Bear in my I have more experience with some units than others, and also my personal preferences influence what I know about them.

Sniper Sharpshooter: The Sniper is able to stay “safely” in the back (well, most of the times), and engage most enemies where they have no range to attack back. As with any unit, they benefit from height advantage (+20 aim when they fire at a target in a lower position). Also, they have the “steady hands” ability (+10 aim and +10 crit if they didn’t move the previous turn), the “death from above” ability (1 bonus action point after killing a unit in a lower position) and the “serial” ability (activate it and with each unit killed you get 1 extra action that turn, the full 2 action points). Last but not least, they have “deadeye”, which fires a shot with -20 aim but 50% plus damage (that’s 9-11 instead of 6-8). It feels to me like the snipers really enjoy pairing up with units with explosives, since they can pick off exposed enemy units and finish them off. Also, being exposed means the sniper can probably use dead eye, for massive damage and get a free reload after a kill with “death from above”. Last but not least, you can potentially finish off multiple weakened units with the serial ability AND also reload after. Some people like using AP rounds on them, which I understand, of course, since ignoring armor isn’t bad. However, I really like using tracer rounds since it maximizes the % to hit very nicely and gives more consistency to my shots. In conjunction with mark target from officers and height advantage, I usually get very high % shots, even against full cover, and 100% on exposed enemy units. Also, I figure I have other units to deal with armor, so I don’t need to focus the sniper for that job.

As I said before, because you have a point limit and also a 6 unit limit, you need to select your team wisely. It is important to think about who your main units will be and also who will your support units be. I will advise the choice to be focused on your “strategy” or “plan” - how you envision to win the game by using which units and their abilities. Usually you want to try and maximize your units’ abilities efficiency and efficacy. This is where “unit synergies” come in as well. This is a bit abstract, so I’ll provide some examples on the following sections. Also, don’t forget to think about how your team can cope with some different opponent squads: facing high armored and/or mechanized units is much different than facing an army of Chryssalids or two Psi Operatives, so when creating a squad it is useful to try and think how your team can deal with those, since you never know what your opponent will use.

EDIT: again, somewhat outdated by the MP rebalance, in the details, but philosophy still applies.

First off, my favorite unit is the Sniper Sharpshooter, let’s say I want to play with it. Also, I’m going to choose Demo Expert as well, two of them. These will be my “main units”. I will compliment my squad with 3 Officers. So I’m at 3000 + 2*2500 + 3*400 = 9200 points. I can even add some items, I’ll decide later. One way to really make the most out of my units (better “mileage”, so to speak) is to get the sniper in an elevated position and good field of vision, scout ahead with the officers and, when I find an enemy unit, I can have the officer use “mark target”, use the demo expert to fire a rocket or grenade at that unit (this will shred any armor they may have and destroy any cover, making that unit exposed), and then fire at that exposed unit with as many other units necessary, especially the sniper. Since the unit is exposed and marked, every unit will benefit from the easy shot and +10 aim, which will usually make it so I can kill that unit in that same turn. This is an example of “unit synergy”: every unit working together, each with their different “roles” and abilities, all coming together in a sequence of actions that maximize their effectiveness and efficiency. Also, this will be my “plan”, my “strategy” with this squad: it’s this way that it works best, so I’m going to try and maneuver in a way as to make this situation happen for me. Remember I had 800 points left? I can add some items to my units, so what will I use? Many options are available, but I will choose to further help executing my strategy: I will use “tracer rounds” on the sniper (+10 aim for 300 points) and I will add 1 grenade to each of my 2 demo experts (1 grenade = 200 points), upping my squad to 9900 points. My videos #5, #12 and #14 feature this squad. Go check them out here.

Another example is to use a Psi Operative instead of a sniper. When an enemy unit is found, the Demo Expert can fire an explosive, and because of “salvo” they can fire a second explosive or shoot their gun. If you use the Psi Operative’s “inspire” ability, you can get an extra action for that same Demo Expert. So, you can ideally have the same unit “fire” three times in a turn, which of course, will be very good. Check out my video #11 for this squad.

One situation that is more different is the following. Imagine I want to use a Chryssalid and my plan is to try and kill an enemy unit with it and generate a cocoon. Well, my opponent will be able to hear the chryssalid move about, so I have to expect that he/she will be ready for it by placing multiple units on overwatch every turn. Since I have to get in close with my Chryssalid, how will I make sure the Chryssalid survives an array of overwatches? There’s many options here, as always, but I figure that if I have a Gatekeeper and some Officers, I can find out where my opponent’s units are with the Officers and then I can fire the “gateway” ability at many of them. This will hit them and thus disable any overwatches they have active, making it safe for my Chryssalid to get in and hopefully hit an organic unit. Because that unit will most likely be already damaged by the gatekeeper, hopefully it will die immediately and generate that cocoon, right then. It is CRUCIAL that the Chryssalid hits, because it will be left exposed amidst the enemy units and thus be very easy to kill on the opponent’s turn. So, I can also use a second officer to mark that enemy unit, making it 85% (against most targets) for the Chryssalid to hit, instead of 75%. However, what will happen if I face an enemy Gatekeeper or even a Sectopod? This plan will not work against those very high armored targets: Gatekeepers are hard to hit and Sectopods are immune to Chryssalid poison. Because of this, I might as well add a Demo Expert to my squad, that will help against those armored targets and, also, don’t forget that the rocket launcher can help make sure I hit a far away enemy unit that is on overwatch. So let’s say the Gatekeeper, the Chryssalid and the Demo Expert, plus 3 officers, that’s 5000 + 1250 + 2500 + 3*400 = 9950 points. Seems nice to me! My videos #7 and #9 feature a similar squad, only instead of a demo expert I use a heavy gunner. You can check them out here. Also, notice the pattern of Officers and Demo Experts on these squads, it is not a coincidence.

An alternative way to do this can be with a Chryssalid, a Combat Hacker, a Psi Operative and an Advent MEC. The Combat Hacker can use “combat protocol” or “capacitor discharge” for a guaranteed hit on an enemy, disabling overwatch, the Psi Operative can use “soul fire” or “void rift”, the MEC can fire its grenade, which has good range. Alternatively, I can dash the Chryssalid in closer and use the “stasis” ability of the Psi Operative on it, making it immune to damage and untargetable during my opponent’s turn. Hopefully this will confuse my opponent and they will try and shoot my other units. If they don’t move away enough (usually they have to dash to be out of Chryssalid range), my Chryssalid will be in range for a slash next turn. As always, I can have some officers on my squad as well. I’m gonna be honest and say that this squad is more difficult to use, especially because it has no demo experts and there’s a lot of them out there.

There are of course, many other units and many other strategies that people like to use, like the infamous Codex (Codex Spam is a strategy, check my video #10 here), the Archon unit (which is good to harass the opponent with blazing pinions and maybe set up overwatch traps), etc etc etc. But the kind of thought processes I showed in my examples give insight to what you should be thinking when building your squad. Regardless of what you want to use, you should always try and go for 6-unit squads, have a nice balance of main units vs support units, and have present on your mind what your strategy/plan is. This way, you won’t simply throw in some random units, call it a squad and “durdle around” randomly during the match, which will usually lower your chances of success by quite a margin.

Before the 12th of May patch, for “serious” matches, in particular, my opinion is that a squad with 3 Officers and at least 1 Demo Expert was the best way to go. The Officers are very efficient, with good stats, a grenade, and good ability for only 400 points and the Demo Expert’s ability to negate enemy cover, shred armor, disable overwatch AND expose an enemy unit, ALL IN A SINGLE ACTION, is very very strong. And that’s not even mentioning that, after that, they have the “salvo” ability for one extra action...

Of course, as I said, there are many other options, and of course you can disagree with me. Ideally, the unit roster is well balanced and multiple squads are at least somewhat equally viable, but unfortunately this is not always true. Demo Experts and Codices are perhaps borderline “broken”, and were frequently the object of discussion by the community. I hope the recent rebalance made things, well, more balanced.

You will want to do different things depending on when you are during a match. The very first thing you will want to do is to investigate your surroundings, determine where the edges of the map are, identify key environmental features of the map (buildings, height advantage, density of cover, etc), predict the general direction of the enemy spawn and decide how to move, given the area around you, your squad and your strategy. If you take the first turn you’ll have to play faster, but if your opponent takes the first turn, you can take the opportunity to also try and listen for any sounds the enemy may make, since many are easily identifiable with some practice. Chryssalids, Sectopods, Andromedon, Codices teleporting, ADVENT MEC, Shieldbearer Shield, etc, are quite distinctive. Also, if you hear some explosion, like a car blowing up, it’s probably due to a Gatekeeper a Sectopod, or even an Andromedon, etc., overrunning them. Sounds will, of course, be produced in any phase of the match, and can give you precious information. Be alert also to doors being opened or smashed, windows being shattered, which can give you clues as where your opponent is. Every information is important to help you realize what you are facing and decide how best to engage.

It is usually ok to dash every unit in your first turn, or at least it’s an acceptable risk in trying to reach a better position for your units, since usually you spawn on open field and sometimes on bad positions. Generally, you will want to move your “scout” units to the “front” first, and leave your more valuable units a little further back. Of course, if you have units like a Phantom Ranger or a Codex, your approach will be a bit different. Regardless, until you find your opponent, each and every turn it is usually in your best interest to “scout” first, before doing anything else, using either your most advanced “scout” units (troopers, officers, etc) or a unit specialized for that or that has high defense (Phantom is concealed, Codices can teleport in and back again, Archons are hard to hit by overwatches, etc.). This way, if you find your opponent, all you other units will have all their actions available, and so you can decide what best sequence of actions to take given what you encounter. Don’t make the mistake of moving some units, immediately overwatch, only to find your opponent with the last unit you move and finding yourself with no units left that haven’t taken actions and lots of useless overwatches. So, only overwatch at the end of the turn, if that’s what you want to do by then.

Until you know of every unit your opponent has, it is usually better to be relatively cautious, because if you are reckless and move in, you can find yourself overwhelmed by unforeseen units and be on the back foot. It’s also good to spread out your scout units a little bit, if you’re not sure where the opponent is. If you only see one cheap unit, you must realize that it’s probably a “scout” from your opponent, and usually you don’t want to “over commit” yourself and veer your entire squad to focus on that unit.

That, however, is not to say that you should only move slowly and always overwatch. Early on you want to realize what the best position in the map that you can reach is, given your squad and strategy, and decide if you can try and reach it considering its distance and risk of doing so. If you can do that, that will give you an early advantage that is not to be dismissed. Also, there’s a lot to be said about taking initiative vs being defensive, I have a section for that further on entitled “Being proactive vs being defensive”.

In your first engagement, and actually all engagements, for that matter, you probably want to be decisive, that is to say, you should consider some amount of risk and take it to try and kill an enemy unit that you found, instead of just firing some shots, not killing it, and leaving your other units on overwatch. You want to try and “make things happen”, instead of waiting for things to happen, because you have to realize your opponent can have many good ways to engage you if they can see where you are, and an overwatch can be countered in many ways, like a rocket, a psi ability, a combat protocol, a gateway, etc etc. Also, each unit you kill is one less unit and many actions that your opponent has the following turns, which is a definite advantage. That being said, it’s probably best to risk more later on, when you have more information than simply having found a scout unit from the opponent.

In the following sections I will talk about lots of different concepts, ideas, tactics and manoeuvres you can employ, etc. etc. Overall these are things you should consider during your match and improving your knowledge of them will help you win more matches.

First things first, I will talk a little bit about aim, defense, height advantage, cover, basically anything to do with chance to hit, since what you’ll mostly be doing is to try and shoot and kill enemy units. For detailed information on how aim and damage works, check out this amazing reddit post: Here’s How Weapon Accuracy and Damage Works.
The basic idea is that the chance to hit is given by:

% to hit = your unit’s aim - target defense stat +/- height differences - target cover

Height advantage grants you a +20 aim bonus (disadvantage gives a 20 aim penalty, that is -20 aim), half/low cover grants 20 aim penalty, full cover grants 40 aim penalty.

If you flank your opponent, you don’t get an aim bonus, only a crit chance bonus of +30. Crit chance basically works like this: if you have a crit chance of, say, 40%, that means that IF, and ONLY IF, your shot hits, it has a 40% chance to deal critical damage instead of regular damage. So, for instance, if you are shooting with your Officer against an enemy Officer (officers have 75 aim and zero defense) that is below you and in full cover, the chance to hit is: 75 - 0 + 20 - 40 = 55%. If however you are flanking the enemy officer AND with height advantage, you have 75 + 20 = 95% chance to hit (not to mention the higher crit chance). Obviously, height advantage and full cover are both good things to have, so you will want to be mindful of the map and probably try and engage from better positions. Be careful, of course, with being on roofs, since your units can fall down if the floor gets destroyed, say, by explosives, and take additional fall damage. More on that next.

Before that, of course you should know if you played the single player that the actual damage you deal depends basically on the weapon damage range, the target’s armor and their dodge chance, and any other modifiers (for instance dragon rounds deal bonus damage, not to mention they can set organic units on fire). Armor will reduce the actual damage dealt by the same points as the armor value (-2 damage with 2 armor), and if the target has a dodge chance, they basically have that % chance of the shot only “graze” and deal half damage. Some weapons can shred armor, like the grenadier’s heavy cannon, the muton’s plasma cannon, the MEC’s rifle, the Andromedon’s acid bomb, etc, not to mention explosives, of course.

Since cover and height advantage play such a crucial role, it’s no wonder that explosives are so important, because they can not only destroy cover and, thus, remove it and leave the unit exposed, but also, when used on enemies in roofs or platforms, they can destroy the floor, making units fall down and take extra “fall damage”, not to mention probably expose them as well. Because of this, be careful of enemy units getting in range of using explosives on you, for instance the Officers. Demo experts have good range, especially on the rocket, so they are very difficult to avoid. This is another reason why you should put your most valuable units in the back and the scouts in front. Also, this is why using officers and demo experts is good, and an easy and straightforward way to enable you to hit and kill your opponent’s units.

Last but not least, remember that many abilities and attacks ignore cover altogether. Psi abilities only care about the will of the cast and the target, Gatekeeper’s gateway deals guaranteed damage, regardless of cover, so does the Combat Hacker’s combat protocol and capacitor discharge abilities.

I should expand on the following later:

Scouts/support vs main threats. Not wasting all the best items/abilities on scouts, save some for later, more important targets. Chryssalids should be dealt with IMMEDIATELY lest they overrun you. Focus fire on most important threat by opponent, if possible, instead of spreading damage around (I’m thinking about gatekeeper, mainly). How to engage specific units more effectively, like snipers, codices. Etc etc etc.

One of the most common mistakes I see is people using overwatch when in plain view and within range of the enemy. You have to realize that if you already see and can engage an enemy unit, likewise your opponent can see and engage you next turn. It is very easy to remove an overwatch by using an explosive, a Psi ability like soul fire, void rift, insanity or mind control, the Combat Hacker’s abilities capacitor discharge or combat protocol, Gatekeeper’s Gateway, etc. Other than that, they can simply shoot and get lucky and hit. So, most of the times, to avoid “wasting” your overwatch, and, thus, an action, you probably will be better off by taking a shot, no matter how low the chance to hit is. Overwatch is best used with a unit that is not seen by an opponent, in most situations by being out of sight and/or out of range, in order to “prevent” or at least “penalize” advances by enemy units. Other than that, you can think deep and “bait” the opponent to use an explosive on your unit by using overwatch, but I suppose you will only want to do this in edge cases and with expendable units.

That being said, remember that an enemy unit benefiting from aid protocol with threat assessment from the Combat Hacker make it so overwatches trigger not only on moves but actions as well, so, even if you want to, say, throw a grenade, that unit will take its overwatch shot.

More on this subject on “Being proactive vs being defensive” section further on.

As mentioned above, there are a lot of ways to disable overwatches, but if you understand how overwatch works, you can even evade them altogether in some situations. The regular overwatch triggers when an enemy unit moves from a tile that the overwatcher sees into a second, neighbouring tile that the overwatcher also sees, regardless if they are the origin or destination of the move (I hope this was understandable). Another way to say this is that overwatch only triggers if the enemy unit “crosses” two neighbouring tiles (side by side or diagonal) visible by the overwatcher. This is why Codex Teleport and Grapple don’t trigger overwatch - those are not “moves across two neighbouring tiles”, though you could argue that grapple should trigger it. Because of this, sometimes you can move either into or out of sight of overwatches in some situations, without triggering it, usually involving buildings/walls or being at the very limit of range. Let’s do some examples, to hopefully make it clear:

• 1 - Walls: imagine an overwatcher facing a solid wall some tiles ahead of him. He cannot see directly behind the wall. Of the other side of the wall he can only see one tile at each of both edges. Because of this, if an enemy unit was behind the wall, in the middle of it, and it moves to the edge, overwatch will not trigger because the unit moved “into view”, that is, into one (and only one) tile that was visible by the overwatcher. The situation is the same if the unit was, instead, in the edge (behind the wall), and moved back to the middle, out of the view of the overwatcher.
  
  
• 2 - Ladders/pipes: imagine an overwatcher a few tiles in front of say a tower, on ground level. The tower has a ladder or pipe behind it and there’s an enemy unit behind the tower at the base of the ladder/pipe, where the overwatcher can’t see. If the unit moves up the ladder/pipe into the very first tile of the tower, into the vision of the overwatcher, overwatch will not be triggered because that unit only moved “into view” and did not cross two tiles visible by the overwatcher. Check my video #3, around 11:40.
  
  
• 3 - Vision range limit: this is a very narrow case, since it’s hard for the opponent to predict the limits of the vision range of your units, but it happens (check my video #14, circa 36mins33secs). If the enemy unit moves into the very first tile of vision range from the overwatcher, and not one tile further in vision, the overwatch will not be triggered either.

Another situation where you can “evade” an overwatch is where you can close a door, denying vision for the overwatch, but I suppose that’s very rare, even though I used it once.

By doing these kind of moves, you can scout and get better vision and not trigger any overwatches, after which you can use other actions to actively disable the overwatch, as mentioned in the section above. So, remember this when you’re facing overwatches and also if you’re doing some overwatches of your own.

Phantom rangers obviously begin the match concealed and are the best unit for delivering devastating unforeseen blows from flanking positions. However, depending on the map and the buildings available, sometimes units can get unnoticed by the opponent. The basic idea here is that if a unit is behind a tall wall, like the side of a building, with no windows or other “holes”, the unit will not be seen from the other side. I know this is obvious, but because of this, sometimes you can maneuver units around said buildings and emerge from flanking positions, and probably evade some overwatches, like mentioned above. This is especially useful when trying to hide a key unit for an ambush, like hiding a Gatekeeper or a Chryssalid out of sight, ready to jump out and do an unforeseen attack.

One other way, of course, is to go on a very wide and long flank, out of vision range from the opponent, by moving far to the side. This can be interesting, but it probably takes at least two turns of dashing, if not more, where your units won’t be doing much to contribute to the fight. Also sometimes it is difficult to judge exactly how much distance is “out of range”, and you better know where your opponent really is, lest you dash into an enemy unit that is also flanking deep.

This one is a little vague and difficult to explain, so bear it with me. One thing you can do is to try and “bait” your opponent to move where you want him to or to do some actions that will leave him/her up to good counter-play on your part. The basic goal is to prevent him/her to advance or reach some place, or prevent him/her from engaging some particular unit of yours. Examples of this may be, like mentioned before, making him/her “waste” an explosive or ability on a unit that you don’t care, so as to enable other units to be “safe”, at least for that turn, and do important actions of their own. Also, if you, for instance, have a concealed Phantom Ranger, you can try and make opponent’s units to “chase” another unit, only to be ambushed by the Phantom. You can also try and make it appear that one unit is important, when in actuality you have another “hidden”, in some way, that will respond decisively.

Usually, though, when I do “baiting”, it’s because I'm in a somewhat disadvantageous situation and so I decide to kind of “sacrifice” one lesser unit so that one more important unit can recover, or be saved, or reach an important position. However, this can also be done to incentivise your opponent not to move, but rather stay where he is and shoot, when you can manoeuvre other units in some way as to make that opponent unit decidedly vulnerable.

When you don’t have good shots, one thing you can try and do is set up an overwatch trap. Essentially, an overwatch trap is where you place ideally multiple units on overwatch and somehow force an enemy unit (that was in good cover) to move, which will hopefully trigger your overwatches and thus hit that unit. You need to make sure to provide a real incentive to move, that your overwatches will not be disabled before the unit moves, and also that the unit providing the “pressure” to move can’t be dealt with easily. It helps if the overwatches are not seen by the opponent in order to achieve this, otherwise your “plan” can be noticed by your opponent. Sharpshooters can accomplish this, for instance.

For “pressure”, or “incentive” to make the opponent move, the best unit has to be the Archon when using the blazing pinions ability, since they are harder to hit in the air and if the units don’t move, they take serious damage (around 6-8, I believe) and the explosions destroy cover, so units hit by them will be left exposed and vulnerable. Also, the pinions, of course, disable any overwatch. For extra protection on the Archon you can also use the full-proof Psi Op’s “stasis” ability or the Specialists’ “aid protocol”. The pressure can also be less aerial, but still serious, depending on the situation. For instance, if your “pressurer” can get to full cover close enough to potentially flank next turn, and not at much risk (difficult to imagine, I know, but I'm thinking primarily of explosives or maybe psi abilities), you can just do that, since if the opponent doesn't move, you will try and flank that unit, which is a real danger. This is best accomplished with units that can hunker down (+30 defense, +50 dodge), or supported by, again, stasis or aid protocol. Obviously, don’t risk it if you know your guy is taking an explosive, the hunker down only apply when the unit is in cover. The best unit for this is the Ranger, since the flank is the most dangerous, but any XCOM soldier will shoot well if flanking (other than the sniper, if he’s moving).

You can use this with the reverse goal in mind, which is “pinning” the enemy unit. That is when you want to incentivise your opponent’s unit not to move and “escape”, because you want to engage them next turn with some closer unit. This works, again, only if your “pressurer” can be close and still be relatively safe to survive until next turn. Imagine, for instance, an identical situation with a Sharpshooter in the back, you put him on overwatch because you have low % to hit, but you have another unit close threatening to move up next turn.

Regardless of your “goal”, the idea is to create a situation for your opponent it is “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”: he will be penalized whether he moves or not, and you can reap the benefits either way. Ideally, if they move they get “overwatched”, if they don’t, you move in and flank next turn. With all the caveats I mentioned and possibly even more.

This is another common mistake I see. IF one unit of yours can engage your opponent from where it is, should you move it up and engage, or should that unit just stay where it is and engage from there? It’s not like it can’t shoot from where it is... Usually, I think the best option is not move it up, because why should you risk running into overwatches and advancing units into riskier positions, where they can be seen by more enemy units? The answer to this depends on a case by case basis, though. If you can have a really impactful attack because you move in, say, by getting in range of using an explosive to blow up enemy cover and expose and kill an enemy unit, you should consider the risk, otherwise I think maybe not, because remember that getting closer means it will be easier for your opponent to crack back at you.

The ideal engagement situation is one where you can kill your opponent’s unit(s) that would be able to attack you without moving next turn. If you accomplish this, you will usually force your opponent to use move + shoot or move + ability to engage you, which takes away some actions from your opponent, generally making for a less powerful attack on his part. For instance, if your opponent’s Officer needs to move to engage you, it will only be able to either shoot, use mark target or throw grenade, whereas if it can stay where it is, he can do both mark target and then either shoot or throw a grenade, which is worse for you. The same can be said for other units where one move means potentially one less action, like the Viper (can spit poison, then shoot), the Demo Experts (one move is one less explosive fired), Specialists (first action could be aid protocol), Sectopod (one move is one less shot, they can do up to 3 shots) and, to a less extent, the Sharpshooters (can’t move and shoot the sniper rifle in the same turn, but since they have squadsight and can grapple, it’s more complicated than that). Also, in general, if the enemy is further away, they will have a harder time getting in range for melee attacks, of which the most dangerous is the Chryssalid slash, but don’t forget about the Rangers’ blades either.

Again, remember that this considerations are only for IF your unit is in range to attack. If it’s out of range it’s another topic, that I will discuss next.

Unlike in the days of the first XCOM single player campaign, when the enemy got a free move after being spotted and thus you were incentivised to always have some units on overwatch (namely snipers) before moving up, I don’t think that’s the best way to go about it in XCOM 2 multiplayer. As always, this depends a little bit on your squad, but the most egregious example of this is to camp on your spawn the entire match. Not only does it make for a bad match for either player, but also it usually doesn’t work. Why? Because there are multiple ways in which your opponent can counter that. If he’s playing right, he will be moving up with his scouts first and will eventually find your position. Sure, you can get 1 or 2 “free” kills off overwatches on low HP “scout” units but, after that, your opponent will most likely realize what you are doing and respond unit using the best that he has from his/her squad.

This is very closely related to the various ways there is to disable and evade overwatches, as discussed above, but it goes deeper than that. I’ve found that in XCOM 2 multiplayer matches I got the best results when I was in control of the match, I had the initiative, I was making things happen according to my design and the optimal way my squad could perform, you know, “executing my plan/strategy”, rather than staying put, overwatching, being passive. To get this concept more tangible to you, you need only realize that an overwatch is just a shot, whereas during your turn you have a vast array of abilities and units at your disposal, and you can usually take a sequence of actions that will have better results than just shoot with your gun. A very easy example is that you can move up a unit, throw a grenade to expose an enemy unit, and then follow up with shots from your other units at that exposed target and kill it. It is a much more “definite” attack than staying back and relying on overwatch, which depends on whether your opponent moves at all, how many overwatches you get and how many hit. This is also why it is important to have a good squad that works well together and that has a plan/strategy.

Examples of this can usually be seen on my videos, but I would highlight the following ones:

• #3 - where yes, my opponent had a good initial defense, but stayed back too much giving me enough time and space for me to outmanoeuvre him eventually
  
• #4 - where simply by evading and then disabling an overwatch on his most powerful unit lead to a complete blowout
  
• #12 - where my opponent caught me completely off guard in the beginning of the match, but didn’t continue to apply meaningful pressure, which allowed me to recover and come back
  
• #14 - where my opponent was really defensive the entire match, which allowed me to slowly and carefully grind him out

In all these matches I eventually won because for the majority of the match I was in control, I was able to execute my plan, I wasn't simply “reacting”, neither was I just waiting.

Also, as I mentioned in the “Early game / first encounter” section, you want to to reach good positions for your units, ones that will give you an advantage and play to your squad’s strengths. If you stay back camping all the time, most likely your opponent will manoeuvre him/herself to the best position he/she can be in order to attack you.

This ties in directly with my previous section. A good example of this can be seen on my video #14, at around 10 mins and 13 secs.

Sometimes, you will want to sacrifice a unit that is already damaged and would be too much work and risk to try an save and, instead, just make the most that you can out of it. This will accomplish two things: first, instead of risking trying to run away, only to potentially die anyway and, thus, “waste” actions, you do some work with your unit, ideally killing a unit or even doing some damage; second, at the end of your turn you effectively “offer” your unit as “bait” to your opponent, and, thus make it so they spend at least one action on them, which is at least one less action they have available for your other units. This may not seem like much, but adding up a bunch of seemingly “little” advantages like these during a match really adds up to a tangible advantage and contribute to your winning the match.

Of course, this is much more viable to do with less important units like Officers or “scouts”, in general. In the example of #14, by not running away and engaging my enemy, I was able to use one grenade and expose one of my opponent’s units, eventually killing it with the help of the squad, and made it so that my opponent could only engage that weakened unit, leaving one of his other units in a good position for me to attack next turn, in an almost “pinning”-like situation.

If, however, the unit is more valuable and you can escape and live to fight another day, you should probably do it. Check out my #12 video: at around 09:28 my sniper takes a rocket from out of nowhere, and a little later a sniper shot, but was able to move back, get back up into height advantage later in the match and do some real work. Of course it was able to do so because it was much further away from the enemy as was the case in the previous situation with the officer.

I could see a situation, much closer to the enemy, where you could not escape and, so, I think it would be best to try and deal as much damage as possible before dying.

Lastly, I remember a portuguese proverb that says “quem vai à guerra dá e leva”, which means something along the lines of “he who goes to war hits and gets hit”. What I mean to say is that it is ok to take some damage and pay some price in order to be able to damage and eventually kill enemy units, you can’t expect to win with all your units pristine unless your opponent plays very badly. The name of the game is to take reasonable losses in order to deal more damage than that you’re dealt with. Remember that it’s last man standing wins, you need only one unit to live to win a match.

Be mindful of low ammo or any negative effects affecting your units and be open to take a turn to get ready for the next couple of turns IF you are given a chance and/or aren't being pressured too much. Usually, you will not be able to keep applying pressure to your opponent if you will need to reload very soon. The sniper, for instance, can’t use his sniper unless he reloads, and the grenadiers can’t use their more powerful abilities if they don’t have their ammo full. If the opponent has some unit hunkered down or under aid protocol (bonus defense) or stasis (immunity) or if one of your units is burning or disoriented (lower aim, can’t use abilities or overwatch), you aren’t in the best position for an attack. Also, sometimes you find yourself in a situation where your position is not very good, and you REALLY need to move out in order to effectively engage.

In all these situations, if you have the advantage, think about taking a turn to reload, reposition, etc, in order to be ready for continuing the attack next turn. If you are at a disadvantage, seriously consider dashing back your most important units to positions where they can “turn around” and better attack your opponent, while leaving one “pawn” as bait and “sacrifice”, really, to prevent a faster enemy advancement. Of course, there’s only so much you can do if you get completely overwhelmed.

I’d like to point to my video #3 where I had a bad start and had to retreat with some units and then took advantage of the space the opponent gave me to reposition my sniper, my key unit, to a place where he could engage much better, where, meanwhile, my other units stayed back and held their ground.

Again, if your opponent isn't being proactive, it gives you time and space to recover, which is another way of seeing why being proactive is better.

These are smaller things that don't merit sections individually, but it's still important to know them and it's easier to forget them than you might think, and can really make a difference if you forget about them.

• 1 - If you aren’t moving but are shooting your gun, remember to reload first, even if you have like half a clip left. You never know when those extra shots will be needed, and it’s a free reload anyway.
  
  
• 2 - Remember you can (and probably should) use your Officers “mark target” ability before shooting enemy units. Sometimes I get excited and shoot asap, only to miss and regret that I didn’t mark the target before.
  
  
• 3 - I mentioned this already, but move your “scout” or otherwise most advanced unit first. This way, if you detect the opponent you have all your other units available to use and can decide how best to use them. Don’t immediately overwatch after each move, because you can find yourself finding your opponent in an unexpected position with your last move and a bunch of useless overwatches that will do nothing. Better to wait and user overwatch at the very end of the turn when you’re sure there’s nothing better to do.
  
  
• 4 - Try and think during your opponent’s turn in order to save some time during your turn. There is a limit to this, of course, since you get new information during your opponent’s turn, and also during your own, but the point is you should never run out of time in your turn. Each action you “miss” is an advantage you give to your opponent, one opportunity less to deal damage or even kill an enemy unit.
  
  
• 5 - Don’t be too hasty when you get the turn passed to you, lest you don’t take the best moves. You can perhaps cycle through all your units with the TAB key to get a better overall perspective on the battlefield and perhaps you’ll subconsciously immediately realize how to make the best use of your units that turn.
  
  
• 6 - In direct relation to the previous paragraph, consider your units’ abilities and the best sequence to use them: you don’t want to fire your sniper rifle and miss a shot only to throw a grenade later and expose the enemy target, for instance. Or also you don’t want to slash with your chryssalid and then realize that if you use gateway you’ll damage your own chryssalid with it. Stuff like that.
  
  
  
• 7 - On abilities with cooldown, consider using them as soon as possible in order for the cooldown to pass and allow you to use them again when it’s still relevant. Of course, their usage needs to be pertinent, but for instance, when I’m running a Gatekeeper, I try to use the Gateway as soon as possible, so that I can potentially use it a few turns later where it can still be important. With the Psi Operative, I like to make use of all his abilities, to kind of maximize his value, so I’m usually not shooting or overwatching with him/her. Of course, which ability to use depends on the squad, plan and situation.
  
  
• 8 - This is especially important in the early game, after the first turn: if you don’t see your opponent at all, expect overwatches and move slow and carefully, into the blue area and into full cover, and first with “scouts”. No point in dashing in, having a unit take lots of damage and have nothing to do with it (since it dashed) or, worse, immediately die.
  
  
• 9 - Don’t give clues about your squad in the squad’s name, since the opponent can see that. You can also engage in some bluffing and counter bluffing using that, which can be fun. For more information about this, check out FireWaterGasoline’s videos, who is the master at this art ;)

I'm really sad that real life happened and I wasn't able to finish this guide before the MP rebalance, as it would have been even more useful then. Also, unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to play much XCOM 2 after the MP rebalance, so I won't be able to properly explore the new XCOM 2 MP world and adjust this guide appropriately where needed. However, as I mentioned, most of the stuff is conceptual and can be applied regardless of the particular minutiae of the units, their costs and damage output ranges.

I hope this guide was helpful or useful to you in some way.

As I'm not able to finish this guide properly, and even if I was, I'm more than welcome to allow other people to expand on it. If you're interested, comment here or PM me on Steam.

Things that I feel should be expanded / completed:

• Overall adjustment of unit prices, stats, damage range, etc, to put them in accordance with the new MP rebalance
  
• Expand the "Identifying main enemy threats" section, regarding how to evaluate what is more important to attack from your opponent and also key units that must be dealt with immediately and why
  
• More detail on how exactly psi attacks work (regarding will or otherwise)
  
• For each unit, ways to best use them and to counter (i.e. grenade vs chryssalid burrow, gateway to disable overwatches + chryssalid slash, etc.)
  
• List of actions that don't end the turn for some units

Some of these could even warrant new separate guides, for instance, one detailing exhaustively every unit's stats, abilities, ideas on how to use them and how to counter them.