Hi this is Tapcat and today I want to talk
to you about how to build up your base in XCOM 2! When you come back from your first mission
and get to see the Avenger for the first time, you will have an opportunity to start building
right away. And there's generally going to be an open
spot somewhere on the top row that's available to you. So, the question is what do you want to build
first and when. The first improvement that I would make to
your Avenger is building the Guerilla Tactics School. Now, what is that going to do for you? Well, for starters, once you have a soldier
that makes the rank of Sergeant, you can buy a squad size upgrade so that instead of bringing
four soldiers on each mission you can bring five. And once you get your first Captain, you can
upgrade again to six. But there's a number of other upgrades as
well and some of them are very useful. For example, one will give an experience bonus
for every single one of your soldiers on every mission. So it will take you fewer kills to get them
promoted. Another benefit of the GTS is that you can
put a rookie in there and train them for a number of days and then when they get out
they will no longer be a rookie. You get to choose which class they'll be. So, if you need a ranger or a grenadier or
whatever you can make that happen. And if you've ever been desperately short
on one class, and seen rookie after rookie get promoted on the battlefield into something
you didn't need, you'll understand the value of being able to pick exactly what path they're going to walk down. So, GTS is #1. When should you start building it? I prefer to start as soon as I get back from that first mission. Because you can buy the squad size upgrade as soon as you get your first sergeant, and because it doesn't take that long to get that sergeant it's useful to have it as soon as you can. The next thing that you're going to want to build is the Advanced Warfare Center. This you will not be able to start right away... because you're going to need to clear debris and you have to recruit an engineer before you can even start that. Once you've cleared the debris, you can then start building the AWC. So, why do you want an AWC? The biggest advantage is, it cuts the healing time for wounded soldiers in half. And considering that a gravely wounded soldier can be in the hospital for more than 40 days of game-time, this is really important. And, I guess I would just say that it matters somewhat depending on your level of expertise. If you're so good on the battlefield that you rarely have people getting wounded, then you can put a lower priority on this. But, otherwise, no. You want it as soon as you can get it. Because, otherwise, what you'll find is that all of the soldiers in your armory are wounded and it's difficult to even put a team together for each mission. The other purpose that this building serves is that you can put in a veteran soldier and un-train them. Essentially, it's a free respec. Now, it does take a certain number of days, I think it's 10, but then they still keep their rank. You get to promote them back up again. And this time, you can choose new abilities. Let's say you chose Blast Padding for your grenadier instead of shredder. That would be an opportunity to fix it. And this is really useful in any instance where you feel like you're not happy with a soldier's build. Finally, the AWC also will grant each one of your soldiers a random bonus ability from one of the other classes. For example, in one campaign I had a specialist that got shredder and in the next, a specialist with holo-targeting. Those were two really useful abilities that made each of them more valuable on the battlefield than they would normally have been. One reason I like building the AWC early is that the game predetermines the rank at which your soldier will receive that ability. If you don't build the AWC until after that soldier has passed that rank, you will not get it. Ever. That soldier will simply not receive a bonus ability at all. So, the sooner you build it the less chance there is that you'll have some soldiers cheated out of that bonus. With those two out of the way, the next thing you'll have to build is a Power Relay. Because you will not have adequate power available to build anything else until you do that. You're going to need to start the Power Relay, and when that's done you won't have any choice but to go straight into Resistance Comms. By this point in the game, you will probably have used up all of your resistance contacts and you're going to need capacity for more. Otherwise, you're really going to constrict your funding and also your ability to get to the alien facilities as they appear on the map. So, those two are really not optional. This is as late as you can put them off. One last note on these, not only can you staff an engineer to increase the power output or the number of contacts you can make with the resistance but each of these two allows one upgrade so that you can staff a second engineer and get even more. So building just one power relay, for example, can take you through most of the game. With those out of the way, Your next priority is going to be either a Proving Grounds or a Workshop. My preference is to do a Proving Grounds as soon as possible because it allows you to unlock things like Plasma Grenades and Experimental Ammo that are very helpful on the battlefield. Also, the Skulljack is needed to move forward the story of the game. Unfortunately, if you're short of engineers and you're finding it difficult to man the buildings such as Power Relays or clearing debris out to build your next thing then you're going to need a workshop. There's just no way around that. Basically, prioritize Proving Grounds first if you're doing okay on engineers and if not then you have no choice but to hit the Workshop first. Believe it or not, at this point you'll have built almost everything that you need to in the game. The Shadow Chamber is the one remaining essential piece of the puzzle. Once you're able to unlock that by progressing enough in the story, you will have to build that to finish the game. There are other things you can build. There's a defense matrix and I don't recommend it because it is only used one time in the Avenger defense mission. It's not a bad thing to do it, but I personally feel like I never have enough resources to spend on something like that while it still matters In comparison to things that will help me in a lot more situations The Psi Lab will allow you to train psionic soldiers. I think psionic soldiers are fantastic. The problem with the Psi Lab is that by the time you can build it and then get your psionic soldiers on missions, it comes too late in the game. You'll rarely be able to be able to bring a fully trained and promoted psionic soldier on the last mission unless you really extend the campaign. Personally, I'm not into that. But, I will say, as a one-time thing, you can definitely have a lot of fun playing a psionic soldier. A laboratory is another thing you can build and they're great because they help speed up research The problem, again, is that especially on Legend difficulty it takes so long to build any one of these that building a lab will keep you from building something else in that same time period. Because if you put something off, like Resistance Comms, you're going to retard your ability to make more money each month To get to alien facilities and stop the Doom Clock. Things that are critical to you having a chance to win. And speeding up your research a little bit is nice but you could literally lose the game doing that instead of something else that's truly critical. So, if you have extra manpower in engineering and you're able to clear an extra space and you can do it without sacrificing higher priorities... that's great. But don't put off any of these other things for the sake of a Laboratory. We've talked a lot about when to build which improvements But another thing to consider is where to put them in the Avenger In particular, the Workshop should be put in the center square that you see in the graphic. The reason for that is when you staff it with an engineer that will allow two gremlins to go and staff an adjacent facility as if it were an engineer. But it can only do it for facilities that are above, below, left or right. You can't do it on the diagonal. It is not critical that every one of the four adjacent spots be taken by something than can use an engineer But I would say it's very important to get at least four slots worth of staffing in those positions For example, Resistance Comms will take two by the end of the game and so will the Power Relay. If you just manage to position those two where the gremlins can get to them, then you'll get full value out of your Workshop. All right, hopefully this video has been of some help to you. 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