Suggested Squad The Bureau Guide

Engineers become useful at the end of the game.

There is no optimal set of squad members in this game: their skills complement one another in such a way that every combination seems to be interesting. The only thing you should avoid is to have two identical agents, e.g. two commandos or engineers in one squad. Such team isn't to flexible and universal. You will meet very different enemies in the game, so the number of options that you have, should be rather wide.

Below you can find a set which seems to be the most effective and offering the biggest number of tactical options. It doesn't mean that this is the only one right: the game is made for you to made experiments. So the hints below should be treated rather like suggestions.

Critical Strike is super.

Team without a recon isn't a team. This agent is perfect for all types of enemies and his Critical Strike let him eliminate immediately Silacoids, Sectoids, Drones and Outsiders. On the third level you also gets a useful ability, Diversion, thanks to which he can drag enemies out from Carter and his squad. He also gets Fire Mission, the most powerful ability in the game, which allows you to eliminate whole groups of enemies. This combination is deadly, but has one drawback: recon is easy to kill, so you have to keep him away from the direct battle. To do so, the best choice is to have a commandos.

Plasma Field is better than a grenade.

The main role of commandos is to keep aliens away from recon and Carter. He has a lot of HP and is tougher than the two of them. He doesn't deal a lot of damage, but he has two very useful abilities: Taunt and Plasma Field. The first one lets you lure out enemies from behind covers and the other one eliminates whole groups of enemies. This combination is especially deadly, when Carter has sniper rifle or blaster launcher. Thanks to that he can eliminate even the strongest enemies taunted by commandos.

Fire Mission wins all.

Combination with recon and commandos seems to be the most effective also because other classes don't offer too much at the first levels of experience. The best ability of engineer, Laser Turret is available not before the fourth level, what happens very late in the game. Support agents are focused on defence so they increase survivality of the team but don't deal any damage.

The remarks below don't cross out engineers and support agents from any squad, but combination recon + commandos seems to be most profitable.