Combat with The Chosen | The Chosen XCOM 2: War of the Chosen Game Guide

Initially, fighting the chosen isn't particularly difficult, but this will change in due time.

Fighting the Chosen is possibly the greatest challenge the expansion offers (perhaps even the whole XCOM series). There are various reasons for that, the most outstanding one being their sheer power on the battlefield - they deal massive damage, are able to neutralize a few soldiers at once and command powerful psionic abilities that enable them to summon even over a dozen enemies. Another factor is that with each week of game time, they become more powerful; also, you can never be sure whether they'll appear on the battlefield - the only way to be sure of that is if you see one rampaging your troops. As you might remember from the chapter above, there are three Chosen ones: the Assassin, the Hunter and the Warlock.

• Available Strengths of the Chosen
• Available Weaknesses of the Chosen
• The Assassin
• The Hunter
• The Warlock

Available Strengths of the Chosen

You can peep the Strengths and Weakness of the Chosen during a fight.

Each of them can chose a maximum of five Strengths - the available choices have been listed below. They begin with only two, but in time they will get the remaining three. Remember that some of these are more probable to occur with one of the Chosen, while the others are very unlikely - it all depends on their style.

Available Weaknesses of the Chosen

Every Chosen receives two weaknesses at the beginning of the game, but contrary to the above, the number of weaknesses doesn't increase in time. Below, you can look up the available weaknesses.

The Assassin

The Assassin's status.

The Assassin is the first Chosen to be encountered in the game. She's particularily dangerous on short distance, and in this respect, she's similar to the Hunter class - she also uses a sword and shotgun combination. She's also moving a lot, which allows her to cover huge portions of the map within a single turn. Here the similarities end, and the differences begin.

The Assassin's camouflage is active during movement - until she disengages it, the player is unable to know where she is (unless you manage to track her; bear with us). She also has the Shadowstep Ability by default, which renders the Vigilance Ability useless. Then, when she approaches a player's soldier, she'll attack with the sword, often stun the soldier, and retreat. This stun is meant to prepare the soldier to be abducted - she can appear next to him, abduct the poor soul and exit the battlefield.

You should keep the following rules in mind when facing the Assassin:

1. Don't ever use the Vigilance ability - she doesn't activate these attacks, so you'll just lose points.
2. She's always in camouflage, but you are able to track her down by placing any unit nearby (just as in the case of aliens revealing your units during the concealment), or by using the scanner. Remember, however, that she won't get revealed until the soldier moves - even if the soldier is two tiles away.
3. She has two ways of stunning your soldiers. Either by using the sword, or grenades. She uses the latter for clusters of enemies. She can then abduct the stunned soldier and flee the battlefield. You should consider using the Specialist's abilities to bring the stunned ally round.
4. The best strategy is to place the whole team out in the open and waiting out a few turns until the enemy appears there. In the meantime, you can use abilities/items for scanning, or move the soldiers 1 tile in order to increase the chances of revealing her. Once she's compromised, you need only a couple attacks to get rid of her.
5. Don't never ever fight the Assassin in the vicinity of groups of enemies. Try to eliminate regular enemies before facing her.
6. If you own the Alien Hunters expansion, you can use the Frost Grenade/Frost Bomb) - it freezes the enemy for two turns, which lets you get rid of her easily.

The Hunter

The Hunter status screen.

The second of the three Chosen is the Hunter - the counterpart of a sniper. He is, however, much more efficient - his abilities and guns allow him to reach targets on the far end of the map just to fire a shot that has a great possibility if instakill in the next turn. As you can guess, this enemy fights at long distance and uses a hook rope to get around the map levels. All this makes him a formidable enemy, particularly if he's far away, behind a front of his own soldiers.

You should keep the following rules in mind when facing the Hunter:

1. He can literally get you from the other end of the map, but not without preparation - it takes one full turn for him to get an aim; he fires in the following turn. The possible countermeasures are these: break the line of sight (by hiding behind a big object, for example) - in such case you're safe; or by increasing the soldier's defense, which increases the changes of avoiding getting hit. The latter can be done by ditching the soldier behind full cover, ordering them to crouch, using the Specialist's abilities or a smoke grenade. These are possible ways of preventing high casualties.
2. The enemy can also make a regular attack, without aiming. This requires the target to be closer and deals less damage, but you should try to be behind at least a half-cover anyway.
3. Remember that he has a hook rope - consider the possibility of getting outflanked.
4. Despite the Hunter being deadly at long distance, he also has no reservations from attacking at close distance, for which he uses his pistol (ignores up to 5 armor - this can mean losing even half HP).
5. Remember that as any Chose, the Hunter is also able to abduct your soldiers. First he stuns them, then he takes them (if you leave them unattended - you can use a Specialist, for example) and flees the battle.
6. If you own the Alien Hunters expansion, you can use the Frost Grenade/Frost Bomb) - it freezes the enemy for two turns, which lets you get rid of her easily.

The Warlock

The Warlock status screen.

The last member of this dream team is the Warlock. While he has a pretty powerful machine gun, he's real strength lies in the psonic powers. They allow him to summon most of the regular enemies to battle - different versions of the ADVENT, mechs (even Sectopides!) or beasts. Also - as any psonic unit in the game - he's able to take control over a soldier.

He also has two unique abilities. One of them allows him to summon 2 to 5 zombie-ghosts, which appear on the battlefield and approach the player's soldiers. Then they become armed - after one turn, or after getting killed, they explode, damaging nearby units. Oddly enough, the Hunter can use this ability throughout the whole map, even if the alien units have no vision on your soldiers. The other ability is kind of similar, but it summons specters of a couple ADVENT soldiers - they generate a shield for the enemy, which renders him immune to all attacks. The shield only disappears after all phantoms are vanquished.

You should keep the following rules in mind when facing the Warlock:

1. Remember that he'll try to pester you with his phantoms even without established eyesight.
2. Don't cluster your units - the Warlock has access to a powerful area attack that will get many units.
3. If you know you're going to fight him, make sure your soldiers have items that offer some defense from psi abilities (limiting control), or to have your own, skilled psi warrior - this will dramatically reduce the Warlock's efficiency.
4. Don't leave him with around 20% of health points, because then he's able to use the ADVENT phantoms summon skill, which will grant him a shield, effectively preventing you from killing him. If you cannot finish him in a single turn, get his health down to around 50% and wait until the other turn to definitely do him in.
5. If he summons zombies and they become armed - distance yourself from them before exterminating the creatures; this will let you avoid damage.
6. If you own the Alien Hunters expansion, you can use the Frost Grenade/Frost Bomb) - it freezes the enemy for two turns, which lets you get rid of her easily.