XCOM: Chimera Squad is a bite-sized taste of XCOM tactical action that still takes a whole lot of strategy if you want to outflank the always-evolving opposition. Your team of anti-terror operatives unlock totally unique abilities, and figuring out how to combine all that new stuff can be a pretty big task. After playing the game all weekend, I’ve discovered some of my absolute favorite, borderline unfair abilities and weapon combos — and there’s some amazing stuff to discover.
Some of these abilities can be missing; if you don’t select specific characters as you progress through the campaign, you’ll miss them for that playthrough. You only get a limited amount of party members, and as they rank up, they’ll have to choose between certain valuable abilities. If you’re not sure which abilities to select, or what items to equip, I’ve got a few ideas below.
More XCOM guides on Gameranx:
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – 11 Expansion Starter Tips | Instantly Unlock Hero Units With Advanced Options | Research, Weapons & Items List
[Work-in-Progress: I’m still playing through the campaign, so I’ll add more killer combos as they’re discovered!]
Any Assault Rifle Character – Banish + Superior Extended Magazine + Advanced Laser Sight + A.P. Rounds
The ‘Impetuous Spire’ Epic Assault Rifle grants you the Banish Ability. This ability can be used 1x per turn, and fires your weapon until you run out of ammo.
Equip the weapon with the Superior Expended Magazine and Advanced Laser Sight weapon mods to instantly kill any boss. They’re completely helpless against your ungodly onslaught of damage. The Advanced Laser Sight and A.P. Rounds are optional, but they’re great for increasing critical chance and for punching through armored foes.
Patchwork – Chaining Jolt + Voltaic Arc + Shock Therapy
Patchwork is an ungodly powerful character if you unlock Voltaic Arc and Shock Therapy. Voltaic Arc is an ability that automatically zaps anyone that gets close to Patchwork — or if she gets close to them. It also applies chain-lightning. It works on everything, including Vipers that attempt to pull and bind you.
This power only does 1 damage, but when combined with Shock Therapy, she becomes an ultimate crowd controller. This makes all of her zapping abilities abilities like Chaining Jolt and Voltaic Arc apply Disorient or Stun. That means you can apply chaining jolts to multiple groups of enemies in one turn. Add Terminal’s Cooperation ability, and you can potentially stun entire encounters single-handedly.
Terminal – Refresh + Medi-patch + Resilience + Second Wind
Terminal is the ultimate support player. With Resilience, she’ll rarely need to heal herself — she’ll automatically heal fully at the end of every encounter, and her healing drone can always apply +4 health once per turn. Combine that with Refresh / Medipatch so you can heal your entire breaching team +2 between encounters, and she’s a very helpful trooper.
It’s important to know that while Refresh / Medipatch are 1x use per mission, they do not replace your normal shooting action on a breach. She can still shoot even after healing. Her drone also allows her to hack into keypad doors, making her one of the most useful support characters in the game.
Verge – Crowdsource + Mindflay + Network Healing + Puppeteer
Verge is another absurdly useful character that can control the flow of battle with his Neural Network. Crowdsource gives Verge buffs for every enemy tagged in his network — for every enemy you use Stupor or Battle Madness on, they’ll become part of your network. Most of the time, there’s no reason to move Verge after a breach; just have him stay put and use Stupor and Battle Madness on as many enemies as possible.
This will do damage (Battle Madness causes enemies to shoot each other) and controls enemies by stunning them. You’ll also heal +1 HP for every enemy in the network, so you won’t even need to heal with Network Healing unlocked. Finally, if you’ve caught 3-4 active enemies, you can unleash Puppeteer to suddenly turn the tide of battle. Now all the living enemies on your network will flip sides — you’ll Mind Control them, so they’re your’s to use.
Claymore – Shrapnel Bomb + Shock Grenade
Here’s a simple combo that’s incredibly useful for one reason — you can destroy cover, detonate a powerful bomb, hurt multiple enemies, and stun / disorient all in a single turn. Throwing grenades is a free action, and even non-lethal grenades can set off Claymore’s Shrapnel Bomb instantly.
You can replace Shock Grenade with Flashbangs, Frag Grenades, or anything else you might want. They’re all great, but I recommend weapons that can disable enemies instead of outright killing them. Shock will stun for two turns, while Disorient makes you enemies worse at shooting, but doesn’t seem to change their abilities too much.
Claymore – Sticky Grenade + Overwatch
A hilarious (and powerful) combination, Claymore’s Sticky Grenade sticks permanently to enemies, and forces them to immediately fall back. They’ll retreat from cover, and activate any Overwatch you might have. If you’ve just breached a room and have free Overwatch, you can easily down any enemy with a single Sticky Grenade.
Godmother – Close Combat Specialist + Advanced Laser Sight + Superior Expanded Magazine / Superior Auto-Loader
Close Combat Specialist is a godsend for any shotgunner, and you’ll have to level up Godmother to gain access to it. Any enemy that tries to enter an adjacent space will get a full blast of buckshot. For this to work completely, you’ll want to equip your shotgun with extra ammo or an Auto-Loader so you can reload as a Free Action.
Adding an Advanced Laser Sight makes Godmother even better — since you’re already planning on shooting jerks from point blanc range, might as well give yourself a Crit Bonus. Provide Godmother with a Kinetic Shield and Terminal’s +Dodge GREMLIN, and Godmother is practically invincible.
That’s all the combos we’ve found (and loved) so far. Check back soon for new entries!
