Recently, I finished my first campaign on Long War Rebalance, and I wanted to share my thoughts. I played on classic difficulty and am looking forward to starting a brutal campaign in the near future.
Second Wave Options:
Supersoldiers:
The most crucial one I utilized. In my headcanon, Xcom is desperate enough that they are willing to try anything. Gene mod psions, psionic officers, you name it. I think the original limitation on these abilities is arbitrary and unintuitive for the storyline. Plus, 100+ will psionic troops, anyone?
New Economy:
I regret using this one. I normally have it on in vanilla just for variety, but this honestly just ended up screwing me over by putting the best econ countries on the worst continents.
Commanders Choice:
I really like this option as it feels like what would happen in an actual military. In real life people don’t go to sniper school because they want to; they go because they show aptitude. I enjoy specializing my soldiers, not having a rag-tag team of low-aim snipers/scouts and high-aim assaults.
Fresh Recruits:
I like randomization, nuff said.
Recon:
This might be bugged, or I just don’t understand what it means. It says it shows bomb nodes and meld nodes in the fog, but I still couldn’t see them until they were unveiled.
Base Location:
For this run I chose the United States with the We Have Ways perk. This allowed me to skip lasers and jump from ballistic to gauss weapons reasonably painlessly. I still will likely try and skip lasers in future playthroughs even without the research buff though, I just don’t value the higher crit chance enough to spend the resources.
Air Defense:
First step: Cry. Seriously though, Air War is a LOT better in LWR than in base game or LW. LWR uses squadrons, meaning multiple interceptors can be sent against the Aliens. The progression for weapons I used was: Stingray Missles -> Pheonex Cannons -> Pheonex/laser mix -> Pheonix/EMP mix -> Plasma -> Plasma/Fusion. Avalanch missiles are useless and I tend to favor penetration over flat-out damage as higher-tier aliens are heavily armored. Country defense is also important to Air War, as higher defense means the aircraft sent by the country the battle is being fought over is better.
Biosoldiers:
Assault:
The crown jewel of the early/mid-game and a solid class into the later stages of the campaign. The assault class is a damage powerhouse that can eliminate threats throughout the entire game, especially biological enemies. They struggle a bit toward the end against mechanical targets but make up for that by being one of the best officepsionic classes in the game due to their nature of often having leftover AP at the end of their turn.

• Builds: I prefer WtS or Grenadier to RnG as they have more utility. RnG can be good and fun, but unless it is a soft target, I generally don’t like the risk of leaving my assault deep in enemy lines over the end turn.

Gunner:
I usually take two of these on every mission. In the early game, they are a godsend against thin men, and even in the late game, suppression can be devastating against certain enemies. They also happen to be possibly the best overwatch class in the game outside of gene mods or psionics (inner fire), and if you can get a high-will gunner, you can get a ridiculous amount of reaction shots each turn (I got four with psionics and an additional fifth shot with gene mods on my best gunner.)

• Builds: I like Sentinel or Mayhem. WtS is generally not a skill I value outside infantry and assaults, as those two tend to take the most shots other than SHIVS or MECHS. I didn’t use Sentinel in the early game, but I think it would also be strong there (I was still learning the new mechanics and was unsure about overwatch).

Infantry:
The premium biotank, but also my second favorite grenadier (behind assaults), I really enjoyed using infantry. I did sometimes find it difficult to find a place for them on my team with two gunners, a medic, an assault, and often times a mechanized unit or two, but I definitely enjoyed using them. I am interested in testing out and experimenting with infantry more when I do my brutal run.

• Builds: WtS or Grenadier. I don’t really value the sentinel builds for infantry, gunners simply do the job better, but I think there is some utility there to explore. The biotank infantry can withstand several hits and still dishes out decent dps every turn.

Rocketeer:
Only good when in immense danger; I generally didn’t like/use the Rocketeer. This is especially true because Rocketeer stats want high HP and I typically saved those soldiers for my biotank Infantry or Assaults. I think Rocketeers are fun, explosions are cool after all, but I genuinely don’t think they are all that effective. Javelin Rockets have the highest shred, which is nice, but after firing a rocket it takes several turns for the Rocketeer to be able to fire another and by then the fight will hopefully be mostly over.

• Builds: Light 'em Up or Grenadier are my preferred options. The support abilities simply aren’t as good as many other classes get and I want my rocketeers actually contributing to damage mainly. The big issue though is that I simply feel any other damage class is simply better at the role than the Rocketeer with the exception of the rocket (an ability that I usually only was able to use once per mission).

Sniper:
Extremely situational and often only shining in dire situations, I often preferred other classes to the sniper. Compared to vanilla, ITZ takes an entire turn just to come online and is significantly worse. I never tried Magnum, but it didn’t seem that good. Double tap was what I ended up using most of the time with a strike rifle sniper. I found that this was the best way to get sustained reliability out of the sniper and was most often what worked. Don’t get me wrong, ITZ is still strong when it comes into play, but I found it extremely rare.

• Builds: Double-tap strike rifle or ITZ sniper rifle. Magnum doesn’t seem that good to me because it is a completely single-target ability, and there are simply better options for that (MECH punch, RnG Assault, etc.)

Scout:
I really wanted to like this class, but it just doesn’t feel particularly strong. The identification of enemy pod locations is cool, but I generally prefer sending in mechanized units at the front to reveal pods. The best use of this class is to remove overwatch threats, a skill which it is really good at, but this decreases in value further in the game when you encounter multiple overwatches per turn, and it can only clear one or two of them at best when facing four or five. There also tend to be better ways to deal with overwatch, such as smoke and mirrors.

• Builds: The only things I could get mileage out of were bullseye, snapshot, and impact. Hit and run I simply don’t like as an ability for any unit. Smoke and mirrors is a great ability, but if I’m bringing a support unit with it, its going to be a medic or engineer rather than a scout.

Engineer:
One of the two essential classes for hard missions (the other one being medic) this class helps keep your mechanized units in the fight and supports the rest of the team through various abilities. The best use of the engineer comes in terror missions and other Chrysalid encounters due to their ability to remove corrosion after movement. This ability is also good against thin men (the other biggest source of corrosion), but it is mission-critical against the damn bugs from hell.

• Builds: I prefer double-tap hollow rounds, but I also made a few support grenade engineers as well. I didn’t find much use for the sapper grenadier for destructive power, though, and found that other destructive grenade classes typically performed better.

Medic:
Often also my heavy psionic classes, I bring medics on almost every mission (save late-game abductions, which I know will be a cakewalk). You hope to never use them, but being without one when you need them is a tragedy that lost me at least two soldiers in my campaign.

• Builds: I strongly prefer going all right side with smoke and mirrors, combat drugs, and surgical targeting. The overwatch sentinel build is viable, but I prefer my medics being full support rather than attempting to be a bit of both. The off-biotank build with WtS is easily the worst of the bunch as in comparison to other biotanks, it is simply not strong.

Mechanized Soldiers:
SHIVS:
I love SHIVS! These guys carry the early game and still pack quite a punch into the late game. In the final stages when every enemy and their dog gets antimechanized perks and abilities it can become dangerous to send them in seeing as they are less defensive than the mechs, but there is still a place on some missions. I especially love the ram ability, which is how I got most of my SHIV kills rather than the gun.
Goliath:
I can’t say much about the Goliath Mech (I got one killed the first mission I got it), but its skill line doesn’t appear all that intriguing to me. It is basically a unit that is meant to take a beating, but seeing as there is no way to guarantee an alien targets it, this doesn’t feel all that valuable. Worse than that, this Mech has the least amount of offensive power, something which I strongly value when it comes to a unit that requires an immense amount of resources to equip. I need to try this much more before I can write it off completely, but it just doesn’t seem as good as the others.
Shogun:
I built one of these and while it lasted significantly longer than the Goliath, it simply didn’t do as good as the other two classes. The main ability of this mech is to destroy cover, but as I said with the sapper, this simply isn’t an ability I strongly value. Worse, is that this ability takes the entire clip and, unless you want to take a lot of damage over the enemy turn, you have to move out of LoS for your second AP. This essentially means that this unit often has one turn where it is very useful before needing to spend an entire turn moving and reloading, unlike other mechs which are almost constantly doing something to improve Xcom’s chances.
Jaeger:
Arguably the most powerful of the mechs, this is my second favorite powerhouse on the field. Hunter allows this unit to enter a cloaked state a the beginning of each turn they have an enemy in sight. This allows them to sneak up close to the aliens and deal a devastating blow with either their main weapon or with their heavy weapons that receive a bonus from being hidden. This mech has the highest aim and is constantly taking out important targets every turn.
Marauder:
My favorite mech and what I got the most use out of every turn. If it can make it to an alien, this units special ability allows them to make a kinetic strike and then take another action, be it movement, shooting, or more. There were several levels where this mech got multiple kills every turn, especially when combined with the CCS ability from their level ups. I had three of these mechs at the end of my campaign and they were by far the best units I ended up fielding. I think you could theoretically get more out of the Jaeger, but the Marauder fits my playstyle (run up and punch the enemy to death) far better.
Special Abilities:
Officers:
First tier is weird as it is the least balanced of all of them. Stay Frosty feels almost entirely useless when compared to to strength in numbers. SIN gives officers an obscene amount of bonus will whereas SF only fives 0.6 mobility and 10% fatigue reduction for the squad. Honestly, it would probably require a 50% reduction and a +2 mobility bonus ot officers for it to even approach being comparable. I would only take SF if I was doing a worst choices only run.
On the captain tier I like both Cover Tactics and Cover Tenacity. Cover Tactics feels like it is slightly better due to how defense works on soldiers compared to DR, but I used both and they each feel useful.
For Major I only used tricks of the trade. Show ‘Em The Ropes feels like it comes to late to be really useful. By the time I even had Majors I didn’t have many soldiers that could benifit from SEtR. Swapping this with Stay Frosty (and giving SF a buff) is one thing I would recommend.
For my two Colonels, I chose natural leadership for even higher will psions, but I think Clutch Leadership certainly has potential (especially if paired with Gemany’s milatarization perk). I wanted to mind fray Ethereals though, so there's that.
My field commander went Comaraderie as I really like commanding officer and the proc chance is increased by 50%. Combined Arms sounds fine in theory, but I would struggle with picking it over Comaraderie. Commanding officer is simply too good and really aided me when it counted (temple ship).
Psionics:
Unfortunately, mind control is not an option in LWR. This isn’t crucial or anything, just means I will have to go back to vanilla for the stupid achievement that I’ve somehow never gotten. Aside from that, I like most of the psionic abilities, though some feel more useful than others. Having a really high will TK field psionic is crucial for late game missions. On my best psionic, I managed to nearly take out two sectopods with this ability alone. Inner fire, the ability next to TK field, is also really good depending on the soldier. On one of the furies, who I turned into a gunner, I managed to get 5 reaction shots per turn. Other than that, I like mixing and matching the lower tier abilities. Each of them can be useful depending on the situation and it doesn’t feel like there is a weak ability in the entire tree.
Gene Mods:
I only really spent meld on putting gene mods on soldiers who were reaction shot builds. I put a few second heart mods on my RnG assaults as they had a tendency to get shot a lot, but I focused most of my meld on Mechs or selling in the grey market for cash.
Missions:
Abductions:
One of the two bread and butter mission types (the other being UFO crashes) which you will experience constantly. I found these generally to be easy with the exception of some X Alien Pack missions where there are large numbers of specific species, typically difficult ones. I did a Floater pack (easy), two Muton packs (Painful without a mech for one of them), and for some reason a Seeker pack (which was just pain and suffering due to how annoying these mfs are).
Terror Missions:
Living up to their name, I wouldn’t even attempt one of these until you have an active mech. The first one can be managed seeing as it has fewer aliens than future Terror missions, but it is still a pain due to how outrageously horrible Chrysalids are in LWR. Once you have a mech though, these missions become a breeze.
Alien Base Assaults:
You have to do one of these missions for the storyline, but doing more of them is optional. I ended up doing 3 in order to retake a continent (Europe), though in hindsight I think I would have rather just done one and take a different second continent. They are not particularly difficult depending on pod locations, but I find the base assault tedious.
UFO Crash:
Like abductions, you will experience this a lot. I typically found these missions even easier than abductions, at least until the late game when you start encountering higher-tier ships.
UFO Landed:
Similar to the crash sites but more dangerous due to the aliens not having sustained damage.
Base Defence:
I only experienced one of these in my campaign, although I know from the wiki that it can happen more depending on alien resource/aggression levels. Overall this mission went fine and nobody was lost. I recommend trying as best as possible to keep the blue shirts
Aircraft Defense:
I never had this mission trigger in my game so I can’t comment on difficulty or strategy.
Exalt:
Both the data recovery and defense missions are easy. I really enjoy these as they were always a chaotic dash, but never truly something I was worried about.
Exalt HQ:
For as easy as the missions were, the HQ assault doesn’t pull punches. Seriously, do not attempt this mission without having the best gear you can. There are numerous elite enemies who all have plasma shields (the most annoying ability in the game besides mind control). I got toasted my first attempt before coming back with a vengeance to eventually beat them. Thankfully, the rewards for taking down the HQ are really nice, especially for psionics.
Temple Ship Assault:
To me was similar to vanilla. My psionics simply wiped the floor with the aliens.

So, I will just post a few short stories there that I found a long time ago on the Trench Crusade Patreon which ceased to exist.
​
The Beast in All
A short story about how the cult of the Beast spreads among Church soldiers in the trenches.
Related art: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/EVa5G8 / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/zADX2m / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/181V4X
The rain of ticks began not even five minutes after mass was concluded. The sky had looked fouler than usual all day: clouds like the swollen corpses of sheep rotting in a flooded pasture seethed as if maggots were writhing beneath their hide. Somewhere beyond the trench-scarred wasteland to the south, the garrison at Lindisfarne Crossroads was still burning a week after it had fallen to the Heretics, staining the eternal cloudcover with smoke poisoned by radioactivity and demonic corruption. Every day since, at both morning and evening services, Dolorous Company’s chaplains and Doctrinal Officers had been taking turns “encouraging” the dispirited troops by sermonizing on the glories of martyrdom and flogging any doughboy who did not display proper enthusiasm at the prospect. As the troops knelt in the mud around the company’s relic—a Mk. 2 “Seraphim” shell purportedly blessed by Saint Renselaer himself after the Third Reoccupation of the Holy City—they kept surreptitiously glancing at the sky, waiting for something horrid to come shitting down on them from above.
As they were trudging back to their bivouacs, the horror began.
At first the men thought the white nuggets bouncing off their helmets and rolling down the sides of tents were hailstones—until the nuggets unfolded wire-thin legs and began scampering for any patch of exposed flesh. The fat ticks popped like blisters as the soldiers slapped at them and cursed. The soldiers ducked into their tents, stripped off their greatcoats and uniforms, and commenced to pick the bugs off each other. They heated the blades of their bayonets and scalded the ticks into releasing their mandibles where they’d burrowed into the soldiers’ grimy flesh.
But, of course, they missed some. Thousands and thousands of the pests had fallen on the trenches. Even after the company Exorcists had come through to hose everything down with holy water, ticks found their way beneath longjohns, into boots, under helmets….And there they feasted. The ticks ballooned. The soft hide of their distended abdomens split, the wounds forming demonic sigils. Soon, the flesh they battened onto began to swell as well as the venomous gospel delivered by the parasites spread the message of the Beast.
Despite the faith drummed into them from birth, the men were willing converts. The veterans who’d recently seen action at the Mekratrig Advance and the Defense of Araboth found absolution from the awful dreams that mangled their sleep. The new boys fled from the constant dread of facing down demonic legions that had left them shaking and pale ever since they got off the trains and beheld the endless trenchscape smoking from horizon to horizon. The gospel of the Beast offered them escape into animalistic oblivion—into a state of raw instinct devoid of any thought beyond the simple urges of sex and hunger. Infinite hunger.
They tore off their clothing as their skins split open, the meat beneath free to express itself in any form. Bare muscle and rabid organs grew new mouths, new teeth, new tongues—teeth to crack bone, tongues to lick the marrow out. The new disciples of the Beast fell upon any who resisted the gospel of blood and hunger. The trenches roared with gunfire and hunting howls as the converts rampaged, celebrating their freedom as, in the distance, obscured by smoke, the larvae of their new god—like rivers of violent flesh—howled mindlessly into the night.
​
Deployment
A short story describing a Paladin of the Church going on a mission in Hell.
Related arts : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Jlvq1A / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/oObvGq
A cloying fog of incense hung beneath the frescoed dome of the Paladin’s arming chamber. Monks crowded the galleries, chanting prayers while they monitored the screeds of data being spit out by gilded autoscribes. On the floor, technicians clad in sanctified bodysuits impermeable to sin hustled about their machines, lighting candles, refilling tanks of alchemical reagents, tweaking knobs and faders.
When the huge doors to the Paladin’s adjoining cell opened, silence fell and everyone in the arming chamber sank to their knees in reverent adoration. Many wept. The unmistakable ethereal scent of angels overpowered the odors of frankincense and ozone.
The Paladin entered, head bowed, hands folded in prayer. The gigantic man was naked, and all in attendance averted their eyes from the radiance of holiness reflecting from his scarred skin. The faceplates of the technicians darkened as the glass polarized. They rose to their feet and set about their tasks.
The Paladin took up position in the center of the room and knelt on the mosaic of the Militant Christ the Lion. First the technicians bathed him in holy water and anointed him in conductive oils. They swabbed out his input jacks with squares of virginal cotton and tested their throughput with crucifaxes. Once all were satisfied, they logged their readings and called for the Paladin’s armor to be brought in.
Doors opened and blinded, gelded serfs themselves clad in insulated suits wheeled out carts upon which the various pieces of the Paladin’s armor were arrayed. The plates had been cleansed, fumigated, and sanctified multiple times, but not even the sturdiest alloys and plastics could long resist the corrosive energies of the Pit. The ornate armor was terribly rusted, and some pieces were slated to be reforged, but until the Holy City was liberated there was no way to acquire any more of the Golgothic tektites used in the machining process. Ultimately, though, the armor was just a second line of defense: the Paladin’s own Christ-derived body and unshakable faith were what truly protected him on his one-man crusades into Perdition.
While the technicians were connecting the plates of armor to the Paladin’s neurologics and mounting them on his implanted undercarriage, a tall screen was wheeled over to the warrior and the three-dimensional projection of a Cardinal-General dressed in the red-and-black chasuble of a High Exorcist flickered to life. He spoke:
“In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Council of Saints in conjunction with the Synod of Strategic Prophecy has charged you to descend unto the Third Circle this day to seek out and destroy the demon-major Choronzon, Lord Mechanic of the Goetic Forge under Archduke Paimon.”
“It shall be done,” the Paladin replied in a soft, almost boyish voice. The Cardinal-General’s ikon vanished.
Once the Paladin’s armor was sealed and pressurized, its systems tested and cleared for operation, the attending technicians once again knelt for a final prayer. The Paladin took up his shield and sword while everyone else filed out of the chamber. Once all were gone, the Black Door in the far wall painfully cranked open. A puff of infernal energies leaked into the room like a shimmer of heat, making the Paladin’s armor sizzle faintly.
Slowly, with all the ponderous weight of a tank grinding into motion, the Paladin crossed the floor and entered the airlock. The Black Door ground shut behind him and sealed. Vents in the walls screamed and bled as infernal atmosphere replaced material air. His armor steamed.
Finally, the opposite door yawned open, and the Paladin began his descent into the raving blackness of Hell.
​
Black Grail
A short story about the very start of a battle between the Church and the Black Grail worshippers.
Related arts: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/2xagzx / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/0XmYGG / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Zrl0R / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/2xagzx / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rR14bm
First came the Cancer Angels, dropping from the clouds and unfurling their tumorous wings to soar clumsily over the trenches, absorbing bullets and flak until they burst and rained down unholy spirochetes and pus. The soldiers’ prayers quickly changed from hymns of holy defiance to pleas for deliverance as their flesh bubbled with afflictions, their bodies becoming breeding grounds for a wonderful panoply of plagues. As they fell and seethed with rot, their corpses bloomed into parasitic hounds that loped toward the retreating frontlines, terrifying in their silence.
Then came the Plague Knights in their squeaking, clanking, stinking armor. Bullets spanged off the rusted plates; holes punched through the metal bled sewage ripe with fermented illness. When the explosive armor-piercing rounds of sniper priests blew off limbs, the silent figures didn’t even stumble. Trench pilgrims ploughed into their lines with bayonets slathered in holy oils, but the Knights’ huge, rotten claymores hacked open their blessed armor and sowed a thousand varieties of vermin in their meat.
Behind them came hordes of resurrected corpses, some sawing out giddy dirges on instruments they’d once played to pass the dreadful hours waiting for whatever horrors Hell was going to throw at them next. None spoke, or sang, even those that still had tongues. They praised the Putrefactors with the miasmas leaking from their wounds, the maggots spilling from metastatic wombs.
Shells fired from artillery miles distant exploded among their ranks, pulping hundreds, and swathes of napalm dropped from Martyr Bombers incinerated thousands, but not even fire could cleanse the pandemics soaked deep into earth that not even the radiation from hallowed neutron bombs could sterilize.
As the battle waned a procession of Excubitors crownéd with ticks came tramping through the feculent mire, making way for a Lord of Tumors and his wheezing retinue. What ground was not already infected was sprinkled with pus from his gurgling masses. A fog of engineered bacteria rose up from the boiling ground, spreading a stench that not even a mindless acolyte of the Beast could stomach.
The dead men, animated by demonic pestilence, began to claw at the walls of the trenches, pulling down the filthy mud, patting it down into a flat square paved with their own bones. More Lords came forth to surround the makeshift stage, anointing it with foulness. Led by torchbearing corpses, a squad of Choristers came forth. Without a word they took their places. With dull knives they sawed through their necks, decapitating themselves in full view of the Lord of Hosts above. Their plague-thickened blood crawled up from the rough stumps to form blasphemous sigils that rippled the air like heat with the fury of their affront. As the Choristers offered down their shriveled souls to Hell, a brace of naked witches, their skins whitened with chalk made of ground-up bones, formed a circle in their midst.
Now came a sound—a shriek like incoming shells, or a cage full of damned souls screaming, and the familiar wet pops and cracks of flesh transforming. The witches’ bodies flowered, bowels spilling out to become tentacles, bones locking them together. The air tore open and more flesh emerged, sucked up from the deepest Pit of Hell.
Miles distant, in their observation posts, horrified spotters fell to the ground, their brains pierced by the sight of what was forming, as if their binoculars had become pistol barrels. With a complicated scream that shredded reality and blew the grinning Lords and Choristers into clouds of flies, the horned and howling First Apostle rose up like a mushroom cloud of foulness to preach its caustic sermons to the poisoned wasteland.
​
Church of Metamorphosis
A short story about the aftermath of an attack from the Church of Metamorphosis on a Monastery of the Church.
Related arts: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rRdA5a / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/L2lXyP / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/58d2v1 / https://www.artstation.com/artwork/A9oXNz
After the Monastery of Saint Vindictus fell to the Black Grail’s contagious doctrines and the undead converts marched forth to bolster the siege of New Antioch, the Church of the Metamorphosis came scuttling in to wrap the shattered towers and the bomb-broken walls in mud and saliva and claim the Monastery for their order. Soon the fanes and hallways echoed with new chants—the buzzing, clicking,clacking, squelching mantras of the insectoid monastics. A portable Doorway was brought all the way from their home monasteries in the Inverted Mountains of Hell and erected in the desecrated cathedral,and there the brothers and sisters gather to contemplate the sights that churn eternally in the World Beyond.
A newly-reborn acolyte, still wearing tatters of the human skin he’d shed when the Maggots of Communion reshaped his inner flesh, comes clicking into the Scriptorium where many of his brother and sister acolytes are penning propaganda to distribute throughout the Heretical Provinces. At an empty desk he dips his fingerlike mandibles in ink and proceeds to write a screed based on the signs he’d just beheld beyond the Doorway, signs that become symbols on parchment made from the hides of willing sacrifices—symbols that will worm into the brains of any readers and there lay the seeds of transformation.
In their shrines dug into the rock below the Monastery, Sisters of the Transcendent Chrysalid are interrogating a captured general from one of the penitent legions recently swarmed in the trenches outside New Antioch. The man has bitten out his own tongue to thwart their aims, but the Sisters have no need for speech—they can’t even hear through their translucent cauls. They hoist him upside down and carefully, slowly crack open his skull. They are expert haruspices, carefully jotting down the intel about the city’s defenses they read from the convolutions of his brain. Elsewhere in the Monastery, the tiny Abbot bows before the gigantic Mother Superior and the heaps of eggs she continually excretes from her birthing sacs. All day and all night he supervises the Droning Postulants that spend their brief lives fertilizing the eggs by inscribing horrible sigils into their soft shells.
The eggs are packaged in great cases and sent to the captured airfields south of the Monastery, where they are taken up by possessed pigeons. The birds will drop the eggs all over New Antioch. Maybe one in a thousand of the Maggots that burst from them will find a willing host—but one is all that’s needed.
Through that person’s eyes the Scryers in their bulging cocoons will search the city for weaknesses.
All these activities, however, are just chores the monastics perform for the others orders of Hell in return for their continued solitude. They are not a militant order: they were formed to be scrutineers of the artifacts they call Doorway. They are dedicated to studying the Beyond, and there is no finer fate than to be hollowed out by the things they see, their souls twisted into incomprehensible shapes no material shell can contain. The mindless husks of the Transcended are enshrined in their monasteries’ libraries, where their sanctified chitin is consumed bit by bit by Pupal Novices to help them continue their metamorphoses. The other orders often mock the Church of the Metamorphosis as navel-gazers and hair-splitters, but their role in the Great War is vital to Hell’s progress. What others perceived as endless noise and idly chatter is knowledge in flux—knowledge that, once it’s picked apart into its tiniest pieces, orchestrates the entire War. And, piece by miniscule piece, prepares the World for the day when the Doorway opens and apotheosis comes blasting forth to illuminate everything in its absolute absence of sense.
​
Angel
A short story depicting the effects of an actual angel from God descending upon the battlefield.
We remained cowering in a trench when the trumpet sounded in the oppressive, lead-lined sky. We furtively glanced out of the corners of our eyes, having learned long ago not to look at such things directly. We saw it all the same. The angel stepped down from the sky in a burning catastrophe of light, and it spoke words like thunder.
The words were vast and inscrutable, like glimpsing only a fragment of some titanic buried machine and trying to understand its ancient purpose. Our minds broke upon the surface of those words, leaving us gasping for air, we could not endure such relentless purity.
I stared dumbfounded at my friends who had cast themselves into the mud. They crawled like worms, and they uttered the most desolate sounds. One beat his face against a wooden post until it was a slick, red cavity bristling with broken teeth. The other, shrieking, clutched his service pistol and shot himself again and again.
I pulled myself out of the trench, scrabbling over the sandbags and crosses, and the words of the angel filled my head with a buzzing pressure that made my eyes bulge from their sockets. I fell to my knees, made obeisance, and as I stared into the blazing, dominating light, I could not even feel my head catch fire.

These are some details from Shades of Grey 1 (The Road to High Saffron) that I am thinking might turn out to be significant. I made up this list after re-reading that first book, more than a year ago.
I probably should have started this thread before the second book was released in some countries? But I won't be reading the book until later (I'm in North America, and also my work schedule, plus needing to finish the paperwork winding up my late dad's estate, means I won't really have uninterrupted reading time until after RSS is released here). I don't mind spoilers but I'll black out some of my stuff, just in case anyone who does mind happens to see this thread.

1. The lights that are visible on the dark side of the moon. This suggests to me that there are other parts of the world that have retained advanced (by our standards) forms of technology. Also the high-flying aircraft (white trails overhead, the body in the ejection seat that landed in the town). (A bit like New Zealand in "The Chrysalids" surviving the nuclear war relatively intact.) I am wondering if the swans -- supposedly huge creatures -- are actually some kind of aircraft, or even drones. Ursula Le Guin's "Always Coming Home" describes a future where humans have turned away from spaceflight but artificial intelligences are exploring and colonizing space, so those lunar stations may not be people at all.
2. The Colourman. Is he possibly Eddie's biological dad? It seems to have been established that Eddie's Red perception is too high to have come from his parents.
3. The supposedly-objective Ishihara results turn out to be unreliable. During Book 1, we found out that Violet's wealthy dad managed to fix the test in her favour. I suspect there are other characters who benefited from this. Also, there's the chance that people might be lying about NOT being able to see the patterns, if they don't want to be prefects or maybe want to be able to marry someone who'd otherwise be off-limits. (Or not be forced into marrying someone like Violet.) People get tested when they're young adults, not small children, and by then they might have decided it was in their interest to conceal their abilities.
4. Hints are dropped about Greens not being able to use "sweetdream" for assisted death because the shade doesn't work on them. This point might show up again -- I can see it having both positive and negative implications, for characters we know. I wonder what other therapeutic (or harmful) colours don't work on certain perceptions?
5. Will Book 2 follow up on the rumours about visitors from outside being in regular contact with Chromatacia? Is it possible that it's not just a backward enclave like a weird version of North Korea, but a deliberate experiment being managed by the high-tech outside world (like the ending to "The Village")?
6. What's going on at National Colour and the capital at Emerald City? It sounds pretty bad. I can't imagine them having good intentions, after what the first book implied with Dorian and Imogen -- and the sheer amount of evidence, once you know how to look for it (all those spoons).
7. Part of the fun of this book is trying to put together pieces about what happened to result in this society. Fforde's done a good job of scattering around clues (and probably some red herrings too, ha ha). So far we've been able to get some background information from the incomplete mural, and from Baxter -- and I keep thinking about some of the tantalizing guesses at that society meeting. I imagine that there will be other live or recorded sources revealed in RSS, maybe from the Riffraff or an authority figure like the Colourman?

Aim of the game: you are a top scientist hired by Umbrella to genetically engineer a new supervirus to create the ultimate bioweapon.

1. Game Start: -> you enter a top secret Umbrella facility. Receptionist greets you and gives you a card with a password to memorize (your co-employee says out loud “Lol mine’s “Gizmo”).
   
2. Game Tutorial: -> you are presented with a computer terminal. Upon entering your surname and password, a computer AI assistant in the style of CABAL greets you and introduces you to how to play the game.
   
3. The Laboratory: -> you have free reign to experiment and create a huge range of different new viruses. You can utilize existing viruses from the RE universe (Progenitor, Tyrant, Golgotha, NE-T, Chrysalid, Las Plagas, Uroboros, Mutamycete, T-Veronica, T-Abyss, T-Phobos, etc) PLUS new biological material (plants, animal DNA).
   
4. Test Your Virus: -> next, you can move to a test chamber, where an imprisoned/sedated test subject can be administered your newly created virus(es) and you can see how it affects them - maybe they will turn into a novel super soldier, maybe they will turn into a grotesque abomination, or maybe they will simply die on the operating table.
   
5. Test Your Newly Created Bioweapon: -> next, you can move to an arena, where you can pit successfully mutated test subjects in a duel against each other, and record their combat data - to see which mutations are the strongest as bioweapons.
   
6. Unleash Armageddon! -> Finally, when you are satosfied that you have perfected your bioweapon viruses, you can unleash your weapon onto the black market and read newspaper articles about how your deadly new virus is devastating the world.
   

Aim of the game: you are a top scientist hired by Umbrella to genetically engineer a new supervirus to create the ultimate bioweapon.

1. Game Start: -> you enter a top secret Umbrella facility. Receptionist greets you and gives you a card with a password to memorize (your co-employee says out loud “Lol mine’s “Gizmo”).
   
2. Game Tutorial: -> you are presented with a computer terminal. Upon entering your surname and password, a computer AI assistant in the style of CABAL greets you and introduces you to how to play the game.
   
3. The Laboratory: -> you have free reign to experiment and create a huge range of different new viruses. You can utilize existing viruses from the RE universe (Progenitor, Tyrant, Golgotha, NE-T, Chrysalid, Las Plagas, Uroboros, Mutamycete, T-Veronica, T-Abyss, T-Phobos, etc) PLUS new biological material (plants, animal DNA).
   
4. Test Your Virus: -> next, you can move to a test chamber, where an imprisoned/sedated test subject can be administered your newly created virus(es) and you can see how it affects them - maybe they will turn into a novel super soldier, maybe they will turn into a grotesque abomination, or maybe they will simply die on the operating table.
   
5. Test Your Newly Created Bioweapon: -> next, you can move to an arena, where you can pit successfully mutated test subjects in a duel against each other, and record their combat data - to see which mutations are the strongest as bioweapons.
   
6. Unleash Armageddon! -> Finally, when you are satosfied that you have perfected your bioweapon viruses, you can unleash your weapon onto the black market and read newspaper articles about how your deadly new virus is devastating the world.
   

After all this time, who would have thought I'd return to the site of my greatest failure? AS A RECAPPER!
It's the moment I've been dreading: the book that my most pretentious and poorly thought-out post was based on. It's time to see if I still really don't like this one, or if time and a good helping of shame have changed my viewpoint. Only one way to find out fellow fourths... let's read on.
The Recap: Again, 10/10 stylized recap, this time it's a giant map board, like a tourist map, marking down a guided walk around Goldcliffe with the various locations and events of the last book. It's concise, compact, and fun.
Chapter 1

• It's Candlenights in Faerune, and all through the house, the boys are there, I am too lazy to rhyme.
• The boys are hosting a little Candlenights party for the host of named NPCs, and a few to-be-named NPCs that have fallen by the wayside
• The NPC blob of BoB shows up singing Candlenights carols and shit, I don't know, standard Christmas Special shit
• Gift exchange, a "Pan-Theistic" joke, that somehow manages to be unique and then totally fumbled
• We meet Boyland! You know, the one that dies. You should care.
  • I won't give Griffin too much shit for this I've made a good number of "you should care" NPCs that no one liked. Rest in Peace Hurley the Undergrad, you were a special lady in my heart. And in the Vampire King's heart, god that was a fun adventure, why am I not that creative anymore?
• Carey is finally named after 4 books and numerous appearances.
• Garfield is there too, he gives items or some shit:
  • The Nitpicker for Merle, remember this little guy? I don't.
  • The Shield of Heroic Memories for Magnus, a more interesting version of a +1 magic shield
    • Magic shields are in Magnus' top 5 favourite kinds of shields, even though magic is an adjective in this sense, so is a Round Shield in Magnus' top 5? I can respect that, but have some clarity, and also give me your other 5 favourite shields, I NEED TO KNOW!
  • Taako gets a... sponge for the pocket spa he bought in the last book.
    • Yeah, Taako doesn't remember it either
• In any other podcast or game, the mysterious magic merchant taking blood as collateral would be interesting or a problem. Not a random thing to be forgotten and brought up as a deus ex machina way later.
• Magnus calls his shield his murder diary, I have one of those too! The police will never find it :)
• It's Angus, yay!
  • NO MORE SCREAMING. NO MORE. HE'S NOT THAT CUTE, SHUT THE FUCK UP
• Something something a standard waste of time making jokes that were once funny, let's cut to the chase.
  • Can you tell I was having a bad day when I was writing this?
• Lucas Miller, a prominent scientist in Faerune and a member of the BoB, calls Lucretia during the party. Lucretia interrupts the whole party yelling at her Stone of Far Speech because as it would turn out, Lucas has fucked up big time. He has hidden a Grand Relic and has been using it, but something has gone horribly wrong: The Philosopher's Stone is turning the lab to crystal, and the lab is going down! If the lab touches the ocean, it's over for the entire world!
• So to stop the entire world from drowning in eye-sore pink and magenta entropy, the lads suit up in transmutation-nulling armour and take a precarious gondola ride down to 'ol Miller's laboratory.
• Oh, and in the middle of the floating gondola ride, Griffin levels them up to level 8. Same problems as always.
  • I wish anyone associated with the TAZ GNs knew anything about D&D, it would make this all so much more bearable

End of Chapter 1: Oh the first chapter is kind of a slog with these GNs, but it's not so bad. Really! Travis is not holding a gun to my head
Chapter 2

• The boys get their bearings in a crystallized part of the Lab they've landed on.
• Hey, so you know how I like 2nd drafts? Here's a second draft of 2 extensive complaints I have with this chapter. just 4 or 5 pages and so much to question. I will indicate below when I start and I'm done bitching
• The boys descend into a crystallized part of the laboratory the "conservatory" is the free-floating word over the scene is to be believed.
  • It's just a bunch of pink triangles, some vaguely in the shape of trees.
• Their null suits functioning as intended the boys get their bearings and contact Lucas via D&D podcasting's greatest enemy: poorly restricted Stones of Far Speech that operate like trucker radios
• Okay, here we go. I am going to lodge 2 complaints about the next couple of pages. I will keep them concise. I am cool and normal.

Grey and Black text

• At the bottom of page 34, we see a text bubble, unlike the others we've seen so far. It has a jagged stem leading to Taako's Stone of Far Speech. It has a blue outline unlike the normal black outlines, and the text is a noticeable and intentional shade of grey. But;
• All of the text on page 35 is grey as well, even though none of it is coming from the stone. The panel at the bottom of page 34 indicates that grey text = voice coming from the stone. But now it seems like grey text is for all communications using the stone. But;
• On pages 36 and 37 all the text is black again, including the one text bubble in panel 4 that is coming from the stone the first time we've seen someone's voice coming through the stone since page 34.
• why is the text grey?

Why Show Lucas

• On page 35 we see Lucas for the first time. In full. As well as the environment he's in.
• Until now we haven't heard from Lucas at all. We only know he's important and present because of Lucretia briefing us last chapter.
• This is a good chance to do anything interesting. Draw the steadily sinking laboratory's tourmaline interior, the boys exploring it as they chat, or play into the fledgling mystery elements they established by intentionally not letting us hear from Lucas in the first chapter, drip feed us the rat boy scientist man. By showing him in full, along with where he is, we get nothing, it shuts down any interest that could have strung us to the point where we finally get to meet him, any jokes about how mysterious or intimidating he could have been and how shrimpy he really is.
• Nothing is interesting enough to sustain the reader this way except for the major reveals at the end of these particular story elements. We are given the full and raw truth, something has happened to Maureen Miller, Lucas is fine, and the world may end soon.
• With nothing to sustain a reader who doesn't know the story why continue reading? Because you have the book anyways? Because you might as well see how it ends. That's a shitty way to read.
• You can keep going if you're desperate to see the moments you already know about, which is also a shitty way to read, and a shittier way to write.

The Rest of Chapter 2

• Jesus, okay. Hope I don't have to do that too often.
• Oh hey! Something to complain about, my favourite!
• It's just the fight with the crystal golem, there's not too much to complain about here, but it's just weirdly stiff and uninteresting to look at. Especially with some of the really fun action sequences and fights we've had so far. They didn't have to remake the opening of Saving Private Ryan but they could have tried to avoid looking like ancient Iranian Friezes
• Even Guardian of Faith doesn't save this fight as the angel solos the Crystal Golem and the boys run away. They run and Guardian of Faith wins the battle, it's a really strong spell or a really weak golem?
• Golem looks cool tho
• On page 47, the whole showing of Lucas thing backfires again as they ask about his mother, we watch his expression change and then he shuts off his phone. Great job, she could be anywhere ooooh
• Nest up: Buddybot Station
  • The boys have a choice between Buddybot & "Deadly Radiation" and the boys, in turn, call out Griffin (The GN character) for predetermining their choice for them. Is this a joke? A dig at railroading in D&D and TAZ? Am I just flat dead and don't find anything dunny?
• Anyways, Buddybot, or Hodgepodge rather, the segment is beat-for-beat the same as it is in the Podcast. The difficulty gag, spelling Aaracokra (I had to look it up too), and so forth. However, it breaks from the podcast by randomly shoehorning in Taako's pocket spa gag. We don't get "Hot Diggity Shit this is a baller cookie" but we get the gag from the cut cockroach fight in the elevator museum.
• "Who do we work for?" Hodgepodge goes boom, haha Merle is a senile old man who doesn't remember the core concept of the BoB/Fisher
• They cut out the BoB initiation test, but shoehorn in the "Magnus steals arms from his enemy's corpses" gag. A joke that happens maybe 3 times and they never included it originally.

End of Chapter 2: Bad. Awful. Baaaaaaad.
Chapter 3

• The boys find themselves in the Atrium (is this a laboratory or a hotel? At least they left a light on for you.)
• A letter from Killian indicates that she's fone ahead via the... ventilation system.
  • checks publication date: 2021. Yeah, that tracks.
• While discussing why Killian signed her note with just "K," the boys are greeted by Noelle. Or N. 03113. Noelle! The boys are understandably on guard, considering they just got away from Hodgepodge who burnt them alive.
• Noelle speaks DM-ese to indicate she is friendly.
  • DM-ese if you don't know, is a secret pattern of speech every 3rd rate DM can speak to indicate how the players should think and act. Here, Griffin uses the classic "not like the other girls" pattern to indicate that Noelle is friendly and not like the other robots and the boys should be ashamed for thinking the weird floating robot who snuck up on them is the same as the weird fire robot they just killed.
• Convenient healing needle that doesn't compromise the Null-Suit, DM-ese for "shut the fuck up and take the free heal."
• Noelle leads the boys through the residences of the lab, denying the boys entry to any of the rooms because that's a violation of privacy.
• Taako uses disguise self to violate Lucas Miller's privacy by impersonating him and getting Noelle to let them into his room.
  • Regardless of what Lucas has done, this is a dick move
• Lucas' room is almost as messy as mine. Something something, autism, depression is just the excuse I tell myself at this point.
• The boys use Nitpicker to get into a private lockbox, guys seriously.
• Nitpickers race is "plot device"
• Inside the lockbox is a beautiful jade & gold locket that lets the boys see into... the real world. The Seattle needle, a burger king, a concert, etc.
• No shit the fucking scientists in a fantasy setting are magic fantasy scientists Magnus, I know you're in a mechanically flying lab with robots and... a world with racecars and trains and... I retract this point
• Foreshadowing the soulwood, the boys find out that G'Nash's family are mentally and emotionally altered Bugbears that live around here.
• Noelle just drops that Maureen has been dead for a bit, gee willikers.
• Moving on, Boyland's dead, and no one cares. Killian & Carey did the Tardigrade fight instead of the boys (no sense in bogging down the story more, this is a good change)
• Oh YES
• Kravitz tricks Merle into touching some of the tourmaline that Boyland has been transformed into. SECOND. DRAFTS. BABY. Kravitz leverages Merle's belief like normal, but now it's specifically related to the power Merle gets from Pan. Kravitz convinces Merle he can help Boyland and "God... Lied."
• I'm going to pretend this deceit has real consequences and relish in the drama.

End of Chapter 3: I have nothing to say
Chapter 4

• Carrying the amputated Merle to the med bay where Lucas is said to be, Taako has an uncharacteristic moment of genuine anger, his worry for Merle manifesting in its own emotionally repressed way. I don't even need to say it, you're already thinking about it.
• They act like this is the first time we've seen Mucas or his surroundings, it's insulting at this point
• Tensions bubble as Killian and Taako's fury gets the best of them, and rightfully so: my favourite part of the podcast was their uneasy need for Lucas' help, and desire to "cause him harm" to put it lightly. It was dark and dynamic, and they're doing a good job keeping it up so far.
• The dos horny boys remaining interrogate Lucas about some things we already know, like the fact that his mother is dead, and that the stone fucked and started pinkifying everything.
• Two pages into chapter 4, page 93 to be exact, we end the page on a time break as they wait on Carey to get the Soulwood. Why doesn't chapter 3 end here and chapter 4 start with Carey's return, it's built-in right here!

The REAL Start of Chapter 4

• Merle's problem is solved for free with no work required from the players. He was never in danger, they gave him the Surgeon Simulator needle and sat around.
  • This is my least favourite part of the podcast
• Oh but wait, a consequence! Merle has permanent disadvantage on sleight-of-hand checks! Yeah, you know, those checks he doesn't do anyways because Nitpicker does the one thing they'd think to use Sleigh of Hand checks for.
• Oh and the arm is immune to crystallization too, GOD DAMN IT. At this fucking point why fucking bother saving the lab at all? Griffin will just cut like "uhhhh, oh yeah, so the lab falls into the ocean but the crystallization is contained because uhhhh... phyto... Phytoplankton they uhhh. See the weave- the weave- it's uh, the ocean is resistant to the weave because of its constant energetic motion but the uhhh, god of the sea was like, able to, able to uhh, able to stitch the weave through the immutable tiny begins within the ocean so its a mesh of raw magic energy that resists the transmutation." And anyway, I am stealing that bullshit for my old kitchen sink setting, even though I just made it up
• Killian has to go because the plot convenient crack in her helmet and gay gay lesbian gay sunshine & raincloud fluff fic 3k words.
• So the boys + Carey, Lucas, and Noelle go to turn off some light switches I guess to divert power to the engine so they can avoid the inconsequential event horizon of the transmutation apocalypse. Also, Lucas just randomly has a suiting machine in the med bay with a null suit perfectly sized for himself, and I am begging you to kill me.

End of Chapter 4: Ligh's fading, seeing me great grandpa, I'mma going, I'm out, off the coil
Finding myself wanting to write more personal notes or random thoughts, probably as an auto-cope. I will avoid these.
Chapter 5

• Ohh, it's the Cosmoscope, yeah I should have guessed that.
• Planarverse for babies: there are a few
• The leading industrial family in all of the fantasy existence uses a jade pocket mirror to access the plane of thought and plagiarize from the real world like some sort of The Chrysalids-esque vision of Zealand.
  • Also wouldn't "The Plane of Thought" be more like Plato's realm of forms? Why is it our world?
• Alright, this is all an overlong explanation of the whole thing: Maureen mysteriously died using the Cosomoscope to look into parallel universes, and also the tourmaline mirror used to look into the land of the dead is in the workshop below.
  • Also what a fucking payoff, the only thing we wanted to know was: "how did Maureen die?" And Lucas doesn't fucking know either. You can't pick and choose your mysteries like this it's infuriating
• Oh hey, the other exposition dump is here now! Everyone say hi to Kaepora Gaebora Barry DM-ese for "a twist is coming I'm actually the good guy" The Red Robe!
• "The hunger is coming, it'll eat everything," we're aware
• "YOU FOUND HER?!" Is still really good though
• And the other people unfreeze!

End of Chapter 5: That's it? Really? That's all? You gave that a whole chapter?
Welp, one half down and another half to go. My reading week is coming up next week so I'll likely recap the rest then, maybe I'll even recap/review a different book in the middle of the post because I've got a few that need to be read.
I'm tired.

I had 2 more butterflies eclose this morning and taped one (I had to get to work and didn't want to mess with the second since he was very freshly eclosed.)
Well, that sample was positive for OE, and so now I'm concerned not only about the other butterfly, but also the chrysalides left to eclose. I have potted plants and a couple in-ground, how do I go about trying to sanitize these?
I will be euthanizing the one who tested positive and will be continuing to tape the rest as they eclose. I'm very disheartened. The 4 that came out clean yesterday raised my hopes, but I'm concerned the rest will be positive. :(

TL;DR at the bottom.
I don't know to whom else this applies to, but the most fun part about Elden Ring for me is to make builds, invade with them while making them and still completing most if not all questlines, dungeons etc..
Now, invasions, especially in the early game can be quite hard to come by as you only get limited use invasion items. Luckily, there is the Recusant Finger in the Volcano Manor, which is unlike the Bloody Finger that requires you to complete Stormveil in order to progress Varré's questline, extremely easy to get (without killing a single enemy in fact). This, however, requires you to visit a lot of different areas on the map, which in turn can mess up some questlines by skipping certain parts and in the worst cases even lock you out of quest reward items.
I recently did test exactly that and made notes of everything that I found out.
Here's the rough route I took:

1. Died to the first boss
2. Activated three sites of grace to get Torrent from Melina
3. Went to Fort Haight for the left Dectus Medallion
4. Went to the sending gate next to Third Church of Marika to reach the Bestial Sanctum
5. Rode south to Fort Faroth for the right Dectus Medallion
6. Skipped Stormveil, talked to Rya in Liurnia and completed her quest for the Volcano Manor Invitation
7. Used the Grand Lift of Dectus to reach the Altus Plateau
8. Rya wasn't next to the lift, but instead next to Erdtree-Gazing Hill site of grace as if you went through the dungeon to reach Altus (Idk why this happened)
9. Get teleported to the Volcano Manor
10. Recusant Finger acquired

Some other notes:
During the entire journey I never rested once at a site of grace. I activated some of them and fast-traveled from Fort Faroth back to Limgrave and that's it. Maybe this explains why Rya was at the wrong spot in Altus, because I never rested/refreshed the area after completing her quest in Liurnia (activating the lift doesn't count as resting).
Here's the result, all the consequences caused by doing this in roughly the order you'd meet the different characters:

• Varré remains unchanged, he'll give you his default first time talk
• Ranni's initial encounter will be skipped - Spirit Calling Bell and Wolf ashes can be bought at the Twinmaiden Husk
• Roderika's first stage of her quest is skipped (getting the Chrysalid's Memento) and she'll be at the Roundtable Hold, leaving a Golden Seed on her initial spawn (Stormhill Shack) - Key item Chrysalid's Memento will be skipped (not important unless you want to read the item description) - Spirit Jellyfish Ashes will be skipped (cannot be bought at the Twinmaiden Husk) - Sitting Sidesways emote will be skipped - Fancy Spin emote will be skipped (Jellyfish required for quest) - This can all be prevented by simply exhausting her dialogue before you leave Limgrave - Crimson Hood (VIG +1) will be in Stormveil regardless
• Recusant Bernahl will be gone from Limgrave and relocate to the Volcano Manor - Ashes of War can be bought again from him after you complete the first assassination quest for the Manor
• Recusant Henricus who drops the Hammer Talisman will no longer invade making it impossible to obtain the item
• D is no longer in Limgrave next to a grave site, but at the Roundtable Hold - Doesn't affect his quest, just bring him a Deathroot here (or don't, because we already used the teleporter)
• Fia will give you the dagger after talking to her a few times, give it to D to get his bell bearing for his incantations if you haven't given him a Deathroot
• Corhyn will leave the Roundtable Hold as soon as you finished all of his necessary dialogue - This is triggered by simply travelling to Altus Plateau
• Diallos will not be at the Roundtable Hold - He'll be in Liurnia until spoken to, then relocate to the Hold - If talking to him there he'll relocate to the Volcano Manor
• Alexander will not be in Limgrave (not in the Gael tunnel back entrance either) - He'll be at Redmane Castle - Festival state triggered by travelling to Altus Plateau (?)
• Blaidd will not be in Limgrave either, he's also at the festival - You can still talk to Kalé about a supposed howling in the Mistwood if you've been there to get the Finger Snap emote (lol?) - I assume this means the part of Ranni's quest where you meet Blaidd under Limgrave gets skipped - This further would mean that you skip the key item Seluvis's Introduction
• Irina, the part I'm most unsure about, a lot of speculation here as there are many variables. With the route I took I never rested in Liurnia, but I know that if you rest at the Lake-Facing Cliffs site of grace (first one in Liurnia) Irina will be gone and Hyetta will spawn. I assume this will make Hyetta's quest uncompletable as Irina's father Edgar will not invade to drop a Shabriri Grape. This would make it impossible to obtain the Frenzied Flame Seal. If someone can 100 % confirm that he still does spawn under these exact circumstances (skipping Weeping Peninsula entirely and making Hyetta spawn in Liurnia) then I'm pretty confident that you can't miss out on the Frenzied Flame Seal. Anyway, here's what I did and observed, again, without ever resting in Liurnia: - Irina will spawn in her usual spawn next to the Bridge of Sacrifice site of grace and give you her letter - Irina's Letter might be the key to it all, I was surprised that Irina was still here in the first place, so I fast travelled to the Lake-Facing Cliffs site of grace which immediately spawned Hyetta and killed Irina - Edgar will not invade at this point - You can still go to Castle Morne and deliver the letter - After clearing the castle talk to Edgar at the spot where Irina died (Bridge of Sacrifice) - Now he'll invade you in Liurnia - I assume that as long as you got the letter the quest will not become uncompletable

That's pretty much it. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask. If you have anything to add be sure to comment and I'll edit the post. Editing will break my poorly formatted post even more :(
TL;DR (sort of): if you want to be as safe as possible and don't mind skipping parts of questlines, you should do the following things to not lose out on items:

1. Exhaust Roderika's dialogue before leaving Limgrave (ensures you get some emotes and a spirit ash)
2. Kill Recusant Henricus before leaving Limgrave (ensures you get the Hammer Talisman)
3. Get Irina's Letter before resting at a site of grace in Liurnia (ensures you can still get the Frenzied Flame seal)

Edit 1: Sorry about the formatting, something broke. I'm trying to fix it. Edit 2: Should be fixed, sorry mobile users, I don't even want to check how it looks there...

Map: Limgrave, East:

Map of the eastern region of Tenebrae.
The demesne of Tenebrae, far south of the capital, stands vigil before the vast Sea of Fog.
Radagon's warning is yet told and retold. That one day, the Tarnished led into war will cross the Sea of Fog and return.
For the Elden Ring.

Map: Liurnia, East:

Map of Rienier's eastern region

Map: Altus Plateau:

Map of Altaar Plateau and environs

Map: Leyndell, Royal Capital:

Map of Rodale Capital and environs

Map: Mt. Gelmir:

Map of Mt. Germia and environs

Map: Caelid

Map of Caelid Wilds and environs

Map: Dragonbarrow:

Map of Dragonhill and environs

Longtail Cat Talisman:

A brooch depicting a long-tailed cat, known to be the beloved pet of General Radahn.
Reduces fall damage.
This black cat was known to have enjoyed jumping down from great heights; it would leap from the great bell-tower of Raya Lucaria as a kitten, and once fully grown, from the great heavenward roots that twisted through the Erdtree Capital skies.

Black Flame:

Skill: Godhunt Flame
Coats blade in swirling flames and unleashes a wide sweeping attack.

Godslayer's Greatsword:

Sacred sword of the Queen in Black who controlled the godskin apostles before her defeat at the hands of Maliketh.
The black flames wielded by the apostles are channeled from this sword.

Spectral Flameblast - > Glostflame Ignition:

Skill: Black Flame Thrust
Performs a thrust attack infused with the flames of death. Additional normal attack input follows up with a sweeping motion in front, while strong attack strikes down and triggers an explosion.

Cleanrot Armor:

Armor of a Wing Knight, honorbound to Malenia, the Red Queen.
These knights, considered the strongest in the Shattering, descended upon General Radahn's army in an almighty battle, continuing to fight even as their bodies came apart. Only after their work was done did they allow themselves to succumb.
Still plagued by the fungal rot deployed in that battle, the armor itself is decaying.

Malenia's Armor:

Armor of Arbitress Malenia.

Haligtree Helmet:

Helm used by Knights of Miquella, the Golden Twin.

Silver Bracelets

Bracelets worn by females of the artificial lifeforms known as Children of Silver.
Formed of the same silver from which these beings are birthed, this is the only material that doesn't irritate their skin.
These maids constructed in Raya Lucaria headed to the Paling Tower, to enter Miquella's service.

Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman:

In the primitive age before the Erdtree, the ancient dragons ruled above all else, and were said to have protected their king as a veritable wall of stone.
And so it is that the shape of the dragon has become symbolic of all manner of protections.

Darksilver Veil - > Concealing Veil:

A talisman constructed from scraps of a pallid veil. Conceals the bearer's presence at great distances.
This veil is said to have been secreted away from the Eternal City and given over to a band of assassins for use in the foul plot that came to be known as the Night of Black Knives.

Whirling Swarm -> Spinning Weapon:

Skill: Whirling Swarm
Technique derived from Rennala, the Fertile. Conjures magic armaments in the air around the caster, with spinning blades hitting opponents multiple times. Can be used while moving.

Hand Ballista:

Known as the weapon Tragoth the Horned used in the three successive castle sieges he carried out alone. Has the power to knock any common foe off their feet, but few possess the power to wield this device.

Prince of Death's Pox:

It is said that this pustule came from the corrupted visage of the Prince of Death, a scion of gold who was the first of the demigods' dead.

Freezing Grease:

Solidified grease made using Rani's furtive arts. Craftable item.
The women of the Carian royal family look to the moon to guide their fates. Rani's is a moon dark and blanketed with rime.

Seat of the Sun Shield -> Sunlight Capital Shield -> Sun Realm Shield:

Iron shield allegedly made in ancient times. Now falling apart after countless battles, it has exhausted its use as a defensive armament.

Dark Moon Greatsword:

It is a longstanding tradition for Carian Queens to furnish their spouses with a Moon Greatsword.
Ranni's sigil is a full moon, cold and leaden, and this sword is but a beam of its light.

Helphen's Steeple:

Greatsword patterned after the black steeple of the Helphen, the lampwood which guides the dead of the spirit world.
The lamplight is similar to grace in appearance, but it is said that only those who died in battle can see it.

Sword of Milo:

Sinister greatsword fashioned from a giant's backbone. The spines along each side of the blade have been tapered to a fine point and mete out wounds like a lopsided saw-blade.
After being entrusted with it, the Dung Eater came to favor the weapon for its ability to inflict the most glorious pain he ever experienced.
Greatsword fashioned from the strong spine of a dragon. The fine, serrated blade lacerates its prey, causing severe hemorrhaging.

Father Marika's Hammer:

Club of simple design, made by fitting stone to a piece of lumber.
Its small size compared to most clubs make it easier to wield in close-quarters.

Marika's Hammer:

Club of simple design, made by fitting stone to a piece of lumber.
Its small size compared to most clubs make it easier to wield in close-quarters.
Warhammer wielded by Radagon. Forged in the age of gods, it harbors colossal magic power.
Stone hammer made in the lands of the Numen, outside the Lands Between. The tool with which Queen Marika shattered the Elden Ring and Radagon attempted to repair it.
The hammer partially broke upon shattering the Ring, becoming splintered with runes.

Silver Mirror Shield:

Silver shield of the Arbor Sentinels, who tended to the sacred tree of Miquella, son of the gods. Offers high resistance against magic.

Waning Moon Halberd -> Ripple Crescent Halberd:

Unique weapon wielded by young albinaurics, the blade is said to be modelled after the partial image of a ripple created by a droplet hitting water.

Night's Cavalry Armor:

Armor of the sinister knights known as the Hands of the Fell Omen. Blackened in color by dried bloodstains.
Appearing as if from nowhere atop horses draped in funereal black, these shadowy knights were said to have doggedly hunted down champions of the Shattering.

Bloodflame of the Dynast -> Bloodboon:

Cast dripping blood from other world offering

Holy Inferno Greatsword:

Large katana used by Giant's Fire Monks. The characteristic blade has the motif of flickering flames.

Silura's Tree:

Siluria's Tree, weapon of one of the two honored as foremost among the knights of the Crucible.
The essence-like matter that formed into the Erdtree was not unlike the Crucible, after which this spear is patterned. As such, it is imbued with an ancient holiness.

Ordovis' Greatsword:

Greatsword of Ordovis, one of the two honored as foremost among the knights of the Crucible.
This sword is imbued with an ancient holiness. Its scarlet tint exemplifies the nature of primordial gold, said to be close in nature to life itself.

Page Garb:

A fine outer garment made from thick cloth. Costume of pages who serve the nobility.
Among the highborn, those with naturally smaller physiques were considered to lack the full blessing of the Erdtree, and thereby trained as pages. There were said to be many among their number who positively brimmed with potential.

Ash of War: Erdtree Vow -> Golden Vow:

This Ash of War grants an armament the Skill: Oath of Sunlight.

Ash of War: Imbue Holy -> Sacred Oath:

This Ash of War grants an armament the Skill: Sacred Vow.

Ash of War: Haligtree Vow -> Shared Order:

This Ash of War grants an armament the Skill: Sacred Prayer.

Ash of War: Seppuku:

This Ash of War grants an armament the Skill: Bloodlust.

Sacred Bubble -> Oracular Bubble:

Skill: Glintstone Froth
Blow on flute to release a frothing magic orb that floats through the air towards enemies.

Eye of Flame -> Flamespit:

Skill: Giant's Roar
Device built into the shield launches projectiles that deal fire damage and explode on impact.

Bloodhound's Step:

Skill: Blink
Caster dodges at high speed, appearing almost invisible for a moment. Travels farther and has a longer period of invulnerability than quick step.

Storm of Darkness -> Waves of Darkness:

Skill: Magic Eruption
Fire a magic bolt into the ground, which then erupts into a sorcerous fissure.

Golden Slam:

Skill: Body Drop Burst
Jump high into the air and channel powerful magic into the ground, causing roots to erupt in all directions.

Gravity Rain -> Rain of Arrows:

Skill: Meteor Shower
Arrow fired upwards arcs and rains down on enemies from above. Especially useful against tightly grouped enemies.

Fringefolk's Rune:

Even now, runes are still imbued with the power of gold. Do you see the Erdtree towering o'er?

Lowlander's Rune:

Grace was brought to the very fringes and lowlands of the Lands Between. And with the Golden Order came the weight of its history. A history of conquest and subjugation.

Golden One's Rune:

Those born at the base of the Erdtree are blessed. At least, such is the blind belief of those dwelling in the capital.

Antient's Rune:

The grace of gold blessed those who were first to serve it with the most vivid coloration.

Hero's Rune:

The Numen are said to have come from outside the Lands Between, and are in fact of the same stock as Queen Marika herself.

Scapegoat Bairn -> Omen Bairn:

A doll, tinged with many years worth of curses.
Use FP to cause an explosion around the wielder, sending floating curses after nearby enemies.

Miranda's Prayer:

A doll fashioned in the appearance of an anthropomorphized miranda flower. While many revere it as a holy object of worship, it does not belong to the golden order, and thus has pagan origins.
Use FP to summon pillars of light around the wielder, damaging nearby enemies.

Serpent's Amnion:

Amniotic sac that held man-serpent roe in its mother's womb.
Among man-serpents there are some with particularly intelligent roe. The amnion is known to never dry out, retaining moisture indefinitely. It is revered among man-serpents as a holy object of worship.

Starlight Amber -> Amber Starlight:

Light from pale blue stars that rained from above. Its afterglow remained in the earth as shards. This condensed light glitters with an amber hue.
Some merchants may part ways with their wares in exchange for this.

Chrysalid's Memento:

An item left behind by the grafted ones.
Pupafication means death. The truth must be known.

Imbued Sword Key:

A key to the door on top of the great belfry.

Cursemark of Death:

The centipede scar stigmata, carved on the Prince of Death. Sought by Phia.

Discarded Palace Key:

An old key cast in the shadow of calamity. It unlocks the chest in Rennala's room.

Shabriri's Woe:

Disturbing likeness of an old noble whose eyes were destroyed. The edges of his mouth are upturned in an almost flirtatious manner.
Attracts enemies to your position.
The man, named Shabriri, was born without pupils. Known to be a great lover of the grape, a sickness in the form of a red colored chaos was said to have come to dwell beneath his eyes. Eventually, his pupil-less eyeballs were crushed by other men, and he was driven to the gloomy southern peninsula.

Daedicar's Woe:

Disturbing likeness of an old noble whose skin was flayed. He smiles with a serene tenderness.
Increases damage taken.
This soft-featured man's name was Daedicar, and he was one of Captain Rykard's paramours, as well an attendant in his Inquisition.
He would test new methods of torture first upon himself, making a gift of his pain and first-hand knowledge to the one he loved.

Albinauric Pot:

Craftable with a magic cracked pot. The magic sealed within separates the target from the grace of the Golden Order.
Temporarily disable healing using the sacred flask within the affected area.

Drawstring Soporific Grease:

Solidified grease made using St Trina's jealously guarded arts. Craftable item.
A short string is attached to this lump. Quickly coats weapon, inflicting sleep.
The Saint of the Cradlesong has become the very symbol of lost repose, and the feeble of heart were powerless to resist her kindness even upon the battlefield.

Deathroot:

A trimming from a young sapling of the death tree that often form on shards of the Rune of death.
Sought after by Gurranq, the beast clergyman.

Sellen's Primal Glintstone:

Glintstone sealed within Sellen's body.
The surface is covered with vein like red lines, with it slowing coming to resemble amber after many years.

Godrick's Great Rune:

Godrick's empty rune shell void of light and color.
It may regain its light and color upon having an audience with the Two Fingers at the tower of gods.

Great Rune of the Unborn:

A large rune holding the power of rebirth. Allows one to be reborn with a different appearance if handed to Rennala.

Old Fang:

A rarely-seen specimen of beast fang. These multiple, overlapping fangs grow from a single root.
In times long past, life was a crucible of competition. This fang harkens back to those days. Ground into powder for use as medicine.

Hidden Plumage:

Rarely-seen dark plumage found inside the wing.
Death's bearers were once said to have taken the form of birds, symbolized by these black feathers.

Turtle Neck Meat:

Turtle meat is said to boost virility, but none in the Lands Between seem to have much appetite for it these days. In Lands Between, the urge to reproduce has waned long ago.

Faded Erdleaf Flower:

A flower that forms from the souls of fallen soldiers and grows where countless many lay rest.

Dewkissed Herba:

A white leaf that only grows in the dark underground, void of sunlight. It is perpetually covered in droplets resembling morning dew. It glows faintly, like stars at night.

Crystal Bud:

A parasitic plant that uses wounded trees as seedbeds. Commonly found throughout the Lands Between

Sacramental Bud:

A leaf bud that is known to heal scarlet poison.

Root Resin:

Resin secreted from the roots of the Greattree. Material used in crafting items.
The roots of the Greattree drive far and wide through the earth of the Lands Between. They were once entwined with the roots of the Erdtree, or so they say.

Golden Centipede:

The remains of a golden centipede. Symbol of the rune of death.

Oracle Envoy Ashes:

Spirit ashes. Summons the spirits of four Golden Order dissenters from nearby a rebirth monument found throughout the land. (Summoning consumes FP.)

Clayman Ashes:

Spirit ashes. Summons the spirits of two runestarved from nearby a rebirth monument found throughout the land. (Summoning consumes FP.)

Lone Wolf Ashes:

These wolves were chased from their pack, and later found company with a human outcast—a fellow hunter. Wolf spirits overwhelm enemies with their agility, aiding the summoner in combat.

Petition for Help:

Online multiplayer item. Receipt of a plea for help to the maidens of the Finger Reader.
Summons a Broken Finger Stalker from another world to face an invading Broken Finger.
Maidens of the Finger Reader speak in hushed tones about the loathsome, traitorous Broken Fingers and the dangers of their base invasions.

Broken Finger Stalker Contract:

Online multiplayer item. Record of contract with the maidens of the Finger Reader.
Be summoned to the world of a player who has been invaded by a Broken Finger.
The Broken Fingers have betrayed the Finger Reader. They are a cancer that afflicts the ties that bind the Tarnished to one another. They must be excised, and eradicated.

Primal Glintstone Blade:

The old sorcerers would slice open their hearts with these blades to remake their souls in glintstone, and thus did they die.

Darksilver Veil -> Concealing Veil:

A talisman constructed from scraps of a pallid veil. Conceals the bearer's presence at great distances.
This veil is said to have been secreted away from the Eternal City and given over to a band of assassins for use in the foul plot that came to be known as the Night of Black Knives.

Blaidd's Lupine Visage -> Black Wolf Mask:

Helm made with the head of an old wolf

Blackflame Monk Hood:

Mail helm of white iron links covering a headband engraved with flames. Attire of the Godskin Monks.

Sage Hood:

Hood of a travelling musician gripped by death.

Crucible Axe Helm:

The conduits that cover this armor seethe with the power of life's crucible; that which coursed through the Erdtree in its primordial form.

Wing of Astel:

Said to be taken from the remains of a being born of the dark that assailed an Eternal City.

Moonveil:

Katana forged of glintstone.
Masterpiece of an albinauric swordsmith.
Light enwreathes the blade when sheathed, earning it the name "Moonveil"

Nox Flowing Hammer:

Mace shaped like a hanging metal droplet wielded by monks of the eternal cities.
Forged from the liquid metal from which silver tears originate, it is thoroughly tempered until hardened.

Watchdog's Crosier:

Great hammer wielded by golems protecting the Undercapital Labyrinth. Extraordinary strength is required to wield something so heavy.

Sacred Flame Torch -> Ghostflame Torch
Crucible Horn Shield:

Greatshield inlaid with rune blessings,

gifted by Queen Marika herself.

Credit for Data: Garden of Eyes
Will be updating this post as I dig through more data.

Boys! Roderika's quest, and her Crimson hood. On the wiki it says the hood is available after you complete her quest, that's wrong, it's actually available as soon as Roderika progresses from Stormcliff. This will be important.
When you meet Roderika she tells you about the "chrysalids", the people that were traveling with her and are now lost due to being grafted.
In the castle, in the small outside room with the 2 dogs and the pile of bodies next to the dining room with the scion, you find Chrysalid's Memento, implying this pile of bodies are the people Roderika is talking about.
If you take this back to Roderika, she tells you that maybe she'll go to the roundtable hold, to find her purpose(Side note, this "finding one's purpose" is a theme in this game that's better left for another time.).
Now think about this. She says she'll try to get to the roundtable hold. I thought about it. We know, that you can only get to the "Roundtable Hold" if you get invited and teleported there somehow. So how is Roderika gonna get there?
I'll tell you how. She'll try to walk. Not to the roundtable hold the graced tarnished go to, but to the actual physical location of the roundtable hold, in leyndell, because that's where the roundtable hold actually is. The physical location, is in Leyndell. The roundtable hold YOU visit, and the other tarnished guided by grace is more like "The dream" in Bloodborne. It's an outside the world thing that doesn't exist in the physical space, at least in this dimension.
How the fuck do I know?
I'll tell you how. How can Roderika reach Leyndell from Stormcliff?There are 2 ways, 1) She can either take the side road or 2) Go through the castle.
Now I assume she tries to take the side road. If she tries to go to the side road what does she find? A finger reader crone telling her "The bridge is broken but why worry, the castle is right over there". So she goes through the castle, AND DIES IN IT.
Wait what? she's dead?
YES. After you move to Liurnia, her red hood can be found on the same pile of corpses that you found the memento on, but only if you opened the main gate, and we can confirm it's specifically hers since she no longer wears it in the roundtable hold and the item states " Roderika never once saw the guidance of grace. "
So what does this mean about this world, the player character, the other tarnished? Roderika seems to die and be teleported to the hold, the version of the hold that only guided by grace tarnished get to, having never once seen the guidance of grace, where it is found that she has a knack for spirits. Is she a spirit? Is she actually dead or am I wrong? I have no idea. You try to explain it to me! :)
​
I'm assuming if you give her the memento but don't open the main gate, her hood will be available on the side road, but that's just speculation and I can't be arsed to restart right now just to see that.. If any of you are at a point in the game that can test and confirm if the item appears on the side road or not at all if you move to liurnia without opening the castle's main gates I'd appreciate it.
​
Quick Edit based on comments: 1)Roderika still wears the hood when she moves to the hold, removes it after being taught spirit tuning. 2)If Roderika is not interacted with until you move on to Liurnia, you can find a golden seed where she was sitting, just like if you kill Kenneth Haight before his quest is done.

Just off the coast of the landmass called Africa, on the bridge of the sacred galactic temple, the leader of the Ethereal Invasion Force pondered on the events of the past solar cycle. This new race, these humans, seemingly weak and vulnerable, had managed to become quite the challenge. Despite being such a separate and diverse race, their governments had come together to form a united front against the threat from above. An enemy unknown to them.
"XCOM..."
Now they feel a surge through the psionic network, a powerful omen as humanity proves themselves worthy of the effort and cost of this war. They utilze the vernacular of the Butcher, a human female named Vahlen, and drive the majesty of their position into the mind of this volunteer: they are the outstanding...the supreme...the "Uber" of the Ethereals.
"At long last...YOU have succeeded...where WE have failed..."
This human, this "Delta Two", most assuredly possesses the Gift. A power that is on par with that of the Uber Ethereal. How incredible the past solar cycle has been, and how dizzying the success of the humans in so short a time.
It initially seemed like yet another failed experiment, when the humans had their first sorty with the first wave of test troops: a massacre that left only one of their own victorious. Those first few months the humans seemed to struggle against even the most basic Sectoid, and were sure to be slaughtered by Thin Men. Floaters killed with their usual impunity, and the terror of the Chrysalids ravaged many human cities. True, XCOM had small victories here and there, but nothing that indicated humanity was anything special.
Then the humans began to take captives. Somehow, their Butcher found a way to extract useful information from the minds of the abduction crews and scouting parties. It was then that humanity began to display their growing tenacity.
First came the improvements in their armaments and defenses, as humans utilized their limited war prizes to gird themselves more effectively against the growing threat. Then came the hybrids, a desperate gamble against the oncoming hordes, where the humans of XCOM used the Ethereals' genetic bonding serum to introduce the genetic materal of their own enemies within their very bodies. Soon after came the cybernetic warriors, a marriage of flesh and metal; hulks of alloy and elerium that would rival the Berserker and Mechtoid. The humans had bodies malleable and various, able to incorporate such foreign elements so effectively. They were not above allowing the enemy within themselves, all for the sake of possible victory. This was an interesting display, but it did little to convince the High Council that they could be more than useful genetic stock to improve the current hordes at their command.
But then the humans managed to do something that the others races had come no where close to achieving. In only half a solar cycle, the humans mounted a surgical assault on the Ethereals' terrestrial base of operations. A research facility, where successfully abducted test subjects could be studied, vivisected, and liquified to meet the needs of the campaign. With only a small team of six warriors, the humans managed to not only take the facility, but to defeat a Sectoid Commander, one of the very beings that had once made them its playthings not so long ago.
It was then that some members of the Council began to worry that perhaps these humans just might pose an actual threat. The response was swift and staggering: a full tactical assault at the very heart of XCOM. They managed to survive, but not without great costs. Their numbers were halved, and global support was shaken. There were those in the Council who believed that XCOM would crumble, and once more their efforts would fail to bear fruit.
They were answered by a human space craft, created in the image of the Ethereals own spacecraft, firing plasma weaponry at supply barges and large scouting vessels. These "Firestorms" soon protected every landmass, negating the arial advantage the Ethereals had been relying on. Not even battleships could guarantee success against this new threat. The members of the High Council took it upon themselves to lead the offensive personally, hoping to subvert the new gains of XCOM. Then everything changed when the personal stealth scouting craft of one of the lower members of the Council, Ethereal Praxis, was discovered and shot down. Perhaps the humans had only been lucky, and their attempt to overtake Praxis would be thoroughly thwarted.
The remaining security force did not see the warrior shooting concentrated plasma bolts from far beyond the treeline, nor the assault of humans bearing armor and plasma weaponry that matched that provided to only the Elite of the security forces. Praxis met their end in a manner most vicious: being pummeled and launched against the wall of their craft by the kinetic strike module of a cybernetic warrior.
Many more members of the Council would fall to XCOM, as their warriors began to discover and develop psionic abilities. Heavy Floaters became target practice, Sectopods were only distractions, Muton Elites their psionic playthings. It soon came to pass that - even with every advanced unit at their disposal - Ethereals were met with either death, capture, or - in one horrifying case - mental domination by a mere human.
It seemed too good to be true for the Uber Ethereal. No species had ever showed this much raw potential, this mix of physicality, intelligence, ferocity, and psionic capacity, all at once. The final piece fell into place this day, three hundred and sixty five rotations, a full solar cycle since the initial invasion, when a psionic warrior volunteered to activiate the transponder to the Ethereals' psionic network.
A final test must be administered.
The Uber Ethereal uncloaks the Templeship; its majesty and imposing mass shake the very planet and project the final challenge to XCOM. It does not take them long to send an aircraft bearing one last surgical strike force. One last opportunity to confirm the Uber Ethereal's hopes.
As the strike force makes their way to the bridge, the Uber calls out to the Volunteer, delivering the invitation to approach their impending legacy.
"You hear our voice, New One, now listen well… Long have we watched… and waited. So many promising subjects, so many failed efforts. And now, after untold trials, the New One emerges to face the rigors of our collective… An enduring physical form, paired with an equally adept mental capacity – the rarest of traits, finally within our grasp."
The Uber sets up a gauntlet for the Volunteer to test their newfound power against the now useless creatures that made up a once imposing and horrifying strike force.
They slaughter the Sectoids, cowards who could never use their psionic potential to assert themselves against the Ethereal threat. They dismantle the Cyberdisks and their Drone counterparts; the Volunteer laughs as he pulls them apart with a psychic rift.
"It is as we hoped… the New One has surpassed all that have come before… and with such great confidence… so skilled with the Gift."
The Floaters are obliterated by a cybernetic warrior. Their inferiority made painfully clear as they explode from the beam of her particle cannon. The Chrysalids seem to throw themselves in to walls of debris fired from an alloy cannon as they attempt one last hopeless assault. The Thin Men fall quickly to a hybrid warrior, their genetic enhancements allowing them to render the formerly swift and deadly invaders impotent of any lethality. The Mutons are their playthings, and are quickly dispatched as they involuntarily obliterate themselves with grenades. The two Sectopods, weapons meant to subdue and conquer, are quickly rendered to piles of scrap as orbs of concentrated plasma hum and explode between their legs; launched from outside their targeting range.
The Uber Ethereal has two Elite Mutons guard the door to the bridge, serving more as a signal to progress than any real measure of security. The Uber Ethereal addresses the volunteer as they efficiently dispatch the Elites with one more rift.
"The New One continues to surge… to prove that this was the worthy path, that we were justified in our efforts. This will bring about our redemption, and usher in our future…"
A thousand hopes will soon be fulfilled. A thousand failures shall soon be redeemed. These humans, once so frail and impotent, have proven themselves worthy of the Gift. Worthy to be the new hosts that the Ethereals have been seeking for eons.
"Behold the greatest failure… of the Ethereal Ones…" They say as the warriors of XCOM enter into the sanctuary. "We who failed to ascend as they thought we would. We who were cast out. We who were doomed to feed on the Gift of lesser beings… as we sought to uplift them… to prepare them… for what lies ahead."
The Uber is joined by their Lieutenants, Secun and Tertia, and the royal Elites. The XCOM warriors take up defensive positions as the Uber Ethereal continues.
"The hunt draws to a close. It was not a vain undertaking… but a necessity, as our physical form has grown… ineffective. Our search for a perfect specimen was driven by our own crippling limitation, and now, at long last…"
The Uber is cut short by the shrieks of Tertia being attacked by their guard, followed soon by the final death wail as a concentrated plasma bolt pierces their torso.
This isn't right. This isn't the will of the Uber! Do they not realize they lack the vision and understanding to properly wield this power?!
"This is not your path! Not your purpose! You need our guidance to hone this power… without us, what are you?"
The Uber shields their fragile body as orbs of plasma detonate, enveloping Secun in a fiery display of viscera and rebellion.
"What are we?!" shouts the volunteer, putting his hands to the temples of his head.
Another concentrated blast hits the Uber in his shoulder, their attempt to mind control one of the warriors foiled by the use of some sort of mind shield.
"WE! ARE! XCOM! WE WILL ALWAYS BE WATCHING!"
The Uber feels the psionic pressure building before feeling themselves being torn in pieces by the psionic rift that appears in front of them.
Ungrateful, unintelligent, unworthy worms! How dare they reject the Gift, the progress, the magnanimity of the Ethereals?! They who would have safeguarded the universe?! They who gave these humans the means with which to so effortlessly adapt and thrive! Do they think themselves greater than the mighty Ethereals? They who bring all under their dominion?! They who know the secrets of space and time?! No! This shall not stand!
As the Ethereal begins to feel their grasp on mortality slip, they send a psionic message across the cosmos, reaching back in time to warn themselves of XCOM and the unworthiness of humanity! Perhaps in this life the Uber shall fall to these lesser beings. But in another, these humans shall serve a higher purpose. As a final attempt to punish XCOM for their audacity, the Uber collapses the engine core, causing a chain reaction that will generate a singularity, obliterating humanity from this existence!

#############

As the bridge of the Ethereal templeship collapses around him and his team, Enrique "Delta Two" Vasquez orders his team to evacuate. As they run towards the door out, he is overcome by a premonition.
A singularity forms...Big Sky crashes and burns in the templeship hanger...the sun is blocked by the bright of the singularity as it envelops the templeship...civilians are thrown about as buildings are ripped from their foundations...the lucky ones are cut to ribbons by glass and debris before being sucked into the singularity...Earth is no more, replaced by the vacuum of space...
His eyes snap open, the bridge still stands...for now. His squadmates turn to call him onward.
"GO!" he shouts, sending a psychic wave to knock them clear as the doors lock shut, sealing Enrique in with his fate.
He never thought of himself a hero. Enrique was ever only a survivor. He survived that terrible day when Delta squad first encountered the alien menace. He survived the Chrysalids turning his friends into zombies. He survived that Berserker that came out of nowhere and would have ripped his head off were it not for a successful overwatch. He survived carrying a team of rookies as more experienced operatives cooked in MELD vats and underwent MEC augmentation to increase Earth's chances of survival. He survived when XCOM was invaded, and the governments of the world almost left them in the rubble were it not for the Commander talking them down. He survived sitting in that damn tube for a week and a half to see if he had psychic potential. He just survived the successful elimination of the "Uber Ethereal."
Now how was he going to survive this?
Enrique quickly ran over to the psionic terminal, it rumbled and shook as the templeship began to implode. He reached out, like he was putting hands on the psychic weave of the cosmos.
"Go up, you damn UFO, GO UP!!!"
As he strained his mind and braced his legs, Enrique could feel the ship moving spaceward.
"Just explode, just explode, just explode, just explode, just explode-"
He chanted it like a mantra, his thoughts becoming more base as he pushed deeper into the psionic weave. The bridge buckled and shook as the ornamentation cracked and fell around him.
"EVACEVACEVACEVACEVA-"
His eyes shot open once more, the darkness of space meeting his view as the ship gave one final heave before stopping just outside of the atmosphere. His body crackled with psionic energy, and in an instant he heard himself say
"GO!"

#########

On the memorial in XCOM HQ hangs the photo of the savior of Earth. Underneath is a plaque that reads:
Col. Enrique "Delta Two" Vasquez Last OP: OPERATION AVENGER MISSIONS: 32 X-RAYS KILLED: 118 STATUS: KIA - UFO EXPLOSION -THE VOLUNTEER THAT EARTH NEEDED- -THE FINEST OF XCOM- -HE WILL ALWAYS BE WATCHING

TLDR: There is no TLDR, just skip it.
Yeah I know that this is a topic that has been talked to death but I wanted to write down my thoughts anyway.
Investigation Order-Progeny, Sacred Coil, Gray Phoenix.
Difficulty- Expert (no encounter heals) (with tutorial).
So because I did the tutorial I got Verge, Godmother, Terminal, and Cherub. Zephyr was number five, Torque was number six, Patchwork number seven, and Shelter was number eight. I went into this game more or less blind, so I picked the agents that sounded interesting/I thought would compliment the squad I've already got. From my experience the agents are pretty balanced and it feels like you can essentially play whatever four you want, which is a plus.
Also worth mentioned is that I got all 8 to max rank and did their training, so I've test driven them to be comfortable enough to give my thoughts on them.
Cherub-Not a bad character but I used him sparingly. He was the only agent that used pistols in the squad and unlike Godmother he didn't bring enough damage to convince me to bother investing in pistols (which is fine as he's support), so I mainly took him on those hardelonger missions where he'd spend his turn shielding others and taking hits. For this reason I took Guard (+1 armor and become half-cover) and resonance fields (shield gives +15 aim) as that synergized best with how I used him. His final ability was redundant for the most part because Patchwork (more on her later) also holos on the breach without the setup. The bonus damage could be key in more damage heavy squads and I look forward to possibly taking him again and pairing him with a more aggressive team with the three I didn't get (I think they're aggressive anyway). I see his potential but he didn't gel well with my particular playstyle this run. His final training skill was meh for me because I never bothered to upgrade pistols.
Godmother- The main damage dealer of my playthrough. If I needed something dead she was the woman for the job. Scattershot is a bit difficult to actually use but absolutely deadly when it works. Alpha Strike is just a solid breach skill to bump her up the line so she can kill something before it acts. Took Flush, which I regret because I can count the number of times I used it on one hand, although to be fair she only ever bled out once during my campaign, so eh. Ventilate means even with shitty shots she can still do something (or blow up cars to double dip) and its downside of draining the shotgun can be mitigated with either ammo attachment or her final training skill where she reloads on kill shots.
I bought a reflex grip early on and whoo boy her damage potential climbed. Took CCS, which basically meant she was 'stuck' with an elite expanded mag the whole game, until I discovered what her final training skill was, but I'm glad I picked it. There's quite a few melee happy enemies in the game. Sacred Coil with their Chrysalids and Andromedons, psy zombies and mutons. I definitely got a lot of value out of it this run. Bonus points that you can rig it with Torque/Shelter and their reposition skills when enemies try to run. Overtime is just a solid skill that gives another turn. She's a nice all-rounder that's never terrible to take on any mission. Eventually got my hands on an epic that gave her Run N' Gun, which paired very well with how I used her. Doesn't have a lot of utility beyond shooting stuff, though. She also benefits a huge deal from ammo types. I got Talon rounds early because Progeny was my first act and combined with a superior laser sight from the market she did good damage. Picked up some bluescreens while doing Sacred Coil. One of my best buys.
Patchwork- Through dumb luck I picked her right when I was starting my Sacred Coil investigation and boy am I glad that I did. I assumed they'd be mostly an alien heavy faction, wasn't expecting them to be the robot faction. Even when I finished Sacred Coil I used her a lot for the third act, she's a great disablecrowd control option, and she meshed well with my playstyle. Probably close to my most used agent despite being pick number seven. Combat Scanner is amazing and can be used in any breach slot that isn't the first. +15 aim for an entire encounter really makes a difference. I ended up getting my hands on two epic assault rifles, both of which really benefitted with the extra aim. She used one that gave her banish, while Verge got one that gave him serial. Her main downside is that she's So. Fucking. Slow. I've seen people with those curved synthetic legs run fast as hell, they've gotta have some better shit in post-invasion Earth. Mitigated by playing hopscotch with Torque and Shelter.
Took the extra charge of combat Scanner and the skill that gives her jolt status effects. She carried the team pretty hard through the second act, being able to handle robotic enemies with ease or disabling tough enemies like Andromedons with Stasis while the rest of the team cleaned house. Her final training skills makes her an even better disabler with the extra range, and was a nice capstone. I don't know what the other three agents I didn't get to do but she feels like one of the best disablers in the game.
Shelter- Is the king of screwing with the turn order. I don't know the agent meta but I had a lot of fun using him, and that's what matters. Took Temporal Shift for manipulating the time line and Soul Storm was a no brainer because I had already finished Progeny when I picked him up. Plus with the way I played him he got shot a lot. Now if you've read this far you've probably got a pretty good idea on how I played this run. Lots of disables and manipulating the turn order, and he meshed well with that. Torque, Verge, Patchwork, and Shelter all have different ways of disrupting the flow of battle.His shift and Soulfire meant I could delay the turn of up to two enemies. That usually bought enough time for GodmotheTorque to get in there or for Patchwork to shut them down. Pairing him with Torque makes VIP/Escort missions a breeze, as long as they're positioned right you can hot potato anyone you want basically anywhere on the battlefield. It's a blast, if you haven't tried it yourself you should give it a spin. His final ability is really when he comes into his own though, as he gets a clone that doubles his amount of psyonic fuckery. With his final training skill and Soul Storm I learned to simply no longer care if he got shot, he'll get it back...eventually. The ol' Razzle Dazzle makes getting shot during breaches (happens a lot in the mid-end game) a lot less scary. Doubly so if I wasn't taking Cherub. So he ultimately became a weird vampiric off-tank that also screwed with the enemy and occasionally shot his gun. It was a fun time.
Terminal- I liked her, but as the game went on and I got more comfortable playing the game she became less and less necessary. Like Cherub she's useful for taking on the grindier 3 breach missions, but taking her and Cherub felt like complete overkill. She'd fit best in a more traditional tank n' spank playstyle where you just go all in on characters like Cherub (I think Axiom has a tank build, not sure as I didn't see him) and dodge tank Torque. As my team was focused on crowd control she was meh. Took pin down for more turn order manipulation and the +armor on the heal as she rarely was the one getting shot (it was Shelter). Her final training skill is decent but I already had Godmother to camp reinforcements spots with CCS (and then she'd get hot potatoed to Evac by Shelter and Torque) but it's not bad. Slap an Expanded Mag + Scope and watch her go to town, I figure. Also with Patchwork you can carry an insane amount of items (turncoat grenades are amazing). Also pretty slow.
**Torque-**Is a fantastic agent to have, assuming you've got a reflex grip. Seriously the difference between the two versions of her is night and day. Took the extra damage from binds and armored scales to double down on it. With a mach weave she becomes a nice dodge tank and if I took hard target that gets even crazier. If I pick her again I'm going for a tank n' spank Squad to see how that goes. She also has the benefit of going through vents without having to waste the armor slot, which is nice. Toxic greeting is a nice early game skill that basically does 5 (3+2) damage that can't miss, and her bind ability meant it was another enemy I could lock down and damage. Got my hands on a second grip thanks to a mission, and she and Godmother made a pretty mean team. Her final training skill means she can give an extra immediate action to anyone, which is incredible. Gets my vote as 'best' agent, but as I said earlier it feels like you can basically use whomever you want.
Verge-Was a pain in the ass to get his achievement. I wish I had known his final training gave his mindflay +1 damage. I threw a tough story mission by having four enemies in the network and still didn't get it the first time because I rolled 3 2s and got murdered. He shines the most in one encounter missions because his network 'resets' after each encounter. Tip that unconscious enemies stay in the network, so he benefits the most from tranc rounds (which I used a lot in the early-mid game for that sweet intel anyway). Took Crowdsource and Slam to double down on the network. He really came into his own when I found a rifle that gives him Serial. With a Laser Sight+ Expanded Mags/Autoloader, Talon rounds, and just a few in the network he can wipe whole rooms by himself with near perfect shots regardless of cover. You can swap in Tranc rounds if you don't want to kill off your own network in the chain, but by the time he might miss they'll only be a couple of people left anyway. Puppeteer is a nice room wiper too. With the one time use turn giving ability, Terminal's Cooperation and Torque's tongue you can really stack the network quickly to clear the room. It's a lot of work though.
Zephyr- Was pick number five and she carried Chimera Squad pretty hard through act one. Problem is she fell off just as hard in act two to the point where she was on permanent base duty when I found out what her final level/training where. Good luck getting a decent chain with reaper going with any consistency, not to mention it still loses damage with each kill. The fact that she never upgrades her weapon really hurts her. Such a risky playstyle isn't really worth it when guns start to outscale her, and they get attachments. Took the +1 damage perk and momentum on CC/subdue perk. Man in act one with CC and the damage perk she could clear out whole rooms by herself, and the odd poor fool that managed to survive was usually easy pickings for everyone else. I really wanted to keep using her, but she fell off a cliff in the midgame. Take her as agents 1-5, or not at all, I say. If I had to pick an agent to buff it would be Zephyr. Give her gauntlets an upgrade line, or stick it onto something else, or make a few melee specific attachments, something like that.
Had a blast. Can't wait to try out the three I missed.

Next Thursday, Audible is releasing a new recording of The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, narrated by Noah! A few fans confirmed directly with Audible that it is this Noah Reid, since Noah doesn't have a publicist to make announcements about his new work.
https://preview.redd.it/2b21gb96pt081.png?width=950&format=png&auto=webp&s=90d4129ea639f5c3670c39ea652c4cb622a63d38

It's hard for me to explain this. Has anyone ever read the book "The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham? I feel like the notion of "thought-shapes" as explained in the book is the best way to describe synesthesia sometimes, it's like you see it, but you don't. You detect it, but isn't quite a 'picture in mind's eye'. It's like an extra sense that's hard to explain.
But anyway my point is, colour-shape-texture associations in flavour make me a better cook. I have a mental 'shape' (which feels more dimensional than just visual, sort of like proprioreception) with 4 quadrants - sweet, salty, spicy, acidic - and when I'm cooking something I can tell when the flavour looks wrong. I am detecting my taste test with my tongue, obviously, but it feels like more parts of my brain are activated - in my head it's like I'm looking at a crooked painting, or I'm standing in the wrong spot. Something visual and often 3-dimensional is wrong with what I'm eating, and correcting that makes for a tastier food. Insert image of Thanos saying 'perfectly balanced, as all things should be'.
On a side note, I will say a lot of my colour-flavour associations are a bit biased, like red=spicy which is cultural not just mental. (But also, I think a lot of people have synesthesia associations that are culturally influenced, such as Red=A being so popular when these two things are both considered 'first' of their list in western culture)

Capcom invited you to their headquarters, and since your a mega-fan of the games, they wanted you to create their next big game. They will ask you is it First Person? Third Person? is there an online mode? Are their recurring characters or new people? Who is the main villain? Etc.
Here is mine, for example, Resident Evil: Desolation
It is a side-story in the Resident Evil universe following the whereabouts of Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine during Resident Evil 6, picking up where Revelations 2 left off. It also reveals the aftermath of Jill's ordeal in Resident Evil 5, where she served as Albert Wesker's test subject for Uroboros during her extended absence. Ada Wong is also featured along with two new characters, Tripp Haslem (a future villain) and Mike Gibson Jill's ex. The former appears in the main story alongside Claire and Jill, marking the first-ever canon meeting between all three lead females. It is, in many ways, a reimagining of the Survival Horror themes of Resident Evil, offering a unique perspective for the franchise. It borrows many queues from the Silent Hill games, such as foggy environments, darkened, asylum-like hallways and rooms with a limited light source, and psychologically profiling you as you play, altering in-game elements different choices and actions. Thus becoming more of a Psychological Survival-Horror game.
Directed by Resident Evil: Revelations 2 director Yasuhiro Ampo and Silent Hill 2 director Masashi Tsuboyama. Features unique elements never-before-seen in a Resident Evil title, taking on the moniker of a Psychological-Survival Horror game akin to Konami's Silent Hill franchise. It also lends players the choice of panoramic "fixed" camera angles from classic games or the over-the-shoulder view of the more recent entries. A special third-person V.R. mode-utilizing 3D cinematic visuals-for the PlayStation V.R., H.T.C. Vive, and Oculus Rift headsets are also available.
After launching an attack on a Panama cruise ship containing Uroboros survivors during a TerraSave rescue mission. Alex Wesker, reborn through Barry Burton's daughter, Natalia, kidnaps Jill Valentine from the BSAA testing facility where she's undergoing treatment for wounds suffered by her brother years ago. Jill and Claire soon wind up on opposite ends of the top-secret New Umbrella Research Facility on Zheabus Island, where they find themselves in the middle of a deadly experiment along with the ship survivors: Alex Wesker's T-Incubo (Latin for "Nightmare") Virus, created from mixing the T-Veronica virus with deadly hallucinogens coursing through the facility walls.
Many of the core Resident Evil elements return, such as exploration, combat, item management, limited ammo, and puzzles, but the traps and laboratory halls/rooms are so cleverly designed that solving one puzzle. Often leads right into another, potentially setting off a gadget in the process. For instance, facing an unpredictable wave of smoke-screened monsters. Both real and hallucinatory alike as a result of the various hallucinogenic aerosols:
Toxin A: A red, smoke screening toxin. Can create hallucinatory monsters as well as covet real ones in the area.
Psychosis Toxin: A white abstract mist. It can sometimes create an outline of zombie/monster bodies.
Green House Toxin: A more potent version of the Psychosis Toxin. It is a green gas that creates illusions of zombie-like faces in the background, making monster attacks unpredictable.
Nightmare Toxin: A light blue gas that can transform the environment around you into a nightmarish dystopia. It can often be deactivated via a hidden valve, allowing the area(s) in question to revert to real-time.
New to the game are conditional health mechanics. The character's perception is altered in response to hallucinogenic stimuli while navigating through each area. Like the layout of hallways, rooms and monster designs are similarly affected differently depending on the choices made due to the presence of hallucinogens, including distortions within said hallways/rooms such as windy psychedelic halls. They may affect the character in other ways, too, such as the presence of blurred vision, screeching, echos, demonic voices ringing inside the character's head, audible heartbeats accompanied by controller vibrations, baby laughter, and apparitions. These effects reflect the psychological mind games Alex Wesker plays on each character throughout the game. New items, such as medicines, are also implemented as a countermeasure as the character will occasionally experience gradual heart attacks and seizures linked to the player's heart rate. Each character is also equipped with a heart rate monitor.
Game Modes: Campaign: Main Story Mode featuring Jill, Claire, and Ada. Raid Mode: Complete missions and run and gun your way to the endpoint of various maps using various characters. Mercenaries: Amass as many points as possible in the given time limit, expand time by smashing time crystals. Survival: Enter a simulated reality from a hub room via Alex's Red Queen avatar. Withstand and kill as many enemy monsters as possible until you die. Monsters grow larger, faster, scarier in appearance, and greater in number as you advance through intervals. Lost in Nightmares Redux: A first-person, VR-compatible game mode set inside a dark mansion. Collect items and weapons and battle your way through a series of haunting puzzles, apparitions, and enemies (including Alex herself) as you try to escape the mansion in one piece. There is also DLC's:
Devastation: A bonus chapter is set after the main campaign. Venture through the city of Rhysport as one of two new characters: Chet Allison and Kyle Calahan, each with interwoven campaigns as you fight the infection head-on. Hijack A prequel chapter to the main game. Infiltrate the rival organization, Tentsu's ship as either Varuda or Birdwoman, while completing deadly puzzles and encountering Molded B.O.W.s. Round up the hostages from an Umbrella hit list (using non-lethal means) as Varuda or find and obtain the Mutamycetes ample to synthesize the hallucinogenic compound needed to complete the T-Incubo virus as Birdwoman. Hot Pursuit: A free DLC prequel campaign. During her time as Bird Lady in Resident Evil 5, she plays Jill carrying out evil missions for Albert Wesker.
For the enemies
Phantasm-Hallucinogenic monsters. They come in one of three forms: hallucinatory forms of attacking monsters, molded bodies made of a dark mass of demonic zombie girls.
Zombies-T-Incubo-infected humans mutated due to having a compatible Blood Type. They appear more horrific to hallucinogen-induced infectees of the virus, donning extra appendages and exposing cartilage and muscle tissue in grislier detail.
Incubo-T-Incubo-mutated husk-like B.O.W.s engineered by Alex Wesker and the mainline of B.O.W.s in the game. They have swollen, demon-like faces (as a nod to the mythical incubus creatures) with triangular depressions in both cheeks and their mouth encased in webbing. They possess claws and an acid spray attack as their means of attack.
Condemned-A pair of humanoid chrysalid variant monsters spliced together from their hip, forming a horrific hybrid. They have two mutant heads welded together by giant blob extensions, exposing many layers of their flesh.
Cujo-A zombie dog in the form of a T-Incubo-mutated wolf. The name is a portmanteau of Cujo, the famous dog, and Incubo.
Creeper-T-Incubo-mutated Lickers from previous games. They don extra appendages and large mandibles, similar to the Xenomorph. In addition, to crawl up and down walls and ceilings and to have multiple forms of attack (leaping, swiping, and biting their prey), they also spew out a deadly toxin that can poison the enemy. Manta-Parasitic scorpion B.O.W. engineered from Las Plagas.
Necromongul-As the name implies, they are demonic ghoul-like monsters. They are purely situational monsters that appear in the unknown crevices and attempt to grab and drag you from underneath bathroom stalls or out of dark corners and hallways before attempting to devour you.
Manne-kill-Alex's evil killer dolls stashed in various hidden enclosures of the nightmarish facility. They are mainly featured in Claire's Nightmare but can be found in select portions of the existing research facility, often appearing randomly.
Pig Head-As the name suggests, they are mutated pig head monsters infected by the T-Incubo virus. They don mutated nostrils, jaws, and ears and glowing pupil-less eyes and are clad in a long, bloody trench coat.
Helling: Airborne embryonic parasite B.O.W.
Eradicator: Human-controlled hosts to the Helling parasite. They have a much more outwardly mutant appearance than their T-Incubo-infected (zombie) counterparts.
Molded: Creatures created by the Mold bacterium possessed by Umbrella rival, Tentsu.
Sub-Bosses
Cadavra-A bloodied skeletal corpse B.O.W. barring maggots in its exposed skull. It is, in many ways, similar to the Xenomorph from Alien: Isolation in that it can't be killed and stalks the enemy around the lab at various intervals.
Magdala-A giant wall-crawling leech B.O.W hanging from the ceiling. Dons multiple mutants, tentacle-like mandibles and tongue, and a horrific LickeNemesis-like skull separate its agape mouth. (NOTE: this is more of a "situational" boss similar to the Alligator in Resident Evil 2).
Deathala-A giant tentacled B.O.W. that feeds off a toxic compound, Ven Muse, given to him by Jill while completing her tests. As a result, she continually grows larger and larger.
Baroness-A burning demon lady, like Cadavra, also can't be killed when encountered in the main campaigns and stalks her prey, albeit through doorways instead of halls. However, in the Ada bonus campaign, she reveals her "true" form and can then be defeated conventionally.
Garuda: A masked Umbrella agent with supersoldier-like reflexes.
Bosses
Manjari-A giant, Uroboros-spliced arachnid-hivemind B.O.W., manifests multiple human corpses horrifically spliced into a single monster with the virus. Contains multiple mutant humanoid heads and spinal cords welded onto its body and blobs of Uro mass separating each of its joints. Each of its eight legs is conjoined by two mutant blob tentacles drenched in Uro mass.
Ripper-T-Incubo Tyrant variant. Possesses a thick, skeletal exterior, needle-like spikes on both arms, and a giant bone blade as a weapon.
Lyca-A mutant werewolf B.O.W. donning an exposed ribcage encased in Uroboros mass and a Plaga heart. It sprung to life when Tripp Haslem (FBC member encountered in the "A" campaign who "has bad memories of this place") was injected with the D.N.A. of the werewolf Jill encountered in Raccoon City shortly before the 1998 Spencer Mansion incident.
Juggernaut: A giant, multi-layered, regenerative husk B.O.W. encountered by Jill and Claire.
Enchantress: A bio-weapon bearing the appearance of a young, raven-haired, demonic zombie girl in a black dress. She is later revealed to be the new persona of Alex Wesker and her second after Overseer.
Mutant Oliver: A mutated Oliver Martin injected with a combination of the T-Phobos and C-Viruses and a Helling parasite.
Vishnu: A large crustacean/crab B.O.W. donning four mutated claw arms and three pincer tails welded together. Named after Vishnu, the multi-armed Hindu God from the Hindu scripture, Bhagavad Gita. NOTE: he is referenced in the main campaign via a cryptic message on the wall, which reads, "Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds," supposedly referring to Alex/Enchantress.
Merc: Short for mercenary, code-name given to the mole sent to infiltrate the Rhysport treatment facility.
Hydra: A multi-headed B.O.W. created by Umbrella rival, Tentsu to safeguard their ship as a last resort. It has nine distinct, severely mutated and disfigured, monster-like heads and exaggerated appendages.

Does anyone know how this ability actually works? I'm 6-7 combat missions in, and every time I use Battle Madness, Verge adds them to the network, they move from one piece of cover to another, and then it moves on. They never attack anything, they just shuffle around a little bit. This has led to wounds or KOs 2 or 3 times now, and it really feels like the ability is somehow bugged. It doesn't seem to matter what my target is, Purifiers, Guardians, Commandoes, whatever.
I would appreciate some insight if anyone has any.
EDIT: I think it might be something to do with enemy action economy. It's happened with multiple types of enemies, but mostly I notice it with purifiers. From poking around with it through saving and reloading to test it on different targets, I think maybe they can only take one action while berserk, and the purifiers don't have a standard gun attack, so they run into a position that would let them use their flamethrower on one of their allies, but then their mini-turn is over, and when their actual turn comes they immediately clear berserk. The one time I was able to battle madness a purifier that was already in position to flame an enemy (a Chrysalid, in this case) he obligingly roasted it.

Im sure any of you out there struggling have looked for advice on this game only
to find incredibly unhelpful advice amounting to "use grenades, high ground, and
rangers." After dozens of failed attempts (not counting gatecrasher), i want to
share what i have learned with others to make their attempts a bit easier.
​
If you wanna see some quality stuff, look up aurora xcom 2 on youtube. He has some
incredible challenge runs such as no cover legendary.
​
THE GRAND IDEA:
Lets break down what we actually need to do and what we need to get to beat
legendary and go from there.
​
We need to:
Complete the blacksite
Construct Shadow Chamber
skulljack an officer
skulljack a codex
complete the forge
complete psi gate
complete network tower
complete waterworld
​
When you break it down, there are only a few missions you actually have to do,
and most of them arent even tech locked. Most of the missions are not particularly
hard either, as they dont have time limits and no special boss enemies. With one,
massive exception...
​
Waterworld.
​
By far the hardest mission in the game, your campaign can basically be thought of
having 2 objective:
Keep the avatar project down
Have a team that can beat waterworld.
​
Everything else is supplementary to these two goals. I focused on things such as
completing guerilla ops, having high supply income, stuff like that in my early
runs. What i came to realize is these things often times dont actually further
your goals and strains resources and manpower.
​
Avatar project is mainly controlled through facilities and plot progression.
Since the avatar doom clock resets after you reduce the progress after the bar fills,
and it cannot raise during this time, you want to let it raise as much as possible.
The first time it fills, you buy yourself 28 free days. Every other time buys you 7
free days. The main difficulty will be having the intel and contact capacity for
reaching the facilities, and missions can make you lose the regions. Here is where a
little trick comes in. The game cannot take a region away from you if you havent
contacted it, so you can contact a region and scan as long as you want, then wait.
Even if you lose the connected regions, you already payed the intel and keep the
option to contact the region later. This allows you to branch out to hit facilities
when you need to, without having to deal with a constant stream of missions that
make you lose regions.
​
TIME TO GET TACTICAL:
Having covered the main idea on the strategy layer, lets get into the complicated
part, having a squad that can beat waterworld.
​
This involved 2 parts, surviving long enough to get the waterworld mission and
having the endgame squad to do it. As such, there are 2 main approaches you could
have to this. One is to focus on the early game above all else, and to simply
survive. The other is to build for the lategame to be able to do waterworld earlier.
While both are viable, focusing on the earlygame is much more important. This is for
2 reasons:
​
1: Setbacks in the early game often end the campaign, its very hard to lose lategame.
2: Getting a squad for waterworld isnt as difficult as it seems
​
The reason the squad isnt overly difficult to get is because the troops the game
gives you from scans and missions are set to be the same rank as your highest level
troop, meaning once you have a colonel, you will receive colonels. You also receive
more troops if you have less in your barracks, so you can thing out your low rank
troops to receive new ones if necessary.
​
​
SKIRMISHER START STRATEGY:
GTS
RING
PROVING
POWER (if needed)
TRAINING CENTER
INFIRM
​
Skirmisher start offers you their absurd HQ bonus from the start, which massive
accelerates your build order. You can double down with an engineer on a room
and the scan, or have a building with no engineer and excavate with him instead.
I rushing the ring to be better, since you can contact the other factions and
receive their hero units more quickly, but both are fine. Early proving ground allows
you to get essential bonuses in the frost bomb, hunter axe, bolt caster and sparks.
Alot of these dont scale the best, but they ensure survival and make timed
missions much easier through the whole game. The extra ammo types are also massive
boons, as well as the grenade upgrade. Skirmishers themselves also make early game
much more consistent with justice, total combat allowing grenade followed by a shot,
grapple for high ground and movement as well as shooting twice. Skirmishers scale
decently, but not nearly as well as the templar for the latergame. The biggest
issue with this strategy is that you can only have one templar from not selecting
them as your hq, and templars are easily the best units in the game.
​
Research:
Modular
Mag
Bio
Officer
Muton
stun lancer (if you have a stockpile of blademaster rangers)
gauss weapons
​
Simple mag weapon rush with a delay for proving ground in there. If you disagree
with the delay for plasma grenades before gauss weapons, it can be rearranged. Not
much to see here.
​
CLASS PRIORITIES:
​
Classes in terms of importance:
​
Grenadier, Ranger
Specialist
Sharpshooter
​
Ranger and grenadier are both incredibly good throughout the game, but early game
leans much more in favor of the grenadier given the short form missions and lack
of abilities. Rangers only become better at very high ranks due to bladestorm and
untouchable, but both are your mainstay classes for the entire game. I would
go harder on grenadiers early in the game.
​
Specialists are strange. They have potential to have high dps through overwatch
mechanics, but only at very high ranks. Their gun is below average and they have
mediocre aim. However, hacking is actually good enough to consider specialists
as a major unit. Not only for haywire protocol being amazing especially after the T2
gremlin from the mec autopsy, but combat protocol means early game mecs are much less
of a threat. The main thing is the bonuses from hacks in the missions are insane.
Anytime you can hack a tower, door, or box, consider it. Many of the bonuses are
extremely power. In addition to this, medics are also very useful for keeping
the strongest troops alive in dire situations, and aid protocol is always amazing.
Overall a strong unit, but i wouldnt bring more then 1.
​
Sharpshooters are quite simple. They are extremely good if leveled up into gunslinger
but leveling them there is not worth it. Amazing with if you receive one from a
mission or scan, but never try to level one up into a gunslinger.
​
I spoke on templars, so i will explain myself here. Templars have amazing abilities
such as psi storm, arc blade, and bladestorm giving them very high damage. But that
is not the main reason for their dominance. Parry is essentially stasis without a
cooldown, allowing them to absorb an enemies action for a turn. The very high damage
combined with amazing enemy control makes templars a must bring if you ever have one.
​
Reapers are nice for scouting but severely cut into your firepower. Remote start is
broken but situational. However, reapers main use is to cheese missions. You can
plant x4 in facility missions and evac the same turn, making them free. Kill
VIP missions are also free, but make sure you do not allow reinforcements to spawn
else the game will softlock in my experience. Make sure to evac right after you kill
the VIP. Blacksite can be cheese if you have a bondmate, walk them to the evac and
blow a hole in the wall with claymore. Use teamwork to take the vial then move to
evac on the same turn. Guerilla ops require you to kill all enemies for the reward,
but you still counter the dark event if you complete the objective and evac. Lastly,
they are able to cheese the Forge and network tower missions similar to blacksite.
Overall, reapers are amazing at these roles and killing boss enemies but little else.
​
XP AND ENDGAME PREP:
​
In order to rank up, you must get this many total kills on legendary:
Squaddie 1
​
Corporal 8
​
Sergeant 18
​
Lieutenant 40
​
Captain 70
​
Major 110
​
Colonel 175
​
There is also a hidden kill assist system. For every enemy that dies on a mission,
All soldiers gain a kill assist point. Once you get enough, the game internally
counts it as a kill. Specialists get 1/3 a kill from every assist, rangers and
faction units 1/4, grenadiers and sharpshooters 1/5. Note that the assists dont have
to actually be assists, any kill on the mission grants every unit an assist.
​
Going off of this, the average missions has 8-10 enemies on it, so lets average to 9.
Based on just kill assists, it will take around 3 missions for a specialist to get
to corporal, 6 for sergeant, 14 for lieutenant, 24 for captain, 37 for major, and
59 for colonel. Obviously units getting extra kills speeds this up, but specialist
Having a higher xp gain from assits means this is a general benchmark. What can be
observed from this, is that getting high rank units without the use of promotion
covert ops is nearly impossible. Most untis will hover at lieutenant, and captain
for troops that live a long time and get many kills. This means that you should
expect your troops to be built something like this:
​
Ranger: Blademaster, ShadowStep,Run And Gun, (BladeStorm). Ranger only has mobility
tools here, meaning he relies on talon ammo and crits to deal damage. Bladestorm is
a massive ability if they reach captain however, and they have +1 damage from hunter
Instincts in the GTS.
​
Grenadier: Shredder, Suppression, Holo Targeting, (Chain Shot). Grenadiers are the
only unit that has reusable shredding at low ranks making them a must bring.
Holo target is amazing as the enemies defense gets higher, and chain shot if acquired
is one of the best skills in the game. Grenadiers are fine as general soldiers but
specialist in weakening the strong enemies with high armor.
​
Specialist: Combat Protocol, Haywire Protocol, Field Medic, (Threat Assesment).
The main reason to bring these is for the medic and haywire protocol, with
combat protocol being very good on short missions where the limit of 2 uses isnt
significant. Overall not a class that is very high priority but great against robots
and near necessary vs chrysalids.
​
Sharpshooter: Return Fire, Lightning Hands, Quickdraw, (Faceoff). Long watch and
deadeye seem appealing, but snipers not being able to move and fire means the aim
penalties from squadsight are simply too much. At lieutenant a sniper will have
85 aim while receiving no weapon range bonus, a long watch shot takes this down to
60% hit chance. Deadeye will reduce the chance to 65, being rookie aim. This could
be justified with a advanced or superiors scope, or high ground, but both of those
are fairly situational and not extremely consistent. A tier 2 bond with spotter
can make using these sniper skills worthwhile at time, but the trend remains
of sharpshooters being a very high investment class. Lightning hands and quickdraw
are extremely strong if the enemy does not have armor, but terrible if they do have
armor. Worth bringing if you have one leveled, but its doubtful since they are a pain
to use before they receive these skills. Sharpshooters do have 2 incredibly strong use cases however, being used with a reaper in supply raid, blacksite, and avenger defense missions absuing squadsight
as these missions have no timer. The other is well known, gunslinger with bluescreen.
​
ENEMIES:
​
TROOPER: Always shoots. They overwatch from time to time, but i do not known what
determines this. It is not hit chance, as they will take 0% shots vs hunkered units.
​
OFFICER: Almost always prioritizes his mark over shooting. Should be killed right
away, but if they have to move to get in mark range they will not shoot at you
which should be considered. They VERY rarely use a grenade, but i wouldnt consider
this.
​
SECTOID: Always goes for shot on flanked unit, followed by psi zombie, followed by
mindspin. Rarely i have seen a sectoid prioritize psi zombie over a flanking shot.
Bring a flashbang for these guys, a bad mind control will end you early on.
​
STUN LANCER: Runs in your face to melee, goes for kills if ever possible. 15% of crit
combined with chance to knock the unit out means they should be killed first at all
costs. If you are met with a gatekeeper and a stun lancer, the stun lancer has a
higher chance of immediately killing a unit.
​
MEC: Prefers to use bombs if it can hit more then 2 enemies or break the floor.
This can be preferred as these very rarely kill. Otherwise just a trooper with
armor. Will rarely use supression if all of your units are in high cover.
​
MUTON: Mostly same behavior as mec, except they will always go for melee. If a unit
is stunned by the melee, the muton can instantly kill them using execute. They have
a 66% chance to counter melee attacks. The strategy for them is to not clump up and
do not allow them to move if they melee and stun a unit.
​
VIPER: Tounge pull does small amounts of damage with a high hit rate but not overly
threatening. Do no ever have clumped units especially all in high cover, or it will
use poison which is incredibly deadly. Poison spreads between adjacent units and
hits your accuracy, beware.
​
PURIFIER: Throws grenade at clumped enemies which is very threatening, otherwise
is a non threat.
​
PRIEST: Almost always goes for stasis. Treat them like a sectoid, keep a flashbang in
your pocket in case of mind control that they do later in the game. Very rarely
takes shots so low priority to kill in a pod.
​
SHIELDBEARER: Trooper on steroids, kill at all costs. The high armor and buff they
provide turns pods into a nightmare if allowed, and they always use it.
​
SPECTRE: Always goes for a clone on a unit, and if the original dies the clone dies.
Very low threat since they do not fire and have no armor.
​
BERSERKER: Not much to say, it charges and has high health. Dont kill them first,
as you likely could kill multiple other enemies in the time it takes to kill
a single berserker.
​
ARCHON: Must be killed the turn they appear, melee has very high chance to kill.
They have innate defense making them hard to hit, but not much strategy here.
​
ANDROMEDON: Extreme threat. Acid bomb if clumped, which is the most deadly of the
grenades normal enemies use. Very high damage and good aim makes them very lethal,
but the amount of hp they have means its difficult to kill them first. Like many
of the latergame enemies its a dps test, so not much strategy.
​
CODEX: Always uses psi bomb before actually attacking, meaning you should leave them
until after the attacking enemies. The clone does not happen if you kill the codex in
one attack, and sometimes does not happen for no reason i can observe. I assume it is
a chance.
​
SECTOPOD AND GATEKEEPER: These can be treated similarly, large stacks of health that
have AOE and high damage. Both are robotic, so bring bluescreen rounds.

Here are the nominations (and there are a lot this month):

The Princess Bride by William Goldman - 1973

What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.
Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.
What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.
In short, it's about everything.

The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle - 1968

Maidens who caught a glimpse of her glory were blessed by enchantment they would never forget. But outside her wondrous realm, dark whispers and rumours carried a message she could not ignore: "Unicorns are gone from the world. "
Aided by a bumbling magician and an indomitable spinster, she set out to learn the truth. but she feared even her immortal wisdom meant nothing in a world where a mad king's curse and terror incarnate lived only to stalk the last unicorn to her doom...

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin - 1968

Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth.
Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - 1985

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...

A Wrinkle in TIme by Madeleine L'Engle - 1962

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure - one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones - 1986

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

The Gunslinger by Stephen King - 1982

Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.

Dune by Frank Herbert - 1965

Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary dynasties are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and heir of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the 'spice' melange, the most important and valuable substance in the cosmos. The story explores the complex, multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion as the forces of the empire confront each other for control of Arrakis.

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham - 1955

The Chrysalids is set in the future after a devastating global nuclear war. David, the young hero of the novel, lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, who exist in a state of constant alert for any deviation from what they perceive as the norm of God’s creation, deviations broadly classified as “offenses” and “blasphemies.” Offenses consist of plants and animals that are in any way unusual, and these are publicly burned to the accompaniment of the singing of hymns. Blasphemies are human beings—ones who show any sign of abnormality, however trivial. They are banished from human society, cast out to live in the wild country where, as the authorities say, nothing is reliable and the devil does his work. David grows up surrounded by admonitions: KEEP PURE THE STOCK OF THE LORD; WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT.
At first he hardly questions them, though he is shocked when his sternly pious father and rigidly compliant mother force his aunt to forsake her baby. It is a while before he realizes that he too is out of the ordinary, in possession of a power that could doom him to death or introduce him to a new, hitherto-unimagined world of freedom.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dick - 1968

Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found! Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? takes place in 1992 (2021 in later editions), years after the radioactive fallout of World War Terminus destroyed most of Earth. The U.N. encourages emigration to off-world colonies, in hope of preserving the human race from the terminal effects of the fallout. One emigration incentive is giving each emigrant an "andy" — a servant android.

Vote Here

Form will be open through the end of the month.

https://imgur.com/a/BsJXkyF
​
I figured it was about time to make a tributary post towards towards one of the greatest heroes XCOM has even seen under my command.
Sarah Kelly was recruited to the XCOM project as member of the Base Security team, and thus spent the early phases of the war living the dream in the XCOM recreation center, holding numerous high scores on the base’s arcade games. When the time came to assault the Alien Base, Sarah couldn’t be any less interested, and paid little mind to it until she found the “Alien Entertainment System” recovered from the base, which she affectionately nicknamed the “Ayystation.” Sarah became so immersed in her games, she didn’t even hear the base’s alarm ring the first time. Rushing to her station, she caught one of XCOM’s soldiers on their way to reinforce the rear end of the base. Her contributions from then were as to be expected for a helpless rookie, mostly spending her time showing off her skills learned playing baseball on Wii Sports by lobbing grenades at Chrysalids. Her real time to shine would come much later. As the attack wore on, a hard-fought battle was waged, and near the end a particularly stealthy Mechtoid manage to sneak up the team’s flank and was preparing to ram it’s dual plasma barrels up the squad’s collective asshole. Our brave soldiers had already suffered a rather potent penetration from some LoS bullshit with a Sectoid Commander, and were horrendously out of position. But while the rest of the squad was applying some lube and preparing for the worst, Sarah Kelly rose to the challenge. Popping open a door on the left side of the base, she hit a damaged Mechtoid point-blank for 4 on a 65% chance to hit, saving the lives of at least two of XCOM’s operatives and allowing them to retake the base. I took note of her exceptional ability under pressure and immediately recruited her to be part of the XCOM project. While I was weary of the tedium that would come with training up a new rookie, Sarah Kelly proved her mettle by keeping up with the more experienced XCOM operatives, charging into battle without hesitation. Her kill on the Mechtoid was shown to be no fluke, as she gained a reputation for landing the killing blow on Mech units. Whoever was sent on a mission with her often made the joke, “Who needs to bring HEAT ammo when Sarah’s coming along?”, earning her the nickname Sarah “HEAT” Kelly.
Sarah had a very adventurous personality. She was the first soldier to field-test a plasma rifle, the first to capture an Ethereal, and of course, when XCOM finished construction on a Psi Lab, Sarah was the first to volunteer for the experimental testing. Sarah liked to joke that her numerous hours with unprotected exposure to the strange materials in the Ayystation gave her Psionic powers, despite Vahlen’s insistence that it was “highly improbable.” Whatever the case, Sarah Kelly’s iron will saved the team more than once, and when the time came to attack the Alien cruiser and topple the xeno threat, she didn’t disappoint.
​

With the upcoming new DLC, I thought I would share(or rather - dump) my list of small knowledge bits that perhaps aren't as known. At least you won't find them in any "how to play xcom 2" guide. I've been taking notes over numerous Legendary Ironman runs and this is the result. They're not structured at all because I pretty much know them and whenever I'm not sure about something, I just CTRL+F the file.
Some of these... I had to learn the hard way.

• burried chrysalids can reveal concealed units when too close -> dont rush
• Burried chrysalids attack immediately if they pop up from the ground, even our turn -> USE SCANNERS
• drone triggers new pods (this might have been patched-out, it's an old note)
• viper poison bomb -> dont clump up or your entire squad fucking dies!
• you can CALL EVAC on some missions to evac soldiers in huge danger -> dodge a death from poison!
• Buy 1 engineer early game if you get it at the black market
• rushing mag weapons is by far the strongets strategy(even if it says "63 days", just do it okay?)
• Mission type is revealed at soldier loadout -> can skip specialists on non-hack missions
• when going from no line of sight(LoS) to the first tile with LoS, overwatch triggers anyways IF the tile doesn't provide you cover
• sectopod and firebat explosion is 2 squares(sectopod maybe even 3?)
• the rage strike ability from the Muton King armor to move and smash is a FREE ACTION, you can move FOR FREE and then still take all your actions(=free run&gun for the ranger)
• freezing the chosen negates the stupid teleporting ability
• templar: ghost begins with full moves when spawned
• templar: if you use reaper(the ability), you can cast spells after kills too;
  • the combo: chain kills with reaper -> spawn ghost with last action -> ghost activates reaper and keeps chain killing with the damage starting at full again
• templar: after using reaper, you don't get momentum after Rend
• dual strike(teamwork ability) doesn't work with squadsight
• ranger & sniper with hunter gun teamwork combo: sniper can always give off 1 move to the ranger because he doesn't need the move to keep shooting, then the ranger can give it back to allow the sniper an extra shot if he misses -> essentially storing the move
• battle scanner has 2 charges and ignores walls - just throw it wherever you want
  
• Things that can't be frozen for an entire turn:
  
  • sectopod
  • gatekeeper
  • chosen
  • ruler
• Psi ops
  
  • null lance is broken
  • get them better psi amps in late game(gatekeeper -> psi amp lvl III)
  • no exp from kills, only gain lvl's through psi lab
  • Can go on a mission while in training(doesnt interrupt; if injured->only pause)
  • Preferably keep using normal soldiers until they are pimped
  • Schism makes Insanity give Rupture to the target(+ deal dmg immediately)
• How to use phantom:
  
  • keep eyes on all enemies
  • move squad one tile away from their sight & overwatch
  • make sure to check sight for every tile that squad passes through, not just the destination
• things that dont end turn:
  
  • the indicator for this is the arrow on the right side of the panel that shows up when an ability is about to be used
  • stasis (psi ops)
  • protocol aid
  • reload
  • Hacking(but not haywire protocol)
  • void rift (lol) -> but not from psi ops, only the void rift from the commander avatar
• things that hit the advent project:
  
  • using skulljack for the first time(by killing the codex)
  • hitting facilities(obviously)
  • research codex brain -> unlocks a hidden facility attack
  • research blacksite vial -> unlocks a hidden facility attack
• Important but not obvious tech tree paths:
  
  • advent trooper autopsy -> battle scanner
  • advent MEC autopsy -> gremlim II & bluescreen bullets for proving grounds
  • sectopod autopsy -> gremlim III
  • sectoid autopsy -> psionics -> psi lab(needs elerium!)
  • resistance comms -> resistance radio -> radio relay
• Mimic beacon:
  
  • Still the most broken item in the game, but in WOTC you don't get enough faceless corpses
  • 1 corpse for the research; 3 corpses + 100 credits for the item
  • All aliens will prioritize the beacon with some exceptions(zombies, faceless, the chosen, maybe Rulers?)
  • the aliens that can't see the decoy will ignore it(even if their pod-mates can see it)
• Lost and Chosen are immune to flashbangs... of course
  
• robots have rockets, dont forget
  
• purifier can explode, dont forget
  
• BRING SCANNERS EVERY TIME ASSASIN COULD APPEAR (I have later changed my opinion on this as I've learnt how to spread out my squad better and be able to intuitively move and reveal her)
  
• Activating VIP breaks concealment
  
• muton will block&retaliate meele attacksalmost 100% of the time
  
• if a soldier dies, get his corpse to avenger to get back items, otherwise they're lost
  
• Marking a crate on supply raid missions breaks concealment, can be done after spending all actions
  
• unconsciouss soldier has to be carried to evac; if there is no evac, he/she will be recovered automatically
  
• Bolt caster is a rifle, not a shotgun -> equip on rookies&specialists
  
• always move the reaper FIRST to scout new pods ahead
  
• Buy alloys at the black market once you need them
  
• some types of high cover(not just cars) explode when they get destroyed -> care with explosives
  
• aliens that only have a meele attack can still attack through flashbang(except Chyrasalids? Haven't tested)
  
• purifiers have fire grenades that literally instakill everything - he will ignore decoy if there is a group of soldiers(3+)
  
• extracting VIP from a lost swarm: When you activate him, a swarm will appear regardless of the timer
  
• how to field commander missions: sneak around until you find the commander, rush him down; timer doesnt start until concealment is broken
  
• Zombies and faceless ignore decoys hehe xd
  
• You can choose research order or cancel research in proving grounds -> hover over the research on the right side, there are two hard-to-spot buttons
  
• Once the AVATAR progress bar fills up, you get ~30 days during which no new facilities are built and you can take your time to hit the project to get the progress bar again
  
• The final 30-day progress on the AVATAR project carries over to the next time the bar gets filled
  
• the SPARK ability that gives 33% overwatch shot on newly seen enemies will trigger in concealment IF there are lost that got activated because of enemies(didnt have to see us, they just went after aliens, but that made my WALL-E shoot and reveal the whole squad)
  
• Once an alien pod is activated by zombies before seeing you, it will not activate again when you encounter them(you can just walk up and shoot them, they won't move when they see you for the first time)
  
• spark: take the no-recoil instead of bulwark. I rarely used bulwark, provides cover for aliens and you don't want to clump up anyways
  
• The ranger Tripple-Move combo: Single Move - shoot a zombie, get extra move from Implacable, single move or run& gun -> Shoot again
  
• Spark's BIT upgrades with Gremlim upgrades
  
• Spark's cannons are available for purchase after cannon research
  
• you can pick people up in 1 square range around(not only cross)
  
• Death from above GIVES a single action, despite what the description says. You can keep shooting as long as you kill stuff with darklance(hunter rifle) because it only costs 1 action to fire.
  
• Do not overwatch-hug reinforcement pods -> purifiers might explode -> step away a bit
  
• Fan fire does not end turn - verified to be independent of the pistol perk that make pistol shots 1 action - it works even without it (as I'm reading this after a long time, I can't believe it myself to be honest, maybe it got patched eventually?)
  
• Icarus jump triggers overwatch, Grapple doesn't
  
• guerilla ops spawned through scanning also have just 22 hours to take them...
  
• supply drops stack infinitely, you can pick up any time
  
• templar gauntlets upgrade unlocked after armor research
  
• mindshield also negates negative traits
  
• Freezing the Warlock breaks mind control
  
  • equip your heavy with a mindshield and the frost bomb -> he can bail out anyone else and is immune himself -> warlock is now easier than the hunter
• The "Bewildered" trait on Warlock also breaks mindcontrol if you shoot him 3 times and it activates
  
• The “hit” roll and the “crit” roll are the same roll. So if an enemy that has 20% crit lands a 20% or lower shot, it will always crit
  
• A flash banged purifier is neutered. Both abilities they have are disabled.
  
• None of the chosen can actually directly kill your guys- any attack from them which results in hp=0 will force a bleedout.
  
• Poison from the viper spreads on another person if they are adjacent(careful during The Hunt mission)
  
• Rulers don't react to actions that they don't see(movement outside of LoS/overwatching etc.)
  
  • use Reaper's Shadow to pop a claymore without a reaction
  • Squad-sight reaction-free shots
  • If I scout the ruler with my reaper, I like to throw my grenades/rockets at it away from line of sight -> no reactions
• Zombies can't get up if you stand on the tile that covers the ladder access-> you can take a position and farm them forever
  
• berserkers(the big dudes with Enrage), can't jump -> you can block them just like zombies
  
• sparks' BIT explosion(the ability, not the rocket), doesn't shred armor, but destroys cover even thought it's not indicated
  
• Sparks cannot rescue dazed soldiers... fml
  
• if you farm the lost at the 3rd mission aim for 100-150 kills
  
• the reaper can't use shadow while carrying a quest item -> don't try to solo the blacksite
  
• Spectres don't trigger bladestorm because apparently they don't "move"
  
• Legendary buildings order: GTS->Ring->Infirmary->Proving Grounds->Resistance Comms->Training Grounds->Lab/psio
  

Added from the comments(some of these I knew, some I didn't):

• You can hunker down or step on water tiles to put out burning. That means streams, fountains, etc.
• When Mutons are Disoriented, they lose their Melee counter. This opens up your Rangers (Shinobis for LW2) and Templars to Melee them down.
• Calling EVAC breaks concealment
• Flashbanging Sectoids breaks MindControll and PsiZombies
• A flanked enemy will always move if they have a non-flanked cover in range, even if he is suppressed or your entire squad is on Overwatch.
• If you mind control an Andromedon, it will return to the enemy side once it dies and turns robotic.
• Some mind-controlled enemies still take reactions against your units (Primes in ABA)
• Flashbangs also trigger the Lost counter, so does Purifiers exploding
• If you attack a pod out of your LOS, it will not "activate" the pod

Feel free to comment and expand the list. Or correct if you think something is wrong, but you have to be very very confident. I take these notes after the things happen or after the mission, so it should be right, although some things might have been patched out, I wouldn't take the risk on legendary runs.

• That’s Puny - First submission, I grammar checked three times already, but I am sure there is still a lot of mistakes long time lurker, I love you stories*

“Matriarch Xobit thank you for coming ! We have decrypted the last human transmission... or at least I thought we had.”
“Engineer Kratash what do you mean, did we or did we not decrypt that message ? You know that it is the first time we were able to intercept a communication between two Human Overminds !”
As I speak the diminutive male seems to be burrowing deeper in the tunnel. What a shame that our Broodmother has never been able to produce female phenotype of that particular strain of workers, males are notoriously unreliable and those are the worst ! Always something more to check, to calculate, to test, always wanting more time to redesign something just because it killed a few hundreds males drones !
“Matriarch Xobit, you may know that normal communication between different humans Swarm is encrypted using a prime number because they have not discovered the correlation of Tush and using...”
“Engineer Kratash, spare me the explanations ! You know I could not care less about all the details of your work, it takes you three breeding cycles to decrypt each paltry message and that all I need to know. And in that case in particular may I remind you that it has been already 7 breeding ago ? Overmind Juto is already close to classify your strain as an evolutionary cul-de-sac. He could terminate you with a simple thought !”
“That message used a 7th level prime number encr... “
I give a ripple on my fore wings and the satisfying strident stridulation strangled another male justification for being late.
The engineer finished in a rush: “At today ovulation time the calculators gave us the encoding key and we immediately send the transcript to the Polyglors, but at chrysalide time they sent it back to us saying that I was gibberish . But the algorithm gave us a 100% accuracy rate and confirm that the message had been successfully decrypted.”
“You males are delusional as usual. It is probably some deficient strain suffering a breakdown and you are trying to cover for him. Do you know the sentence for lowering the ARN quality by allowing sub-efficient strain to survive?”
“We think the message has an additional level of encryption”
I look incredulously at the lower caste.
“And you called me for this ?” I feel the combat frenzy trying to rise and make me murder everyone in the room, some estrogen production cools its down for the moment. The Broodmother would not like having to breed a new engineer strain so soon after the last one. “You are the engineer, just decrypt it !”
“I think we will need Drone X13k49De help.”
I let out a small stridulations at that code, an earlier soldier strain obsolete since thousands of breeding who spent years captured in a humain breeding ground until we destroyed that outpost. “Do you know he his confined in the lowest tunnels ? Every time he goes up the drones starts having difficulties accomplishing even the simplest task.”
“He is the reason we called you.”
Knowing how I react to be called for nothing and what happened the previous team Kratash must be really stumped by that unknown encryption. A mental injonction later. “He is coming”
....
A scraping noise starts in the west tunnel and finally a moving mass of scars emerges from the gloom. One of its lower appendages fused with what look like a steel cannon explains the noise coming for his crawl. The three damaged eyes from his left side seemingly still alive and looking around on their own.
I push back my disgust at this primitive strain. “X13k49De to report ! We need you to examine this document.”
As X13 comes forward giving no indication of even having heard me, I feel Kratash moving out or reach of my claws. Finally, a single grunt is eructed acknowledging my order.
Kratash interject from a corner: “This letter is an important communication between two human Overmind, we decrypted it but it seems to have an additional encryption which we cannot break.”
A gravelly voice. “Do you means between two generals ?” Without caring for an answer, the next steps bring him in front of the console. A few seconds later a strange noise rise, a cracking cackling emitted by his left tegmen. Near me a drone collapse, convulsing with multiple seizures. For the first time I observe that one of his fore wing has been modified to change our natural high pitched stridulation.
“Stop that !” A few seconds later the noise subsides. “Soldier ! What does it mean ?”
“The message is encoded with a human special deception, the whole text is written in bad puns.”
“Puns ?”
“A kind of joke.”
“Joke ?”
“Since the youngest age, human receive a daily community training at trickery. Puns are wordplay in which humans may replace words with others similar sounding which have different meanings. It makes them laugh. I know of only one person who spoke only in puns but he was not a general last time I meet him.”
“Laugh ? Can you decipher the meaning ?”
The crackling slowly rise again, this time even Kratash seems to be under some kind of mental attack. “It gives a time and a place.”
“For what ? An attack ?”
X13 right claw seemingly materialize itself inside my abdomen.
“ They come to pick a friend !”
Edit: alternative ending due to people remark that the post does not actually contain a pun.which I tried but found so lame I replaced it:
“They come to pick a fiend !”