XCOM 2 - choosing the best Soldier Abilities
Every single Soldier Abiltiy in XCOM 2 in one clear reference guide, with build advice and gameplay tips for every combat character in the game.
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The Soldier Abilities in XCOM 2 represent your squad's most valuable weapons in the fight against the aliens. Each of the four standard soldier classes has two distinct upgrade paths that offer unique and mutually exclusive builds, or that can be customised by cherry-picking abilities from each specialisation. Meanwhile, the Psi Operative offers a more randomised approach to promotion.
In all cases, advance knowledge of each soldier's skill tree can offer a distinct advantage in understanding how earlier abilities might interact with later ones. Here, you'll find full reference guides for the skill tree of each soldier class, in addition to pointers on particularly powerful ability combinations, and how their canny tactical use can turn the tide of battle.
To find out how the XCOM 2: War of the Chosen expansion's new Ability Point system affects soldier abilities and builds, check out our War of the Chosen Ability Point page. You can read more about the expansion in our XCOM 2 War of the Chosen guide
Ranger Abilities and tips
- Initial Ability: Slash - Attack any enemy within movement range with your sword
| Rank | Scout Abilities | Assault Abilities |
|---|---|---|
| Corporal | Phantom | Blademaster |
| When the squad is revealed, this soldier remains concealed | Deal +2 extra damage on all sword attacks | |
| Sergeant | Shadow Strike | Shadowstep |
| When concealed, gain +25 bonus aim and +25 bonus critical hit chance when attacking enemies | This soldier does not trigger overwatch or reaction fire | |
| Lieutenant | Conceal | Run and Gun |
| Immediately enter concealment once per mission | Take an action after dashing | |
| Captain | Implacable | Bladestorm |
| If you score one or more kills on your turn, you are granted a single bonus move | Free sword attacks on any enemies that enter or attack from melee range | |
| Major | Deep Cover | Untouchable |
| If you did not attack this turn, hunker down automatically | If you score a kill during your turn, the next attack against you during the enemy turn will miss | |
| Colonel | RapidFire | Reaper |
| Fire twice in a row at an enemy. Each shot suffers an Aim penalty of -15. There is no cooldown on this ability | A devastating chain melee attack where the first melee attack cannot miss. Each melee kill in Reaper mode grants an extra action, but further melee attacks deal reduced damage |
Ranger class tips
- The Ranger's default ability, Slash, can be used even after dashing. This makes the Ranger an invaluable inclusion in your squad in early missions to help finish off weakened enemies, or dispatch those that have taken up flanking positions against allies.
- Deep Cover doesn't sound like a particularly proactive skill until you realise that it pairs wonderfully well with Overwatch, turning a passive defensive action into an exceptional offensive play.
- The extra actions granted by Reaper are a welcome bonus, but the guaranteed hit really comes into its own when you absolutely cannot afford to miss the killing blow on a formidable enemy who's on their last legs.
Grenadier Abilities and tips
- Initial Ability: Launch Grenade - The Grenadier uses a grenade launcher to fire grenades rather than throwing them. This allows for greater range and grenade capacity.
| Rank | Demolitions Expert | Heavy Gunner |
|---|---|---|
| Corporal | Blast Padding | Shredder |
| Your gear includes layers of extra padding and blast plates, granting a bonus point of Armour and 66% less damage from explosive attacks | Your cannon attacks shred armour | |
| Sergeant | Demolition | Supression |
| Unleash a volley of bullets at your target's cover, significantly damaging or destroying it. Deals no damage to your target | Fire a barrage that pins down a target, granting reaction fire against it if it moves, and imposing a -50 penalty to the target's aim | |
| Lieutenant | Heavy Ordnance | Holo Targeting |
| The grenade in your grenade-only slot gains a bonus use | Any directed cannon shot, hit or miss, will mark the target, increasing your squad's aim by +15 against this target | |
| Captain | Volatile Mix | Chain Shot |
| Your grenades have an increased radius of 1 tile and deal +2 damage | Take a shot with an aim penalty of -15. If you hit the target, you take another shot on the target automatically | |
| Major | Salvo | Hail of Bullets |
| Launching or throwing grenades, or using heavy weapons with your first action, will not end your turn | Unleash a hail of bullets that is guaranteed to hit your target, but uses a lot of ammunition | |
| Colonel | Saturation Fire | Rupture |
| Fire a cone shaped barrage of bullets at every enemy in an area. In addition, the cover of those enemies can be damaged or destroyed. Uses three ammo | A Rupture shot deals critical damage and ensures that the target takes an additional +3 damage from all attacks in the future |
Grenadier class tips
- Although only useful against enemies with armour (depicted by yellow segments next to their health bar), Shredder really comes into its own early in the game when your soldiers' weapons are relatively weak and every point of damage counts. Used as one of the first actions against an imposing enemy, it helps maximise allies' future attacks against the target.
- As well as providing the additional explosive power of an extra grenade, Heavy Ordnance also makes shrewd economic sense. This is because it applies not only to standard-issue grenades, but also to constructed, specialised explosives that must be paid for at the Proving Grounds, granting a bonus use to otherwise limited-use items.
- Chain Shot combines particularly well with gun modifications that help negate its aim penalty, effectively offering two full-power shots for the price of one.
Specialist Abilities and tips
- Initial Ability: Aid Protocol - Command your GREMLIN to move to a friendly target. It grants that target a bonus to Defense until the start of the next player turn
| Rank | Battle Medic | Combat Hacker |
|---|---|---|
| Corporal | Medical Protocol | Combat Protocol |
| The GREMLIN can perform healing actions remotely: GREMLIN Heal and GREMLIN Stabilize. The GREMLIN has a single charge. If a medikit is equipped it has two charges | Send the GREMLIN to an enemy to jolt them, dealing guaranteed damage, which is increased against robotic enemies | |
| Sergeant | Revival Protocol | Haywire Protocol |
| Send the GREMLIN to an ally to remove any negative mental status effects: Disoriented, Stunned, Panicked, or Unconscious | You may target robotic and mechanical enemies with your GREMLIN, attempting to hack them and seize control | |
| Lieutenant | Field Medic | Scanning Protocol |
| Equipped medikits have 2 extra charges | The GREMLIN can trigger an instant scan of the area, increasing the Specialist's sight radius substantially for one turn, and revealing any hidden or disguised enemies | |
| Captain | Covering Fire | Threat Assessment |
| Overwatch shots can now be triggered by any enemy action, not just movement | Aid Protocol now grants the target a Covering Fire Overwatch shot, but the Aid Protocol cooldown is increased by 1 turn | |
| Major | Ever Vigilant | Guardian |
| If you spend all of your actions on moves, you are granted an automatic overwatch shot at the end of the turn | With every successful Overwatch shot, there is a 50% chance that another shot will be taken | |
| Colonel | Restoration | Capacitor Discharge |
| The GREMLIN flies to each squad member, healing or reviving them as needed | Send the GREMLIN to a location where it emits a substantial electric discharge, damaging and potentially stunning all nearby units. Robotic units take more damage |
Specialist class tips
- GREMLIN abilities used as the first action do not end your turn
- Field Medic and Medical Protocol gel well, providing a total of four charges from a single equipped medikit and enabling remote healing of allies in combat hot-zones.
- Haywire Protocol allows the seizure of an enemy turret for an entire mission
- Scanning Protocol sounds mundane but is particularly useful during ADVENT retaliation missions, where it can help locate helpless civilians and expose the dangerous, shape-shifting Faceless enemies that may be hiding among them
Sharpshooter Abilities and tips
- Initial Ability: Squadsight - You can target enemies within squadmates' site, provided there is line of sight to the target
| Rank | Sniper | Gunslinger |
|---|---|---|
| Corporal | Long Watch | Return Fire |
| Allow Overwatch to trigger with Squadsight | When targeted by enemy fire, automatically fire back with your pistol once per turn | |
| Sergeant | Deadeye | Lightning Hands |
| Take a shot with a small aim penalty for a significant damage boost | Fire your pistol at a target. This attack does not cost an action | |
| Lieutenant | Death From Above | Quick Draw |
| Killing an enemy at a lower elevation with your sniper rifle costs only a single action, and does not end your turn | Firing your pistol with your first action no longer ends your turn | |
| Captain | Kill Zone | Faceoff |
| Take a reaction shot against any enemy that moves or attacks within a cone of fire | Fire once at every visible enemy with your pistol | |
| Major | Steady Hands | Aim |
| If you did not move last turn, gain +10 Aim and +10 Critical chance | Hunker Down now confers +20 Aim to the first shot on the following turn | |
| Colonel | Serial | Fan Fire |
| A powerful chained shot ability. For every kill made with your sniper rifle, your actions will be refunded | Fire the pistol three times at the same target |
Sharpshooter class tips
- Although it doesn't specify upfront, Deadeye's "small aim penalty" is -25%, while its "significant damage boost" sits at +50%
- Kill Zone works to effectively create a deadly sniper alley, allowing you to specify a large cone of vision in which you'll automatically gun down enemies. It is particularly effective when used in combination with a weapon magazine upgrade to ensure a plentiful supply of ammo. Kill Zone also combines well with the Grenadier's ability to destroy cover using grenades or Saturation Fire.
- The Sharpshooter's Gunslinger build offers some of the most effective combinations of abilities in the whole game. With effective battlefield positioning and upgraded weaponry, a veteran Gunslinger can take down multiple enemies in a single turn.
Psi Operative Abilities and tips
- Initial Ability - Randomly selected from one of four: Stasis* / Soul Fire ** / Insanity / Inspire
| Rank | Telepath | Resonant |
|---|---|---|
| Acolyte | Insanity | Inspire |
| Debilitating telepathic attack that can inflict different negative conditions, including mental control of the target. | Grant a bonus action immediately to a nearby squadmate | |
| Adept | Soul Steal | Stasis Shield |
| Soul Fire transfers half of the damage done back to the Psi Operative as health | Stasis can be cast on allies, rendering them immune to any attacks, and stunned, for 1 turn | |
| Disciple | Solace | Sustain |
| Psi Operative is surrounded by an aura that immediately extinguishes or blocks any mental impairments for themselves and any nearby squadmates | If the Psi Operative takes enough damage to be killed, they are immediately put in Stasis for 1 turn and their health is only reduced to 1 HP. This can only happen once per mission | |
| Mystic | Schism | Fortress |
| Insanity now does a small amount of guaranteed damage, and applies Rupture to the target | The Psi Operative is immune to fire, poison, acid and explosive damage | |
| Warlock | Fuse | Domination |
| If an enemy is carrying explosives, they can be remotely detonated by the Psi Operative | Permanently mind control an enemy. Only one successful Domination can be performed per mission | |
| Magnus | Null Lance | Void Rift |
| Project a beam of terrible power that damages every target it passes through. This attack can penetrate multiple enemies and obstacles | Generate an explosive field of Psionic energy that damages everything within. Organic enemies have a chance to suffer Insanity. |
- *Stasis completely stuns the target for 1 turn, but renders them immune to any damage or attack (useful for removing a powerful enemy from the fight for a single turn while you deal with its back-up troops).
- **Soul Fire does guaranteed Psionic damage to an organic enemy while ignoring both cover and armour values.
- Unlike other soldiers, Psionic abilities are not mutually exclusive so you can, theoretically, learn every ability in the tree if you have enough time and resources to do so. Furthermore, Psionic abilities are not unlocked in order. Instead you are offered three randomly selected abilities from the table above and must select one to train in. This training can be interrupted if you wish to take your Psi Operative on a mission, and they can pick-up where they left off once they return.
- Fuse wins the award for most amusing ability in XCOM 2 thanks to the comical manner in which you can detonate explosives on both living and previously terminated enemies. The amusement factor is furthered if you've been able to Mind Control an enemy, stand them near a group of their former friends and then detonate their explosive.
- For tips on how to unlock the Psi Operative class, see the How to unlock the Psi Operative page of this guide.
- Keep reading for our guide to planning the best early research in XCOM 2.
- Head back to the first page for the rest of our XCOM 2 guide.