XCOM 2 Resistance Ring and Covert Actions management explained, plus how to build an Infirmary and Training Centre
The new room build options aboard the Avenger and how to use them.
XCOM 2's Resistance Ring, Infirmary and Training Centre are three new room types to build aboard the Avenger in huge expansion War of the Chosen.
Two of these, the Infirmary and the Training Centre, take the place of the Advanced Warfare Centre (AWS) from the XCOM 2 base game. This division has been necessary to split up the duties performed by the AWS into two distinct room types that add a couple of neat new features of their own.
Meanwhile, the Resistance Ring is a completely new build type used to manage Covert Actions and increase your standing with each of the three new factions - Reapers, Skirmishers, and Templars. Here's a detailed breakdown of each new room, what it does and how to use it.
XCOM 2 Resistance Ring and Covert Actions explained
Build priority: High - as soon as the Resistance Ring becomes available, build it. It will grant access to a mission to recruit Pratal Mox, the Skirmisher, and allow you to make contact with the Templars, not to mention a whole host of other benefits that remain important throughout the entire game.
The Resistance Ring is the most important new room type, and one of the most important room types overall. It's from here that you'll conduct Covert Actions, which have a wide-range of potential benefits and adaptable counter-measures to both the Elders' Avatar Project and the Chosen's meddling.
The Ring is also where you'll manage and improve your relationships with the three new factions - Reapers, Skirmishers, and Templars - as well as gain initial access to soldiers from the latter two of those groups.
An engineer can staff the Ring to reduce the duration of Covert Actions by 33%. With an engineer in placer, these Covert Actions typically take four to eight days depending on the stakes involved and the reward on offer.
Where possible, always have a Covert Action in progress. The options are many and varied: weapon upgrades, soldier recruitment, Black Site facility leads, bond strengthening, Avatar Project progress reduction, hunting the Chosen, there's always something you can be doing to make your life easier, the life of your soldiers better or the life of the aliens harder/shorter.
Covert Actions typically require two soldiers to be committed to the mission, which will send them away for the pre-advised length of time. There are often risks that a soldier might be wounded or even captured, but there are usually options to mitigate that risk by sending soldiers of a particular type, or commit some intel or supply currency to the action.
Soldiers' that undertake Covert Actions together will see their bond strengthen, and can gain a host of additional one-off benefits for taking part, such as an increase of a particular stat or even an instant promotion.
The Resistance Ring will also determine how many Resistance Orders you can put in place at the end of each month, which will be in effect for the duration of the following month. Again, these are benefits that can help you react to Alien and Chosen activity or simply get ahead if you want to concentrate on a specific area.
Upgrading the Resistance Ring costs 100 supplies and requires 2 power, which offers an additional slot for XCOM to assign Resistance Orders.
XCOM 2 Infirmary explained
Build priority: Medium (High if playing with Iron Man enabled)
The Infirmary is used primarily to speed up the healing process of your soldiers. By staffing an engineer here you'll double the speed of healing; a vital action at all stages of the game.
Booking a soldier into the Infirmary is the only way to treat them of negative traits that they may have picked up during battle, such as those from Fatigue. Negative traits can be acquired at any time, but are particularly likely to develop if you've taken tired soldiers on to the battlefield.
Negative trait treatment takes 5 days to remove a single negative trait, and longer if the soldier is afflicted with multiple negative traits.
The Infirmary can be upgraded at the cost of 80 supplies and 2 power. This installs a Hypervital Module, which can be used at the cost of 1 Elerium Core to instantly restore a soldier to full combat effectiveness, removing any wounds and tiredness and making them eligible for mission selection. However, after the mission, they will revert to their current injured and/or tired state, and the Hypervital Module can be used just once per solider per entire game.
If you need more help with XCOM 2's expansion, our XCOM 2: War of the Chosen guide and tips can explain everything you need to know, from how to beat The Chosen Assassin, Warlock and Hunter and the new The Lost, Spectre and Advent units. Combat them by learning about each new faction with our Reaper abilities and skill tree, Skirmisher abilities and skill tree and Templar abilities and skill tree pages, as well as learning about the new Challenge Mode, Resistance Ring, Ability Points, Fatigue and Bonds systems. Good luck, Commander!
XCOM 2 Training Centre explained
Build priority: Low - it will take some time for soldiers to develop to the point of a level 2 bond, to gain enough AP to spend on new abilities, or to develop negative traits that need treating.
Here's where you'll spend those precious Ability Points (AP) to teach an old soldier new tricks. How to gain and use AP is detailed elsewhere in this guide, and spending it in the Training Centre is an instantly completed process that does not require the soldier to be out of action.
The Training Centre is also where you'll manage level 2 and level 3 bonds between soldiers. Forming these bonds requires the soldiers to be unavailable for missions, and is covered in more detail on the Bonds page of this guide.
Finally, the Training Centre can be used to retrain a soldier's abilities within their current class, allowing you to choose a new configuration of abilities should you wish to do so.
However, the soldier will be unavailable for five days while they retrain. Any personal AP spent on abilities will be refunded, but any XCOM AP spent from the communal pot will not. There's no way to know how much of this XCOM AP you've spent on a soldier and so you should only consider doing this if you're in dire straits or recruit a brand new soldier who has the exact same build as a current one.