It didn’t take me long to beat XCOM: Enemy Unknown the first time I played it, shortly after it came out in 2012. But that was on the Easy setting- I wanted more of a challenge. So I beat it on Normal, and XCOM quickly became my very favorite game. Later, Enemy Within was announced- I was ecstatic! Once it came out, I beat it on Normal Ironman, but I wanted a bigger challenge. So I tried Classic Ironman. But true to the premise of XCOM’s sequel, they steamrolled me. So I tried again. And again. And again. I let it rest for while (after a few more failures), but then XCOM 2 was announced, so I gave it another go. My heart wasn’t really in it that time though, so that was over quickly. But about a month ago I decided it was time to finally get that ultimate badge of pride, that beautiful achievement on my Steam account: ‘No Looking Back’. And so I proceeded to try- and to die- yet again. But it brought me to an important and overdue conclusion: straightforward strategies will not cut it. I really needed to try something, anything, radically different in my strategy.

So I began playing around with many different strategies, ranging from unconventional to a bit nuts. I lost a few more times, getting gradually closer to success and finally, I found a way that worked- I beat it just a few days after XCOM 2 was released. So here is my XCOM: Enemy Within guide for those of us who can’t seem to beat it.

This guide will have no shortage of spoilers. This is intended for if you have beat the game on a lower difficulty or Classic but without Ironman and now want to try to beat the game the way I think it was designed to be played: Classic Ironman. This should also work just fine without the EW expansion, just ignore the bits about Meld, EXALT, etc.

Arguably the most important piece of the puzzle is satellite placement and timing. It is critical that you launch a minimum of:
1 Satellite the first month(March)
3 the second month(April)
3 the third month(May)
Coverage for the rest of the world the fourth month(June)

It should be noted that if there is any way you can launch more that 3 the third month you should, even if that means selling things on the Gray Market to pay for it. The only reason why you shouldn’t is if you don’t have enough time to build the power generators and uplinks necessary. I was unable to, and pickings got pretty slim for a bit in June; it made upgrading to plasma weapons much harder.

I prefer using Asia as my starting location because getting the cheaper squad upgrades(Officer Training School) and weapon upgrades(using the Foundry) early makes a huge difference. And because it requires 4 satellites to cover, you can just cover to country you start in(Japan) and abandon the others to panic. I was able to obtain all 5 continent bonuses by doing this and focusing on other places.

I have read guides that swear by a very particular guideline for which country should get coverage first, but I disagree. I actually covered South America first, even though I would normally never do that, because I got a council request with a reward for 200 credits to cover Brazil. Keeping your coverage plan in flux to deal with panic and what continent bonuses you need most at the moment is important. And if you ever get a request to cover a country you weren’t planing on covering, take a good long look at it and decide if you need to change your launch plan to take advantage of it. You’re smart, you can see if it’s worth it.

I am a strong believer in “There is a best way to promote your soldiers” almost every time. There are very few skill pairs that are truly equal, and more often then not, after some practice and experimentation one will prove to be far superior over the other. You want to train almost all of your soldiers with the same skills, there aren’t really advantages to training them differently. The only exception to that would be for the one or two soldiers whom you will designate for Covert Ops, they will need different training. I have played around with almost every skill in the game and here are my findings on the best promotion paths:

Heavy
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Corporal: Bullet Swarm
As nice as Holo-Targeting is, the ability to either fire twice or fire then reload is better, especially since Heavies get so little ammo. If they are Gifted, then you could fire and Mind-Control in the same turn.
Sergeant: Shedder Rocket
This is super handy for cleaning up a few low-health baddies at once, or weakening really strong ones. Suppression uses so much ammo that it isn’t really worth it (for a Heavy, that is, we’ll get into Supports’ Rifle Suppression later).
Lieutenant: HEAT Ammo
Since Heavies have poor Aim, I try not to put them on Overwatch anyway, so Rapid Reaction isn’t that helpful. HEAT Ammo is particularly handy when you’ve got Mechtoids and Sectoids on every mission mid-to-late game.
Captain: Danger Zone
You can easily hit 3 targets per Rocket using this. Totally worth it.
Colonel: Rocketeer(?)
I favor Rocketeer, but Mayhem is really good too. Take your pick.
Optimal use: Crowd control with Rockets and high health enemies with the gun. Heavies are good at dealing a lot of damage but they have poor Aim, so make sure to give them a Scope.

Assault
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Corporal: Tactical Sense
If you flank enemies(which you should be doing as often as possible) you are going to have a high Crit chance anyway, and staying alive is a really good thing. Do that.
Sergeant: Lightning Reflexes
Close and Personal sounds nice, but picture this: your Assault approaches a Mechtoid which immediately goes into Overwatch. The rest of your squad can’t see it yet, but if you move them closer you risk a very high-damage hit. Move your Assault to the nearest high cover (possibly using Run and Gun to get a shot in as well) triggering the Overwatch safely, move the rest of the squad in, and you can kill it before it gets a chance hit anyone. Or you have this skill on your Covert Op, and they get stuck with a group of EXALT between them and the rest of you squad. You can run past that Sniper on Overwatch with zero risk. There are countless applications.
Lieutenant: Rapid Fire
The Aim penalty is a minimal problem if you get close enough, and it is great for piling on lots of damage.
Captain: Close Combat Specialist
Chryssalid chasing you? He’s dead without spending an action. Or you move close to an enemy to flank and fire. But wait, you didn’t do enough damage? Don’t worry, when they run away it’ll trigger Close Combat Specialist and they’ll die.
Colonel: Resilience
Man, Killer Instinct is great, this is a tough choice. I still have to go with Resilience though because the baddies you are facing by this point in the game can lay on so much damage. Two good Crits and even with Titan Armor you will still die.
Optimal use: Flanking enemies to deal lots of damage at close range. The sooner you can get Mimetic Skin for your best Assaults(particularly if they are your favored Cover Op) the better, but only if that does not interfere with getting a MEC or MEC upgrades.

Support
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Corporal: Covering Fire
You get better protection for your squad, and frankly Sprinter isn’t good. How ofter are you going to be sending your Support that far ahead of your squad? If your answer is more than ‘rarely’, you’re doing it wrong. That is your Assaults’ job.
Sergeant: Field Medic
Heals. Stabilizing bleed-outs. Basically, keeping people alive. Need I say more?
Lieutenant: Rifle Suppression
This one is a bit odd because I actually put Revive on all my Supports by habit. When I gave it some thought though, I realized I only used this once in the entire game. And really, if you bring your soldier back at 33% health, you will have to use at least one more Medkit on them, maybe even two, before they will be at enough health to reduce the risk of them dying for real. If the are bled out and stabilized, at least they will be safe from everything but explosives.
Captain: Depends
If the Support in question has the Gift or will likely have it when tested(high Will), give them Combat Drugs to help with Psionic abilities. If they don’t have the Gift, go for Dense Smoke. Good luck hitting a soldier in high cover with an extra +40 defense bonus!
Colonel: Savior
Your first Support to reach Colonel rank should always, always, have Savior. It doubles the effectiveness of a standard Medkit, stack that with Improved Medkit, and you have 10HP per use! However, if you have more than one Colonel, make the second one a Sentinel. You won’t need to heal 60HP in one mission. (3 Medkits per Support X 10HP per use X 2 Supports)
Optimal use: The name says it. A Support is at his/her strongest when making sure everyone else is covered and breathing. Also, put them in Overwatch more than most. They have Covering Fire plus the fact that they don’t do as much damage per hit as other classes, which makes them ideal for discouraging the enemy from moving rather than taking a low-chance shot.

Sniper
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Corporal: Squadsight
If I need to tell you this one, you are either functioning at a level much higher than I am and found a way to make Snap Shot good or should not be trying Classic Ironman. Either way, why are you reading this guide?
Sergeant: D*** Good Ground
(I don’t swear, so sue me.) This will help your Sniper once they find that perfect ‘Sniper nest’. Gunslinger is great if you intend to use them as a Covert Operative, otherwise there is no need.
Lieutenant: Disabling Shot
This doesn’t make much of a difference when you first get the ability, but it makes a huge difference later on. Good luck killing a Sectoid in one turn, let alone two in one turn. But if you let it have a turn, it can shoot twice. Same with Mechtoids. You will be very glad you have this to buy some time. Oh, and if this is for a Covert Op they should get Battle Scanner so they can see ahead, blah, blah, blah, you can figure it out.
Captain: Opportunist
If you have this on a Sniper with a medal or two to boost Aim, you have basically guaranteed-to-hit Overwatch shots.
Colonel: Double Tap
But you already knew that.
Optimal use: From a good distance, in a ‘sniper nest’ like I mentioned earlier. What I mean by that is a place with good viability and some cover they can shoot from, up high if possible. After getting Low Profile, you should actually take low cover over high cover for the increased visibility. Oh, and did you know that you can’t get a height bonus when flying with Archangel Armor? I didn’t till I took a close look at it.

MEC Troopers
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Starting Bonus: Any
All the starting bonuses are good for their own reasons and are pretty well balanced. I generally pick the starting ability based on what classes I have a surplus of- or perhaps it would be more accurate to say which ones I don’t have a shortage of.
Corporal: Advanced Fire Control
MECs have fairly poor Aim, so any help they can get with that is great.
Sargent: Vital-Point Targeting
The best defense is not having to defend at all, because all your enemies are dead. Vital-Point Targeting helps with that. Also, your MEC can handle a good deal of damage and come out of the mission with even being wounded because of how much armor it has, so you can survive without Damage Control.
Lieutenant: Jetboot Module
One For All is just… no. Not needed. Jetboot Module, on the other hand, helps to fix one of your MECs biggest problems: mobility.
Captain: Repair Servos
Your MEC should be in the front lines, which means it will take damage. Since it’s unlikely it will take all that damage in one turn, Repair Servos basically gives you 6 extra health. Yes please.
Colonel: Reactive Targeting Sensors
As I stated earlier, your MEC will get shot at. A lot. Which means you will get a free shot back on most turns as long as you keep your gun loaded! And how often are you going to get a hit that is more than 33% of your health? Not very often.
Ideal MEC Loadout:
Flamethrower
Can hit multiple enemies for damage and guaranteed panic for most non-robotic baddies. Kinetic Strike Module has nothing on that.
Grenade Launcher
You are basically getting a Rocket Launcher that can go over cover. It’s wonderful.
Electropluse
You can use this as a great area-of-affect attack, and disable robotic enemies while you are at it. Can’t deal with that Cyberdisc this turn? No problem.
Optimal Use: Your MEC(s) should be in the front lines right along with your Assault, taking fire while the rest of the squad stays safer. Try to keep him/her close to your Support, you will need Medkits frequently.

Notes On Meld
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When it comes to Meld, your first priority should be a MEC bay. You want that MEC before your first terror mission, it will save lives. Gene mods are nice, and you should get those too, but don’t stretch your budget to the limit to get them.

Memetic Skin is by far the most expensive mod, and for good reason. Once you figure out how to use it properly, it will save your squad many painful deaths and make Meld easier to recover. Play around with it once you get it, there are really neat nuances to it that make missions more interesting and fun, as if they weren’t enough fun already. The other high-priority gene mod is Secondary Heart. You can reduce the chance of that Colonel dying by about 500% (my estimate) if you equip him/her with it.

More often than not, as I’m sure you know if you are looking for tips on beating Classic Ironman, soldiers dying is going to be the reason you lose. It’s a vicious cycle: they die, so you don’t have any high-ranking officers, so they die, and so on. The first few missions are absolutely critical to your long-term victory, so those are what I am focusing this part on. Here are the most important things I discovered:

Do not run. Just like your teacher told you in elementary school, you will run into something or someone and get hurt. You should only dash if someone is lagging behind and needs to catch up, your Covert Op is in danger and needs to get to the main squad, you are using Run and Gun, or your soldier has Memetic Skin and will be concealed.

Keep your squad together, even if that means they are out of cover, until you see a group of X-rays. Early in the game you won’t have aliens going into Overwatch on sight anyway (with the exception of council missions), so keeping your squad close will make sure that none of them see a group the others are too far away to deal with. It also helps you limit how many groups you engage at one time. In the later game, this won’t work because more and more enemies go on Overwatch on sight, but by that time you’ll have other ways to deal with them.

Hug the side of the map as if it was an adorable puppy. This goes right back to limiting your visibility to and controlling how many groups you engage at once; it is much easier to make sure you don’t spot some accidentally when you only have 2 directions to be careful of (you don’t have to worry about the wall or the direction you came from).

Meld is not worth dying over. Aim to get one canister per mission, that should keep you stocked well enough. If you can get more than one that is really helpful, but don’t risk killing your guys to get it. Also, enable the Meld Tutorial when setting up the game, that will make getting the first 2 canisters very easy.

In the early game, EXPLODE ALL TE THINGS. Like I said, those first few missions are critical, and you have to blow stuff up to keep your guys and gals alive, do it. It is worth sacrificing the corpses and weapon fragments if you don’t die.

Not necessarily in order of appearance

Fishing Village Infestation
This one is overwhelming the first time you try it mainly because you don’t realize how differently you need to approach it, but once you take it on in a creative way, it’s actually quite easy. First off: do you have that MEC equipped with flamethrower we talked about earlier? Good, cause you’ll need him. Also 1-2 heavies, hopefully with Bullet Swarm and more than one rocket each. Snipers, as wonderful as they are, aren’t really needed. Leave them behind altogether unless they have Double Tap. Bring along a Support with a Medkit and 1-2 Assaults, hopefully with Rapid Fire.
You can’t take corpses from this mission, so any explosive you don’t use is a waste. Take your time on the approach. Every time you see a shark, blow it up with your MEC’s Collateral Damage ability, take a turn to reload, then move forward. It will make your return trip a lot safer. Once you hit the airstrike, run for your life- if you blew up all the sharks on the way in, escaping unharmed should be fairly easy.

Covert Ops
I prefer a Sniper with the Gunslinger ability or a Assault with Lightning Reflexes for my Covert Operative. If you can’t use one of those, then use the best Assault you have- Run and Gun can be very valuable in getting out a tight spot. If you can send someone with Memetic Skin that’s even better, but not necessary. No matter who you use, they should have a Flashing Grenade in case they run into a group of EXALT that the rest of your squad can’t get to in time. Use explosives and your flamethrower freely, the reward for not blowing them up is basically null.

Terror Missions
During the second month, terror missions are basically your biggest problem. After that they get progressively easier as you get your A-team outfitted with plasma weapons and titan armor. For those first few terror missions, try really hard to bring:
At least one MEC with a flamethrower
1-2 Assaults
1-2 Heavies
Your best sniper or none at all. If you feel like throwing another Assault or Support would be more worthwhile because your Sniper isn’t high enough rank, go for it.
1-2 Supports with Medkit
Be cautious using explosives, you can blow civilians up without even knowing they were there. But if it looks like there is even a chance you might lose one of your squad if you don’t blow them up, go for it. It is worth getting a slightly worse rating if all of your troops make it out alive. That flamethrower is going to be your best friend, by the way. Got some Chryssalids you can’t kill this turn? Hit some of them with that baby and they will both lose most of their health and they will panic, buying you some oh-so-precious time.

Operation Progeny
You should always enable this optional quest line before starting the game. If you are not in a position to take on the mission when it comes, you can just ignore it with no penalty, so there is no real reason not to. The reward for the first mission will be a soldier of Sergeant rank named Annette (who happens to be super annoying but she can shoot things and has guaranteed psionic powers so I guess that’s worth putting up with her), and the reward for the follow-up mission is three more soldiers with guaranteed psionic powers. Completing these two missions can be really valuable in bolstering your ranks, and they aren’t particularly difficult.

Operation Slingshot
This is another optional mission line, but this one is actually a separate DLC you have to purchase. It’s fun and all, but unless it’s on sale(as it was when I got it) I’d say skip buying it. The reward for this line is a new weapon for your aircraft, more powerful than anything you can make in the base game. Like Progeny, it isn’t particularly difficult, but you should feel free to skip it if losing a soldier or two to this mission would be devastating- it may not be worth the neat gun.