XCOM 2 Tips: Viper King Tactics Guide (How to Kill the Viper King )

[@thequalitycomedian7842]

The first time you encounter a ruler: “THEY GET AN ACTION FOR EVERY TIME YOU TAKE AN ACTION!? WHO PUT A REAL TIME STRATEGY CHARACTER IN A TURN-BASED STRATEGY GAME?!” The second time you encounter an alien ruler: *Viper King is Burning* *Viper King is Poisoned* *Viper King is Stunned* *Viper King is Ruptured* *Viper King is Frozen* *Viper King is Disoriented*

[@brucemeise3677]

lmao xD I just added WOTC and Shen’s last gift, resulting in having my Squad filled with Faction Members and one Spark, with shredding, LITERALLY destroying him in the second encounter.

[@cipher88101]

LOL yeah I absolutely hate this enemy.

[@ismathem]

Lol

[@DonsFan56]

From playing Darkest Dungeon for ~100 hours, I should have immediately resorted to DoT damage against these rulers!!

[@ismathem]

@@DonsFan56 Too funny! And so true.

[@Mystery017]

Current situation: 1) the viper king just showed up, no scanning required 2) i got lucky and scanned him with the battle scanner so he does not know im there 3) im playing ironman and this is like my 3rd mission. 4) I stay cool and call down an evac. 5) evac is auto placed right on him -.-

[@TapCat]

That's rough, but you should still have a decent chance of driving him off. If there's any high ground you can take, do it. The aim bonus will help your low level soldiers. If you have a grenadier with shredder, try to position them closest to the Viper King. Get everybody but one soldier on overwatch and then move forward with that remaining guy. When the King is activated and moves forward, your shredder should fire first and that will help the others get some damage in. If no one has shredder, then you'll have to rely on grenades instead so use as many as you've got until the armor is gone. I'd also make sure your guys have at least several tiles between them (before starting the fight) to avoid getting multiple soldiers tagged with a single frost breath. Beyond that, you'll just have to weather the storm as best you can and deal as much damage as you can as quickly as possible. Good luck, let me know how it goes.

[@Mystery017]

Hi Tapcat thanks for the reply! Good advice perhaps I should have done that!! So, in short, I survived that fight unscathed and proceeded to meet him twice more before finally dealing the killing blow. Thankfully the mission was not time-based so i could let several turns pass to recall the evac and drop it close to my soldiers. I then placed all but one of my troops in the drop zone (just out of his LOS) and one guy up front to catch his attention. dealt about 1/4 of his health as damage (armour absorbed a lot since it was overwatch I couldn't control who attached first) and then i cheekily EVAC'd all as he got about 8 tiles away All in all the viper king was a fun experience but immediately at the start of the very next mission the beserker queen walked out of the fog right next to my troops and well.... you can finish the rest. I think I enabled a setting that integrates them automatically without any story missions which made my playthrough a bit unrewarding. So i'm going to start a new one and see what went wrong. One question for you please. This is my second playthrough, this time with all dlc except WOTC, should I get WOTC and/or the long war 2? Or should I leave that to a later playthrough. BTW Happy new year and keep up the amazing work!!!

[@TapCat]

My personal opinion is that it's best to learn the game without any of the DLC. War of the Chosen is popular but it throws an awful lot at you both on the strategy layer and during quite a few missions. It can be a little overwhelming even for a veteran player and might be a bit much for a 2nd playthrough. Long War 2 is a major conversion that for XCOM 2 that significantly changes key parts of the game. For example, the soldier classes are completely overhauled so it forces you to essentially re-learn how to play. It's well-regarded but something that works best when you've had your fill of the base game and I don't think you're in that category just yet. Whatever you decide, good luck in your next campaign!

[@Mystery017]

Thanks a lot ;)

[@Mystery017]

Thanks a lot :)

[@jstn8785]

I really cried when i encountered the modified Berserker, jesus

[@Yeethann]

justin same

[@TapCat]

I didn't, but wanted to.

[@AndrewSmall963]

Best option I've seen for that beastie was an acid grenade centred on it (one of Odd's games). For some reason, it never moved after that and was picked off easily as it had no ranged attacks. Don't know if that was an exploit that has now been closed however. Another thing I've thought of, but never seen, is that I'm not sure it can climb buildings without using a drainpipe (unlike Faceless that can jump). It might be possible to take high ground and block all the egress points by standing on the adjacent square. It's an exploit that might be interesting to try.

[@TapCat]

I had the Archon King freeze up during a fight after hitting him with a gas grenade. I'd consider both that and Odd's situation to be bugs/glitches rather than legitimate strategies. I don't know if they're repeatable but I wouldn't want to exploit them if they are. Regarding taking the high ground, I wouldn't recommend that strategy for the Viper King. He can easily shoot you from below (and most of the roof access points have little or no cover) or use the tongue grab to bring you to him. His breath weapon is also ranged so you're not really closing off many of his options.

[@Yeethann]

TapCat it's all rng freeze times I think it was the berserker it only freezed for one ruler turn

[@divisiondude2011]

One thing to add, if you have a grenadier with "heavy ordnance" put the frost bomb in the second grenade slot, this way you get 2 frost grenade and can freeze him a second time

[@b3at2]

You guys are hustling backward. Just use a spark mech. And to stop other snakes from coming into the room, leave a single person behind in the other room to do overwatch.

[@JonatasAdoM]

@JRLM That requires another DLC (that I believe came afterwards). Same as saying you can freeze enemies. Well, for that you need the Alien Hunters DLC.

[@boom5732]

@@JonatasAdoM yeah but we are talking about the dlc anyway

[@Sidewayscat421]

Fun fact if you're getting frustrated with Rulers: When they're affected with a condition like Frozen or Stunned, it only ticks down during soldier actions - NOT when you directly end a turn. If you can mop up all the nearby aliens and get a ruler stuck, you can use abilities that don't trigger Ruler Reactions (such as a Sharpshooter's Lightning Hands, or a Skirmisher's Whiplash) to whittle it down freely. It'll take a while, and it's a little cheesy, but I've managed to take out rulers as soon as I encounter them with this method. A Reaper set up with the Banish perk, and a weapon with good clip size and repeater upgrades, also has a good chance of straight-up executing them.

[@davidoftheforest]

whaaaaaat

[@JonatasAdoM]

You're counting with WOTC, that also did a rebalance on the rulers and where they first appear in facilities. In vanilla, with the exception of the viper king, the rulers show up out of nowhere in *normal missions,* mostly council missions. So this method will not work.

[@Order-fs9bv]

@@JonatasAdoMnah in my WOTC campaign I met the viper king in a council mission

[@LollipopKnight2]

@@Order-fs9bv I've never seen this. How late in the game did you meet him?

[@Order-fs9bv]

@@LollipopKnight2 mid to late game

[@murlacose72]

hmm 69 hp on legendary.......only male snake.............ima let you think about that

[@luccasliuti8098]

Stop lewding the sneks

[@spydog2034]

LEWD haha Hail to the King.... Viper

[@andrewlong9799]

@@luccasliuti8098 Snakes are known to have orgies. Just gonna leave you with that.

[@denifnaf5874]

​@@spydog2034 dick kickem quote

[@olando1187]

I got lucky with a repeater on the first shot. Thx for the video man, great stuff keep it up 👍

[@TapCat]

Lucky bastard! xD

[@Overlord0011]

That happened to me when I was fighting the Archon King. It was my first playthrough so I hadn't thought of upgrading my armor and weapons by the time he showed up. Never. Again.

[@luinthoronytb]

I specifically bought a superior repeater for my sniper just to take on the rulers. Only the Archon needed a second try.

[@SerBallister]

I got a repeater kill on the 3rd boss with a 23% chance to hit on my opening shot, talk about a roller coaster of emotions..

[@gamester512]

I've seen a clip here on KZbin where someone managed to Execute the Berserker Queen with an Overwatch shot as the BQ was rushing for that exact soldier.

[@Sunhawk7ajj]

I got lucky, met him early with magnetic n nothing else. When he squeezed my heavy, my sniper with the weapon upgrade, executed him. I was Kindda stunned- then went I'll take it. Should buy a lottery ticket today 😘

[@TapCat]

Seriously, sometimes the RNG is cruel and sometimes it's generous. On that day, it smiled on you and I'm glad!

[@civpr0]

Haha, that happened to me, I set up all of my guys and encountered him with my last guy. My last guy dashed and did that overwatch ability, if he used all of his actions to move he overwatches once your turn is over, and he had the superior repeater and executed him as he moved to kill my overwatched guy... PRAISE BE TO RNG

[@cheekybum1513]

That happened when I stumbled upon my first sectopod

[@lucasmarsh9841]

Same thing happened to me my best squad I were all injured When I encounter that thing I thought for sure I was dead but then my heavy manage to execute him

[@flakstoneforge2200]

First encounter... basic armor and weapons... but a decent sniper with a decent sniper rifle... One of the 3 that survived... after the 3rd encounter... execution... was the first kill in that mission... now close to end game, all rulers died... to the same sniper... with the same rifle, though upgraded

[@mordschlag2816]

How to kill the Viper King: Step 1: Place a carefully prepared ambush for him in the encounter area, centring on dominating the high ground. Step 2: Waste every piece of ordnance you have on him while your Sergeant Sniper picks off the adds. Step 3: He's still at 2/3rds health. Step 4: He's just pulled my Squaddie Grenadier out of cover and is strangling her. Shit. Step 5: Got him off the Grenadier. Step 6: He has frozen my top Ranger and the soldier with the Bolt Caster. Double shit. Step 7: Bradford goes ham on the adds while my Sniper shoots the King. And misses. Bugger. Step 8: He's running for a portal or something. Still above half health. Step 9: He's stopped just short of the portal. But he has forgotten something very important. Step 10: Remember the Grenadier? The one that got pulled? Yeah, she has a repeater. Guess it's time for revenge and a good old Viper killing. Step 11: He's dead as fuck. Step 12: Profit? Limping back to the Avenger to nurse the four Serious Wounds I accrued doesn't have the same ring to it.

[@dudeistpreist5721]

Ciaran Daddo-Langlois I bought 2 snipers with reaction and a shit ton of weapon modifiers and debuffs.

[@ShadowFlipsy]

i do rangers with frost bomb and ****BLADESTORM**** right on his ass insta profit well ok one grenadier to shred as much possible the armor

[@seattlekarim964]

Playing on switch recently, I encountered a bug where a ruler was unable to get to their portal. After summoning the portal the ruler kept taking useless turns, seemingly stuck and unable to get to the portal. on switch, I've also run into problems where my characters get stuck and cannot move. I have to save scrum to fix it. I suspect the same thing happened to the AI.

[@williamlouk6479]

I just bought the XCOM 2 "Digital Deluxe Edition " (the version with all the DLC) on a Playstation sale a couple days ago. I've really wanted to try the "XCOM" series for a long time. This is the first XCOM game I've played, and I'M LOVING IT! But, I currently have only done five missions, and my highest rated soldier is a sergeant. So I've been watching your videos to help me get better at the game (your videos are extremely helpful by the way). My sixth mission, I had my first encounter with a "Viper", it was tough but my squad managed to kill it with only sustaining one injury. After I progressed a little further in the same mission, I ran into the fucking Viper King. (I have all the DLC disabled so I'm not sure what I did wrong for the game to send this asshole my way) For lack of a better term, the Viper King straight up fucking pushed my stool in! I got my entire squad frozen, lost men to getting constricted after getting grappled by his "Gene Simmons' tongue" ability, and just plain lost men to getting shot in the face. I even tried reloading several times trying different tactics and going different ways. The best I could do with what I had was get his health low enough so he'd retreat without getting my men wounded any further. One thing I learned from that mission was, Obi-Wan was wrong, the high ground doesn't do shit.

[@TapCat]

The screen where you thought you were disabling the DLC actually just turned off the story mission. That means the viper king shows up whenever he feels like it (and that's always very early in the campaign). If you enable the story mission, then you can simply choose to not go to the mission until you want to (or not go at all). It will just sit on the map forever once you unlock it. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do with this campaign except live with the rulers showing up or start over. Wish I had better news...

[@williamlouk6479]

TapCat Oh okay. Well hopefully I'll be able to deal with them this game! Thanks for the reply! Your videos have really helped me a lot! I'm playing on rookie difficulty this game, trying to get a feel for some of the games mechanics and learn the basics. I'm not new to turn based strategy games, I'm just new to XCOM.

[@williamlouk6479]

So how often will the alien rulers show up in the game? Will the rulers just be an occasional nuisance? Or will they just start spawning every mission and make it much more difficult? I also disabled, (or thought I disabled) the other DLC, will it have any effect on the game?

[@TapCat]

In my campaigns the rulers show up every 2 or 3 missions. Even after I killed one, I didn't usually get very long of a break before the next showed up. They can be pretty rough, but a lot of it depends on whether you're already engaged with enemies, if the mission timer is getting tight, etc. The other DLC won't be a problem for you. It just means you'll have to build a Spark instead of getting one for free (assuming it's not quite as disabled as you think). In my opinion, Sparks aren't worth using to begin with so you should be fine.

[@Dcook85]

I know it's been a while since you've done these but I'd love to see a guide on Sectopod's and the Archon king if you ever have the time. Love your stuff.

[@TapCat]

Thanks, I'd love to do more guides but haven't had time to make any videos at all for a while now.

[@brodmonah4901]

I watched this and encountered him pretty early on. So i paused the game, looked this up and got extreamly lucky following your advice. Basic gear, no casualties (barely) but now ill be ready after. Thanks. +1 sub

[@FutureMediaNow]

Setting the sniper far back and setting a wide killzone is such a good idea, thanks for the tip. Can't believe I've never thought of it. I play on XB1 and sometimes I play your videos on my phone while I play and literally you'll say something that makes me change my mind about a move I'm about to take. And it almost always ends well or at least better than the crappy move I was gonna take. Keep it up man can't wait to see your take on the chosen when it comes out

[@thequalitycomedian7842]

Simplest way of beating ALL of them: Only use classes with guardian. Give one person a frozen grenade. Give everyone a superior repeater. Give everyone a superior hair trigger. Unleash hell.

[@Yellow13Firestorm]

I've gotten killing the viper king down to a science. Alien nest mission, make sure to get a spark and squad size 2. by this point, mag tier weapons and predator armour should naturally be avalible to you. Save your weapons and ammo until the end then when you find him in the ice cave. with prior positioning, your spark should be on a high point while all others are below in cover. Open up with a frost bomb. Salvo if you got it to make it easier and extra grenades for more power. put the spark into overdrive and launch a rocket at it. then deliver two normal shots. Ideally, you want adaptive aim as well. Either way... now that it's armour is gone and it's in the open, hit it with everything you got. ideally, some arc swords or a bolt caster can stun it into inaction. Move bradford up to hack and slash as well as to slash it if it tries running. Either way, if you're lucky with your stuns, you'll get it pinned down and you can even kill it right then and there.

[@spectrumthevideogame7167]

When facing the Viper King I managed to keep him trapped in the pit. Everyone stayed above in the observation deck. Soldiers never took damage and he never got close enough to be pulled in by his tongue. Did the same with the Mech during Shen’s last wish mission. I wasn’t so lucky with the other Alien bosses or the Chosen though.

[@5burned5]

Finally a great strategy guide on these guys, thanks TC and looking forward to the next one

[@TapCat]

Glad you liked it, thanks for the kind words!

[@Haggysack2k8]

I can't help it, but the Viper King looks kind of adorable right at the beginning. Like a cat or an otter, waiting for a treat... treat made of lead ;D

[@theDuke0001]

my advise is to first do chengs mission and then go with the robot

[@telendar2949]

Then your robot get frozen and you're fucked... Guess what happened to me ?

[@fakelove7553]

Telendar 🤣🤣🤣

[@gummybear8679]

Well thought out strategy and preparation combined with careful movement. Me: Repeater go BRRRRRRRRRRR Tactics presented are all logical and fair. They really help in most situations. DoTs are really good on rulers. At the same time, the first time I tried the repeater was pre-War-Of-The-Chosen on an Avenger crash mission and I one-shot the Archon-King on his first encounter. I, then, started equipping every weapon with a repeater and an hair trigger just for shits and giggles. Those things got me out of a lot of tight spots XD

[@superdude3147]

Killed him on our first encounter by using on of my solders as bait, having him get crushed while the rest of the squad moved in and surrounded the king. It resulted in the king not being able to run away because there was no space for him to move, allowing the squad to beat him up easily.

[@jessman1943]

This guy lives in my head rent free

[@Dragonblaster1]

With 4/5 of my soldiers frozen, I thought I was looking at a squadwipe... and then my sniper's Repeater came good. Thank you, RNG God of XCOM! Just for once, you did not unleash your vengeful wrath on me, as you so often do with those countless missed 95% shots, and 50% shots that never, ever hit. That was a good time to be on my side.

[@jesseleite]

VIPER KING TACTICS GUIDE: 1) Outfit your soldiers' weapons with superior repeaters. 2) One-shot Viper King. 3) Become meme lord.

[@Team_BaM]

I absolutely agree, stack that damage over time asap. Also, if you have too many people frozen you can end your turn early and I believe it only provokes one action from the ruler while unfreezing your team at the beginning of your turn. The other thing I would advise is, if you know there's a chance you'll encounter a ruler and your mission isn't time sensitive consider bringing along a sneaky ranger, at least one sniper with burn ammo and and a trooper with the rocket ordinance. Use the ranger to scout around while your other units fight things (if you're lucky enough to have a grapple remember you can grapple out of cover that is being observed without breaking stealth) once you spot the ruler snipe his face from across the map. He'll make a bee line for your troops and be burning the whole way. Once he starts getting close, start putting your troops into overwatch as high up as you can manage for the elevation bonuses (or put them on overwatch before provoking him if he's close when you find him.) this way when he busts onto the scene to start wrecking up the joint you get free shots right off the bat. Remember, the rocket can be fired further than you can see so if he's almost there and you can see him use that to drop his armor and give him a proper hello.

[@seattlekarim964]

Oh man! I did this mission so early. Didn't know what I was getting into.

[@mr.niceguy9394]

if you have a ranger to battle him at close combating​ have the ability bladestorm

[@MalteKo79]

Mag weapons, line up a firing squad on high ground before triggering him, pit everyone on overwatch and then trigger with Bradford. That way you get 5 shots plus one sword slash from blademaster on him before he finishes his first move. Then shoot his armor with shredder, use frostbomb for 3 more shots. Shotguns preferably, last bowcaster for the stun proc. With any luck he is almost dead at that point and you can finish him off before he escapes.

[@timmy5948]

Thanks for the video. Picked up this game after halo wars. One of the most difficult games I've ever played. This is on ninja gaiden black levels.

[@Brawneteer]

So, I just encountered my first Viper King today, but it wasn't my first Ruler encountered. My first one was the Archon King for some reason (might have had to do with the fact that I was well in to late game by the point I went chasing the rulers). So yeah, Viper King shows up, and gets completely obliterated by a combination of Kill Zone and a Reaper with Banish in one turn before he can even act.

[@AstaIsAMonster]

He ran away when I was beating him on veteran 1:33 in the dlc mission is that supposed to happen?

[@SeriousGranade]

You know, there's one thing I was wondering about when it comes to Alien Hunters. Is it possible to mind control an Alien Ruler if you meet one while having a high-level Psi Operative? I checked the stats on the Wiki and they all have really low will, so perhaps it would be possible to use Domination on one of those

[@nix207]

SeriousGranade real late reply, but you sadly can’t mind control any of them as far as i know. Brought my psi operative and she simply didnt have the option

[@SireBab]

I don't remember you mentioning bladestorm in the video, though you showed footage of it. I found it to be a fantastic counter to the constrict attack.

[@kiritotheabridgedgod4178]

Not sure if this has already been mentioned, but if you can set any of the alien rulers on fire and get them with an acid grenade/bomb, then it will do damage to them on every reaction phase for a set number of actually turns, as well as completely cancel out their action points.

[@TapCat]

I talk about using damage-over-time attacks in the video although they do not cancel out their action points.

[@eternalchamp3882]

one thing i would like to add stasis is a god sent when figbting alien rulerd because it will allow an entire turn to act in which he wont take any ruler reactions while stasis is on unless that changed with a patch in the past montgs. either way good video

[@ArvisSc]

*happy music plays in the background* "if you meet him early on - I can guarantee you that at least one of your troops are coming home in body bags" *happy music plays in the background*

[@ismathem]

🤣

[@hexaanon1284]

My strat is to set up a shit load of over watches and then have central go in they don't get to react to overwatches now do they?

[@LeonSteelpaw]

I must be a lucky SOB then, went into it early, only had shredder on one grenadier, but I lost noone to the king and drove him off

[@lweaver2988]

I'm glad you mentioned the repeater strategy. I was super lucky and my sniper killed all three of the alien lords with it.

[@TapCat]

My secret goal is to accumulate 6 superior repeaters and equip them all for at least one mission just to see if it's any good at all. I doubt it, but there's something so sweet about executing high-powered enemies!

[@trippy0752]

A tip i would recommend would be to get the grenadier skill that allows you to have two uses for the grenade in your grenade only slot. That way u can have 2 frost bomb uses and you can stun them when they try and escape.

[@sam11182]

Phew this helped a LOT! I lost my first battle with him because he killed the Central man. I plan on making a LOT of frost grenades even though they are quite expensive. I will definitely find more than just one repeater now. I made the laboratory first by mistake but I wasn't worried about it at all. Meant to make a Proving ground but now I have both. Gotta handle the Avatar very soon. I am at the start of the game. Starting at the lowest difficulty because I am a wus! I do enjoy games that allow you to choose the difficulty as you go. I was pretty worried about taking all of his massive health but that he just pulls a Frenchman and runs makes it a lot easier

[@Dover78]

I've watched this video half a dozen times and prepared meticulously to counter Viper King only to have my field medic execute him from overwatch as soon as he activated...

[@TapCat]

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!

[@grimmacemack76]

So, he's O.P.

[@austinhuntoon2813]

Something I found to be very helpful is towards late game or early if you build the psi operative training facility and get stasis. all rulers actually are out for the whole time of your units turn if you can use Stasis on them. Sure you can’t attack but if you per say discover the ruler along with other units or you need a way to get your units to better cover you have a sort of grace period

[@redking36]

I didn’t discover the damage over time trick until today. I was up against the Archon King. He wiped out my entire squad in a bugged UFO defense that didn’t give me any reinforcements. My first encounter with Archon King and my first UFO defense. He lit himself on fire by descending next to a car, but even that godsend fire barely dented him.

[@godsavethequeen4675]

3:04 I’m sorry your wrong on that for one reason my friend if you have a Templar far enough back with line of sight with one focus and invert you can actually make it were they can’t reach the psi gate during their reaction which I find really funny

[@thelord4191]

Some of the gameplay decisions are crushing to watch

[@tomkelly00]

I wasn't sure if the frost bomb would work since he seems to be ice based

[@TapCat]

Thematically, it would have made sense if he was immune to frost and yet it effects him the longest of the 3 rulers.

[@BIadelores]

Strategy: 1. Get a Reaper. 2. Get a repeater. 3. Get banish. 4. Win.

[@peterfox6159]

Excellent video! Thank you so much.

[@TapCat]

You're welcome!

[@peterfox6159]

@@TapCat Hello TapCat! *I have a funny story for you :)* I did not manage to play this game up until this month. Because of life circumstances of various randomness (LOL!) and because of an infamous thing called "VG-back-catalogue" ;) *BUT!* ... I just killed that bastard on the first encounter with *ONE* icegranate. (Reloaded the fight twice to get it right. That bastard is fast afterall!) I enjoy this game as much as I can and am looking forward to Fireaxis making a third one! Hopefully for the PS5 aswell. (My platform.) *Thank you for making such a great channel, TapCat!!!* Greetings from Vienna :D Peter Fox

[@user-fx3dn7wm6w]

Easiest and the fastest: take about 3 grenadiers with Heavy Ordnance ability with a proximity mine in their grenade slot, as well as other soldiers also equipped with the mine. Set the mines where he appears. You can star the battle with 54 damage already dealt to him, 66 if your grenadiers have Volatile Mix ability. With that plus 5 overwatch (because you will need to spare on solider to trigger the event), you are almost guaranteed to kill him on the spot. Similar tactics work with other alien leaders, but for the other two, you need to sight them before they do with your ghost ranger. Starting the battle with 50+ damage already dealt is no insignificant advantage. Lastly, use your psi-operatives, namely the stasis ability. It does NOT trigger the leader action, so you can set up overwatch ambush, set proximity mines, etc. If you have 2+ psi-ops, you can pretty much serial-stasis them, which makes killing them almost trivial.

[@steve666lucifer]

First time I fought it, literally with a first shot I got an instant kill. It was crazy.

[@Endeva09]

You did 44 damage with one shot? Hmm...

[@cheekybum1513]

PRO TIP when you fight and alien king bring a Ranger with bladestorm (free melee strike on any enemy who comes in range) if the alien tries to escape melee attack from a direction in between the king and the warp gate so when its their turn you get another free hit. Works best with the Chosen Katana cause it does a ton of damage and cant miss

[@mysteryman4915]

Xbox1, i started my first playthrough without any of thr DLC active but had randomly encountered the rulers anyway. What the fuck? Oh,and i got the luckiest repeater kill on the Muton queen.

[@lynnmcneely7549]

Bio logy can you disable it on console mide playthourth

[@MrODST57]

Lynn McNeely no

[@Wingspand1]

Just started playing and was sent to go extract some alien equipment. Took down the aliens and while I ran to get some loot, enemies turn comes around and it’s this guy. Got him down to at least half before he ran away, was just glad the specialist was saved from being crushed since we don’t have armor yet.

[@jo2xp255]

Beat it 1st play thru on Rookie level. Gotta have frost bomb and Rangers with auto blade attack when close to enemy. Give frost bomb to granadier so you'll have 2 items on stock instead of one. Of course, also save a lot and position your troops well.

[@Grzesuav94]

I met this monstrosity at like 5th mission in a new campaign ;_______; Lost half of the squad and barely touched him. They will be forever remembered as Humanitys finest. "F"

[@anthonygregory6797]

I just recently got back into XCOM 2 when I bought the new DLC for it came out a while back it was on sale, and everything was going smoothly in the mission so I thought when it came to planning C4 at the black site, and I was able to keep concealed until like right up off the point where I was at the building and this thing showed out of nowhere and it caught me off-guard I'll tell you that right now. What's even worse is I had been spotted by it so all the other soldiers that I've been sneaking around ended up planking me so as being shot from behind while I was facing this thing and was surprised to find out how many different abilities that the serpent King had. I think what's even more frustrating though is that I almost killed the thing and I had three hits left on it before it would die and it teleported. As upsetting as it was to run into it it was even more upsetting not to getting to kill it.

[@TheRisingAnarchy]

I had an advanced repeater activate on the first fight with him, lucky me.

[@commandercritic9036]

I can confirm the execution thing, I faced the Beserker Queen recently, walked RIGHT into the middle of my squad, I had a concealed ranger with shadow strike and an advanced repeater equipped, standing JUST off to one side of it, as I was contemplating the shot I said “Martina, if you could get an execute, I will LOVE you, FOREVER.” And she got the Mother of GOD Execute PRAISE BE TO RNGESUS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@DocDoesGamingTV]

I just faced him with only magnetic (and no gauss) weapons. He knocked three of my soldiers unconscious untill my Spark went into overdrive and got all 3 shots in.

[@goreobsessed2308]

Just met this guy for the first time ironically just after adjusting to legendary because the regular troops weren't living long enough to do anything. man he wiped me out

[@darthcupcake3845]

🪦

[@Huimanoidi]

best way to kill the rulers imo is having ranger(or some1 with stealth) locate the ruler, then go full overwatch with squad and pull the ruler, many times u only need to take max 1-2 shots at them after that to make them summon portal

[@btemplar428]

I killed the king in one turn from setting up a 5 man overwatch (BCentral was on the hill with most of the team) from the ledge in the middle of the room. the last ranger proc'd the ruler and got the last shotie blast in. granted, plasma and power armor and a spark helped...

[@Glaswalker1001]

Oh God, I've got offered this mission yesterday and I only had 4 other missions before that. I didn't do it, because it was marked as challenging and didn't feel right. Seems like I dodged a bullet there.

[@odaharry]

How come you did first 2 bosses but not the third? Where’s the Archon boss?! Only the hardest boss of em all and only one that really did need a video!

[@jamesverner9132]

I'm currently playing XCOM 2 for the first time and I immediately want for the snake king mission. Not knowing what the hell I was unleashing. Since then have learned to deal with him but not before restarting every mission to re equip my squad with the tools to deal with him.

[@dantebond8124]

3:34 - That is a great analogy.

[@starbucke]

thanks for the advice. got stuck with the viper king showing up during an evac early on and it's killing me.

[@samwalters6170]

I only fought it twice in my WOTC campaign because I just had a Reaper plant the X4 on the first mission we saw it and ran away without fighting. The second time I managed to aggro his guards without him somehow and killed everything else on the map before activating him, then I froze it in the middle of my squad when it opened the gate to run and got a bunch of big hits for the kill before it could get out.

[@amhaize]

Some useful advices, I just begin playing this game. TY :)

[@kylewilson9741]

I uh... I may have made a huge mistake. I haven't upgraded anything, but did equip the dlc weapons. So maybe I have a chance?

[@TapCat]

It's going to be tough, especially after the Viper King. Just make sure you prioritize those weapon and armor upgrades ASAP.

[@Mr_Damion_Scott]

listening to this guy talk reminds me of talking to the Nintendo tip line guys from back in the day.

[@kujotrujillo]

Always loved getting a ranger with bladestorm next to him.

[@PsijicScream]

When I played before war of the chosen, I killed the viper king on the actual mission where you discover him. I had a commander level ranger who was behind cover with the executioner perk and the one that anytime something goes past you, you attack with your blade. This just under half health boss monster trying to escape runs past my ranger who swings and gets him with this at disadvantage swing and I thought cool more damage let’s finish this! Then it said executioner and I clocked he had killed it. Best mission ever!

[@dadderall4213]

Legally, you have to tell us: Are you Kevin Smith? You sound exactly like Kevin Smith! Subbed

[@TapCat]

I would say that I am Kevin Smith to the same extent that you are Hans Gruber. ;)

[@mightyluck4152]

I dont know if im super godly lucky but when I encounter him in the first place my ranger had the instant kill upgrade and then boom one shot with first time move on overwatch ... so i didn't enjoyed the fight thought i will fight him again on other places like other enemies

[@brucemeise3677]

I had that too with the 3rd boss xD

[@MrAntiKnowledge]

First playthrough I didnt enable the Alien Hunter Missions, so they just started showing up during regular missions. Berserker while still having the first armor and no revival protocol was not a fun time... Second time around it was much easier (gotta love abuse of DoT and Killzone)

[@bearlongstrider4579]

If only TapCat was that XCOM commander, he wouldn't have let those pesky aliens take over the Earth

[@TapCat]

Indeed, I'm still a little salty about XCOM 2 changing the outcome of Enemy Unknown to "we lost" when I won multiple times! ;)

[@NodDisciple1]

TapCat Problem is, they countqed ALL the games finished. Not just yours.

[@suprtroopr1028]

When I ran into this guy the first time, I had a squad two blademaster rangers with arc blades. One good stun later, and it's snake sashimi for dinner.

[@TapCat]

That's definitely a good combo for him.

[@souldry]

What a surprise this fella was on my fourth mission on veteran difficulty. Didn't do a single point of damage with my young squad.The only positive from that encounter was that he got bored and decided to leave.

[@WPFreeinternet]

The rulers are the hardest part about XCOM 2. I think I had DLC story missions off so they just turned up when ever they wanted early. A couple times when I was in an intense fire fight they would just walk into my vision. Those two times I called down an emergency evac immediately. While I had to reestablish contact with the region, I avoided an easy squad wipe. Due to rulers, on certain missions like destroying relay towers I perch a sniper on the roof and have someone blow a hole into the wall so I can shoot it from far away hopefully not alerting any dangerous enemy groups.

[@TapCat]

True, it's absolutely brutal when you're in the middle of an already tough fight and one of the rulers shows up!

[@peterfox6159]

*I just killed that bastard on the first encounter of the fight with ONE icegranate.* (reloaded the fight twice to get it right. That bastard is fast afterall!) Upfront: I am a TOTAL newbie in XCOM, but ... ... I did the mission very late in the game, I did a lot of research (and got plasma guns as early as possible) aaand I play on "veteran" ;) 1) I positioned everyone on overwatch positions ready to shoot him save for someone to trigger the cut-scene. 2) I put my only icegranate on him as soon as he took the the overwatch firesalvos in the first round when he appeard. 3) Even though my only Grenadier got snatched by a viper into stranglehold before he could fire a single shot I managed to free him in the second round by wasting a shot (not aimed at the VK). WHICH TOOK OFF ALL HIS ARMOR and damaged him aswell. 4) Even though he should be frozen for 3 rounds he broke free almost right after the grenate I chose only the hardest hitting weapons (Plasma: Sniper rifles and Assault rifles) to shoot at him. I REALLY WANTED THE ARMOR FOR MY RANGER - BADLY :D (I only stumbled into this mission because I did research for a good armor for my Ranger, LOL.) Happy hunting, guys!

[@theonetruedavis9203]

such a great game

[@parallax7789]

I got SUPER lucky with my team and the Viper King. I was able kill it in it's own lair thanks to Cental having the upgraded sword and my team equipped with the alien hunter weapons. My Gunslinger was down to one health, but I still had my long ranged sniper and the rest of my team sans central was unscathed. I think that I was over prepared though. I avoided the mission to upgrade my weapons to magnetic and my armor. The only thing that wasn't upgraded was the SPARK.

[@mannofdober873]

What about the Archon King. Oh wait, you can't fight him. Such BS.

[@siniok3952]

Steel Talons Commander Armadillo i killed it by accident

[@MrODST57]

Steel Talons Commander Armadillo you must have plasma and everyone rocking fire rounds

[@JBrander]

Here's a tip for fighting Archon King: Never go to rooftops. Learned that the hard way when he plowed three of my dudes from the 3rd floor all the way to ground floor.

[@MrODST57]

Jake Branthe lol that's such a fucked up scenario it's funny.I remember when I first fought the viper king I stacked my guys to close and my whole squad got frozen .

[@jonahhensley7779]

I've found the only way to survive him is to just keep your guys so damn far apart they can activate every pod in the map but still have Line of Sight on the bastard.

[@elyjah6380]

On my 1st play through of xcom 2 about a week ago I got a 1 shot insta kill on the beserker queen on my first turn of the 1st encounter on a blacksite mission, thank you very much repeater for that 5% insta kill chance haha

[@Infamouswiseman]

Well I was doing a modded play through after I got the Resistance Pack, so I though my Jedi would be able to make quick work of him, but then he froze her...... luckily I also had my lone wolf sniper, who I trained at the AWC to get "Light 'em up"(Which is LW2 I believe) and I still made quick work of the VK However on the mission, where the UFO grounds the I got the Berserker Queen, in addition to like 15 muttons, luckily I managed to stun her with my Bolt Caster and send her into oblivion.

[@itree4]

Loved the explanation. Good voice. Got yourself a subscriber.

[@TapCat]

Thank you, Charles, welcome to the channel!

[@francisharkins]

When I first encountered him and saw the HP Bar I raised an eyebrow and then proceeded to surround him with overwatchs as my 2 snipers in the back took pop shot at him to force him to move. My two supports reacted to him whenever he shot or made any action due to the overwatch skill. Snipers are the best bet for kills for that High crit, but I began to religiously love supports on this game due to hacking and the decent ammo in rifles. Think my squad at the time was 2 supports, an assault, and 2 snipers... never really had use for heavy in this game due to how much they nerfed them. Just get more options with supports and utility from supports well Assault solves the problem of high damage at close range situations and the ability to move up on the field. Though this ruler was a pain to fight his suit really isn't worth it unlike the Muton or Archon. Man was the Archon suit amazingly handy. Slapped that on my best support and I could get him up on the field fast for early hacks

[@evilcrusader6322]

I'm on my first playthrough right now and went in with my best soldiers and was getting absolutely trapped on left and right. I save scummed till I just reloaded before the mission. I was ded under prepared and will prepare accordingly now

[@cheekybum1513]

Ive bought all the dlc recently and I’m dreading fighting these things

[@TapCat]

If you don't mind a bit of unsolicited advice, don't play this and War of the Chosen together. At least not until you've played at least one campaign with each of them separately. WotC and Shen's Last Gift go together very well, though.

[@UncannyBeagle]

I remember that I got him pretty good, because he got stuck near two rangers with stun batons and melee reactions. He got stunlocked until he used portal to escape.

[@UncannyBeagle]

On the first mission with the Archon ruler it was an underground level, so he couldn't really use his flying which is already pretty big. I covered most of the level until only one room remained, I knew he had to be in there, so I stacked up everybody on the door with a melee reaction ranger and marauder also with melee reaction on both sides. I put everyone on overwtcach except for the marauder, I used him to open the door. The Archon flew through the door getting shot up, the ranger had a stun baton, so after the marauder hit him the ranger stunned him. I used my marauder action to deal some more damage, and he fled the level. Took the archon down by quite a bit without him doing any damge to my troops. Felt pretty proud about that. The underground nature of the level ended up not playing into the gameplay because of how hard the archon got hit in that one turn.

[@canimoualiex5503]

i just got the game with the dlc and i just did the mission straight when it poped up with nothing upgraded and a rookie squad.... it did not end well

[@JazonCalderon]

Ironman Mode. Got all DLC at the same time so I first encountered this guy as a facility guard as I played WOTC with integrated DLC on so I absolutely had no clue what he does. Attacked the first alien facility pretty late as it's on another continent and all my soldiers have magnetic/gauss weapons and predator armor. As this was my first encounter with a ruler as well, brought my best ones too. During the mission, I only encountered one pod which I dispatched quickly and two turrets (one I hacked to destroy the other one). I managed to plant the X4 charges immediately and got the option to call in evac and I did, just outside the door a move or dash away from all of my soldiers. Disappointed, decided to evac instead of looking around for the Viper King as I don't want to go through the hassle of searching for him. As I put in the third guy in the evac zone this guy popped up. I got the bright idea of taking him on as he's the only enemy there and I have a turret for backup. I mistakenly ordered the turret to shoot him which gave him a turn where he freezes (didn't know he could do this at first) all three soldiers in the evac zone. Things turn from bad to XCOMe-on really quick as he keeps binding one my three remaining unfrozen soldiers so I have to keep hitting him to unbind him then the turret came back under ADVENT control just as he fires another freeze attack which hit two more of my soldiers. The turret then made short work of one of my frozen soldiers as the Viper King re-positions to I assume to bind again my remaining soldier, which of course is a sharpshooter. Oh and ADVENT reinforcements just arrived consisting of a lancer and two MECS who will have a hell of a day with my clumped up frozen troops with their AOE attack. I didn't end my turn as I know what will happen if I do. Easy to say I started a new campaign after that.

[@TapCat]

That's a rough introduction to the Viper King! It sounds like an almost perfect storm for him to be effective too. Small squad, all huddled together... his crowd control was bound to get you (sorry, couldn't resist the pun at the end).

[@i_burn_heretics9175]

For me the other enemies seem to be bugged, they don't attack at all? Only viper king in the whole mission

[@willsinger3]

Surround him with bladestorm rangers, fight reactions with reactions

[@stefanfr13]

The Viper King was a complete pushover when I first met him. I got a lucky freeze grenade during the introduction mission (the nest) and just fucking pelted him with bullets. That's right, I somehow managed to kill the fucker during his first appearance, and he barely got a single action in on me. Granted, this was a modded LW2 playthrough. I've never fought the rulers in the vanilla game. And seems like I might have to when War of the Chosen comes out.

[@TapCat]

Some missions just go your way. Whether it's you making really good decisions, the AI missing some opportunities, or a little luck with RNG at the right time... sometimes you can have a remarkably good mission even when there's an alien ruler around. Enjoy it! :)

[@ViniciusSouza-sr4rb]

stefanfr13 yeah i guess Long War2 makes it easier for us since most classes have high damaging skills and stuns

[@vanjulm8256]

Expert level was exzatly how it was described here - disaster in 10 rounds. But now im trying Longwar 2 mode on veteran level. Team: 3 shinobis with bladestorm ability. Central (has also sword) and specialist and gunner. (on this mission longwar extended teamsize do not apply) Gear: Level 1 wich can be counted as nothing, same goes with guns and blades. Regular weapon upgrades. And it turned out pretty well. Basically what happened as soon as the Viper king showed up - all the shinobies with or without bladestorm grabbed their level one blades and charged. Basically on shinobies class charge and attack counts as one action. And viper king was in their attack range. First of them got little squeeze but then the second shinobi arrived. And when viper king reacted on third shinobi the first and second were able to execute the bladestorm ability and that ended up with half of the health gone on the VK. He basically ran. And the sad part is that i completely forgot to equip frost bomb... And then gunner shot the one and only lesser viper that has been popped up and mission complete. :)

[@TapCat]

Congrats on what sounds like a very successful encounter with the Viper King! Obviously, shinobi aren't part of the base game but I have been thinking about rangers with swords more since recording this video and will talk about that a bit in the Berserker Queen guide.

[@TimbaWolf65]

I remember I _hated_ the Alien Hunters DLC back when it first released; I had no idea you didn't have to run that mission immediately, and eventually started disabling it entirely, so I was always up against him on Commander Ironman while running tier 1 gear. It was frustrating as Hell. For a time I even simply uninstalled the content from my PC because I couldn't seem to get anywhere while it was active. Fortunately, discovering that it was possible simply to delay that mission and level your troops and improve your gear in the meantime made a _huge_ difference. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the DLC overall, (though I'll admit, a colonel rank Assault/Ranger with the Icarus Armour and Plasma Cutter almost makes up for all the frustration, _almost)_ but it's advice like that that actually made the game playable for me again. I mean, maybe I'm just not very good, but I think it says a lot that most guides suggest putting that particular mission off for two or three in-game months.

[@TapCat]

Personally, I feel like going to that mission when it's first available (as I did in my first Alien Hunters campaign) hijacks your entire game and, unless you really enjoy losing soldiers, is going to make for a painful experience. There are so many instant kills when you don't have real armor yet that your soldiers feel like china cups fighting a raging bull. Oh well, if we weren't suffering we wouldn't be learning the finer points of XCOM!

[@AndrewSmall963]

The AD&D version: * Four strangers meet in a pub. (Skipping five minutes of introductions where the rogue attempts to slip the paladin a mickey finn...) DM: You exit the pub, an alleyway stretches to the left or the right. Cedric: I look left. DM: A shifty looking kobold is lurking... PimplesLightbringer: My OCD compels me to look right. DM: A sign states "Tiamat's Lair. Adventurers welcomed with open jaws." All: Gee, that sounds fun!