XCOM : Can You Beat ENEMY WITHIN With Only 1 Soldier?

[@LoneBonk]

Well, TECHNICALLY you've beaten the game in some sense, considering that canonically XCOM failed to defend the base, so it kinda can count as a "win"

[@boredniko2406]

According to X2 that's the canonical ending lol

[@brosmeister09]

Well i guess its time for chief to return to xcom 2 ?

[@pinguin4898]

"it's all a matter of perspective, really"

[@novaenon4317]

I mean XCOM lost, but Bradford didn't die, so it's not canon in my book lol

[@alduintheanti-dragonborn]

@@novaenon4317 I think that the normal "bad ending" scene is the canon ending, since all characters seem to live and the base is more or less defenseless without funding and the council betraying the location of the base.

[@serketenglish5963]

You lost the run... you know what that means right? You've made XCOM 2 happen by losing to the aliens... that means you have to take Chief out of cryo-sleep. The world needs him, one. last. time.

[@twinodoom]

Can we beat Xcom 2 with one soldier?

[@serketenglish5963]

@@twinodoom Or will The Chief fall once again?

[@alextaylor7135]

So you're saying he needs to ... Finish the Fight?

[@serketenglish5963]

@@alextaylor7135 Nah, we have to save that for XCOM 3, when The Chief gets to team up with a Viper Deli-Worker named Arby. Of course, that means there’ll be Split Screen for Ms. Lemon to play as Arby.

[@serketenglish5963]

@@myawsomebox No, that's exactly what XCOM 2 is. You very specifically lost the first game, the aliens took over, and began acting like they're your friends. Then, when they start murdering everybody again, you stop them.

[@kibo1202]

He turned the game to easy? By god, Lemon has learned from the Dead Space Flamethrower run!

[@boredniko2406]

To be fair, EU/EW will mercilessly kick your ribs in even on easy lol

[@milesgreenaway6008]

God damn it! I read this before watching and because I watched a lot of 30rock, I read it in “Jack Donahe’s” voice (can’t spell)

[@tgisurvie4339]

Havent heard that word dead space for a long ass time

[@mlgman138]

@@tgisurvie4339 there's a remaster coming so it's gonna be fun

[@Awesomewithaz]

@Binding lol okay ;)

[@little_tornado1804]

Minor word of advice: when you capture an alien you get their gun- always, even if you can’t interrogate them. If you do this in the earlygame you can skip right to plasma pistols, and then other plasma weapons before the enemy tech curve spikes.

[@Leviathan56]

You need to research the plasma pistol, so no you cannot skip it, you can only skip actually making them in the workshop

[@little_tornado1804]

@@Leviathan56 Skip *To*, meaning you don't have to research Laser Weapons- Though this may be a problem during Operation Deluge.

[@danielsurvivor1372]

You can but usually it's slow research so you leave yourself vulnerable for long time

[@Trevin_Taylor]

The research doesn’t matter, the money does. You can get there but can’t afford it. Laser is like $20 and plasma is like $200. Doesn’t matter having it if you can’t buy it.

[@little_tornado1804]

@@Trevin_Taylor Counter to this is you can get a lot of pistols and light rifles early on. Don't need to buy six pistols- just stun seven sectoids. The bigger plasma guns don't appear until the lategame, but if you know what triggers the enemy difficulty spikes you can dance around that for a bit while you gear up.

[@DB-cm2gm]

If you think about it, with how this ended, you could have a canonical follow-up to this in XCOM 2.

[@BassBiest]

"When the Aliens attacked we tried everything. We let one guy fight them, but it wasn't enough. There was nothing else we could have done."

[@Sir-Pleiades]

@@BassBiest sounds like Doom Eternal

[@nixborn]

yeah I'd love to see this challenge done in XCOM 2, even if it ends up being impossible

[@th3vampan3z3l0rd]

Ironically, this is better than XCOM canonically did in this game as far as XCOM 2 is concerned

[@You-are-definitely-right-but]

@@Sir-Pleiades i think it sounds more like Metroid

[@tombstone522]

That was a really good attempt at a solo soldier run! Personally, if I were to attempt this challenge (I'm not sure if I have the sanity to try though), I'd probably try it with the Assault class. While getting in the enemy's face seems scary, the Assault has the highest damage output of any class in the game combined with the highest survivability in the game. Close Combat Specialist gives you free Reaction shots on enemies within 4 tiles; once you get the Alloy Cannon, it's basically a free guaranteed kill on Chryssalids. Close and Personal gives you two shots per turn if the first is on a close-range enemy. Resilience and Extra Conditioning combined means that you have a lot of health that the enemy has to burn through to kill you on Easy. Rapid Fire is two shots on any single enemy, which is basically a guaranteed kill on anything that isn't a shielded Mechtoid or a Sectopod. The Assault can rip through enemy groups. That said, you have to get to that point with your Assault, which is a major challenge. I'm also not sure if even all of that would be enough to deal with the Defense mission. Food for thought, I guess. Thanks for the awesome video!

[@TheBacklogs]

Mrs. Lemon COULD use a redemption arc...

[@The-Dom]

on easy i would agree, the AI chance of hit is pretty bad and all the defense of the assault class would keep it safe. on harder settings i think it would get overrun and a rangier stealthy tactic would be required. Also on easy you can skip/fail more missions when your one soldier is hurt, and assault would be getting hurt (if only minorly) nearly every mission.

[@samfriend3675]

@@TheBacklogs Its possible that the heavy is the soldier to use. Although explosives may delay your research somewhat, and the low accuracy is a problem, the heavy's explosives allow for quick killing of grouped enemies. Considering specifically the base defence mission (with its many cyber disks) the heavy's bonus agains mech enemies may also be relevent. Having said that, the assaults ability to kill chrysalids for free may mean that your ability to kill more of the opening wave gets you ahead of the initial wave than the sniper can hope to be. Or maybe using a mech might help? The mech is basically all armour, so that should almost completely eliminate downtime due to injuries once the conversion is complete?

[@Beakerbite]

@@samfriend3675 explosives are limited. You'll get a few good shots off but then you're a sitting duck. Assault can kill forever.

[@arturkaptyug342]

@@TheBacklogs call him doom guy this time.

[@Lunaraia]

The really ONLY option for a single soldier run if that mission pops are being a Mech Soldier, which unfortunately prevents psionic and genetic augmentation unless you mod. As a Mech soldier, you get access to massive AoE attacks, have armor, WAY more health, and depending on the class turning into a mech can be a monster able to one shot even berserkers in melee or at range.

[@asdfqwerty6122]

No way. The best option for a single soldier run is an assault - with an assault you can get mimetic skin + close and personal (but absolutely do not pick close combat specialist), which allows you to beat most enemies by moving next to them concealed, then shooting at them for free, breaking LOS with 1 action, and moving back (and reconcealing) with your second action. I've actually done a solo soldier playthrough before like that - it's pretty tedious, but it can be done. The hardest part is when seekers first show up before you can get immunity to the strangle - the invisibility has a limited duration though so if you're really careful you can make sure they're never able to move next to you in a single action and the invisibility eventually wears off.

[@teecee1827]

@@asdfqwerty6122 exactly, I was really surprised when he decided to go with sniper and the electric sensitive skin. Snipers are good, but kinda crippled when having to be alone, and the skin choice doesn't allow you to get mimetic skin which is completely broken.

[@delphy2478]

problem is you need a psi-soldier for the final mission, so you CANNOT make your only soldier a mech

[@Yesnaught]

By his rules with Mrs Lemon, testing his rookies for a psyker and using them as a non-hostile macguffin is permitted (especially since there's no guarantee that Chief would be psychic), so mech might have been a viable option.

[@LegendStormcrow]

@DaBomb8493 My assault.used to eat entire waves by himself, so it's likely.

[@PotatoMcWhiskey]

Failed the run? Upgrade to two soldiers.

[@Viperclarkx01]

PotatoMcWhiskey! It's you! You're here! You're watching X-Com :D

[@OnyDeus]

We all know there were actually two Spartans wrecking house in the Halo series. At least that's what I remember when I went to my buddies house to play.

[@resurgam_b7]

Ooh, yeah, I like that idea!

[@semajniomet981]

Personally, I think that he should go straight to three comrades-in-arms.

[@Eshtian]

We're it so easy... Master Chief and the Arbiter anyone?

[@ArcAngle1117]

There's a gene mod that gives you invisibility if you're in full cover. Combined with Low Profile you can and double tap you could fire at an enemy, move and then turn invisible before the enemy can respond. If you try again as a sniper or come back to this playthrough you should try out this strategy.

[@AdamAmbrus]

does it work though? mimetic skin turns you invisible if you run to full cover AND the enemy does not see you in your starting position. But as soon as you shoot, you get revealed, ergo running to full cover won't camouflage you... or does it?

[@ArcAngle1117]

@@AdamAmbrus You're forgetting low profile, low profile give you full cover on all cover. Combined with either the jump suit or the skeleton suit, you can pretty easily escape line of sight

[@danielsurvivor1372]

​@@ArcAngle1117 And you forgetting the "AND the enemy does not see you in your starting position" Aka your strategy will only work if Chief kills last alien that seems him but by that point it doesn't matter that much

[@alexhartley4205]

"what is this? tenser's floating disk?" a man of culture I see

[@willb5278]

... i didnt get it until i read it -.-

[@TheOrignalKillezz]

@@willb5278 I still dont get it. Uncultured I am.

[@willb5278]

@@TheOrignalKillezz D&D reference, Tenser's floating Disc is a spell you can use to float around people or gear with iirc.

[@thelastarcadegamer6655]

Remember playing enemy unknown with a Russian sniper, “Sgt.” Victor Reznov. Always got a critical hit on every shot, almost always was one shot one kill. Then… the mission where everything went wrong. Had a few rookies as more experienced soldiers were healing. One of the experienced soldiers on the field were killed, causing panic on everybody except Reznov. He kept his calm, his breath steady as he let out shot after shot, biding time for his comrades to collect their heads. Then the explosions, so many explosions. One after another. They rained hellfire down upon him, grenades, missiles, whatever else could blow up and destroy everything around him was sent his way. That is the battle where Reznov died, but not without taking out as many alien bastards as he could. His sacrifice gave just enough time for everybody else to collect themselves, and finish off whatever Reznov left for them. He is the last casualty we sustained in the defense of earth

[@HellfishX88]

This is why I love this game so much, because you can become attached to your heros and have epic stories good or bad. I always play with a sniper character as myself and the rest of the squad is a group of people I know, usually the main squad is close friends, the backup team is family members, the extra recruits are coworkers... and lets just say Ive lost a lot of good people defending earth... lol. Also note, you can never fully rely on coworkers... hahaha

[@Aaron47916]

What a man

[@jacksonknock1833]

I like how his family name can be interpreted as something that originated from the verb

[@adudeontheinternet5739]

remember mason, *evil guy's name 1*, stiener, *guy who gets sniped while interoogated*, all must die - victor resonv in cod black ops 1

[@gabrielsantosbastos5257]

Now imagine if he met Dimitri Petrenko

[@GamersWeekend]

DID SOMEBODY SAY XCOM? Loved the video man, hopefully we get to see the return of the One Soldier Army. If we do, there’s a few things off the top of my head I can think of that’ll help. -In the Foundry along with improved pistols is the tactical rigging project. This replaced the classic Enemy Unknown’s Deep Pockets and makes it so your soldiers all now have 2 item slots instead of one. Not sure if you got this or not, but it gives a massive amount of load out maneuverability. (I just rewatched the video and saw you had this, my bad) -Speaking of bonus loadout items, there’s a few that may help out a bit like Ghost grenade. It’s a free way to turn your Unit invisible which could be a great emergency protocol in sticky situations. -You probably already got this but didn’t mention it, but foundry has Ammo Conservation. A project after mutons that decreases the amount of your clip you take per shot. It’s helpful, but not an end all be all situation. -Any of the classes have a fair chance in this challenge, and I’d honestly say sniper is either best or second best, Assault would actually be top of my list. There’s a few reasons why: 1. They’re the only class with weapon maneuverability. They can take the shotgun OR the assault rifle, which means you can choose between that range weapon and that shotgun damage. 2. The first tree bonus is immediately powerful. Every enemy in sight is either bonus defense or Crit chance, and the Crit chance might be ridiculous. 3. Immediately after that is one of the most powerful abilities: close and personal. The first regular shot you take within close proximity is completely free. This combos AMAZINGLY with the next two skills. 4. Rapid fire is essentially just an ability that lets you shoot a target twice with a small aim decrease 5. CLOSE COMBAT SPECIALIST. Dear god this thing. Even if you aren’t over watched, you can still take a reaction shot if it moves within a certain distance. So let me paint that picture: you have a Chryssalid squad. You go to them, and close and personal the first one. If it dies, cool. Then rapid fire the next full health one to burst it in two shots. Turn ends, and the last chryssalid moves to melee procing your close combat to reaction shot the fourth. 4 shots, 1 turn. 6. Major ability is literally just a bunch of bonus HP and both Colonel abilities are godly. Can’t go wrong either way. -And finally, Europe is a great option for starting location but Asia is also worth considering. It’s a bit more niche but it makes officer training school and foundry upgrades cheaper, so potentially could get them sooner. Then again, Europe has more long-lasting benefits. Either one is a great option, but figured I’d mention the options. And that’s all the stuff I can think of right now. Once again, amazing video and hopefully we get to see the return of XCOM 😁

[@teecee1827]

He should have gone with mimetic skin instead of bioelectric, sure the first encounter with seekers would have been hellish, but then you can circumvent them with the breathing assistance item, or just hide from them with the mimetic skin. Also, mimetic skin allows you to exploit free shots even more : you hide in proximity to an alien's suspected place, wait for them to come close, shoot them in the face for free, then hide again with the other two actions.

[@kuyagab4444]

If I remember correctly, Asia is the one that gives boost to all engineering and science research. I always pick that as my starting point so that by mid game, I'd be running plasma weapons and tier 3 armor for most of my soldiers.

[@stanimir5F]

@@kuyagab4444 Asia is for the Officer training school and Foundry researches reduced price. Europe is for the reduced build and maintenance cost of workshops and laboratories (not sure about foundry, cybernetics and genetics lab).

[@jakinbandw]

I think my choice would always be sniper. At the start of the game, if you rush the stun gun and take out a sectoid you can research plasma pistols very early, as well as their damage increase. This is before you even get lasers. At this point you can use the captured plasma pistols. With bonus damage and the foundry upgrade your sniper is now rocking a light plasma rifle (with extra crit as well as aim). This makes the early game really easy, and even late game makes it easy to deal with most enemies.

[@Arya-hb2sm]

I'm honestly still in disbelief at how few subscribers/viewers you have! The quality of content you produce is leagues ahead of pretty much every other youtuber.

[@mosquitoburrito2232]

Don't feel too bad. Lemon's blowin' up right now. He was at 6k like, a couple months ago. He's getting his. That hard work is payin' off!

[@IntrusiveThot420]

Hiya! This will probably get buried, but I actually did beat Classic waaaaay back in the day with a solo soldier. You need really good luck to do it, but with a Sniper and the right skill pulls on Training Roulette, and a lucky Psionics Lab roll, it's completely possible. You want the following skills in basically whatever order you can get them: Headshot, Snap Shot, Aggression, Bring 'Em On, Opportunist, Sentinel OR Rapid Reaction (doesn't really matter with such high aim), and In the Zone OR Double Tap. I prefer In the Zone for wiping most maps and pods easily, but Double Tap can be crucial vs Sectopods, which will cause you lots of headaches otherwise. You will need to play extremely cautiously in the first few operations and get really lucky with hits and kills. Your goal is to encounter Seekers as quickly as possible. Once you do, immediately book it to the map border and run a circle around the entire map. Eventually, the seekers will run out of cloak turns, decloak, and start shooting you with their plasma pistols. This is your opportunity to kill them with Headshot crits. Once you've got the seekers dead and the mission wrapped up, you've basically won the game. You'll want to autopsy the seeker ASAP, then slap Mimetic Skin onto your sniper and buy them a Respirator Implant as well to trivialize future seeker encounters . Since you've probably got some leftover meld, grabbing things like Adaptive Bone Marrow for healing and the eye mod that gives extra hit from elevation are great as well. Basically, with the right setup, you can run around invisibly, then overwatch pods to get 2 free shots off that can hit and crit for extra damage with increased crit chance. If you're careful with your movement and have a backup plan to re-cloak in nasty fights you can basically win every mission with a little patience.

[@IntrusiveThot420]

To add on to this comment, the final mission is actually pretty easy; there are a lot of areas where you can hide out of line of sight, use the psionic rally thing, and then drop a massive Rift on top of whatever enemy pod you're staring at. The double sectopod room has a tile at the top of the stairs where the sectopods cannot see you, but you can rift them. You need to move back and forth from one side of the room to the other though, because they have an artillery attack that always magically knows where you are even if they can't see you. In the final room, you have to get up as far as you can before entering, then sprint into the low ground high cover to get vision on the master ethereal. Easy game!

[@Ravi9A]

Wew

[@StarshadowMelody]

Never touched this game, but I'd actually suggest doing another run where you _can_ train and recruit multiple soldiers, but can only ever deploy one on a mission.

[@thegooddoctor2009]

That's too easy, and still has the same issue when the base assault hits.

[@The-Dom]

You should definitely play it. Its suuper fun. One of my all time favs.

[@01001010010001001100]

@@thegooddoctor2009 The base assault automatically deploys the top soldiers in your barracks be default. So if he used a bigger range of soldiers then by the time base assault happens he might have 3-4 higher ranked and geared soldiers. As he said the problem with this mission is you need a huge dps output to stay on top on the enemy waves and if only one soldier has a ranked up weapon then you're boned. (base weapon damage is 3 and specialized plasma weapons like his do 8).

[@MarkoArillius]

@@01001010010001001100 I don't think you understand. He wasn't using damage from more then one soldier. So it's still useless at that point.

[@01001010010001001100]

@@MarkoArillius Except that soldiers with upgraded armour and abilities have more health and take less damage. Assault class can also dodge more shots. So even if he's not using them offensively they would still make the defense part easier. He could even have a support class with medkits just healing his main soldier. They would have a higher will so they would panic less frequently too. It definitely would still help.

[@thanatos2980]

The fact u sent ms lemon into what was essentially her death in one of the exalt missions and that she somehow dodged 3+ flanked shots was the best part XD

[@matthewsimon6170]

Exalts: Die snake!! Ms. Lemon: *pulls a triple matrix.* Exalts: *sweats profusely.*

[@Nasrudith]

There is a nice defense buff to special ops agents, perhaps from not having heavy armor or a main weapon weighing them down. Which makes me wish I could do that early game actually with rookies in general.

[@rom7233]

This makes me wanna see an xcom run where you use every soldier - but you only promote and upgrade one of them. Have that Master Chief with a marine squad energy.

[@TheValiantBob]

Well, in Halo you have the marines on certain levels to back you up. So maybe you could re-try this mission but with the modifier that you can use other soldiers but only rookies? Also, maybe try assault class next time. They have abilities that can help vs multiple opponents and allow a more run and gun playstyle which I feel like would have helped with keeping Chief alive.

[@haydes1285]

16:37 you see the jacket is actually a great disguise, because as far as EXALT is concerned, chief would never wear sleeves

[@CoffeePotato]

I've accidentally done that mission solo on Ironman Classic due to a really badly botched UFO raid, but it was using Skill Roulette. Wound up something like.... Run n Gun Close Combat Specialist Close and Personal Gunslinger Heat Ammo Rapid Fire The quick reload one The one for bonus Crit damage based on enemy count Basically the idea is to go for a small run into a group, use UCaP to unload 4+ shots into grunts with the pistol, then Run n Gun into a Rapid Fire with the shotgun, ideally being around a corner to abuse a few more free shots with CCS. The action economy is insane, and with Gunslinger, the crits get nuts. I might be misremembering some of those random perks, since you get 3 that are guaranteed to be Assault, and the others are random. Heat Ammo can actually let you one shot a metal gear. Also, this mission is beatable in this state, possibly. Use the side rooms, the corners have some weird geometry that can funnel enemies one at a time.

[@TheDevinShamel]

I recently found out about you from your souls videos, but have kinda been binging your content now because the quality is amazing and each vid is just so interesting! This channel is criminally underrated!

[@grahamweaver4423]

I'm so happy you did a halo reference. It was the first thing that came to my mind when you were laying out what the challenge was. -for me it makes the video much better.

[@впкгор]

That was an interesting experience. Besides using an assult class as many has pointed out already and not forgetting about wet work, rapid recovery and iron will bonuses in OTS. You should really try and rush psionics as fast as you can. While mindfray ability isn't much, psi panic and mind control will help you a lot in this challenge.

[@Tacoaloto]

Then you have to pray that your lone soldier has the gift, but it could help.

[@впкгор]

@@Tacoaloto It will help. The ability to render one enemy useless or turn them to your ally (or a simple meat shield if Lemon insist on only using his soldier for battle) is extremely useful for controlling the battlefield. But yeah the random may just kill this important part so praying to RNJesus it is.

[@grantcole8898]

Even though i've never played this game and have no interest in rts games in general, you have made a wonderfully entertaining video! Thank you for the content

[@incendiary6243]

Fyi, xcom is turn based, not real time

[@lenkagamine4145]

@@incendiary6243 also tactics not strategy

[@grantcole8898]

@@lenkagamine4145 as you can see my knowledge on this genre of game is so bad i didn't even get the genre right

[@lenkagamine4145]

@@grantcole8898 yeah, dun worry tho its a very typical mistake. I was just trying to be informative. For reference strategy games are where you build units and deal with resource management in battle, tactics is where you focus only on the battle aspect. Though most tactical games (including this one) do also have a strategic component in between battles.

[@grantcole8898]

@Len Kagamine I appreciate the correction! I always love learnin somethin new. Although yeah, those types of games just aren't for me.

[@lanetorty7529]

i wonder whether it would be doable with a slight rule change. you can only use 1 soldier per mission, meaning it doesn't have to always be the same 1 soldier, but it can never be more then 1, or use only the 1 when forced to deploy with multiple soldiers \

[@nathanielthomson6600]

I'm surprised you didn't let miss lemon use grena... I mean "Firebombs"

[@lemmingrad]

Commander, you may want to instruct your wife to exercise restraint when using firebombs.

[@demonicgrub1025]

That's just gonna end up looking like his Oar% S&S run, I mean, his, I used the oar for 1 boss, everything else was fire bombs, run.

[@ladonglejones6930]

This has quickly become my favorite challenge run channel. Great video!

[@tazamane9705]

Thank you for posting this on the subreddit, going to binge your channel now^^

[@lukestorm4566]

Good attempt. Honestly, if you had made it past Ashes and Temples, I believe you would've had a great chance at making it all the way through (likeliest road bumps being the high enemy count in later missions combined with the existence of Etherals and Sectopods). Sniper was an excellent choice, and you played it well. This mission is just designed for an absolute ton of bodies. As for how to beat this, well, that's hard. Plenty of people have covered assault, and while that's a good idea, I'm not sure if that would give you enough DPS to make it through. Mech seems like a good option, except you lose out on the gene modding. Losing the perk that lets you recover HP over time (which, correct me if I'm wrong, but seemed super helpful this run) seems like a huge blow. Also, Mecs don't get the advantage of cover. Combine those two together, and it makes it seem actually more fragile in this scenario because it's going to be taking so many shots. As for sniper, I really only have one idea. And that's to take squad sight early, and then during the base defense mission just throw the human shields far in front allowing you to sit back and pick some of the enemies off from a range before they go after you. The problem with that is the loss of pistol damage, which seems like it would really hurt in the earlygame. I'm also not sure if it would help enough to pass the mission. Given all those attributes, assault(for reasons other commenters cover) may be a good idea. However, I've got one more piece of advice that may be the most important. Keep in mind that Ashes and Temples(the base defense mission) doesn't fire until you successfully attack the alien base. This means you can finish psionic training for your solider, allowing access to mind control an enemy unit. That is a huge boon, and the extra DPS and body bag could turn the tide. If I remember correctly and the site I'm looking at is correct, it has a cooldown of five turns, so you can cast it more than once. That's huge. Also, the video was hilarious. Laughed out loud quite a few times. You make good content. And if you decide to try this challenge again, "good luck commander".

[@Alex-0597]

Regarding MEC troopers, their second upgrade can give you (basically) a medkit, meaning you could still r cover health mid mission. It's more health recovery total, I think, but it takes an action to use. In addition, MEC troopers get some innate defensive bonuses to make up for the lack of cover. IIRC, it's +20 defense and -40 crit receive chance, basically like being in half cover all the time. And heavy MECs in particular get another ability that reduces damage from the closest enemy, which would help out a lot against Cryssalids. Of course, the problem is getting up to MEC troopers in the first place. You need tons of Meld and Alloys, and it's a pretty lengthy process to become a MEC.

[@lukestorm4566]

@@Alex-0597 If I remember correctly, the limiting factor on the healing ability is that it only has two uses, meaning that you have a limited health pool. The gene mod doesn't have a limit on the healing, meaning that the mec may actually have a smaller effective health pool. While yes, the mec has a lot of hit points, it can only recover so much with the medkit upgrade(8 HP total pre upgrade, 12 total post upgrade), and it takes a turn to do. Meanwhile, adaptive bone marrow will heal up to pre armour HP as many times as needed. So you can fight a pod, and then wait to recover. In Enemy Within, waiting a while as your character recovers is typically not that bad on most missions due to lack of timers. And yes, there is a defense bonus, but it's +10 for the mech(if the wiki is correct). Half cover confers a +20 bonus defense, meaning that even just putting the troop in half cover makes them harder to hit than a mech. The sniper class even has a trait, Low Profile, which makes all half cover full cover, resulting in a +40 buff to defense. And it's also worth mentioning mecs cannot become psionic, which means no mind control ability, which could be a huge boon

[@Alex-0597]

@@lukestorm4566 I haven't played EW in years after beating it, so forgive me for my mistakes. I didn't realize the gene mod had an unlimited amount of HP it could give. Still, only healing up to the soldiers HP makes me wonder how effective it really is. Later enemies can do tons of damage, so being that low on HP seems like you would be oneshot pretty often. And yeah, the MEC has less defense than I remember. They do get a bunch of bonus mobility from the rocket punch upgrade and the jet boots let them traverse levels at no movement cost, so they can more easily skirmish than snipers. And I think they get a double or triple shot ability, too (or is that XCOM 2). The psionics thing seems like a red herring, though. I think Will growth is random, so it's no guarantee that the Chief would even have enough Will to do anything crazy with psionics. And I forget whether it's your first soldier or one of the first 3 that's a guaranteed psionic, so potentially you could be SoL in the end game.

[@jjm152]

You can absolutely do it with assault but you need to cheese it pretty hard with either ghost armor or mimetic skin. Close and personal gives you a free action on any enemy within 4 tiles of you, so basically you go stealth, flank someone and blow his face up, then run back to full cover and stealth again. It's extremely tedious, but it works.

[@Stickman1496]

Gotta abuse Assault + Mimetic skin for this one. You'll end up playing a lot of vision games with your extraterrestrial adversaries resulting in very, very long battles, but it's doable. Snipers obviously have an easier time activating MS thanks to Low Profile, but struggle to keep up damage-wise, as you've seen firsthand.

[@axios4702]

Okay, now I want to see an Xcom 2 run like this one with Chief as the main character. Its the perfect continuation. With the TLP you can even give him his old weapons and armor.

[@TheCptnOfFail]

I seem to recall a mod that just adds the chief. Might be confusing it with the doom guy though

[@cavemanbob82]

This is the first of your videos I've seen, and I can honestly say I'm glad it came across my feed. I enjoy your commentary and editing style. Thank you for an entire backlog of videos that I now have the chance to watch. It's hard to find new content creators whose videos fit your preferred style.

[@Vodahmien]

Never thought of challenges in xcom, I look forward to you doing more!

[@seanstone749]

I like that you're branching out with the kinds of video games you play! Thank you for providing content!

[@beatdownblackjack]

"The hell is that, Tenser's floating disc?" Had me laughing.

[@florabelas8021]

You put so much work in your videos, i love them. Thank you for your content.

[@phillipk4196]

support could be a solid class considering you can heal yourself and get a few usefull abilities otherwise the cyborg class could be the hammering solution

[@Max-sz9ez]

I don't think that you can play a cyborg as your only squadmember since you need a psy operative for the last mission and mecha troopers can't become psychics so you can't finish the game. Support is a neat idea but probably also doesn't have the fire power necessary. I am actually pretty sure that no class does and the most sensible thing would be a 4 soldiers only run on normal difficulty. Meaning you keep your team from the start and try to win without using anybody else.

[@NoodleKeeper]

@@Max-sz9ez Considering he had to use Mrs. Lemon for exalt missions, there's nothing stopping him from having a psionic unit there instead (unless Mrs. Lemon had been psionic)

[@phillipk4196]

@@Max-sz9ez he can just psy train some rando schmuck and since no class has the required dmg support might just have the survivability. heavy would have nice AoE but atrocious moving. assault needs to get in close but got saver movement and equal dmg to sniper + if i am not wrong an auto overwatch for adjacent panels. doesn't medic/support get the choice for double overwatch per turn? it would guarantee 2 hurt if not killed enemies in that mission and should generaly be more usefull later on when sniper cant onehit without/with crit anymore anyways. if all this doesnt work why not just allow the rookies in that mission to help since they are undertrained/equipped anyways and will deal only 1 dmg to a lot of the enemies, maybe just reduce it to using items (grenades) to shred armor and pick of a few annoying ones

[@Max-sz9ez]

@@phillipk4196 yes Support does get double overwatch (I think it is called guardian or sth). I just don't know if the supports rifle can pack the punch necessary to take out things like mutons and heavy floaters since I don't know it of the back of my head. If it can that is great and MIGHT work, if not I think it is probably not possible. But we will see maybe I am totally overlooking sth /underestimating the support dmg since I usually only used them for utility and to soften up targets.

[@phillipk4196]

@@Max-sz9ez its if i am not wrong 1-2 dmg points behind the sniper rifle depending on the upgrade + while i never used it since i got the other upgrade, the smoke nade should be invaluable and there are things like increased movement so he could outrun chrysalids maybe

[@darriansea]

This was a very good video, I had planned to put it on while cooking as background listening and instead sat and watched it fully. Keep it up :)

[@taylorhall9075]

Thanks again for still posting these runs, it's about the journey!

[@TyeTaylor]

I've never played XCOM but this video still had me hooked lol

[@Citiesinmotionplayer]

Hey Lemon, I saw your video and thought, surely it's possible to do this. So I had a go at it myself, and I did successfully beat the game with only one soldier (i've put the full 10 hours of raw footage on my channel). It turns out Assault is way, way better than Sniper. Sniper getting a max of two shots per turn pales in comparison to what a fully decked out Assault is able to do. I had my Assault kill 7 enemies in one turn at one point, and if he had had more ammo, it could have been 3 more. I did do it with save scumming, so you might argue it's not true to your rules, but I think it's okay.

[@atomiccaleb9243]

The speedrunners save the day. I managed to beat it today as well (idk if i can be bothered uploading the footage). As kim said assault packs more of a punch when it gets a free standard shot a turn for being close, free shots for anyone that moves too close and rapid fire its just insane. Especially when you combine this with the ammo conservation project in foundry, mimetic skin and a couple of speedrunning tricks it actually becomes fairly easy to beat this.

[@Calagorn]

Gotta thank you for this video, made me interested enough to try the games myself and now I'm hooked

[@lukebarnett2898]

I was not expecting the “tenser’s floating disk” comment lol

[@Elegiast]

The FTL soundtrack made this one man crusade to save the world unexpectedly relaxing.

[@abiam9X]

Though a lot of things could have been done to make things easier (OTS stands out), the base defense was always going to be rough. Your humor fits pretty well with the grim campiness of XCOM, too. Plus I'm surprised at how effectively you covered the ups and downs of an entire campaign. I'm pretty impressed, and am definitely looking forward to more tries if that is in the cards!

[@MrBrainoid]

Hey Lemon, that was a great video, and a great attempt regardless of it's ending. You played much better than I ever could have.

[@19andy801]

Hey Lemon. As always great video. Keep it going with the good content.

[@Cha05typhoon]

Well between me not enjoying this game and me having never heard of Salt and Sanctuary before your channel (have since bought, played, and beaten it) I'm just convinced that I will like anything you put out. Great quality videos, great writing, and crazy impressive planning and patience on your part. Looking forward to whatever is next, I know for certain I'll be watching it

[@ironwolf5802]

I'm sure if they made this game to a first person shooter, you would be the only one fighting for earth anyway. Good luck Soldier Lemon.

[@junkjackcriteria]

*The Bureau: XCOM Declassified intensifies* (Yes ik that's third person, close enough :P)

[@skyfiresage5980]

Hey man, just wanted to let you know that I really enjoy your style of videos so far, especially the challenge runs like this one. IDK how you turned up in my feed but I'm glad you did. Not a big Souls or S+S fan so I'm going thru your other content mostly. Looking forward to more cool stuff!

[@catscrath25alpha83]

There is a sniper skill I am pretty sure that refunds your action when you get a kill and you can use it with snap shot sniper to flank enemies, nuke them, and then move again to flank the next target. I remember using it in my own solo normal run to great effect.

[@videogamechallengerunz8588]

Love all the content (obviously) but enjoyed your forray into a new title! Hope you had fun making this one!

[@Terminarch]

I thought about running XCOM 2 solo. Then I remembered the absolutely ridiculous timed missions in the base game. Basically your objective (like a computer to hack) will EXPLODE if you take too long. But XCOM 2 adds the stealth mechanic. So for the first game in the series you can scout and choose how to initiate combat... and also NOT that 200% more than ever before. Maybe Phoenix Point? idk

[@Sendaeran]

The expansion makes this not only possible, but downright viable for many mission types. The Reapers extra stealth allows them to sneak in, finish mission objectives and get out without even fighting. It's how I do the facility assaults on higher difficulty runs. With that said, many of the missions would still be virtually if not downright impossible.

[@chillhour6155]

Xcom 2 is just stupid in it's difficulty sometimes

[@zafelrede4884]

You can choose the option which extends the timers.

[@Terminarch]

@@zafelrede4884 Not my point. My point is that they make NO SENSE. Particularly with the stealth mechanic. For the first time ever you are given a proper mechanic that allows for surveilling and setting up to engage on your terms and also for the first time ever every god damn mission is timed, so you can't actually do that. Punishing the player for using the tools they were given and told to use! Also story-wise how is it that every time you get there just minutes before the objective randomly explodes? For some things it's totally fine, like hostage rescue. Others like hacking a panel or looting a crate that for some reason were wired to explode on a timer (instead of simply destroyed) and again you happen to always get there mere minutes in advance? Get outta here. There's a mod that *shortens* timers but they don't start ticking until you're revealed. Much improved experience IMHO

[@zafelrede4884]

@@Terminarch "There's a mod that shortens timers but they don't start ticking until you're revealed. Much improved experience IMHO" Wait, isn't that how it always is? Maybe i am misremembering. But i agree with you.

[@goth_goat_dad]

Your music choices give me suuuuch Nostalgia wow. Really good video, subbed

[@eat00002]

yay my first time watching xcom and it's a challenge run. i can't wait to be confused :)

[@purplehaze2358]

"Oh my god it hurts!" I didn't think you could describe this entire video so succinctly in a single sentence.

[@ABadassDragon]

I was about to comment 'so, basically Halo?' and then you went and named the poor shmuck Chief

[@Fextris]

I would love to see this attempted with any other class! As always thank you for the content Lemon.

[@EndermTheSwordsman]

This is gonna be good, I can feel it

[@JinDokkanChampions]

Wanted to say this was the first video I saw of yours and I’ve become a fan. Great content and you know how to entertain us. Hell your play through finally gave me the bumb to beat xcom

[@keixsy]

Great video! Would you do Xcom 2 too?

[@NocturnalNightingale]

I remember my own playthroughs in this game. Halfway through, I would have a pair of soldiers, a sniper and assault, tag team together constantly. The assault would kick ass in close range with the sniper being support, though close enough to actually be useful even without squadsight. These two would rack up like two-thirds of the kills for every single mission and would run twice as many missions as the others. It was truly glorious

[@Mobysimo]

Seeing as canonically Enemy Within is a simulation the Elders are running in the Commanders head, I'm guessing they got bored one day and decided to mess with him

[@protodvd]

11:00 - "Never look a gift horse in the mouth... whatever that means." It's said you can tell a horse's age by its teeth. Looking a gift horse in the mouth is reacting to the gift by checking how old it is, hence its implication of ingratitude.

[@orarinnsnorrason4614]

Since you went with double tap you should have went with executioner. It synergizes well specially on the high hp enemies. If you go with another soldier in another run I'd recommend the heavy.

[@Kyziel]

Dear god man! The amount of re-loads you must've had to do. You def deserve a sub for this lol good stuff

[@nmmeswey3584]

theres no save scumming in xcom, everyone knows that the game is so buggy that playing ironman is not feasable

[@AutumnReel4444]

What? Have always played Ironman

[@nmmeswey3584]

@@AutumnReel4444 I've literally have had soldiers phase through the ground, why on earth do you play ironman?

[@sergiolucas38]

Great video, editing and commentaries, good trial as well :)

[@SquatchViking]

I need to see a run like this for XCOM 2; I enjoyed this way too much for this being my first video of yours that I watched. Laughed my ass off the entire time! Loved it

[@hmsquared8603]

This video is how I found the channel, and I’m so glad I did. Can’t wait to see the world get blown up in XCOM 2.

[@bottlecapinc.8007]

I was so excited to see this video!!

[@Zorgdub]

I wasn't expecting this result! I'm really looking forward to another attempt at this which makes some more progress.

[@jsims7330]

Hearing the banana nababa music in the background really brought back memories. Great video man.

[@Anzuo]

I always thought it was interesting in English that there's no nice replacement for the idiom "never look a gift horse in the mouth"

[@10Diyes]

No joke, 3:00 I was starting up halo infinite while watching your vid (dual screen) and the intro theme music started playing just as you finished saying goodluck chief you're gonna need it. Had to double-check if you edited in the music haha!

[@darkdestiny661]

As someone who had heard of these games, but not seen or played them, watching this genuinely made me want to play it. Normally though, I'm not insane like Lemon is.

[@SlicerJen]

I always mimic Duke nukem's voice and say ' it's time to kick bubble gum and chew ass, and I'm all outa ass.' Classic. Glad someone else uses it too.

[@StarshadowMelody]

Lemon: "Some of you may die..." My brain: "... but the extraction process will end before the infested can kill the extractor." Yeah, wrong channel, I know, but still.

[@LordComett]

This is great......long while back i did a single soldier run on the orignal X-com.....its great to see another one like it.

[@LucRio448]

Honestly, I'd argue it would be fair to actually start with TWO soldiers from the get go. In the spirit of Sniper & Spotter I mean. Curious to find out if that would work out in the end, and you also could send your Spotter on the undercover missions too.

[@bezerkoid]

I'd like to see the challenge with two soldiers.

[@reesewhittington6778]

11:07 You probably don't care, but the saying is a reference to the Trojan Horse.

[@Morgannin]

Impressive effort. What's interesting about XCOM versus your usual action game challenge runs (Dark Souls, Salty Sanchez) is that this doesn't depend on skill and reflex, it depends on planning and strategy. So when you find that a challenge is impossible, it is, more or less, actually impossible - not something you can surmount by being Ongbal or some other god-tier lunatic.

[@Sandata64RD]

23:43 okay now i know im not going nuts. Thats Jade Cocoon music right there!

[@Darkmage1293]

"Master Chief, mind telling me what you're doing in another game?" "Sir. Flexing on another alien race."

[@travelershu4963]

Glad I found this channel!

[@josephtaub7590]

For sniper I like Mimetic skin + ghost armor + in the zone. Mimetic skin for most of the time. Ghost armor for when you're already in line of sight of an enemy (and improved movement, and extra defense). While cloaked, get into position to flank as many enemies as possible. Now in-the-zone can trigger for each one you kill, potentially granting more than two shots per turn. when overwhelmed, trigger ghost armor, or just move out of LoS, then move again to trigger mimetic. I've done lone wolf missions on classic & impossible this way, but haven't tried solo story missions. Maybe could kite the enemies around the xcom base this way.

[@senseweaver01]

100,000 views in just a few days! Your channel is growing so fast man, you deserve it, good for you!

[@MrShadowtruth]

"Master Chief would mind telling me what you're doing out there alone." "Sir finishing this fight." Loved this video!

[@darknight-kx6ye]

Fun fact about the terror missions if you can kill the aliens fast you could win the missions by just running and guning with out even saving any survivors

[@GuySwords]

I would say Close enough of a win. Really entertaining Video Lemon. I actually have never played XCOM at this Point. But i am gettin to the Point i might actually try the Games.

[@dolphinlord640]

Just commenting to help the algorithm because you deserve it!

[@AaronCorr]

Played XCOM because of this for the first time. Currently at XCOM 2

[@LukaszGaaaaa]

Most underrated KZbin creator i know. Love your work. ❤️

[@Luusika]

If I ever had any troubles in my life, this channel's videos make me feel grateful for not having it like they do.

[@drgrunt3555]

You know this video was real good, but then I recognized the FTL music and can't say I've been hit with as much of a great feeling I've felt during this video :)

[@TizonaAmanthia]

sometimes it's better to just admit defeat, than to bend the rules more and more until you "get a win." people are too afraid of loss that they distort reality until they get their happy drugs. I I think it's better to ask a question, and get an answer. this was a good run; but you answered the question. so, Kudos, I want to see more of this kind of effort from more people. perseverence at all costs, is not always the answer. knowing when to bail is often the missing skill.

[@huwdyne]

I did this challenge years ago when the game came out, it was tough as all hell but I found it JUST possible with the Heavy rather than the Sniper due to 1 thing: Rockets. You can shoot them blind and they do AOE so when you are getting overwhelmed like in the base at the end you can run back and just blast the whole group. Getting more than 2 kills a turn makes the difference and rockets help with Chrysalids.

[@cerevrus]

"what the heck is that? Tensers floating dsic?" This man DnD's

[@Onebadterran]

I hope you come back to this challenge and finally beat it one day :)

[@TheBacklogs]

I did - with a MEC!

[@xanderlewell]

Only 1:15 in, but.. Basically just, Can you beat XCOM but it's like Halo.