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Is it Okay to Skip Missions in XCOM 2? A Comprehensive Guide

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Yes, it is okay to skip some missions in XCOM 2, but it’s a decision that should be made strategically, understanding the potential consequences. Not all missions are created equal, and skipping the wrong ones can severely hamper your campaign. The key lies in understanding which missions are relatively safe to ignore, and which ones carry significant penalties for failure or avoidance. This article delves into the nuances of mission selection in XCOM 2, offering guidance on when to prioritize, when to pass, and the repercussions of your choices.

Understanding Mission Types and Their Impact

XCOM 2 throws a variety of missions at you, each with its own risk and reward. These can be broadly categorized as follows:

Council Missions: These missions are vital for maintaining contact with resistance regions. Failing or skipping them results in losing contact with the region and severely impacting your resource flow. This means lost income, destroyed radio relays, and the need to re-establish contact later which is costly and time consuming.
Retaliation Missions: Similar to Council Missions, these are crucial for preserving your resistance network. Ignoring a Retaliation Strike will also lead to lost regional contact and the associated penalties.
Guerilla Ops: These are smaller missions that offer resources, intel, or other benefits. While not as directly critical as Council or Retaliation missions, they often provide essential resources and opportunities to level your soldiers.
Supply Raids: These missions are designed to disrupt ADVENT’s supply chain and offer significant resources. Skipping a Supply Raid, like Council and Retaliation missions, can lead to losing contact with the corresponding region.
Personnel Missions (Soldier Rescues and VIP Extractions): These missions involve rescuing captured soldiers, VIPs, or engineers/scientists. While useful, they can be skipped more readily than other mission types, especially if you can recruit soldiers or build SPARK units as replacements.
Story Missions: These missions advance the main campaign narrative. They are generally unavoidable and are triggered when you’ve achieved certain objectives.
Dark Event Missions: These are optional missions which are timed. Completing these missions will prevent a dark event happening which can severely hamper your progress.

Missions You Can Consider Skipping

While skipping missions should not be a regular habit, some situations might warrant ignoring some of them for strategic reasons. These include:

Soldier Rescue Missions: Unless a high-ranking soldier or one you are exceptionally attached to is captured, you can sometimes afford to skip these. The availability of soldiers through the Black Market or recruiting in havens reduces the urgency. Furthermore, SPARK units offer powerful robotic soldiers which are not captured.
Some Guerilla Ops: Missions offering smaller or less valuable resources might be skipped if you need to prioritize a Council or Retaliation mission. However, be wary of ignoring missions which grant intel or engineer rewards.

Why It’s Sometimes Okay to Skip

Resource Prioritization: Sometimes, focusing on a particular mission type – such as ensuring you have sufficient scientists or engineers – means skipping others. You may even need to spend a few missions building up the resistance communications to reach a new region.
Time Management: XCOM 2 does have a theoretical time limit. Spending time on missions that aren’t crucial to your progress can allow Alien Dark Events to progress too much.
Soldier Health: If your A-team is injured, deploying a squad of rookies can be a dangerous proposition, particularly in difficult areas. Sometimes, it’s better to skip a mission than to lose soldiers or have to use a weakened squad.
Mission Overload: You might find yourself in a situation where multiple missions appear simultaneously. Sometimes, you will need to be selective.

Missions You Should Almost Never Skip

These are the missions that carry the most significant risk if ignored:

Council Missions: Skipping or failing these is almost always a bad idea. The loss of a region can be devastating to your resource network and ultimately your chances of success.
Retaliation Missions: Again, these are crucial for regional stability. Losing a region to ADVENT is very detrimental.
Supply Raids: These missions provide essential resources. Losing out on the supplies and the impact that missing these has on the region means skipping them is a very bad idea.

Understanding the Consequences of Skipping Key Missions

Skipping key missions carries significant consequences that can severely impact your campaign:

Loss of Regional Contact: This means losing vital income from the affected region, destroying any radio relay you have in the area, and you then need to spend resources to re-establish the connection.
Decreased Resources: Losing a region not only affects your monthly income, but it can reduce your supplies, Intel, or personnel recruitment opportunities depending on the region.
Increased Alien Threat: The more regions you lose, the stronger and more frequent the alien attacks become.
Slower Progress: Losing regions slows your overall progress by forcing you to divert resources towards re-establishing contact.

Mission Timing and Time Limits

While XCOM 2 is less time-restrictive than some other turn-based games, it does have a soft time limit.

Council Missions have a window of opportunity: If you wait too long to start them they will expire. This is usually between 12 – 24 hours.
Alien Doom Clock: The game will trigger a “doom clock” at some point, which progresses as the aliens complete certain projects. The longer the game goes on, and the more projects the aliens complete, the higher the chances of having game over.

Prioritizing Missions

Understanding which missions to prioritize is key to a successful campaign:

Council and Retaliation Missions: These should almost always be your top priority. Failure here will hurt the entire campaign.
Missions offering scientists or engineers: These are crucial for technological advancement and infrastructure development.
Missions offering large supply/resource caches: Getting resources is often crucial.
Soldier rescue missions: These should be considered depending on the rank of the soldier, but consider whether you will replace them with spark units or recruit instead.
Guerilla ops with less desirable rewards. These should be completed after everything else.
Personal Missions: If you have no better options, completing these should not hamper your game significantly.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What happens if you skip a Council Mission in XCOM 2?

Skipping or failing a Council Mission leads to losing contact with the corresponding resistance region, causing lost income, destroyed radio relays and requiring a costly re-establishment of contact.

2. What happens if you ignore a Retaliation Mission in XCOM 2?

Ignoring or failing a Retaliation Strike causes the same consequence as ignoring a council mission: lost regional contact.

3. Can you ignore Supply Raid missions in XCOM 2?

Yes, but it will also lead to lost regional contact, making them less easy to ignore.

4. How long can you ignore a mission in XCOM 2?

Council missions will go away after a couple of days. Slingshot missions will reoccur the next month. Some personal missions are available for about a week.

5. Is it okay to lose soldiers in XCOM 2?

Yes, losing soldiers is part of the game. It is a common occurrence, especially early on. Learning from your losses is crucial.

6. Can you lose Chosen weapons in XCOM 2?

Yes, Chosen weapons are lost permanently if the soldier carrying them is killed and not evacuated during a mission.

7. Is XCOM 2 a never-ending game?

Yes, after the final story mission you can continue to play endlessly. The game will keep spawning missions.

8. Does XCOM 2 have a time limit?

Yes, while not strictly a time limit there is an alien doom clock that ticks up. Once the aliens have completed too many of their projects the game can end.

9. What should you prioritize in XCOM 2?

Prioritize intel, scientists, and engineers. These will allow you to progress your tech, buy items, and reveal dark events.

10. Is XCOM 2 easier than XCOM: EU?

XCOM 2 is easier on Veteran and Commander difficulty but more challenging on Legend than the previous game’s highest difficulty.

11. How many soldiers should you have in XCOM 2?

This depends on difficulty. On Easy and Normal, about 12 soldiers are sufficient. On higher difficulties, you will need more.

12. Is it possible to not lose any countries in XCOM?

Yes, by focusing on satellites and getting lucky with abduction targets, you can prevent countries from leaving the project.

13. Is XCOM 2 a long game?

Yes, completing all the achievements can take 150-200 hours on average.

14. Can you keep playing XCOM 2 after you beat it?

Yes, you can continue to play after completing the main campaign.

15. Is XCOM 2 luck based?

Yes, luck is a factor in the game. However, you can greatly reduce the effect of luck by using good tactics.

Conclusion

Skipping missions in XCOM 2 is a complex decision that requires careful consideration. While it’s sometimes necessary or strategically advantageous to avoid certain missions, ignoring key missions like Council missions, Retaliation Missions, and Supply Raids will have dire consequences and can easily lead to campaign failure. Understanding the repercussions of your choices, prioritizing the most important objectives, and managing your resources are the keys to a successful and satisfying XCOM 2 experience. Plan carefully, execute precisely, and remember that even the most skilled commander has to make tough choices.