Editing XCOM (section)

====X-COM 2 / War of the Chosen====
'''ADVENT'''

The end results of what the Ethereals want to do with humanity. Puppet soldiers controlled by a series of psionically linked chips that feed back to command nodes. It's stated that the Commander's brain was a central "tactical command" processing node for these, providing the ADVENT officers and troops with advanced stratagems. The fact that XCOM rescued him in the tutorial mission serves to explain why the Resistance has such an easy time with ADVENT during the game itself, forcing the aliens to send in the more advanced otherwordly brawn.

*'''Trooper''': The grunts come in three flavours, with increasing HP, Dodge, and Accuracy as they tier up. [[Imperial Guard|Challenging only in high numbers primarily by way of sheer volume of shots and by overrunning soldiers pinned down by said firepower]].

*'''Officer''': These guys aren't a threat on their own, however they can Holo-Target one of your guys, granting their ADVENT and alien allies a +10 to hit against that soldier. Killing the officer removes this mark from your soldier and as such, you should prioritize taking down the officer should you become afflicted by it.

*'''Shield-Bearer''': The most annoying ADVENT type in the base game, these guys can pop a shield that gives every ADVENT and Alien soldier in range +3 or +5 temporary HP. Combined with their armour these guys can take a licking and keep on ticking. Taking them out will drop the shield on everybody else, so they should be a target priority otherwise each affected enemy will require significantly more effort to drop. They also kinda look like Robocop so they have that going for them.

*'''Stun-Lancer''': Melee focused, these guys are noticeable by the fact they were far less armour than any other ADVENT soldier. They're addicted to melee and will almost exclusively favor charging in to taze your guys with their electric Melee beatsticks. While this normally just runs a good chance of disorienting or stunning your soldier, it can straight up knock your dudes unconscious if RNG fates it so. In the event some affliction prevents them from slapping your dudes with their tasers, they do carry a standard ADVENT Rifle. They however can be easily dealt with if you have a Ranger with Blademaster, Bladestorm and upgraded blades. They'll run towards your Ranger only to be swiftly cut down like chumps.

*'''Priest''': Introduced in WotC, these guys are the ADVENT Psions. Primarily a supportive unit, they can boost another ADVENT soldier much like Sectoids could in Enemy Unknown (and like that game if you kill the priest the soldier will suffer psionic feedback and die), or they can put one of your guys in Stasis for a turn, preventing them from doing anything. Advanced and Elite priests have additional tricks that allow them to Mind-Control your guys, and place themselves in Stasis if they would be killed, instead staying around with 1 HP for another turn.

*'''Purifier''': Flamethrower wielding ADVENT troops that only appear in WotC. The guys are kept "secret" from the public (despite that fact they can appear in any mission if the RNG says so) as they are supposed to hunt down and kill the lost in the old, abandoned cities. As stated they use flamethrowers, alongside incendiary grenades, and when you kill them there's a good chance they will explode, so don't kill them with melee unless you want to lose your eyebrows. Although that can lead to some hilarious chain reactions if you're lucky.

*'''General''': Only appears in assassination missions in WotC. Essentially just a beefed up Officer with a shit ton of HP, and the ability to throw Flash-Bangs.

*'''MEC / Heavy MEC''': The first truly heavy ADVENT Unit. These things come with an absurd amount of HP and armor for the early game. They're not particularly smart however and cannot use cover at all, instead relying on their durability to weather your shooting so take advantage of this. Remember not to bunch your guys up as they have a shoulder mounted missile launcher that they will use on your guys if they're clustered together. MECs can also use suppression at the end of their turn if they can't target a group.  The Heavy MEC is just tougher and more accurate, you can think your way through this fight. The best way to deal with them is hacking or anti-machine equipment such as EMP rounds and grenades.

*'''Turrets / Heavy / Superheavy''': It's a turret. What more do you want? They have some armour and a decent amount of HP as well as the ability to fire up to twice per turn (more often than not, they'll shoot once then enter overwatch). As can be expected, turrets don't move and are usually positioned up on building rooftops or on trains for that high-ground advantage. Like most mechanical enemies, you can hack it with a Specialist or simply destroy it by using Bluescreen rounds. If the turret is on a rooftop, you can also utilize conventional explosives (like grenades or rockets) to blow out the floor from underneath it, destroying the turret instantly.

*'''Sectopod''': The final and toughest ADVENT unit. It's just as much of a nightmare as it was in the first game. Sectopods have three actions per turn as opposed to the nearly universal two, can extend their legs to give themselves a height advantage over your soldiers and walk through nearly all buildings and terrain (destroying cover or even blowing out the floor from underneath your soldiers as it does so) in their path. The basic shots they fire do devastating damage and shred armor, potentially killing even highly ranked soldiers if caught even slightly off-guard. They explode rather violently when they are finally defeated, likely killing or severely injuring any units caught in the blast. So don't be stupid by making your melee units deliver the finishing blow. As with any robotic unit they can be hacked by a properly specced specialist, although their rather high hacking defense makes taking control of them extremely difficult. Bluescreen Rounds, EMP Grenades and/or acid grenades are all highly recommended when fighting it.

'''Aliens'''

*'''Sectoid''': Tougher than you remember due to the infusion of human DNA. Now have the ability to resurrect dead troopers - yours and ADVENT - as zombies, and all sectoids from the get-go can lay a mind whammy on your troops, randomly panicking, disorientating or controlling them. That said, they're vulnerable to melee attacks so a halfway decent Ranger should chop them up without much trouble. 

*'''Chryssalid''': Because why the fuck wouldn't the Ethereals keep their most effective terror weapon. These guys have changed from scuttling horrors to burrowing, venomous, scuttling horrors, capable of turning anyone they kill, either with their venom or their claws into a slowly metamorphosing cocoon that, if it reaches maturity, will spit out '''THREE''' new chryssalids, because Firaxis hates you. They are rendered mostly harmless by being set on fire, so if you think you're going to run into them bring incendiary rounds, fire bombs, and hell weave vests. The previous sentence is no longer the case in War of the Chosen, so prepare your anus.

*'''Viper''': The most famous of the new aliens because they look like [[serpentfolk|humanoid snake-women]] with [[furry|nice tits and a sweet pair of hips]]. Appear pretty early in the game; not much tougher than sectoids, but quite annoying. They can drag you out of cover with their tongue whip attack, spew toxic clouds like the Thin Men, and strangle you in melee like a Seeker. These gals represent the true form of the Thin Man alien from the last game. (And yes, the thin ''men'' were actually disguised snake ''women'' the whole time.)

*'''Andromedon''': One of the cooler new alien designs, it could almost have been ripped out of the old X-COM series. It looks like a combination of an old diving suit and an iron lung, filled with green acidic sludge, and a single pickled alien who apparently needs that sludge to live and dies if exposed to Earth's atmosphere. When you kill it the first time the glass torso-visor shatters, exposing the pilot's corpse, and the suit reboots and come to life by itself, dropping its heavy plasma cannon and charging into melee. In its first form, an Andromedon is a tough customer, with more armour & health than a Muton while packing the same firepower. In its second form it will only ever try to hit you with its fists, but it leaves behind trail of acidic and poisonous sludge that hurts your guys if they try to move through it (because jumping isn't a thing, despite the ability to haul yourself up drainpipes) which makes navigating the battlefield a hassle, especially in densely packed urban missions. Thankfully their second form will be easier to deal with. Due to the immense control of the battlefield these guys possess (being able to simply destroy cover by running through it and leaving acid trails that can cut off avenues of approach) in addition to their rather devastating firepower, it's highly recommended you fully focus these things down if no other priority targets (like Sectopods) are immediately present. 

*'''Faceless''': A new enemy that should only appear in Terror Attack missions, but they can be seeded in regular missions if you pull the Dark Event that allows them to mingle with the regular citizens. Isn't that lovely. Shapeshifters that look like ordinary humans until your troops get too close (or all other aliens are killed), then they turn into ''fucking huge'' moaning melted-wax men with claws the length of shotguns. With the Ethereals now having these under their command, it's no surprise that the Thin Men from the previous game are no longer in use. In the early game they can be a hard target to drop due to their fairly high HP and ability to regenerate lost health every turn. That said, as exclusively melee units that rely more on ambushing unsuspecting XCOM operatives, they can easily be kited and picked off at range. In a pinch, your Scanner Grenades and Specialists can reveal concealed Faceless by scanning the area, so there's a touch of counterplay against them. 

*'''Muton''': Remaining as the ethereal's shock infantry, these Mutons have apparently been crossbred with humanity, making them slightly smaller and faster, but also slightly smarter. But considering just how badly the A.I. can flub up sometimes, you have to wonder about that last one. They aren't packing any more HP, but they now have a point of armor, which means that the first point of damage from every attack gets ignored, so they'll soak up more damage unless you can shred their armor with heavy weapons and explosives. They'll still be a threat until you get Plasma weapons, and 3rd tier armour, but once you're there, they pretty much become chaff beneath the scythe. They also like tossing grenades if they don't have a direct line of sight on your troops. Along with the ability to use suppression if a Muton can't get into melee. Making them an annoyance well into the late game. They're also the only Alien that has countermeasures against melee, being able to parry and riposte. Worse, they can instantly kill stunned soldiers, including the ones that their counter stunned. 

*'''Berserker''': Now visually more distinct from the regular Muton instead of just having a fancy costume, being entirely naked and seemingly skinless, looking like the musculature section of a human anatomy book. While mostly the same extremely tough melee combatants with the same instinctive berserker charge, [[Derp|the Ethereals have gotten worse at making these instead of better.]] While Enemy Unknown's Berserkers could distinguish between friend and foe no matter how angry they got, with these Berserkers, it's possible to make them attack their allies by hurting them to piss them off and then keeping your units out of punching range. This game also reveals that Berzerkers are actually the Muton ''women''. Gives a whole new meaning to the term [[Amazon]], huh?

*'''Codex''': A replacement for the Outsider, but far more annoying. The Codex first appears when you Skulljack an ADVENT officer, and it looks like a weirdly sexy woman made of pure yellow, but with a cybernetic brain & spinal column. They can teleport around the battlefield, and when struck by an attack that fails to kill them, they split into two Codexes with half of their remaining health. They can also create temporary [[Matt Ward|zones of energy that suck all the ammo out of your guns]], and then close with deadly force. Naturally you want Snipers or Magnetic/Plasma Weapon chain attacks to kill them quickly. Which you should have by the time of encountering them. Unless of course you rush the skull-jack out in your first run, and get one of these while you still have conventional weapons, in which case... have ''fun''. Or just toss a flashbang at them and turn them into slightly more dangerous ADVENT Troopers.

*'''Specter''': Another WotC specific enemy. These guys look like the Codex if they were men and made out of Necron Scarabs rather than pure energy. It's fitting too as they are a collection of Psionic nanobots that can grab your guys, stun them, and create a shadowy doppelgänger with all of your guy's skills and gear, and none of their bad luck. Thankfully killing the Specter will also kill this doppelganger and bring your guy back into the fight, but if you can't take it down immediately, expect the tide to turn against you. In a pinch, you can revive a soldier possessed this way with a medically inclined Specialist, though you'll still have to fight the doppelganger. Oddly, attacks that harm biological targets without requiring a will test can harm the Specter.

*'''Gatekeeper''': A giant, floating, psionic ball that might be the replacement/upgrade to the cyberdisks. No, we're not joking. For all the goofiness of trying to summarise this thing, it's a shockingly vicious threat. That big metal sphere contains a psionic powerhouse in the shape of a fleshy mass with tentacles which will unfurl to bitchslap your soldiers into the ground if they get too close. When moving or firing its eye-beam (a very strong, if semi-inaccurate laser), it remains enclosed in its heavily armored sphere (We're talking 4-6 pips of armor, difficulty dependent). In order to use its most powerful attacks, however, it must unfurl out of its armor in order to cast them. These include the ability to create a ''massive'' explosion that deals heavy damage to everything within it and reanimates ''all'' humanoid bodies within its radius as zombies that it controls (this includes any humans killed ''by'' said explosion) and the ability to grab your soldiers and siphon their life to heal itself. Additionally, it'll try to use cover despite being a 2x2 giant, floating, metal, psychic ball of doom. As a final FU, when killed they explode with a blast that will reach all tiles around them, heavily wounding or outright killing any of your squad next to them. Melee units such as Templars should be kept far away if they don't have Fortress. One of them is always encountered during the Psi Gate mission and will likely be the first time seeing them.  Hilariously these tiny Eldritch Abominations can be mind controlled by Psi Operatives, if their will stat is good enough. Another way of dealing with them is using explosives and heavy weapons that shreds their armor. These would be the first targets to use Frost Grenades on if you encounter them early in the maps. You should have Magnetic or Plasma Weapons by the time Gatekeepers start showing up or they will be nearly impossible to defeat.

*'''Archon''': So someone in the Aliens' side realized that having a heavily mutilated torso mounted on jetpacks, which actively tore at its implants and constantly mounted suicide charges so it could be put out of its misery was bad for PR, so they replaced the Floaters with these guys. They look almost angelic or like something out of a high-tech ancient egypt, and their design incorporates a lot more white and gold with much less obviously chop-shop cybernetics. The nigh-constant pain going away has made them far smarter too. They still like to jump around the battlefield, but now they can also use a new ability called Blazing Pinions to rain rockets down on your guys after a turn's delay and will actually take advantage of cover. They also happen to have the Adonis-like musculature of a Chip-n-dale dancer. No seriously, ask any fa/tg/irl who isn't asexual or a lesbian to look up these, and she'll tell you they're one of the sexiest videogame monsters she's ever seen. Snaketits, meet mechpecs.

*'''Avatar''': The Ethereals' plans are revealed when you discover these creatures. Avatars are genetically engineered lifeforms created from the genes of the most psi-capable humans, crafted to house the essence of the Ethereals, whose own bodies are breaking down irrevocably. Extremely tough and powerful psionics, these guys are arguably your highest priority on the battlefield. The Commander gets one of his own at the end of the game. This is because they plugged him/her into their psionic network and never bothered to remove or change anything after XCOM recovered them. [[Fail|As the Ethereals are really quite stupid despite claiming to be the superior race.]] While lacking the full skill set of the Psi Operative, they have useful abilities that can still perform near their level. Avatars also come an awesome gun that they hardly ever use; [[Cheese|it ignores armor values, uses only one action point that allows him to fire twice in one turn, and can knock a Sectopod down to half health in a single volley.]] It can be acquired through workshop mods should you want it outside the final mission, though most such mods restrict the weapon to Psi-Operatives. It wouldn't make much sense otherwise.

'''The Alien Rulers''': 
If you played the previous game, you may have been wondering: "what happened to Dr. Valen?" Well, the first DLC for XCOM 2, "Alien Hunters" reveals that she went off and set up her own base in an abandoned alien genetics lab, where her experiments in undoing the genetic suppressants on three cryogenically suspended subjects created three amped-up alien variants so powerful that the Ethereals couldn't control them. Great work, doc! Alien Rulers have a huge health bar and many unique abilities, but one of their more bullshit traits is that they have, no shit, Lair actions from D&D 5e. If you don't play D&D, this means they get a free turn in reaction to ''every'' action your troops take. This is nerfed somewhat in the WotC expansion to only reacting to anybody taking an action in its immediate line of sight (so dudes hiding behind walls or who are too far away won't trigger them). The best way to deal with them is heavy use of Incendiary, Acid and Venom Bombs. Not only do all these grenades stack damage over time effects (such that they take damage on every one of their own turns), but the burn limits the number of things they can do on their turn, the acid shreds almost all their armor while the poison severely hampers their accuracy, if it doesn't just gimp them of their reaction entirely. Free actions (like the Lightning Hands perk) and reloading don't trigger reactions, while abilities that allow your troops to make multiple attacks (like Rapid Fire or Chain Shot) count as one action. In WotC, Sharpshooters abusing the Squadsight mechanic can attack them without triggering a reaction if they are doing so from outside conventional range. Something you should have before facing them in mid to late game. Because fuck these guys. War of the Chosen also allows you to "integrate" this expansion, eliminating the special story mission in lieu of just shoving the Rulers around various facilities and just giving you the special guns. Doing this means missing out on a couple minor cutscenes, controlling Bradford for a mission and missing out on the opportunity to take his fancy gun kitted out with [[cheese|every possible upgrade]] for a spin.

*'''The Viper King:''' The only male Viper in existence, this creature shows why the Ethereals removed the male gender from the viper species with how rampantly he set about fertilizing every female viper he could encounter, filling an entire base with a huge array of hatchling vipers you have to fight through. His unique abilities allow him to spit a freezing gas instead of the normal venom. The weakest of the Alien Rulers, the Viper King is usually the first one you encounter. He's ironically also the most vulnerable to the Frost grenade, so slap it in a Grenadier with the Heavy Ordinance perk and hit him with it from out of sight to maximize your attacking opportunities. If you manage to tag 'n' bag Subject Gamma, you can turn his carcass into a unique Spider Suit, the Serpent Suit, that can scare the scales off of normal vipers and lash out with freezing whips.

*'''The Berserker Queen:''' Just as much bigger and scarier compared to normal berzerkers as they are compared to male mutons, Subject Beta can not only unleash a howl that can panic your whole squad, but is equipped with cybernetically integrated wrist-mounted hammers she can use to create earthquakes. Because fists the size of the average adult human weren't enough apparently. From her carcass, you can build the R.A.G.E Suit, which not only terrifies mutons and berserkers, but lets your trooper make a berserker-style charge attack themselves.

*'''The Archon King''': Subject Alpha is the nastiest Alien Ruler in the game, and has the most health. His special attack "Devastate" is a version of Blazing Pinons (the Archon's "shower an area with rockets" ability) that does less damage, but which can also disorient, stun and knock unconscious. Worse, it hits on the next Ruler Reaction, meaning you have no chance to get away from it the way you do from Blazing Pinions. He also has a unique attack where he grabs a trooper, hauls them into the air, and then power dives them into the floor. If you can take down this asshole, his corpse can be refashioned into the Icarus Armor, a superior Warden Armor suit that grants the Vault ability and the ability to pull off the Archon's "move to any point on the map you wish" twice per mission. Give it to your best Sniper, as this allows them to keep up with the rest of the squad and find the nearest vantage point.

'''The Chosen''': 
The new Dragons aka Second in Command below the Ethereals. These three alien hybrids were once human before being abducted by the aliens (indeed, the Hunter was once one of the Reapers before his capture) and molded into the Ethereals' ideal elite agents. Each of them acts as an antagonist to one of the three resistance factions XCOM allies with and usually come equipped with a bunch of BS abilities that can wreck your troops at lower levels. You also want to find their base ASAP as they gain upgrades through the game like you do and can hurt your income. Getting their OP shit is also a nice bonus.

When first encountered they'll attempt to stun and either siphon the knowledge from or capture one of your troops for intel. If they succeed in doing so, it gives them a massive boost to their progress against you and will ultimately lead to a potentially game-ending assault on the Avenger. Additionally, soldiers that they choose to capture will go off the grid for quite some time before you can get the chance to rescue them. If they appear during a Blacksite mission, The Chosen AI will just straight up murder a squad member instead. [[Rage|The game doesn't give any hints to this change in behavior.]] So if you're counting on manipulating their AI into kidnapping a soldier who is near death during those missions. The Chosen will just slaughter your squad like the rest of ADVENT. Because all bets when are off when your trying to kill mommy? and/or err daddy? Shklee? Maybe?
Thankfully, the game rolls to give them permanent weakness, along with an arch enemy who will deal extra damage to a Chosen among the new Hero classes. They will also roll for one immunity and a special ability, though the immunities are things that many players will hardly ever use against a boss regardless. The special power can either be meh, or fuck you right over. Good thing for the player the summoning powers are mutually exclusive and can't gain strengths that counter most of their weaknesses.

They can also be countered by researching Mindshields, your own (fully upgraded) Psi operatives and the buffed Sparks. When you have the latter two the Mindshields are redundant as the last two are right out immune to being stunned and mind controlled.  Too bad there aren't new lines for a Spark with Julian's voice. As hearing a GlaDOS expy with the attitude of Bender snark back at The Chosen would have been hilarious.

*'''The Assassin''': The first of the Chosen you'll meet if you're playing the "Lost and Damned" mission to introduce yourself to the new mechanics introduced in WotC, the Assassin is a dark reflection of the Ranger class. The biggest [[Weeaboo|weeb]] in all of Advent. She attacks mostly with her Katana (although she does have a rarely used shotgun called Arashi, and you'll thank the programmers she rarely uses it), striking out of concealment to stun one of your guys (Who you'll then have to revive or risk them getting kidnapped), before running away. In the same turn. Because the Bad Guys get to move, shoot, move, but the player doesn't get nice things. To top this all off she's immune to overwatch so you either have to try and escape from the current mission, or take the fight back to her just as hard. Oh yeah, and avoid bunching your guys up, or she will stun half the squad at a time with an area of effect special attack, but don't get too spread out or you won't be able to revive stunned soldiers before she kidnaps them. Thankfully, her concealment works by the same rules as yours, and it'll break if one of your guys flanks her, so if you've got a good idea of where she is, you can move someone in to reveal her, and then light her up with the rest of the squad. To make her easier to deal with make sure to take a Specialist with Scanning Protocol. After killing The Assassin you can build Arashi and her Katana. Though many will find her Katana redundant after they have tier 3 Axes and late game Templars.

*'''The Hunter''': While you would expect a roided up [[Space Wolves|Craven the Hunter cosplaying furfag]] by name alone, he is instead a more or less a [[Vindicare|hit man armed with a pistol and sniper rifle]] with an Affably Evil personality.[[Ork_Snipers| He's also known to have team killed some of the weaker Advent aliens when he got bored]]. Unlike his siblings he outright admits that he is a psychopath who likes killing things. The Hunter's abilities are a bit mundane compared to the other Chosen. While still being effective none the less. His Tracking Shot can aim at your troops from the other side of the map, and if they don't move he will kill them the next. This makes mind controlling Advent and hacking MECs for recon useful for once. He also come with a grappling hook with no cool-down, stun grenades and pistol tranq shots that never miss. So don't be stupid and send in a lone Reaper without Banish. Even if he rolls them as a weakness. As they don't put out enough damage to out snipe him and will end up killed or captured instead. His Sniper rifle Darklance and pistol Darkclaw are obviously weapons that are meant for your Snipers. So Reapers can't use it without modding the game.  Not a good idea regardless as it can't be modified with extended magazines and mods that can do this might cause conflicts. The Hunter is by far the most popular of The Chosen among players. While all three of them are edgelords, he adds a huge load of snark to his. He even mouths off to the Ethereals. This shouldn't be surprising as he's voiced by the very talented Nolan North.

*'''The Warlock''': Probably the most dangerous of The Chosen, if you don't have Mindshields. If you do he's about as dangerous as the final boss of the game. If you don't he's damned near impossible as he'll mind control your entire squad at once. In the event his mind-wiping powers are ineffective/on cooldown, he'll summon waves of exploding spectral zombies or psionic copies of Stun Lancers to swarm after you. On his direct offense he has a buffed up plasma rifle that will do extra damage to psionics (i.e. your Psi Operative and Templar), a mind bullet that will split off to affect up to two additional targets, and the ability to teleport his own allies into flanking positions. Sometimes his AI does some stupid shit such as teleporting an Advent next to him. Bonus points if said Advent is the target your supposed to kill during the mission. Once you get his Disruptor rifle, it has every possible upgrade in the game. Though only Rangers, Psi-Operatives and Specialist can take it in an unmodded game. A waste on the latter two as by the time you get it. Their late game abilities and equipment make giving them a 3.5 tier weapon redundant.

'''The Lost'''
Also know as the laggers, as the game starts slowing down if there are too many of them on screen. Introduced in WotC, the Lost were created when survivors of the initial invasion decided that returning to the desolated ruins of their former cities still infested with radioactive alien drop-pods and trying to live off the scraps [[derp|was a good idea]]. The Lost serve as a sort of third enemy faction and will attack XCOM, ADVENT and Alien forces alike (though with a very high preference for [[your dudes]], go figure). Any explosives, be they from grenades, gas tanks or cars will summon hordes of them in the missions they can appear in and can potentially overwhelm both your soldiers and your computer's RAM in high enough swarms. They have a notable weakness to fire and if ignited, will run away panicking before burning to death. Any successful killshot (be they from you or the aliens/ADVENT) will refund the action point spent to kill it, which helps significantly when dealing with swarms of them. Like both the aliens and ADVENT, all variants will start appearing with more base health as time passes, but as long as you're on top of your research game, they shouldn't be a problem.

*'''Regular''':  Standard Lost behave exactly like any prototypical zombie; they beeline it towards whichever enemy suits their fancy and try to peg them in the head with their rotting limbs. In most cases, they can easily be killed in a single shot with most guns, bar the unlucky miss/damage roll.

*'''Dasher''': Faster and with slightly more initial HP (4-5, as opposed to 2-3) these guys aren't much more of a threat compared to regular Lost. They do have a surprising threat range and can easily surround isolated soldiers if not picked off immediately, however.

*'''Brute''': These guys have a lot of HP for a Lost, can actually deal some melee punishment. Early on they do require a little bit of focus fire to down them and they become more and more common by endgame. Then again, by endgame you'll have the best weapons and armour, so once again... only really a threat if you're unlucky, and there's a lot of them.

Recommended soldier classes for missions involving lost are Reapers with Banish and Annihilate, Skirmishers, Rangers and Templars with Bladestorm and Templars/Sharpshooters with Faceoff for room clearing. Dragonfire rounds also ensure that even if by some miracle the Lost shot by them survives, they'll be rendered harmless and die shortly after. There is also a mod that makes their targeting more realistic, as by default they target XCOM(70%) over Advent(30%). Which doesn't make sense as Advent would have no reason to deploy Purifiers. They become even more annoying if the game rolls to deploy a Chosen at the same time. Be wary of your RAM and don't rely on autosaves.(16GB+ is the bare minimum you want to have! If it still lags use lower settings. High settings look about as good as maximum and still run at a decent FPS.)
:If you're a glutton for [[Slaanesh|punishment]], there's a mod that overhauls the Lost and turns them into a fully fleshed out faction of [[Ork|Orks]]. The main mechanics of the Lost remain, namely their vulnerability to fire, deaths refunding spent actions and explosions causing new hordes to spawn (which... is very appropriate, all things considered). That's about where the similarities end, however. This mod adds everything from fast and weak Grots to dead 'ard an killy Deff Dreads and pretty much everything (on two legs) in-between. Though the Orks ''prefer'' melee, most of them carry some flavor of Slugga so that they can Dakka when the mood hits. Speaking of, you'll want to watch out for Burna Boyz and Warbosses. Burna Boyz, much like ADVENT Purifiers, will occasionally explode on death, summoning yet more Orks (often times, more Burna Boyz). Warbosses carry rockets, with all the explosions they can put out. Note, if you download this mod, you're going to want to make sure you have ''plenty'' of RAM to spare.