History VideoGame / XComEnemyUnknown

** The medal system of ''Enemy Within'' encourages this. A limited number of medals can awarded at any given time, they provide stat bonuses to units and thus are desired to have on your best teammates. Early on your need to assign them to your team to have any hope to survive the early game; however, it's possible for your original soldiers to fail to become pyshics, and game mechanics mean newer teammates will often have better Will, used by psychics and to defend against it, then your original soldiers. Thus at some point your likely want to retire your original batch of soldiers for newer pyshic powerhouses. This is when you discover you can't reassign medals from the old ones to the new. You could sacrifice useful medals by leaving them on unused soldiers, or you could remember that medals can be reassigned after death and 'retire' the old medal winner by arranging for an unfortunate accident during a mission.
** Have four Heavies? Check. Four civilians next to a truck you wanna use for cover? Check. Sending in anyone to rescue them? Nah. Sending a rocket to blow it to hell along with the four civilians? Check. [[KarmaHoudini Earning an Excellent rating? Check]]. Technically, you only need to save ''one'' civilian for the Terror Mission to be considered successful, provided you wipe out the aliens. So once you tagged that one cowering civvie, you can just go to town blowing everything up. Hell, you can shoot the civilians too if you want.

** Is there one little Sectoid left on the map? Check. Have an Assault with Ghost Armor and an Alloy Cannon? Check. [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill It WILL bring a smile to your face when you decorate the wall/tree/car/bulkhead that Sectoid is hiding behind with its innards]].
** Is there a single Muton Berserker left on the map? Check. Can one of your soldiers use Mind Control? Check. Now take the Berserker, move it to an open area with no cover, then have your squad line up in firing range, turn on Overwatch, and wait for the Mind Control to wear off. Cue MoreDakka.

--->''"[[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 Gigawatts]], baby!"''\\

* EnergyWeapon: The second tier of weaponry available to XCOM. They're not as powerful as their plasma counterparts in most cases, but they're a step up from regular ballistic weapons and ''much'' cheaper to build than plasma weapons.

* RuleOfCool: Pump-action ''lasers''.

* BattleshipRaid: Naturally, whenever you attack a downed Battleship-class UFO. They're so large that there is nothing else on the Battlescape; the Skyranger lands ''on the Battleship itself''.
** The ''Slingshot'' DownloadableContent adds a raid on a Battleship ''still in flight''.
* BeamSpam: You get the option for this with with the Scatter Laser, Heavy Lasers and [[AttackDrone SHIVs]][=/=][[CoolPlane Interceptors/Firestorms]] equipped with Laser Cannons.

** Mind-controlling aliens are a nasty surprise, able to turn the tide of battle in one turn. However, you can start producing your own psionics, and with a high-Will psi-soldier with Psi Armor and Mind Shield, you can start reliably mind-controlling those same aliens in return. There's even an achievement for doing this to an Ethereal, the strongest alien psionic.
** One of the achievements in ''Enemy Within'' has the player [[InvokedTrope Invoke]] this, requiring you to kill a [[TheBerserker Berserker]] with a MEC Trooper's RocketPunch.
** Another achievement requires you to [[SniperDuel kill an EXALT Elite Sniper with one of your own snipers]].
* BeefGate: The game throws several of these at you to ensure you're not resting on your Research laurels. You should have lasers by the first Terror Mission so you can reliably two-shot Chryssalids, Carapace by the Mutons to resist their firepower...
** Woe is you if you develop the Hyperwave Relay, and you do not have at least one Firestorm in your Hangar. This makes The Overseer craft appear regularly, and it eats up the regular interceptors like candy. You have to get busy building the Firestorm, STAT. Meanwhile, as you build it (or wait for missions to even ''get'' the stuff to build with), the Overseer keeps appearing on radar, and you have no choice but to ignore it. This makes your monthly rating go down the toilet, and there's nothing you can do about it.

** The Council Of Nations is this, in spite of their nature as the OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness. They fund and support XCOM in their efforts to protect Earth and save its citizenry from the Alien invasion, and there's no evidence that they're up to any shenanigans on the side - [[ParanoiaFuel although]] [[SequelHook they could simply be hiding it very well...]]
** It is hinted that [[spoiler: the aliens themselves, or at least the Ethereals, may see themselves as this. They seek to push humanity to the next level, so that they may attain psychic ability to prepare them for "what lies ahead", whatever that means.]]
** Averted with EXALT. There is nothing benevolent about them.

** Mutons, with their ally-boosting Blood Call ability.
** The aptly-named Berserker, an [[SuperToughness extremely durable breed of Muton]] that has the ability to [[TheJuggernaut charge through the environment]] to get to your soldiers. They also get a free (short) move towards one of your soldiers after ''any'' attack hits it. Fortunately, they charge blindly rather than stick to cover. A clever commander can exploit this, forcing them to trigger Overwatches and step into your other soldiers' line of sight.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: Members of EXALT in ''Enemy Within'' cannot be captured for interrogation like most aliens can. If you shock them with the Arc Thrower, they'll stab themselves with a syringe full of poison before they lose consciousness, so they don't risk revealing information damaging to their operations.
* {{BFG}}: The MEC troopers in ''Enemy Within'' use their superhuman strength to carry comically enormous guns. The basic MEC weapon is a giant [[GatlingGood minigun]]; as your technology advances, you can equip your MEC troopers with electromagnetic railguns and, finally, particle cannons which basically deal instant death to anything smaller than a Mechtoid.
* BigBad: In contrast to the original game, where the aliens were led by an "Alien Brain", [[spoiler: the Ethereals, led by the Uber-Ethereal, are very much the bad guys here. They're the guiding intelligence behind the invasion and the various alien species are the other species that they conquered first, in an attempt to find/create a species that is both physically strong and psionically gifted. It's never made clear what what they need this for, but they do mention that it's in preparation for "what lies ahead"]].

* TheBigBoard: A pair of them. The Big ''Hologlobe'' (a giant [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin holographic globe]]), which sits in the middle of the Operations Center in the XCOM headquarters. All missions available are shown on this, along with tracking the movements of [=UFOs=], interceptors, and the Skyranger. The other is the world map in the Situation Room, which tracks the panic levels of all the contributing countries and keeps track of satellite coverage and council requests, as well as info on EXALT in ''Enemy Within''.
** The raid on EXALT HQ in ''Enemy Within'' shows that EXALT has a Hologlobe of their own...but it's red.

* BlackBox: Most of the technology that the Science and Engineering departments come up with is this. They have no idea how exactly it all works[[note]]Mostly because understanding the specifics isn't particularly necessary in the middle of the war; presumably, Vahlen plans to do more in-depth studies if XCOM wins the war[[/note]], but they can replicate it.

* BlackSpeech: The language of the aliens sounds like Satan's autodial, complete with VoiceOfTheLegion. The Chryssalids and Mutons add insectile chittering and monstrous bellows, respectively.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: Higher level Snipers can do this if "Disabling Shot" is chosen, forcing the target to waste a turn on unjamming the weapon. Be cautious though, as they can still use grenades just fine.
* BlindedByTheLight: Flashbang grenades in ''Enemy Within'' leave enemies caught in the radius "Disoriented", with ''severe'' aim and movement penalties; this can cripple even the otherwise scary accurate Thin Men and [[EliteMooks Muton Elites]] into being unable to shoot straight[[note]][[GoneHorriblyRight though this can make them]] [[ThrowDownTheBomblet toss a grenade]] or [[SuperSpit spit poison]] instead of shooting, so be aware[[/note]], and Chryssalids into barely being able to move. Robots and psionic enemies are immune, though.
* BlingBlingBang: As of ''Enemy Within'', changing a soldier's armor tint also changes their weapon's color. This can be realistic as a soldier gets a woodland-color gun to match his woodland camouflage, but dressing your soldier in [[RummageSaleReject hot pink with yellow highlights]] will result in an equally ridiculous weapon.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: In ''Enemy Within'', anyone killed by an attack will be sent flying. If there's an easily destructible object (like a door) behind them, expect them to go flying hard enough to break it.
* BodyArmorAsHitPoints: The primary benefit of armor, though some models also reduce the enemy's chance to hit. Certain special items like Nanofiber Vests or Chitin Plating also boost health. Additionally, a soldier who receives less damage than the health bonus given by their armor won't need a stay in the infirmary after the mission.
** In ''Enemy Within'', it goes a step further, as soldiers with the genetic enhancement that grants them health regeneration won't regenerate past the base hit point value (i.e. without armor). Medkits still allow you to restore the entire health bar, though.

** BraggingRightsReward: That said, by the time you can successfully shoot down and clear a Battleship-class UFO, you don't ''need'' a Blaster Launcher or a Fusion Lance.
** DungeonBypass: Completing the Slingshot DLC allows you to capture a fully intact Battleship in the first month of gameplay, netting you crazy amounts of resources and technology, including the Fusion Core (though the time needed to research it at that point, with a small science team and no bonuses, is extremely prohibitive).
* BossInMookClothing: Sectopods were always tough bastards, but fairly manageable if you knew what you were doing. In ''Enemy Within'', they get upgraded with a trait that reduces ''all'' incoming damage by 50%, which doubles their effective health to ''60'', while simultaneously {{Nerf}}ing "HEAT Ammo", which is their main counter. Their Drone allies become even more of a pain, because the various buffs the Sectopod enjoys means that Drones can effectively erase any damage you do if you don't prioritize killing them first, and his abilities mean it's difficult to hack a Drone and keep it alive. Destroying just one Sectopod will take a lot of pre-planning, and even still often requires at least two full turns. The kicker? Late in the game, missions feature more than one, to the point where ''all the pods in a Terror mission can be Sectopods''.

* TheDreaded:
** To many X-Com players, The Sectopod. Due to its devastating array of weaponry, near-perfect accuracy and absolutely ''insane'' damage resistance, you know you're in for a hard time when one of these behemoths thud into view. Even if you've had the foresight to prepare for an encounter with one, you're forced to drop everything you're doing to take it out.
** The Ethereals as well, especially to a squad of rookies or [[ShellShockedVeteran low-Willed veterans]].

* AggressivePlayIncentive: After ''Enemy Unknown'' was criticized for rewarding overly cautious play, the ''Enemy Within'' expansion added a new resource called meld that comes in containers that self-destruct if not recovered quickly enough.
* AlienAbduction: The invaders will abduct civilians from countries not under satellite surveillance, often striking multiple cities on different continents at the same time. Successfully stopping them will gain XCOM additional support from the country they save, but panic will rise in the countries they couldn't respond to (unless they're on the same continent as the successfully stopped abduction).

** Unit equipment doesn't vanish if they perish. This means that even if you lose most of your team wearing end game armor and using expensive plasma weapons, you can equip their replacements with the same loadout. This helps mitigate some of the end game losses by allowing your rookies to at least have a fighting chance in late game encounters should you lose your best and brightest, and hopefully level up from the experience. Of course, there exists a Second Wave option to disable this [[SelfImposedChallenge should you want more difficulty]].
** AI priorities in Terror missions might be intentionally set up to alleviate potentially frustrating scenarios. There are times when you'll be in a really bad position relative to an enemy, yet the enemy will often choose to kill a civilian even if they could realistically benefit more by killing a soldier. A Chryssalid can be surrounded by three juicy soldiers ready to shoot it the next turn but still opt to kill a nearby civilian instead. As a result, it can be a lot easier to kill the Chryssalid and zombie in subsequent turns than it would be to lose a soldier and try to do the same with reduced firepower and some potentially panicked soldiers. If the implanted corpse is nearby, you can even use a grenade to damage the Chryssalid while also killing the zombie before it gains its full strength.
** If enemy advancement outstrips your tech, it is possible to start facing [[EliteMooks Elite Mutons and Heavy Floaters]] while still using laser weapons and carapace armor. If this happens, you will likely get TPK after TPK. If you have full satellite coverage you can't get a game-over this way, because you won't have any panic penalties[[note]]Satellite coverage prevents alien abductions from occurring within the borders of the covered country, so full satellite coverage functionally prevents abductions. [=UFOs=] only increase panic if they're ''not'' shot down, with the actual result of the ground mission not affecting panic in any significant way. The only concern is Terror missions, which can be prevented by shooting down [=UFOs=], but the panic from those (failing is actually ''worse'' than not responding at all) can quickly and devastatingly build up over time[[/note]]. So you're stuck in and endless loop of sending underequipped rookies against the toughest enemies in the game, and they can't level up because they keep getting wiped out, and you can't build them better equipment because you need resources you can only get from completing missions. This is especially a problem in Ironman mode, where you can't abuse SaveScumming to complete tough missions. The saving grace is that every so often you'll shoot down a Small Scout with only a few aliens or get a Council Mission with only Thin Men, so you can, little by little, collect enough resources to build better equipment[[note]]Note that, even with underpowered and undertrained rookies leading a mission, ''every'' mission can be completed, regardless of who they are facing. It becomes more difficult, but strong strategies will ''always'' trump strong tech[[/note]].

* ExcitedShowTitle: Terror! missions, when aliens attack a bunch of civilians you need to rescue, always have an exclamation point. When trying to load a save, it reads, "Terror attack in [X]!"

* PlayerNudge: This is one thing the new XCOM gets right. It occasionally tells you the general direction some of the aliens are hiding in, so you're not left clueless for long.

--> '''[[spoiler: Uber-Ethereal]]''': ''"Behold [[MyGreatestFailure the greatest Failure]]... of [[spoiler: the Ethereal ones]]. We who failed to ascend as they thought we would. We who were cast out. We who were doomed to feed on [[PsychicPowers the Gift]] of lesser beings... as we sought to uplift them... to prepare them... [[SequelHook for what lies ahead]]."''

-->''"Looks like you're coming home with us."''
-->''"Not so tough now, are ya?"''

-->''"Permission to use a REAL weapon, sir!"''

---> Shen: Is ''this'' what the aliens do for fun? At least they're not playing... computer games.

--> '''Dr. Shen:''' ''"Is this what the aliens do for fun? At least they're not playing ... computer games."''

--> '''Officer Bradford:''' ''"Are you really using our tracking terminal to play Civilization?! I at least hope you're going for a Military victory."''

--> '''MEC Trooper:''' ''"Hostile removed from play."''

-->'''Bradford:''' ''"This is Central, I'm receiving you... what do you mean you think you saw a snake? What the hell does that have to do with anything?"''

-->Dr. Vahlen: ''"As unprofessional as it sounds, it appears the bite seems to have turned him into a... zombie."''

-->''"We are extremely impressed with the progress of the XCOM Project thus far, Commander. Your results are beyond our expectations, and that is not a statement this council makes lightly."''

--> 1. Trigger the enemy's free movement for discovering your units.
--> 2. Break line of sight, and sneak around while concealed towards the enemy flank.
--> 3. Wipe out everyone not in cover using your Plasma Sniper Rifle, all in one turn with In The Zone.
--> 4. If any enemy survived the Kill Streak, simply break line of sight and go invisible again from Mimetic Skin.

-->'''Bradford''': Are you really using our tracking terminal to play ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}''?! I at least hope you're going for a Military Victory.

-->''"He's out of the game."''
-->''"Kill confirmed."''
-->''"Dead and gone."''

-->''"Going silent."'' [cloaking]
-->''"Moving in for the kill."''[=/=]''"Gun 'em down!"'' [Run & Gun]

---> ''"Your nightmare is just starting..."''

-->''"[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries My thoughts to your thoughts.]]"''
-->''"[[Videogame/{{Warcraft}} Now, we are one.]]"''

-->''"Are you really using our tracking terminal to play ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}''?! I at least hope you're going for a Military victory."''
-->''"Some nut calling himself [[Series/UFO1970 Commander Straker]] has been all over the news talking about 'SHADO agents'."''
-->''"...and you're positive the report states that the alien craft crash landed in [[Series/{{Alf}} the garage of a suburban middle-class family... Tanner residence.]] Roger, we'll look into it."''

-->''"[[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 Gigawatts]], baby!"''
-->''"[[{{Music/Metallica}} Ride the lightning]]!"''

--> ''Then out spake brave Horatius,''
--> ''The Captain of the Gate,''
--> ''"To every man upon this earth,''
--> ''Death comes soon or late.''
--> ''And how can a man die better,''
--> ''Than facing fearful odds,''
--> ''For the ashes of his fathers,''
--> ''And the temples of his gods?"''

--> (When moving): ''"Starting to motor!"''\\

** Early on, if you capture too many enemies to steal their Plasma weapons and grenades for your troops to use you'll not have enough weapon fragments to advance your research. As such you'll have to kill at least half of the enemies in every mission to ensure you keep them stockpiled. ''Enemy Within'' throws an additional wrinkle that you can't just build a squillion Plasma Rifles, Plasma Sniper Rifles, Heavy Plasma Guns and Alloy Cannons without running out fast, so you now have more incentive to keep capturing enemies throughout the game and step it up in the late game once most weapons are researched.

* HarderThanHard[=/=]IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: The difficulty levels are called "Easy", "Normal", "Classic"[[labelnote:*]]Prior to the European release and resulting patch, Classic was called VideoGame/{{XCOM}}[[/labelnote]] and above that, "Impossible", with "Classic" being meant to be the closest to the original game's difficulty (that could be achieved with the game mechanics of the 2012 remake) and "Impossible" even ''more'' difficult than that. There is also another difficulty modifier called "Ironman Mode", where the game will only have one save file for that playthrough, and will save for the player after every action during combat, meaning that if you make a mistake there is no reloading to before it happened. Now try that on Classic difficulty...
** Some designers also mentioned that the "Impossible" difficulty is literally supposed to be {{unwinnable}}. For most players, it's just a question of how many missions they can complete before failure. According to the staff, beating Impossible difficulty on Ironman mode is only ''theoretically'' possible. Some players have managed to pull it off, though, and as if in retaliation, Firaxis released the ''Second Wave'' DownloadableContent, which includes gameplay modifiers even they thought were too cruel. This was taken further again in ''Enemy Within'', with ''both'' Classic and Impossible difficulties getting a significant spike in toughness.
*** When a Let's Player not only finished the game on Impossible Ironman, but did it ''without losing a single soldier'', it was reported on various gaming news websites.

** Despite being ruled by an TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness, XCOM [[{{Averted}} is not one of these]].
** On the other hand, this trope fits EXALT like a glove. They're a secret society of paramilitary operatives working in the shadows and masquerading as ordinary citizens. Each one of them is fanatically loyal to the cause and won't stop at anything to take the aliens' gifts and TakeOverTheWorld. The organization is also shown to be very old and very wealthy, their base having a lot of fancy decorations and priceless art. Their insignia even has the stereotypical Illuminati "eye"!

** Played straight for Heavies who miss with regular rocket launchers: instead of the missile veering off-course after being fired, they blatantly aim off-target and shout "Missile wide!" before even firing[[note]]though to be fair, they put the missiles exactly where they are supposed to go nine times out of ten, it is just really obvious on those rare occasions that they miss[[/note]]. One of their miss quotes for the rocket launcher implies an equipment failure, though ("Targeting system malfunctioning!"), which may explain how they know the missile will stray off course before even firing. In general, the class' Aim stat is noticeably lower than the other classes.

** The Blaster Launcher is incredibly powerful and probably the best example in terms of weapons held by humans. Not only do you get a base damage boost to rocket blasts, but shots can also be automatically guided to their target, meaning the Heavy wielding it doesn't even need to expose themselves to get line-of-sight as with the standard launcher. However, even building one of them has a hefty resource cost, as each requires two flight computers and a fusion core (the latter only available from late game battleships, with two freebies from the Slingshot DLC's council missions).

* DoingResearch: Very important throughout the whole game, as new aliens with different abilities and equipment keep showing up as the invasion progresses. Performing an AlienAutopsy will provide more info when the alien is examined on the battlefield.

** Capturing aliens for interrogation and leveling new recruits, as both require you to get aliens down to a sliver of health. Arc Throwers can only capture aliens at low health, and since the majority of experience is awarded from kills, you want your rookies to land the killing blows on enemies if you want promotions to arrive at a decent rate. In both cases, it's detrimental if a high-ranking soldier randomly scores a critical hit that finishes off your selected target. Pistols (and grenades, though those are more finite) can help intentionally deal less damage to soften up an enemy for an arc thrower shock, but then there are the stronger alien versions of them as well as Foundry upgrades to make them even more deadlier, meaning you might have to put off otherwise beneficial upgrades if you want to capture a bunch of aliens for free weapons. And there is incentive to get an alien as close to dead but not actually dead as possible, as your chances of capture increase with the less health they have, having a big jump between even 4 and 3 HP. Thankfully certain abilities like the Heavie's mayhem and rockets, the Mec Trooper's collateral damage, flamethrower, and Kinetic Strike Module, and grenades in general do precisely the number stated and no more, letting you shave just the right amount off of an enemy's HP.

** Sectopods were already threatening-looking in ''UFO Defense'', but that's kicked up a notch. Now their thundering footsteps are booming sounds, they constantly release either steam or highly pressurized air even after destruction, and their entire motto is 'StuffBlowingUp'.

* AlasPoorVillain: It's vague, but [[spoiler:The Uber-Ethereal may actually have felt he was ''helping'' humanity. It's hinted that there may be a reason they need to ascertain a race with higher psionic ability... such as a dire peril threatening the galaxy. This is underscored by the Uber-Ethereal's dialogue when you are on the Temple Ship: he speaks to The Volunteer as a teacher would speak to a promising pupil]]. ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' reveals that [[spoiler: The Uber-Ethereal is full of shit: humanity actually has ''more'' potential than the Ethereals, or any other race that the Ethereals subjugated, and the Ethereals want to use that to their advantage. They don't care one whit about humanity as anything more than resources.]]

%%* AliensAreBastards:

** Your soldiers are [[MultinationalTeam recruited from all over the world]], but they all speak perfect American English. Adding unique accents for every single member nation would probably be overkill for the developers, of course, which is why they went with this instead (see WeAllLiveInAmerica below). In ''Enemy Within'', this has been changed: you can customize your troops to speak in one of seven[[note]]English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Polish[[/note]] languages, whether it's their country's native tongue or otherwise.
** No matter where EXALT's main base is located, [[WeAllLiveInAmerica the voice over for the ending cutscene is still an American-accented man referring to a radio/news station with an American naming pattern]].

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: No matter which country you deploy in, the buildings and cars (especially the yellow cabs) will often look like American cities or towns, not to mention the complete lack of accents for your soldiers prior to ''Enemy Within''. And while EW does offer a new language customization options, all troops start out with English as their default language, and the language of many nations, such as Japan and Egypt, are not available. Occasionally, you'll also find maps which are inexplicably European or Chinese urban areas. Since each map is hand-crafted, however, this is understandable.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: As your soldiers do well, they get new abilities and get promoted up through the ranks. Anyone who has reached {{Colonel|Badass}} is a ''true'' [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking badass]].

** AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The only way to get promoted in XCOM is by wrecking a lot of face during missions.

-->''"Some nut calling himself [[Series/{{UFO}} Commander Straker]] has been all over the news talking about 'SHADO agents'."''

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Sectopods can launch [[DeathFromAbove Rocket Barrages]], which can really rain explosives on your parade... unless if they [[ArtificialStupidity do so while inside]], where the missiles simply explode on the ceiling harmlessly. Keep in mind, the Sectopod will have wasted ''two'' turns doing it.
** EXALT versus XCOM. While EXALT ''does'' employ sneaky, underhanded tactics befitting a cellular terrorist group, they fall short in actual combat, which is likely why they emphasize secrecy and avoid combat with XCOM whenever possible. [[CurbStompBattle In general, it goes about as well as you would expect a team of civilians-turned-terrorists going head-to-head with a squadron of hardened military veterans to go]]. This becomes even more noticeable after XCOM acquires Plasma weapons and PoweredArmor, since EXALT never [[spoiler: (except for a high priority target like Annette)]] directly engages with the aliens and therefore never acquires and reverse-engineers the tech to move past Laser weaponry and Alien Alloy armor plus a few Gene Mods.

** "Damage Roulette", a Second Wave option where every non-explosive, MEC subsystem or psionic attack is a RandomizedDamageAttack, makes critical hits and explosives the only source of consistent damage. With this in mind, it's perfectly viable to field ballistic weapons with the Reaper Rounds instead of lasers when going against high-health targets like Cyberdiscs early on. This ends up modifying research and engineering priority from weapons to armor, since even normally ignorable non-crit shots can one-hit soldiers with decent health[[note]]such as a Thin Man dealing 9 damage non-crit against a 4HP squaddie with Carapace Armor[[/note]] if you're unlucky. In ''Enemy Within'', the "can't crit on Squadsight unless on Headshot" penalty gives Snap Shot Snipers a more prominent role, as Headshot has a 1-turn cooldown. It also makes "Double Tap" and "Rapid Fire" more effective than against very high-health targets, just in case you ''need'' a certain alien dead and gone.

** "[[SuperpowerLottery Training Roulette]]" can be this trope ''if'' you get lucky. Your soldiers unlock a random ability after being promoted, and that pool includes the game-breaking Colonel abilities. Potentially, a support Lieutenant can heal as well as a Colonel, and a Corporal can get "Will To Survive", which reduces damage by 2 when not flanked against enemies that usually do only 2 damage. Even better, save for a few, abilities can go for different classes, like an assault Sergeant being as good a healer as a regular Colonel support with both Field Medic and Savior (and the perk of not giving up firepower when rushing to a patient thanks to Run & Gun), a guardian angel of a Sniper Lieutenant with Opportunist, Covering Fire and Sentinel/Rapid Reaction, or a soldier with Bullet Swarm and Gunslinger for constantly picking off wounded enemies. Combining Grenadier with Deep Pockets equals for GrenadeSpam all day long.

%%* AliensAreBastards: [[UpToEleven And how!]]

** Implied with Dr. Shen's NoTranshumanismAllowed stance on Psi Testing in ''Enemy Unknown''. Taken UpToEleven in ''Enemy Within'' with Gene Splicing and Cybernetics thrown on top of the pile.

* HarderThanHard[=/=]IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: The difficulty levels are called "Easy", "Normal", "Classic"[[labelnote:*]]Prior to the European release and resulting patch, Classic was called VideoGame/{{XCOM}}[[/labelnote]] and above that, "Impossible", with "Classic" being meant to be the closest to the original game's difficulty (that could be achieved with the game mechanics of the 2012 remake) and "Impossible" even ''more'' difficult than that. There is also another difficulty modifier called "Ironman Mode", where the game will only have one save file for that playthrough, and will save for the player after every action during combat, meaning that if you make a mistake there is no reloading to before it happened. [[UpToEleven Now try that on Classic difficulty...]]

* CoolShades: With the DLC packs, soldiers get an option to wear these into battle. The added [[CoolHat beret]] just enhances the coolness.

** [[VideoGame/TheBureauXCOMDeclassified William Carter]] "Old Timer": An Assault Colonel added in ''Enemy Within'' with a [[NiceHat fedora]] and only 80 Will.

* NiceHat: The ''Slingshot'' DownloadableContent adds about a dozen new hair/helmet options, amongst which is a ten-gallon cowboy hat and a beret. There's also a beret-and-shades combo, for added badassitude. ''Enemy Within'' then added a fedora.

* {{Bathos}}: No matter the situation, the [[CoolHat fedora]] from ''Enemy Within'' looks out of place. Put it on a [[MiniMecha MEC Trooper]] for extra hilarity.

** In a meta sense, the game's overall difficulty (even on the lower settings), led to the question "What if XCOM got [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] before they even invented laser weapons?" [[VideoGame/XCOM2 This is the premise of ''VideoGame/XCOM2''.]]

* SelfInsert: The {{Hero Unit}}s include Firaxis staff and Ken Levine from 2K Games.

--> (When moving): ''"Starting to motor!"''
--> (When moving): ''"Roger dodger!"'' (A reference to a Second World War story, where, in the expanded form "Roger dodger, you ol' codger!", it forms part of the punchline.)

* VendorTrash:
** Damaged ship components and alien bioexperimentation equipment[[labelnote:list]]Alien Entertainment, Surgery tables and Stasis Tanks[[/labelnote]] and the like. Vendor Trash items are clearly labelled in your inventory as "having no use for research projects".
** In ''Enemy Within'', EXALT weapons are only cosmetically different from your own, including the basic ballistic weapons. Laser guns (especially sniper and heavy lasers) are a good addition to XCOM's inventory if you're too strapped for credits to make more of your own, but you already have an infinite supply of statistically identical weapons to their ballistic hardware, so you might as well make some money, but don't get too excited: they're only worth at most 3 credits each. Sometimes the Council asks for a batch of EXALT weapons, though, and they pay nicely for them. The raid on their HQ also yields a lot of vendor trash items like artwork, ancient artifacts and intel (that XCOM already has), and after the raid succeeds, the weapons can be freely sold.
** After you're done with all your research and Foundry projects, weapon fragments can be sold freely for a little bit of pocket change.

** In ''Enemy Within'', EXALT weapons are recovered after missions and can be used by your own soldiers. However, they're [[PaletteSwap mechanically identical]] to your own weapon counterparts and [[VendorTrash are meant to be sold to the Council once you decide you have enough]]; it's less pronounced with the Elites' laser hardware in case you didn't prioritize beam weapon production, so you can get your Heavies, Snipers and Supports or rifle Assaults all kitted out with lasers without spending a penny. Played straight with the unique gene mods on most of their Elite units, which are "Iron Skin" (Elite Heavies)[[note]]reduces damage by 25%[[/note]], "Regen Pheromones" (Elite Medics)[[note]][[HealingFactor regenerates the health of the Medic and nearby friendlies by 1 every turn]][[/note]] and "Adrenaline Rush" (Elite Operatives)[[note]][[TurnsRed increases Aim and Critical Chance by 10% with every injury]][[/note]]., and curiously, the Medics' Medikits. EXALT Elite units also carry alien grenades, which self-destruct into fragments upon death as with aliens but are recoverable if the EXALT is stunned, despite [[CyanidePill their ensuing suicide]].
** Completely intact [=UFOs=] can't be commandeered after being secured, even if you've reverse-engineered their navigation, power and propulsion systems. They can only be dismantled for their components and raw materials. Then again, once [[spoiler:you reach the late-game, you don't ''need'' a commandeered alien ship, as XCOM's Firestorm aircraft with fusion lances can handily win dogfights with anything the aliens send at you, even the mighty battleships]].

** In an odd twist, recruits from Scotland and recruits from the rest of the UK are treated as being from different countries, with their own flags and name pools, which might turn into FunnyAneurysmMoment given the Scottish Independence Referendum has been announced for 2014 and the game is set in 2015. (However, abductions in Scottish cities are listed as being in the UK.)

* BaldOfAwesome: An option for your soldiers, male and female. Also, due to helmets and hats counting as hair styles, they're removed when off-duty, so you'll see a large number of shaved-head soldiers in the barracks if you like using them. The latter is changed as of ''Enemy Within'', and soldiers wearing helmets as hairstyles are no longer bald underneath, being given one of the conventional hairstyles while off duty in the barracks.