Best Squad Skills Builds in XCOM 2

When building a squad in XCOM 2, there are several things to keep in mind. Your team has to be versatile, with enough firepower and utilities to be able to cope with anything. Having a poorly built squad will lead to your doom. For the best results, you’ll have to carefully choose abilities when your soldiders advance through the ranks. This guide will show you the best squad skills builds in XCOM 2 that will help you win most fights.


Before we dive into the skills, here are some tips on general team building:

• It’s imperative that you have at least one of each class in your squad. When you increase your squad size, you can insert a second Grenadier or Specialist, but before that it’s best to have one of each.
• Have a Team B. Your main soldiers will get hurt in combat. You need to have capable stand-ins for times like that. Use low difficulty missions and the GTC to boost your backup guys.
• Diversify your inventory. Having a bunch of frag grenades might seem like a good idea, but there are times when a smoke grenade can do so much more than an explosive one. Fill up your utility slots with different items.

Sharpshooter Skills

Sharpshooters start with the Squadsight ability, which lets them target anyone the team can see, as long as they have a clean line of sight. Here’s a list of all the abilities you can unlock for this class as you progress:

Rank	Sniper Skills	Gunslinger Skills
Corporal	Long Watch: Allow Overwatch to trigger with Squadsight	Return Fire: When targeted by enemy fire, automatically fire back with your pistol once per turn
Sergeant	Deadeye: Take a shot with a small aim penalty for a significant damage boost	Lightning Hands: Fire your pistol at a target. This attack does not cost an action
Lieutenant	Death From Above: Killing an enemy at a lower elevation with your sniper rifle costs only a single action, and does not end your turn	Quick Draw: Firing your pistol with your first action no longer ends your turn
Captain	Kill Zone: Take a reaction shot against any enemy that moves or attacks within a cone of fire	Faceoff: Fire once at every visible enemy with your pistol
Major	Steady Hands: If you did not move last turn, gain +10 Aim and +10 Critical chance	Aim: Hunker Down now confers +20 Aim to the first shot on the following turn
Colonel	Serial: A powerful chained shot ability. For every kill made with your sniper rifle, your actions will be refunded	Fan Fire: Fire the pistol three times at the same target

Our ideal build includes Return Fire, Lightning Hands, Death From Above, Kill Zone, Steady Hands and Serial. As far as equipment is concerned, we like to upgrade our sniper rifles with scopes and give battle scanners to the people using them.

Grenadier Abilities

Grenadiers begin with a skill called Launch Grenade, which lets them use a grenade launcher. The grenades it shoots have better range and do more damage than regular ones. Here are the rest of their abilities:

Rank	Demolitions Expert Skills	Heavy Gunner Skills
Corporal	Blast Padding Your gear includes layers of extra padding and blast plates, granting a bonus point of Armour and 66% less damage from explosive attacks	Shredder Your cannon attacks shred armour
Sergeant	Demolition Unleash a volley of bullets at your target’s cover, significantly damaging or destroying it. Deals no damage to your target	Supression Fire a barrage that pins down a target, granting reaction fire against it if it moves, and imposing a -50 penalty to the target’s aim
Lieutenant	Heavy Ordnance The grenade in your grenade-only slot gains a bonus use	Holo Targeting Any directed cannon shot, hit or miss, will mark the target, increasing your squad’s aim by +15 against this target
Captain	Volatile Mix Your grenades have an increased radius of 1 tile and deal +2 damage	Chain Shot Take a shot with an aim penalty of -15. If you hit the target, you take another shot on the target automatically
Major	Salvo Launching or throwing grenades, or using heavy weapons with your first action, will not end your turn	Hail of Bullets Unleash a hail of bullets that is guaranteed to hit your target, but uses a lot of ammunition
Colonel	Saturation Fire Fire a cone shaped barrage of bullets at every enemy in an area. In addition, the cover of those enemies can be damaged or destroyed. Uses three ammo	Rupture A Rupture shot deals critical damage and ensures that the target takes an additional +3 damage from all attacks in the future

We like to specialize in blast damage, so we pretty much always go with Shredder, Demolition, Heavy Ordnance (Holo Targeting for B Team grenadier, maybe), Volatile Mix, Hail of Bullets and Rupture. Modding your heavy cannon with a magazine extender is a must. We also encourage you to experiment with different types of grenades whenever you can.

Ranger Skills

Rangers start off with Slash, a skill that lets them run up to any enemy within dashing distance and attack them with the sword. The rest of the skills focus either on swordsmanship or staying concealed and making good use of it:

Rank	Scout Abilities	Assault Abilities
Corporal	Phantom When the squad is revealed, this soldier remains concealed	Blademaster Deal +2 extra damage on all sword attacks
Sergeant	Shadow Strike When concealed, gain +25 bonus aim and +25 bonus critical hit chance when attacking enemies	Shadowstep This soldier does not trigger overwatch or reaction fire
Lieutenant	Conceal Immediately enter concealment once per mission	Run and Gun Take an action after dashing
Captain	Implacable If you score one or more kills on your turn, you are granted a single bonus move	Bladestorm Free sword attacks on any enemies that enter or attack from melee range
Major	Deep Cover If you did not attack this turn, hunker down automatically	Untouchable If you score a kill during your turn, the next attack against you during the enemy turn will miss
Colonel	RapidFire Fire twice in a row at an enemy. Each shot suffers an Aim penalty of -15. There is no cooldown on this ability	Reaper A devastating chain melee attack where the first melee attack cannot miss. Each melee kill in Reaper mode grants an extra action, but further melee attacks deal reduced damage

Although making a phantom ranger is a smart move and can be a better solution at higher difficulty settings, honestly, the sword-wielding maniac is so much fun to play. Our favourite Ranger build includes Phantom, Shadowstep, Run and Gun, Bladestorm, Untouchable and Reaper. Early on in the game, a ranger with Run & Gun and a medkit can be a lifesaver. Later on, it’s best to just focus on providing the ranger with protection, since he will be getting the closest to danger.

Specialist Abilities

Specialists have a starting ability called Aid Protocol, which allows the gremlin to buff an ally with increased Defense for one turn. The other abilities will develop them into either a medic or a hacker:

Rank	Battle Medic Skills	Combat Hacker Skills
Corporal	Medical Protocol The GREMLIN can perform healing actions remotely: GREMLIN Heal and GREMLIN Stabilize. The GREMLIN has a single charge. If a medikit is equipped it has two charges	Combat Protocol Send the GREMLIN to an enemy to jolt them, dealing guaranteed damage, which is increased against robotic enemies
Sergeant	Revival Protocol Send the GREMLIN to an ally to remove any negative mental status effects: Disoriented, Stunned, Panicked, or Unconscious	Haywire Protocol You may target robotic and mechanical enemies with your GREMLIN, attempting to hack them and seize control
Lieutenant	Field Medic Equipped medikits have 2 extra charges	Scanning Protocol The GREMLIN can trigger an instant scan of the area, increasing the Specialist’s sight radius substantially for one turn, and revealing any hidden or disguised enemies
Captain	Covering Fire Overwatch shots can now be triggered by any enemy action, not just movement	Threat Assessment Aid Protocol now grants the target a Covering Fire Overwatch shot, but the Aid Protocol cooldown is increased by 1 turn
Major	Ever Vigilant If you spend all of your actions on moves, you are granted an automatic overwatch shot at the end of the turn	Guardian With every successful Overwatch shot, there is a 50% chance that another shot will be taken
Colonel	Restoration The GREMLIN flies to each squad member, healing or reviving them as needed	Capacitor Discharge Send the GREMLIN to a location where it emits a substantial electric discharge, damaging and potentially stunning all nearby units. Robotic units take more damage

The wise choice would be to have one of each – a medic and a hacker. When upgrading them, you should just follow the left side for the doctor and the right for the hacker, except at Captain and Major ranks. There, we recommend taking Threat Assessment and Ever Vigilant. The medic should be equipped with a medkit, obviously.

Psi Operative Abilities

Psi Operatives are like mages in the XCOM universe. They use their minds to do damage and disable enemies. They start off with a random low-level psi ability, and the rest of their skills aren’t mutually exclusive. If you have enough time and missions, you could level up the psi soldier in such a way to have all the skills in the game. Here’s a list of them:

Rank	Telepath	Resonant
Acolyte	Insanity Debilitating telepathic attack that can inflict different negative conditions, including mental control of the target.	Inspire Grant a bonus action immediately to a nearby squadmate
Adept	Soul Steal Soul Fire transfers half of the damage done back to the Psi Operative as health	Stasis Shield Stasis can be cast on allies, rendering them immune to any attacks, and stunned, for 1 turn
Disciple	Solace Psi Operative is surrounded by an aura that immediately extinguishes or blocks any mental impairments for themselves and any nearby squadmates	Sustain If the Psi Operative takes enough damage to be killed, they are immediately put in Stasis for 1 turn and their health is only reduced to 1 HP. This can only happen once per mission
Mystic	Schism Insanity now does a small amount of guaranteed damage, and applies Rupture to the target	Fortress The Psi Operative is immune to fire, poison, acid and explosive damage
Warlock	Fuse If an enemy is carrying explosives, they can be remotely detonated by the Psi Operative	Domination Permanently mind control an enemy. Only one successful Domination can be performed per mission
Magnus	Null Lance Project a beam of terrible power that damages every target it passes through. This attack can penetrate multiple enemies and obstacles	Void Rift Generate an explosive field of Psionic energy that damages everything within. Organic enemies have a chance to suffer Insanity.

However, most players won’t be able to unlock all of the skills, so there’s still the need to choose. Our recommendations would be Inspire, Stasis Shield, Sustain, Fortress. Fuse and Domination are both great skills, as are Null Lance and Void Rift.