Engineer (Long War)

Engineer

The Engineer is a unique class that has no equivalent in vanilla XCOM, though they borrow some elements from the Grenadier Heavy and Support classes. Engineers are specialized in the use of grenades, with their starting Grenadier ability giving them two uses of each damaging grenade item they carry, and a bonus to grenade throwing range, and have several more perks to improve grenades further. Engineers also have access to perks improving their ability to destroy cover, and improving their use of the arc thrower.

Primary Weapons: Carbines, Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns.

Secondary Weapon: Pistols, Machine pistols, Sawed-off shotgun.

Class-Limited items: Armor Piercing Ammo, Shredder Ammo, Battle Scanner.

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Grenadier Grenadier Allows 2 destructive grenades in a single inventory slot, and the soldier may throw grenades 20 percent further.
Specialist	No other bonuses.
Lance Corporal	Holo-Targeting Holo-Targeting Shooting at or suppressing enemies confers +10 Aim to allies' attacks on those enemies until end of turn.	Smoke Grenade Smoke Grenade Deploy a smoke grenade once per mission. The smoke confers +20 defense and prevents flanking for all enemy and allied units. Lasts 2 turns. Taking the perk on level up also allows an additional action after deploying a smoke grenade.	Sapper Sapper Increases grenade and proximity mine damage by +1. Also triples damage to the environment.
Lance Corporal	+1 Aim.	No others bonuses.	No others bonuses.
Corporal	Ranger Ranger Confers +1 damage with primary weapons, rocket launchers, MEC secondary weapons and sidearms. Negates the long-range accuracy penalty with sidearms when shooting beyond 14 meters.	Smoke and Mirrors Smoke & Mirrors Allows one additional use of all support grenades during each mission. It also increases charges from Smoke Grenade and Battlescanner perks by 1.	HEAT Warheads HEAT Warheads Your rockets and grenades do an additional 50% damage to robotic enemies after damage reduction is assessed.
Corporal	+2 Aim.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Sergeant	Will to Survive Will to Survive Gain 1.5 Damage Reduction (DR) if in cover and not flanked.	Repair Repair For X-Com, grants +2 Arc Thrower charges. On drones, allows repair of robotic units.	Suppression Suppression Fire a barrage that pins down a target, granting Opportunist reaction fire against it if it moves. Imposes a -30 penalty to aim and reduces range of many area-of-effect attacks, including grenades. Also negates overwatch from the target while suppression is active. Lastly, enemy AI prioritizes breaking the suppression by shooting the suppressor, so it functions as a mini-taunt. Not possible with shotguns, sniper rifles, or strike rifles.
Sergeant	+3 Will.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Tech Sergeant	Battle Scanner Battle Scanner Scanning device that, when thrown, creates a new source of vision for 2 turns. Grants 2 uses. Increases throw range for battle scanners by 70% (does not stack with other perks).	Dense Smoke Dense Smoke Increases the defense bonus from smoke grenade from 20 to 40.	Mayhem Mayhem Confers +2 damage for suppression, SAWs, LMGs, explosive grenades, proximity mines and rocket launchers. Confers +4 damage for sniper and long rifles, marksman's, strike and reflex rifles using Standard Shot or Precision Shot.
Tech Sergeant	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Gunnery Sergeant	Extra Conditioning Extra Conditioning Confers 1-4 bonus health based on which type of armor is equipped. Heavier armor increases the bonus.	Packmaster Packmaster Limited-use small items (including those from perks) receive 1 additional use.	HEAT Ammo HEAT Ammo Your primary weapon, not including shotguns, does an additional 50% of its base weapon damage to robotic enemies after any damage reduction is assessed.
Gunnery Sergeant	+3 Aim, +3 Will, +1 Mobility.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Master Sergeant	Tandem Warheads Tandem Warheads Explosives employed by this soldier do full damage to the maximum extent of their area of effect.	Fire Rocket Fire Rocket Fire a high explosive rocket using an equipped launcher.	Bombard Bombard Throw or launch grenades over exceptionally long distances (+50%).
Master Sergeant	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.

*Perks tagged with blue are fixed even with Second Wave Training Roulette option is enabled

Stat Progression

Rank	/ Level			Total
Rank			*			*
Specialist	1	3	5(-6)	1	3	5(-6)
Lance Corporal	0	2	5(-6)	1	5	10(-12)
Corporal	1	3	3(-4)	2	8	13(-16)
Sergeant	0	2	3(-4)	2	10	16(-20)
Tech Sergeant	1	3	3(-4)	3	12	19(-24)
Gunnery Sergeant	0	2	3(-4)	3	15	22(-28)
Master Sergeant	1	3	3(-4)	4	18	25(-32)

Note that, even without Hidden Potential turned on, there is a chance of gaining 1 extra will per level (shown in parentheses above). Psionic soldiers can also gain 1-6 extra will per psi level (1 + rand(6)).

Tactical Advice

Role: Offensive Support / Defensive Support

Engineers are a class largely based around items and special abilities. Their starting Grenadier perk allows them doubled offensive grenades and a throw range bonus, and they can boost their offensive grenades further with Sapper and Bombardier. With perks such as Smoke Grenade, Dense Smoke and Smoke and Mirrors, Engineers can also become extremely proficient with defensive grenades, such as smoke grenades, ghost grenades and flashbangs, since the range bonus from Grenadier and Bombardier applies (Bombardier even works with Battlescanners, which are also available as a perk). Engineers can also enjoy triple uses of the Arc Thrower with the Repair perk. Unfortunately, all of these roles compete for your limited item slots.

As Engineers are mostly brought along for their consumable items, and therefore don't need high aim, they are great candidates to be your primary Psionic troopers or Officers.

If you choose the Fire Rocket perk, note that you will be unable to select a sidearm any more. Also bear in mind that Rocket and Shredder Rocket items are restricted to the Rocketeer class, so an Engineer with a rocket launcher can only ever have the one rocket. On the other hand, with Sapper that one rocket will blow a very big hole in any cover you fire it at. When carrying the Shredder Ammo item, the Engineer's rocket will simultaneously destroy cover and apply the Shredded condition.

On the downside, Engineers have the worst aim progression of all classes, so should you manage to exhaust your special abilities Engineers are lacking in offensive ability. Their dependence on items means Engineers are hard pressed to spare an item slot for a defensive item such as Chitin Plating, which, since they need to be near the front to throw their grenades at enemies, can leave them a little lacking in defense.

Briefing

The Engineer is perhaps the most flexible class in XCOM. Every class build will depend heavily on the player’s preference but where the Infantry has two defined roles – the Aggressive approach and the Defensive one, the Engineer has at least 5 – Capture, Utility with Repair, Disabling with Arc Rifle, Damage grenades and Support grenades. The possibilities for hybrid builds are also quite a few. The Engineer brings a unique perk to the table – Repair. Unlike Disabling Shot, this perk cannot be replicated by any craftable equipment. There is a perk that can somewhat substitute it – the Packmaster, but its efficiency when augmenting the Arc Thrower is definitely lower.

The Engineer is so versatile that you’d wish you could take multiple perks from the same rank.

Perks

Lance Corporal

Holo-Targeting

Holo-Targeting

Holo can greatly reduce the Engineer’s weakness, brought by the class’s lackluster aim, by augmenting the rest of the squad’s firepower. Keep in mind that multiple instances of Holo-Targeting do not stack, so it may be counterproductive to pick it up on too many soldiers.

Smoke Grenade

Smoke Grenade

Key defensive tool, especially in combination with Suppression. This support grenade can be useful in basically every mission, providing defense while removing the +50 crit chance bonus for being exposed. The uses for smoke grenades are plenty: you can give allies low cover on demand, upgrade their low cover to heavy cover, keep a suppresisng unit safe under sustained fire, and so on. With the vastly expanded range of small items in Long War you will often find yourselves starved on item slots, so a perk that removes the need to sacrifice a weapon slot for a specific grenade is a welcome addition to any squad. Furthermore, with this perk your soldier can take an action after throwing a smoke grenade, which greatly improves your soldiers versatility by adding additional action economy such as the ability to throw a smoke while destroying enemy cover. Later in the campaign, with Smoke & Mirrors, Packmaster and Dense Smoke, you can carry enough Smoke Grenades to cover your squad in almost every engagement in a mission. Keep in mind that explosives can still do a number on you - if the defense of your entire squad is amplified (and especially if they are sticking closer to each other), aliens and Exalt are more prone to use grenades.

Sapper

Sapper

The defining Engineer perk - it makes cover evaporate, and gives +1 damage to grenades. Without this perk Engineers cannot reliably destroy cover made from alien alloys and they will sometimes struggle with conventional cover. If you are raiding an alien vessel and you do not possess this perk, consider using AP grenades instead of HE ones and go for kills rather than cover destruction. But if you do have it, you can chew through anything on demand.

Corporal

HEAT Warheads

HEAT Warheads

Armored units in Long War are infinitely deadlier than they were in vanilla. This perk could be the difference between surviving a swarm of seekers or wiping your squad. That said, Engineers do not use HEAT Warheads as efficiently as a Rocketeer, since grenades cannot reliably hit flying targets; creative use of terrain (such as trying to get the grenade to stick to a wall) can help, but in most cases don't expect to hurt fliers.

Smoke and Mirrors

Smoke & Mirrors

Support grenades greatly increase your squad’s survivability and its ability to incapacitate aliens. An extra charge of all support grenades in your Engineer’s inventory almost doubles their usefulness, even if you do not pick Battle Scanner later on. However, it does not have synergy with Sapper, as it does not apply to destructive grenades.

Ranger

Ranger

The low aim of the Engineer can make this perk less valuable when using an assault rifle, but it can improve the efficiency of the carbine and the shotgun. However, the Engineer does not have access to perks that provide critical damage or chance, so Ranger’s power is reduced compared with other soldiers. A build that uses the Arc Rifle as its primary weapon and a heavy pistol sidearm will benefit from Ranger, however.

Sergeant

Will to Survive

Will to Survive

This perk can greatly increase the survivability of a close quarters Engineer, especially when in high cover. Taking up to three damage off a hit while in heavy cover is not something that should be passed on lightly and the extra Will is a nice addition for a psionic build if you go that route.

Suppression

Suppression

The ability to prevent aliens from employing long range grenades and other AOE abilities cannot be emphasized enough. However, this class lacks access to Lock N' Load or large magazine weapons to continue suppressing, and wasting a slot on the Hi Cap Mags item will greatly reduce the effectiveness of a grenade specialist.

Repair

Repair

Another class-defining perk, making the Engineer the only class that can make multiple capture attempts per mission - up to 3 with this alone and a 4th with Packmaster. Also allows the Engineer to function as a medic for MECs and SHIVs once the appropriate research is conducted. Capturing aliens is much more important than in Vanilla due to the need for large numbers of plasma weapons for research purposes, and the greatly expanded range of alien abilities makes the capturing game much more dangerous than before. The Arc Thrower has been also heavily nerfed. The maximum chance to capture an alien without the improvement project from the Foundry is 54% and even with the project that number rises only up to 57%. The Arc Thrower weighs twice as normal items so bringing multiple instances of this item is ill-advised in most situations. There are, however, quite a few number of ways that can keep an alien lockdown, so it is possible to use the Arc Thrower on the same alien more than once, if a capture has failed; Command will let you take a second capture attempt in a turn, and Disabling Shot (from either the Sniper perk or the Arc Rifle) will buy you a safe turn, as can stacking debuffs like Flashbangs, Chem Grenades, and Suppression.

Tech Sergeant

Dense Smoke

Dense Smoke

The increased defense of the smoke grenade allows your soldiers to survive situations that would otherwise spiral out of control, such as being caught in the open by a bad activation or unfortunate cover destruction. Dense Smoke gives almost the same defense as High Cover and much like regular smoke removes the +50 crit chance bonus when exposed.

Battle Scanner

Battle Scanner

Extra battle scanners allows you to throw them around liberally to gain advanced notice of enemy pods, enables triggering pods with rockets or sniper fire, and lets you counter seekers on demand. When you know the coast is clear, you can clear maps much faster, thus improving Meld harvesting efficiency. The perk also gives you a (non-stacking) +70% throw range on your scanners, giving you the equivalent of Bombard if you don't already have it (and Grenadier, but you already do).

Mayhem

Mayhem

A key perk for the pure Grenade build, increasing your explosive damage. The Arc Rifle also gains the +4 damage bonus from Mayhem that is applied to strike rifles, making it much more useful when not Disabling. "Mayhem also allows the soldier to do two points of chip damage on Suppression, but the Engineer is not a class that is optimized for a Suppression build. The Engineer can gain Shredder Ammo via an item, and thus the value of damaging Suppression is greatly increased, though still limited.

Gunnery Sergeant

Extra Conditioning

Extra Conditioning

With the low aim of the Engineer, many players prefer to use them in close quarters. With the addition of extra will, mobility and up to +4 armor HP, this perk can greatly improve your soldier’s survivability. The extra aim bonus makes the perk worthwhile even if you have something different than close combat in mind.

HEAT Ammo

HEAT Ammo

An unintuitive perk for the Engineer, as they are not a primarily shooting class. Adds to the chip damage against robotic enemies with Mayhem Suppression and lets your regular gun hit decently hard (though generally not enough damage to matter against heavy targets). With an Arc Rifle, the guaranteed damage to robotic units can make the Engineer able to pick off wounded Drones or Seekers when not Disabling larger enemies.

Packmaster

Packmaster

Packmaster greatly increases slot value and grenade efficiency, adding an extra charge to every equipped item and anything from a perk. It also improves the Arc Thrower charges by 1. If you don’t need weapon firepower from your Engineer and can keep him safe, this perk could greatly improve his usefulness on the battlefield.

Master Sergeant

Fire Rocket

Fire Rocket

An Engineer’s rocket will be very unreliable when used without proper preparation, but with HEAT Warheads and Mayhem the rocket will still pack a decent punch. The rocket will also apply Shred when carrying Shredder Ammo even though it will do the regular damage and cover destruction of a regular rocket. By Master Sergeant, even if you make your lowest aim troopers engineers, you'll have respectable enough accuracy with the rocket to probably hit something, but note you can't equip extra rockets.

Bombard

Bombard

This is one of the perks that allow the Engineer to shine as a grenade specialist, allowing you to toss cover destruction, damage, and even support grenades like Chem deep into the enemy formation... even activating pods with them. Thanks to Grenadier and Bombard, you can even mimic the bonus throw range of the Battle Scanners perk, though waiting until MSgt for good Scanners might be a bad idea.

Tandem Warheads

Tandem Warheads

The alternate perk that allow the Engineer to shine as a damage grenade specialist. If you're willing to expose your Engineer to danger and close the distance, they will rival Rocketeers for damage and cover destruction.

Sample Builds

Explosive Grenades Specialist


Perk progression
-	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Tech Sergeant	Gunnery Sergeant	Master Sergeant
Perk by tier	Sapper Sapper	HEAT Warheads HEAT Warheads	Repair Repair	Mayhem Mayhem	Packmaster Packmaster	Tandem Warheads Tandem Warheads
Build Overview
Stat Boosts	+3 Aim; + 3 Will; + 1 Mobility
Strengths	AOE Damage, Cover destruction
Weaknesses	Flyers, Single target damage
Preferred battle sites	Heavy & Swarming abductions; Big UFOs; Data Recovery
Most common Loadout	Shotgun; Pistol; HE/AP/Alien grenades
Power Ranks	LCL for cover destruction, TSG and MSG for damage
Description	This soldier specializes in dealing explosive damage. Often, this Engineer will simply provide cover destruction with Alien or HE grenades for his squad. Occasionally, clumped enemies will present an opportunity for a damage grenade, particularly Chryssalids, Berserkers, Seekers, and Drones. For these situations, AP grenades are preferred, but Alien grenades can be used in a pinch. Combine with a shredder rocket beforehand for deadly effect. Once explosive reserves have been depleted the shotgun will remain effective at close range. This is not the most mobile or durable soldier, but will still be able to take a hit or two and move at a decent rate. Employ mainly when facing at least 15 enemies, especially when there will likely be lots of melee enemies (terror missions) or plenty of destructible cover.
Strategic Analysis	The explosives specialist provides two primary functions, cover destruction and AOE damage, and does excellently in these roles. The Repair skill is also incredibly useful once alien captures become a priority. However, it falls off late game mainly due to the fact that high-level Rocketeers are able do more damage, target flyers, and shred when necessary. They remain relevant for cover destruction, particularly after tactical rigging is acquired (allowing them to carry a staggering 9 grenades), however, a Toolbox engineer performs this roll nearly as well and provides far more utility. Thus, this build makes a good candidate to become Shoguns, who can be built to be one of the two best cover-destruction units in the game.

Support Grenades Specialist


Perk progression
-	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Tech Sergeant	Gunnery Sergeant	Master Sergeant
Perk by tier	Smoke Grenade Smoke Grenade	Smoke and Mirrors Smoke & Mirrors	Suppression Suppression	Dense Smoke Dense Smoke or Battle Scanner Battle Scanner	Packmaster Packmaster	Bombard Bombard
Build Overview
Stat Boosts	+1 Aim
Strengths	Crowd Control
Weaknesses	Damage, Cover destruction
Preferred battle sites	Light & Moderate Abductions; Small & Medium UFOs; Covert Extraction
Most common Loadout	Shotgun; Pistol; Battle Scanner + Support Grenades (Flashbang, Chem Grenade, Psi Grenade, Mimic Beacon, Shadow Device)
Power Ranks	None; build comes online immediately at LCL, and gains a bit more crowd control capability with every rank. TSG is a solid rank thanks to dense smoke.
Description	This soldier handles very well before resources are depleted, providing support for the squad in the form of Smoke cover, Suppression, and offensive support grenades. Employ this soldier when fighting less than 20 enemies. Once this soldier depletes all grenades, overall usefulness will drop substantially. For a very long mission such as a base assault, this build can bring enough smoke grenades to cover your squad in every dangerous engagement. Always bring Battle Scanners for the recon value they offer, either through the perk itself or as an item (you'll have worse throw range without the perk, at least until you pick up Bombard, but you'll have better Smoke grenades), and then fill the rest of your slots with utility grenades.
Strategic Analysis	Support grenades are useful at every phase of the game, and so is the support grenadier. However, lacking the Repair perk can become a big problem mid-game when captures become important. Forgoing Suppression weakens the build significantly, because it is the only unlimited form of enemy neutralization the Support Grenadier has. If using this build, having at least two engineers of a different build in your roster is advised for use in the mid-game. One final note: Medics can take virtually the exact same build, albeit with Field Medic instead of Grenadier and Combat Drugs instead of Dense Smoke. If you would like support grenadiers in your roster, consider which of these two classes will better suit your needs and playstyle.

Toolbox Engineer


Perk progression
-	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Tech Sergeant	Gunnery Sergeant	Master Sergeant
Perk by tier	Sapper Sapper	Smoke and Mirrors Smoke & Mirrors	Repair Repair	Battle Scanner Battle Scanner	Packmaster Packmaster	Bombard Bombard
Build Overview
Stat Boosts	N/A
Strengths	Versatility: Intel, Cover destruction, Support grenades, Captures
Weaknesses	Lacks specialization (except Battle Scanners)
Preferred battle sites	Any
Most common Loadout	Carbine or SMG; Pistol; Any
Power Ranks	LCL for cover destruction, TSG for intel
Description	This is a strong hybrid build that allows the soldier to provide an incredible amount of utility, making them useful on almost any mission type. They can provide excellent cover destruction, get 3 support or damage grenades per backpack slot, and bring 4 arc thrower charges instead of just one. They excel at acquiring intel, as they get 3 battle scanners without a backpack slot upon reaching TSGT (and a 4th at GSGT). However, intel is the only thing this engineer truly excels at. Support Grenadiers provide better smoke and crowd control, and Explosives Specialists provide slightly better cover destruction thanks to Tandem Warheads. Employ this build when you need to be ready with consumables for a variety of different situations, but cannot justify the squad slots to bring multiple Engineers, Medics, or Rocketeers.
Strategic Analysis	This build is useful throughout the game, but falls off slightly when captures are no longer necessary. Take Suppression instead of Repair if this concerns you, but be prepared to have shortages of alien captives and weapons unless you have other engineers with the Repair perk. Also note that there are Foundry projects that allow your Arc Thrower to restore HP to MECs and SHIVs, and another which allows it to capture enemy Drones, so you can still find uses for that Arc Thrower in the late game in some circumstances.

Covert Operative


Perk progression
-	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Tech Sergeant	Gunnery Sergeant	Master Sergeant
Perk by tier	Sapper Sapper	Smoke and Mirrors Smoke & Mirrors	Will to Survive Will to Survive	Battle Scanner Battle Scanner	Packmaster Packmaster	Bombard Bombard
Build Overview
Stat Boosts	+3 Will
Strengths	See "Toolbox Engineer" above
Weaknesses	See "Toolbox Engineer" above
Preferred battle sites	Covert Operative
Most common Loadout	A laser pistol and whatever grenades you deem necessary
Power Ranks	LCL for cover destruction
Description	The Engineer's ability to carry vast amounts of support items, particularly grenades, makes them surprisingly effective as Covert Operatives. Relying on their explosive payload to wreak devastation on EXALT, the restriction to just a pistol is far less damaging to them than to any other class. Use this build to soften up enemy groups before your main squad engages, clean up wounded, tear down cover, or supply additional support effects to augment your team. While this is a great boon to your squad during a Data Recovery operation, this build can be a very real liability during Covert Extraction missions, where Run 'n' Gun, Lightning Reflexes, Sprinter, and Concealment save lives; be prepared to lose this operative (along with the mission) during a Covert Extraction with unfortunate Comm Array placement.
Strategic Analysis	This build is almost identical to the Toolbox Engineer, except without the Repair skill. Consider taking Repair instead of Will To Survive if you want this build to be more useful outside of covert operations.

Bullet Wizard Engineer


Perk progression
-	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Tech Sergeant	Gunnery Sergeant	Master Sergeant
Perk by tier	Holo-Targeting Holo-Targeting	Ranger Ranger	Suppression Suppression	Mayhem Mayhem	Extra Conditioning Extra Conditioning	Fire Rocket Fire Rocket
Build Overview
Stat Boosts	+5 Aim; +3 Will; +1 Mobility
Strengths	Increases damage output from the rest of the squad
Weaknesses	Limited utility
Preferred battle sites	Small & Medium UFOs
Most common Loadout	Carbine; Shredder Ammo; HE/AP/Alien grenades
Power Ranks	TSG for Mayhem Suppression
Description	This soldier is entirely focused on increasing the accuracy and damage of the rest of the squad, without relying on consumables. Applying Holo-Shred-Suppression to priority targets is their primary role, while the Rocket serves as an emergency button. This makes them ideal for training missions, where they can cover for a lack of competent Gunner and Rocketeer simultaneously.
Strategic Analysis	This build is meant for the mid to late game, acting as a babysitter for lower ranking troops. Using an item slot to carry Shredder Ammo and lacking grenade related perks other than Grenadier seriously limits their ability to fill typical Engineer roles. Gunners make better use of Holo-Shred-Suppression, and Rocketeers make better use of explosives, meaning you likely won't want more than one or two soldiers using this build on your roster. Adding Psionic abilities will greatly expand this soldier's options, making them even better at compensating for an otherwise low level squad.