Psi Operative (LWOTC)

Psi Operative

A mysterious new branch of study for XCOM, the Psionic Operative utilizes their mental abilities to great effect to boost their allies and cripple the will of enemies.

Class Overview

The Psi Operative in Long War of the Chosen is slightly different from the one in vanilla XCOM 2. Like in Long War 2, some abilities require other abilities to be learned as a prerequisite, but Psi Operatives now also need to gain experience to level up as other soldiers do, limiting the amount of perks that can be trained.

Psi Operatives focus entirely on psionic abilities in their perk tree, leaving little in the matter of using regular guns. However, Psi Operatives get Quick Study, letting them train up Officer abilities faster than other soldiers. The Psi Amp lets the Psi Operative use psionic abilities, improving them and their Psi Offense stat (which is used for Insanity and Domination) as it's upgraded.

Psi Operatives are automatically granted all abilities in the first two ranks when first trained.

Weapons

Primary: Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns.

Secondary: Psi Amp

Abilities

Mouse-over for more information.

Ability	Rank	Ability
Soulfire Does guaranteed Psionic damage to an organic enemy. Ignores cover, armor and shield HP.	Initiate	Quick Study Learn officer abilities in half the time.
Telepath		Resonate
Insanity Debilitating telepathic attack that can inflict different negative conditions, including mental control of the target.	Acolyte	Mind Merge Grants bonus will, critical chance and ablative hit points to an ally until the beginning of the player's next turn.
Soul Steal Soulfire transfers the damage done back to the Psi Operative as health and grants an ablative HP for 3 turns.	Adept	Solace The Psi Operative may immediately extinguish mental impairments for a squadmate.
Phase Walk Temporarily phase out of existence to teleport to a nearby location.	Disciple	Fuse If an enemy is carrying explosives, they can be remotely detonated by the Psi Operative.
Stasis Completely stuns the target for 1 turn, but renders them immune to any damage or attack.	Mystic	Fortress The soldier is immune to fire, poison, acid, and explosive damage.
Bastion Fortress now provides immunity to nearby teammates.	Warlock	Null Ward project psionic shields around the soldier and nearby allies. The shields will collapse if this soldier is killed.
Null Lance Project a beam of terrible power that damages every target it passes through. This attack can penetrate multiple enemies and obstacles.	Magus	Soul Storm Summon meteors of psionic energy to deal damage to enemies inside a target area, and destroy their cover.
Void Rift Generate an explosive field of Psionic energy that immediately damages everything within. Organic enemies have a chance to suffer Insanity.	Master	Domination Permanently mind control an enemy. Only one successful Domination can be performed per mission.

Ability Prerequisites

In order to obtain certain psi abilities, the Psi Operative first needs to acquire a prerequisite perk (shown with colored arrows on the diagram below):

It's worth noting that abilities which are connected to multiple other abilities unlock all of them at once - for example, picking Fortress adds both Bastion and Null Ward to the pool of available perks for a given Psi Operative.

XCOM Abilities

XCOM row abilities are able to be purchased when the Training Center is built. The cost is 10/20/30 AP per tier for offensive perks, 10/15/25 AP per tier for defensive perks and 35 AP for Tier 4 perks.

Tier 1 Defensive 10 AP	Tier 1 Offensive 10 AP	Tier 2 Defensive 15 AP	Tier 2 Offensive 20 AP	Tier 3 Defensive 25 AP	Tier 3 Offensive 30 AP	Tier 4 35 AP
Hard Target Gain 5 dodge per enemy you can see, up to a maximum of +30.	Flush Special shot with a bonus to hit that does half damage but confers defense and dodge penalties and forces target to change position if it hits.	Lone Wolf Gain bonus Aim and Defense when at least 4 tiles distant from any ally, with a maximum of +12/+12 at 7+ tiles.	Holo Targeting Any directed primary weapon shot, hit or miss, will mark the target, increasing your squad's aim by +15 against this target.	Tradecraft This soldier has significantly reduced infiltration times while on missions.	Iron Curtain Special shot that does 50% of normal damage but reduces target mobility for the following 2 turn(s). Cone-based attack with primary weapon.	Chain Shot Take a shot with an aim penalty of 10. If you hit the target, you take another shot on the target automatically.
Smoker Grants one free smoke grenade item to your inventory.	Damn Good Ground Confers +10 aim and +10 defense against targets at a lower elevation.	Ever Vigilant If you spend all of your actions on moves, you are granted an automatic overwatch shot at the end of the turn.	Shredder Your primary weapon attacks shred armor.	Combat Fitness Gain 4 aim, 1 mobility, 2 HP, 4 will, and 4 dodge.	Rupture A Rupture shot grants a +50 bonus to critical hit chances and ensures that the target takes an additional +3 damage from all attacks in the future.	Sentinel When in overwatch, you may take two reaction shots.
Will To Survive Enemy damage is reduced by 1 when in cover and attacked through that cover. Also grants 5 will.	Aim Hunker Down now confers +20 Aim and +20 Crit to the first shot on the following turn.	Infighter Gain 40 dodge against attacks within four tiles.	Cool Under Pressure You gain +10 Aim on Overwatch and other reaction shots, and they can critically hit.	Resilience Enemy attacks against you suffer a -30 penalty to critical hit chances.	Precision Shot Take a special shot with +30 bonus to critical chance and 34% bonus critical damage. Has a 4 turn cooldown.	Lethal You do 2 additional points of base damage and 1 additional point(s) of bonus critical damage with your primary weapon.
Zone of Control All enemies within the soldier's 5 tile radius suffer penalties of -15 Aim and -4 Mobility.	Bring 'Em On Gain +1 damage on critical hits for every two enemies you can see, up to a maximum of +8. Works for the soldier's primary weapon and explosives.	Inspire Agility Give a friendly unit 30 Dodge until the start of your next turn. Whenever you kill an enemy, you gain an extra charge. Usable once per turn. Starts with one charge, and is a free action.	Full Kit Grants +1 charge per grenade item in a utility slot.	Brawler Take 35% less damage from any melee attack, or attacks from within 5 tiles.	Hunter's Instincts Ranged attacks against flanked enemies deal +2 damage.	Trench Gun Special shot for primary-weapon shotguns only: Fire a short-range cone-based attack at nearby targets. Has a 4 turn cooldown.
Fortify Activate to grant +20 defense until the beginning of the next turn. Does not cost an action. Has a 3 turn cooldown.	Target Focus Your ranged attacks gain +10 aim and pierce 1 armor against unflankable enemies.	Dense Smoke Your smoke grenades confer an additional 10 defense. Also grants one free Smoke Grenade.	Close and Personal Confers +30 critical chance against adjacent targets. The bonus declines with distance from the target.	Reposition Once per turn, gain an additional move action after taking a standard shot at a flanked or exposed target with your primary weapon.	Marauder Standard shots are not turn-ending, allowing for shooting then moving or shooting twice on a turn.	Impact Compensation After taking damage, gain a stacking 25% Damage reduction until the end of your turn up to a maximum of 4 stacks.
					Return Fire When targeted by enemy attacks, automatically fire back with your assault rifle once per turn. The return shot ignores cover bonuses.	Rapid Reaction When in overwatch, each shot you hit with grants another reaction fire shot, up to a maximum of three shots.
						Avenger Once per turn, take a reaction shot with your assault rifle at a visible enemy that has taken an offensive action. The reaction shot ignores cover bonuses.

Training Time

Training a rookie into a Psi Operative takes 2 days in Rookie difficulty and 4 days in all others. Training a new ability takes a base number of days plus additional days based on the difference between the Psi Operative's rank and the ability's rank:

Base time = 2/4/4/4 days

Rank time = 5/6/7/7 days per rank difference

Times are based on difficulty: Rookie/Veteran/Commander/Legend

Each scientist staffing the Psi Lab will increase training speed by 100%, meaning the training time will be reduced by 50% with one scientist and by 66% with two.

If a Psi Operative is training in the tube and you send them to infiltrate a mission, another soldier can train in that psi tube; the soldier that was in the tube will be on hold upon return from their mission.

Stat Progression

Rank
Per Level	Health	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
	Aim	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
	Will	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Psi Offense	45	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Total	Health	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3
	Aim	2	4	6	8	10	12	14	16
	Will	5	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
	Psi Offense	45	49	53	57	61	65	69	73