Second Wave (LWR)

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In General

Second Wave options can be chosen when you start a new game. They offer simple but powerful alterations to the way the game can play.

Toggling Second Wave Options Mid-Game

If you have enabled the Dev Console, you can change second wave options mid-game by opening up the console (`) and typing the console command SetmedalpowerA followed by the second wave option you want to toggle on or off. As an example, you could type

`SetMedalPowerA 3

to toggle Wild West on or off.

List of Second Wave Options

#	Name	Text	Notes
0	Damage Roulette	Damage randomization occurs twice	Rolls damage randomization twice, making all shots more variable.
1	New Economy	The funding offered by individual council members is randomized.	Same as in vanilla EU.
2	Strict Screening	All soldier starting stats (including unique soldiers) are fixed at the averages of typical ranges with +8 will.	By default soldiers will have randomized starting attributes. Selecting this option will revert to fixed starting attributes for all soldiers.
3	Wild West	All shots deal triple damage.	This value is dgc.ini modifiable. Makes shots and alpha-striking a lot more important, just like the Wild West.
4	Keep Calm and Carry On	All world-wide panic is reduced by half.	This option will make the game significantly easier.
5	Sneaky CR	Adds Sneak Mode (aliens hide on reveal and when out of sight) and gives aliens Combat Readiness when they start a turn without view of XCOM to difficulties below Impossible.	Gives the options for those features to Easy, Classic, and Brutal.
6	Predictable Damage	Damage is not randomized.	Cancels out 'Damage Roulette (#0)'.
7	Absolutely Critical	Flanking shots receive +100 bonus (instead of +50) to critical hit chances.	Same as in vanilla EU.
8	Not So Long War	Frequency of tactical missions are halved. Enabling this and 'Very Long War (#9)' turns on 'Epic Long War' instead: Frequency of tactical missions are quadrupled.
9	Very Long War	Frequency of tactical missions are doubled. Enabling this and 'Not So Long War (#8)' turns on 'Epic Long War' instead: Frequency of tactical missions are quadrupled.	This is similar to the length of a campaign in LW 1.0.
10	Results Driven	A country will offer less funding as its panic increases.	Funding ranges from 150-50% depending on panic. Starts at ~100% on Impossible.
11	Elite XCOM	XCOM units are 30% more accurate in tactical combats	All XCOm units gain +30 aim. This value is dgc.ini modifiable.
12	Jump Start	Start the campaign 3 months in at Alien Level 3.	XCOM gains various bonuses to make starting 3 months into the campaign more doable.
13	Forever War	Gollop cannot be built and the game cannot be won. Alien Level acceleration does not occur and Alien Level stops at AL14. Soldiers, their salaries, and SHIVs are half price.	This option will make the game actually impossible.
14	Hidden Movement	Upon being revealed, the screen will go black and many aliens may hide and scamper to unknown locations.	Reminiscent of OG XCOM.
15	War Weariness	Overall funding levels drop inexorably with every month that passes.	Starting at 130%, down to 40% over 18 months.
16	Bronzeman Mode	Allows restart of tactical missions via Pause menu in Ironman mode.	Same as LW 1.0.
17	AYYLMAO	Replaces much of the information in the game to crude and often humorous alternatives. WARNING: Not Safe For Work.	No effect on actual gameplay.
18	Commander's Choice	You may select the class of each soldier upon promotion to specialist.	Use the cycle-soldier icons at the bottom of the class selection screen in the barracks view to rotate through the classes. For Controllers press L1/R1 or LB/RB or whatever you use to cycle soldiers.
19	Aiming Angles	Units receive an aim bonus the closer they are to flanking an enemy.	Same as LW 1.0.
20	Super Soldiers	Soldiers can be genetically modified, psionically trained, special operatives, and officers all at once.	Except Neural Damping is incompatible with psionic training.
21	Fresh Reward Soldiers	Reward soldiers attained throughout the campaign will be replaced with random recruits of an appropriate rank.
22	Durability	Items never need to be repaired.	You will still need to build a Repair Bay to augment MECs. This overrides the 'Wear and Tear (#13)' option.
23	United Humanity	Exalt is inactive. Exalt troopers may still show up on alien missions.
24	Friendly Skies	Your aircraft are 30% more accurate during air combat.	Your interceptors gain +30 aim. This value is dgc.ini modifiable.
25	Desperate Odds	XCOM can only deploy half as many soldiers (rounded up) to all missions. New recruits cost double and SHIVs cost triple.	A tactical-level change.
26	Blitzkrieg	You will have 4s per active unit (enemies and allies + 2) to complete each turn with a reserve time of 4 minutes and every enemy activated increases the active/reserve timer by +4s/+16s (these values are dgc.ini adjustable). Changing game speed is disabled.	The timer is paused during voice-overs, cinematics, or when the active unit is performing an action. All time is increased by 5% per month passed. Pressing Escape or loading a save game costs 30s of time.
27	Difficulty Drop	Alien Level increases occur 10% slower. Reduces injury and fatigue times by 10%. Increases home country credits by 10. Increase Meld/Alloy/Elerium/Fragment gains by 10%.	Acts as a modifier to difficulty to help players better control the challenge they receive.
28	Robot Overlords	Removes the 2 MEC per mission restriction and the 1 SHIV action/moving per turn restriction.
29	Recon	You will see meld cans and bomb nodes in the fog.
30	We are Legion	XCOM has twice as many soldiers, but each soldier can do half the number of missions.	A strategic-level change. Starting soldiers and SHIVs, injury and fatigue times, and monthly gained soldiers are approximately doubled. Hiring costs, training times for MECs, genes and psionics are approximately halved.
31	A Few Good Men	XCOM has half as many soldiers, but each soldier can do double the number of missions.	A strategic-level change. Starting soldiers and SHIVs, injury and fatigue times, and monthly gained soldiers are approximately halved. Hiring costs, training times for MECs, genes and psionics are approximately doubled. This overrides the 'We are Legion (#30)' option.
32	Wolverine Blood	Injury and Fatigue times are reduced by 50%.	This value is dgc.ini modifiable.
33	Fresh Recruits	Replaces the 12 intial preset soldiers with random recruits.	Similar to LW 1.0.
34	Just a Flesh Wound	Turns off Red Fog.	With Red Fog, damage to base HP reduces aim, will, mobility, melee damage, throw range, and rocket accuracy by half the percent of base health lost.
35	Consistent Fatigue	Soldiers and MECs no longer receive fatigue based on the number of turns a battle takes, but base fatigue per mission is set to 8 days.	Same as how fatigue worked in LW 1.0.