Gene Mods (LWR)
Gene Mods
| Name | Slot | Prerequisite | Description | Cost | ||
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Berserker Interrogation | Neural Damping
Grants immunity to panic. Reduces psionic damage received by 30%. |
§50 | 25 | 5 |
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Berserker Interrogation | §55 | 27 | 5 | |
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Xenogenetics | Predictive Tracking
Reaction shots gain +10 aim. Burst gains an additional +10 aim. |
§30 | 15 | 3 |
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Xenogenetics | Advanced Perception
Shots against flying targets gain +10 aim. This unit can react faster to incoming fire, causing 25% of incoming shots to graze, dealing half their original damage. |
§20 | 10 | 2 |
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Muton Interrogation | Adrenal Neurosympathy
Overloads the adrenal glands; when this soldier takes an action, there is a chance (5% per enemy in sight) that the soldier emits pheromones that grants 10 aim, 5 crit, 1.3 mob, and removes panic from all soldiers in LoS. The buff lasts for 2 turns. Can only occur once every 5 turns. |
§45 | 22 | 4 |
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Muton Interrogation | Dual Heart
If above half HP, fatal non-psionic non-melee damage reduces this unit to 1 HP instead. Causes soldiers to bleed out instead of dying the first time they fall in a mission. The bleed-out timer is extended by 5 turns. Increases throw range by 15% and reduces scatter by 30%. |
§35 | 17 | 3 |
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Muton Elite Interrogation | Enhanced Metabolism
Gain an additional reaction shot on Overwatch. Equipped grenades and medikits receive an additional use. When below 50% HP, gain +4 mobility and +40 defense. |
§80 | 40 | 8 |
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Muton Elite Interrogation | §70 | 35 | 7 | |
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Chryssalid Autopsy | Muscle Amp
Grants superhuman leg strength, enabling the soldier to reach high positions without the need for ladders or other climbing aids. |
§18 | 9 | 1 |
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Chryssalid Autopsy | §15 | 7 | 1 | |
Limitations and Requirements
In order to receive genetic modifications a soldier must be of rank LCPL or higher.
MEC Troopers, Officers, Psionically trained soldiers, and Spec Ops soldiers are unable to undergo genetic modifications. Genetically modified soldiers cannot become any of these in the future either.
Gene Mod Bundling
When applying multiple gene mods at the same time, the time and credit cost will be equal to the most expensive mod's, while the meld cost will be combined as normal. Because of this, it is often a decent idea to apply your gene mods in sets rather than one at a time as they're unlocked.
Gene Mod Switching
Gene mods can be swapped at any time for the other option for the normal cost. No refund is provided so this is typically only done when mistakes are made or a soldier is retrained.
A guide to using Gene Mods
Gene mods are available early on after researching Xenogenetics. This unlocks the Genetics Lab, which is a cheap building similar to the Foundry or Repair Bay that benefits from Laboratory adjacencies, so it should be placed wherever your labs are for the research speed bonus. By default only eye gene mods are unlocked, but the Chryssalid autopsy and all Muton interrogations unlock new gene mods.
Gene mods can be applied very flexibly, requiring no experience beyond being LCPL and a limited time investment, so it's often best to gene mod soldiers on demand rather than keeping the building occupied like MEC augmentation or psionic training.
Every soldier build benefits at least somewhat from gene mods if for no other reason than to increase their survivability, but some builds will appreciate the benefits more with future unlocks, such as Dual Heart providing throw range to supports and grenadiers.
Gene modding has no special requirements like officers, so it's often ideal to turn soldiers with middling/low will or HP into gene modded soldiers (or officers). When deciding between officers and gene mods, it's worth noting that officers do still somewhat benefit from will for Tactical Brilliance and require multiple missions of experience to gain promotions, so soldiers you expect to take on fewer missions can be at their full power immediately instead of waiting an extended period of time.
Eyes - Predictive Tracking vs Advanced Perception
Predictive Tracking is clearly oriented towards overwatch builds because of the significant reaction fire boost, with SMG users and gunners benefiting especially due to the Burst boost. Advanced Perception is relevant for every soldier, even some overwatch builds; they basically trade aim versus non-flying enemies for a significant survivability boost.
Legs - Muscle Amp vs Regenesis
Both mods at this level are universally appreciated. Muscle Amp makes map navigation a lot easier and can open up flank routes that would otherwise be impossible or inconvenient to access. Additionally, some aliens simply cannot fight you effectively in some maps with this level of mobility, particularly when combined with effects like Hit and Run or Close Encounters. Regenesis is a much more "standard" boost, as it simply lowers your fatigue/injury timers while providing a niche survivability boost. It's often sub-optimal to be injured in the first place, but when you are, the bleeding immunity and regen effect countering Red Fog is nice.
Chest - Adrenal Neurosympathy vs Dual Heart
Both of these are also universally appreciated, but in very different ways. Adrenal Neurosympathy is great for soldiers that are taking multiple actions around multiple squad members such as overwatch builds or tanks, as it will trigger often and trigger on many soldiers. This boost doesn't stack and has a long cooldown, so you often don't want too much of it on a squad, but it's free stats for the squad when you have some. Dual heart has an obvious appeal for throwers and rocketeers given the throw range boost and scatter reduction, but additionally can be great to put on soldiers that are often in high risk situations such as assaults or tanks to keep them alive when the worst inevitably occurs. It's worth noting that all aliens on Base Defense missions have the Shoot to Kill perk, disabling the bleed-out part of this gene mod.
Brain - Neural Damping vs Smart Macrophages
Neural Damping is a universal benefit that almost all soldiers will love, as psionic aliens are always troublesome and the damage reduction and panic immunity are invaluable for handling them. Smart Macrophages is much more limited in usefulness for most soldiers; shred immunity is only relevant for soldiers that expect to be taking shred damage often (tanks), and corrosion isn't particularly widespread outside of terror missions by this point in the game. Tanks have a choice in which gene mod to take since the immunities are much more relevant for them than your average soldier, but psionic damage reduction helps them against the one thing their DR can't protect them against (Steadfast already prevents panic).
Skin - Enhanced Metabolism vs Iron Skin
Both gene mods have reasonable value for all soldiers, but there's a few special considerations as well. Enhanced Metabolism is the obvious choice for all overwatch soldiers and grenadiers/supports due to the extra overwatch shot and extra grenade charges, while Iron Skin is the obvious choice for all tanks due to the defensive stats. For soldiers that aren't one of those builds, the choice is less obvious; Enhanced Metabolism can help compensate for red fog when getting injured and also is highly likely to prevent future injury, while Iron Skin is better for preventing those injuries in the first place but will do next to nothing after already getting injured. For soldiers that you don't expect to be in the frontlines, it can be worth simply skipping these gene mods as they're the most expensive ones and won't be particularly impactful for them, but even for those soldiers a safety net is always beneficial.
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