When helplessly watching your squad of veterans get disemboweled for the umpteenth time feels like a dull affair in XCOM: Enemy Unknown , it's time for a psi-blast of extra variety with Second Wave . First scoped by hawk-eyed gamers on the Nexus modding network forums , Second Wave was a planned feature by Firaxis to furnish extra gameplay options and tweaks for commanders starting a new single-player campaign after completing it once. And most of it is recoverable.
Here's the full list of options Second Wave provides:
- Damage Roulette: Weapons have a much wider range of damage
- New Economy: The funding offered by individual council members is randomized
- Not Created Equally: Rookies will have random starting stats
- Hidden Potential: As a soldier is promoted, his or her stats increase randomly
- (Bugged) Red Fog: Any wounds taken in combat will degrade a soldier's stats for that mission
- Absolutely Critical: A flanking shot guarantees a critical hit
- The Greater Good: The secret of psionics can only be learned from interrogating a psionic alien
- (Bugged) Marathon: The game takes considerably longer to complete
- Results Driven: A country offers less funding as its panic level increases
- High Stakes: The rewards granted for stopping alien abductions are randomized
- Diminishing Returns: The cost of satellites increases per construction
- The Blitz: Aliens target a larger set of cities during abduction attacks
- More Than Human: The psionic gift is extremely rare
