How to unlock Heroes in XCOM: Enemy Unknown

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Using certain soldier names in XCOM: Enemy Unknown will activate XCOM Heroes - pre-designed super soldiers such as Sid Meier and Ken Levine. Before activating a Hero, a pop-up will warn you that they're too damn amazing to allow you to continue the game with achievements turned on, and you cannot modify a Hero character after summoning it. If you decide to use one, do avoid killing him with some bull-headed tactical screw-up -- we'd kind of like BioShock Infinite to be finished.

The currently known XCOM Heroes are below - if there are more, someone will surely find them soon.

  • Sid Meier

  • Ken Levine

  • Joe Kelly

  • Otto Zander

Here are some other XCOM tips you might be interested in:

Our fullsome XCOM strategy guide

Our video guide to playing Ironman mode

How to force the game to use 1080p cinematics.

The dev's own tips for taking down early-game ETs .

Tyler Wilde
Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

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