Phoenix Personal perks
Main: Phoenix Point
Primary pick[edit]
| Name | Description | Recomended class | Comment | |
| Biochemist | All attacks that damage a target also inflict 1 Virus Damage virus damage (per bullet) [1] | ? | This is of low value during the early game, but it's vital for controlling endgame enemies. There are enemies with thousands of health, and you can eradicated their WP with a minigun, causing them to panic and lose every second turn. A minigun on a berserker can shoot four times, or on a sniper can shoot two times, three if an assault gives two more AP. That's a 30 WP loss per turn, and if you got in a burst before they got close, they will panic the turn after they get close. | |
| Bombardier | Gain mounted weapon proficiency with +20% range and +10% damage | |||
| Cautious | 20% bonus accuracy and -10% damage dealt | |||
| Close quarters specialist | Gain shotgun proficiency with +20% accuracy and melee weapon proficiency with +20% damage | Assault/Heavy: mobile one-shot melee, cleans map in one turn. Heavy/Berserker: Not spectacular, can shredd with explosives. Get this build if your berserker got the perk. If you got a heavy with this perk, go Assault/Heavy instead. |
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| Farsighted | Additional +2 to willpower and 10 perception | |||
| Healer | 30% bonus healing and +2 willpower | |||
| Quarterback | 25% bonus grenades range and +2 speed [2] | |||
| Reckless | 10% bonus damage dealt and -10% accuracy | |||
| Resourceful | 25% bonus carry weight and +2 strength | |||
| Self defense specialist | Gain PDW and handgun proficiency with +10% damage, +10% accuracy and +10 tiles hearing range | It should be noted that the Anu pistol is actually more of a low range sniper rifle than a pistol, doing the same damage as the Independent Sniper rifle, but with only 14 range instead of 45. But the pistol also shreds armor by 10 points, twice as much as assault rifles, costs 2 instead of 3 AP to shoot and holds 10 shots instead of 6 sniper shots. Gaining access to this and increasing its damage from 100 to 110 with increased accuracy is not to be laughed at. | ||
| Sniperist | Gain sniper rifle proficiency with +25% damage and -4 willpower | Sniper/Infiltrator: 175% damage on a hidden sniper is great. Assault/Berserker: Adds even more options and damage to the already great build. |
This perk is mainly useful for two builds: Sniper with Infiltrator, allowing to shoot with 175% damage from stealth, and the sniper lowering the cost of the rifle from 3 to 2. This build works well without much investment Second build is to put it on a berserker assault. The assault allows for high mobility, and is able to pick up anything from their backpack for 0 AP. They also gain back 2 AP on kills. The berserker can lower the AP cost of the sniper rifle from 3 to 1 with -50% accuracy, and with the damage bonus, it becomes a nice mid range kill weapon against large tough targets. This build requires a lot of skill points to work well.
A possible third build would be to combine this with a light sniper rifle, so not needing the AP lowering of a Sniper. Then you are free to give it to any other build. Haven't figured out what would be optimal.
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| Strongman | Gain heavy weapons proficiency with +20% accuracy and -15 perception, +2 strength | Assault/Berserker: Terminator build. Adds even more options and damage to the already great Assaultzerker Sniper/Heavy: Two heavy accurate miniguns per turn. |
If you got this on a Heavy, go Sniper for increased aim and shooting twice. If you get this on a sniper, there is no reason to also take heavy. Better take something else that doesn't compete with the WP that the sniper consumes. | |
| Thief | 25% bonus stealth and +1 speed | Heavy/Infiltrator: Most damaging explosives in the game and buffed decoy. |
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| Trooper | Gain assault rifle proficiency with +10% damage and +20% accuracy | Assault/Infiltrator: Accurate 160% damage with rifle.
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The sniper excels with the increased damage from Infiltrator, even better when combined with Sniperist. They should be parked where they got a good view of the entire battle zone and unload high damage rounds on the strongest enemies. For that reason, Trooper is often of no use for the Sniper/Infiltrator. When you get to the light sniper rifle, the advantage of an assault rifle over a sniper rifle is that the assault rifle does more damage to low armored units. But your snipers should be focusing on high armored units, and if there are only low armored enemies, then you probably aren't in much stress.
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Secondary pick[edit]
| Name | Description | Recommended class | Comment |
| Biochemist | All attacks that damage a target also inflict 1 Virus Damage virus damage (per bullet) | Assault/Berserker with Strongman. Adrenalin Rush (30 SP) and a minigun for shooting 40 shots. Heavy/Berserker: See above. |
This is used to either facilitating capturing units with the melee weapon after they start panicking due to low will, or to neutralize enemies that are too hard to reliably kill in one turn. [3] |
| Bombardier | Gain mounted weapon proficiency with +20% range and +10% damage | Heavy/Infiltrator: Specialist in explosives, will boost their Rockets to 160% damage and add range. |
This is useful on a front line infiltrator that uses heavy armor and decoys. Now they can also initiate engagements by shredding armor if you find a large amount of units, doing so from stealth, resulting in rockets that do 160% damage with 120% range. A heavy/infiltrator already has the base version, but if you got an Assault/Infiltrator with the melee perk, you got an excellent front line unit to add this ability too. |
| Cautious | 20% bonus accuracy and -10% damage dealt | Sniper/Heavy with Strongman: 170% accuracy with heavy weapons. 10% damage malus is worth it actually hitting with the heavy weapons. | The -10% damage loss isn't negligeble, and the accuracy boost isn't great on it self, but can be notable when used with other accuracy boost. However, snipers want to do 1-shot-kills, and the decreased accuracy can hamper that. Troopers goest on Assault/Infiltrator, and they want to maximize damage. That leaves Strongman as the candidate for this perk, or maybe also assault builds that go for Return Fire.
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| Close quarters specialist | Gain shotgun proficiency with +20% accuracy and melee weapon proficiency with +20% damage | Sniper/Heavy with Strongman, if the base class is Sniper. That would give the Shotgun +50% accuracy. | This is a primary perk for Assault, Heavy and Berserker. Sniper without Strongman have no use for this. |
| Farsighted | Additional +2 to willpower and 10 perception | Assault/Heavy with Close Quarter Specialist: Not a good build without CQS, this perk goes on top so the heavily armored Assault can return fire at slightly longer ranges.
Assault/Infiltrator with Trooper: Better scouting. Too low armor to stand in LOS and take fire hoping to Return Fire, and there is no Sneak Attack damage bonus even if that happens. In fact, don't know if it's worth 25 SP to get 10 tiles better scouting, could very well be more worth to get more stats. |
The extra willpower is nice, but you need to have new willpower to cost 13 or more for this to be worth it. It does allow you to increase the max WP, and some builds that really spend a lot of WP could use that. Not too impressed by two WP. 10 Perception means you can see enemies at 10 tile further away, and that's useful for your scout or frontline. It also allows the Assaults Return Fire to shoot back 5 tiles further. |
| Healer | 30% bonus healing and +2 willpower | Haven't tested, maybe good on a Technician or an Assault that would suit as a technician? | |
| Quarterback | 25% bonus grenades range and +2 speed | Assault/Infiltrator: Grenades do 150% damage with 125% range. Speed boost. Assault/Berserker with Strongman: Speed bonus helps with kill chain, range for shredding grenade. |
Improves only grenades, not the Grenade Launcher, not the Mounted Launcher rockets [4]. The speed bonus is great by itself and will benefit mobile builds |
| Reckless | 10% bonus damage dealt and -10% accuracy | This isn't useful on builds with long range weapons they need to actually hit. Maybe better on melee builds, and even then only if its the difference between a one-shot-kill and leaving the enemy with 10% HP. Haven't seen how often that happens, so can't decide if it's worth 25 SP. | |
| Resourceful | 25% bonus carry weight and +2 strength | Always nice with some free carry weight if you were going to put some SP on strength, and it costs 13 SP to get more strength. Having somebody with this perk allows that person to pack extra ammo, allowing the other builds to focus their SP on what they do best. | |
| Self defense specialist | Gain PDW and handgun proficiency with +10% damage, +10% accuracy and +10 tiles hearing range | PDW are handguns with better damage, so they cost 0 AP in the hands of a sniper. A boost to guns for a Berserker may be nice, but not convinced this is worth 25 SP. Maybe after the build has already everything necessary. | |
| Sniperist | Gain sniper rifle proficiency with +25% damage and -4 willpower | ||
| Strongman | Gain heavy weapons proficiency with +20% accuracy and -15 perception, +2 strength | ||
| Thief | 25% bonus stealth and +1 speed | ||
| Trooper | Gain assault rifle proficiency with +10% damage and +20% accuracy |
Quote[edit]
Basically, there are Three approaches to dual-classing soldiers.
- One approach is to look at the squad and just shoehorn soldiers into whatever role the squad needs right now. This is a short sighted view, as the squad will expand as more soldiers get in, and will eventually split into several squads at geographically different locations. So whatever gain you sacrificed in order to get a strong early squad will eventually be voided, and the sacrifice of sub optimal builds will remain.
- Another approach is to look at the three random perks a soldier comes with and figure how those perks enhance the dual class build. For example, a Sniperist per goes on a sniper and Strongman goes on a Heavy. This will improve on what they already have.
- For example, Close Quarters and Quarterback on a Heavy suggests dual classing as an assault because you get bonus melee damage with Close Quarters and bonus speed with Quarterback; the Assault class gets you Dash, and now that soldiers will be much faster and way better at getting into melee range.
- For example, if you have a sniper with the Thief and Sniperist perks, that is A-team sniper/infiltrator material since you get the bonus damage from Sniperist and the bonus stealth from Thief.
- A third approach is to try to craft a build where perks will add new abilities to dual-class soldiers instead of improving what they have. So a Sniperist goes NOT on a sniper and Strongman goes NOT on a heavy.
Soldiers with perks that significantly enhances existing abilities, or gives new abilities in a impactful way will eventually become your best soldiers. Make your best to guard this, they are your your A-team.
Soldiers with perks that makes no sense, such as carry weight, pistols and Biochemist on a Sniper end on the B-team. They are expendable soldiers that will take the risky positions on the battlefield, or maybe even sacrifice themselves to save an A-team soldiers.
For the B-team, you’ll probably end up taking a different approach sometimes, dual-classing based on what the team needs instead of what the soldiers’ perks suggest. For example, you may have a sniper with Far Sighted and Healer — the two perks that boost willpower and suggest Priest as a second class — but if your team has other needs, that soldier gets dual classed as either an infiltrator (if you need a better sniper) or an assault (if you need some more frontline firepower). And snipers and assault/snipers also benefit from having a lot of willpower. Actually, you will probably end up with playing with B-team soldiers so little that they won't have enough SP to pick the less optimal personal perks.
Of course, I’ll have to write a third guide on squad composition. I like to play with 1 scout (assault/infiltrator or infiltrator/priest), 3 tough frontline soldiers (either assault/berserker, assault/sniper, assault/priest, or heavy/assault), 2 mid-range soldiers with heavy weapons like grenade launchers or turrets (usually heavy/infiltrator and technician/priest), and 2 snipers (always sniper/infiltrators). That combination gets you a pretty balanced mix of all classes and a team that can handle any mission.
For the 9th and 10th soldiers, I recommend one frontline soldiers and a third sniper. Snipers are incredibly useful on Base Defence missions. Having a spare frontline soldier on the team is handy because they are getting shot a lot, and sometimes you need to have a badly wounded soldier sit out a mission or two and remain at base to heal.
RNG when hiring soldiers also plays a huge part in the game too. So you can theory-craft all you want about the ideal dream team. The game will give you what it gives you, and sometimes you’ll just have to make do with the soldiers that you have—instead of the soldiers that you want.
As for the C-team, they might not be dual classed at all.
The other core lesson in that guide is not to dual class too early. Put skill points into core stats like Strength (up to 23 to 25) and willpower (up to 16 to 20) so that soldiers are tougher and have enough willpower to use a bunch of their abilities for a handful of consecutive turns.
