GamerGround >> Xcom in 2 weeks.

Some fun getting started pro-tips to recap for the thread:

1- Congratulations on unlocking Assault on your guy! Now promptly go into his Loadout, swap out the shotgun, and give him back an Assault Rifle. You can thank me later.

2- Build satellites, satellites, and more satellites. Don't bother putting them in the same continent your base is in, you already have that bonus. The first 2-3 should just go into the big payers: USA, Russia, UK, Germany, China, Japan. Dropping a Satellite in a country will also lower its Panic by 2, so you can use this as a last ditch to save a high-paying country from leaving.

3- As soon as you have 10 Engineers you need to build a second Uplink and link it to the first, then build 2 more satellites.

4- Build your base in Africa or Asia. Thank me later when you realize you have piles of money where you would have been broke as fuck.

5- Adjacency bonuses work horizontally and vertically.

6- Squadsight is the only skill a Sniper needs. All else means NOTHING. For extra fun: put them somewhere with good visibility and pop them into Overwatch at the START of your round. They'll get a free shot on any groups of guys you see BEFORE they can run into cover. Hilarity ensues.

7- Get lasers ASAP. To do this, research Weapon Fragments, then Beam Weapons, then Precision Lasers. Heavy Lasers are handy too, but Heavies are mostly way less useful than a good Assault, Support, or Sniper. Heavy Laser gives you Laser Cannons, however, and they're basically the best ship weapon you'll have for awhile.

8- Never build Phoenix Cannons.

9- Assaults should always be built going straight down the left side until you hit Major. To do otherwise is folly.

10- Heavies should be built going straight down the right side for similar reasons.

11- Always have at least 2 Assaults on your squad, and make judicious use of Flush and Run and Gun. Those two skills are amazing.

12- Always do Council Requests, even if they're something crazy like building some country a satellite. They always pay back more than you have to pay.

13- One regular power gen, a Thermal Gen, and an Elerium gen are all you will ever need if they are all linked together. You technically don't even need the Regular one at the end, but you have to build one unless you were crazy lucky and had a steam vent close to your second level Access Shaft.

14- Improved Pistols is iterative and improves ALL pistols, including plasma.

15- Once you have 2 really good Squadsight Snipers, your third should do the opposite and be a run-and-gunner with the Pistol damage boost and the Scanner. Give him/her the best pistol you have, some grenades, and a Skeleton Suit. Be awed and amazed as you realize that throwing the scanner doesn't trigger Aliens running into cover, so you can be an ultra scout early on and let your Snipers clean house easily.

16- Invest in the Improved Arc Thrower as soon as you can, then make regular use of it to capture aliens even if you already researched them. Free Plasma weapons.

MrTarkanian - I can't figure out how to turn on Ironman mode on PS3.

I start a new game, then I open advanced settings. How do I toggle the Ironman checkbox? I can't move over to it, and when I press X on Classic difficulty it shoots me right into the game.

I just bought it fuck yea

I'm re-starting. Didn't like the way things were going.