Xenonauts 2 Beginner's Guide: Survive the Alien Invasion

Xenonauts 2 hit version 1.0 on April 2, 2026, after nearly three years in Early Access, and it pulls no punches. This is a harder game than modern XCOM titles by design, built closer to the spirit of the original 1994 X-COM: UFO Defense. Soldiers die, resources run thin, and a bad base layout in week two can haunt you for hours. This guide covers everything you need to get your footing: difficulty selection, base build order, research priorities, squad composition, and how to keep the world from falling apart.

What difficulty should you pick?

Xenonauts 2 offers four difficulty levels: Recruit, Soldier, Veteran, and Commander. There is also an optional Ironman Mode on top of any difficulty, which locks you to a single auto-updating save file.

• Recruit: Best for players completely new to XCOM-style games. Forgiving enough to learn the systems without being punished into a restart.
• Soldier: The recommended starting point if you have played modern XCOM games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown or XCOM 2, but not classic X-COM or Xenonauts 1. Keep in mind Soldier is still harder than those modern titles.
• Veteran: For players familiar with classic X-COM mechanics. Expect heavy losses and multiple restarts.
• Commander: Only for experienced Xenonauts players who know every system deeply and are comfortable losing often.
• Ironman Mode: Available on any difficulty. No reloading earlier saves. Only recommended if you have strong nerves.

The game also has an Extended option, which removes the UFO Delegation and penalties for repeated UFO crash combat missions. It runs at least 30 hours but leans repetitive, as you will replay similar missions multiple times. According to the official Hooded Horse beginner's guide, it is closest to the classic XCOM experience where you are not under constant time pressure.

Choose your difficulty wisely

Where should you place your starting base?

Your starting base location directly affects how much of the world you can cover with radar and interceptors. More coverage means more UFOs intercepted, more missions completed, and lower regional panic, which translates directly into higher monthly funding.

According to community testing documented in Pro Game Guides, strong starting positions include:

• East Africa: Covers Europe, Africa, and the Middle East from one spot.
• Western China: Covers the Soviet Union, Asia, and parts of the Middle East.
• Central America: Covers North America, Latin America, and part of the Atlantic.

The best premium positions cost more, but you can often find nearly equivalent coverage by adjusting slightly on the map. The core principle is simple: your radar coverage determines which events you can respond to, and every missed mission is a tick upward on regional panic.

What is the best base build order in Xenonauts 2?

Base construction runs on a 6x6 grid and costs both money and time. Getting the order wrong means sitting without aircraft or running out of power before your key buildings are online. Based on the Pro Game Guides analysis of the 1.0 release, the recommended early build order is:

Hangar > Generator > Radar > Hangar > Generator > Medical Center

Here is why each building earns its spot in that sequence:

• Hangar: Your single most important early purchase. All progression depends on shooting down UFOs, and you need hangars to house interceptors. Two interceptors is workable early on.
• Generator: Every building costs power, and your starting capacity is limited. Without additional generators, you cannot build much else.
• Radar: One radar is not enough. You can build up to three additional radar modules to extend detection range. Wider coverage means more events to respond to.
• Medical Center: Significantly reduces soldier recovery time and improves survival chances. If you are running around 15 soldiers, injuries are manageable, but your soldiers will level up more slowly without faster recovery.
• Laboratory: Each lab adds more scientists, which speeds up research. Build these in pairs where possible, because two adjacent laboratories research faster than two separate ones (adjacency bonus).
• Workshop: Less urgent in the very early game, but necessary once you start manufacturing equipment and vehicles. Also benefits from adjacency bonuses when paired.
• Training Center: Useful for soldier development but expensive in both money and power. This can wait until the base is more established.

Plan your base layout early

How do you earn more money?

Cash is tight for the first couple of months. There are several ways to increase income beyond the basic monthly funding from regional blocs, according to the Pro Game Guides breakdown.

Push plot research and Cleaner missions first. These unlock higher funding tiers and are the primary driver of long-term income growth.

Keep scientists and engineers busy, or let them generate passive income. When no research project is assigned, each scientist generates $350 per hour passively. Engineers generate $250 per hour when idle. There is no waste in keeping extra staff on your roster even during downtime.

Sell mission loot strategically. After missions, you recover alien corpses, equipment, and other items that can be sold in the Base Stores screen. Two rules apply:

• Never sell Alloys or Alenium. These alien resources are essential crafting materials later in the game.
• Sell in bulk. Item sale prices decrease each time you sell the same type, potentially dropping to around 40% of the original value over time. Hoarding a large stack and selling it all at once is more profitable than trickling out small batches.

Use Operations Points to raise funds. On the Geoscape map, Operations Points can be spent directly to generate immediate cash. Use this as an emergency option, since those same points are needed to manage regional panic and recruit Supporters.

Recruit Funding Supporters in each region. Each region has four Supporters across five categories: Funding, Intelligence, Scientist, Engineer, and Security. Recruiting a Funding Supporter increases monthly income from that region. Recruiting all Supporters in a region provides a large bonus to the organization. Prioritize neutralizing Infiltrators first, since they actively increase the Doomsday counter.

What is the best research order?

Research drives every major upgrade in Xenonauts 2. Better weapons, armor, aircraft, and vehicles all require research first. There is no single perfect order because the tree has branching paths, but according to Pro Game Guides, these are the clear priorities:

1. Combat Vehicles: Research this early to unlock the MARS (Mobile Armored Robotic System) combat platform. It costs $250,000 to build plus upkeep, but it absorbs hits that would kill your veterans.
2. Plot Research Projects: Push these consistently. They unlock new funding tiers and key story missions that drive the campaign forward.
3. Alien Technology: After winning tactical missions, you gain new research options based on recovered equipment. Prioritize anything that improves soldier weapons and armor. The jump from ballistic to laser technology is the most impactful early-game weapon upgrade.
4. Alien Interrogations: Capturing an alien (rather than killing it) unlocks an interrogation research project for that species. Each completed interrogation improves your Training Rate by 1 and increases damage dealt to all aliens of that species by 10%.

Should you invest in accelerated weapons?

Community consensus, as documented in Pro Game Guides, is to skip accelerated weapons and invest directly in laser technology. Accelerated weapons are not significantly stronger to justify a full switch. That said, always invest in new sniper options when they appear. Drop lasers as soon as plasma weapons become available.

Prioritize lasers and MARS early

What is the best squad loadout?

Your Skyhawk dropship carries up to 8 soldiers, with the MARS unit occupying one of those slots. According to the Pro Game Guides squad analysis for 1.0, a balanced early-to-mid-game composition looks like this:

• 2x Riflemen: Useful as grenadiers and medics until their accuracy improves. Aim for at least 55 Accuracy to be effective at mid-range.
• 2x Snipers: Devastating in open terrain. Your snipers should have at least 65 Accuracy to be efficient.
• 2x Assault soldiers: Deal the most damage thanks to shotguns, especially early. Require enough Time Units and good Reflexes to close distance safely.
• 1x Grenadier: Best for dealing with clustered enemies and destroying cover.
• 1x MARS unit: Acts as a powerful frontline absorber that does not suffer wounds the way soldiers do.

Every soldier should carry a Medikit and smoke grenades unless their carrying capacity prevents it. One extra weapon clip is enough for most missions. All Riflemen and Snipers should equip the Tactical Module to boost accuracy.

How do soldier stats work?

Unlike XCOM 2, there is no rigid class system. Each soldier has individual stats, and you assign roles based on those numbers. Here is what each attribute does, as confirmed by the official Hooded Horse guide:

• Time Units (TU): Action points available each turn for moving, firing, and interacting. More TUs means more flexibility.
• Health: Maximum hit points. Increases automatically as other attributes level up.
• Accuracy: Determines hit chance when firing weapons. The most important stat for most roles.
• Strength: Affects carrying capacity, grenade throw distance, and recoil management during burst fire.
• Reflexes: Affects melee hit chance and the likelihood of triggering reaction fire against moving enemies.
• Bravery: Low Bravery soldiers are vulnerable to panic and mind attacks from certain alien types.

How do soldiers level up?

Soldiers gain Progression Points (PP) through specific combat actions. Reaching 1,000 PP in any stat raises it by 1 point. Killing an enemy grants 200 PP distributed across all stats. Each stat also has its own PP generation method:

• Accuracy: 20 PP for every TU spent firing at enemies.
• Strength: 10 PP for every TU spent moving while carrying 80% or more of max capacity.
• Reflexes: 20 PP for every TU left unspent at the end of your turn.
• Bravery: 50 PP for every point of Suppression received.
• Time Units and Health: Increase automatically as other attributes level up.

PP requirements increase at certain levels (diminishing returns), which means soldiers with high starting stats are significantly more valuable. Dismiss soldiers with very low base stats rather than investing time in them.

Should you build a MARS unit?

Yes. The MARS unit is one of the strongest assets in the game. It does not suffer wounds the way soldiers do, can be equipped with either a missile turret or a heavy armor-piercing cannon, and absorbs hits that would kill veterans. To build one, research Combat Vehicles first, then manufacture it through the Engineering department at a cost of $250,000 plus ongoing upkeep. It takes up one of the eight Skyhawk slots but is worth the trade.

How do you manage panic and avoid losing regions?

The Doomsday Counter tracks global nuclear tension early in the campaign. If world powers panic long enough over the alien invasion, they trigger a nuclear war and you lose. Later, this transitions to Regional Panic, where individual regions can fall to the alien threat. If too many regions hit a Panic rating above 100 for a full month, the aliens win.

According to Pro Game Guides, here is how to keep panic under control:

• Complete tactical missions quickly. Ground combat missions directly reduce panic in the region where they occur. Do not let crash sites and abduction missions expire.
• Spend Operations Points on Reducing Tension. A reliable direct intervention when panic spikes somewhere you cannot reach in time.
• Recruit Security Supporters. Each Security Supporter reduces your daily Doomsday counter accumulation. Prioritize high-risk regions.
• Eliminate Infiltrators immediately. Infiltrators are Supporters turned by the aliens who actively increase the Doomsday counter. Use Operations Points to remove them as soon as they appear.
• Expand your radar coverage. The more land you can respond to, the more missions you run, and the more panic you prevent.

When should you build a second base?

Only build a second base once you can properly equip it with at least one radar and one hangar. A base without aircraft provides almost no value. The cost of building, powering, and staffing a second base is high, and doing it too early can cripple your first base's budget.

Timing-wise, the best window is when the Doomsday Counter transitions to the Regional Panic mechanic. At that point, you need coverage in multiple regions or you risk losing them entirely. A second base positioned in a region your first base cannot cover is a direct investment in keeping funding intact.

Essential combat tips for new commanders

Tactical combat in Xenonauts 2 is slower and more deliberate than modern XCOM games. These principles, drawn from both the official Hooded Horse guide and Pro Game Guides community testing, are the most important to internalize:

• Use cover constantly. Low cover (crates, fences, low walls) gives a 40% miss chance. Tall cover (full walls, hedges) gives a 100% miss chance. Never end a turn in the open.
• Crouch before shooting. Crouching costs 4 TUs, increases your Accuracy by 10%, and makes your soldier 10% harder to hit.
• Manage TUs like a resource. Every action costs TUs. Soldiers that end their turn with TUs remaining have a better chance of triggering reaction fire against moving enemies.
• Suppression is powerful. Near-misses, gunfire, and flashbangs apply Suppression, which drains a target's remaining TUs and reduces their starting TUs by 50% on their next turn.
• There is friendly fire. Check your soldiers' positions before firing through tight corridors or throwing grenades.
• Capture enemies when possible. Stunning an alien unlocks interrogation research, which improves training rates and increases damage against that species by 10% per completed interrogation.
• You can retreat. If a mission is going badly, use the ESC menu to abort. Make sure all living soldiers are back on the Skyhawk first. Anyone left behind is counted as dead.
• Recover advanced equipment. Any advanced weapons or equipment not picked up from fallen soldiers will be lost after the mission. It is worth the TU cost to retrieve them if you can.

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