"We've heard rumors of some sort of shape-shifter. I'm guessing this is it" ~Central Officer Bradford
The Faceless is a covert shapeshifting Alien. They most often appear on retaliations and disguise themselves as ordinary civilians. Whenever xcom gets close, they will transform into their true form: a tall and hideous beast with a deadly claw attack.
Stats[edit]
Assume unlisted values are 0 or N/A. Unless otherwise specified, all damage ranges are uniformly distributed - each outcome is equally likely.
| Stat | Rookie | Veteran | Commander | Legend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HP | 8 | 10 | 10 | 12 |
| Mobility | 12 | 14 | 14 | |
| Aim | 60 | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| Will | 50 | 50 | 70 | 70 |
| Damage | 3-4 | 3-4 | 3-4 | 3-4 |
| Crit Chance | 0 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Crit damage bonus | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
The claws are an ability, not a melee attack, and is capable of destroying cover.
Abilities[edit]
Regeneration: The faceless regenerates 2 health at the start of its turn
Scything Claws: The faceless unleashes a claw attack in a cone-shaped area. It hits all units and terrain in its area of effect. Requires 1 action point to use and ends the turn.
Transform: The faceless leaves its human form and shapeshifts into its alien form. It uses this ability when any of the following conditions are met:
- All other alien units on the map are killed
- An xcom unit moves within 2 tiles of the faceless in civilian form
- The faceless takes any damage
- It can see an XCOM unit within 12 tiles. This occurs at start of alien turn.
- Beware that in vanilla XCOM 2, the faceless will immediately get 2 action points and be able to take their full turn after they transform. In War of the Chosen, they instead remain in place for the duration of the enemy turn.
- It is scanned by a battle scanner or scanning protocol ability.
Appearance[edit]
Faceless most commonly appear on retaliation missions. There will always be one faceless (disguised as a civilian) on the first retaliation mission. The Alien Infiltrator dark event will also put some disguised faceless on guerilla ops and council missions. Faceless may also appear on Operation Leviathan, and if playing War of the Chosen may appear on missions with a savage sitrep.
There is only one faceless variant
| Variant | As pod leader | As pod follower |
|---|---|---|
| Faceless | March 21 - Jun 13
March 31 - June 28 (Legend) |
May 3 - Onward
May 30 - Onward (Legend)|| |
| Faceless may lead | Enemies who can lead faceless |
|---|---|
| ADVENT Trooper, ADVENT Stun Lancer, Faceless, ADVENT MEC, ADVENT Shield Bearer, Sectoid, Viper, ADVENT Purifier, Muton | Sectoid, Faceless, Muton, Codex, Archon, Andromedon, Gatekeeper, Spectre |
Behavior[edit]
Enemy behavior is processed one action at a time. Figure out what they will do in the first action, and then figure out what they will do in the second action from their new position with their last action point. Actions are bolded. Actions higher on the list are always attempted first if the conditions are met. The conditions are italicized.
The faceless may take on one of many AI jobs. These generally affect their behavior in extremely minor ways, such as causing them to attack civilians in retaliations, attack the device in protect device missions, or helping determine where and how they will take cover.
Faceless never directly attack civilians on retaliation missions. Faceless never retreat.
Action 1
Before taking action, find the preferred target for scything claws. The preferred target is whomever is in range and has the lowest defense. If there's a tie, just pick a target at random.
- Scything Claws
- If target is already in range
- Move to preferred target
- Move directly toward nearest XCOM unit
- This is only chosen if there are no XCOM units in its current line of sight. It will find the closest xcom unit and then move along the shortest path to reach them, no matter where they may be. Will not consider concealed units when choosing whom to approach.
Action 2
- Scything Claws
- If target is already in range
- Move to preferred target
- Move directly toward nearest XCOM unit
- This is only chosen if there are no XCOM units in its current line of sight. It will find the closest xcom unit and then move along the shortest path to reach them, no matter where they may be. Will not consider concealed units when choosing whom to approach.
Sources[edit]
Character data found in configs XCOM 2\XComGame\Config\DefaultGameData_CharacterStats.ini
Regeneration parameters found in configs XCOM 2\XComGame\Config\DefaultGameData_SoldierSkills.ini
Scything claws details found in configs XCOM 2\XComGame\Config\DefaultGameData_WeaponData.ini
Ability conditions found in source code XCOM 2 SDK\Development\SrcOrig\XComGame\Classes\X2Ability_Faceless.uc
AI behavior found in configs XCOM 2\XCom2-WarOfTheChosen\XComGame\Config\DefaultAI.ini