Mods have always been PC gaming’s most unique advantage over any other video gaming platform. The ability to add a completely new element to an existing game’s base experience is a priceless commodity that has kept even some of the most mediocre games far more interesting than they ever had business to, and better ones with timelessness. It’s a whole facet of PC gaming that consoles simply lack.
Of course, there’s still the caveat of finding the perfect mod (or combination of mods) to suit every gamer’s unique set of preferences. In an environment that can have some titles list as much as tens of thousands of entries on its Steam Workshop page, that task can sometimes feel daunting, and certainly time-consuming.
This holds especially true for XCOM 2, one of the best games to ever come out of the past decade, which also has one of the densest number of mods listed on the Steam Workshop. But no worries, we’re here to help you sort out where best to start on this task—hopefully saving you readers some valuable time trawling through the Steam Workshop, and actually giving you more time to spend on what gamers really find important—playing the actual game.
15. Avatar Be Gone
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This is a simple, but highly impactful mod. It removes one of XCOM 2’s most hated core mechanics—the Avatar Project. The Avatar Project is basically the game’s doomsday timer.
Normally, it’s actually a pretty cool mechanic that adds tension to each playthrough by presenting you with dilemmas that you need to act on within a time-sensitive environment. Sometimes though it can be quite a bother when all you want to do is take it slow and exterminate as many aliens as you can, and can be tiresome when you’ve already got several dozen playthroughs under your belt. So, yeah, do away with it with the Avatar Be Gone mod.
The Katana Pack Reloaded is straightforward but comes with a sharp edge. It adds 3 base katanas to the game, and comes with fully custom 3d models that change appearance every time you upgrade it just like the base weapons in vanilla XCOM 2. Each Katana also has its own passive and active ability which adds to the tactical depth your squad can perform in their deployments.
Well, the mod’s title pretty much says it all. This map pack by Doctor Mandarb adds new maps for your campaign playthroughs. One great addition is that it also adds new models and objects that populate your maps, such as roads, cliffsides, and copse of trees. It pretty much spruces up the environmental detail of the game which is pretty neat.
This mod is another self-explanatory mod based on the title. XCOM 2 modders tend to be straightforward with their titles, I guess. In the vanilla XCOM 2 game, the only soldiers that gain experience are the ones you deploy in your current mission while the ones left behind are left with nothing. This mod makes it so that they all get xp, with the undeployed soldiers receiving xp amount based on the configuration you chose beforehand when you started the campaign.
This feature comes in especially handy when you have mods that distinctly expands the game’s length and personnel necessities like Long War and Squad Select. It helps with the built-in fatigue mechanics in the game as you can run out of competent, deployable soldiers if you don’t have this mod installed during longer campaigns.
What's Good About All Soldiers Gain XP
Balances the game’s experience mechanic for longer campaigns
Lets you build a deeper roster pool
Very helpful when you have mods installed that ramp up difficulty
XCOM 2 has so many animation sequences that it sometimes becomes a bit too much and just bloats your game time. That’s where the Stop Wasting My Time mod comes in. It particularly removes a few seconds of pauses in-between animations which is a godsend as it all adds-up throughout your playthrough, allowing for a faster gameplay experience.
The max number of soldiers you can deploy in XCOM 2 is 6. It’s a balanced amount when it comes to a vanilla playthrough even on highest difficulty. The problem occurs when you have a ton of mods installed, especially mods that significantly boost the number of enemies per map. Under such circumstances, only deploying 6 soldiers can be disastrous.
This is where Robo-Squad Size Enhanced comes in. The mod allows you to configure the max number of squad members up to 16, though the mod suggests 12 to be the stable number. This pretty much rebalances the gameplay to fit more into a more heavily-modded environment.
What's Good About Robo-Squad Size Enhanced:
Configurable number of squad members
Integrates smoothly with other mods
Implements a cool continuous wheel selection animation during the squad select screen
Evac all is another quality of life mod. Rescue missions in XCOM 2 tend to include an evacuation mechanic where you go to a designated spot and call for evac. It involves a rappelling animation that sees your unit get taken up into the Skyranger.
Watching this animation play repeatedly can be tiresome—especially if you have a squad size enhance mod installed like Robo-Sqaud Size, where you can have as much as 16 deployed soldiers. Evac All makes it so that you can evac every unit that’s within the designated evac grid all at once with one press of a button! Another time-saving mod that all XCOM gamers will be grateful to have.
The Lost are one of the great additions in XCOM 2’s War of the Chosen expansion. It’s pretty much the game’s attempt at adding a zombie horde aspect to the game. One drawback it has however is the drab design of the Lost units. They just look so…gray.
That’s what the World War Lost mod solves. It reskins the Lost to take on more variety in their appearances, getting them more in-line with the aesthetics of classic zombie movies like George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which infuses a badly needed design improvement to their drab vanilla look.
What's Good About World War Lost:
Adds variety to the Lost’s looks
Reworks the Lost Brute unit into a more…bombastic creature
Ever get irritated when a soldier above rookie rank joins your crew and the game auto rolls their class into a class you have plenty of and not the one you desperately need? Yeah, it happens very often and is definitely frustrating. With the Commander’s Choice mod, you won’t ever have to go through that ever again.
The mod allows you to choose what class your soldiers should be. It gives you total control over your soldier’s class choice, which comes in especially handy during times where you find your roster in dire need of a specific soldier class that you can’t get more of due to the vanilla game’s RNG class assignment mechanic. It really is all in your hands now, commander!
What's Good About Commander’s Choice:
No more class randomness
Works with almost any other mod seamlessly
Very helpful with custom class mods like RPGO because it streamlines the ability selection screen into a more manageable UI
Gene Mods is pretty straightforward. It aims to reintroduce a gameplay aspect from the first XCOM game that was unceremoniously removed in XCOM 2 to the disappointment of many fans.
The mod adds a new upgrade to the infirmary facility called the Gene Modification chamber. It allows you to infuse your soldiers with genetic modifications that improves your soldier’s performance in combat just like in the 1st XCOM game!
What's Good About Gene Mods:
Gives your soldiers extra abilities
Introduces a large selection of custom abilities
Reintroduces a game mechanic that fans of the game enjoyed in the 1st game
Probably the coolest mod in the list from a gameplay mechanic perspective, Soldier Development allows your soldiers to, well, develop. Each time your soldier does an action, there’s a chance that they’ll increase an attribute closely related to the action they performed. If they sprint, there’s a chance they’ll increase their movement stat, if they shoot, their aim stat might improve.
The mod adds a completely new dimension to the game that’s both logical, and gives your soldiers a more distinctive feel and variety to them. Now you feel even more invested each time your soldier makes an action.
What's Good About Soldier Development:
Gives your soldiers more stat
Adds a more dynamic feel to your soldier’s growth
You feel more invested in the actions your soldiers make
Capnbubs Accessories Pack is probably the most used cosmetic addon mod in all of XCOM 2. It features a wide variety of lore-friendly accessories made available for all your character customization needs that don’t appear out of place from XCOM’s base aesthetics. If you like your skin mods more in-line with the game’s original design, then Capnbubs Accessories Pack is definitely a must-have mod.
What's Good About Capnbubs Accessories Pack:
Lore-friendly designs
Well-made design that integrates well with most other custom skin mods
Long War of the Chosen is one of the most lauded mods in the XCOM reboot games. With an iteration dating back to the 1st XCOM game, Long War overhauls the vanilla game to offer a longer, engaging, and more challenging campaign.
The mod features new equipment, classes, research tree, officer training, and a host of other gameplay changes that attempts to enhance the XCOM gaming experience for the better. With Long War installed, there’s so much more to do in your playthrough, and it not only revamps the game’s mechanics, it also offers a completely different gameplay experience while still adhering to XCOM 2’s core gameplay experience.
What's Good About Long War of the Chosen:
New soldier classes and abilities
New custom equipment with their very own 3d models and animations
This mod completely overhauls XCOM 2’s character class system. Instead of the multiple default vanilla classes, RPGO reworks XCOM’s class system into just a single entity composed of 14 sub-specializations, with 7 ranks each, and consisting of 98 unique abilities in total that you can pick from to mix-match into a wide array of combinations, effectively giving you the ability to create your very own custom classes! You can even assign custom logos and name these classes yourself! Now that’s a really cool rework if you ask me.
From a psionic-sniper, to a dual-wielding swordsman with a proficiency for making things go boom, RPGO allows for a gameplay experience that can only truly be limited by one’s own imagination.
What's Good About Musashis RPGO Overhaul:
Allows you to create custom classes
Adds dozens of new abilities
Has a large number of other mods designed specifically for it
Figuring-out different ability combinations from a huge pool of 98 varying abilities can prove quite overwhelming for some, however. Sometimes all a XCOM player wants to do is launch the game and get into the business of blowing-up alien invaders pronto—this is where the Supersoldiers mod comes in handy.
The mod features 7 pre-made class templates handpicked from several famous video game franchises. From Halo’s iconic Spartan, to Mass Effect’s renowned N7 operative, these classes can readily change the way you experience XCOM 2 with hardly any other effort put-in than just clicking the subscribe button on the Workshop page. An added bonus is it comes with its very own custom abilities, equipment, animations, and sound effects, which allows you to actually visually realize these iconic characters’ transplantation into XCOM 2’s world, resulting in a far more immersive experience.
What's Good About Supersoldiers: Class, Perks, & Equipment Mod:
Contains 7 classes modeled after iconic video game characters
