XCOM: Chimera Squad Field Office guide

There are two parts to XCOM: Chimera Squad: combat Missions and city management from your Field Office headquarters. In this guide, we’ll help you understand everything going on in the Field Office with a quick overview of all the options there, tips about assigning Agents to Assembly or Spec Ops, how to pick what to do next, managing District Unrest, and using your Field Teams.

Learn your way around your Field Office headquarters

Over the first hour or so of XCOM: Chimera Squad, you’ll get more and more options for things to do in the Field Office. When they’re all filled in, you’ll have seven (and sometimes eight) options. Let’s talk about each area and what you’ll do there.

Image: Firaxis Games/2K Games via Polygon

• City Map. There are two things happening in the City Map. First — and most obvious — the City Map is where you’ll select Targets (combat-focused Missions and hands-off Situations). You’ll also manage your Field Teams here. These operate in the background to earn currencies and help you manage the city’s various Districts’ Unrest.
• Assembly. The Assembly is basically a 3D printer. You feed it Elerium (a currency) and time, and it researches new gear and items for you. Once the research is done, you’ll be able to unlock the gear from Supply (below). You don’t need to assign an Agent, but if you do, the completion time is cut in half.
• Spec Ops. The Spec Ops you have available are really just another way for you to manage resources and income — the first three operations earn you extra currency (Elerium, Intel, and Credits). You’ll need to assign an Agent to complete them.
• Training. Training serves two functions: to improve your Agents’ stats or heal Scars. Stat improvements give your Agents things like some extra health or a better dodge. If an Agent has a Scar — a lasting stat penalty received when they fell in combat — you can heal the Scar and remove the penalty.
• Armory. The Armory is where you’ll go to manage your individual Agents. Here, you have options to: change their gear and weapon Loadout, Promote Agent (when they earn enough XP in combat) and unlock new Agent Abilities, read an Agent Biography, and Tint Armor (which is useful to color code your Agents for quick reference).
• Supply. Supply is like a shop. You’ll buy everything for your Agents’ Armory // Loadout here.
• Investigation. Over the course of the game, you’ll be investigating (shooting) three factions operating in the City. Investigation is where you’ll go to review your notes.
• Scavenger. You’ll unlock the Scavenger Market with an early Situation. After that, the Market will periodically be available in your Field Office. You’ll spend Intel here to buy gear.

Focus on your immediate needs

On the Field Office screen you’ll get constant updates about Unrest and idle Agents, and it will feel like you have to do everything at once. But you don’t.

Instead, focus on your immediate needs and think in small steps. If you need credits, assign an idle Agent to a Gladhanding Spec Op. If your favorite Agent has a Scar, assign them to Training. If a city district has a high District Unrest, see if you can use a Field Team to quell it (more on this below).

You don’t have to do everything at once. Early on, you’re not even going to have enough Agents to do everything available. Prioritize what you need, and only worry about your next step.

It’s OK to give the same Agent desk duty every time

It won’t take long in XCOM: Chimera Squad before you’ll have more Agents than slots on your APC (for combat Missions). And when that happens, it’s fine to play favorites.

Use the Agents whose abilities work for you in combat, and assign the extras (we’re looking at you, Cherub) to Assembly or Spec Ops every time they fall idle.

Understand Unrest to not worry about Unrest

There are two measures of City 31’s health: District Unrest and City Anarchy.

As District Unrest increases, the difficulty of that district’s Missions increases. If a district reaches maximum Unrest, City Anarchy will increase by one every day until you do something to lower it. When the City Anarchy gauge is full, you lose the game.

Image: Firaxis Games/2K Games via Polygon

You have options to lower District Unrest: Completing Missions, using a Field Team Ability, or completing a Humanitarian Aid Spec Op all lower Unrest. You’ll find Field Team Abilities at the bottom of the City Map. Take these small, immediate steps when you can. Just focus on what’s available.

If there’s no Mission in a district or you don’t have any Field Team Abilities available, that’s OK, too. You can survive minor increases in Unrest and Anarchy, so you don’t have to tackle the hardest missions just because the district is colored red.

Choose Missions and Situations based on their rewards

Every Target (Missions and Situations) will reward you for completing it. Situations will reward you with a currency (Elerium, Intel, or Credits). Missions (because of the difficult combat involved) have better rewards — things like currencies, days taken off of projects (like Assemblies or Investigations), and sometimes even gear.

Think of these rewards as that next small step to quelling District Unrest and City Anarchy. Currencies and gear mean you’re better equipped for combat (and, therefore, more likely to survive and complete Missions). Days off of timelines mean a District’s Unrest has less time to foment City Anarchy.

Use the rewards to guide your choice, even if it means letting Unrest creep up elsewhere. Being better prepared means you’re better able to manage Unrest in the next Mission.

Upgrade your Field Teams

The Field Teams you deploy on the City Map mostly just sit in the background and bring in a currency every in-game week. And that makes them easy to forget about, but there’s a lot of value in upgrading them.

Image: Firaxis Games/2K Games via Polygon

Upgrading a Field Teams brings in more of that team’s currency, adds new perks, and unlocks new Field Team Abilities (those buttons across the bottom of the City Map) and Spec Ops.

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