XCOM: Chimera Squad City Map, District Unrest, and City Anarchy guide

There are two halves to XCOM: Chimera Squad: combat and management. Combat is about putting bullets into bad guys (though it has its own nuances), while the management side is about time, resources, Agents, and the mood of an entire city.

In this guide, we’ll focus on the City Map where you’ll manage District Unrest, City Anarchy, and your Field Teams.

District Unrest and City Anarchy

XCOM: Chimera Squad’s City 31 is divided into nine districts. Each district has its own measure of health called District Unrest, and these influence the overall health of the city, which is called City Anarchy. The chevrons next to the district names and the large City Anarchy gauge in the top right represent the current levels of each.

Image: Firaxis Games/2K Games via Polygon

Districts will gain Unrest as each in-game day passes and their gauges fill up. If you don’t do anything to lower it, the gauge will eventually fill and the district will turn red to indicate it’s reached maximum Unrest. When that happens, any district with maximum Unrest at the end of an in-game day will increase City Anarchy by one chevron (later in the game, this increases to two and then three chevrons). If there are two districts maxed out, it increases by two, and so on. When City Anarchy is maxed out, you lose the game.

Throughout the game, you’ll be trying to keep any district from reaching maximum Unrest to keep City Anarchy from increasing. When that’s not possible (and it won’t be), you’ll be trying to keep City Anarchy’s increases to a minimum.

Reducing District Unrest and City Anarchy

The most direct way to reduce District Unrest is by completing Targets — Missions or Situations — in that district. The negative number next to the fire icon in the description tells you how much Unrest will be reduced.

Your other option for reducing District Unrest is Field Teams (more on them below). Once you have Field Teams deployed in the city, you’ll have four Field Team Ability buttons across the bottom of your City Map. You’ll only be able to use a couple of them at first. They take time (two or three in-game days), but they’ll let you reduce or freeze District Unrest in one district. We’ll talk more about these abilities below.

Reducing City Anarchy is more indirect and takes more time. To reduce City Anarchy, you’ll need to either complete an Investigation (stopping one of the three factions across several Missions and tough fights) or use the Major Crimes Task Force Field Team Ability.

Field Teams and Field Team Abilities

For the most part, Field Teams are just income streams — they earn you Elerium, Intel, or credits every in-game week. More importantly for District Unrest and City Anarchy, though, Field Teams have Field Team Abilities.

The four buttons across the bottom of the City Map control your four Field Team Abilities. These are invaluable for managing Unrest. Some have prerequisites, so they won’t all be available at first. Hover over them to check their descriptions and see those prerequisites and the effect.

• Vigilance. Reduces District Unrest in a district you choose.
• Quarantine. Freezes District Unrest so it doesn’t increase further.
• Dragnet. Increase rewards for completing Situations (not Missions).
• Major Crimes Task Force. Reduces City Anarchy.

Upgrading Field Teams

Image: Firaxis Games/2K Games via Polygon

Once you have a Field Team in a district, don’t forget to upgrade it (when you have the Intel to spare). Upgrading a Field Teams brings in more of that team’s currency, adds new perks, and unlocks new Field Team Abilities (specifically Dragnet and Major Crimes Task Force) and Spec Ops.

How to choose Missions and manage District Unrest

Not every district will have Targets to complete, and you won’t always have Field Team Abilities available. It’s basically inevitable for districts to reach maximum Unrest and City Anarchy to increase. That means you’ll have to make choices about where to focus Chimera Squad’s efforts.

As a District’s Unrest increases, the difficulty of Missions in that district increases. Immediately tackling high difficulty, high Unrest Missions isn’t always the best approach.

Look at all the options you have, and consider what you need. Each Mission and Situation has a reward, and sometimes that reward outweighs reducing District Unrest. Collecting more Elerium, Intel, and Credits will make you better prepared for fights. Missions that reward you with gear — especially Epic (powerful) weapons — will make those very difficult maximum Unrest Missions more manageable.

Seeing a district turn red with the flashing gauge and fire icon makes it feel pressing and important. Don’t let that distract or panic you. Focus on your immediate needs so you’re better prepared and ready to fight when you have to. Sometimes this means letting City Anarchy increase, but that’s OK. Take your time, and manage the increases rather than tackling impossible Missions to prevent it.

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