XCOM: Chimera Squad factions guide

XCOM: Chimera Squad’s City 31 has three enemy factions — effectively terrorist groups — that Chimera Squad has to investigate. One of your first tasks in the game is to choose between The Progeny, Gray Phoenix, and Sacred Coil.

In this guide, we’ll introduce you to those factions and explain why it doesn’t matter who you choose to investigate first.

Which Faction to investigate first

Let’s get this out of the way: There’s no right or wrong answer here. Over the course of the game, you’ll end up investigating all three factions no matter which one you start with (or choose to investigate second for that matter).

Image: Firaxis Games/2K Games via Polygon

Each faction’s missions play out the same, but the difficulty does scale along with your agents. The only difference is the types (and species) of enemies you’ll face.

The three factions are:

• The Progeny. A group of humans that focus on Psionic abilities. Those Psionic abilities include things like Mind Control and Stupor — much like Verge’s Abilities.
• Gray Phoenix. Aliens with an emphasis on technology and weapons. You’ll face a variety of different alien units with wildly different abilities.
• Sacred Coil. A hybrid faction, whose troops are a blend of units (which fits with their hybrid makeup).

How investigations work

When you choose a faction, you’ll start an investigation (and you can check your progress on the Investigation tab in your Field Office). Every investigation follows the same three steps:

• Groundwork. This is a one-off mission where you learn about the faction’s intent. You need to complete this mission to begin operations.
• Operations. Multiple encounter (a Breach Mode followed by a firefight) missions. These usually take time to uncover, so you’ll have to manage District Unrest and City Anarchy while you wait. Once all operations are complete, you’ll move on to takedown.
• Takedown. The final mission of an investigation. It has multiple encounters and ends with an encounter that includes the faction’s leader — a powerful boss with a lot of health.

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