Boss Aliens in LW2

[Razor]

So I was moving along fairly well (finally!) in my LW2 campaign, but I just hit a huge snag when I encountered the Viper King, who wiped my Bravo squad. A few missions later my Charlie squad gets wiped by the Berserker Queen (I haven't even killed the Viper King yet, lol), who spawns on a troop convoy map, and activates with two other pods of 8 soldiers, vipers, and all kinds of nasties.

I've watched a fair bit of some playthroughs from other people, and I don't see them encountering these bosses on LW2. I didn't select the DLC when starting the campaign, even though the weapons are still featured. Are they supposed to be appearing in LW2 anyway? If so, is there a way to disable their appearance without uninstalling the Alien Hunters DLC? Those two appearances have virtually ended my campaign.

[LordYanaek]

I didn't select the DLC when starting the campaign

Bad move

The checkbox only controls whether "The Nest" special mission will appear in the game or not. If you check it, you have the mission and Rulers appear after you complete it. If you unchek it, you don't have the mission and Rulers can appear any time after a few in-game months. This is vanilla behavior so blame Firaxis.

If you don't want to see them, either select the DLC checkbox and don't run "The Nest" mission when it shows or remove the DLC from the steam client.

[Razor]

So when you say "bad move", I'm assuming that you think I should check the box and run the missions? Or do you feel it's best to check the box and then never select the missions when they come up? I'm sort of a completionist, and it would drive me bonkers having to look at those mission icons all campaign long if I don't run them.

Since posting, the Viper King has yet to reappear, even though I don't think I killed it. I encountered the Berserker Queen again during my region liberation mission, lol, but actually killed it pretty quick this time. Starting to feel better about things now.

[JulianSkies]

So when you say "bad move", I'm assuming that you think I should check the box and run the missions? Or do you feel it's best to check the box and then never select the missions when they come up? I'm sort of a completionist, and it would drive me bonkers having to look at those mission icons all campaign long if I don't run them.

Since posting, the Viper King has yet to reappear, even though I don't think I killed it. I encountered the Berserker Queen again during my region liberation mission, lol, but actually killed it pretty quick this time. Starting to feel better about things now.

Basically, if you check the box the Rulers only start showing up after you run the mission. So you can control when they show up.

[Tuhalu]

Have the mission turned on, run it when you are ready and not before.

[hewhoispale]

So I was moving along fairly well (finally!) in my LW2 campaign, but I just hit a huge snag when I encountered the Viper King, who wiped my Bravo squad. A few missions later my Charlie squad gets wiped by the Berserker Queen (I haven't even killed the Viper King yet, lol), who spawns on a troop convoy map, and activates with two other pods of 8 soldiers, vipers, and all kinds of nasties.

I've watched a fair bit of some playthroughs from other people, and I don't see them encountering these bosses on LW2. I didn't select the DLC when starting the campaign, even though the weapons are still featured. Are they supposed to be appearing in LW2 anyway? If so, is there a way to disable their appearance without uninstalling the Alien Hunters DLC? Those two appearances have virtually ended my campaign.

The only way to prevent DLC content from appearing an XCOM2 campaign is to uninstall the DLC. You can reinstall it again later, but the checkbox on campaign start only determines if the scripted story missions appear. If the DLC is installed, the DLC is present in the game.
This means for Alien Hunters that you get the gear at start and the rulers appear without warning when the box is unchecked.
This means for Shen's Last Gift that you have a moderate cost research project to enable the proving grounds project to build SPARKs when the box is unchecked.

[LordYanaek]

So when you say "bad move", I'm assuming that you think I should check the box and run the missions? Or do you feel it's best to check the box and then never select the missions when they come up? I'm sort of a completionist, and it would drive me bonkers having to look at those mission icons all campaign long if I don't run them.

A bit late to answer but yes, as others stated the advantage is you're able to choose when you want to fight them. Don't want to fight them without laser weapons on everyone, magnetic ... it's your choice.
The armors are not bad either so i would definitely run them but unchecking the box is a trap.

Since posting, the Viper King has yet to reappear, even though I don't think I killed it. I encountered the Berserker Queen again during my region liberation mission, lol, but actually killed it pretty quick this time. Starting to feel better about things now.

DLC is very buggy in 1.2. Hopefully it will be much better in 1.3. You can

• Get the Weapons PoI or "The Nest" multiple times (if the box is checked) - The nest is impossible to complete on 2nd run.
• Never see "The Nest"
• Have dead rulers appear again

So having Berserker Queen appear again before you killed Viper King isn't really a big surprise. I don't know if it was already reported as a bug so you might want to check.