How do you properly "stealth" the whole mission?

[AegixDrakan]

It's more "doable" for me now that I've got the "True Concealment" mod back, but it still seems counter-productive a lot of the time.

Before I got back "True concealment", most missions had me looking at a situation where enemy patrols offered basically no path through to the objective, at least not within the timer limit.

And even now that I have that mod back, making turn timers not tick down as long as I'm in concealment, the second I tag the objective, everything on the map knows where I am and bullrushes me.

I had that happen on a jailbreak mission one time, and I'm still amazed I got out of that with only one soldier Captured and no one actually dead. 3 pods charged me at once, AND reinforcements dropped in. ;_;

So, between that happening, and popping an evac flare also (apparently) breaking concealment, I really have to ask how full stealth is possible, like many other players reccomend I do.

I mean, so far, taking my time to set up a perfect ambush and then proceeding as normal as per Vanilla XCOM 2 typically works if I get the mission down to "Extremely Light enemy resistance", but I keep hearing that I'm "doing it wrong".

Note: I have my haven guys set 100% to intel for most of the month, providing me with plenty of 10+ days to infiltrate and allowing me to send in squads of 6-7 most of the time and still get to "Extremely light" enemy status.

[Devon_v]

Depending on the mission type, send one (1) Shinobi. If hacking is involved, also send one (1) Specialist. SMGs on everyone.

Infiltrate to 200%.

Laugh at the tiny little detection ranges the pods have, run to the objective and win. At 200% you should have an evac timer of 1, assuming anything can even see you hack the objective.

For extractions you just locate the pods so you can check their LoS and keep the VIP out of it until you can yellow move the evac volume, then you win.

If you have the mod that gives you alternate mission stats it's funny to watch it try to interpret a flawless stealth mission.

Edit:
Install Gotcha! (Flank Preview Evolved), it's very helpful for showing you more complete and accurate LoS data, like which tiles can see an objective. Also don't move on the "line of play", the direct line drawn between your starting point and the objective. Although LW2 offsets the enemies from the LoP, they still spawn based on it so coming in on a different angle makes you less likely to run into pods. They do NOT home in on you like vanilla, so you can actually get behind them and skip fighting them entirely.

SMGs decrease detection radius. Covert (the Shinobi skill) reduces detection radius. 200% infiltration decreases detection radius. Stacked, ADVENT can't see you until they're right on top of you.

More edit:
Aside from VIP extractions you can't actually remain in concealment for the entire mission, you can however activate zero pods. So long as no one sees the Specialist hack and the rest of the squad has Phantom you're all clear. You can also call Firebrand in advance from a location the enemy can't see, and if you have Conceal you can recloak afterwards.

[AegixDrakan]

Infiltrate to 200%.

I thought once you got to "Extremely light" resistance there was no further point in infiltra-

SMGs decrease detection radius. Covert (the Shinobi skill) reduces detection radius. 200% infiltration decreases detection radius. Stacked, ADVENT can't see you until they're right on top of you

Wait...WHAT?! REALLY?!

Having 200% infiltration lowers the detection radius?!

This...I...Wow, this changes a lot, actually.

Is this what the "enemy readiness: vulnerable, etc" tag on a mission actually means? What else does it mean and what kind of gradations are there on this?

[Devon_v]

Over infiltration reduces enemy strength (to the minimum of Extremely Light as you noted), reduces the number of turns it takes Firebrand to arrive when called (as of 1.1 you can see this now), and eventually reduces detection, which it never actually tells you. The break points are at 125, 150, and 200, but they're slightly randomized. I believe you can get the reduced detection as low as 190, but the only way to be sure you have it is to go to 200.

You can also stack Shadowstep on top of all that for a turn.

As OP as it might sound, stacking all that is the only way to run stealth later on. Advanced Drones with improved sight from Dark Events have obscene detection range.

[AegixDrakan]

Thanks for the heads up. This is making me considering trying to send a really really small squad with shinobis and specialists at some point (Especially if one of my specialists has Ghostwalk as an AWC skill). Especially now that they're rolling out Mutons and I haven't liberated either of my two haven regions yet. >_> (I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be utterly boned on time sooner or later this run)

Advanced Drones with improved sight from Dark Events have obscene detection range.

Actually, on that note, is there a way to get rid of those buff events at some point? Do they eventually go away?

*glares a little at the +1 HP buff that makes some enemies survive grenades that they really shouldn't be surviving*

[Devon_v]

The Tactical Dark Events never expire. They're how the aliens tech up against you. You have to try to detect and prevent them beforehand. As far as I know, they can only attempt each one once, so if you stop it, that upgrade will never happen. Some of them have multiple events however, like there are at least two different +1 HP events, and they stack if they complete both. (They did in my campaign. )

RealityMachina has a mod that makes them eventually expire if you're not enjoying that aspect.

[AegixDrakan]

The Tactical Dark Events never expire. They're how the aliens tech up against you. You have to try to detect and prevent them beforehand. As far as I know, they can only attempt each one once, so if you stop it, that upgrade will never happen. Some of them have multiple events however, like there are at least two different +1 HP events, and they stack if they complete both. (They did in my campaign. )

RealityMachina has a mod that makes them eventually expire if you're not enjoying that aspect.

Oh, if that's part of how they tech up, then fine. It's irritating, but the good kind. The kind that makes me want to have more squad members so I can have two teams out in the field and another one ready to go if a dark event mission comes up.

I've learned enough from my first attempted run so far that even if it goes belly-up, I'm not going to be that upset, because It will translate into a much more successful second run.

[trihero]

At 200% you should have an evac timer of 1, assuming anything can even see you hack the objective.

Evac timer is 3 turns at 200% infiltration on commander+

[Valaska]

At 200% you should have an evac timer of 1, assuming anything can even see you hack the objective.

Evac timer is 3 turns at 200% infiltration on commander+

Yeah which is still do-able in vault missions etc. As long as you have clear motion in one direction you can run so far even without concealment and just stay barely in range of your skyranger call. I've done a few flawless/excellents that way. One time I accidentally ran under an awning and couldn't evac... Holy hell there were about 15 advent and aliens all shooting at my shinobi haha. He managed to survive every shot.

[trihero]

I agree it's possible, even consistently, but don't give the original poster the impression he has the luxury of a 1 turn timer which is rather different than a 3 turn timer.

[dstar3k]

I agree it's possible, even consistently, but don't give the original poster the impression he has the luxury of a 1 turn timer which is rather different than a 3 turn timer.

I didn't see that the OP is playing on Commander+?

[trihero]

I guess my response is I didn't see he said rookie?

[Sines]

I think you can still get a 1 turn timer on Veteran, not just rookie.

Anyway, the biggest trick to doing stealth missions is to control line-of-sight. Once you're at the objective, move your guys around until you can't see anybody. Having your characters hide in a place where they've got high cover on both side of them (building walls, for example) blocks vision pretty impressively. Toss the Evac beacon, and wait for it to be ready. Then, once it is ready, hit the objective, and run.

If you have a specialist, you can put the beacon in the spot the specialist will hack from. That way, he can hack and immediately evac. If you're going Solo Shinobi, then you can toss a smoke grenade on the objective the turn before, so that you'll have smoke protecting you once you expose yourself.

[trihero]

You can get a 1 turn evac timer too on legend, with air controller officer. Now that we're done playing with words...

Anyway, the biggest trick to doing stealth missions is to control line-of-sight. Once you're at the objective, move your guys around until you can't see anybody. Having your characters hide in a place where they've got high cover on both side of them (building walls, for example) blocks vision pretty impressively. Toss the Evac beacon, and wait for it to be ready. Then, once it is ready, hit the objective, and run.

Yes this, totally. Realize that once you hack the objective (whether it's a door for a vip or a console for data), an alert goes out to nearby enemies and they will storm the immediate area. The evac delay is quite annoying so if it's best to find a place where no one can see you, dump an evac, wait until it's about done, then do the objective and get out of there.

The other thing that helps is to have an officer shinobi - he can use officer abilities without breaking stealth, so that extra oscar mike movement + command can put your other guy into safety easily.

[Zyxpsilon]

Shinobi+Specialist & possibly a third of your choice.. just in case the RNG screws up real bad.

But for me.. the whole tricks basicly stands on what Perks you keep on giving to that specialized Team while you should concentrate on limiting detection -- don't forget some precious Officer ranks can help a lot under certain conditions.

I won't repeat the rest of what everyone suggested above -- all good hints.

Yet.. if there is ONE single fact that needs to be pre-determined... it *IS* always how you intend to proceed; speed or prudence. Once you have that stuff settled inside the drop-zone - keep to the plan(s) as much as possible until Evac.

It's not about Stealth but rather intimately tied with rational (or reasonable Mobility advantages) distances counted (and certainly not guess-timated!) in Yellow/Blue tiles.