Firaxis actually released the Unreal Development Kit to help modders create custom content for the game, creating one of the strongest modding communities for any video game out there. Modding allows for infinite ways to enjoy the game, and there’s a lot to dig into. So there’s always going to be something out there to keep it interesting. Here are some of the best ones I’ve found so far.
40. Military Camouflage Patterns
Check Out This Mod With XCOM 2 featuring a variety when it comes to soldier customization, it’s unavoidable that we’re going to want them to look their best. Military Camouflage Patterns adds tons of options for camouflage configurations, all based on real-life patterns. These include Australian, Belgian, Irish, and Russian camouflage designs to choose from. What’s even better about this is the changes work on both armor and weapons.
39. Free the Hood
Check Out This Mod Free the Hood further adds to your options, this time focusing on facial customization. Getting the exact look in vanilla isn’t easy, since multiple facial customizations couldn’t be used at the same time. Why can’t your soldier smoke his cigar even with a hood on? Or why does wearing a helmet suddenly mean your soldier no longer needs that eyepatch? This mod simply makes it possible to stack facial customizations, so you won’t be limited in terms of how you want your soldiers to look.
38. Custom Face Paints
Check Out This Mod Nothing makes a soldier look more battle-ready than having that badass thick black line under their eye. Soldiers and face paint, is there a better duo? And whatever the reasons may be, you’re definitely going to want this in XCOM 2. Custom Face Paints adds 20 custom face paint designs into the game. Your soldiers will be looking scarier than ever with any of the options available here. The mod even includes a texture for the famous Braveheart face paint pattern, which is cool too.
37. Capnbubs Accessories Pack
Check Out This Mod Need more customizations? You can’t go wrong with Capnbubs Accessories Pack. One of the more popular soldier customization mods out there, Capnbubs Accessories Pack adds a ton of options for head accessories, including helmets, facemasks, caps, and more. What’s great about this mod is that the textures try to stay close to the original XCOM art style, so everything fits in perfectly with the base game. Another cool thing is that the mod still gets updated pretty often, with new accessory options being added in from time to time. You’re definitely going to be spending way too much time in the customization menu with this one installed.
36. CX Praetor Armor
Check Out This Mod With any mod-capable game, you’ll find mods that pay tribute to other popular video games, movies, or public figures. That’s cool for players, since who doesn’t love infinite crossovers? The CX Praetor Armor mod fits that category perfectly. It adds the option to use Doomguy’s armor from Doom 2016. Who wouldn’t want to use one of the most iconic shooter characters in any game? The pack comes with tintable armor sets for male and female characters, along with other customizable options like transparent or non-transparent visors.
35. CP Halo Spartans
Check Out This Mod Next up is the CP Halo Spartans pack, making it possible to include some of the known Spartans from the popular Halo video game series in your roster. The pack currently contains 10 of the known Spartans including Linda, Fred, Kurt, and of course John. Most of their armor will look similar, as they mostly use Mjolnir Mark V. What’s cool about this mod is that their faces were actually recreated with XCOM 2 textures to make them look as close to the base game as possible. Each Spartan comes with a completely unique bio as well, so it’ll actually be as if you’re playing with XCOM 2 with Halo Spartans in your squad.
34. Star Wars Galactic Republic Armory
Check Out This Mod Of course, any mod list referencing pop culture wouldn’t be complete without a Star Wars mod. Star Wars Galactic Republic Armory adds almost 600 unique cosmetic options based on Star Wars models. The pack includes armor sets for Storm, Clone, Snow, and Jungle Troopers – basically any Republic model you can possibly think of. It’s actually a remastered compilation of 5 previously released Star Wars armor packs, so this is the most complete set you can get.
33. Uniforms Manager
Check Out This Mod Now that you’ve added an overwhelming number of options to customize your soldiers with, you’re going to want to get Uniforms Manager to match. Uniforms Manager is a quick and easy way to save uniform combinations, allowing you to name each outfit for easy access later. If you’re anything like me, your OCD probably dictates that soldiers of the same class should be dressed similarly. Well that’s easy enough to manage here!
32. Arnold (Arnie) Schwarzenegger Voice Pack
Check Out This Mod Beyond cosmetic upgrades available for XCOM 2, some modders even went so far as to make audio customizable as well. This mod actually changes your soldiers’ voice samples to Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes. Quotes are taken anywhere from The Terminator, Predator, Commando, Total Recall, The Running Man, and Kindergarten Cop. So I’m not so sure how relevant each sample will be… but funny is better than nothing, right? Regardless, it’s a lot of fun to imagine that Arnie is actually in your roster.
31. Deadpool Voicepack
Check Out This Mod Another sound mod that’s good for taking a break from all the seriousness of the game – the Deadpool Voice Pack. The pack contains 420 different voice clips from the Deadpool films, providing comic relief just when the battle starts to get pretty tense. What’s cool here is that the quotes have actually been placed to match in-game scenarios. So what you’ll be hearing will mostly be relevant to what’s actually happening in the game.
30. Darth Vader Voice Pack
Check Out This Mod The James Earl Jones portrayal of Darth Vader has become so iconic over the years, there’s just no reason to skip over this mod. It adds 110 quotes from the film series, which can be used to replace male voices in the game. The chance to hear Vader speak “as you wish” while commanding your soldiers, or “I want them alive, no disintegration” just before an attack… it’s just too good to pass up. His taunt of “perhaps you’re not as strong as the emperor thought” can even work as motivation to make better decisions on the battlefield.
29. Mark Hammil Joker Voicepack
Check Out This Mod Another undoubtably iconic voice performance is Mark Hammil’s Joker. I don’t know about you, but even with the recent Joaquin Phoenix portrayal (good as it was) Mark Hammil’s voice is still the one I hear whenever I think of the Joker. The mod includes over 650 Joker lines, with name and location references removed. So you won’t be hearing anything about Batman here.
28. Better Tactical Zoom Out
Check Out This Mod Once you finally get past the character customization menus, you’re going to want some quality of life mods to keep things interesting. As with any top-down strategy game, camera options are almost always going to become an issue. The same is the case with XCOM 2, as most players find that it’s just not possible to zoom out too far. This is especially important as XCOM 2 is mostly made up of careful planning and routing. Better Tactical Zoom Out should help with that, giving a much wider view of the battlefield.
27. Free Camera Rotation
Check Out This Mod Sometimes zooming out just doesn’t cut it. Being a tile-based game, it can be important to maximize your limited movements per turn. While the base game allows you to rotate the camera in 90-degree angles, sometimes it’s just not good enough to get a clear look at your destination, and what possible threats might be in your way. Free Camera Rotation fixes that, granting completely free control of camera angles in the game. You’ll be able to make smaller adjustments, in 45-degree angles, or even freely rotate the camera to get any visual you wish.
26. Stop Wasting My Time
Check Out This Mod Strategy games can get quite repetitive over time. Especially when the same animations play over and over for each action. Sometimes you just want to get things going a bit faster. Stop Wasting My Time is the perfect mod for that. What it does is basically removes most of the unnecessary time-wasters in the game, from the 1-2 second pauses after shooting, to the unnecessary enemy cinematics scattered throughout. It doesn’t have any impact in terms of what you’re supposed to see, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything important.
25. Evac All
Check Out This Mod Keeping with the theme of avoiding repetitive gameplay, it just doesn’t make sense that evacuating your units has to be done one by one. If you’ve gotten all your soldiers into the active evac zone, why would you have to command each to evac one at a time? Evac All is the solution. Now you can evacuate all units within the evac zone with one quick click of a button. Easy!
24. Overwatch All/Others
Check Out This Mod Similar to the Evac All mod, Overwatch All/Others is also designed to save some time by avoiding repetitive commands. It just becomes tedious to have to put each soldier on overwatch one at a time. The mod adds two new options, allowing you to put all soldiers on overwatch with one click, or to put everyone other than your selected soldier on overwatch. Not only does it save time with fewer commands, but you’d be skipping the mandatory pauses at the end of each turn as well.
23. ShowMeThePersonel
Check Out This Mod Preplanning for your missions is important in XCOM 2, and you’re pretty much always going to want the right soldiers for the job. ShowMeThePersonel makes that a much simpler task. This mod gives you the option to hover soldiers to see stats, XP, and other useful information. With all the necessary details much easier to see, you’ll have the best squad members picked out every time.
22. ShowMeTheSkills
Check Out This Mod Another one from modder ²²², who also gave us ShowMeThePersonel – ShowMeTheSkills makes it much easier to find information as well, this time focusing on skills and perks. Coming back from a mission with wounded soldiers, it’s inevitable that you’re going to maximize your bench roster in XCOM 2. Having assigned different skills and perks across your roster, it can get tedious to find who you assigned what to. ShowMeTheSkills makes it easy, displaying skills for each soldier in the squad selection menu. Now you won’t have to go through multiple menus to find that information anymore. Much faster deciding who gets what equipment and whatnot.
21. Show Enemies on Mission Planning
Check Out This Mod As the saying goes, knowing is half the battle. This applies to XCOM 2, since knowing what you’ll be up against allows you to prepare better by choosing the right skills and equipment for each battle. Show Enemies on Mission Planning is a small mod that will save you a lot of time by displaying the enemy types and quantities detected by the Shadow Chamber, all directly in your Mission Planning screen. The information is available in the Geo screen, but who wants to keep going back and forth just to check if everything fits?
20. Blackmarket Usage
Check Out This Mod Games with market mechanics always tend to be a bit intimidating. If you’re anything like me, you eventually become the hoarder you never thought yourself to be, refusing to let go of any items in case they might come in handy later on. XCOM 2 is no different with its Black Market feature, where you can go to sell items you no longer need. The Blackmarket Usage mod should come in very handy when you’re selling your crafting items, as it basically tells you exactly what you can give up. If an item is completely useless, you’ll know. If an item can be used to craft things, you’ll be told what they can be used for and how many pieces you’ll need. It makes navigating through the black market much simpler than it has to be.
19. Show Health Values
Check Out This Mod Just reading the name of this one, you might be thinking it’s probably something you won’t even need. You might be thinking “there’s nothing wrong with the health bars anyways, so what’s this all about?” Well yeah, early on the health bars aren’t an issue. But as you progress through the game, your soldiers improve. And your enemies do as well. In the later stages it can become quite tedious to count those tiny little health bars to know exactly how much health someone has. Show Health Values adds a simple numerical display of remaining health vs. total health to each unit. Very handy. You’ll never want to play without it, I assure you.
18. Stabilize Me!
Check Out This Mod If you’re not too concerned about adding a tiny little modification to the gameplay mechanics, Stabilize Me! is a great addition. It’s inevitable that some of your soldiers are going to be severely injured during battles. It’s left to your medics to get them up and fighting again. But everything pretty much falls apart when it’s your medic that gets downed in the middle of combat. Stabilize Me! adds a neat little feature that let you make use of the fallen soldier’s medkit to patch him up. Basically, as long as the fallen unit has a useable medkit, you’ll be able to use that one to get him up. Even when your other units don’t have any available.
17. Perfect Information
Check Out This Mod XCOM 2 being a tile-based game plays out like a tabletop game when it comes to combat. This means that much like rolling a pair of dice, attacks have different percentage chances of being successful, along with critical and dodge probabilities. In XCOM 2, these details aren’t readily available. And that’s where Perfect Information comes in. It gives you information like hit, crit, and dodge percentages that wouldn’t normally be displayed. This is especially useful for attacks taken from overwatch, where this information is super helpful.
16. Gotcha (Flank Preview Evolved)
Check Out This Mod A huge part of strategizing in XCOM 2 is positioning your soldiers to successfully attack enemy aliens. As you move around levels and learn more about how combat works in the game, you’ll find that flanking is a huge part of that. You’ll have to maneuver your squad to get tactical advantages over your enemies, considering line of sight against environmental obstacles around the map, and sometimes it’s not as simple as you might think. Gotcha is a mod to help with all of this. It turns the little red icon next to enemy health bars yellow when you hover any tile that allows you to flank the enemy. It may seem like a small upgrade, but most players consider this to be something they can’t play without.
15. New Target Icons
Check Out This Mod Further improving on Gotcha, the New Target Icons mod makes it easier choosing where you move your soldiers around the map. New Target Icons basically adds icons for different target types beyond XCOM, Alien, and Advent, making it easier to position your soldiers. The icons give you a better idea of who should be attacking which enemy, so you’ll be able to make better battle strategies with that information in mind.
14. Tactical Kill Counter
Check Out This Mod Character customization plays a big role in XCOM 2. Soldiers level up as they gain experience in combat as well. You’ll inevitably end up favoring some of your soldiers more than others, grinding to level them up to the tippy-top. Tactical Kill Counter is a brilliant mod to help with this process, displaying how many kills each unit has accumulated along with how many more kills they need to be promoted to the next level. This is useful in the early game as well, since you’ll be able to identify which of the newbies racked up some kills during battle.
13. Free Reload
Check Out This Mod Here’s a small mod that will prove useful during battles: Free Reload by tjnome. Certain weapon components in XCOM 2 grant your soldiers with free reloads. And strangely enough, these aren’t displayed during combat. All Free Reload does is adds an icon in the skills portion of your UI, so you’ll easily be able to tell if you have any available free reloads remaining.
12. After Action – Days Wounded
Check Out This Mod Another small mod here that’ll be a big help in terms of analyzing your After Action Reports. Days Wounded gives you more information to go by after battles are done. In addition to how badly each soldier was wounded, it will tell you how many days they’ll be out for, based on the injuries they sustained. Super handy time save.
11. Upgrade Reminder
Check Out This Mod If you tend to forget to actually use the things you find during missions, Upgrade Reminder is a good mod to have. It adds little icons in the Mission Preparation menu that say if any soldiers in your squad are eligible for upgrades. Be it a weapon upgrade module or whatever else, you’re going to want to get those upgraded as soon as possible. A simple quality-of-life mod to manage your squad a little better.
10. True Retroactive AWC
Check Out This Mod The Advanced Warfare Center is the base game’s built-in feature where your soldiers can earn random perks, but it isn’t without its flaws. How it works is that recruited soldiers are given a random perk if you already have the AWC built. Or all soldiers are given random perks when you build it. The problem stems from the fact the random hidden perks are assigned to be activated in a specific soldier level. If your soldier receives a perk for a level he hasn’t reached yet, then it activates once they hit that level. Here’s the rub: picking up a perk meant for a level lower than his current level. This would mean that the perk would never be activated. Frustrating stuff! Well this mod is the only fix you need.
9. True Concealment
Check Out This Mod One problem with concealment is that sneaking around still consumes time during missions. The mission timer is also a big part of how combat plays out, and this was likely designed on purpose. Some players might even say that mods affecting the mission timer are a bit of a cheat. But True Concealment is also said to be the most fair modification to the mission timer. Here’s how it works: the mission timer doesn’t run down while you’re hidden from enemy sight, making stealth gameplay all the more rewarding. Not too cheaty, just helpful.
8. Elerium Grounds
Check Out This Mod Once you reach mid-to-late game in XCOM 2, Elerium becomes a rare commodity. And shortages are almost unavoidable. This makes it virtually impossible to maximize the Proving Ground, leaving you to fall behind on some powerful equipment upgrades. Elerium Grounds seeks to remedy that by giving the ability to craft your own Elerium Cores. You’ll have to complete the necessary research before you’re able to do so, but it’s well worth it. With this mod you’ll be able to upgrade the Spider and Exo suits with research as well, so they can stay useful towards the later stages of the game.
7. XCOM 2: Tactical Co-Op
Check Out This Mod There’s also a lot of mods when it comes to actually adding to the base game, or even changing the gameplay completely. To start off on this path, we have XCOM 2: Tactical Co-Op. This is actually a mod created by the makers of XCOM themselves, allowing you to experience the game in multiplayer mode. If you’ve got a friend who’s as into XCOM as you are, this should make for some good fun for the both of you.
6. More Maps Pack
Check Out This Mod Another good way to keep the game interesting is by spicing up the level design. More Maps Pack lets you do that, adding more configuration options and elements to the world builder of XCOM 2. This makes for more variation when it comes to the procedurally created levels. Changing the map configurations might seem like a minor change. But you’d be surprised how big of an impact this has on combat.
5. Additional Mission Types
Check Out This Mod Additional Mission Types is another mod that keeps the game interesting. Especially when you feel like you’ve seen everything the base game has to offer. It introduces a few new mission types to the campaign, like defense missions and VIP rescues among others. Certainly a great way to keep the campaign mode fresh as you’ll be playing through new scenarios.
4. Long War Alien Pack
Check Out This Mod Mixing it up in terms of enemy types is also a solid way to keep you on your toes. The Long War Alien Pack introduces over a dozen new enemy types, each with their own abilities and strengths. Some enemies will be incredibly strong, while others will be sharpshooters from a distance – whatever it is, prepare to encounter unfamiliar baddies.
3. Long War 2
Check Out This Mod If you’re looking for more of an entire overhaul, you might want to look into the whole Long War mod for XCOM 2. Pavonis Interactive’s Long War for Enemy Unknown was one of the major reasons Firaxis expanded on the second game’s mod capability, which in itself is pretty indicative of how good it is. They’ve come back with Long War 2 for XCOM 2, adding tons to the game like a longer campaign, new classes, a wider range of customization options, and much more. Check it out for yourself and see what you think!
2. Guerrilla War
Check Out This Mod Guerilla War is one of the less popular overhaul mods, but it’s certainly worth a peek if you’re a hardcore XCOM 2 player. It drastically changes combat mechanics to make things a bit more challenging. So if that’s what you’re after, I would recommend giving this a try. It also includes an interesting play on the mission timer, where Advent has unlimited reinforcements. This means lingering in a battle for too long will just get you beat from the sheer number of enemies that come your way.
1. A Better ADVENT: War of the Chosen
Check Out This Mod Now if you’re seriously looking for a more challenging XCOM 2 experience, without changing much of the gameplay, A Better Advent is the mode to try. Much like a new game+ mode, A Better Advent introduces around 60 new enemy types to start. While none of them are overpowered, you may find yourself struggling to find weak spots or defensive strategies for some of the new abilities they have. The mod also features an improved AI, so enemies will be much smarter too.
