Officers are regular soldiers who have received additional training and responsibilities as leaders in the field for XCOM operations. Best used as formal leaders for specific recurring squads, Officers grant important tactical and strategic bonuses for those soldiers, some of which improve the more missions those squad members go on. Bear in mind that only one Officer at a time can serve as a mission leader (the highest ranking Officer, highest combat rank if tied, or highest Will if both ranks are tied); other officers on that mission do not have access to their special abilities.

Even the lowest ranking officer gets access to the powerful "Command" ability, which allows them to grant any ally an additional action at the cost of their own action, as well as the "Intervention" ability, which exchanges your Intel resource for an extension of the mission timer. Well-employed, Officers improves the reliability and survivability of your squad even in the face of unknown, unexpected, or inconvenient factors. There is some selflessness inherent to the Officer's duty, and use of many of their abilities will cost you opportunities to employ their combat skills at the same time, so make sure the squad you assign them to shores up the officer's blind spots that emerge from use of their special abilities.

A few important notes:

Many officer abilities refer to the "Command Range" of an officer; this is an area of effect centered on the officer, inside which these abilities apply, and outside which they do not. The higher ranking the Officer, the larger this area. You can check this ability by pressing the green button on the upper right corner of the command screen, which toggles the display of this area.

Officers are better than non-officers at rooting out Faceless spies when assigned to Haven Advisor duty. The higher the rank, the stronger this effect. This combined with the Lead By Example perk (see below) makes them excellent for kickstarting recruitment new havens, as their officer abilities help make up for your lower numbers on faceless hunts and defense missions.

Get Some, Fall Back, Oscar Mike, Command, and Incoming do not effect "civilians" (i.e. VIPs, unarmed rebels)

Training and Abilities

Officers can be trained via the Guerrilla Tactics School, and are unavailable for the duration of the training period (4-12 days depending on level) unless the training is cancelled. Once initially trained, all Officers are automatically granted the first line of perks. Officers can train more abilities as they rank up. An officer's rank increases as their normal level does. Each new ability must be trained by spending time in the Guerrilla Tactics School.

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Any soldier class (including Psi Operative) can receive officer training once they are no longer a Rookie. Here are some notes on class suitability for the role:

Specialist: Excellent. Further cementing their identity as toolboxes for any mission, Officer training gives specialists even more options to confront a particular problem, especially tools that don't drain precious charges. Given how little the Specialist's primary weapon is employed, little opportunity cost is paid in use of Officer abilities, so go crazy on those action-costing abilities, such as Get Some, Jammer, and particularly Focus Fire.

Shinobi: Excellent. Officer abilities do not break concealment when used, allowing a concealment based Shinobi to contribute without breaking their stealth. An Officer Shinobi is also the vital half of the Shinobi-Specialist one-two punch that can effortlessly tackle most hacking and prison-break missions, using their Command to get the Specialist or mission package out of harms way after completing to the objective.

Technical: Good. Technicals have access to the largest number of concurrent defensive perks in the game, so even if you're rushing them forward to flamethrower the enemy, the combination of Formidable, Burnout, Fortify, and Tactical Sense will make your Officer an unappealing target. Also, since the Technical's trademark weapons are already charge based, doubling them as your officer increases their utility and gives them things to do when heavy weapons are unsuitable for the task at hand.

Grenadier: Good. As another class that leans on charge-based core abilities and with some access to defensive perks, Grenadiers benefit nicely from having officer perks, as you don't always want to solve a problem with a precious grenade, especially on longer missions. Cooldown based abilities, such as Focus Fire, are ideal picks here. Rapid Deployment is particularly useful, allowing this officer to throw a defensive grenade in the same turn as issuing an order if a surprised group of enemies requires an immediate reaction.

Ranger: Medium. Rangers have access to a variety of defensive perks that can make your officer hard to kill in a fight, and their tendency to already serve in the mid and back lines means that they're usually well-positioned to catch everyone in their command range and line of sight. Rangers can almost always use their actions gainfully shooting or reloading though, so you will usually want to favor passive or free action abilities in this officer's training; "Fall Back" and "Incoming" are two good choices.

Gunner: Medium. Often times you'd rather have the gunner shooting than barking orders, especially if they're applying shred to tough targets, but they are likely to be in the mid or back lines, well positioned to catch everyone in their command range. Like the Ranger, passive and free action abilities are ideal if you want to keep your damage output up.

Assault: Poor. The Assault role is a hazardous job, especially reliant on actions and mobility, and managing the hazards your officers have to deal with is important to keeping them alive.

Sharpshooter: Poor, except for specific builds. Sharpshooters are either too isolated or too busy shooting to serve as an effective squad leader, and don't get access to that many defensive perks. However, there is a sharpshooter archetype that synergizes extremely well with officer abilities: take everything from the center of the tree. Once the sharpshooter hits Sergeant rank this setup kicks into high gear, providing your tactical teams with a concealed scout that can contribute meaningfully to every battle. In one turn this officer can observe the next pod of enemies, light up two key foes with a holotargeter (thanks to rapid targeting), give a critical soldier an extra action, and provide passive benefits through defilade and lead by example, all without breaking concealment. Avoid the urge to also train in pistol abilities unless you can justify the extended time off the field.

Psi Operative: Situational. As Psi Operatives will already spend a lot of time "in the tank" training Psionic abilities, further sidelining them for officer training can be a prohibitive opportunity cost. However, its important to note that Psi Operatives ascend their ranks much faster than regular soldier classes, so if you get psionics early, you can quickly get a colonel or field commander trained for some GTS upgrades and strategic benefits. The Officer haven bonus also stacks with the Psi operative haven bonus for detecting faceless, so you can quickly sanitize the globe of faceless spies with these soldiers. On the battlefield, Psi Operatives already have a lot of cooldown-based abilities competing for attention, particularly the ever-valuable Stasis and Mind Merge abilities, so its viable but not excellent.

Scaling bonuses

Soldiers receive bonuses to the following stats based on the amount of missions they have gone on while being led by the current officer:

Dodge: +0.5 per mission, capped at 10 (20 missions)

Willpower: +1 per mission, capping at 40 (40 missions)

Infiltration: 0.0075f per mission, capped at 0.25f (34 missions)