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I have been trying to finish an unmodded legend ironman game for a couple of weeks, having started over countless of times. One tactic that I haven't even thought about before is evacuating some soldiers mid-mission. In a guerrilla op mission for example, can I run to the open with my ranger, get a 100% hit with shotgun and then drop the evac grid on top of her and then get her to safety?

Do all missions except the ones where the evac zone is visible at the start of mission allow calling skyranger to any legal spot? And will the mission be succesful even if I used the evac option, or does it automatically make the mission fail even if I complete all the objectives with the rest of the squad?

And how about the experience for evacuated soldiers. I would assume they get at least the kills made before evac, but do they also get the partial kill experience from kills made after they left the map?

Padishar
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  • I believe that if you evac out of a mission, you won't get any corpses from that mission. If you do this routinely, you'll be short the corpses you need to unlock research and otherwise progress in the game. – Zach Lipton Mar 19 '16 at 02:26
  • I must add this awesome tactic to my repertoire! I'm also trying to complete legend ironman and I can see this beign really useful. – Mauricio Pasquier Juan Jun 22 '20 at 10:14

3 Answers3

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A mission will succeed if you evacuate when all objectives are completed. However, Guerilla Ops always require you to defeat all hostiles as part of the objective. You will only succeed on missions, where you have to evacuate anyway and in those the evac zone is usually fixed. So it is feasible to snatch a VIP and run to the evac zone and succeed without killing all enemies.

In guerrilla missions like stealing data, you will fail, because you did not complete defeat all hostiles.

Evacuated soldiers will get experience for the kills and mission experience as normal. The evac zone can be called on any mission without a fixed evac spot. Whether you can actually shoot an enemy, drop the evac zone on your ranger and get her out I don't know.

Mathias711
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Dulkan
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    Yes, but if I evacuate some but not all of the operatives, I can still succesfully complete the mission with the ones not evacuated? By "used as a tactic" I mean for example a situation where a Sectoid is mind controlling one of my units and I could take it out with my ranger, but that would leave the ranger exposed to other enemies. So I would evacuate the ranger (which should be possible even after using two actions), and finish the mission with the rest of the squad. That's the tactic I would use if it is possible. – Padishar Mar 18 '16 at 13:20
  • Yeah, sure, the mission only fails, if all soldiers are evacuated and the objective hasn't been completed. Why would you think, the mission could fail, if you evacuate one of your soldiers? – Dulkan Mar 18 '16 at 13:29
  • Yeah maybe I somehow related it to XCOM EU/EW, where if you evacuate, you have to evac all or lose the rest of the soldiers anyway, and the mission will fail. But indeed the entire mechanic is different in this game. – Padishar Mar 18 '16 at 13:38
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Yeah, you should be able to do that.

You can call for an evac zone on any mission that doesn't have a preset location for it.

You might need to drop the zone before moving the soldier. I know for certain that you can move into an evac zone, shoot, and still evac even though your turn would normally be over at that point.

Soldiers don't get experience at the end of a mission. They level up based on their number of kills, and also kill assists. Kill assists happen when they're on a mission and somebody else kills an enemy. I'm not sure whether they would get credit for kill assists on kills that occurred after they evac'd or not. There's a mod out there that lets you see their kill assists in the barracks, so that would be one way to check. See this answer for more information on experience.

If the other soldiers finish the mission, then the mission will still succeed.

I wouldn't use this tactic except in the most extreme of circumstances. You'll lose the soldier for the rest of the mission. Perhaps if the soldier is already so hurt that you're worried they will die, and you can't heal them, then this would be a way to get a last shot in before they leave.

Community
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DCShannon
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Note that the Alien Hunters DLC (May 2016) brings a few changes with tactical impact. In this case, it is no longer possible to drop the Evac grid over a soldier.

It does still work to place the evac grid where your soldier is about to run to, let them run in there, take their rapid fire or whatever, and then evacuate.

Another nifty tactic using evacuation applies in the situation if you've got one medikit soldier on a mission, but that soldier is the one who gets critically wounded and is a couple of turns away from bleeding out. You can choose one of your remaining soldiers to pick up the one who's unconscious and bleeding out, then evacuate just that one. Your remaining soldiers will have to do the rest of the mission with a reduced squad, but most missions only have 7-12 enemies anyway.

AlexC
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