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I just finished assaulting the alien base. I feel like I'm getting close to the end of the game, though, and I don't like it when the ending comes up abruptly with no warning. How many priority missions are left, so I'm prepared for the ending?

For the sake of completeness, it would be nice to have a list of all of the priority missions, in order.

Sterno
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enneract
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  • Storywise? Gameplaywise? Heck, distancewise? Why do you want to know how close to the end of the game you are? – Frank Oct 12 '12 at 19:31
  • I assume you mean how long it is time-wise for one playthrough from where you are. Probably mention something concrete like "How many hours". – Shykin Oct 12 '12 at 19:36
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    As in, what approximate percentage of the storyline has been completed by that point. – enneract Oct 12 '12 at 19:38
  • Why do you want to know this? Will knowing how close to the end of the game you are impact how you play? Or are you just wanting to know how close to the end you are? – Frank Oct 12 '12 at 19:40
  • I dislike the ending appearing with little warning. – enneract Oct 12 '12 at 19:41
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    its probably more reasonable to ask how many more priority missions are there after the alien base mission. – l I Oct 12 '12 at 19:42
  • You know it still is kinda open ended since for XCOM you could blaze through several major event turns and spend all day on one objective. You kind of set your own pace. I guess if you consider each story mission a part, then you could be like 4/8 story objectives or something. – Shykin Oct 12 '12 at 19:42
  • what yx said, exactly what yx said.

    I'm afraid I don't know how to edit my original post to add clarification in a way that won't get it reverted, however.

     – enneract Oct 12 '12 at 19:47
  • I've edited it to be clearer. Hopefully that works for you. – Frank Oct 12 '12 at 19:51
  • It does. Thanks for compensating for noobness, as I'm relatively unfamiliar with conventions here. – enneract Oct 12 '12 at 19:53
  • No worries! Welcome to Arqade! – Frank Oct 12 '12 at 20:01
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    I think your use of "priority" may be misplaced. I'm not an xcom expert, but my search seems to associate that term with ME3, but not XCOM. (If that's right, someone should edit to, "How many missions are there, on average, after the assault on the alien base"?) The following link seems to suggest that you just did the first of 3 fairly standardized levels, with the others being randomized to some degree: http://www.ign.com/wikis/xcom-enemy-unknown/Essential_Missions – Jaydles Oct 12 '12 at 20:05
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    @Jaydles In-game, the word PRIORITY appears next to these "essential" missions, research items, and facilities. – Sterno Oct 16 '12 at 16:58
  • @enneract you mean little warning apart from the massive red message that says "this is the point of no return, abandon all hope ye who enter here"? – kotekzot Oct 16 '12 at 19:17

2 Answers2

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Capture Any Alien > Research > Capture Outsider > Research > Skeleton Key > Assault base > Research Item > Make facility > Scan with Facility > Down Overseer Craft > Assault Craft > Research Item > Build Facility > Create a Powerful Psionic > Use Device (POINT OF NO RETURN) > Assault Temple Ship > Win Game

You're at the start of mid game but it depends on how much time you spend setting your guys up for future missions.

Spoiler Version:

Capture Any Alien > Interrogate Alien > Capture Outsider > Research Outsider Shard > Skeleton Key > Assault base > Research Alien Communication Device > Make Communication Facility > Scan with Communication Facility (Typically around a month) > Down Overseer Craft > Assault Craft > Research Psionic Device > Build Facility to protect and use the psionic device > Create a Powerful Psionic (Max rank) > Use Psionic Device (POINT OF NO RETURN) > Assault Temple Ship > Win Game !

Shykin
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    For the first mission you can capture any alien, not necessarily a Sectoid. Mine was a Thin Man. – SIMEL Oct 13 '12 at 17:45
  • @Shykin Could you elaborate on this answer a bit and spell out which "items" and "facilities" are being built? I understand you are probably trying to avoid spoilers, but in this case, the spoilers are probably what people are actually after. – Sterno Oct 16 '12 at 16:56
  • Sure, I'll add a specific one under a spoiler tag – Shykin Oct 16 '12 at 17:21
  • For what it's worth, getting to the base assault took me about as long, or longer, than the rest of the game. I was OCD about interrogations, though, which made the late-game research times close to zero. My point is that the rate of progression through the game doesn't linearly map to progressing through the list of required objectives. – jprete Oct 18 '12 at 00:04
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There is a comment from the developers indicating that an average playthrough on normal difficulty should take between 15-20 hours. A playthrough on classic difficulty takes "a lot longer."

Quote:

"How long will a normal playthrough of XCOM: Enemy Unknown take?

Garth: Anywhere from 15-20 hours on normal, and a lot longer on the higher difficulties. From day one, we did build this to be completely replayable. In this regard, it’s kind of long for a replayable game. We totally expect people to replay.

Jake: The difficulty level changes. If you play on normal, it will take 15-20. If you bump up to Classic (a higher difficulty) not only is it longer, but it’s going to be a completely different experience because you’ll need to focus on different elements to overcome the same obstacles."

Source: http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:TheBlueRogue/XCOM:_Enemy_Unknown_Developer_Interview

Donnniegoat
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    This is information which I did not have before! That being said, I've never found 'hours to complete' to be a very good metric for any game's length, especially ones which aren't completely on rails. How much time you spend doing side missions or otherwise dragging things out (in this context, not focusing on priority research) would significantly impact that figure. – enneract Oct 12 '12 at 19:45
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    http://howlongtobeat.com/ is an interesting resource on this topic. They have a completionist, just story, and average metric. – Donnniegoat Oct 13 '12 at 21:40