The 10 Best XCOM 2 Mods (Ranked)

What are the best XCOM 2 mods?

XCOM 2 is one of the best top-down strategy games ever made, and it’s filled with an absolute ton of content.

However, the modding community has also created numerous enhancements for this game that make replaying it even more fun.

Today, we’re rounding up the best XCOM 2 mods available that we highly recommend adding to your next playthrough!

The 10 Best XCOM 2 Mods

There are thousands of mods for XCOM 2 on both Steam and the Nexus, but we’re focusing on the ones most worth downloading.

The mods that we’ve chosen have been selected based on how they impact the game, their popularity, and how stable they are.

So, before you join the resistance, take a moment to read through our list of the 10 best XCOM 2 mods:

10. Long War Leader Pack

Kicking off our list, we have the Long War Leader Pack mod, which adds a brand-new development path for your soldiers.

Leaders are able to draw from a pool of 10 new abilities with a focus on guerrilla tactics and perks that aid their whole squad.

This path is unlocked via an upgrade in the guerilla tactics school, which is available for purchase when the player has at least one Sergeant.

While only one leader can be assigned to a mission at a time, except under certain circumstances, they definitely are a boon to have.

As their abilities often benefit the whole squad, the mechanic “Command Range” has been added, and it increases as leaders train.

We really enjoy this class, and it gives you something unique to work your way toward that can help make your teams stronger.

Although XCOM 2 is one of the best PS5 strategy games, this mod alone makes it worth picking up on the PC, in our opinion!

9. All Soldiers Gain XP

One complaint we have about XCOM 2 is that it’s easy to get attached to a specific team, but when members are lost, you’re left with nothing but rookies.

Since only the soldiers you take out with you gain XP, it can be difficult to level up a lot of characters, as you’re probably more focused on a specific group.

Well, this mod fixes this issue by allowing all of the soldiers left behind to gain a small percentage of XP after each successful mission.

The base amount that soldiers will receive is 50%, though you can configure this to be more or less using the .ini file.

This file also allows you to dictate whether units can level up outside missions and whether rookies or injured soldiers get a bonus.

Modder BlueRaja has also created the Units Gain More XP mod, which pairs well with this one, and it allows your soldiers to gain experience twice as fast!

Both of these mods have become favorites of ours, and we definitely recommend them for your next playthrough.

8. Capnbubs Accessories Pack

We’re not going to lie; we’ve spent a lot of time customizing the appearance of our soldiers because we like them to look distinct.

Fortunately, we aren’t the only ones who like making our squad members look nice, and Capnbubs has added a ton of new accessories!

This accessory pack adds numerous helmets, night vision goggles, visors, gas masks, balaclavas, and masks for XCOM soldiers to wear.

A bit like the best Skyrim clothing mods, this accessory pack fits seamlessly into the game, so much so that it looks like it could have been there from day one.

We really like that this mod provides us with more customization options without going completely overboard.

If you want to add a bit more diversity to your soldiers’ appearances, Capnbubs Accessories Pack is a mod you shouldn’t pass up!

7. Stop Wasting My Time

XCOM 2 is, by far, one of the best turn-based RPGs of all time, but it is filled with a lot of unnecessary pauses that make missions take longer than they should.

If you’ve already played through the game, then these needless pauses and long cutscenes can be pretty frustrating, which is where this mod comes in.

Stop Wasting My Time, as you can imagine, is a mod dedicated to making the most of your precious time by removing unneeded pauses.

It also shortens some cutscenes so that the important parts aren’t skipped, but the fluff and filler are gone.

One of the most significant changes this mod makes is removing the pause after specific actions like shooting, tossing grenades, or getting a kill.

This mod also increases the speed of the Avenger on the world map and removes the unskippable Bradford voiceovers.

Stop Wasting My Time has easily earned a permanent place on our load order, and it definitely makes a huge difference in terms of gameplay!

6. More Maps Pack

The More Maps Pack by mod creator Darren. Weekes aims to add more diversity to XCOM 2 by making maps much more interesting.

This mod adds a number of new and modified “parcels,” which are what the game uses to generate large-scale maps.

So, instead of adding completely new maps to the game, this mod ensures that you’re likely to come across new things in the maps you already know and love.

In total, the More Maps Pack adds 8 map parcels, 3 map plots, and 1 map PCP, which are combined with the game’s procedural map elements.

However, a really cool aspect of this mod is that, because it is updated frequently with the game’s own generation, greater level variations will appear over time!

Thanks to this mod, XCOM 2 has gained even more replayability, and it’s certainly kept us playing just to see all of the changes that can occur!

5. Long War Alien Pack

One thing that makes the best games like Mass Effect stand out is the variety of aliens they have to offer.

While the aliens in XCOM 2 are certainly cool, there isn’t a ton of variety between them to keep things interesting for long.

Fortunately, the Long War Alien Pack fixes this by adding a ton of new aliens to the game to make things really dynamic!

The aliens that this mod adds fit perfectly into the game, and they definitely make things a lot more tense during combat.

One of our favorite additions is the Muton Centurion, which looks a bit like a Mass Effect Krogan, and it’s just as deadly!

Other additions include Naja and Sidewinder, snake-like aliens that specialize in stealth, and the ADVENT mechs, which are devastating to encounter.

This mod comes from the creator of the Long War Leader Pack, Pavonis Interactive, so you know it’s worth downloading.

We’ve certainly fallen in love with this mod, and since playing it, we can confidently say it will never leave our load order!

4. Rogue Class

XCOM 2 has a lot of great classes for your soldiers to specialize in, but modders are always creating new ones to keep the game fresh.

As the name suggests, this mod adds a new class that’s inspired by the Scout class from the Long War mod.

The rouge comes equipped with a pistol and an SMG, and soldiers with this specialization can make use of high mobility to flank enemies.

Rouges also gain access to special skills, which allow them to use damage bonuses to take out targets from stealth while staying concealed.

What we like most about this mod is that it adds unique custom abilities that provide players with a ton of customization options.

There are three skill trees to choose from; The Ghost Tree, Lone Wolf Tree, and Scout Tree, which each revolves around specific specialties.

For instance, the Ghost Tree is all about concealment, while the Lone Wolf Tree focuses on keeping your distance from the squad in exchange for bonus defense.

Likewise, the Scout tree provides better map visibility in exchange for less stealth, but it is very useful for literally scouting out an area!

This class is extremely fun to play with, and we’ve taken to having a scout on our squad for almost every mission!

3. Evac All

This may be a minor complaint, but one thing we’ve always been frustrated with was the fact you have to individually evac each squad member.

Seriously, if they’re in the evac zone, they should, you know, actually evacuate instead of standing there like a pack of lemmings.

Thankfully, the modding community has come through for us once more, and the Evac All most is the answer to our aggravated prayers!

When this mod is installed, all of the soldiers inside the evac zone can be evacuated with a single click, and you can choose how it happens.

There are three options for evacuation; All At Once, One By One, and No Animation, which are sort of self-explanatory.

The One By One option is the closest to the vanilla evac option, but All At Once is our favorite because everyone will rope out at staggered times.

Of course, you can also have them blip out of existence with the No Animation option if you want any remaining aliens to think they’ve been fighting ghosts.

In our opinion, all of the best games like XCOM could benefit from having a mechanic like this, and we wish it had been in the vanilla version from day one!

2. Extra Weapon Upgrade Slot

If you want to ensure that you have the best weapons possible to fight the War of the Chosen, you’re going to need this mod!

Now, in the vanilla game, weapon upgrades have a limited number of slots, which means you can’t just slap on mods willy-nilly.

However, the Extra Weapon Upgrade Slot mod changes this by allowing all weapons to have three upgrades at any time.

To make things even better, you can edit the .ini file to add more upgrade slots if you really want to get crazy!

With this mod, you will never have to be forced to choose between stability and accuracy, fire rate, or clip size ever again.

You can make some seriously powerful weapons using these extra upgrade slots, and we highly recommend checking this mod out if you haven’t already!

1. Long War 2

Taking our number one spot is another mod by Pavonis Interactive, and it’s one that overhauls a significant portion of XCOM 2.

While we can’t cover everything this mod does, one of its biggest features is extending the campaign to be between 100 and 120 missions long on average.

Infiltration mechanics will now require you to send out multiple squads at once, and dozens of new enemies have been added with improved AI.

You can also now manage resistance havens directly and recruit more people or use them to gather intelligence and supplies.

Nine soldier classes now have their own unique secondary weapons, and two new weapon tiers have been added; coilguns and lasers.

This mod provides a ton more variety to XCOM 2, and it really ups the ante when it comes to keeping the resistance forces alive.

As a total conversion mod, Long War 2 really makes it feel like you’re playing a brand-new game with everything it adds and changes.

However, everything this mod does fits perfectly into the vanilla game, and if you didn’t know it was a mod, you’d swear it was an official update!

Summary

We hope you’ve enjoyed our list of the 10 best XCOM 2 mods and found some you’re excited about using during your next playthrough.

XCOM 2 is, by far, one of the most sophisticated strategy games ever made, and these mods do well to enhance its strengths.

Long War 2, in particular, is a must-have, in our opinion, as it really helps emphasize the tactical aspects of the XCOM series!

Here’s a quick recap of the 10 best XCOM 2 mods:

1. Long War 2
2. Extra Weapon Upgrade Slot
3. Evac All
4. Rogue Class
5. Long War Alien Pack
6. More Maps Pack
7. Stop Wasting My Time
8. Capnbubs Accessories Pack
9. All Soldiers Gain XP
10. Long War Leader Pack

What’s your favorite XCOM 2 mod? Leave a comment below.