Psi Operative (XCOM2)

The Psi Operative utilizes their mental abilities to great effect to boost their allies and mess up their enemies^[Verify?].

Psionic Operatives level up by training in the Psi Lab, not from battlefield experience. Operatives in training can still go on missions; barring wounds, they will resume training after the mission.

Primary Weapon: Assault Rifle

Secondary Weapon: Psionic Amplifier

The Psi stat is unique for Psi Operatives and is used to calculate their success chance with psionic attacks. The Will stat is used for psionic defense.

Abilities

Each training attempt allows a choice between three randomly selected abilities. It is possible to gain early access to abilities far down the tree. (Training high tier ability takes about twice as long) Psionic Operatives are capable of learning all of the available psionic abilities, although this would requires considerable time and resources.

Rank	Telepath	Resonant
Initiate	Soul Fire Does guaranteed psionic damage to an organic enemy. Ignores cover and armor. 4-6 damage[Verify?]	Stasis Completely stuns the target for 1 turn, but renders them immune to any damage or attack.
Acolyte	Insanity Debilitating telepathic attack that can inflict different negative conditions, including mental control of the target. Conditions include disorientation and stun. Mechanical enemies are immnue. 3-turn cooldown.	Inspire Immediately grant a bonus action to an ally within sight range. 3-turn cooldown. Does not require LOS.¹
Adept	Soul Steal Returns half of the damage dealt by Soul Fire as health. Cannot exceed starting health.¹	Stasis Shield Stasis can be cast on allies, rendering them immune to any attacks, and stunned, for 1 turn. Unconscious allies cannot be targeted by Stasis Shield. Allows Stasis to be used on allies.
Disciple	Solace Psi Operative is surrounded by an aura that extinguishes or blocks any mental impairments for themselves or nearby allies. 4-tile radius. Conditions include disorient, stun, and panic.¹	Sustain If the Psi Operative takes enough damage to be killed, they are immediately put in Stasis for 1 turn and their health is only reduced to 1 HP. This can only happen once per mission. If the Psi Operative takes lethal damage, they immediately enter Stasis mode with 1 HP, but only once per mission. Does not clear status effects like acid or fire.
Mystic	Schism Insanity now does a small amount of guaranteed damage, and applies Rupture to the target. 2-4[Verify?] damage and causes the enemy to suffer +2 damage from all attacks.	Fortress The Psi Operative is immune to fire, poison, acid, and explosive damage.
Warlock	Fuse If an enemy is carrying explosives, they can be remotely detonated by the Psi Operative. Fuse may also target corpses that contain unused explosives. No cooldown.	Domination Permanently mind control an enemy. Only one successful Domination can be performed per mission. 4-turn cooldown on failed domination attempt. Mechanical enemies are immnue.[Verify?]
Magus	Null Lance Project a beam of psionic energy that damages every target it passes through. 5-turn cooldown. Affects a one-tile-wide line, ignoring cover and line-of-sight.	Void Rift Generate an explosive field of Psionic energy that damages everything within. Organic enemies have a chance to suffer Insanity. 5-turn cooldown.

¹ In-game ability descriptions needed.

Stat Progression

Rank	/level	total	/level	total	Psi Offense/level	total
Initiate	1	1	2	2	50	50
Acolyte	0	1	2	4	4(12)	54(-62)
Adept	1	2	2	6	4(12)	58(-74)
Disciple	0	2	1	7	4(12)	62(-86)
Mystic	1	3	1	8	4(12)	66(-98)
Warlock	0	3	1	9	4(12)	70(-100)²
Magus	1	4	1	10	4(12)	74(-100)²

² Cap at 100.

Tactical Advice

Psi-Operatives are less than stellar at low levels, but can become your star soldiers at end-game, mostly due to their ability to learn many more abilities than other troops with enough time. You should try to avoid your Psi-Operatives being hit, since wound recovery time cuts in to training, so spending time in the infirmary sets them back more than your other troops. It may be best to leave the Psi-Ops at home until they've trained 3 or 4 abilities. At the same time, late game operatives can be used as an off tank as they have multiple innate immunities, life steal and once-per-mission "I will not die whatever you throw at me" with Sustain. Fortress is especially impressive against ADVENT Purifiers, whose only means of inflicting damage are completely shut down by said immunities.

Notable combos are Insanity/Schism and Void Rift/Schism. Insanity/Schism is a modest combo, turning Insanity from a dubiously reliable disable in to a reliable damage ability as well. A Void Rift with Schism at high levels has a very high chance of not only damaging multiple enemies, but also disorienting or panicking them, damaging them further AND buffing further damage to them through the Rupture effect.

Other notable abilities are Solace, which allows your Psi-Op to counter Mind Control from enemies you can't disorient or kill (enemy Avatars and the Warlock in particular), and Inspire, which is a great Get Out Of Jail Free card when you really need a soldier to either retry a vital action that missed, or get out of a bad situation. Stasis is absolutely great way to keep a dangerous enemy disabled for a turn, and with Stasis Shield it can also save an ally that's nearly dead and about to take more damage than you can heal in one turn. Dominate is also excellent, allowing you to grab a high health enemy like a Gatekeeper or Andromedon to soak up enemy fire for you, while simultaneously depriving your enemy of that powerful unit (though be aware that if the enemy kills a dominated Andromedon, its suit will reanimate under enemy control and immediately attack you). And do not forget Null Lance- a damaging ability that tends to one shot well over half of the enemy types and is area of effect.

Sources

• XCOM 2 - Psi Operative Class - Skill Tree Breakdown [1]
• DefaultClassData.ini