Nico DaSilva

Nico DaSilva
Biography
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Born	17 August, 1924 Baltimore, Maryland
Family	Sylvestre DaSilva, father - deceased 1925 Catherine DaSilva, mother - deceased 1940 Elizabeth Montaigne, ex-wife (divorced, 1952) Nicolas DaSilva Jr, son
Political data
Role	Colleague
Affiliation	XCOM
Rank	Senior Agent
Other
Appearances	The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

Nicolas Alexandre "Nico" DaSilva is a senior Field Agent for the Bureau and protagonist of the Hangar 6 R&D DLC campaign. Agent DaSilva appears in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and is voiced by Liam O'Brien.

Agent William Carter shares an office with Agent DaSilva.

Background

Born 17 August, 1924 in Baltimore, MD to Catherine and Sylvestre DaSilva, DaSilva is a former FBI analyst with a general disregard for formalities and titles, instead preferring to use an endless list of nicknames for everyone he works with. His laidback attitude earned him many friends among his colleagues, but has resulted in severe troubles with authorities throughout his career - in law enforcement, of all things.

He first joined the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department August 12, 1947. Advanced to Deputy Sheriff with high commendations for field work, and began to pursue a career with the FBI as a legal analyst. During his screening, the FBI discovered that DaSilva had not completed his JD (Juris Doctor) degree, having dropped out of college due to financial concerns and falsified his credentials. Deputy DaSilva lost his job on December 24, 1951, which quickly led to the collapse of his marriage.

Despite this, the FBI was impressed by DaSilva’s record with the MPD as well as his interpersonal skills, and on February 14, 1952 they recruited him on a probationary basis for field work. He demonstrated exceptional skill in the field, and received a small degree of fame for the heroic single-handed arrest of the bank robber K. D. Carpenter on February 4, 1955. Despite this acclaim, Agent DaSilva was repeatedly demoted back to probationary agent due to various moral concerns about his activities when off-duty.

In 1959, after an embarrassing arrest in New York City where he and a jazz singer assaulted an officer, the FBI decided to move him out of visible work. At Director Faulke’s request, Agent Nico DaSilva was reassigned to work with the Bureau as a covert agent. DaSilva reached the rank of a Senior Agent with XCOM, leading a small task force of Agents like Carter does. Nico urges Carter to embrace his role in XCOM and is Carter's guide around the base, what little there is to see, before the player sets off on their first mission.

Agent DaSilva is sent off on a recon mission at the same time Carter was dispatched to retrieve Dr. Alan Weir. Nico is proficient with, or at least have a particular fondness for remote-controlled explosives, as Carter can order him to provide ordinance support during the Signal From Beyond mission, and the agent can deploy remote charges himself during the Hangar 6 R&D campaign.

Interactions

He is introduced as the player's partner after successfully escaping the destruction of Groom Range and stays in the office until Carter retrieves Dr. Alan Weir. Nico is not seen again until the Signal From Beyond mission where, after fighting their way through waves of attacking Outsiders, Carter and his men found the fellow agent holed up in a local radio station, wounded and infected, though remains sane enough to inform the player of the Outsider's tower location.

At this point, Carter is given two options: urging DaSilva to extract ("I'm not letting you die."), or allowing him to sacrifice himself to provide one final distraction later on ("Take them out with you."). The distraction occurs regardless of the player's decisions, though choosing the former allows them to cure him of his Sleepwalker state afterwards. If the second option is chosen, agent DaSilva dies and is added to the Memorial Wall.

Hangar 6 R&D

Nico DaSilva is the protagonist of the Hangar 6 R&D campaign, in which he starts as a level 2 Squad Leader. The DLC's campaign involves Nico undertaking several of Dr. Heinrich Dresner's tests to try and liberate Subject 23, a Sleepwalker infected, from Mosaic's control, before experiencing firsthand the alien invasion near the end of the test sequence. Despite he and his team's efforts the facility became overrun with Outsider forces, and Subject 23's mind fries when his connection to Mosaic was severed though the test succeeded. He and Dr. Dresner boards a Skyranger and flew off to the XCOM headquarters before the scene ends.

Abilities

As Squad Leader, the following abilities are made available to DaSilva as he ranks up:

Rank	Abilities	Bonus
1	Compound Exposure	Unknown Effect.
2	Plant/Detonate Demo Charge	DaSilva can Deploy and Detonate Demo Charges.
3	Lift	Raises a target out of cover.
	Down Range	Increase the range of the Deploy Charge ability by 50%.
4	Motivation	DaSilva's abilities recharges 15% faster.
5	Shrapnel	DaSilva's Demo Charges deal 50% more damage.
	Catalyst	DaSilva's Demo Charges have a 33% larger blast radius.
6	Deep Pockets	Doubles grenade capacity.
7	Drone	Deploys a friendly Drone.
	Pitcher	Grenades deal 40% damage.
8	Ringleader	Agents do 15% more damage when Focus Firing.
9	Mind Control	Controls an enemy's mind, making it fight its allies.
	Squad Inspiration	The entire squad's abilities recharges 20% faster.
10	Squad Morale	Reduces all damages the squad receives by 20%.

Unlike Carter's offensive powers, DaSilva is more of a tactician and focuses more on dealing damage with his unique Demo Charges and passively increasing the team's survivability rather than damage. While he does have access to several of Carter's abilities like Mind Control and Deploy Drone, they are optional and cannot be upgraded, and can be passed over for more supportive perks which benefits the whole squad rather than just himself.

As he starts at level 2, his level 1 perk is a dud which does not confer any benefit to gameplay, unlike William Carter's Heal. DaSilva also levels up after each mission, rather than during combat, thus several of his more useful abilities can only be accessed quite late into the campaign.

Gallery

Profile

Nicolas DaSilva, Jr.

DaSilva's Last Mission

Trivia

• Nico was once married, divorced, and apparently has a son. A photo of a child in spectacles can be found on his desk at one point with the title "My Pride and Joy".
• Unlike William Carter, Nico prefers to go by his shortened first name rather than the former's full.
• Nico is arguably the only "human" playable character of the game, as each and every other possible protagonists are all slaved to the control of Asaru, who merged with their consciousness and in turn giving them superhuman abilities.
  • Nico's ability to Mind Control, Heal or Deploy Drone was apparently given to him via the chemical compounds used in Dr. Dresner's tests.
• Nico is an enthusiast of Andy Warhol's artworks, specifically the artist's soup can illustrations, which Dr. Dresner fails to understand. This is referred to during the opening sequence of Hangar 6: R&D.