Scientists in XCOM 2 are non-combat XCOM staff who reduce the time it takes to complete research projects. These projects give access to more powerful weapons, armors and utility items among other benefits. Moreover, some projects require a minimum amount of scientists (usually ranging from 1 to 3) to be able to start a research project. In War of the Chosen, Scientists are also required for certain Covert Actions.
Recruitment[]
New scientists can be gained in a number of ways:
- As a reward for Guerilla Ops missions
- Completing Rescue VIP and Extract VIP Council missions
- Purchased with supplies from the Resistance Goods facility at Resistance HQ (in vanilla XCOM 2 only)
- Bought with Intel from the Black Market
- As a reward for scanning sites on the Geoscape
- In War of the Chosen, recruited from the Resistance Ring with the Higher Learning Covert Action
- In War of the Chosen, by completing Resistance Operations missions - Recover Resistance Operative and Rescue Stranded Resistance Agents
Research impact[]
The base rate of research without any additional scientist except Richard Tygan is 2. Each new scientist permanently increases the research rate by 1, and project time is divided by this rate. The resulting reduction in research time for each scientist is as follows: -33%, -25%, -20%, -17%, -14%, -13%, -11%, -10%, and so on - that's really -1/3, -1/4, -1/5, etc, or equivalently, x2/3, x3/4, x4/5, etc.
If the Laboratory has been built, one scientist (two with the Laboratory's facility upgrade) may be staffed there to increase the research rate by one additional point per scientist.