Look, XCOM 2 is mean. It doesn't care about your feelings, your carefully customized soldiers, or that 99% hit chance you just whiffed. We’ve all been there—staring at the screen in disbelief as a Muton crits your best Ranger through full cover. Sometimes the game glitches. Sometimes the RNG is just statistically insulting. That is exactly when console commands xcom 2 users stop playing by the rules and start playing God. It’s not always about cheating, honestly. It’s often about fixing a broken campaign or just experimenting with the absolute chaos this engine can produce when the shackles are off.
Getting the Command Console Running (The Boring Part)
You can't just press a button and expect magic. First, you have to tell the game it’s okay to let you into the "developer" side of things. If you're on Steam, right-click the game in your library, go to Properties, and find the Launch Options box. You need to type -allowconsole right there. If you’re using the alternative Mod Launcher (which you should be, because the 2K launcher is... well, it’s problematic), there’s usually a checkbox for it. Once that's done, hitting the tilde key (~) during a mission or on the Avenger brings up that beautiful, tiny text box.
Don't panic if it doesn't show up immediately. Sometimes you have to mash it. Sometimes it's the apostrophe key depending on your keyboard layout. But once it's there? The world is yours.
The Survival Kit: Commands You’ll Actually Use
Most people look for console commands xcom 2 because they're stuck. Maybe a civilian is trapped inside a wall, or a VIP extraction trigger didn't fire. It happens. The most basic, life-saving command is TTC. It stands for "Teleport To Cursor." You select a unit, hover your mouse over a tile, and boom. Physics? Gone. This is the ultimate "fix-it" tool for when the game’s pathfinding decides to take a vacation.
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Then there’s TTeleport. This one moves your entire squad to the cursor. It's incredibly cheaty, yeah, but if you’ve got one turn left on a timer and the extraction zone is halfway across the map because the procedural generation had a stroke, you’ll be glad it exists.
Powering Up Without the Grind
Let's talk resources. XCOM 2 is a game of scarcity. You never have enough Supplies. You never have enough Intel. If you want to bypass the stress of the strategic layer, you can use addresource. You just follow it with the type and the amount. For example, addresource supplies 1000 or addresource intel 500. It’s like a shot of adrenaline for the Resistance.
If you're tired of waiting for your favorite sniper to heal after a stray bullet put them in the infirmary for 20 days, HealAllSoldiers is your best friend. It’s an instant fix. No more "Shaken" status, no more long recovery times. Just back into the meat grinder.
When Things Get Weird: Experimental Commands
Ever wonder what happens if you just... win? WinMission does exactly what you think. It ends the tactical layer and gives you the victory screen. It feels dirty. It feels hollow. But sometimes, when you’re on your tenth restart of a Legend/Ironman run and a Sectopod just walked through the objective, you might find your finger hovering over that Enter key.
Changing the Soldiers
You can actually modify your troops mid-game. MakeSoldierAClass "Name" ClassName is a big one. Tired of getting nothing but Specialists when you desperately need a Grenadier? Just force the change.
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MakeSoldierAClass "Jane Kelly" GrenadierMakeSoldierAClass "John Doe" PsiMagus(Yes, you can even skip the training tube)
It's weirdly satisfying to see a rookie suddenly sprout psychic powers because you typed a few words into a grey box.
The Danger Zone: Faction Heroes and DLC
If you’re playing War of the Chosen (WOTC), the commands get even more specific. The game treats the Reapers, Skirmishers, and Templars differently. If you lose your Reaper and the game won't give you a mission to recruit a new one, you can force it. But be careful. WOTC is a delicate house of cards. Using console commands xcom 2 to spawn in multiple faction heroes can sometimes break the Resistance Ring UI.
I’ve seen campaigns where players had six Reapers. It’s hilarious until the game tries to calculate the stealth mechanics and just crashes to desktop. Moderation is a virtue, even when you're cheating.
Fixing the "Avatar Project" Stress
The doom clock. The red bars at the top of the screen that haunt your dreams. If the Avatar Project is one tick away from ending your 40-hour save, use RemoveFortressDoom. You specify how many pips you want to remove.
RemoveFortressDoom 2
Breath of fresh air. It buys you time to actually enjoy the game rather than rushing every single Guerrilla Op. Firaxis designed that clock to create pressure, but sometimes that pressure just sucks the fun out of the tactical combat. There is no shame in tweaking the clock so you can actually research those Plasma Rifles.
Technical Nuances and the "Red Screen"
You might see "Red Screen" errors when you start messing with the console. This is the game's internal debugging tool screaming at you. Usually, you can just ignore them or hit 'Enter' to bypass. However, if you start seeing them constantly after using a command like RestartLevel, it means you've likely corrupted the current tactical state.
Always save before you type. That is the golden rule of XCOM. The console is powerful, but it's not a polished feature; it’s a backdoor left open by the developers. It doesn't have safety rails.
Why We Use These Tools
I’ve talked to people who think using the console ruins the game. "The struggle is the point," they say. And they're right, to an extent. But XCOM 2 is also a sandbox. Once you've beaten the game "the right way" on Commander or Legend, the console becomes a tool for creative play.
Want to see how a squad of 8 Sparks handles an Alien Fortress? You can do that. Want to test if a specific combination of perks from the AWC (Advanced Warfare Center) is actually broken? The console lets you skip the 50 hours of grinding required to find out. It transforms the game from a stressful survival horror into a tactical playground.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Run
If you're ready to dive back in and want to use the console effectively without breaking everything, follow this logic:
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- Enable the console first. Don't wait until you're in the middle of a glitched mission to realize you didn't add the launch command. Do it now so it’s ready when the "XCOM BS" inevitably happens.
- Stick to "Fixer" commands for your first "Honest" run. Use
TTCto move stuck units andHealAllSoldiersonly if a glitch caused the damage. This keeps the spirit of the game alive. - Use the "GiveItem" command for weapon mods. If you are sick of never finding a Superior Repeaters, use
GiveItem Choice_Superior_Upgrade 1. It lets you customize your gear without relying on the black market's RNG. - Always back up your save files. Seriously. Go to your Documents/My Games/XCOM2/XComGame/SaveData folder and make a copy. The console can and will delete your progress if you input a string the game doesn't like.
- Experiment with 'PowerLevel'. If you want to see what a max-rank soldier looks like without the effort,
LevelUpSoldieris the way. It’s great for testing builds before you commit to them in a real Ironman run.
XCOM 2 is a masterpiece of design, but it's a buggy, cruel, and often unfair masterpiece. The console isn't just a cheat code; it’s the wrench in your toolbox that keeps the machine running when the gears start grinding. Use it to fix the bugs, use it to vent some frustration, or use it to turn your soldiers into demigods. Just remember to save before you do anything crazy.