"XCOM: Enemy Unknown" [2] Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Council

The Council is a group of 16 nations that co-fund the XCOM project. They provide monthly funding, and can offer special missions to the player, often with high rewards. If panic in a member nation becomes too large, that nation will leave the council, and will stop its funding of the project. The game ends if eight countries leave the Council.

The Council nations include: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Answer: Heavy

When a Heavy soldier reaches Corporal, they can learn either Bullte Swarm, or Holo-Targeting. Holo-Targeting will make an alien easier to hit for all other soldiers that turn, even if the Heavy missed. This is good for helping newer soldiers make hits and gain XP, and can be excellent when used against a large enemy, to make sure all other soldiers hit it.

Answer: Arc Thrower

Early on in the game, Dr. Vahlen will start asking you to capture live alien specimens for interrogation. Once the Arc Thrower is researched, built, and an Alien Containment facility is constructed, Soldiers can take the Arc Thrower into battle as their item. The lower the health an alien has, the better the chance of it being stunned when an Arc Thrower is used on it. Each Arc Thrower comes with two charges per mission, and Soldiers have to be very close to their target to use it.

Arc Throwers can be upgraded so they work better on aliens with more health, and to capture enemy drones, and to repair friendly S.H.I.V.s.

The Alien Grenade is just like the regular grenade, but deals more damage. The Mind Shield is an item that your soldiers can wear to make them more resistant to enemy psionic attacks. Combat Stims give the user a plethora of bonuses for a short time on the battlefield. It comes with two charges per mission.

Answer: Nickname

Soldiers start off at the rank of Rookie, and are able to use assault rifle type weapons and have one item slot. When they get their first promotion to become a Squaddie, they earn their soldier class (Assault, Support, Heavy, or Sniper). Two promotions later, when a soldier reaches Sergeant, they unlock their nickname slot. All soldiers are given a nickname initially, but like everything else, you can customize it.

The Psionic class is a sub-class that any soldier can get. Once you have the Psionic Labs facility, you can test up to three soldiers at a time to potentially unlock their latent psi abilities.

Answer: South America

Each continent has a special bonus associated with it. The bonuses can be unlocked by placing a satellite over every Council nation in it, or by placing XCOM headquarters there.

South America has only two Council nations, Argentina and Brazil, making it the easiest bonus to acquire. We Have Ways makes all interrogations and autopsies instant, which can be a big help in saving time if you're willing to hold off performing any until you have the bonus.

The continental bonuses are (In-game descriptions):

North America - Air and Space: "All aircraft and aircraft weapons cost 50% less to purchase, build and maintain."
South America - We have Ways: "Autopsies and Interrogations are completed instantly."
Europe - Expert Knowledge: "Laboratories and Workshops cost 50% less to build and maintain"
Africa - All In: "Monthly XCOM funding increased by 30%."
Asia - Future Combat: "All projects in the Foundry and Officer Training School cost 50% less."

Answer: Chryssalids

Chryssalids are terrifying purple aliens made of teeth and claws. They only have melee abilities, but they move quickly and do large amounts of damage. They can poison your soldiers, and have a high chance of critical hits, which will sometimes instantly kill your units. Worse, if a human dies after being attacked by a Chryssalid, it will come back as a zombie. Zombies are slow and have low health, but if they are not killed in three turns, they will become Chryssalid Hatchlings, which are just as bad as regular Chryssalids.

Chryssalids appear frequently during terror missions, in which there are plenty of human civilians that they will hunt down and kill to make zombies.

Answer: Assault

One of the earliest abilities that the Assault class gets access to is the Lightning Reflexes ability. Lightning Reflexes guarantees that the first reaction shot made against that soldier every turn is a miss. This is excellent for Assault soldiers, who are usually closest to the aliens, and likely to draw their eye. Moving an Assault soldier with Lightning Reflexes first can make an alien in Overwatch waste its reaction shot, making the field safer for other soldiers to move.

Answer: Super Heavy Infantry Vehicle

S.H.I.V.s are robotic soldiers that you can send onto the battlefield instead of one of your human soldiers. They have good armor, and can be built instead of recruited, but they cannot gain experience, do not rank up, and have fewer abilities than human soldiers. They cannot take cover, either. S.H.I.V.s are excellent for scouting and drawing attention away from your human soldiers.

S.H.I.V.s can be upgraded to have laser cannons, and later come in different varieties. The Hover S.H.I.V. can move great distances and fly, and the Alloy S.H.I.V. can take even more punishment than a regular S.H.I.V., and can act as low cover for your human soldiers.

Answer: Colonel

The list of ranks in order is:

Rookie
Squaddie
Corporal
Sergeant
Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Colonel

Soldiers rank up by getting experience, usually by killing aliens. You also need a soldier to reach certain ranks before certain upgrades in the Officer Training School become available for purchase. When you have at least on Major, you can purchase the New Guy upgrade, which automatically upgrades all current and future Rookies to Squaddie. When you have a Colonel, you can purchase Don't Die On Me, which makes it more likely that a soldier will be critically wounded rather than killed. Critically wounded soldiers can be stabilized with a Medikit (or fully revived by a Support soldier). Also, critically wounded soldiers will survive the mission if the it is completed before they bleed out.

They player character has the rank of Commander.

Answer: Ethereals

The aliens that rule over all the other aliens are the Ethereals. The Ethereals are some of the most difficult enemies in the game (explosives work best against them), and the final chamber in the final mission is filled with Ethereals and one Uber Ethereal.

The Ethereals were searching the galaxy for a species that was strong in mind and in body. The other alien species that XCOM fought were the Ethereals' failed attempts. Humans, though, with their potential for psionic abilities, were exactly what the Ethereals were looking for.

The Ethereals wanted to conquer Earth and enslave the human race for their own purposes, but the XCOM project stopped them.