The Heavy Class is a soldier class in XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
The primary role of the Heavy Class is delivering large-scale damage to as many targets as possible, through the use of explosive ordinance or heavy gunfire. It is the only soldier class capable of using rocket launchers, which provide high area damage and demolish obstacles.
XCOM Database[]
| “ | The Heavy Weapons specialist is responsible for deploying high explosive munitions against the enemy. Primarily relying on a shoulder mounted rocket launcher for both offensive strikes and the demolition of obstacles, these specially trained troops are crucial to the successful completion of tactical objectives. | ” |
–XCOM Database, XCOM: Enemy Unknown | ||
Tactical Description[]
- Main article: Heavy Class (XCOM: Enemy Unknown)/Guides
The Heavy Class is a front line specialist that excels in winning attrition fights with sustained heavy weapon fire from cover. A Heavy has explosives to break up enemy tanks, bunkers, and positions designed to level the playing field if overwhelmed. Heavy excels at destroying enemy cover with explosives. Like the other classes, there are two promotion paths for the Heavy. The left side turns the Heavy into an area-of-effect nuker, whereas the right side focuses on crowd-control utility.
Heavies favor stationary positioning, as key abilities such as firing a rocket may be used only when no movement is made. Always re-position the Heavy behind the most durable cover on the front line, to minimize his need for movement.
The Heavy Class is effective at dealing with both clustered enemies and enemies in cover, either through rocket weaponry or the Suppression ability. Rockets can injure many enemies at once and destroy their cover, exposing them to gunfire from fellow troops. Suppression can be used to lock down would-be flankers and melee enemies and to provide safe passage for squad mates advancing toward enemies in strong cover.
Weapons[]
The Heavy Class can be equipped with light machine guns and rocket launchers.
LMGs[]
| Weapon | Base Damage | Crit Chance | Crit Damage | Range |
 LMG
|
3 - 5 | 0% | 6 - 8 | Medium |
 Heavy Laser
|
5 - 7 | 0% | 9 - 11 | Medium |
 Heavy Plasma
|
8 - 10 | 0% | 14 - 16 | Medium |
In comparison to the standard rifles used by Rookies, Supports and Assaults, the Heavy's guns are the most terrain-damaging: inflicting roughly 1/4 of the damage dealt by a Frag Grenade against destructible cover (three times more than the Assault Rifle), therefore being the most reliable weapons at the beginning of the game at exposing aliens via gunfire. Their damage within a given tech level is surpassed only by the Sniper's Headshot ability, which is able to inflict comparable critical damage to targets, but with much greater frequency.
- Ammo Conservation: Increase ammo capacity by 100%.
Rocket Launchers[]
| Weapon | Base Damage | Crit Chance | Crit Damage | Range |
 Rocket Launcher
|
6 | N/A | N/A | Medium |
 Blaster Launcher
|
9 | N/A | N/A | Medium |
Class Abilities[]
When a soldier is promoted, some ranks allow a choice between two abilities.
| Rank | Abilities | Description |
|---|---|---|
 Squaddie |
 Fire Rocket
|
Fire a rocket using an equipped launcher. This ability cannot be used after moving, nor more than once per mission. |
 Corporal |
 Bullet Swarm
|
Firing the primary weapon as the first action no longer ends the turn. |
 Holo-Targeting
|
Shooting at or suppressing enemies also confers +10 Aim to any allies' attacks on those enemies. | |
 Sergeant |
 Shredder Rocket
|
Fire a rocket that causes all enemies hit to take +33% damage from all sources for the next 4 turns. However, this rocket has a weaker blast compared to a normal one. |
 Suppression
|
Can fire a special shot that grants reaction fire at a single target. The target also suffers a -30 Aim penalty. | |
 Lieutenant |
 HEAT Ammo
|
Confers +100% damage against robotic enemies (+50% in XCOM: Enemy Within). |
 Rapid Reaction
|
Confers a second reaction shot if on Overwatch and the first reaction shot is a hit. | |
 Captain |
 Grenadier
|
Allows 2 grenades in a single inventory slot (additionally grants +1 damage to Frag, Alien and Needle Grenades in XCOM: Enemy Within). |
 Danger Zone
|
Increases AoE on Suppression and all rocket attacks by 2 tiles. | |
 Major |
 Will to Survive
|
Reduces normal damage taken by 2 if in cover and not flanked. |
 Colonel |
 Rocketeer
|
Allows 1 additional standard rocket to be fired per battle. |
 Mayhem
|
Confers additional damage based on weapon tech level to Suppression and all area-effect abilities. |
Second Wave[]
Hidden Potential : 0-2 Aim per level for Heavy
Training Roulette: Each soldier's training tree is mostly randomly generated.
Only Heavy: Fire RocketRun (Lv1), Sherdder Rocket (LV3), Suppression (Lv3), Danger Zone (Lv5), Rocketeer (Lv7), Mayhem (Lv7)
Indep: Bullet Swarm (Lv2), Holo-Targeting (Lv2), HEAT Ammo, (Lv4), Rapid Reaction (Lv4), Grenadier, (Lv5), Will to Survive (LV6)
Notes[]
- Mayhem increases rocket damage and causes Suppression to deal damage, equal by one point per tech level of the main weapon. This brings the maximum rocket damage to 12 (when equipped with the Blaster Launcher) and means the Heavy has a guaranteed 3-damage shot with the Heavy Plasma at the cost of 2 ammunition.
- On Terror missions, extra care is needed when deploying explosives in general, as any civilians caught in the ensuing blast will die, lowering the mission score. Firing rockets in particular should be done with maximum caution due to the 10% chance of missing the targeted area.
