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The story so far

The story of XCOM: Enemy Unknown

6 parts, from the opening to the ending. Read it before XCOM 2. This page tells the ending.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown's page

  1. The Invasion

    You were the Commander of XCOM, the international force assembled when aliens attacked Earth in 2015. You sent soldiers into streets where civilians had vanished or been slaughtered. At headquarters, Central Officer Bradford coordinated operations, Dr. Vahlen examined alien specimens, and Dr. Shen turned recovered technology into equipment your soldiers could carry back into battle.

  2. Capturing the Enemy

    You fought abductions and terror attacks while the Council watched panic spread through its member nations. Your decisions determined which countries received help and which soldiers came home. Capturing aliens gave Vahlen living subjects to interrogate. An Outsider captured from a UFO left a crystalline shard, which opened a path toward the invaders' hidden base.

  3. The Alien Base

    You used the Outsider shard to develop a Skeleton Key and breach the alien compound. Your squad fought through its defenders and confronted a Sectoid Commander capable of controlling human minds. Clearing the base eased worldwide panic, but the invasion continued. Among the recovered equipment, you found a Hyperwave Beacon that offered access to alien communications.

  4. The Overseer

    You built a Hyperwave Relay and traced an Overseer UFO. After your interceptors brought it down, you sent troops into the wreck. An Ethereal guarded a strange device inside. Recovering it pushed your research toward the Gollop Chamber, while your work on psionics revealed that some of your own soldiers could wield the enemy's mental powers.

  5. The Temple Ship

    You chose a psionic soldier as the Volunteer and activated the Gollop Chamber. Contact with the Ethereal Device opened the way onto the enormous Temple Ship. As your squad advanced, the Uber Ethereal described the invasion's purpose. The aliens had tested and altered other species, searching for the combination of physical strength and psychic ability they recognized in humanity.

  6. Earth SavedThe ending

    You defeated the Uber Ethereal, but its death left the Temple Ship collapsing into a catastrophe that threatened Earth. The Volunteer sent your remaining squad away, sealed the bridge, and took the vessel above the atmosphere. It exploded safely away from the planet. You had ended the invasion; your troops escaped, while the Volunteer disappeared in a flash before the blast.

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Written by an AI model from the game's wikis, and checked against them part by part by another before it was put here.