Characters / Xenonauts

Xenonauts

Tropes applying to the Xenonauts as an organisation

• Expy: This being a invokedSpiritual Successor to X Com UFO Defense, the Xenonauts are effectively a Cold War era X-COM.
• Good Guns, Bad Guns: The standard ballistic weapons available to them at the start of the game (Beretta 92, M-16, Mossberg 500, FN MAG, H&K G3SG/1) are all Western guns, as is the rocket launcher. A set of Soviet alternatives was Dummied Out of the game, but can be restored with mods.
• Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Their standard fatigues are a bright blue colour. There's a reason for this, though: The aliens see in a different visible spectrum to humans, making traditional camouflage useless, so the Xenonauts make their uniforms clearly visible to their own squadmates to cut down on Unfriendly Fire incidents. Later uniforms come in different, but still visible patterns.
• Multinational Team: After the Iceland Incident, the world's governments realised that a united effort, free from the politics of the Cold War, would be required in the event of an alien invasion. Members are recruited from various militaries throughout the world.
• Impartial Purpose-Driven Faction: Co-operation between U.S. and Soviet Forces during the Iceland Incident led to the creation of the Xenonauts, who are free from the constraints of the Cold War, aside from funding. After the war, your chief scientist even advises against turning your technology over to one particular side.
• Oddly Small Organisation: A couple of soldiers and a handful of scientists and engineers at the beginning and doesn't get very large for a force designed to fight off an alien invasion force. They're underfunded at the beginning of the invasion because over the last twenty years, there had been no sign of any further alien vessels at this point and the world is still in the midst of the Cold War.
• Redshirt Army: Because they're woefully under equipped in the early game, expect to lose quite a few of your soldiers, particularly in the early game. Even late game equipment doesn't necessarily save them from falling prey to a messy death at the hands of an alien.

The Commander

• A Commander Is You: As the Player Character, it's up to you to run the Xenonauts at tactical and strategic level, including assigning scientific research and manufacturing.
• Non-Entity General: Standard for the genre, though the uniform that appears on the difficulty selection screen implies that the Commander might be German.

Chief Scientist

• Deadpan Snarker: He writes the Xenopedia and his entries are incredibly snarky, especially towards the engineering staff.
• Insufferable Genius: He's got a massive ego regarding his intelligence and his role in the war effort. Amongst other things, he believes he should get the majority of the credit for winning the war and is due several Nobel Prizes for his development of increasingly deadly firearms.
• The Lancer: He's the one who is giving the most feedback to the Commander in the form of the Xenopedia. He also formulates the plan for Operation: Endgame.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: He personally heads up the development of all weapon systems as well as compiles the autopsy reports and oversees the alien interrogations.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: His plan for Operation: Endgame is incredibly unorthodox: Firstly, jam the aliens' FTL drives, then send a team to assassinate the High Praetor, causing the entire alien invasion force to fall into a coma from lack of mental input.

Drill Sergeant

• Artificial Limbs: He gains cybernetic arms of varying complexity as your tech level develops.

Aliens

Tropes applying to all aliens

• Aliens Are Bastards: They attack human cities to test humanity and see what kind of traits they possess for their own gain. Their contingency plan in case of failure is particularly horrifying; dropping Reapers en masse into human cities and letting them unleash a Zombie Apocalypse.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The autopsies reveal some odd physical properties amongst the different species, many of which were the result of the Praetors genetically tampering with them.
• E.T. Gave Us Wi-Fi: Thanks to reverse engineering, alien technology is used to advance human technology, including developing the actual Internet.

Caeseans

• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Lampshaded in the autopsy report, which leads nicely into...
• Clone Army: All Caesans are genetically identical, as pointed out by the autopsy report.
• Expy: Aside from being classic greys, their low status among the alien hierarchy and mild Psychic Powers make them this game's equivalent of Sectoids.
• The Goomba: The weakest enemies in the game, they are by no means a pushover if an inexperienced commander is facing them.
• The Greys: They're the classic depiction of aliens with all the traits: Huge heads and eyes, flat faces, lean physique.
• Lean and Mean: Though approximately the same height as humans, they have long, gangly arms and legs.
• Psychic Powers: They have psychic abilities that can demoralise Xenonaut troops, causing them to panic, berserk, or flee. These powers were why the Praetors absorbed them into their empire and took for themselves.

Sebilians

• The Brute: They're used as shock troops.
• Close-Range Combatant: Enforced by their biology. They can see in infrared, but only at close ranges, which makes them poor marksmen at any kind of distance. Their toughness makes them prime candidates for tanking shots.
• Expy: Their similarities to the Mutons aside, their general toughness and appearance is reminiscent of the Krogan.
• Healing Factor: Fail to kill a Sebilian outright during a turn will result in him regaining his health the next turn. According to the Xenopedia, they can recover from even brain injuries unless said injury is fatal. The Praetors adapt this for themselves and, to a lesser extent, so can the Xenonauts in the form of improved medkits.
• Lizard Folk: Sebilians are a reptilian species.
• Made of Iron: They can take a lot of punishment if you're not using some of the more advanced weapons and sometimes even if you are. Forget about using ballistic weapons unless you're firing in automatic at close range using several soldiers in the same turn. And if they survive that, their Healing Factor kicks in when their turn comes around again.
• Lightning Bruiser: Zig-Zagged. While they're not necessarily very fast in game, the interrogation report states that they are surprisingly agile.
• No-Sell: They're immune to the effects of smoke grenades, due to their infra red vision.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Very fond of lobbing plasma grenades if they get close enough.

Androns

• Artificial Stupidity: Andron programming is extremely simple, leading them to make idiot mistakes like never using cover. The disassembly report lampshades this, and suggests you use this to your advantage.
• Killer Robot: They're purely mechanical, meaning that stun weapons, especially gas grenades, are ineffective against them, though EMP grenades can stop them.
• Mecha-Mooks: Lampshaded by their autopsy, which notes that there's no real reason for them to be bipedal and humanoid, considering the aliens have mechanical units that fly.

Drones

• Attack Drone: Giving the aliens air support, these come in three varieties: Light, medium, and heavy.
• Hover Tank: All three variants are the aliens' equivalent of tanks, but the Heavy Drone probably exemplifies it best by being tough and having a lot of firepower.

Harridans

• 24-Hour Armor: Exaggerated. Their armor can't be removed.
• Cold Sniper: Exaggerated. It is speculated that Harridans don't even understand the idea that other things are alive.
• Jet Pack: One of their abilities is to fly to higher ground to take advantage of the height.
• Unusual Ears: Their ears are long and pointy.
• Vertical Mecha Fins: Their armor features a pair.

Reapers

• Achilles' Heel: Mercifully, they're pretty vulnerable to sleep gas grenades, even as the other aliens break out respirators. It's definitely preferable using these than trying to take one alive with the stun rod.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Regardless if a human is unarmoured or wearing Predator Power Armor, one strike from a Reaper will zombify them instantly.
• Bizarre Alien Reproduction: They reproduce by impregnating a host, which becomes a zombie while the new Reaper incubates. Killing said zombie will result in the new Reaper spawning instantly, bursting out from the corpse. Naturally, losing soldiers and civilians to Reapers can unbalance numbers in combat in favour of the aliens.
• Close-Range Combatant: Even more so than the Sebilians, since they can't use guns.
• Chest Burster: If not killed within a turn, a zombie will burst open, revealing a fully-grown Reaper.
• Expy: Being able to impregnate and zombify a human instantly and that zombie spawning another Reaper upon its death makes is the same as the Chrysallids.
• Lightning Bruiser: Come with a pile of TUs and can cover distance quickly. Even their movement animation is faster than that of other aliens.
• One-Hit Kill: Technically not, since the victim of their attack becomes a Technically-Living Zombie, but that person is effectively dead, since they will attack humans and putting one down spawns another Reaper.
• Xenomorph Xerox: Like X-COM's Chrysallids, they reproduce by infecting humans, zombifying them, and emerging Chest Burster style. They're also fast and fairly tough.

Wraiths

• Elite Mooks: Fast, smart, have high HP and are capable of teleportation, they start showing up during the later stages of the invasion.
• My Brain Is Big: Their huge heads contain nodules that enable their teleportation.
• Teleport Spam: Their main ability is to be able to teleport themselves around the battlefield, taking your soldier by surprise.

Praetors

• Armor Is Useless: Their armor is purely ceremonial with no real function. Their real defensive ability is their Psychic Powers.
• The Assimilator: They conquer various species, take their most desirable traits for themselves, modify said species, then put them to work as their Mooks. For example, the Caeseans' Psychic Powers and the Sebilians' Healing Factor are just two abilities they use.
• Aliens Are Bastards: They're the ones who have actual free will, enslaving all the other races and taking their abilities.
• The Empire: Their empire spans much of the galaxy and their rule has been unopposed for millenia.
• Expy: They fulfill the same role as Ethereals with an added Healing Factor.
• Healing Factor: Like the Sebilians, they can heal every round, but are still vulnerable to being shot up enough times.
• Mega Manning: They take racial traits from the worlds they conquer, such as psionics and rapid healing.
• Psychic Powers: Like the Caeseans, they make use of psionics, but they're more powerful, allowing them to take control of Xenonauts at will.

The High Praetor

• Big Bad: The invasion of Earth is a pet project for him.
• Decapitated Army: His death results in the invasion ending and all the aliens going into a coma from lack of mental input.