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War of the Chosen

Zombies in a Barrel achievement in XCOM 2

Zombies in a Barrel

Get 15 Headshots against Lost in a single turn

Zombies in a Barrel0
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How to unlock the Zombies in a Barrel achievement

  • Vr EnglishVr English
    26 Sep 2017 27 Sep 2017 27 Sep 2017
    This isn't quite as simple as just waiting for a mission with lost and using explosives to trigger more lost. Having tried several approaches I'd say the easiest guaranteed way to get this is to wait for a mission with a sit rep of - 'The Horde' - which means the mission is lost only. Hopefully you don't have the dark event which means your squad isn't concealed at the start of the mission but even if so its worth bringing a reaper to scout out the mission to find all the horde locations.

    Once you have the mission, place your squad in the best positions possible around the map so you're sure to have at least 15 in sight. Once you break concealment the lost will move closer too so make sure you account for that. Once you've started taking out the lost make sure you're shooting only using the 'Headshot' action that replaces standard firing for this to count towards the achievement.

    There are a couple of things you can do to make this far easier:
    - Use the 'Between the Eyes' Faction Order available from the Reaper Faction that allows any damage on Lost to be a 1-hit kill.
    - Equip your squad with as many Auto-loaders, Extended Magazines and Scopes as possible, auto-loaders and extended magazines mean chances for consecutive kills from one character without running out of ammo. Scopes improve accuracy.
    - Get height advantage to increase soldier accuracy
    - Take your highest ranking soldiers, the higher they are in rank the greater their aim stat
    - Take some Sharpshooters (only really valid if you have the 'Between the Eyes' card or you pick and choose targets but Sharpshooter pistols don't need reloading so you can shoot as many as you can in range)

    The achievement pops mid-mission.

    The Video highlighting some of the points:
    Sharpshooter and also a Plasma rifle with a 20% superior scope and height advantage (you get increased attachment scores from a continent bonus, also height advantage).


    Not shown in the video - I had just killed 12 consecutive lost in a row with an autoloader extended mag Reaper who also had Silent Killer. Silent Killer meant that none of the lost moved towards the Reaper meaning that the lost moved towards the rest of the squad once concealment was broken.

    Hope this helps.

    Guide not helping? View 2 more guides for this achievement.

    Showing both comments. Leave a comment.
    FuneralRitesWouldn't using the "Between the Eyes" combined with stocks on all weapons trivialise this?
    Posted by FuneralRites on 28 Jan at 16:26
    Vr EnglishAbsolutely! Then you just need a nap with enough lost, and enough ammo or snipers with good enough aim.
    Posted by Vr English on 28 Jan at 22:03
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  • O4OURO4OUR
    08 Jan 2018 09 Jan 2018 13 Jan 2018
    This is surprisingly easy.. It's just very missable because you have to manually hit the button "Headshot" (Which replaces your default shoot button) and not use any special abilities to take them out, like I did in this video.

    I found using a Sharpshooter the easiest way to go as ammo isn't an issue for their pistol shots. Meaning you can do this very early on. I recommend getting the Reaper order "Between the eyes" and everything else is just gravy. This mission I was on said something like 32 enemies and the only enemy was "Lost" in the box.. so just wait for one of those missions. Sit Rep before going in should say "The Horde".

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Bullet points:
    - Sharpshooter
    - Use pistol Headshot manually
    - Reaper order "Between the eyes" helps a ton
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I re-loaded after this video and hit Headshot on my pistol and got the achievement.

  • Lt DavoLt Davo
    30 Sep 2017 30 Sep 2017 01 Oct 2017
    I don't recommend trying for this achievement on Ironman. You'll probably want to make a save before you begin, so after you unlock the achievement, you can go back to where you were and finish your campaign the way you wanted to.

    Wait until you have a captain and can buy the Squad Size II upgrade. By this time, you will also have a decent amount of stats, abilities, weapons upgrades, etc., all of which will help. I don't think you need to worry too much about bringing a certain weapon, mod, squad member, etc. It's more about having a fullly equipped midgame-level squad you're comfortable with than about having a specific trick up your sleeve.

    Next, wait until you have a mission with The Horde sitrep. (This means the map has only Lost; no Advent or aliens that you have to fight simultaneously.) You may see this sitrep on one of your guerilla op choices when you actually wanted to choose a different mission. No problem, that's why you're making a save, remember? After you've saved, change your difficulty to Rookie, select and load out your squad, and begin the mission. Once the mission is started, you may want to make another save that you can scum in case you don't get your 15 headshots on the first try.

    What I did was send my soldiers out in two groups of three to find the Lost pods. Once I found them, I didn't shoot any Lost, I just dashed my soldiers towards a center point where they could all get on high ground. This map had an Advent train on it, which worked out well as a shooting platform. Since I was running without making any attacks, some of the Lost got within melee range and attacked my soldiers with their little sissy slaps, which is fine because close range just makes them easier to kill. When I began making headshots, all of my soldiers were more or less together, and there were about 20 Lost surrounding them on all sides.

    I used my Templar and my sharpshooter first, because their autopistol and pistol have infinite ammo without reloading. It helps a lot to start off getting 7 headshots without using any actions or ammo.

    You'll want to be aware of your weapon's minimum damage and the target's hit percentage. It's often better to go for a lower hit percentage on a lower-HP target than a 100% hit chance on an enemy that might not score a headshot. For example, if your sharpshooter's pistol has a damage range of 3-4, and your choices are one target with 4 HP and 100% to hit, and another with 3 HP and 95% to hit, I would go for the 95%.

    This clip is from my game where I got the 15 headshots and unlocked the achievement, although the Game DVR doesn't include the achievement popup. As you'll see, when I got my 15th headshot, I had three soldiers who still had both actions left, and I never use auto-loaders, so the moral is, this is very doable and you don't have to bend over backwards trying to set up the perfect tactical situation.

Do you have a question about this achievement? Please post it in the XCOM 2 Forum