Xenomorph is genuinely fun to go against and would be fair once bug fixed.
Just throwing my 5 cents in so that the forums look less like an echo chamber. This isn't "that is how you counter xeno post". If you think whatever I said isn't consistent, reliable, working, you are entitled to these feelings, but that was my experience of facing xenomorph.
I've played a plenty against xenomorphs and I have genuinely found this killer to be more fun to face than a lot other killers and any antiloop killer.
Turrets are very fun to use and they add a lot to immersion. I found that the most efficient way to use them is to place them in such a way that one side of the tile you're planning to run is covered by a turret so xeno gets burned out if he chases you there, however he cannot just break the turret, he has to walk away, which gives you a perfect chance to run into the opposite direction and get a lot of distance. Even rn it's pretty efficient when the recovery bug doesn't occur. Plus it's just hilarious to watch the demon burn.
Xeno's antiloop is a very smooth attack which doesn't slow him down and I think that's a fair reward for not being able to hold this attack and zone survivors like any other killers like xeno do as well as having to deal with turrets.
When he attacks, he has to commit. The way his hitbox works (it interrupts the moment it collides with anything) means that even if you're caught out of position, there's still last resort chance to make xeno miss, which is much higher than against any similar killer who would just keep holding their power until you run into it or stop trying to dodge or lock yourself in animation.
His wind-up feels very fast, but overall it's as quick as Nemesis and overall has slightly bigger effective range than Nemesis' tier 1. It definitely doesn't feel like old deathslinger when you basically got hit scanned. There is a noticeable wind up animation to which you can react to. This was especially apparent to me when I was playing xenomorph myself and a lot of survivor were crouch reacting to my tail attacks when I tried to hit over certain loops. I struggled a bit more with that, but I was also successful noticing the tail wind up and crouching in time. If I were facing huntress or Deathslinger, they would've held their power and kept moving creating a dragged out unfun scenario in which I either uncrouch and get hit or don't and get hit nonetheless. If it was old deathslinger, I wouldn't have been able to react whatsoever.
Unlike all antiloop killers, xeno lacks tools to counter shift+w at all, turrets only add up on that. Staying in loops against him even with predropped pallet is a very bad idea, but if you can chain 2 loops together, you can avoid xeno for a long time, especially since they are often greedy.
Tunnels feel very powerful, but I also don't find them too powerful to face. The only gripe I have is that the exit slowdown near hook is removed instantly when survivor is unhooked near the tunnel, so xeno can come back to hook very easily, so a bunch of xenos I face were pretty hardcore tunnelers. I also found a strategy of leaving the gen earlier if I hear beeping to be more efficient than staying till the xeno appears, as very often tunnels are very close and I wouldn't make it in time before.
Overall, Im comparing my experience of facing xenomorph vs my experience of facing similar killers and that is what I can say. I'd rather face xenomorph over any huntress, deathslinger, pyramid head, memesis or even probably demogorgon. The only reason some of these killers (the latter two mainly) would be somewhat equally appealing option is because they are easier to beat, but aren't really fun to face as their power is essentially the slightly worse thing xeno does, but with bigger range and / or ability to counter shift+w.
Xeno is very powerful killer, but pretty interactive and lacks a lot of unfun aspects that other similar killers have in both facing and playing them. I feel like once this killer is bug fixed and is no longer possessing built-in unrelenting and sbfl in half of his m2 hits, as well as becomes able to break turrets consistently (rn they can be immune to your hits just because or they're always immune when you leave the tunnel) xeno would be second coming of wesker - meta defining, designed so well people hate him because of overexposure.
Comments
Xeno is very fun to go against but bad teammates make it miserable it's like wraith or dredge where you do not want to be injured against this killer but nobody seems to realize that yet and getting a heal in soloQ is ######### impossible because we need to slow walk around the map instead for some reason.
The only thing I'm not a fan of is I think the slow emergence out of a tunnel needs a lingering effect after an unhook it seems like it's gone the instant the unhook happens which makes it somewhat ineffective as an anticamping mechanic. But besides that Xeno is probably my favorite killer to go against tied with Dredge, Singularity and Demo.
I wouldnt know. Going on 20 games in a row not one single xeno!
yeah, pretty much it.
I really hope people would just realize that keeping turrets up 24/7 is the priority so that teammates have all intended resources in chase and that they would not place turrets like landmine traps that take zero time to deal with and are super easy to spot.
I've met a bunch of 200 iq players against me who were really smart about placing turrets and that was difficult to play against.