Xenomorph is worse in 2v8 than in 1v4
Xenomorph is a killer that the community as a whole underrates, but playing it in 2v8 makes what people say about it true.
Xeno is propped up by a few addons. Mainly Lambert's Star Map and/or Emergency Helmet to make the turrets less problematic, and Self-Destruct Bolt to add lethality. When these addons are used, Xenomorph becomes a significantly stronger killer.
Xeno did not get these for 2v8. Instead it got three useless addons.
- Ovomorph, which decreases the cooldown of crawler mode by 25% when outside of a tunnel. This is much worse than simply adding resistance to getting burned out of the power to begin with.
- Parker's Headband, which gives a brief 5% haste after exiting a tunnel, which is often useless as you will lose any benefit this gives you shortly after exiting the tunnel since survivors will place turrets somewhere nearby which you will have to destroy anyway.
- Kane's Helmet, which causes Mangled when you hit survivors with a tail attack, a debuff of already dubious utility in 1v4, let alone in 2v8 due to the presence of the Medic class.
Additionally, 2v8 doubles down on the killer's weaknesses, which are survivors holding distance. Although the killer is very lethal when within tail attack range, it has nothing to close gaps with, and the ample supply of pallets combined with on-demand Sprint Burst from the Escapist class is absolutely nightmarish for this killer to deal with.
Please consider adding Self-Destruct Bolt and either Lambert's Star Map or Emergency Helmet to the killer's kit in 2v8. As it stands, I see no reason to play the killer in 2v8 compared to 1v4, it just feels worse to play.
Comments
objectively not useless. regardless of whether something else is stronger or not useless, on its own 25% faster power acquisition is notable.
I presume there is not a turret at every single tunnel so not useless, just not consistently useful.
This is in fact trash due to how many people just press 1 button to insta heal
You get power back by going into the tunnels, that's why it's bad. If you get burned out of the power you lost the chase, because you're a powerless 115% M1 killer at that point. You need to either be able to walk up to the survivor and down them or you have to break chase to get your power back, chasing without your tail with all the pallets in this mode is a futile endeavor.
All ovomorph does is give you power back if you're walking around outside of the tunnels, which you shouldn't be doing. If you're not in power and not in chase, go into a tunnel.
In 1v4 the ovomorph has some mediocre usage when combined with Ripley's Watch, which auto-breaks turrets which burn you out of power. You can play brain off Xenomorph and just pretend the turrets aren't there. This is still a bad way to play the killer.
The point is that killers who are already stronger than Xenomorph like Wesker and Dracula got notable buffs in this mode, while Xenomorph got three of its most underwhelming addons and nothing else. The killer feels absolutely horrible to play in 2v8.
i have not played in the mode yet or as xeno in 2v8. i already had assumed he wouldnt be great in 2v8 due to how its set up, but i would tentatively postulate (again knowing i havnt tried him in 2v8 yet) that your losing time every time you go into power just to get the power which you then exit to get back into a chase doesnt gain you more time than having not dropped the chase or gone into a state of non action just to get a tail attack back.
i am of the opinion his tail should complement his m1 fundamentals, it should not be what you soley rely on to get downs.
Ill see if my opinion changes of course, just my initial thoughts. i dont think xeno is strong enough to need turrets anyways tbh and they are utterly frustrating. how many turrets are people allowed to spam in 2v8 now? and can your team mate destroy turrets?
Well that's what I mean when I say the killer is worse in this mode.
In 1v4 I very rarely get knocked out of power, even in double flamer setups. Because I can run Lambert's Star Map or the Emergency Helmet. Between the two, usually Lambert's Star Map, because it allows you to reliably just M1 the turret when it starts firing at you. If it starts firing at you from an angle you weren't expecting, like if it's hidden in a bush or in corn, it allows you to back out of range of it more easily so you can look around and figure out where it is.
I haven't exactly gotten knocked out of crawler mode often so far in 2v8, but that's because I have hundreds of hours on this killer and I have a lot of built up muscle memory and reaction speed for dealing with turrets. But by the same measure I am shocked at how much more threatening they are without the protection of those addons, since I never play the killer without them, there simply isn't a reason to.
Of course the tail shouldn't be all you use to get downs, but that's not the point. The tail threatens survivors by being in play and makes them play different. They have to try to mindgame at pallets and windows. Without the tail, nothing is stopping them from just vaulting windows or pre-dropping the pallet.
im in the god awful que waiting for my killer where i will use xeno with the king skin. ill see how rough it is. but do you know how many turrets they are able to place. if they gave them any additional i do feel like youd barely ever be in power
The survivors didn't seem to get access to any more turrets than usual. Whether this is because there's just not any more than usual, survivors I went against were bad at using them, or my ally was destroying them for me I can't say.
so i finally played a match partnered with a wraith. we lost the match so take my next statement with and seriousness or salt that you wish but i didnt find the power swapping that hard. I only saw turrets twice in the match, though 2v8 survs are so NPC that idk how many of them knew you could place turrets but i found navigating quite easy between powers and it was pretty smooth. Since hooking knocks you out of power and you want to initiate a next chase quickly, i found it smooth to transition to tunnel (though ive never been good at navigating the tunnels to where i actually want to go) and the turrets dont take you out of your power as fast so i didnt feel i was stuck in m1 mode the whole match, and the couple times i was knocked out, i still just m1 chased and my power was back pretty fast naturally.
Disclaimer, this was on lerys and thus there werent as many pallets to deal with as some other maps but he felt ok. but we did lose so again, take my opinion as you wish.
After 14 games of Xenomorph and I'm ready to throw in the towel. It's absolutely not fun to play as Xenomorph when survivors take down your power 100% of the time.
Yeah, Xeno feels significantly better in 1v4 I honestly expected more buffs in 2v8.
Definitely agree Emergency Helmet would've made a lot of sense in 2v8, and perhaps also Light Wand (makes the turrets inactive for 3 seconds longer when exiting the tunnels).
I think the Haste effect out of the tunnel fits 2v8 pretty well, I don't really have any issue with that. But having the equivalent of Xeno's Mangled addon just seems kinda…out of place? Idk, in a game mode where healing can be very fast due to Medics and 3 people healing a survivor at the same time, this is just not that great and it feels weird to be tied to a specific killer. If there was a killer class focused on anti-healing that any killer could use and it was adapted to 2v8 that'd be one thing but just slapping Mangled (not even Hemorrhage with it) on tail attacks feels off and not particularly useful in this context.
I have realized something else after playing a bit more. Xeno's map mobility is actually badly hurt in 2v8 as well, due to how many chests there are. Each chest occupies the spawn point of a tunnel. There's huge stretches of map sometimes with no tunnel exit.
Acid Blood basekit.
don't @ me.
What I would love to see is more Command Center consoles for Xeno to tunnel to. I feel like I can't traverse the whole map in 2v8 and I can't get to all the locations I want to reach.
Hey folks! I wanted to pop in here to let you know that your comments aren't in vain. Please keep sharing your thoughts as you put in more 2v8 matches with Xeno. I've seen some differing opinions here about the impact of turrets and would love to hear more about this (i.e. how does it feel to have the other Killer able to destroy these).
This is a great note! I've made a special note to pass this along to the team to check on.
I don't have the luxury of going into a tunnel, and I don't really see the point. Even in 1v4, the Xenomorph isn't such a strong Killer anymore that turrets are necessary. Even if another Killer could destroy a turret in 2v8, what exactly makes it overpowered?
if you play with a 2nd killer friend, you can tell them to break the turrets for you when they pass by them making your life a lot easier <3 that's what I do for my friend.
My main issue with xeno in general, is how... underwhelming the range for tailstrike is or how linear the tail hit box is, I just wish there was more skill expression, like changing its hit box direction mid strike, like hitting crouching survivors over pallets and increased range, but that's just me, my biggest issue... is how the flame turrets still detect xenomorph while undetectable in general and that xeno shoukd have more basekit addons for 2v8, like turret fire range and stagger resistance from turrets but also tunnels, some tunnels, specifically for maps with multiple levels/floors, still have messed up placements or not enough tunnel stations per generator
On the note of changing the trajectory mid-strike and hitting crouching survivors over pallets: it can do that.
The tail hits in a slight downward arc. You can lift your head slightly to lob it over obstacles.
The way the tail works is that the hitbox extends out from you in a line that juts forward and slightly down. Like a projectile that's attached to your body.
If you lift your head a bit, the tail will arc over the pallet to hit the crouching survivor.
You can also raise and lower your head during the strike to change the angle, and strafe to drag the tail like a Nemesis whip.
good tips right here for any inspiring xeno players struggling with his tail.
Lambert's and Emergency Helmet being basekit in 2v8 would be really nice!
@Zakon05
Appreciate tips, but what I actually meant was adjusting the aim direction, instead of the tail just being a horizontal line/arc that it us right now, Turning the camera to the right or left or even diagonal midstrike (instead of of just vertical aiming and being locked into 1 direction like it does right now) would make this killer more rewarding to play as and satisfying while adding more skill ceiling and depth to it, that's what I meant, sorry, should have specified it in my first comment, heh
I don't think it would add depth or increase the skill ceiling as much as lower the skill floor by reducing the precision needed to use the tail effectively.
Xeno's tail is a lot like a projectile rather than a constant effect across the entire line like Nemesis's whip. The moment you hear the tail go 'clink' against something or hit a survivor, the attack ends.
But it would make the tail more forgiving to use since you could miss and then turn and adjust the attack, making it even harder than it already is for survivors to dodge. It would also make it easier to destroy flamer turrets, since you could panic when you have fire blowing on you and spin towards it and tail strike and then adjust mid-attack if you missed the turret.
It would make the killer easier to play and more frustrating to play against but it wouldn't actually increase its depth.