Ny logic behind how will bonuses get added each rank

xcom-enemy-unknown

I noticed that each soldier gets different will bonuses every promotion. Does this depend on something specific in the mission such as kills or actions, or is it completely random? Does every soldier have their own predetermined will bonuses?

— ADDED FOR CLARITY —

What I have seen is that all rookies start with a will of 40 (from my limited sample size at the start of the game). Once you get the "new guy" perk that allows specializations for new recruits their will can get bumped anywhere from +1 to +10 points (up to 50 is the highest I've seen on a soldier with 0 missions). From there, every rank seems to grant some amount of will points which either differ by soldier or by something else.

I'm wondering if some soldiers are just more gifted than others and generally get larger bonuses or if it's something mission specific that determines it. I have a colonel that has a will of 90 and another that has only 75. Now, some of this is probably due to the perk that grants larger will bonuses, but I haven't seen any numbers on this. Any info related to will progress would be great. I'm trying to build a psi army.

Best Answer

Here is a description of promotion bonuses. The wiki says each soldier gains 2-6 Will per promotion, plus another 2-6 if Iron Will is researched...

BUT

Looking into a magic file of DefaultGameCore.ini, I see:

iRandWillIncrease=6
iBaseOTSWillIncrease=2
iRandOTSWillIncrease=4
...blah blah each class gets +2 will each rank

This suggests that it is 2-8 Will per rank without Iron Will, and 4-14 with. Does it correspond with everyone's experience?

Related Solutions

Ny way to guide what class a rookie will become

According to readings around the internet - no official sources - it's random. In my experience it has been random. I think I've gotten 2 heavies, 3 snipers, 3 support, and 2 assaults (still have a few rookies yet to get tested out). How many guys have you seen promoted?

Note that I play rookies exactly one way: move closer to enemies. Draw fire. Go through doors first. Shoot or capture if possible. Pat on back if they survive the mission. ;)

What’s the maximum will a soldier can have per rank? How much willpower does an operative gain per rank

All rookie soldiers start with 40 Will and gain Will increases as they gain ranks. They suffer a decrease in Will when they suffer a critical wound in battle. Therefore, there isn't really a single low number to worry about, as it varies by each rank. Also, a Squaddie (or any other low ranked soldier) who has been critically wounded can eventually gain enough Will back to be a successful soldier.

The table below shows the low and high Will values a soldier can have, by rank. By checking each soldier against the table, you can determine if their will is too low for the rank they have. I've included the low and high Will values for when the Iron Will upgrade has been purchased. However, I'm not certain how helpful those will be, as you generally purchase that upgrade after your soldiers have been promoted a few times, so you won't expect to see values as high as the columns indicate.

I created the table using the following assumptions:

Each soldier gets a fixed +2 per level.
Each soldier gets a random +1d6 per level (iRandWillIncrease=6 in the ini file).
Each soldier gets another fixed +2 per level when the Iron Will upgrade is purchased (iBaseOTSWillIncrease=2 in the ini file).
Each soldier gets another random +1d4 per level when the Iron Will upgrade is purchased (iRandOTSWillIncrease=4 in the ini file).

(See http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/XCOM:EU_DefaultGameCore.ini_settings for the ini values.)

                        Iron Will
Rank        L   H       L   H
Rookie      40  40      40  40
Squaddie    43  48      46  54
Corporal    46  56      52  68 
Sergeant    49  64      58  82 
Lieutenant  52  72      64  96 
Captain     55  80      70  110 
Major       58  88      76  124 
Colonel     61  96      82  138

The Second Wave options Not Created Equally and Hidden Potential change all of this. Not Created Equally changes the starting Will from a fixed 40 to a random number between 25-60. Will increases stay the same. Hidden Potential changes the Will increases (and all other stat increases) to be random, so there will be a much larger variation of Will values among your soldiers. The above table can still be used to check whether you have a soldier who is better or worse than "normal", though.