In XCOM 2, the Avatar Project functions much like the Panic Levels of the first one. If the bar gets completed, the aliens win and XCOM goes out of business. You get cinematic for the bad ending, and the game is over.

So, it’s in your best interest to stop that from happening. If you don’t know how to do that, read on to find out.

How to reduce Avatar Project Levels in XCOM 2

The Avatar Project, or Doom Counter, shows up as a bar on top of your map with 12 empty blocks. The blocks go from black to full red as they complete, and if they complete you will have a fixed number of in-game days to reduce the avatar level before you are finished.

There are different things that you can do to decrease the Avatar Project’s level. Such as:

Finishing a story mission

A good chunk of the story mission objectives in the game will reduce the progress of the Avatar project by 1-3 blocks. That makes building the Shadow Chamber very important to control the level of the Avatar Project. These objectives are:

• Killing your first Codex: 1 block (2 in Legend difficulty)
• Killing your first Avatar: 3 blocks (4 in Legend)
• Retrieving the Psi Gate: 2 blocks (3 in Legend)
• Completing the Forge: 2 blocks (3 in Legend)
• Completing the Blacksite: 1 block (2 in Legend)

Finishing an Avatar Project Facility Mission

Occasionally, an Avatar Project Facility will be built and increase the progress of the bar by one block, up to a maximum of 5 facilities up at any time. After a few weeks of in-game time, the facility will further increase the progress by another block, until it is destroyed.

However, you can turn things around by destroying the facility through a mission, which will reduce the progress of the bar by the same amount of blocks the facility added. You can check how much by seeing how many red dots there are under the facility in the Geoscape map.

Sabotage Covert Action and Resistance Order – War of the Chosen DLC

If you are playing the War of the Chosen DLC, you can also use cover actions and resistance orders to reduce the progress of the Avatar Project. Covert actions will reduce the bar by two blocks, and Resistance Orders can reduce it by 1 block every in-game month.

How Long Do I have If the Bar is Completed?

If the avatar project bar reaches 12 blocks, you need to do any event that reduces it or risk losing the game.

The number of in-game days you have before the time is up varied by difficulty, and the limit for each is:

• Rookie: 24 days
• Veteran: 22.75 days
• Commander: 15 days
• Legend: 27.33 days

So long as you complete any event that reduces your project level, you’ll be fine.

ALSO READ: XCOM 2: How to Increase Power?