Xcom Sprinter Or Covering Fire

The choice between Sprinter and Covering Fire for your Support class inXCOM(Enemy Unknown/Within and XCOM 2) is a defining decision that shapes your squad tactics. Both perks unlock new movement and reactive abilities, but their effectiveness varies depending on mission style, squad composition, and difficulty. In most cases, Sprinter provides greater strategic value, yet some builds find niche uses for Covering Fire under specific circumstances.

What Sprinter Does

Sprinter grants a Support soldier +3 movement, with no other conditions attached. This extra mobility works wonders every mission:

• Positioning for medkit use, arc throws, or flanking
• Reaching cover faster or escaping danger
• Synergy with mobility-boost gear like Skeleton or Ghost Armor in XCOM 2

Its reliability means Sprinter is useful in virtually every mission and with every support-oriented playstyle.

How Covering Fire Works

Covering Fire allows a Support soldier to trigger overwatch reaction shots when an enemy attacks instead of just moving. In Enemy Within it activates before the enemy shot, potentially nullifying it.

• Reaction shots suffer aim penalties and cannot crit
• Shots typically waste ammo without much impact if the target is in cover
• Often the enemy fires regardless, so the Support lacks the positional flexibility needed for better trades

Comparing Value: Sprinter vs. Covering Fire

Expert guides and community consensus strongly favor Sprinter:

• Fandom’s Support class guide says Sprinter is essential and covering fire extremely weak
• Analysis blogs note Sprinter’s flexibility for health, utility, and flanking, making it the clear choice
• Forums report Covering Fire as underwhelming, triggering seldom and failing to justify the selection

Situational Use of Covering Fire

Despite its shortcomings, Covering Fire can shine in rare builds:

• If planning a Sentinel reaction-fire specialist with multiple overwatch shots
• When you invest in Rifle Suppression, enabling layered reactive defense
• In long-range defensive chokepoints where enemies attack from afar and overwatch isn’t viable

Still, this requires several invested perks and often leaves Sprinter’s straightforward benefits unused.

Covering Fire in Enemy Within

Enemy Within reworks Covering Fire to trigger sooner before the alien’s shot making it marginally more useful.

Community Feedback & Player Experiences

Forum posts consistently reflect Sprinter’s superior value:

• Sprinter turns my guys into arc-zapping flank-shooting killing machines
• Covering Fire is garbage… Only way I can see it being good is if it scared all enemies… that seems like an exploit
• Extremely weak; Sprinter is essentially the only choice in this tier

Key Takeaways

• Sprinter: Offers consistent and broad advantages flanking, speed, utility making it the default Support pick.
• Covering Fire: Only viable in niche Sentinel/reactive fire builds, but often fails to pay off compared to Sprinter.
• Enemy Within tweak: Slight improvement to Covering Fire, but not enough to compete with Sprinter’s utility.

Sprinter stands as the overwhelming favorite for Support corporals in XCOM. Its simple boost to mobility underpins nearly every mission, from rescuing a dying squadmate to reaching strategic positions. Covering Fire can work in theory especially augmented by Sentinel or Rifle Suppression but rarely justifies the opportunity cost, even with its EW improvements. For most squads, fast supports save lives more often than reactive overwatch. Prioritize Sprinter, unless you’re committed to a careful overwatch-heavy Sentinel build otherwise, you’re giving away valuable mobility for a perk you’ll seldom use.