Aliens: Fireteam Elite Lancer guide – Abilities, weapons, perks

The Lancer is the seventh playable class in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, introduced in the Season 3 update. It is also the last class kit included in the game’s Year 1 content roadmap. As a counterpart to the Demolisher class, the Lancer fulfills a frontline heavy weapons specialist archetype while offering different ways to play and support your fireteam. With a plethora of defensive perks, the Lancer is also noticeably tankier than the Demolisher. In this overview, we will cover all of the Lancer’s unique abilities and perks in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, as well as their weapons of choice.

Lancer abilities and perks

Passive abilities dictate how each Aliens: Fireteam Elite operator plays and interacts with their team, and the Lancer is no exception. Their passive, Overwatch, grants them a 3% accuracy, stability, and weapon damage bonus for every second spent not moving or in cover. The buff can be stacked five times, lasts up to five seconds, and is lost at a rate of one stack per second if the Lancer moves or exits cover. Overwatch has two dedicated perks:

• Muscle Memory: Each stack of Overwatch also grants a 5% bonus aim assist and handling.
• Omniscience: Overwatch can now stack six times, and is lost at a rate of one stack every three seconds when moving or exiting cover.

The Lancer’s signature ability is their Particle Lance: a piercing beam that can hit multiple targets per cast. A lot of the fighting in Aliens: Fireteam Elite happens in narrow hallways, which makes this ability especially useful and a good contender for cooldown reduction perks. The Particle Lance comes with the following unique perks:

• Particle Burst: Replacer perk. The ability becomes a localized burst around the Lancer rather than a targeted beam. Affected enemies are stumbled and take damage over time (DoT) for the next six seconds; while affected, they also take 20% increased weapon damage.
• Particle Wave: Replacer perk. Instead of a beam, the ability fires a short-range blast in a wide cone, damaging enemies and stunning them for three seconds. The Lancer takes reduced damage for three seconds after casting the ability.
• Disrupting Radiation: Enemies hit by Particle Lance are slowed by 40% for five seconds.
• Residual Charge: Enemies killed by Particle Lance leave an Electrical Hazard at their corpse for four seconds, dealing damage over time to enemies.

The second active Lancer ability is Onslaught. When casting it, the Lancer immediately reloads their weapon and gains 20% bonus weapon damage and damage resistance, but loses 20% fire rate and movement speed for a duration. While Onslaught is active, weapons are automatically reloaded after each shot, allowing Lancers to fire continuously as long as they have reserve ammo. Onslaught has the following associated perks:

• Relentless Advance: Allows the Lancer to move without losing their Overwatch stacks while Onslaught is active.
• Unshakeable: Activating Onslaught grants 150 temporary health and grants immunity to most stuns, stumbles, and knockdown effects; you can still be grappled, however.
• Tenacious: Onslaught lasts 20% longer and grants 5% more weapon damage and damage resistance.

Besides their dedicated ability perks, the Lancer has a number of generic perk options to further customize their playstyle:

• Rapid Assessment: Attach this perk to one of your abilities. Using the ability instantly grants you your maximum number of Overwatch stacks.
• Back Me Up: Allies deal 20% more damage to enemies targeting you.
• Shake It Off: 20% of received damage is stored in a Recovery Pool. After not taking damage for eight seconds, you recover the stored amount as health over four seconds.
• Fitness Training: Increases your max health and incoming healing by 10%, and your stamina regeneration by 20%.
• Resilience: Shake It Off now stores 30% of received damage rather than 20%, it triggers sooner, and heals faster.
• Protective Layer: Reduces damage from melee attacks and environmental hazards against you by 20%.
• Staggering Shots: Your damaging shots increase the chance for an enemy to be stumbled by 3%, stacking up to five times.
• Entrenched: You gain 25% reload speed and 10% damage resistance while in cover. This perk is particularly useful for missions like The Only Way To Be Sure: Breach and Giants in the Earth: Evacuate.

Recommended weapons and attachments

Besides Demolishers, Lancers are the only Aliens: Fireteam Elite class kit that can equip heavy weapons. Their second weapon type is close-quarters weapons, which also makes them the only class kit capable of bringing two flamethrowers, as ill-advised as that may be. Since their Overwatch and Onslaught abilities both increase weapon damage by a percentage, your go-to weapons should be high damage, low fire rate guns like the L59 Minigun and the PPZ-49 SMG. When choosing your attachments, prioritize fire rate and weakpoint damage, and avoid reload speed buffs since they aren’t very relevant for Lancers. Also make sure not to equip Weighted Magazine or other attachments that reset their bonuses on reload, as they will be completely turned off during Onslaught.

Lancers bring the following weapon perks to Aliens: Fireteam Elite:

• Lancer Heavy Training: Increases handling and magazine capacity of heavy weapons by 10%, and max ammo by 15%.
• Lancer CQW Training: Increases max ammo of CQWs by 20% and weapon range by 15%.
• Lancer Heavy Expertise: Increases fire rate and reload speed of heavy weapons by 15%.
• Lancer CQW Expertise: Increases weakpoint damage, weapon handling, and stumble chance of CQWs by 10%.
• Lancer Heavy Mastery: Improves the range and stumble chance of heavy weapons by 15%.
• Lancer CQW Mastery: Improves the aim assist and magazine capacity of CQWs by 15%.