Their iconic ability is the ability that firing their weapon will not end the turn if they have spare moves left. The standard Infantry class, they can be specced to do some serious damage or become Overwatch monsters. They also have the standard Slice N Dice build where they use Reaper and other sword talents to cut up a ton of wounded enemies. Shinobi can be used as your 'stealth' class, getting tons of stealth based skills that both reduce overall infiltration time when they're on the squad, to making them incredibly hard to detect and start/re-enter concealment in a mission, making them great scouts for your Sharpshooters. they are also the melee class, having very powerful skills that buff their secondary, the sword as well as talents to aid their flanking potential. Shinobi are the 'stealth' class, as they start with a stealth skill right away. Finally there is the crit sharpshooter build, which lets a sniper finish off a wounded non Alien Leader enemy if they crit with Kubikuri, no matter how much HP they have. They can either do one gigantic hit on an enemy using their holotargeters to get more aim, crit, and damage on said enemy or multiple enemies, fire twice a turn on the same enemy, or constantly fire as long as they kill an enemy each shot. Additionally Sharpshooters can mark targets with the Holotargeter, giving additional aim to other XCOM soldiers. You can choose to have them hang in the back, or move up with your squad, keeping them near the back but still mobile depending on your skill choices. Even so, some classes are far more effective with certain types of weapons than others which is what I have listed. Classes that use any 'specialized' weapons other than these can only use that weapon type.

Note that all classes that use Rifles, SMGs, or Shotties can interchange these weapons. If the mission fails, soldiers can gain up to 50% of the XP they would've gotten from completing the mission depending on how many aliens they kill. Soldier Experience is mostly gained from missions, which depend on how many aliens are on the map divided by squad size when completed, as well as kills made by the individual soldier. These must be trained in the Advanced Warfare center, much like a Psi Op is trained in the Psi labs. You can also gain a side tree for non officers, giving them slightly more options such as better Pistol usage, more defensive capabilities, ext. You may only take 1 officer per mission, and officers have their own tree alongside their normal tree. Additionally Long War also gives most classes the opportunity to become Officers. There are 11 classes in total, one being a DLC class.

With Long War, there are many new classes to use in order to help you win the war against the aliens.

Xcom long war meld canister under ship