It appears that it can even be used kind of like a skulljack. In the cutscene where he's introduced, Mox uses his to glean some information from a Purifier he's in the process of killing with a Ripjack uppercut. He's not hacking the whole dang ADVENT network like the XCOM model is shown to do, but there's definitely information transfer happening there.

As I discovered a little while ago, the actual origin of the Skirmishers is in the game after all, it's just that it's buried in the big raft of flavor text that's sorta-semi-hidden in the (non-game-critical) Commander's Quarters screen. The explanation given there is that Betos (their leader) had a defective chip that wasn't fully effective, and she eventually piled up enough spoons to desert, then figured out a way to dike others out of the network.

(This passage further notes that the Chosen Assassin was originally created to police deserters like her, which implies that Betos is not the first this has happened to, but is the only one badass enough to avoid getting wasted long enough to establish a movement. Which is great, except that the game appears to randomize which Chosen is aligned against which Resistance faction in any given campaign. So annoying.)

>I just kinda wish they'd done more with the Skirmishers. Like,
>you can unlock the ability to use a souped-up GREMLIN that's basically
>a tiny Cyberdisc or smth.

I dunno, that would be kinda cool, but it would probably require replacing the Ripjack as the Skirmisher's secondary, and Justice is too hilarious for me to support that. :)

The Reaper's secondary is the one that irritates me the most. They're meant to operate at range, and yet their secondary is an explosive charge they can't throw very far. So if you're playing them the way their primary ability wants you to, they can never make any worthwhile use of it. What?

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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