The original Long War mod for XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within makes the campaign substantially longer and requires far more missions than the base game. There is no reliable, authoritative completion-time estimate or exact mission total for this version, so the most accurate answer is qualitative: expect a major time commitment, with your total hours depending on how you play and how your campaign unfolds.
Which Long War does this answer cover?
This is the original Long War mod associated with XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within, not either of the later mods for XCOM 2. The original mod describes its campaign as extended and says it requires far more missions than the base game. The original Long War mod page also notes that upgrades can allow missions with up to twelve soldiers.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
XCOM: Enemy Within (Renewed) | $39.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
|
XCOM: Enemy Within | $13.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
|
XCOM: Enemy Within - Xbox 360 (Renewed) | $40.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
X-COM ENEMY WITHIN | $9.06 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
|
XCOM Enemy Within (Xbox 360) | $24.95 | Buy on Amazon |
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The expanded squad capacity indicates a broader campaign experience, but the mod page does not quantify how much that adds to total playtime. Nor does it give an exact mission count or a dependable number of hours for completing the original mod.
How many hours does an Enemy Within Long War campaign take?
No trustworthy numeric estimate is established for the original mod. That means a specific range would imply more certainty than the available evidence supports. Treat it as a much larger commitment than a standard campaign, rather than planning around a fixed number of hours.
#1 Best Overall
- New Soldier Abilities: Research a new alien technology to advance the capabilities of your operatives:Gene Mods: Construct the Genetics Lab to physically enhance your operatives’ abilities including augmentations to the chest, brain, eyes, skin, and legs. MECs: Build the Cybernetics Lab to enable the construction of the new Mechanized Exoskeletal Cybersuit, or MEC. The new MEC Trooper class has specialized abilities and each suit can be upgraded with new weapons including the flamethrower and grenade launcher.
- New Weapons and Equipment: Give your operatives an extra tactical edge with new projects from your engineering team and the Foundry
- New Enemy Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter the threats from two new alien types and a deadly new organization known as EXALT.
- New Strategic Resource: A valuable new alien resource, known as Meld, has been discovered. Secure it on the battlefield and use it carefully back at base to unlock new research and upgrades.
- New Tactical Challenges and Maps: Cloak-and-dagger and intelligence operations provide new tactical challenges on over 40 new battlefields.
Your own completion time will depend on your play style, difficulty, and campaign decisions, including how many missions you take. The sources do not establish a defensible range for how much those choices change the total.
Why do other Long War figures give different answers?
Numbers often cited for later projects belong to distinct XCOM 2 mods, not the original Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within mod. They should not be used as its completion estimate.
Rank #2
- New Soldier Abilities: Research a new alien technology to advance the capabilities of your operatives: Gene Mods: Construct the Genetics Lab to physically enhance your operatives’ abilities including augmentations to the chest, brain, eyes, skin, and legs
- New Weapons and Equipment: Give your operatives an extra tactical edge with new projects from your engineering team and the Foundry
- New Enemy Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter the threats from two new alien types and a deadly new organization known as EXALT
- New Strategic Resource: A valuable new alien resource, known as Meld, has been discovered. Secure it on the battlefield and use it carefully back at base to unlock new research and upgrades
- New Tactical Challenges and Maps: Cloak-and-dagger and intelligence operations provide new tactical challenges on over 40 new battlefields
| Mod | Published figure | Why it does not answer this question |
|---|---|---|
| Original Long War for XCOM: Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within | No authoritative mission total or playtime figure established on the mod page. | This is the mod covered here. Nexus Mods describes an extended campaign requiring far more missions than the base game, without giving a total. |
| Long War 2 | 100–120 missions | Pavonis Interactive discussed this as a target for campaigns in its separate XCOM 2 mod in 2017; it is not a figure for the original mod. Pavonis Interactive’s 2017 announcement |
| Long War of the Chosen | 100–120 missions and 200–300 hours | These figures refer to a separate XCOM 2: War of the Chosen conversion. The FAQ page does not establish a publication date. Long War of the Chosen FAQ |
Does the base game’s 20-hour quote describe Long War?
No. The original mod page attributes this statement to Jake Solomon: “We’re basically a 20-hour tutorial for Long War, and that’s okay.” That quotation describes the base game’s relationship to the mod; it does not say that Long War takes 20 hours. The page does not establish the quote’s date or Solomon’s role, so it should not be treated as a measured playtime.
Do you need to buy another game?
XCOM: Enemy Within is the associated base game; Long War itself is a mod, not a retail game. The game manual is available from 2K’s official PC manual page.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- New Soldier Abilities: Research a new alien technology to advance the capabilities of your operatives
- New Weapons and Equipment: Give your operatives an extra tactical edge with new projects from your engineering team and the Foundry
- New Enemy Threats: Adopt new tactics to counter the threats from two new alien classes including the Mechtoid
- New Strategic Resource: A valuable new alien resource, known as MELD, has been released onto the landscape providing access to new research and upgrades
- New Tactical Challenges and Maps: New tactical challenges are introduced across an additional 47 maps
Rank #4
Rank #3
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
