Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 How to Play Solo

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is built for four Colonial Marines, but you can clear the whole story and farm Horde without three friends online. Empty slots fill with synthetic companions — improved over the 2021 bots — and the campaign works offline. This page covers what solo actually means after the 25 August 2026 launch, which class to take first, how to kit the bots, and where human squads still win. Pair it with Best Beginner Class, How to Play, and PC settings if hitching ruins learning.

What solo mode is (and is not)

Solo means you plus up to three AI marines. The fireteam size is still four. You are never a lone rifle in empty corridors; the game assumes density for a full squad. Companions revive you, shoot, and hold angles — they do not call ammo, split distant objectives well, or invent tactics when a Siren and a Warden arrive together.

Offline story progress is real. Cloud saves can sync later when you reconnect. Quickplay and public Horde still exist when you want humans; nothing about solo blocks those modes. Friendly fire, Challenge Cards, and difficulty ladders apply the same as co-op. Insane still unlocks only after you finish the campaign on another tier — see Difficulty & Insane.

Aliens Fireteam Elite 2 Early Reviews

Best classes for solo

Priority	Class	Why
1	Machinist	Turrets and Bodyguard cover the angles bots ignore.
2	Duelist	Two primaries adapt when bots dump magazines into the wrong threat.
3	Marauder	Wave clear when you already know ammo crates.
4	Hunter	Strong once you place traps on real spawn lines.
5	Medic	Better when three humans listen; less needed with bot heals.
Endgame	Specialist	Mix Machinist denial + Hunter control after Rank 10.

Machinist first. Bots are weak at area denial. Your sentry and drone become the fourth brain. Stay near your gear; do not chase kills into vents. Full kit: Machinist.

Duelist second if you already shoot for a living. Two primary slots let you carry mid-range and hallway answers without an armory visit. After Patch 1, explosive boards are viable — still optional for learning. Duelist.

Avoid Medic as your first solo main. Companion heals exist; what you lack is chokepoint control. Bring Medic when you join human lobbies.

Specialist later. Unlock fragments by ranking all five cores — How to Unlock Specialist — then build a hybrid that plants Machinist hardware and runs Hunter control in one marine.

How to kit synthetic companions

Open the squad screen before the drop and assign roles the bots can actually perform:

1. One Medic bot — keeps revive and stim coverage while you focus elites.
2. One Machinist bot — extra turret density if you are not already Machinist.
3. One Marauder or Duelist bot — raw damage on the main approach.

If you are Machinist yourself, prefer Medic + Marauder + Duelist so you own denial and they own guns. Command bots to hold near your turret line; do not let them wander into melee packs alone. On Extreme and Insane, bots have limited revives before a checkpoint — treat every down as expensive.

Companion-bot perks that did nothing in multiplayer were fixed in Patch 1. Solo still benefits: those heals and buffs now behave as the tooltips claim when you later bring a human host.

Combat habits that keep solo runs alive

1. Fight from chokepoints. Four bodies in a T-junction beat four bodies in an open hangar.
2. Sidearm for stragglers. Sidearms have unlimited ammo — Sidearms guide. Save primary magazines for elites and swarm events.
3. Ammo crates are shared. Top off before you leave a room; bots waste rounds.
4. Elemental coverage. Thermal hurts Xenomorphs; electric hurts synthetics. Carry both when the briefing shows mixed factions — Ammo & Melee.
5. Look up. Ceiling runners delete distracted solo players.
6. Melee is space, not DPS. Shove, reload, roll.
7. Challenge Cards. Stack gently on solo Intense. Four lethal cards with bots is how you brick a mission — Challenge Cards.

Campaign and Horde solo

Clear the story on Casual or Standard first. Mission flow lives on the Campaign walkthrough. Expect 15–20 hours solo versus 8–12 with humans on Standard.

Horde unlocks after the campaign plus Endeavor officer dialogue — Unlock Horde. Solo Horde on Casual/Standard is honest practice. Intense+ prefers humans for shop calls and revive discipline. Map layouts: Horde Maps. Beat strategies: How to Beat Horde.

When to switch to humans

Bring a real fireteam for Insane campaign clears, deep Horde extracts, and achievement runs that punish bot pathing. Use Play With Friends and Crossplay — Steam, Epic, PS5, and Xbox share sessions. Region matchmaking from Patch 1 helps P2P hosts, but voice still matters more than bots.

If you only play solo, you still unlock Specialist fragments, weapon stars, and cosmetics. Nothing permanent is locked behind matchmaking. Cosmetics and Rain’s Romulus pack are optional — Rain’s Jackson’s Star Pack.

Related pages

• Getting Started — first hour habits.
• Difficulty & Insane — when bots stop being enough.
• Squad Planner — role coverage when humans join.
• Enemy Dossier — Warden, Siren, Pathogen, synthetics.