XCOM 2 is the sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the 2012 award-winning strategy game of the year.

Earth has changed. Twenty years have passed since world leaders offered an unconditional surrender to alien forces. XCOM, the planet’s last line of defense, was left decimated and scattered. Now, in XCOM 2, the aliens rule Earth, building shining cities that promise a brilliant future for humanity on the surface, while concealing a sinister agenda and eliminating all who dissent from their new order.

Only those who live at the edges of the world have a margin of freedom. Here, a force gathers once again to stand up for humanity. Always on the run, and facing impossible odds, the remnant XCOM forces must find a way to ignite a global resistance, and eliminate the alien threat once and for all.

One of the mainstay epics of all time, XCOM 2 offers the innovative turn-based sci-fi combat that transformed the genre and built upon the themes of the long-running XCOM franchise. It’s a masterpiece of a game, and features modding support for huge replayability.

Firaxis Games has a long and proud history, providing the world with Civilizations games and XCOM titles alike. But, in 2022 they’re going to be releasing their first combination title with Marvel Studios, Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

After centuries of sleep, Lilith, Mother of Demons, has been revived by Hydra through a twist of dark magic and science. Pushed to the brink, the Avengers desperately look to fight fire with hellfire and enlist the help of the Midnight Suns – Nico Minoru, Blade, Magik, and Ghost Rider.

The Epic Games Store has been around for a while, the lesser-known alternative to Steam, the nearly-ubiquitous platform for game purchases since it launched in 2003. But, where Steam originally existed and launched to promote Valve games, Epic Games Store launched in 2018 and quickly rose to success on the Fortnite franchise. At the time of Epic’s launch, Steam took a dramatic 30% cut from the sales of video games through their platform! This hurt both game designers and users, just wasn’t very nice. But the folks behind Epic realized something excellent: they could take a much lower cut and still have a profitable business. This led them to fast domination of the indie market, as small publishers flocked to the far better terms offered by Epic.

Mega Discounts

Epic Games Store offers some seriously incredible discounts on a regular basis, in addition to all the normal discounts one would expect on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the usual holidays. But the most exciting is their weekly free game or add-on, which simply harpoons all competitors.

When I first heard about this free game, I thought that can’t be real. They must only offer tiny indie games. Not at all, dear reader. Not. At. All. Epic frequently lists unbelievable A-lister games on their weekly deal, as well as sometimes offer two free games instead of one. In addition, just because a studio is smaller doesn’t mean the games it makes aren’t impressive. I’ve picked up some of my favorite new games, for free, from this platform, and most of them have been made by smaller studios (or as side-projects for teams from big studios).

You play the game as Paul Prospero, an occult-minded detective who receives a disturbing letter from Ethan Carter. Realizing the boy is in grave danger, Paul arrives at Ethan’s home of Red Creek Valley, where things turn out to be even worse than he imagined. Ethan has vanished in the wake of a brutal murder, which Paul quickly discerns might not be the only local murder worth looking into.

Inspired by the weird fiction (and other tales of the macabre) from the early twentieth century, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aims to significantly evolve immersive storytelling in games. While it features a private detective and quite a few mental challenges, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not an especially puzzle-ridden game. Our focus is on atmosphere, mood, and the essential humanity of our characters.

Still, the discoveries won’t happen on their own, or without your help. Using both Paul’s supernatural skill of being able to communicate with the dead, and your own powers of observation, you will discover the mystery behind a trail of corpses, the roots of a dark ancient force lurking in Red Creek Valley, and the fate of a missing boy.

This is not the first time that The Vanishing of Ethan Carter has emerged as a free game of the week on the Epic Game Store, but there’s no telling if or when it will appear again. It’s an honestly superb game, even if it is a few years old, with both freeform exploration, a top-notch story, and action that will make your pulse pound.

The Astronauts game company takes the creation of deeply immersive and potently-told games seriously. The success of Ethan Carter helped them forge ahead with an even more ambitious game that is currently in late-stage development called Witchfire.

Armed with strange weapons and forbidden pagan magic, hunt a powerful witch holding the key to your salvation. Witchfire is a dark fantasy roguelite shooter from the creators of Painkiller, Bulletstorm, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.

The Epic Games Store has been around for a while, the lesser-known alternative to Steam, the nearly-ubiquitous platform for game purchases since it launched in 2003. But, where Steam originally existed and launched to promote Valve games, Epic Games Store launched in 2018 and quickly rose to success on the Fortnite franchise. At the time of Epic’s launch, Steam took a dramatic 30% cut from the sales of video games through their platform! This hurt both game designers and users, just wasn’t very nice. But the folks behind Epic realized something excellent: they could take a much lower cut and still have a profitable business. This led them to fast domination of the indie market, as small publishers flocked to the far better terms offered by Epic.

Mega Discounts

Epic Games Store offers some seriously incredible discounts on a regular basis, in addition to all the normal discounts one would expect on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the usual holidays. But the most exciting is their weekly free game or add-on, which simply harpoons all competitors.

When I first heard about this free game, I thought that can’t be real. They must only offer tiny indie games. Not at all, dear reader. Not. At. All. Epic frequently lists unbelievable A-lister games on their weekly deal, as well as sometimes offer two free games instead of one. In addition, just because a studio is smaller doesn’t mean the games it makes aren’t impressive. I’ve picked up some of my favorite new games, for free, from this platform, and most of them have been made by smaller studios (or as side-projects for teams from big studios).

Below are the top 3D-printable Ender 3 mods and upgrades you can perform. Tons of other printable mods exist, but this is the core list that will give you the best bang for your print time.

Board fan guard

Before you print anything else, print this mod. The location of the mainboard fan is directly beneath the build plate, meaning bits of filament can fall in and damage the fan or board. The model is available on Thingiverse.

Filament guide

This filament guide holds the filament away from the feeder, allowing for a more consistent feed rate and less skipping. It snaps directly into the side of the upper support.

Cable chain

This cable chain is a must-have for preventing dangerous cable snags when the bed moves along the Y-axis.

Display PCB cover

This simple screen cover protects your Ender 3 display’s PCB (printed circuit board) from damage.

Bowden tube fitting fix

If your Bowden tube has popped out of place or if you’re having print quality issues, you might want to print these pressure fitting shims that will prevent your Bowden tubes from shifting or popping out during printing.

Beeper silencer

You’ve probably noticed how loud the Ender 3 beeps when navigating the menu interface. This beep can level villages and knock satellites out of orbit. This 10-minute print mutes the beep quite a bit, getting rid of that annoyance and protecting our countrysides and space assets.

How many times have you grabbed a piece of paper and slid it back and forth between your print bed and the extruder? Is it more than a hundred? What if I was to tell you that one upgrade could make it so you’d never have to manually level the bed again? Sound good to be true?!

“I love leveling my 3D printer’s bed” -Nobody, ever

With a BLTouch kit specifically for the Ender 3, Ender 3 V2 or Ender 3 Pro, you can have a perfectly level print each time without having to manually level the bed. Because it’s supported directly by Creality, installing the BLTouch is a fairly easy process, even for 3D printing novices.

What is BLTouch?

The BLTouch by Antclabs is an add-on electrical component for a 3D printer that uses a sensor stem to detect any tilt in the bed surface. It’s built to use very little power at idle and use so that it can be installed directly in the Ender 3’s mainboard, without any heat issues.

What about other auto-leveling sensors?

Other sensors like optical or proximity sensors do have some upsides, but we’ve found them to be expensive to repair and not compatible with certain print bed surfaces.

With the BLTouch, you can use any type of bed and need only swap out the plastic nozzle if it’s damaged. There’s also a ton of support and articles that can help you if you run into trouble using your BLTouch.

Installing the BLTouch

Check out our complete guide to install and set up the BLTouch on any Ender 3-series printer.

There are two main sources of noise on your printer: 1) fans, and 2) the drivers (chips) that run your stepper motors. The “whirring” noise you associate with printing is caused by the cheap stepper motor drivers used on the stock Ender 3 board.

Enter the Creality Silent Mainboard (v1.1.5). This board directly replaces your existing Ender 3 mainboard, upgrading your printer to the silent TMC2208 stepper motor drivers. This is the biggest “sound” upgrade you can make. It reduces your printer’s noise from approximately 48dB to 36dB, with the remaining sound coming from the Ender 3’s fans (which can also be upgraded to quieter fans).

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Ender 3 silent main board

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If I had to choose a single upgrade from this guide (other than OctoPrint), it would be this one. Combined with the MeanWell PSU upgrade also mentioned in this guide, I often forget my printer is running since it now generates so little noise.

Of course, in addition to decreasing noise, this board and its upgraded stepper motor drivers improve the quality of your prints.

OctoPrint is the #1 upgrade for making the overall 3D-printing experience easier and more enjoyable. While this upgrade doesn’t relate directly to print quality, it will save you a ton of time and headaches. With OctoPrint, you won’t need to load and start prints from an SD card ever again.

In a nutshell, OctoPrint is a library that runs on the small Raspberry Pi computer. When you want to print something, you’ll log into a slick interface from your computer. This interface will allow you to control your printer, start and stop prints, and more. You can even monitor your printer remotely using a small camera!

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Raspberry Pi

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I wrote a full guide on installing and using OctoPrint on the Ender 3, as well as a video:

If you’re using the newer Ender 3 V2, check out our Ender 3 V2 OctoPrint setup guide.

If you’re already using OctoPrint, why not add a nice touchscreen to your Ender 3? Check out my full guide on this, as well as my video:

For this project, I used the Adafruit 3.5″ PiTFT Plus—but other touchscreens will work as well.

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Adafruit 3.5″ PiTFT Plus touchscreen

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There are several reasons to upgrade your Ender 3 to a MeanWell PSU including noise, safety, and even reducing bed-leveling issues.

Noise

Compared to the stock PSU whose fan runs continuously, the MeanWell PSU only runs when it needs to—usually less than 20% of the time. This means a much quieter printer, especially when paired with the silent board upgrade. This reason alone made the upgrade worth it to me. I work in the same room as my printer, so noise is a huge issue.

Safety

MeanWell PSUs use higher quality components than the cheap stock unit, providing cleaner power with fewer of the electrical spikes and sags that could pose a safety hazard.

Reduce auto-bed-leveling issues

If you’re using an auto-leveling sensor such as the BLTouch or EZABL, the MeanWell PSU’s consistent, clean power reduces issues related to power ripples and grounding.

Form factor

The MeanWell PSU is noticeably thinner than the stock unit, which is handy if you’re using an enclosure and need to relocate it.

Which one to buy (and where)

The MeanWell LRS-3500-25 PSU is the correct 24V MeanWell power supply for the Ender 3, and this upgrade takes about 20 minutes to perform, excluding PSU housing print time.

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MeanWell LRS-350-24 PSU

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There are tons of different build plate surfaces out there: metal, magnetic, BuildTak, painter’s tape, and tons more. But after printing for many years on several different printers, I’ve always had the best experience with glass.

Glass beds are supremely flat, fixing the all-too-common “warped Ender 3 bed” issue that many of us experience. Glass beds also save on prep time, are easy to clean, and offer effortless print removal with a semi-glossy print finish.

Choosing a bed

I wrote a comprehensive guide to 3D printing on a glass bed if you’d like to dive into the details. tl;dr; Choose a thin borosilicate glass bed, and adhere it directly to the existing build plate using small binder clips. This 235x235mm glass bed is the one I recommend for the Ender 3.

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Binder clips, 3/8″

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Borosilicate glass bed, 235x235mm

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Proper print illumination allows you to identify issues with your prints early—it’s also nice to be able to see what’s happening clearly. There are tons of methods for adding an LED strip to your 3D printer. I prefer one that places the light source as high as possible in order to illuminate the entire print bed, not just the current print area.

I wrote a comprehensive guide on adding an LED strip to your 3D printer, featuring the Ender 3 specifically. Using the method outlined there, you can even power your LED strip directly from your Ender 3 by regulating the voltage using this buck converter in conjunction with this XT60 splitter cable.

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LM2596 DC voltage regulator

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XT60 Y-splitter cable (optional)

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Check out that guide for step-by-step instructions on what to print and how to wire everything up!

Easy LED version

If you’d prefer an easy-version LED strip, Creality makes an official LED strip kit, as well.

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LED Lighting Kit for Ender 3 Series

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Your bed springs might seem like an insignificant part of your 3D printer, but they’re actually quite important to bed leveling and stability.

The stock Ender 3 bed springs are terrible and can lead to print issues and frequent bed leveling. These issues are largely caused by:

• The cheap metal used to manufacture the springs, and
• The rounded design of the springs themselves

In fact, if you compare the stock and upgraded springs side by side, you can see only the upgraded ones feature a flat surface on the top and bottom. This leads to less shifting compared to the stock springs.

Upgraded Ender 3 springs take minutes to install and mean less frequent bed leveling between prints. This upgrade costs about $10, making it one of the least expensive Ender 3 upgrades out there.

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Upgraded Ender 3 bed springs

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The plastic metal feeder assembly on the Ender 3 leaves something to be desired, and improper tension can even cause feeder gear skips, leaving gaps in the layers of your print. Installing an all-metal feeder assembly such as this one will add durability and stability to your printer.

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Ender 3 All-Metal Feeder Assembly

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Yet another noise mod—adding these dampers to your X- and Y-axis stepper motors decreases the noise they generate by 5-10dB. This is a simple, inexpensive mod with a measurable noise reduction impact.

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Ender 3 stepper motor dampers

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Most Ender 3s ship with an outdated version of the Marlin firmware, which lacks mandatory safety features such as thermal runaway protection. Thermal runaway is a condition where a failure in the thermocouple (temperature sensor) can cause your extruder to continue heating, forever, until your extruder block melts and a fire occurs.

Here’s a video demonstrating thermal runaway in action:

Thankfully, newer versions of Marlin have thermal runaway protection, a software-level safeguard that polls periodically for an increase in temperature and shuts things down if something isn’t right.

I wrote an in-depth guide to updating your Ender 3 firmware that you can follow to perform this mod. You’ll need any kind of Arduino to perform the firmware update, such as this inexpensive Arduino clone. This is a safety upgrade that you shouldn’t skip.

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Arduino Uno

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Did I miss a mod or upgrade that you think is a must-have? Let me know in the comments section below!

In January of 2021, the Raspberry Pi Pico module was unveiled and released with an MSRP of $4 USD. This marks the first official microcontroller to come from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It’s extra small, about the length of your thumb, and is powered by the RP2040 processor mentioned above.

We adore the Pico and its creation has led to some really cool projects that we never even considered possible. But thanks to its small size and low power demands, it’s proven to be a useful little board with loads of potential and 26 GPIO to take advantage of.

In October, the Raspberry Pi Foundation team announced the release of a new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W board. This is a successor to the Raspberry Pi Zero W, offering more processing speed than its predecessor, with measurements capping in at 1GHz. The biggest drawback to the new module is its lack of memory. Despite the upgrades, it uses only 512MB of SDRAM.

The coolest part about the new Pi Zero 2 W is how easy it is to replace the old model with the new one. The form factor is identical, meaning your biggest hurdle will be software-related. You definitely want to back up any current project build before trying to switch to the new board.

As far as official accessories go, the LEGO Build HAT was launched in October. It’s made to work with the Raspberry Pi 4 and has connectors that are compatible with LEGO Technic kits. This HAT is most optimal for students who’ve taken the time to play with LEGO robotic kits in the past. It bridges a gap that makes it easier to grasp real-world applications of the Raspberry Pi.

The PicoSystem was a long-awaited accessory from Pimoroni. It wasn’t immediately available, but was hyped up early in 2021. It has a small display, 4 buttons, a D-pad, and is powered by the RP2040. To keep things mobile, it has a nook for clipping onto keychains and can be recharged using its LiPo battery. This system isn’t intended for emulation, but rather programming original games with Python.

The Pimoroni Pico RGB Keypad Base may be the 4×4 glowing input device of our dreams. It features 16 programmable keys with a silicone cover on top. You will need to purchase a Pico separately to set up and use the keypad. It’s designed for USB input, so your keypad project can be plug-and-play.

If you want to add power to your Pico project, the Pico LiPo board from Pimoroni is an easy way to get started. It’s built around the RP2040, offers 30 programmable GPIO pins, and features a JST connector (sometimes referred to as STEMMA QT) for attaching LiPo batteries without the need to solder.

One of the most popular modules to come from Pimoroni this year is the Pico Display Pack. It requires a Raspberry Pi Pico to operate and features a small LCD display for video output. In addition to the cool little screen, it has four buttons around the perimeter that can be programmed with custom functions. It’s an excellent board—especially for young makers who want to tinker.

If you’re looking to build your own keyboard, you need to check out Adafruit’s KB2040 RP2040 Kee Boar Driver—an RP2040-based driver board. It’s been so popular that it’s already sold out on the official Adafruit website. It has 30 GPIO to use and 8MB of SPI flash.

This RGB keypad from Adafruit offers a few extra modules than the Pico RGB Keypad from Pimoroni. With the MacroPad RP2040 Starter Kit, users have a small LCD screen and rotary encoder to program, as well. These extra design elements make it a bit more exciting, but also raise the price. You won’t need to supply your own Pico as the board is built using the RP2040 processor.

This board is an excellent choice for the education field as well as makers who want to experiment with robotics. Developed by Cytron, the Maker Pi RP2040 features the RP2040 processor and a variety of tools for controlling things like motors for custom robot projects.

This Adafruit Feather is RP2040 based. Users have 30 GPIO to play with and all the compatibility that comes with Feather accessories. Users can program projects using MicroPython, CircuitPython, or C.

Want to make things even smaller? Adafruit’s QT Py RP2040 board is so small it makes the Pico look huge. It’s build on top of the RP2040 processor and features a Qwiic JST connector along with a USB Type-C port. It has a form factor of just 21.8mmx 17.8mm.

The release of this RP2040 board was long awaited. It’s a hair smaller than the Raspberry Pi Pico, but offers both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. This wireless support sets the Nano RP2040 Connect apart from other RP2040 boards, but also bumps the price up to around $12 when the Pico goes for $4.

SparkFun also got in on the RP2040 action with this thing—or should we say SparkFun Thing Plus? It has a JST qwiic connector, a couple of buttons, a USB Type-C port, and 30 GPIO. This board is a lot easier to power with the JST port while reserving the original form factor as close as possible. This module also has a mounting hole in each corner to help make it easier to attach to whatever fun project you’re working on.

Teeny boards mean teeny components! The Arducam 5MP Plus OV5642 Mini Camera Module is made to connect with boards as small as the Pico. It can capture images at 5MP and store them as JPEG files. If you’ve got a Pico project in mind that needs a camera, this is the module you need to consider.

The Pibow case is a classic rainbow-striped Raspberry Pi case and with the release of the Pi Zero 2 W, Pimoroni made a new special edition. The Pibow Zero 2 W model fits the Zero 2 W perfectly and is incompatible with previous Pi Zero models. It exposes the GPIO and ports for easy access, so you don’t have to remove it from the case to tinker when using it for projects.