Why do I not see any fellow Xenos?

She's not really mechanically satisfying to play as and many chases as and against Xeno are just W simulators since that's the basic counterplay against her.

Fun killer, that suffered from the sentiment, that "all killers start strong but get nerfed when they come out." I think many people have stopped enjoying Xeno after the original tail nerf. Not saying, that the cooldown change wasnt necessary. On top of that, the hitbox had numerous bugs and had to be fixed at least 3 times.

As people already pointed out:

Cons:

• shift w + predrop is boring to play against (seemingly not boring to play as, as so many people do it despite the killer in play not having a strong chasing power)
• smart usage of turrets can lead to playing without a power, which feels awful.
• Hitbox of tail and animation still dont aling in many cases, leading to questionable looking hits and misses. (I know why it didnt hit. Doesnt make it less frustrating though)
• Tail is similar to other powers

Pros:

• Cool animations and sound design
• Cool skins
• Amazing and iconic license
• Fun addons
• Great perk synergy
• Strong antiloop
• the tunnels

I played Xeno a lot and wanted my next P100 project to be Xeno when it came out. Sadly, due to the mentioned problems, the killer can feel very frustrating at times, which is why my Jill is now getting leveled.

I still play Xeno once or twice a session.

I disagee with it not being unique:

- It's tail attack which is the least unique thing is different than nemesis (which is the most comparable one), the verticality allows hits than no other ranged killers can do. You can hit a near 90° making you able to strike people from above and below gaps. Numerous exemples on RCPD, dead dawg, some on midwitch, you can hit trough the small gap in the eyrie of crow shack (which is insane) and so much more i could write a small word document. These are situationals, punishing and difficult, but the tail allows you to do some insane things (which is skilled AND unique, not as flashy like other i agree but still).

- Tunnels are unique in every aspect or shape. It is an entire submap that allows you to move (and not teleport) in complete silence to emerge and strike. You move fast and you can detect survivors. Other killers must commit to their power, but Xeno is free to move and track survivors. People can find it boring, but it is unique and not comparable to the portals of demo in any ways.

- First quadrupedal killer (with proper animations, watch Pyramid head walking in stairs and you will understand what i mean), it has some minors pros and cons like the POV and "extended body" (survivors will see you sooner since your cam is a bit back and not in your head while you are crawling). It can make some loops difficult since you are low on the ground for them i guess, after numerous 1v1 using only m1, people said that it changed nothing so yeah, not sure about the pros except the TR, but it has cons.

- Like you said, the turrets are unique, motion tracker which counter the stealth of the tunnels and a flamethrower that force the Xeno to focus on it for some extra seconds at the risk of becoming an M1 killer for 35s (without Ovomorph add on).

This killer is a force to respect, you can loop it like another killer, but contrary to the Hag, you have to setup to properly face it. Not using the turrets will make things easier for the Xeno, because even if you badly use the turrets, you can still benefit from the motion tracker. Not using them at all is asking for carnage.

So, even if it's power ressemble in the grand lines to other killers (altrough i disagree but let's say so). It is nowhere near the same thing, it would be like saying that Wesker and Blight are redundant because they both dashes forward. Like, yeah, if you ignore everything else, i guess they both dashes. In Xeno's case, it move fast around the map like a teleport and shoots a short ranged projectile.

For the rest, great points, the add ons are a must (the best for me is self destruct bolt, very cool and strong add on) and imo, should not exist, this touch too much the counterplay making turrets inconsistent for survivors. They will not understand why sometimes it works and other time the Alien can just become Ragnaros the firelord and push trough the turrets.

The hitbox IS strange but you can learn it, my real problem with it is the cooldown, it is punshing and pushes you to not use it except when the hit is guarranted (worse on console) which is bad design. You should not fear using you power because it is that punishing. I don't feel punished at all playing Billy and slightly with Nemesis, they should tweak that a bit. Reduce cooldown to 2.7 (m1 like demogorgon and pig recent update) minimum or 2.5 if they are generous, speed should not change that much, maybe a little, little bit up like 1.4. You would go from 3.6m during cooldown to 3.5, almost the same but with 0,5s less of "im watching him W because i tried something fancy". You can make this small tweak only for the miss to still give more distance on hit to the surv. An idea to dig maybe.

For the burned/bipedal step, i would up the downtime of the power by a large margin, making the power like the oni to really force the Xeno to go in tunnels when burned, this would make the turrets more rewarding but would render double turrets really oppressive, not sure about this one, but i don't like that you can get your power after 35s while not interacting with the tunnels at all. To compensate, and perhaps the thing i want the most, have more stations on the map to really heavily play with the tunnel system, i have used them midchase to catch up a fat W or change target in quick motion and i would love to use them more. Idk for the numbers but my most wanted chnage would be more stations around the map !

Sorry for the large amount of text, im passionate about this killer.

Its the character that keeps us dedicated. If not for Amanda and Sadako I would not be playing anymore. Just ask @GeneralV .