Aliens: Dark Descent is a squad-based tactical RTS in which players must command a squad of Colonial Marines as they battle against a rise of Xenomorphs across a variety of semi-open world missions. One of the game's key materials that players will have to acquire is Xenosamples, which can be used in the Otago's Laboratory to research Xenotech upgrades. These upgrades can provide a variety of bonuses to the squad before each deployment, and range from passive effects to specialized tools.