Workshop

Requirements

Supplies: 125

Power: 1

Monthly Upkeep: 35x

Upgrades

Additional Workbench

Requirements

Supplies: 100

Power: 2

Monthly upkeep: 2

Additional Engineer Slot: 1

The Workshop is more useful than the Laboratory, still it’s not really mandatory to build it. The Workshop follows the original XCOM’s mechanic of building efficiently through proper placement because the buildings can only provide certain bonuses if they are adjacent to each other. I also carried over this mentality in my first playthrough. I made sure that the Power Relays are adjacent to each other because in the first game, there are bonus power to be had when doing such thing. In XCOM 2, none of this actually matters EXCEPT the Workshop. I fully expect that the future DLCs or Expansion would implement the original’s facility placement bonuses or penalties to shake things up.

As it stands, the Workshop mechanics is a little bit out of place because this is the only facility that has a special function with placement. The Workshop allows drones to take the same functions as the Engineer, albeit only in the adjacent buildings. Meaning, only the Facilities beside (in all directions: directly above, below, left and right) the Workshop will benefit from the facility’s functions.

For each drone, an Engineer is required to “control” it. It is not 1:1, though, an Engineer can control two drones at a time. Meaning, a Workshop can effectively carry four drones for the price of two Engineers. Sounds exhilaratingly efficient? Think again, these drones can only work at the Facilities which are adjacent to the very Workshop.