XCOM: UFO Defense -- The UN-official Strategy Guide
XCOM: UFO Defense
The UN-official Strategy Guide
and
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
works great as a Supplement to the Official Strategy Guide!
Updated 01-07/95
Maintained by Kuo-Sheng (Kasey) Chang
(kschang@mercury.sfsu.edu / ksc1@aol.com)
0.1 Introduction
This marks a major change in what was known as the "XCOM Unofficial
Strategy Guide". Now that the official strategy guide is out (XCOM --
the Official Strategy Guide, by David Ellis, Prima Publishing, ISBN
1-55958-764-4, US$19.95, hereby known as OSG), I've found that I cannot
improve much upon my UNofficial guide without including information from
the real thing. I don't want to either, for both legal and moral
reasons.
So I won't do it. (Hold on...)
This UNofficial strategy guide (USG) is now patterned after the official
one, with similar table of contents. You can use this guide along with
the official strategy guide (OSG), or you can use this by itself.
While OSG has all the neat charts and tables and stuff only available
from the source, I've found its tactics and strategy section sorely
lacking. In fact, all the the strategy and tactics are condensed into
ONE chapter, with the rest of the book as simply a reprint of the manual
and UFOpedia and the underlying mechanics.
That's where USG come in. USG will help you make more informed choices.
Instead of showing you a table of numbers, I'll actually show you what
is recommended by fellow XCOM players. After you read each chapter in
the OSG, read that chapter's supplement here. You will understand more
about how the game runs and the tactics to beat it.
You do NOT have to have the OSG to use this supplement, but you will get
more out of both if you do.
0.2 Credits where credits are due
Thanks to MicroProse and Mythos Games for bringing us such a nice game.
If this is not game of the year in 1994, I don't know what is!
Thanks to all the people who have contributed to previous editions of
the XCOM:USG, whom include but are not limited to: William Kang, Tim
Chawn, Doug Osbrone, Stuart Lamble, Seth Cohn, Bill Soo, Jeff Shaffer,
Rob Eiben, Menachem Pasteich, and fellow XCOM players all over the
world discussing the game on USENET.
UFO: Enemy Unknown users should be able to use this supplement with
minimum changes. Most tips will apply to both versions.
Table of Contents
1.0 X-COM General Information
What is this game? What about bugs? Patches? Expansions and
future versions? How do I win or lose?
2.0 The GeoScape Screen
How do I use GeoScape? Any tricks?
3.0 X-COM Bases
Where do I put my first bases? How to I build bases that are easy
to defend? How much defense do I build?
4.0 X-COM Hardware
What kind of weapons are available? Which ones are the best?
5.0 Finance
How do I make more money? How do I spend less money? How do I
cheat and get more money?
6.0 Research and Manufacturing
What do I research? What do I build?
7.0 Intercepting UFOs
How do I intercept UFOs? What weapon should I send up against
UFO type X?
8.0 Soldiers, Movement, and Combat
Who do I send on missions? How do I avoid casualties?
9.0 The aliens
Who are these &@*#%*!? How do I kill them most efficiently?
10.0 Ground Assaults
What do I do in UFO assaults and recoveries? What is the best way
to defend my base? Assaulting alien bases?
11.0 Mastering Cydonia -- The Final Assault
How do I win the "final confrontation"?
12.0 Misc Stuff
Anything else that's not covered
BEGIN XCOM Unofficial Strategy Guide
1.0 X-COM General Information
1.1 What is XCOM: UFO Defense?
[Excerpt from XCOM manual page 6]
It is the year 1999. Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have
started appearing with distrubing regularity in the night skies.
Reports of violent human abductions and horrific experimentation
has truck terror into the hearts of millions. Mass public
hysteria has only served to expose Earth's impotence against a
vastly superior technology.
[...]
On December 11, 1998, representatives from the world's most
economically powerful counties gathered secretly in Geneva.
After much debate, they decision was made to establish a covert
independent body to combat, investigate, and defeat the alien
threat. The organization would be equipped with the world's
finest pilots, soldiers, scientists, and engineers, working
together as one multi-national force.
This organization was named the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit.
[end excerpt]
You are in overall command of XCOM. You will launch and control
interceptors to attack marauding UFOs, send soldiers to attack
crashed or landed UFOs, raid alien bases on Earth (if you can
find them), keep the sponsor nations happy and UFOs out of their
skies, buy the ammo and weapons you need in the war, research
and build better weapons as your troops bring in captured alien
artifacts for analysis and eventually manufacture our own
copies, pay for everything by contributions from sponsor
countries and selling stuff, and eventually figure out the alien
threat's origin and end the threat once and for all. (Whew!
That's a mouthful!)
1.2 How does XCOM play?
The game is divided into two main segments: GeoScape and
BattleScape. GeoScape is a 3-D view of the globe, rotate-able
and zoom-able. This is where you control your various bases
around the world (with radars), your fighters and transports
(carrying your soldiers), your inventory at each base, the UFOs
currently in sight, and so on. Once ground contact is made
(transport landed next to UFO, you attack alien base, aliens
attack your base, etc.), the game switches to Battlescape.
Battlescape is an isometric tile-based 3-D combat with viewpoint
similar to SimCity 2000. The combat is turn-based with
opportunity fire on the opponent's round (provided you have
enough TimeUnits [TUs] and reaction), with plenty of weapons and
terrain to choose from. Everything is mouse-driven so game is
very easy to learn yet hard to master.
1.3 What is UFO: Enemy Unknown?
UFO: Enemy Unknown is the European version of XCOM. The game
was designed by Mythos Games, and was picked up at first by
MicroProse UK, and was imported into the US later as XCOM. XCOM
is equivalent to UFO V1.2.
1.3.1 Why the name change?
OSG has no explanation, but I believe that SubLOGIC (the
original Flight Simulator people) had a game called UFO,
and MicroProse couldn't register the same name, so they
picked XCOM.
1.3.2 What is this UFO V1.3 Patch?
Recently there's a supposedly UFO V1.3 patch floating in
Internet somewhere. (Try ftp.uml.edu). Computer Gaming
World listed it in their patches page, so it appears to be
official. This is ONLY for UFO, NOT for XCOM. XCOM patch
should be coming "soon". (see 1.5)
1.4 What type of PC do I need? Is a Demo available?
Requirements listed on XCOM is: 386/486 (Pentium?), 4 MB RAM,
VGA, Mouse, MS/PC-DOS 5.0 or higher.
One person reported that he was able to run XCOM with 2 MB RAM,
though it is SLOW. Your mileage may vary.
It comes on 3 3.5" HD disks, and needs about 12MB of hard drive
space to install (double that if using disk compression software
such as Stacker or DoubleSpace). There's a CD version which is
the same except only the saved games reside on the hard drive
and all of the data files stays on the CD.
The game uses 32-bit protected mode, so it would not run under
Windows. No compatibility claims was made to any other versions
of DOS such as DR DOS, Novell DOS 7, or even OS/2.
There is a playable demo available on most on-line services such
as America On-Line in the MicroProse forum /SIG/ roundtable/
whatever. There WAS a demo at ftp.std.com, but another user
reported that it disappeared sometime during November. If any
one knows where a copy of the XCOM or UFO demo can be found in
Internet, please let me know at the e-mail addresses above.
1.5 What about any bugs? Any patches?
The OSG has no list of bugs, so here is a list of bugs that are
known to exist in XCOM/UFO. MicroProse is aware of most of
these problems.
At the beginning of November, Brian at MicroProse support
explained that they are working on a completely new level of
XCOM sound support that will fix ALL the sound bugs plus native
support for most sound cards, including Gravis Ultrasound,
Creative AWE 32, and stuff stereo, 16-bit sampled sounds, and
General MIDI. It is due before Christmas... But they missed
it, as it was NOT on AOL as of 12-31/94.
There are three patches for UFO that upgrades V1.0 to V1.1,
V1.2, and V1.3 respectively. XCOM is equivalent to V1.2 (and a
few others changes) so no patch is needed.
Recently there's a UFO V1.3 patch. Computer Gaming World listed
it as an official patch, so I think it is official. It does NOT
work on XCOM, so don't use it if you have XCOM.
1.5.1 Green Text Bug
Symptom: Game suddenly displays 40-column Green text [DOS
Extender Error]. Usually happens right after a battle,
and after a bit it takes you back into the battle you just
finished (infinitely), sometimes the computer hangs.
Cause and Solution: This is usually caused by attempting
to save a game while an UFO interception is in progress.
The saved game is corrupt. You must restore from an
earlier saved game. [OSG only mentions this as "trust me,
don't save when intercept minimized". :-P ]
1.5.2 16-bit Sound bug
Symptom: Game has compatibility problems with most 16-bit
sound cards such as SoundBlaster 16 and PAS-16 (and Gravis
UltraSound as well). Music and sounds are often played as
static, or no sound at all.
Cause and solution: remember that the setup asks for the
DMA channel, NOT the interrupt as most setup programs do.
If it still doesn't work, it's a program bug. You can
always play with the sound off, but it's not as much fun
having no alien screams when they got hit and die...
1.5.3 One-shot blaster bug
Symptom: Once you fired off a blaster launcher, sometimes
there's still a shell in there so you can't reload it, but
you can't fire it either.
Cause and solution: This is caused by programming only one
waypoint for the blaster bomb. If you program two or more
waypoints for the bomb this won't happen. You can also
UNLOAD the "empty" shell and drop it on the ground.
1.5.4 Flying Frozen bug
Symptom: a unit near the edge of the map was hit by the
enemy. When it is their turn to more, their pointer shows
them off the edge of the map (totally outside). They can
move up/down, but not back onto the map. They can still
shoot, and they recover if you win the battle.
Cause and solution: no idea, this seems to be random.
1.6 Any plans on sequels? Mission disks? Other computers?
Here's an actual message posted by MicroProse on AOL:
----
XCOM 2: Terror From the Deep
The war continues... XCOM: Terror From the Deep brings the alien
terror into a totally new dimension...
Seeking to take advantage of a weakened Earth, XCOM's deep space
foes unexpectedly change strategy and launch a powerful second
front against planet Earth. In the dark depths of vast oceans,
long sleeping forces are awakened by re-animation signals sent
out across the galactic silence by their interstellar brothers
and sisters. Slowly but surely, and army of hibernating alien
sea creatures awakens.
Your combat now extends to the strange new world of the deep
where superior alien technologies threaten the very survival of
the planet. Your planet: Earth.
* Sequels the hugely successful XCOM: UFO Defense
* Actual undersea geoscape mapping system with rich topo-
graphical detail
* Full array of undersea military technology
* Rich graphics feature water coloration and wrecks
* Multi-level tactical maps featuring both underwater
seascapes and buildings
* Alien encyclopedia features mutation technology and
new watery denizens
-- Brian/MicroProse
-------------------
January issue of Computer Gaming World (CGW) has a screenshot of
XCOM2, looks just like XCOM with slightly better graphics, and
the scene is underwater.
There was currently no plan to port this game to other
platforms (no Mac, no Amiga, etc). People who want to see this
game on their favorite platforms should contact MicroProse and
voice their opinion. One address to try is MicroProse@aol.com.
1.7 How do I win? How do I lose?
You win by finding the source of the alien threat and "deal with
it" once and for all on a "final mission". (See 11.0 if you
REALLY want to know)
You can lose by several ways:
1) You were in debt for over $1,000,000 for two months. Your
sponsors had had enough of your mismanagement and terminated the
XCOM project. Earth was conquered by aliens not long after.
2) You had two consecutive "badly losing" months (big negative
score), and your sponsors had had enough and terminated XCOM
project. Just how bad is a "badly losing" month depends on your
score and difficulty level (Scoring is explained in OSG
Chapter 1 and 1.8).
3) You lost all of your bases to the aliens.
4) You failed to complete the "final mission" (see above 1).
1.8 How is scoring calculated?
Score is kept for both sides. You get positive score for
conducting successful research, capturing and/or killing aliens,
grounding and/or destroying UFOs, destroying alien bases,
grabbing alien equipment, and more. You get negative score for
losing XCOM soldiers, crafts, HWPs, and civilians. (for exact
numbers, see OSG)
Aliens score points by overflying Earth, lands on Earth
(whatever purpose), build and keep bases on Earth, conduct
terror raids and hoping that you ignore it (so NEVER do so since
this REALLY scores big for them!), sign pact with funding
countries (which means those countries don't pay you any
longer!), conduct harvest and/or abduction mission on Earth.
(for exact numbers, see OSG)
Your net score is (your_score - alien_score), which is the score
you see on the monthly performance report. The funding changes
are affected by your total score, and are explained in
OSG:Chapter 5.
2.0 The Geoscape Screen
The GeoScape screen is where you will control the interceptions and
provides access to the BattleScape and the base controls.
2.1 Air Intercepts
Always attack an UFO over land. If you shoot it down over water
no one can get to it (unless you are playing the sequel, see
section 1). If you are over water, minimize the window, and
select 1 minute step until you get back over land, then switch
back to 5 seconds and start attack.
If you send multiple crafts after one UFO and the UFO gets shot
down or destroyed, the shooter will go home, but other crafts
will continue onto the crash site, THEN return to their base. So
make them return to base manually. They will return faster, and
thus be refueled/rearmed/repaired for next sortie faster. Click
on its icon on GeoScape and select "return to base".
If an UFO has landed, keep a fighter on top of it. That way, if
it takes off before your transport get there, you still have a
chance of taking it down.
Since the best weapons have a chance of blowing a smaller UFO
totally to pieces, you may want to keep one fighter armed weaker
than the rest for intercepting smaller UFOs. (Assuming that you
even WANT to go after small UFOs)
2.2 Finding Alien Bases
XCOM agents have a chance of finding an alien base for you, but
chances are pretty slim. So do not rely on that. Watch for
high alien activity (check the graphs) yet no interception:
there's probably a base in the area.
Send something slow like a Skyranger to patrol the area. An
empty Skyranger has excellent range and therefore is perfect in
spotting alien bases.
Watch UFOs, esp. where they land. If you see a "Supply Ship",
do NOT attack it. Trail it and follow it to their base. After
it lands, patrol nearby and you'll see the base.
Hyperwave decoders can find UFOs on supply runs. Follow that
will usually lead you to a base.
Of course, you do NOT have to take out that base... You go
after the supply train instead.
2.3 Base Management
Since it takes several weeks before additional modules to the
base can be brought online, you need to build them ahead of
time. See the base status to see how full are your facilities
getting. If they are getting close, start building additional
facilities so that they'll be ready by the time you need them.
Examine base status at least twice every month, check living
quarters, workshops and labs, etc, and determine your expansion
schedule. Dismantle extra stuff before end of month so you
don't pay maintainence on them.
Hire engineers and scientists at the last hour of the month so
that they get delievered early NEXT month, so you get maximum
research from them while not paying an extra penny in salary.
2.4 GeoScape Tricks and Tips
Many people don't realize that click on the UFO icon will bring
up all known info about the UFO. If you detected it via
Hyperwave Decoder, you'll know A LOT about it.
UFO Crash Site susually disappear in a few days. If you have
no soldiers available, you can let it sit for a day or two.
Landed UFOs will take off in hours (less than a day).
Terror Sites disappear in less than a day (which mean you have
to get to one ASAP, even if it means skipping UFOs and landing
at night!)
Check your graphs regularly to determine where to build your
next base. Watch for sponsor countries with high alien activity
with high-paying sponsor(s), then check how much did they pay
you via the Funding screen and see if they are worth defending.
Areas with high alien activity and high XCOM activity probably
have an alien base.
3.0 X-COM Bases
3.1 Where should I put my first base? Additional bases?
There are several things to consider while placing your first
base. Keep in mind that your first base will be your only base
for a while, so make sure you place it where you get maximum
coverage of the sponsoring countries, who also pays the most.
The problem is how to maximize the country coverage WHILE
maximizing the covered countries' total payment. We know that
the US pays the most (always), and second most is Japan, while
Europe has a lot of sponsor countries in a cluster. Third best
paying is, believe it or not, South Africa.
According to OSG's Chapter 5, the finance changes depend on
your score. If your score is positive, and you did a lot of
stuff in the sponsoring country (see XCOM Activity in Graphs),
then they will raise their payment by a random percentage. Now,
would you rather have 10% of $100,000, or 10% of $800,000?
OSG recommends Northern US as a good starting place, which is
okay, since US is the largest paying XCOM sponsor. On the other
hand, a base in US can only cover US, and Canada. A base in
Central Europe can cover UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and
a piece of Russia (though most of Russia would need a base in
Asia, covering Japan, China, and maybe India as well).
My vote is a toss-up between Europe and Northern-Central US.
Both can work quite well.
If you build your first base in Northern-Central US, build your
second in Europe, and vice versa. The third base should be near
Japan to cover Japan, China, Russia, and hopefully India (maybe
not), and fourth base should be in Africa covering Nigeria and
South Africa (an important contributor). If you build a fifth
base, it should go in South America, covering Brazil. If you
want a sixth base, built it in New Zealand or NorthEastern
Australia to covering most of the Pacific (this one covers no
sponsors, so it's kind of optional).
Check your graphs regularly to determine where to build your
next base. Watch for sponsor countries with high alien activity
with high-paying sponsor(s), then check how much did they pay
you via the Funding screen and see if they are worth defending.
Do not build additional bases until you have enough money in the
bank to pay for its initial construction AS WELL AS the first
month's maintainence. Negative balance for two months means the
end of your XCOM tenure!
3.2 How should I name my bases?
I personally name bases based on the continent they are on, plus
the COM suffix (stands for Command), except for the US base,
which is CentCom. Europe is EuroCom, South America is SoAmCom,
Asia is AsiaCom, Africa is AfriCom, and so on. Sounds military
too. :-)
Naming bases is important because it means less confusion on the
Intercept screen on choosing which base to launch the fighters.
3.3 What types of bases should I build?
The OSG recommends that you build every base to be as full
fledged as possible, as to be ready in the unlikely event that
all other bases fell to the aliens. While I can sympathize with
the approach, it is very difficult to implement.
The main problem is in research. Each base research independent
of each other. Decentralized research slows discoveries and
makes duplicate research possible (efforts are NOT cumulative).
The only way to make things work like recommended is limit
yourself to about three or four bases, covering North America,
Europe, East Asia (Japan, China, Eastern Russia), and Africa
(South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt). Your bases will evolve in
stages as follows:
3.3.1 Radar base
The radar base just have radars, and later, hyperwave
decoders. Remember to put in a storage space (for HWPs
and their ammos) and a living quarter (for expansion and a
few guards). Stock it with several HWPs (plasma hover-
tanks are ideal) for defense, add one defense station when
you can afford it.
3.3.2 Intercept Base
Radar base with a hangar housing a fighter (Interceptor or
Firestorm). Watch the storage space since fighter needs
its own weapons and ammo. Add one if needed.
3.3.3 Strike Base
Intercept Base with a second hangar housing a transport
(Skyranger, Lightning, or Avenger). Remember to add
storage (weapons and ammo, plus loot) and alien
containment (prisoners) when needed.
3.3.4 Research Base / Manufacture Base
Base should specialize in either research or manufacture,
not both (putting too many eggs in one basket). Add
living quarters and either workshop or laboratory as
needed. Manufacture base needs more storage space or an
empty hangar (if building crafts) so make you have enough
or use TRANSFER a lot.
3.3.5 Special Research Base or Manufacture Base
As OSG mentioned, UFOs will start looking for your base if
their brethrens keeps getting attacked and destroyed in
the area. This suggest that if you build a base at North
or South pole, only stock it with soldiers and needed
equipment (no crafts or radars, or maybe a hyperwave
decoder), and wait until UFOs enter a different zone
before attacking them, you can keep a base pretty safe.
Many people have employed this tactic and it seems to work
quite well. This is also great for psi labs.
3.4 How do I design secure base easy to defend?
The most secure base design that I can think of is this one:
XXXXXX This base has only ONE access point: by the lift.
X.XXXX Any other way (such as through the hangar) actually
X.XXXX takes LONGER. And the long corridor spanning FOUR
A..... sections makes EXCELLENT choke points and impromptu
HHHHHH minefields with proximity grenades are great for
HHHHHH defense in this kind of situations. If you don't
need three hangars, you can trade the right one for
XXXXXX three more structures down the right side.
X.XXXX
X.XXXX Basically, put the access lift off to one side of the
A....X map and try to isolate that and hangars from the rest
HHHH.X of the base.
HHHH.X
There is one catch though: sometimes, there's a bug in
the game that eliminates some doors that leads you to
the rest of the base. Without rockets and blaster
bombs to act as "diggers", you can't kill the aliens
in the other section and thus cannot finish the battle
at all.
3.5 What should I add to my base at first?
Initial modifications you need for the main base are: alien
containment (prisoners), general stores (ammo and captured
artifacts), and long range radar (detection). Later, with more
money, add living quarters, labs, workshops, and defenses, in
approximately that order.
Defenses comes last usually since you can defend with soldiers
and HWPs.
3.6 How should I defend a base? How much defense is enough?
Defending a base against alien raids is tough. Fortunately,
unless you are doing terribly well, aliens usually don't bother
your bases for a while. But near the end, alien battleships
will come after your bases, then you have a problem...
To defend against that, you need a high defense rating. I would
recommend over 3000, maybe 3500, plus grav shields, if you don't
like fighting inside your own base. Three fusion ball defenses
plus grav shields is usually enough. Only one out of ten
battleships made it through my defenses, and its remaining
landing parties are easy to wipe out.
On the other hand, if you don't have equipment to fight battle-
ships in the air, you may want to let it land and take it out on
the ground (i.e. at your base). Remember you will see A LOT of
aliens on a base raid, I hope you have a lot of USABLE
equipment (i.e. GOOD stuff in the first 80 items)...
Small UFOs usually scout ahead of the large UFOs that will
actually raid your base. If you can destroy the scout before it
detects your base, you can prevent the base attack.
In V1.0 of UFO (not XCOM and not later versions of UFO), you can
gain hundreds to thousands of units of Elerium if you win a
defend base action.
Clean out old inventory! Old inventory will prevent you from
getting to the GOOD weapons since you are still limited to the
80 item limit during base defense.
If you really ran out of space and do not want to conduct a fire
sale, stuff the extras into the transports, though selling them
is much easier and gains you money.
HWPs are great base defenders, being always available and only
requires warehouse space. Put a few in every base you build, as
they work even with no soldiers around. (?)
Proximity grenades are vital in base defenses. Dump a few near
entrances and doors, and get ready for the alien death screams.
3.7 Base modules
Name DaysBuild Cost Maint Usage
Access Lift 1 300k 4k (Entrance to underground base)
Alien Containment 18 500k 15k (Holds 10[!?] live aliens)
Fusion Defense 36 1800k 14k (Def value 1200, Accuracy 80%)
General Stores 10 150k 5k (Holds 50 units of equipment)
Grav Shield 38 2300k 15k (Gives defenses an extra shot)
Hanger 25 200k 25k (Maintains 1 craft)
Hyperwave Decoder 26 2000k 30k (Evaluate UFO missions)
Laboratory 26 750k 30k (Allows 50 research)
Large Radar 25 800k 15k (450nm range, 5% detect/10mins)
Laser Defense 24 900k 10k (Def value 600, Accuracy 60%)
Living Quarters 16 400k 10k (Sleeps 50)
Mind Shield 33 1300k 5k (Minimizes aliens finding base)
Missile Defense 16 200k 5k (Def value 500, Accuracy 50%)
Small Radar 12 500k 10k (300nm range, 5% detect/10mins)
Plasma Defense 36 1200k 12k (Def value 900, Accuracy 70%)
Psi Lab 24 750k 16k (For troop psi training)
Workshop 32 800k 35k (Allows 50 manufacture)
Fusion Defense, Grav Shield, Hyperwave Decoder, Laser Defense,
Mind Shield, Plasma Defense, and Psi Lab require respective
advances to be researched before they can be built, see 6.X for
more information.
NOTE 1: In a workshop, the object being manufactured takes up
some space. So you will not be able to cram all 50
engineers in there.
NOTE 2: You can dismantle a facility, even when it is under
construction. Simply click on the facility, and the
program will ask you do you wish to dismantle it, select
OK or Cancel.
NOTE 3: To dismantle a base, you must remove all facilities
(transferring all people and equipment elsewhere if
needed) then finally remove the access lift itself.
3.8 Base startup costs, compiled by IrwinNY@aol.com
base location lift cost Covers
----------------------------------------
Africa, South 550,000 South Africa
Africa, North 650,000 Nigeria, Egypt
Atlantic, North 500,000 (Really Greenland)
America, North 800,000 USA, Canada
America, South 600,000 Brazil
Antartica 900,000
Arctic 950,000
Asia, Central 500,000 Eastern China
Asia, South East 750,000 Japan, Western China
Australasia 750,000 Australia
Europe 1,000,000 Eastern Commonwealth, UK, France,
Germany, Italy, Spain
Pacific 600,000 (really Hawaiian islands)
Siberia 800,000 Western Commonwealth, India
4.0 X-COM Hardware
Here's the comprehensive list of all the toys you get to play with.
Of course, most of them requires research.
4.1 XCOM Crafts and their weapons
Speed Accel Fuel Weapons Hull Cargo HWPs Note
Skyranger 760 2 2000 0 150 14 3
Interceptor 2100 3 1000 2 100 0 0
----Research required----
Firestorm 4200 9 20(E) 2 500 0 0 (1)
Lightning 3100 8 30(E) 1 800 12 0 (2)
Avenger 5400 10 60(E) 2 1200 26 4 (3)
(E) Uses elerium-115 for fuel (1) new fighter
(2) new fighter/transport (3) ultimate craft
Speed : maximum speed of craft, determines if it can keep up
with UFO during interception.
Accel : maximum acceleration of craft, determines whether UFO
will stay in range
Fuel : amount of fuel carried, endurance terms
Weapons : number of weapon pod mounts available
Hull : amount of damage the craft can take
Cargo : number of "spaces" craft can carry. Each soldier is
one space and each HWP is four spaces (see HWPs also)
HWPs : maximum number of HWP this craft can carry.
Note: for the Elerium fueled crafts, You may need to divide by 5
for the actual units used. Avenger takes actually 12 units
of E-115 for refuel, instead fo 60 as implied here.
General Advice:
Replace Skyrangers and Interceptors ASAP to save on monthly
lease. OTH, Interceptors have longer range than Firestorms, and
with twin plasma cannon, can attack anything except battleships.
Lightning is almost useless and usually do not get built by most
players. Just forget it and research for Avenger.
Do NOT use Avengers exclusively since you put too many eggs
(soldiers and equipment) in one basket.
Damage Range Accuracy Reload Shots
Cannon 10 10 10% 2s 200
Stingray 70 30 70% 15s 6
Avalanche 100 60 100% 20s 3
----Research required----
Laser Cannon 70 21 70% 4s 99
Plasma Beam 140 52 140% 6s 99
Fusion Launcher 230 65 230% 25s 2
Damage : damage done to target if hit
Range : max range of weapon
Accuracy : hit probability when fired
Reload : second needed to fire next shot
Shots : number of shots available
NOTE 1: Match the weapon to the target. You want to force the
alien to land so you can board it and recover artifacts
and prisoners, not blow it into smithereens (though it
might make you feel good) and saves you time
NOTE 2: The long range weapons, like Avalanche, Plasma Beam, and
Fusion Ball Launcher, gives you advantage since UFO
usually do not fire back until you are quite close. See
7.5 for UFO weapon ranges.
NOTE 3: It is possible to miss with weapons that have accuracy
> 100%, esp. when target moves out of range.
General Advice:
You don't want Stingray missiles and cannons. They can handle
only very small or small UFOs. Only keep them around on ONE
fighter in case you want to go after small stuff.
Use Avalanche missiles in the early game to take on medium or
large UFOs.
Switch to plasma cannons later in the game and forget fusion
ball launchers (not enough damage overall, with 2 shots each)
Forget laser cannons except for selling (see section 5)
4.2 XCOM Ground Weapons
Ground weapons accuracy is further modified by free hands,
kneeling /standing, and soldier's shooting accuracy. Time Units
used is always expressed as a percentage of a soldier's total TU
available.
(Accuracy / TU% needed)
Aimed Snap Auto Dam Type Ammo (Capacity)
Pistol 78/30 60/18 26 AP Pistol Clip (15)
Rifle 110/80 60/25 35/35 30 AP Rifle Clip (20)
Heavy Cannon 90/80 60/33 56 AP HC-AP (6)
52 HE HC-HE (6)
60 I HC-I (6)
Auto Cannon 82/80 56/33 32/40 42 AP AC-AP (14)
44 HE AC-HE (14)
48 I AC-I (14)
Rocket Launcher 115/75 55/45 75 HE Small Rocket
100 HE Large Rocket
90 I Incendiary Rocket
Grenade 50 HE
Smoke Grenade 60 Smoke
Proximity Grenade 70 HE
High Explosive 110 HE
--Research required---
Laser Pistol 68/55 40/20 28/25 46 Las
Laser Rifle 100/50 65/25 46/34 60 Las
Heavy Laser 84/75 50/33 85 Las
Plasma Pistol 85/60 65/30 50/30 52 Plas PP clip (25)
Plasma Rifle 100/60 86/30 55/63 80 Plas PR clip (30)
Heavy Plasma 110/60 75/30 50/35 115 Plas HP clip (35)
Blaster Launcher 120/80 200 HE Blaster Bomb
Small Launcher 110/75 65/40 90 Stun Stun Bomb
Alien Grenade 90 HE
AP = Armor piercing HE = High Explosive I = Incendiary
Note 1 : Accuracy for two-handed weapons is decreased 20% if
other hand is not empty (i.e. holding something like
grenade, psi amp, etc.)
Note 2 : Accuracy is increased 10% if the soldier is kneeling,
which takes only 4 TUs
Note 3 : Grenades and Blaster Bomb have 3-D explosions (despite
what many people claimed)
General Advice:
Get laser pistol and rifle ASAP, then research heavy plasma,
skipping plasma pistol and plasma rifle (go back later when you
have time), then blaster launcher.
Forget heavy cannon and heavy laser as they are not worth the
weight without auto (three-round-burst) mode.
Autocannon would be your "heavy" weapon early on, along with a
rocket launcher.
4.3 HWP Types
Cost Shots Dam TU ArmorF/S/R Health
Tank/Cannon 450K 30 60 70 90/ 75/ 60 90
Tank/Rocket 480K 8 85 70 90/ 75/ 60 90
--Must research--
Tank/Laser 500K 255 110 70 90/ 75/ 60 90
Hover/Plasma 850K 255 110 100 130/130/100 90
Hover/Launcher 900K 8 140 100 130/130/100 90
General advice:
HWPs should be your scouts, extending your visual range and
keeps your soldiers out of enemy's visual (and lethal) range
4.4 Armor
Fr/Sd/Rr/Bt
--Must research--
Personal Armor 50/40/30/30
Power Suit 100/80/70/60
Flying Suit 110/90/80/70
General Advice:
personal armor just need "alien alloy", so research that ASAP.
That will improve your chance of survival by quite a bit. After
that, research UFO power source and you should get Power Suit.
4.5 Equipment
TUs Usage
Electroflare 25% Use at night for illumination, reusable
--Must research--
Medikit 10 heal fatal wounds, raise morale, revive
unconscious people (see UFOpedia)
MotionScanner 25% registers movement within 8 squares radius
Mind Probe 50% allows you to see alien's status screen
(ID, TUs remain, health, + other stats)
General Advice:
Carry one or two electroflare and one medikit on each soldier.
You need the light at night (just in case) and the medikit means
no more bleeding to death.
Mind Probe and MotionScanner are optional items. MotionScanner
are useful to look behind doors or for hunting down that last
alien. Mind Probe is for knowing who to capture. Take them if
you have room, but they are not essential.
4.6 Stuff that can be bought or leased
Item Category Cost Note
---------------------------------------------------------
Soldier Personnel 40000 monthly salary
Scientist Personnel 60000 monthly salary
Engineer Personnel 50000 monthly salary
Skyranger Craft 500000 monthly lease
Interceptor Craft 600000 monthly lease
Stingray l'cher Craft Weapon 16000 6 rounds
Stingray missile Craft Ammo 3000
Avalanche l'cher Craft Weapon 17000 3 rounds
Avalanche missile Craft Ammo 9000
Cannon Craft Weapon 30000
Cannon Ammo (x50) Craft Ammo 1240
Tank/Cannon HWP 420000 30 rounds
HWP Cannon Ammo HWP Ammo 200
Tank/Rocket HWP 480000 8 rounds
HWP Rocket HWP Ammo 3000
Pistol Weapon 800
Pistol Clip Ammo 70
Rifle Weapon 3000
Rifle Clip Ammo 200
Heavy Cannon Weapon 6400
HC-AP Ammo 300
HC-HE Ammo 500
HC-I Ammo 400
Auto Cannon Weapon 13500
AC-AP Ammo 500
AC-HE Ammo 700
AC-I Ammo 650
Rocket Launcher Weapon 4000
Small Rocket Ammo 600
Large Rocket Ammo 900
Incendiary Rocket Ammo 1200
Grenade Weapon 300
Smoke Grenade Weapon 150
Proximity Grenade Weapon 500
High Explosive Weapon 1500
Stun Rod Weapon 1260
ElectroFlare Equipment 60
4.7 Stuff that must be researched and manufacturered
Engineer Workshop Alien Sale
Hours Cost Space Elerium Alloys Price
[Equipment]
Motion scanner 220 34k 4 - - 45600
Medikit 420 28k 4 - - 46500
Mind probe 1200 262k 4 1 - 334000
Psi amp 500 160k 4 1 - 194700
[Armor]
Personal armor 800 22k 12 - 4 140000
Power suit 1000 42k 16 5 5 310000
Flying suit 1400 58k 16 16 5 420000
[HWP]
Tank/laser 1200 500k 25 - - ?
Hovertank/plasma 1200 850k 30 30 5 980000
Hovertank/launcher 1400 900k 30 25 8 1043000
HWP fusion bomb 400 15k 25 5 8 31500
[weapons]
Laser pistol 300 8k 2 - - 20000
Laser rifle 400 20k 3 - - 36900
Heavy laser 700 32k 4 - - 61000
Plasma pistol 600 56k 3 - 1 84000
Plasma pistol clip 60 2k 4 1 - 4440
Plasma rifle 820 88k 4 - 1 126500
Plasma rifle clip 80 3k 4 2 - 6290
Heavy plasma 1000 122k 4 - 1 171600
Heavy plasma clip 80 6k 4 3 - 9590
Blaster launcher 1200 90k 5 - 1 144000
Blaster bomb 220 8k 3 3 - 17028
Small launcher 900 78k 3 - 1 120000
Stun bomb 200 7k 2 1 - 15200
Alien grenade 200 6.7k 2 2 - 14850
[Crafts]
FIRESTORM 14000 400k 30 - 65 -*
LIGHTNING 18000 600k 34 - 85 -*
AVENGER 34000 900k 36 - 120 -**
[Craft Weapons]
Laser cannon 300 182k 6 - - 211000
Plasma beam 500 226k 8 15 - 267300
Fusion ball launcher 400 242k 6 - - 281100
Fusion ball 600 28k 6 4 - 53300
[Misc]
Alien alloys 100 3k 10 - - 6500
Elerium-115 - - - - - 5000***
UFO power source 1400 130k 22 16 5 250000
UFO navigation 1600 150k 18 - 3 80000
* needs 1 UFO power source + 1 UFO navigation
** needs 2 UFO power sources + 1 UFO navigation
*** Elerium can ONLY be captured as parts of UFO or base, which makes it
extremely valuable, so NEVER waste any of it
5.0 Finance
5.1 What really eats up money at XCOM?
The answer is: maintenence, and salary. If you have 100
scientists, their monthly salary is $6 million (!). Add that to
your bases (the BARE MINIMUM radar base costs over $1 million a
month to maintain!), and you will go broke pretty quick.
Sponsors' money will barely make a dent in your expenses, as
they only pay you a few million, probably not even enough for
base maintainence.
5.2 How do I earn more money?
Three (real) ways to make money in XCOM:
Make your sponsoring countries happy -- so they will increase
their payments. The problem is: they don't pay much to start
with, and their increase is just enough to sneeze at. Their
payments may be enough to buy some ammo and stuff, but don't
expect much of an increase.
Manufacture arms for sale -- 5.4 shows you what to make to
really make money, but usually you need the weapons and other
stuff for yourself, so that leaves us to:
Sell captured/surplus equipment -- most of your money will be
made this way. Dump off all your obsolete equipment (pistols,
rifles, etc) and surplus and you will get LOTS of money. You
will usually end with with plenty of surplus heavy plasma, and
those fetch very good prices on the market. :-) Doing this also
means you need less storage space (and less maintainence) and
more "real" weapons on base defense (due to the 80 item limit)
Keep only one item of each type for research, sell the rest.
You need the money and the space for more useful stuff.
As a last resort, you can always cheat. See the last section
for how.
5.3 How do I cut expenses?
Cut Maintenence -- dismantle any unused facility (see 5.6)
Build your own crafts -- Skyrangers and Interceptors have a
monthly rental fee, your own crafts do not. Of course, this
means you have to research UFO construction and things.
Minimize salary -- use the salary transfer trick! (see 5.5)
5.4 What do I manufacture to make more money on the arms market?
Here's the excellent analysis by Jeff Shaffer...
X-COM Profitability study -- by Jeff Shaffer [edited]
Recently, we at the XCOM Business Institute (our motto: "If it's
worth doing, it's worth analyzing to death") spent all last
night to bring you the following table. The basic assumption is
that you are willing to support engineers long-term in order to
make a profit. I calculated results for a hypothetical 2
workshop operation. You would get slightly better results with
larger facilities, due to the economy of scale.
[all numbers are rounded to the nearest 1000, or K]
Work Eng Raw Sale Unit|Monthly|Net
Item Space Hrs Material Cost Price P R O F I T
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Motion Scanner 4 220 - 34K 45K 11K 3765K 1275K
Medikit 4 420 - 28K 46K 18K 3146K 656K
Psi Amp 4 500 1E 160K 194K 29K 4242K 1752K
Personal Armor 12 800 4A 22K 54K 6K 491K -
Power Suit 16 1000 5E+5A 42K 85K - - -
Flying Suit 16 1400 16E+5A 58K 115K - - -
Alien Alloys 10 100 - 3K 6K 3K 2343K 3K
Elerium 115 - - - - 5K - - -
Laser Pistol 2 300 - 8K 20K 12K 2916K 376K
Laser Rifle 3 400 - 2K0 36K 16K 3049K 534K
Heavy Laser 4 700 - 32K 61K 29K 2958K 468K
Plasma Pistol 3 600 1A 56K 84K 21K 2586K 71K
Plasma Pistol Clip 4 60 1E 2K 4K - - -
Plasma Rifle 4 820 1A 88K 126K 32K 2787K 297K
Plasma Rifle Clip 4 80 2E 3K 6K - - -
Heavy Plasma 4 1000 1A 122K 171K 43K 3078K 588K
Heavy Plasma Clip 4 80 3E 6K 9K - - -
Blaster Launcher 5 1200 1A 9K0 144K 47K 2797K 332K
Blaster Bomb 3 220 3E 8K 17K - - -
Small Launcher 3 900 1A 78K 120K 35K 2846K 331K
Stun Bomb 2 200 1E 7K 15K 3K 1166K -
Alien Grenade 2 200 2E 6K 14K - - -
Mind Probe 4 1200 1E 262K 304K 37K 2202K -
UFO Power Source 22 1400 16E+5A 130K 250K 7K 310K -
UFO Navigation 18 1600 3A 150K 80K - - -
Fusion Ball L'cher 6 400 - 242K 281K 39K 6836K 4396K
Fusion Ball 6 600 4E 28K 53K 5K 617K -
Laser Cannon 6 300 - 182K 211K 29K 6760K 4320K
Plasma Beam 8 500 15E 226K 267K - - -
Tank/Laser Cannon 25 1200 - 500K 594K 94K 4371K 2406K
Hovertank/Plasma 30 1200 30E+5A 850K 980K - - -
Hovertank/Launcher30 1400 25E+8A 900K 1043K - - -
HWP Fusion Bomb 25 400 5E+8A 15K 31K - - -
First six columns are just basic information from my version of
XCOM. (Note: I have seen posts stating that UFO has higher sale
prices for some items, notably armor!) The 'Unit Profit' column
is sale price minus cost, minus the cost of any E-115/Alloy used
in manufacture. A '-' means a net loss, no further analysis.
'Monthly Profit' column is based on an "XCOM Month" of 24*31 =
744 hours. The calculation is number of engineers that fit in
two workshops times 744 times unit profit, divided by the hours
required to make one item. For example, the monthly profit for
Motion Scanners is 96*744*11600/220 = 1275993 (1275K).
The 'Net Profit' column is the bottom line. Monthly expenses
are the salaries of as many engineers as fit in the workshops
times $50K, plus the maintenance on 2 workshops and 2 living
quarters. As you can see, Fusion Ball Launchers are the winner,
narrowly edging out Laser Cannons. A profit can be made early
in the game on motion scanners, however.
One final note: It costs roughly $7M to hire engineers and
build the facilities, so you'll need to 'borrow' some money
(preferably from alien supply ships :) to get started.
[Editor's note: don't forget the "transfer salary trick" below]
5.5 The "Transfer Salary Savings" trick
As explained on page 131 of OSG, if you sack scientists and/or
engineers before the end of the month, you don't have to pay
their salaries. However, there's ANOTHER way to do this.
Have two bases approximately equivalent to each other, like both
research (or manufacturing), about same living quarters, and
scientists (or engineers). Just before end of the month (last
day, last hour), transfer ALL of the scientists (engineers) to
the other base, and do the same on the other base (i.e. they
swap their contingent). When the end of month comes along,
NEITHER side has their scientists (engineers) (they are in
transit), no salary is paid. If you have like 100 scientists
moving each way, you save $60,000x100x2 = $12 million!
5.6 When do I dismantle unused base facilities?
The OSG was rather unclear on what to dismantle. Basically, you
should do the following:
* When you get hyperwave decoder, build only one at each base,
and dismantle all the radars there. One hyperwave decoder
detect 100% of UFOs within range, so no radars are needed.
* When you no longer need alien prisoners (i.e. you are ready to
undertake the "final mission"), zap the alien containment
(though by that time, it doesn't matter any more, unless you
are waiting for your Avenger to be built)
* When you no longer need more research or manufacturing (i.e.
you are ready for the "final mission"), lay off all the
scientists and/or engineers, and zap their living quarters and
working modules.
6.0 Research and Manufacturing
6.1 What should I start researching first?
OSG and I have different priorities on research...
I recommend laser weapons, medikit, laser rifle, and alien alloy
(which allows personal armor) for the starting projects.
Pistols and rifles are pitiful against plasma rifles and alien
grenades. Laser rifles, which does not use ammo, should even up
the odds a bit, and personal armor should save you from a
grazing shot (which would have killed with no armor). Medikit
will save you from the grazing shot that caused fatal wounds.
The rest is up to you, but I recommend researching heavy plasma,
small launcher and stun bombs, then heavy blaster and blaster
bombs. Then research Elerium, UFO power source, so you can
build nice armor.
6.2 Overall strategy
Keep roughly 100 scientists in your employment. You need that
much research to discover things in reasonable time, though you
can probably get by with 50-75.
Due to the way research works, concentrate on one project at a
time so you can start on later topics faster.
6.3 Research Tree
[OSG has chart on how many man-hours needed for each discovery]
Laser Weapons Heavy Heavy Plasma Plasma
| Plasma Plasma Clip Rifle Rifle Clip
Laser Pistol |___________| |__________|
| | |
Laser Rifle | |
| |__________OR___________|
Heavy Laser |
| |
Laser Cannon Plasma Cannon
(Laser Tank) (Hovertank/Plasma)*
| |
Laser Defense Plasma Defense
Alien Alloys Blaster Blaster
| Launcher Bomb
Elerium 115 Personal Armor UFO Power Source |___________|
|_____________|_________________| |
| Fusion Ball
| (Hovertank/Launcher)**
Power Suit UFO Navigation |
|_________________| Fusion Defense
|
Flying Suit
Alien Elerium UFO UFO
Alloys 115 Power Source Navigation
|___________|___________|______________|
|
UFO Construction
|
|
New Fighter Craft
(Firestorm) * = [Hovertank / Plasma]
|
New Fighter-Transporter
(Lightning)
__________|____________
| |
Grav Ultimate Craft
Shield (Avenger)
* Need "New Fighter Craft" before you can build the plasma hovertank.
** Need fusion ball launcher before you can build the fusion ball
hovertank.
6.4 Any hints on manufacturing?
Only manufacture thing that you REALLY need, like crafts, etc.
almost NEVER manufacture ammo since most of them require
Elerium, which is always in short supply. Captured ammo is much
cheaper and don't use your precious E-115 supply.
NEVER let any engineers go idle. If you don't need anything
built, build something that makes money.
7.0 Intercepting UFOs
Don't forget to check section 4 for info on XCOM crafts. Some of
these hints are also listed in Secion 2.
7.1 Tracking UFOs
Remember that UFOs have specific targets and they do not change
missions in mid-air ("Chicago's covered, let's go for Havana
instead"). They also head STRAIGHT for their targets on the
inbound leg. So if you see an UFO and lost tracking, try to
extrapolate its course and send interceptors to their estimated
NEXT location instead of going toward the last known location.
If you have hyperwave decoder, you can see UFO destination
directly as it comes into range.
7.2 Air-to-air attack methods
Once you got a craft in range of the UFO, it's time to attack.
While the OSG explained what the different attacks REALLY mean,
it STILL doesn't explain what good is each for. Here's my
version...
Cautious Attack: causes least damage per attack but remains at
the longest range and therefore has the least chance of getting
counter-attacked. Useful when you want a not too badly damaged
UFO (just enough to crash it).
Normal Attack: average damage per attack, enough for most
attacks if your weapon outranges the UFOs.
Aggressive Attack: close to point-blank and let them have it
in the face! Causes the most damage per attack, but exposes
craft to counter-fire. Good for brave/suicidal charges (toward
an alien battleship, for instance)
7.3 Weapons
OSG has a typo: Table 7-2, Fusion Ball Launcher holds TWO, not
three shots as stated. Section 4.1 is correct.
In case you haven't noticed, Plasma Beam is the BEST craft
weapon in the game. It has 100 shots, 70 damage per shot, AND
range of 52 km, which outdistances almost all UFOs except
battleships. Even though Fusion Ball Launcher causes more
damage per shot, you only get two shots for each launcher.
In any case, try to replace Stingrays and regular cannons ASAP,
since they are worthless once you see large UFOs.
7.4 Special note on Alien Battleship
Battleship is the most dangerous UFO, period. It outranges ALL
XCOM craft weapons. Only Firestorms and Avengers can stand up
to it, NEVER use Interceptors. ALWAYS attack Battleships in
groups to minimize damage and the resultant repair time, and use
aggressive attack, since you don't want the UFO to fire back
that often. I've found that aggresive attack reduces damage
against Battleships, so use it whenever possible.
7.5 UFO Size Classes and weapons range
If you read table 7-3 in OSG or the UFOpedia, the Weapon Range
of the UFO is a rather large number (ex. Battleship = 520). That
number means nothing by itself. To get a more meaningful
number, divide that by 8 for the range in kilometers. (EX.
Battleship is 520/8=65 km). That forms the revised weapons
range table below.
Revised range table:
UFO TYPE Weapon Range (km)
Small Scout 0
Medium Scout 15
Large Scout 34
Harvester 22
Abductor 20
Terror Ship 42
Battleship 65
Supply Ship 28.5
Plasma beam, with 52 km range, can attack any UFO except
battleship with impunity. UFO Battleship, with range of 65 km,
can shoot back at even crafts armed with Fusion Ball Launchers
(which also has a 65 km range).
7.6 Methods of Attack
The safest way to hit large or very large UFOs is to have
multiple Firestorms and/or Avengers to converge on them. UFOs
are dumb and does not concentrate on one target, so the more
targets you present, the less damage each will receive. Of
course, if you send up Interceptors against Battleships, don't
expect many to come back, since Battleships can destroy an
Interceptor with ONE shot.
Plasma beams will make your Interceptors useful again, so get
them ASAP. Replace them with Firestorms ASAP though to save on
monthly "rent".
7.7 Go Home Early
When you send multiple crafts after one UFO and the UFO gets
shot down, the shooter will go home, but other crafts will
continue onto the crash site and THEN return. Instead, click on
them and turn them back early (Return to base). They will
return earlier, thus be refueled and rearmed faster for the next
mission.
7.8 Keep Landed UFOs covered
Even if UFO has landed, keep an interceptor on top of it until
your landing craft arrives for the action. That way, if the UFO
takes off, you still have a chance to shoot it down.
7.9 Weapon vs UFO analysis
Before attacking, click on the VIEW UFO button to take a look at
your target before deciding whether to attack or not. Attacking
with wrong weapons means either the loss of the interceptor or
the UFO totally destroyed so that nothing can be recovered.
For this reason, if you WANT to go after the smaller UFOs, keep
a fighter around with "wimpy" weapons.
7.9.1 Very Small / Small UFOs
Interceptors with Stingray missiles and cannons can only
handle very small or small sized UFOs. Attacking larger
UFOs means heavy damage or even destruction. Laser
cannons are not much better, sharing the short range flaw.
7.9.2 Medium UFOs
Interceptors with Avalanche missiles or plasma beams can
handle medium UFOs easily. On the other hand, one
Avalanche will blow a very small UFO into pieces.
7.9.3 Large UFOs
Interceptors with Plasma beam and/or Avalanche missiles
can handle large UFOs, but not VERY large UFOs. Plasma
beam may blow small UFO into pieces.
7.9.4 Very Large UFOs
Multiple Interceptors with plasma beam and/or Avalanche
are needed to attack very large UFOs, and you'll probably
lose a few, since one shot from battleship will at least
cripple an interceptor. Just don't do it.
The only way to "safely" attack alien battleships is to
use Firestorms and Avengers (the more the better!) with
twin plasma beams. Even then you will probably be heavily
damaged (as in 20% to 60% damage), which is not a good
trade. Many have suggested that you should let them land
and attack them on the ground.
8.0 Soldiers, Movement, and Combat
8.1 Soldiers
8.1.1 Soldier Statistics
We recommend that instead of using the default names, you
adopt a naming system for your soldiers that will help you
to know at a glance who to take on a mission.
System One reflects a trained specialty, such as scout
(SC), heavy weapons (HW), demolitions (DM), psi combat
(PS), sharpshooter (SS), etc. For example, "Steve Rogers
HW/PS" has lots of strength and nice time units for
carrying the heavy weapons (and shooting them). His
PsiStr and PsiSkl is also pretty high so he also carries a
PsiAmp for psi combat.
System Two just places the numbers in the name. For
example, "Steve 64/44/36/71/46/62/16", for which the
numbers are Time Units, Health, Reactions, Firing
Accuracy, Strenth, Psi Strength, and Psi Skill. You'll
probably need to update after this every mission.
8.1.2 Recruiting soldiers
Sack weaklings ASAP. You want high strength, reaction,
morale, and shooting accuracy, and when you get psi, psi
strength. So recruit lots of rookies, use them for scouts
(they are cheap when compared to HWPs). If they survive,
keep them, else, oh, well, they've done the world a great
service. :-)
Why those traits? High strength means they can carry more
weapons. High reaction means they can get opportunity
fire (reaction shots) while enemy is moving. High Morale
means they are less susceptible to panic, and shooting
accuracy is obvious. :-) Other characteristics are not
as important.
Soldiers only get promoted if there are enough of them to
warrant a promotion. So hire a lot of rookies, send them
out to missions. The ones that survive are squaddies, and
when you have enough squaddies, you have officers. Feel
free to sack the bad squaddies later to save on salary.
8.2 Movement
8.2.1 Deployment from Transport into Battle
The OSG fails to mention that you CAN see the outside
through the Windows in your transport. If the last
soldier turn around in the Skyranger or Avenger, you can
see A LOT beyond the cockpit. Of course, since you are on
Level 1, (Level 0 = ground) you can't see things that are
right next to you on ground.
After that, send out a HWP just on the ramp, turn to face
right. If there's no enemy, turn to face left, and you've
just cleared the surrounding area. If there is enemy, get
off the ramp and start shooting.
The main mission of HWP is to spot aliens so the soldiers
can take a shot at them instead of exposing soldiers
getting shot. If you feel like wasting people instead, use
rookies instead of HWPs. (Rookies are cheaper too...)
8.2.2 Use the terrain!
You can use the terrain in other ways than just hiding
behind something. Use secondary explosions to your
advantage! If alien is standing next to volatile object
like fuel drums, gas pumps, those red things in UFOs or
bases, etc, blow THAT up (DOOM players love doing this).
Aliens DO shoot through each other, so if you have NOWHERE
to hide, hide BEHIND an alien and pray.
8.2.3 Alien Movement and visual range
Do the aliens have better night vision?
Answer: They do NOT.
Why they can shoot at you but you don't see them?
Answer: depending on difficulty level, they "remember"
where you are from previous turns for several turns (on
higher levels they remember longer). They can ONLY shoot
at you IF they had seen you before and still "remembered".
Aliens capitalize on this by moving forward, spot you,
then move back out of range. Then for next X turns those
in range shoot at your out of your visual range.
8.2.4 Listen and watch
Watch carefully in alien movement phase. Sometimes you CAN
spot them moving around. TRY to remember the surrounding
terrain, then go to overhead map and see if you can spot
where that was.
Sound can give you important clues to alien locations. If
you hear door sounds, you know alien moved in/out of a
door. Different door makes different sounds.
Aliens also have no manners. They leave doors open after
they go through. Watch farm houses carefully.
The length of the alien movement phase is proportional to
the number of hostile aliens left on the map. Just keep
in mind that stunned aliens can wake up.
8.3 General Combat Tactics
8.3.1 HWP usage
HWPs should be used for "beating the bush" and flush
aliens out for soldiers to shoot. That makes rocket
launcher tank and fusion ball launcher hovertank more
useful than their cousins.
Hovertank is even more useful since it can go high and
thus cover more ground. They can also hover in mid-air
and thus avoid hand-to-hand attacks.
Use their shots to take down walls of orchards, barns, and
stuff like that so you don't have to go inside and clean
up every room.
8.3.2 Grenade usage
Grenades should be used for temporary boost in firepower
and for clearing obstacles in view. Blow a hole in the
walls instead of going through the door.
Rookies can be effective grenadiers since grenades are
area weapons.
High Explosive is just a very heavy grenade, and you will
have problems tossing it. usually, toss it a short
distance or drop it on ground, then RUN away from the
area. They are great opening up houses and barns, and may
be able to punch through inner UFO walls.
Proximity grenades are great for traps. Use them to
prevent aliens coming up behind you, and/or pin aliens
(toss one on either side of it and it can't move without
setting one off) Just remember where you threw them
(check the map) and don't walk near them yourself.
8.3.3 Blaster bombs usage
Blaster bomb and launcher is the second best weapon in the
game (the best is heavy plasma). It can shoot around
corners, has wonderful damage (200 points!) and is very
effective. Of course, it is also EXPENSIVE, and so is its
ammo. So, use them carefully (don't save them either).
Use them to take down cover is a waste, use grenades
instead (unless you got bombs to waste)
Blaster bombs is great for UFO attacks. Use them to punch
holes in the UFO's outer hull for new entrance. Target
square next to main door to enlarge door for HWPs. One
shot will clear most of the corridor. Unfortunately,
aliens love to shoot blaster bombs down gravlifts.
8.3.9 Saving ammo
XCOM has a peculiar way of counting ammo usage: any clip
that was fired (even just one round!) is consider "spent"
at the end of the scenario UNLESS unloaded from the
weapon. So, if you just fired one round, unload it when
the end of battlescape is near (you DID time the alien
movement phase, didn't you?)
Interestingly, the same thing applies to the aliens as
well! If you panic the aliens and they drop their
weapons, you should pick them up and unload them, toss the
ammo clip aside. That way you gain a clip independent of
the gun you got.
8.4 Capturing Aliens
8.4.1 How to I capture an alien?
You can capture aliens in four ways, so let's discuss
advantages and disadvantages.
Shoot an alien and hope it drops stunned instead of dead:
Since smoke inhalation produce stun damage, if alien had
inhaled smoke for a while, and you shot it later, it may
drop stunned. This is too much of a guess work though,
and is dangerous if alien is armed.
Use stun rod on the alien: Dangerous since stun rod is
a hand-to-hand weapon, but it's all you have early on.
Use stun bomb and small launcher: safest way to capture an
alien, shoot and scoot.
Keep dumping smoke grenades on an alien. After it inhaled
enough smoke, it'll drop stunned: takes too long.
8.4.2 So what's your recommendation?
Several ways to make captures safer:
Double/triple-team on capture: at least two soldiers
should carry stun bombs and ready to fire in salvoes in
case the alien does not drop after one hit.
Combine psi combat with capture: Panic it with psi to
make it drop its weapon (repeat if necesary), then
stun it. Be careful since alien WILL pull out any other
weapon that it has on it. After it is out of weapons, and
if it does not have HTH attack, you can use stun rods on
it safely.
WARNING: release mind control on the alien (wait one
turn), THEN stun it, or otherwise it is NOT captured!
If a stun attempt fails, shoot the alien with a light
weapon like a pistol. The addition damage may cause the
health to drop below stun damage, which ALSO counts as
"stunned". Just don't kill it (yet).
8.4.3 Stunning aliens without stun weapons
Found an alien that you need to capture but have no stun
weapons? You have to use smoke. Hopefully the alien had
panicked and droped its weapons (if not, and you have psi,
panic it). Keep him in an enclosed space (a room?), dump
a smoke grenade into the room, and keep something to block
the door (rookie, HWP, whatever), and wait, listening to
choking sounds. :-D
8.4.4 Other uses for stun weapons
At a terror site, Chrysalids turning civilians into
zombies? Stun the civilians if you see them near
Chrysalids! Stunned civilians will not be attacked.
Unfortunately, they get MAD when they wake up and you have
to kill them, so finish mission fast if you do stun one.
8.5 Psi Combat
Panicked aliens do NOT pick up dropped weapons. Of course, they
will pull out anything else they got on them as well as use
their natural abilities (HTH or Psi attacks).
Aliens under mind control then stunned does NOT count as
captured. One player reported that he saw a commander but had no
stun weapon, so he threw a smoke grenade and kept the commander
in the smoke (with mind control) until it passed out. He was
NOT captured. It appears that the computer counts mind-
controlled aliens as "friendly", which they sort of are.
Panic has a much better chance of success than mind control.
Psi strength is more important than psi skill. PsiStr
determines resistance to psi attacks as well as potential with
training (the actual formulas are in OSG, but basically you
add/multiply your PsiStr to your PsiSkl plus random number,
compared to number of the subject you are trying to affect).
9.0 The Aliens
Most information here can be accessed via the UFOpedia.
Alien Attack Defend Vulnerable
-------------------------------------------------
Celatid Acid Spit none none
Chryssalid HTH none IC, stun *
Cyberdisc Plasma beam AP, HE none
Ethereal Psi,weapons IC,stun none
Floater weapons none none
Muton weapons AP psi
Reaper HTH none IC
Sectoid Psi,weapons none none
Sectopod Energy beam PL,HE laser
Silacoid HTH IC HE
Snakeman weapons IC none
Zombie HTH Psi,AP,Las,Pl,HE none **
HTH=hand to hand combat IC =incendiary/fire
AP =armor piercing PL =plasma
HE =high explosive Las=laser
Alien : alien name
Attack : attack method
Defend : resistance to type(s) of attack
Vulnerable : vulnerable to type(s) of attack
* When Chryssalids succeeds in HTH attack, the subject being
attacked becomes a Zombie
** Zombie in a few turns becomes a Chryssalid. If killed, the
new Chryssalid appears IMMEDIATELY.
Average Alien Stats (on easiest level!)
------ Armor ------
TUs Ene Hea Bra Rea Fir Thr Str PSt PSk Fro Lft Rgt Rer Und
Sectoid 55 90 30 80 65 30 60 30 40 * 2 1 1 1 1
Reaper 60 90 145 80 60 0 0 90 35 - 14 14 14 14 2
Floater 50 90 35 80 50 25 60 40 - - 4 3 3 2 6
Cyberdisc 60 90 120 110 65 30 0 90 - - 17 17 17 17 17
Snakeman 40 80 45 80 45 30 65 50 - - 10 9 9 8 6
Cryssalid 110 140 95 100 70 0 0 110 - - 17 17 17 17 17
Zombie 40 110 85 110 40 0 0 85 - - 4 4 4 4 4
Ethereal 70 100 60 80 75 40 80 50 50 40 17 17 17 17 16
Sectopod 60 90 95 110 65 30 0 90 - - 70 65 65 50 45
Muton 58 90 90 80 60 30 60 70 - - 10 10 10 10 5
Celatid 70 90 70 90 40 50 0 70 60 - 10 10 10 10 10
Silacoid 40 80 115 100 40 0 0 70 - - 25 25 25 25 5
TUs = time units Ene = energy/stamina Hea = health
Bra = bravery Rea = reaction Fir = firing accuracy
Thr = throwing accuracy Str = strength PSt = Psi Strength
PSk = Psi Skill Armor = front/left/right/rear/under
* Only Sectoid leaders and commander have Psi Skill, with avg of 55.
NOTE 1: you can get info on particular alien stats by using a mind probe
on them. Leaders and commanders are 10 to 20% higher, and there
appears to be random modifiers. Stats are also higher on higher
difficulty levels
NOTE 2: higher rank aliens also have higher "intelligence", which means
they will remember your location longer
Specialties and information possible from them:
Alien Soldier ----- Alien activity
Alien Medic ----- Species information *
Alien Navigator ----- Hyper-Wave Decoder
Alien Engineer ----- UFO stats
Alien Leader ----- The Martian Solution
Ethereal/ Sectoid Leader ----- Psi Lab -> Mind Shield/Psi-Amp
Alien Commander ----- Cydonia or Bust **
* alien medics can give information on species other than their own
** commander can be found in bases, or UFOs on Base missions
Alien Missions
Research Generally small vehicles, least threat
Harvest Great concern to governments, usually cattle abduction
Abduction Abducts humans, causes great alarm
Infiltration Infiltrates countries and try to make pact with
government, big threat as countries that sign pact cease
to fund XCOM!
Base Survey and establish alien base, may contain alien
commander
Terror Creates terror sites when lands at city, so get them!
Retaliation Scout / attack XCOM base, greatest threat
Supply Supply alien bases. Trail them and patrol nearby to
find alien base
10.0 Ground Assaults
10.1 Packing Advice
The 80-item limit is always a problem, especially on an
Avenger and Lightning when you can carry LOTS of soldiers.
While the OSG gave some hints on what to take, here's a couple
more hints to see you through the 80-item Crunch:
* If you are short on ammo clips, use laser weapons, which
require no ammo at all. (Also see below)
* Carry only ONE clip for your plasma weapons. You should
be able to find plenty of reloads during battle, esp. for
heavy plasma (which seems to be used by all aliens near the
end of the game) With 20-35 rounds in each clip, your
should not run out unless you use auto-fire a lot
* Carry uniform weapons. Don't mix pistols and rifles,
plasmas and slug-throwers. Instead of a pistol/clip and
rifle/clip, bring an extra clip for the rifle.
* Bring less misc. equipment such as mind probes, medikits,
motion detectors, psi amps, and so on. You don't need
everything on every person (except Medikits)
* Bring HWPs if you can. HWP is one item yet has plenty of
firepower. Too bad it takes FOUR soldier's space. Still,
they are quite useful in the early parts of the game
* Don't fight at night so that you need to take along all
those stupid electro-flares which you end up throwing all
over the place (exception: Attack Terror Sites ASAP)
10.2 The Great Pistol vs Rifle debate
Rifles pro : more powerful, more accurate
Rifles con : uses more TUs, two-handed weapon
Pistols pro: uses less TUs, one handed weapon
Pistols con: less powerful, less accurate
As you can see, they are exact complements of each other.
Very often, using a pistol is called for, since using a pistol
would mean you still have enough TUs to duck into cover.
Give pistols to heavy weapons people for when they ran out.
10.3 Basic Loadout for Transports
Skyranger : 2 HWPs / 6 soldiers or 1 HWP / 10 soldiers
The HWPs early on carry more firepower and has more TUs than
soldiers, which makes them good scouts, and more survivable.
Switch to more soldiers later.
Lightning : as many soldiers as you can fit
Lightning doesn't take HWPs, too bad. At least you can
deploy from all four sides at once. Send rookies out
first... (Commander's prerogative)
Avenger : 14 soldiers / 3 HWPs or 18 soldiers / 2 HWPs
As the end of game draws near, your best soldiers should be
as fast as HWPs and carries just as much (if not more) fire-
power. HWPs are there to simply scout ahead.
10.4 General Combat Notes
There is no penalty for destroying civilian property, so go
ahead and wreck the whole place like "The Dirty Pair" (anime).
The OSG forgot one thing: If the only person inside the craft
is unconscious and you abort mission, s/he's MIA and the
transport is lost as well.
In the early game, you want rocket launchers and/or autocannon
as your heavy weapons, and plenty of greandes (mix of regular
and proximity).
Later in the game, you want almost exclusively heavy plasma
(except for the heavy weapons people who would carry plasma
pistols)
10.5 UFO Recoveries and Assaults
[Definition: attack on UFO shot down is "recovery"]
[Definition: attack on landed UFOs (not downed) is "assault"]
HWPs CAN enter an UFO with a single-width door if you help
make the door wider with a blaster bomb. Just target the panel
beside the door for a blaster bomb, and make sure no one is
near the impact point.
HWP is very useful in a Battleship on the third level, where
the corridors are wide enough for HWPs except the doors
leading from the elevators. Open one up with a blaster bomb,
send another one or two down each end of the corridor, then
send up the HWPs to scout, then send in your troops.
In UFO navigation centers, there's usually some octagonal
purple "tables" that EXPLODES when hit. If you can catch
aliens standing next to them, hitting THAT is a lot of fun.
Blaster bombs and/or high explosives can be used to punch a
hole in the outside wall of an UFO, creating an alternate
entrance. This will allow you to surprise the aliens inside
since usually they gather by the doors waiting for you.
Corollary: on a multi-level UFO, attack from TOP down by
blasting a hole in the roof or top level, posting guards near
the UFO doors.
Post guards outside an UFO when attacking inside. Any aliens
outside will attempt to return, and getting shot from behind
is not fun.
If the UFO Power Units exploded, and UFO's ceiling may be
damaged (single-level UFO have top blown open). In that case,
stand on the edge and kneel will allow you to see inside. In
larger UFOs, holes in the ceiling will allow you to see above,
but you may have to kneel to get a good look (someone may be
hiding up there!)
One trick you can pull is ALLOW an alien base on Earth once
you've pinpointed its location, and keep assaulting the supply
ships that comes to keep the base supplied. They just keep
coming and coming, and the UFOs you take out more than offsets
the "base on Earth" penalty, not to mention all the Elerium
and other goodies you get that you can sell later.
Consider using blaster bombs and flying suits to attack from
TOP DOWN instead of bottom up. Blow a hole in the ceiling,
send another bomb inside the hold, go in and spread out, work
your way down, pick off aliens coming up one by one.
When attacking battleships, consider going up one of the
engine "legs" instead of through the central elevator. On
assaults, you need a blaster bomb to punch through.
10.6 Base assaults
The trick is base assaults is use a lot of grenades and
blaster bombs. Use grenades to clear corners, proximity
grenades to block corridors so no one can come up behind you
(esp. Chryssalids!), blaster bombs to open walls so you don't
have to go extra distance around things. Once you find the
control center, you have pretty much won the game.
While base layouts differ, base command center always look
like this: (D=door, WW=window, ground/level 0 only)
+-----WW--------WW-----+
| +--------------+ |
| +-+ +-+ |
| | | |
D | D |
D | D |
D | D |
| | | |
| +-+ +-+ |
| +--------------+ |
+-----WW--------WW-----+
^
Instead of going through the doors, go through one of the SIDE
walls (^) with a blaster bomb, send a couple grenades through
the hole for the guards inside the door (or another blaster
bomb). The rest is mop-up.
10.7 Anti-Terror Missions
Your top priority is self-preservation. Killing 9 out of your
10 soldiers to save a city is NOT worth it. Given a choice to
save your soldier or to save a civilian, save the soldier.
Stun the Civilians! Stunning the civilians makes them
"unpalatable" to the alien terrorists, and they count as saved
at the end of the mission. (WARNING: when they wake up, they
count as ENEMY and you must kill them!)
Do NOT mind control any of the civilians. They count as
ENEMY after you release control and you must kill them!
Kill Chryssalids ASAP. If necesary, kill the civilian near it
so that the civilian will not be turned into a zombie that
will attack you. Have two persons watch each other.
Aliens that use HTH (hand-to-hand) combat only such as Reavers
and Chrysallids cannot attack someone in mid-air (by a flying
suit or hovertank). They also cannot attack someone through a
Window. Reavers cannot attack through a one-space-wide door
(they are two-wide).
Feel free to blow up gasoline pumps, esp. with aliens next to
one. They make great secondary explosions.
10.8 XCOM Base Defense
You DID plan your base as mentioned in Chapter 4, didn't you?
First priority is blockade the lift. Dump prox grenades near
the doors (close enough so that there are no spaces in between
to walk through) and wait back for aliens to emerge.
Second priority is clean out the hangars. Fusion Bomb
Launcher Hovertanks and/or blaster launchers are great for
this, but a rocket launcher will do if you hit explosive stuff
like fuel drums and so on.
Third priority is reclaim your base module by module. Use
prox grenades to guard your back.
Proximity grenades are priceless here, great for blocking
corridors, limiting movement into kill zones, etc.
11.0 Mastering Cydonia-- The Final Assault
For those of you who watch shows like ENCOUNTERS or SIGHTINGS,
there IS a Cydonia on Mars, and there are "pyramids" and a face
there... And there's a big rumor of a NASA cover-up and recent
Mars probe there ALL malfunctioned... Hmmm...
11.1 Preparation
Don't bring any psi-weaklings. You'll be meeting a lot of
Sectoids and Ethreals, who will be mind-blasting you a lot.
Bring your best weapons and all of your blaster launchers and
blaster bombs, plus rockets and all the grenades you got.
This is not time for captures, so leave all stun stuff at
home. This is a fight to the death, preferably theirs.
Bring a few electro-flares for the Mars surface battle. It'll
be dark there, so toss a few of those around.
11.2 Pyramids of Mars
Lots of Sectoids and Cyberdiscs around in this one. Soldiers
with flying suits are nice for recon, just don't leave them in
the air for Sectoid target practice.
Move slowly, toss electroflares at base of each pyramid, esp
near exits so you can see if someone comes out. Use grenades
and/or blaster bombs on the cyberdiscs.
11.3 Base Interior
You do NOT want to clean out the whole base. Find the
distinctive command center (see below, NOT to scale), run for
it (sacrificing HWPs and rookies in the process), let blaster
bombs and rockets fly, protect your back with prox grenades.
[not in scale!]
+----------------------+
| |
| _ |
| | | |
|__________________|L| |
D__________________ | |
| |L| |
| |_| |
| |
| |
+----------------------+
Once you found it, send a blaster bomb up through the grav
lift (either side) to get rid of the Ethereal Commanders (the
elite guards), then it's all over.
12.0 Misc Stuff
While the expert advices int he OSG are nice, there's just not
enough of them, and they don't cover enough areas! Hope you
noticed that I've split all my advices all over the article instead
of in one section only...
Anything that's here doesn't belong up there
==UFO Floorplans
Max Hull Weapon Max Ship
Speed Damage Power Range Crew Width comment
Small Scout 2200 50 0 0 1 3 Like an Apollo capsule
Medium Scout 2400 200 20 120 6 9 1 level, small square
Large Scout 2700 250 20 272 ? 12? 1 level, like a cross
Harvester 4000 500 40 176 ? 16 3 levels, top hatch
Terror Ship 4800 1200 120 336 ? 30 2 levels, narrow top
Supply Ship 3200 2200 60 288 ? 30 3 levels
Battleship 5000 3000 140 520 ? 30 3 levels, 5 legs
Abductor 4300 500 40 160 ? 12? Jagged sides
???????? Big 2 level room, square
Following floor plans are approximately 1x1. Any one want to do more?
Please send them in, and don't forget your name so I can credit you!
KEY:
D/Dr = Door
Gr = Gravlift (Up/Down)
Gu = Gravlift Up
Gd = Gravlift Down
Pw = Alien Power Unit
Small Scout 123 Looks like an Appolo Capsule...
(Very Small) /=\ 2 level, 1 square each UFO
/===\
Medium Scout (Small) 123456789
/=======\
|_______|
/--------\
| |
| |
| Pw |
| |
| |
\---Dr---/
Large Scout (Medium) 123456789012
/==/====\==\
|__|____|__|
+--------+
| | |
| D |
/ | \
/ | \
+----/ +---------+ \----+
| | | |
| D P | D
| | | |
+----\ +---------+ /----+
\ | /
\ --D--| /
| D |
| | |
+--------+
Terror Ship (Large) 123456789012345678901234567890
/--------------\
/------| |------\
|____________________________|
Level 1 --Menachem M. Pastreich (mpastrei@email.ir.miami.edu)
______________
/// \\\
/// ______ \\\
+--------+ /// __| |__ \\\ +--------+
| | | __| |__ | | |
| | | __| Pw |__ | | |
| |____| | | |____| |
| | | |
| | Pw Gu Pw | |
| ____ | | ____ |
| | | |__ __| | | |
| | | |__ Pw __| | | |
| | | |__ __| | | |
+--DrDr--+ \\\ |__Dr__| /// +--DrDr--+
\\\ ///
\\\______________///
Terror Ship Level 2 -- Pastreich
______________
/// | | \\\
/// D D \\\
///--| | | |--\\\
| | |____Dr____| | |
| | | |
| | ____Dr____ | |
| | | | | |
| D | Gd | D |
|____| |__________| |____|
| |
| |
| |
\\\ ///
\\\ ///
\\\______________///
Battleship (Very Large) 123456789012345678901234567890
/----------------------------\
|----------------------------|
\-------==----------==-------/
|-------||----------||-------|
Battleship Level 1 -- Pastreich
/------\
/ \
| Gu |
| Pw |
| |
\ /
\------/
/------\ /------\
/ \ +------+ / \
| | |GuGuGuD | |
| GuPw | |GuGuGuD | PwGu |
| | |GuGuGu| | |
\ / +DrDr--+ \ /
\------/ \------/
/------\
/ \
| |
| Pw |
| Gu |
\ /
\------/
Battleship Level 2 -- Menachem M. Pastreich (mpastrei@email.ir.miami.edu)
./------+----------+------\.
./ | | | \.
./ D | Gd | _____\.
./ | | | | \.
//----- --| +--+ +--+ | \\
./ | | | __| \.
./| +------| | | \.
./ | | | | \.
/ | +--------| | D \
| +--Dr--+ | | | | |
| Gu | | | | |____ |
| | D | | | |
+------+ | | +--+ +-- | +------+
| | | | | | | | |
| +------Dr------+ GrGrGr +--Dr----------+ |
| Gd GrGrGr Gd |
| +--Dr------Dr--+ GrGrGr +--------------+ |
| | | | | | |
+------+ |___ +--+ +--+ +--Dr--+
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
\. | | | __| ./
\. D | | | ./
\. | D | __ ./
\. | | | | ./
\\ +--Dr----+--+ +--+-------+ //
\. | | | ./
\.| | Gd D ./
\. | | ./
\------+----------+------/
Battleship Level 3
./------------------------\
./ | | \
./ | | \
./ | +---Dr---+ | \
// | | | | \\
./| | | | | \
./ | D | | | \
./ D | | | | \
/ | | | | | \
| | | | | | |
| Gd +----------+ +--------+ +-----Dr---------|
| | |
|______|__________ ___________ |
| | | +---Dr---+ | | |
| | | | GdGdGd | | | |
| D | D GdGdGd D | D |
| | | | GdGdGd | | | |
| |___________| +---Dr---+ |___________| |
| |
| |
|-------+ + -----+ +---------+ +----------------|
| | | | | |
\. | | | | ./
\. | | | | ./
\. | | | | ./
\. | | | D ./
\\ | | | | //
\. | +----Dr---+ | ./
\. | | ./
\. | | ./
\------------------------/
Assault Hint: use blaster bombs to penetrate one of the legs at the bottom
and go up that way. Leave one team at bottom to watch the bottom doors.
Once central gravlift on level 2 is secure use blaster bomb to widen doors
on level 3 to 2 wide, then send tanks through.
Harvester 1234567890123456
(Medium) (?) /---|------|---\
|---|------|---|
|---|------|---|
\---|------|---/
Supply Ship (Large) 123456789012345678901234567890
/--------|----------|--------\
|--------|----------|--------|
|--------|----------|--------|
\--------|----------|--------/
Abductor 1234567890123456
(Medium) (?) /---|------|---\
|---|------|---|
\---|------|---/
==Cheat==
Yes, if you REALLY want to cheat, here's how to add TONS to money
into your account. Yes, you are embezzling the world to support
XCOM. You are twisting arms, and it is for a GOOD cause. :-D
Any way, here's how:
Use a sector editor (such as Norton DiskEdit) and edit LIGLOB.DAT
in your saved game's directory. Overwrite the first 8 bytes with
64 64 64 64 00 00 00 00...
You should get about 1.68 billion dollars. (In case you are
wondering, 64646464h is a hexadecimal number. In decimal it is
1,684,300,900.) You can also use
FF FF FF 7F 00 00 00 00...
Which will give you about 2.1 billion dollars. (7FFFFFFFh =
2,147,484,647)
THE END
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