Title: Strategy Guide 1.10 for X-COM: Enemy Unknown (PSX)
Description: Strategic and tactical tips and lists.
Revision Log:
1.10 I added cheat codes and revised the table of alien squad & equipment.
1.02 I did some corrections and additions.
1.01 Minor update.
1.00 The Guide was created and posted in this form in December of 2005.
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Strategic Tips
2.1. Memory Cards
2.2. X-COM Bases
2.2.1. Where To Place Them?
2.2.2. Special Bases
2.3. Alien Activities
2.3.1. UFO Flights
2.3.2. How To Prevent Alien Missions
2.4. UFOs and How To Intercept Them
2.4.1. Air Combat
2.4.1.1. UFO Data
2.4.1.2. Combat Controls
2.4.1.3. Craft Weapons
2.5. X-COM Soldiers
2.5.1. Soldiers' Parameters
2.5.2. Soldier Selection
2.6. Research Tips
2.6.1. Aliens To Capture
3. Tactical Tips
3.1. Your Adversary, the Aliens
3.1.1. Aliens' Parameters and Scores
3.1.2. Alien Squads
3.1.3. The Cydonia Alien Squad
3.1.4. The Alien A.I.
3.2. Your Arsenal
3.3. What To Do on Missions
3.3.1. UFO Ground Assault
3.3.2. Crash Site
3.3.3. Terror Site
3.3.4. Base Defense
3.3.5. Alien Base
3.4. Poured Tips
3.4.1. The Save/Load "Tactics"
3.4.2. Off Transport
3.4.3. Night Mission
3.4.4. Item Circle
3.4.5. Stun Rod Warning
3.4.6. Make Doors
3.4.7. Reaction Shot Tactics
3.4.8. Flying Suit against Grenades
3.4.9. Prepare for Psi-attacks
3.4.10. Grav Lift Tip
4. Bug Report
5. Edit Codes
6. Credits
1. Introduction
I love to see that people still play this old game. I wrote this guide to
share with you what I experienced playing numerous missions. This document is
far from perfection, I know, but, as I have more time, I will probably rewrite
it.
I hope both beginners and superhumans find the info they want, however, this
isn't a how-to-play for beginners, that's for sure.
2. Strategic Tips
2.1. Memory Cards
First of all, you should prepare three Memory Cards because the program is
unable to handle multiple saves, and I recommend at least three saves in case
you got in and saved a nasty situation at a mission site or did something
wrong on the Geoscape (your plan failed).
Memory Card No. 1:
Back-up save: The Geoscape is in a peaceful state, everything (almost) is
ready for action or change; End of month in the last hour; etc.
Memory Card No. 2:
UFO is reported; Terror Site reported; Squad Mission in 1st Turn; etc.
Memory Card No. 3:
Interceptors fight UFOs; Battleship approaches your base; Squad Mission,
right before a critical shot; etc.
Check-load your important save files before you exit game or go on playing
(see Bug #17).
2.2. X-COM Bases
2.2.1. Where To Place Them?
Put them in the centers of the largest dry lands, because aliens have nothing
to do with seas. It is all the same where you place your first base, for the
game will generate one of the first alien activities around your base anywhere
it shall be. As you will learn, UFOs do not pop up chaotically everywhere on
the globe, but they are tied down to areas. The more areas are under your
control the better. And there will be invasions concerned with towns, so
Antarctica, for one, would be distant and problematic for a choice.
Try to scatter the further bases so that you can observe the whole planet.
Some ideas for places: Central Asia is a good choice to monitor North Africa,
Europe, Siberia, South East Asia, and Central Asia; these areas will be within
range of your Interceptors. Bases between two areas can even detect UFOs by
radars; Crete (Europe-North Africa), Los Angeles (North America-Pacific),
the Horn Cape (South America-Antarctica), etc. Two major bases with lots of
crafts and soldiers right on the two poles and some locator bases here and
there; it is a simple strategy. Interceptors can reach beyond the Equator.
2.2.2. Special Bases
Specialize your bases. Your first base will be a mixed one anyway, but the
others can be planned.
Main Base:
Your first missions are launched from here. Alien artefacts, captured aliens
are taken here to research. Your beginner equipment is produced here. Special
units: Alien Containment, Laboratory, Workshop.
Scout Base:
It is just to spot UFOs, especially on Actic-Antarctica where aliens rarely do
missions though they hit the atmosphere often. And it is to also track UFO
movement in the area. Special unit: Observation Facility (Radar, Decoder).
Fleet Base:
It has room for an interception fleet (various crafts with various weapons),
and also the seriously damaged ones that take a long time to repair. Special
units: Hangar (max 8), General Stores (for craft arms and Elerium-115).
Factory Base:
The simplest way to explain is showing you around my Factory Base. It has:
-four Workshops with 164 Engineers (they produce an Avenger in nine days);
-four Living Quarters;
-two General Stores (for the production material);
-five Hangars (to receive the newly produced crafts);
-a Hyper-Wave Decoder;
-a Grav Shield with three Fusion Ball Defences (to fend off anything).
Dummy Base:
A mini base to be the target of Alien Retaliation. Must have Living Quarters
and General Stores for the defense squad, and NO Hangars. Aliens will assault
it without those terror weapons (Cyberdisc, Sectopod, etc.) and in moderate
numbers.
Store Base:
You keep surplus Soldiers here. They wait for wound recovery, or train in Psi
Labs. You store squad & craft equipment and supply here. Special Units:
Living Quarters, General Stores, Psi Lab, Fusion Ball Defences.
Otherwise every base for general purposes ought to have Living Quarters &
General Stores (defense squad), a Hangar (with an Avenger equipped with a pair
of Plasma Beam to defend the base for any case), and an Observation Unit
(Hyper-Wave Decoder preferably).
2.3. Alien Activities
The game (randomly) schedules alien missions in the beginning of each month.
Every month has a Terror Mission, and depending on the date there will be one
or more other missions. Early on there will be only missions of no
significance as Research, Abduction with small or medium sized UFOs, and
executed by the two weakest species, the Sectoid and the Floater. Later comes
the harder part, large vessels, sometimes in groups, invade Earth, leaving a
great stir and Alien Bases behind themselves, and your soldiers will meet such
nasty opponents as Mutons and Ethereals.
AND each shot-down UFO may bring a Retaliation Mission about. A Retaliation
Mission may be also scheduled as other missions monthly (usually after half
year from the start). Then they seem to begin with your first built base even
if you have been most careful in that area.
But don't be afraid. Actually it is I who plans the aliens' missions, and you
can do it as well. You save game in the end of a month, and right after the
next month has begun, you make another save to another Memory Card. Roll the
month down, and see what kind of missions and areas the UFOs fly and what
races are on them. If they meet your wish, your game will be the latter saved
game, if they do not, just reload the first save, and see what the randomizer
pushes next time. This way you can play a colorful game; you can avoid the
randomizer keep on giving the same boring missions and races.
If you don't have H-W Decoders, to tell the missions will be harder. However,
every mission has its special UFO types and actions. Here is a list of these
flights, and it is also valuable information what preparations you have to
make to capture all UFOs ever.
2.3.1. UFO Flights
Mission (Races)
UFO Type Landings
Terror (All)
1. Medium Scout Twice
2. Large Scout Twice
3. Terror ship None
4. Terror ship Terror Site
Research (All)
1. Small Scout None
2. Medium Scout Once
3. Large Scout Twice
4. Large Scout Twice
Abduction (Sectoid, Floater)
1. Small Scout None
2. Medium Scout Twice
3. Large Scout Once
4. Abducter Once
5. Abducter Twice
Abducter Twice
Harvest (Sectoid, Floater, Muton)
1. Small Scout None
2. Small Scout Once
3. Medium Scout Once
4. Large Scout None
5. Large Scout Once
6. Harvester Once
7. Harvester Twice
Battleship Once
Infiltration (All)
1. Small Scout None
2. Medium Scout Twice
3. Medium Scout Once
4. Large Scout Once
5. Large Scout Once
Terror ship Once
Supply ship Once
Battleship Once
Battleship Once
Alien Base
Base (All)
1. Small Scout Twice
2. Medium Scout Twice
3. Large Scout Twice
Supply ship Twice
Supply ship Twice
Battleship Once
Alien Base
Supply (All)
1. Supply ship Once
Retaliation (All)
1. Small Scout None
2. Medium Scout None
3. Medium Scout None
4. Large Scout None
5. Large Scout None
6. Large Scout None
7. Battleship None
8. Battleship None
n. Battleship Base Attack
2.3.2. How To Prevent Alien Missions
You cannot cut their missions off, but you can hinder them and slow the
process by shooting the UFOs down. You can also separate the grouped UFOs by
quickly shooting down the vessel that has just arrived to Earth as forerunner.
The others will be a few days late.
You can prevent Terror ships of attacking towns. Shoot them down. Well, I
like Terror Sites, so I always let them land.
You can prevent aliens of attacking your base by intercepting the scouts, but
you have to attack the Battleships as well, for they also seek for your base
(oddly these Battleships won't attack, they are only looking for the base).
Of course the search of all the scouts may fail, and your base is spared.
I like base defense missions very much, so sometimes it is I who help aliens
to find my base when I have some idle days. If you want them attack your base:
-Firstly you have to shoot down a UFO in the area of the base, but you save
your game before that. If a Small Scout appears few days later surveying the
area of the base, the invitation has been accepted, otherwise you have to
reload game and smash the UFO again, because the randomizer decides whether
there will be a Retaliation Mission or not, after the successful
interception.
-When the Small Scout arrives, save your game again, and wait until it has
spotted your base. How will you know? Well, the next few days a Battleship
will be coming. If just another surveyor comes, then you have to reload game,
and try again.
-Be careful. After the Small Scout has gone, it is wise to save game to
another Memory Card, because it happens that your radars aren't able to
detect the Battleship when it hits your base too fast.
-After the attack there will be no more UFOs in that Retaliation Mission.
-See also Bug #8.
2.4. UFOs and How To Intercept Them
First you must spot them. There are two types of Radars and the H-W Decoder
that may detect UFOs within range, and when a UFO moves out of range the
radars will lose tracking. But you won't see any UFO if your radars do not
cover the whole globe. If you are rolling game-time daily, you can notice
Geoscape start to slow down in case a UFO arrived. Then you should set time to
5 secs, and check out the Graphs. The most important diagram is the "Alien
Activities". It gathers UFO sightings from all over the world, and if alien
activity is out of range of your radars, this is the only way of knowing about
them. If an area shows a change in activity, you send an aircraft there, and
find the UFO by the patrol. Unfortunately, the diagram display is not numeric,
so you will be unable to make out fine changes when activities grow too much.
An important fact is that a detection always may occur ONLY in every half
hours. So if a UFO stays for five hours, you've got ten opportunities to spot
it.
I prefer assaulting them with transports while they are on "Ground" because I
gain some advantages that way:
-The UFO won't be damaged, I will get more Alloys and Power Sources;
-I don't waste craft weapon ammo;
-Ground Assaults do not bring Retaliation Missions about.
But as you can see from the UFO Flights list, you must fight some of them and
force them to crashland, because they wouldn't land no other way. And UFOs are
landed on Ground for just a few hours, it's sometimes hard to catch them by a
slow Skyranger. A Crash Site remains for a couple of days on the map, you have
choice to check it out by daylight.
UFOs are damaged various ways in Crash Recovery Missions. For example I found
a Medium Scout without a scratch and there was one that I got 1 piece of Alien
Alloys altogether from it.
When you shoot down a UFO, you will get prestige points from that, plus there
is the Crash Site, so you will get more prestige in the end than ground
assaulting them.
You can intercept any UFO by Interceptors, even Battleships, but the problem
is that they often outrun your slow crafts. The best fighter craft is the
Avenger, it can catch up with the fastest Battleships.
When you start a New Game, you have two fighters already. You have to buy
more Avalanche Launchers and rockets and you will be able to handle Terror
ships.
2.4.1. Air Combat
When you hit the UFO with a rocket, the game generates random damage depending
on missile damage potential and checks for UFO hit points for each rocket even
if it seems the missiles from double craft weapons hit the target at the same
time. When the UFO is damaged over the half of UFO defense power, it will go
down. When UFO hit points get to zero, it will be destroyed.
Small sized UFOs can be destroyed by certain craft weapons. Larger UFOs cannot
be, because they crashland before you could damage them more. MAYBE medium
sized UFOs can be destroyed if you hit them properly by Fusion Balls. When
you cannot afford a Crash Recovery Mission or UFO is above waters, it's a good
option to annihilate it, you will get double prestige points. You won't get
any prestige points when the air defense facilities destroy a UFO attacking
your base. However, you can weaken an approaching UFO by an Avenger in case
your base has low defense potential. Another fact: an attack UFO never
crashlands, your defences always have to destroy it to save your base.
Missiles may miss target. It depends on UFO size and missile accuracy. When
your fighter or UFO moves out of range, you will always miss target. See also
Bug #9.
UFOs return fire. Battleships are dangerous opponents, however, you can defeat
them by even Interceptors equipped by Fusion Ball Launchers if you practice
enough and use the benefits of Save/Load.
2.4.1.1. UFO Data
UFO Type SS MS LS Ar Hr TS SS Bs
Defense Power 50 200 250 500 500 1200 2200 3000
Weapon Power 0 20 20 40 40 120 60 140
Weapon Range 0 120 272 160 176 336 288 520
Max Speed 2200 2400 2700 4300 4000 4800 3200 5000
Downed 50 75 125 250 250 500 400 700
Destroyed 100 150 250
Components:
Alloys 1 11 35 70 97 92 141 231
Navigation 0 2 2 5 10 8 4 4
Power Source 0 1 1 2 2 4 3 4
Elerium-115 0 50 50 100 100 200 150 200
Entertainment 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 24
Food 0 0 0 0 14 0 20 0
Surgery 0 0 0 0 8 0 2 0
Exam Room 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0
2.4.1.2. Combat Controls
When you catch up with a UFO, you will get the combat screen. In the combat
screen you should act promptly lest the UFO escape.
Follow Button
Click on it not to attack but follow target. It is used when your craft is a
transport, and you wait for the UFO to land, or if you want to attack the
opponent in a wolfpack and wait for the others. In follow mode UFOs do not
escape from your crafts.
Combat Buttons
StandOff:
You are StandOff by default. StandOff means a safe distance from the opponent.
From here you can advance to fight and then you can return back if you need
some time to decide to resume fighting.
Standard Attack:
You approach target within range of your both weapons, and will StandOff
automatically when your ammo is gone (see Bug #9) or you got serious damage.
Cautious Attack:
You approach target within range of at least one of your weapons. You will
StandOff automatically when your ammo is gone or you got some damage. You will
advance closer when your longer ranged weapon has fired all its rounds away.
Especially used when you want to avoid UFO fire.
Aggressive Attack:
You approach target in a close distance. You will StandOff only when you want
to, however, your craft may even be destroyed. The most successful attack,
because you can hit UFO even if it starts to escape in the moment of launch;
it may not be able to get out of range before your missiles hit, nor your
craft won't pull off in the moment of launch due to damage or empty weapons.
Check:
It swaps the launch display window and the UFO portrait.
Disengage:
Combat screen closes and your craft returns to base.
2.4.1.3. Craft Weapons
Cannon and Rounds
It's difficult to shoot down any UFO with this, but it's possible. Especially
used against Small Scouts if you want a Crash Site.
Stingray Launcher and Missiles
It is used to smash alien scout vessels. Even Stingray may destroy a Small
Scout.
Avalanche Launcher and Missiles
It has fine range and attack power, but it is more expensive than Stingray, so
save it for larger UFOs.
Laser Cannon
Well, it does not need ammo, but it is the best I can tell about it.
Plasma Beam
Excellent craft weapon. It outshines every craft weapon above. It has decent
power and range, and with its charge (100) it can defeat numerous alien crafts
in a row.
Fusion Ball Launcher and Missiles
The most powerful craft weapon. It has also the best range though you cannot
fight Battleships with it safely either. It's a typical wolfpack weapon; armed
with this, you can defeat a Battleship even if you have no other than
Interceptors. With short aggressive fall-ons (and good luck of course) you can
smash your target without your planes destroyed. And even a 99% damaged
Interceptor repairs faster than an Avenger with slight damage.
2.5. X-COM Soldiers
They are important part of the X-COM forces. A soldier has certain parameters
that have great impact to the success of your missions. These parameters
develop as the soldier takes his part in combats until they reach a maximum
point. Sometimes this maximum point may be surpassed by a small amount when a
soldier does a great job in a combat. You can use this fact: when a soldier
is one point away from the parameter limit, throw him into the greatest fights
to overdevelop. Sometimes that bonus point is what you need. I list the
parameters, showing rookie fluctuation and maximums.
2.5.1. Soldiers' Parameters
Time Units 50..60, 80
It is the speed of the soldier. It determines how much s/he can walk, operate
on things. It develops when damaging aliens usually.
Stamina 40..70, 100
It determines how much s/he can walk without pause. It develops when damaging
aliens usually.
Health 25..40, 60
It determines how much damage s/he can stand. Not a great deal, aliens may
kill anybody by one plasma shot. It develops when damaging aliens usually.
Bravery 10..60, ?
It determines Morale reduction. It develops by berserking and panicking.
Reactions 30..60, 100
Time Units and Reactions together determine initiative shots, reaction shots.
It develops by reaction shots.
Firing Accuracy 40..70, 120
With weapon accuracy and aiming status (both hands, kneeling) it determines
the chance of a hit. It develops by damaging aliens by guns or grenades.
Throwing Accuracy 50..80, ?
It determines both the chance of hitting a spot and, with strength, range. It
develops by throwing objects. (It is rather silly that combatants of both
sides can throw grenades farther than they can see, and more accurately than
they shoot in this game.)
Strength 20..40, 70
Stronger soldiers can carry more items. Maybe it has impact to close fights
(Reaper, Chryssalid). It develops when damaging aliens usually.
Psionic Strength 1..100, N/A
It is the resistance against alien mind controls. It does not develop. It is a
hidden parameter, it is revealed by psi-training.
Psionic Skill N/A, ?
It determines the chance of a successful Psi-Amp use. This parameter is void
until psi-training, and it develops under psi-training and by Psi-Amp uses.
2.5.2. Soldier Selection
Some rookies can be very useless or even dangerous. It is wise to keep only
the best and sack the others. What are the criteria that I select my soldiers
by? The most important is Psionic Strength, because it does not develop and
causes much trouble. Unfortunately it is hidden until psi-training, but you
can estimate it during missions. Which soldier has been put under mind control
even once, that you may as well sack.
When you start a new game you have eight soldiers. You will have these
everytime you turn off/on your PS, but if you abandon game and then start a
new one, you will get random soldiers. Well, of the default soldiers, the
third has 95, the seventh has 99 Psi Strength, sack the rest, and recruit new
soldiers. This way you have some chances that in the replacement there will be
one or two who has at least 90 PS. Soldiers under 90 Psi Strength are
potential trouble makers in Superhuman.
Reactions is also a critical one. Under 50 it starts to develop like for
ever. Firing Accuracy under 50 can be also a problem. Above 60 it is good
enough. The rest of the parameters doesn't matter, they will be okay.
Early on you have some time without UFOs, so you can recruit some fine
rookies using the benefits of Save/Load. Save game and buy a soldier and save
game to another Memory Card. When s/he arrives, check her/him out. If you like
her/him, load the latter, if you do not, load the former save. Then go on as
many times as many soldiers you need for a start. Don't worry about their Psi
Strength, these rookies will still be useful later; against Snakemen, Mutons,
etc. they will be good, and against Sectoids and Ethereals just don't send
them.
After you have built a Psionic Laboratory, the procedure is more difficult,
because you have to put the rookie into the Lab and roll down a month for each
check. This time Psionic Strength is the only thing that matters, because you
will probably have enough good but psionically weak fighters by that time. So
keep the psionically strong (90<) only. It is slow, but these soldiers are
worth it, you will avoid many nervous breakdowns due to Bug #22.
You can also edit the soldier data if you have a cheating tool (Gameshark).
See Section 5.
2.6. Research Tips
You ought to research those things first that you need very much.
First you need a good weapon for your soldiers because the original arsenal is
not a great deal. Laser Rifle or Plasma Rifle, both are powerful enough to
send almost any alien form to the ground.
Hint: After you have researched an alien weapon, you will be allowed to fire
with it, but you won't be allowed to load/unload it until its clip has also
been researched, so you will have to obtain a loaded one on the battlefield.
When you have a decent laser or plasma weapon, you should choose among these
research paths:
-Medi-kit: it is essential to be able to heal fatal wounds and to wake up
stunned aliens or soldiers;
-Hyper-Wave Decoder: I like to know everything about alien activities. After
I have this researched, I no longer need the Radars; the sooner I have HWD,
the fewer Radars I have to build; sometimes I build my second base with HWD
already;
-Plasma Beam: it is the craft weapon you need;
-Flying Suit: it is the armor you need;
-Mind Probe: it is important when you want to capture aliens;
-Psi Lab: I, for one, do not use Psi-tactics, but I need the lab to know about
my soldiers' psi strength;
-Avenger: it is the craft you need;
-Blaster Launcher: I, for one, hate to use this tactics, but if I can't avoid
aliens using it, I have to sometimes; it is better them than me to die;
-Fusion Ball Launcher: against Battleships;
-Fusion Ball Defences: protect your bases;
-Grav Shield: doubles defense power;
-How to defeat the aliens once for all: it is what the game is all about.
The other things are not so important. I always research everything, but to
finish the aliens that are in the Alien Containment is important for me, so I
could dismantle the AC sooner.
You have to research UFO parts before you can research other important things
(Avenger, Flying Suit), but you don't have to keep these "money bags" in your
base, you just assign zero ("None") scientist to every alien artefacts and
researchable items and sell them.
Research advances by the day. Make a better use of your scientists: when you
begin a new project, assign many to it, and when they are near to finish, let
few complete the work. The last day of a project may be done by hundreds of
scientists as well as by even one or two.
And there is the silly research check of the program to utilize: it checks
the projects in a certain order. When it finds a finished one, it reports you
about the results, and asks you to decide what to do with the free scientists.
If you assign them to projects in the order of the check, you can finish many
other projects in a row with the same scientists, because it calculates
research advancement from the scientists assigned at the moment; it cannot
tell the newly assigned ones from the others. I usually research things till
"Excellent" or "Good", then finish them all by this trick.
2.6.1. Aliens To Capture
You have to capture live aliens and imprison them in the Alien Containment for
further investigation. Here is a list for an optimal capture & research
procedure:
Sectoid Navigator: Sectoid, Infiltration > Hyper-Wave Decoder, Alien Origins
Sectoid Navigator: Base
Sectoid Navigator: Abduction
Sectoid Navigator: Research
Sectoid Navigator: Supply
Sectoid Navigator: Harvest
Sectoid Engineer: Small Scout
Sectoid Engineer: Medium Scout
Sectoid Engineer: Large Scout
Sectoid Engineer: Abducter
Sectoid Engineer: Harvester
Sectoid Engineer: Terror ship
Sectoid Engineer: Supply ship
Sectoid Engineer: Battleship
Floater Navigator: Floater, Terror
Muton Navigator: Muton, Retaliation
Sectoid Leader: None > Psi-Lab, The Martian Solution
Snakeman Commander: Snakeman > Cydonia or Bust
Sectoid Medic: Chryssalid
Sectoid Medic: Celatid
Sectoid Medic: Silacoid
Sectoid Medic: Reaper
Sectoid Medic: Ethereal
Sectoid Medic: Sectopod
Sectoid Medic: Cyberdisc
Notes:
-You should research these officers in this order.
-Before you would research the Medics, you should research all the corpses.
-It is more to your scores to research Sectoid Medics and kill the terrorists.
-Sectopod and Cyberdisc cannot be captured alive.
-It is randomized what mission or vessel or life form will be reported.
3. Tactical Tips
3.1. Your Adversary, the Aliens
Sectoid
Weak opponents, but sometimes they might be serious trouble-makers with their
psionic skills and high Reactions. They may be your first enemy to meet.
Cyberdisc
This is a machine, so it never loses morale. It has thick armor and some
resistances against explosions, so it is tough, all right, especially in the
beginning. But the reason I "hate" this thing is its self-annihilating way: it
blows up when defeated. This explosion destroys items and its own corpse on
the ground, and wounds your soldiers nearby. You can avoid its sacrifice:
-Disable it by Stun Rod (scored as corpse);
-Burn it to death by Incendiary Ammo;
-Shoot it down by snap or aimed shots. Auto-shots and reaction shots always
make it pop up;
When it floats in the air, it is the best time to shoot it down, because the
explosion will hit only the air, and its corpse will fall to the ground.
Floater
They are a little bit tougher than Sectoids, but the easiest enemy for me.
Their ability to fly may lead to surprises from unexpected directions. They
may be your first enemy to meet.
Reaper
It is almost a moveable object to destroy. Keep some distance or stay behind
obstacles and you can train your soldiers for reactions safely.
Snakeman
They appear later in the game. They are slow (low TUs and Reactions), so I
usually let them approach my prepared soldiers who will tear them apart by
reaction shots.
Chryssalid
They are very dangerous in close terrain (bases, buildings, UFOs). They have
high TUs, so they are able to change their locations quickly and surprise your
soldiers. I order one or two agile soldiers to watch at full TUs (for reaction
shots), and I have a scout look around in every turn. When a Chryssalid has
gotten too close to us, I have the scout shoot it dead by an auto-shot with
the rifle barrel put right into the ass of the creature. When we are being
approached by one that is coming from a distance, the agile men will open a
defensive fire hopefully. If they miss, then my men may be turned into more
Chryssalids. If the situation is not safe enough, I retreat one or two rooms
back.
Ethereal
They are very hard opponents. They can easily slaughter a squad of rookies in
no time, and plus they all have psi skills. When I get tired of the save/load
"tactics", I pull the Blaster Launcher out of the boot-leg, and clear the
field a bit. Bring only the psi-strong men or hovertanks in Ethereal missions.
You have some time to prepare for them, because they appear later in the game.
Sectopod
Not just the Ethereals, but this almost indestructible machine to deal with.
Double trouble! When you place a blaster bomb under its "armpit", that will
solve the problem, but there may be civilians and own men nearby whom you do
not want to kill. Use Heavy Laser or Laser Rifle maybe. Even one shot from
Heavy Laser may push the thing over.
Muton
After you have plasma or laser weapons, they are not so hard, and by the time
they will come, you will have researched both. They are tough, they may easily
stand one or two Heavy Plasma shots, so the more of your soldiers are able to
open fire, the better.
Celatid
Not too hard opponent because it can shoot from a limited distance and arch, so
in open terrain, you can train your soldiers for Reactions. UFOpedia says that
a Celatid can search your soldiers up. Well, all aliens seem to be able to
find your men due to the "cheating" A.I., so not an importance.
Silacoid
This creature is slow and has only close attack, but it is hard to kill. And it
can be annoying when it burns the field on you or destroys the corpses and
items everywhere it goes. It happens that alien corpses with equipment "gather
up" at a door (who came through that died), and a Silacoid passes and erases
this "gold mine" in a single moment. Its track tells you where it goes.
3.1.1. Aliens' Parameters and Scores
TUs Egy Hlt Brv Rea FAc TAc Str PSt PSk Fro Sde Bck Und Kil
Sectoid
Soldier 62 104 30 80 78 64 58 32 4 3 2 2 10
Navigator 62 104 30 80 78 64 58 32 4 3 2 2 12
Medic 62 104 30 80 78 64 58 32 4 3 2 2 14
Engineer 62 104 30 80 78 64 58 32 4 3 2 2 16
Leader 62 104 30 80 78 64 58 32 58 58 4 3 2 2 20
Commander 62 104 30 80 78 64 58 32 58 69 4 3 2 2 25
Floater
Soldier 58 104 35 80 62 62 58 43 8 6 4 12 12
Navigator 58 104 35 80 62 62 58 43 8 6 4 12 14
Medic 58 104 35 80 62 62 58 43 8 6 4 12 16
Engineer 58 104 35 80 62 62 58 43 8 6 4 12 18
Leader 63 110 40 80 74 74 58 50 16 12 8 12 25
Commander 69 116 45 80 81 78 65 51 24 18 12 16 35
Snakeman
Soldier 46 92 45 80 55 71 65 50 20 18 16 12 15
Navigator 46 92 45 80 55 71 65 50 20 18 16 12 17
Engineer 46 92 45 80 55 71 65 50 20 18 16 12 20
Leader 46 92 45 80 68 80 65 50 20 24 22 20 28
Commander 52 97 55 80 80 71 65 50 26 26 22 20 36
Ethereal
Soldier 78 111 55 80 93 91 80 51 58 46 35 35 35 35 20
Leader 78 111 55 80 93 91 80 51 69 52 40 40 40 40 30
Commander 78 111 55 80 93 91 80 51 75 58 45 45 45 45 40
Muton
Soldier 64 104 125 80 74 66 62 75 20 20 20 10 15
Navigator 64 104 125 80 74 66 62 75 24 24 24 15 17
Engineer 64 104 125 80 74 66 62 75 28 28 28 20 19
Cyberdisc 71 104 120 110 79 74 0 97 34 34 34 34 20
Reaper 71 104 148 90 79 0 0 97 28 28 28 4 25
Chryssalid 127 162 96 100 86 0 0 118 34 34 34 34 25
Sectopod 71 104 96 110 79 74 0 97 145 130 100 90 30
Celatid 81 104 68 90 49 124 0 75 20 20 20 20 20
Silacoid 46 92 114 100 49 0 0 75 50 50 50 10 20
Zombie 40 140 84 110 40 0 0 84 4 4 4 4
Civilian 35 65 30 80 30 30 50 20 0 0 0 0
3.1.2. Alien Squads
Every UFO type has its typical crew; there is difference in numbers, ranks,
and equipment. Early on aliens are equipped with pistols and rifles, later
Heavy Plasma becomes dominant. Here is a table showing what ranks fly the UFOs
with their equipment.
Numbers = The max what I have met so far (in Superhuman);
Ts = Terror ship, Terror Site;
Bs = Battleship, Base Defense, Alien Base;
H = Heavy Plasma;
R = Plasma Rifle;
P = Plasma Pistol;
B = Blaster Launcher;
L = Small Launcher;
. and : = Alien Grenade;
* = Mind Probe;
1, 2 and 3 = Clip(s) or missile(s) to weapon (the weapon is loaded);
, = Wrong Clip (see Bug #29).
SS MS LS Ar Hr Ts Ss Bs
Crew:
Soldier 1 6 8 9 12 7 13 12
Navigator 0 3 2 2 2 2 2 2
Medic 0 0 0 4 2 2 2 2
Engineer 0 0 3 2 2 2 2 2
Leader 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 4
Commander 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Terrorist 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 6
Total 1 9 13 18 20 24 21 28
Equipment:
Soldier P1* P1 P1 P P P1 P1 P1
R,* R1 R1 R1 R1 R1. R1 R1
H* H. H1 H1. H. H1. H1. H1.
Navigator P* P* P1 P P1 P1 P1
R R1 R1 R. R1 R1 R1
H H1. H1. H1 H1 H1. H1.
Medic P1 L2 P1. P1 P1
R1. L3 R1. R1 H1.
H1. L2 L2 L2
H2
Engineer P* P1 P1 P1 P1 P1
R1* R1 R1 R1 R1 R1
L2 H1. H H1. H1. B3
Leader PP, P1. P1 P1 R1
R1 R1. R1 R1 H1.
H1. H1: H1. H1. B3
Commander H1:
B3
H1.
Exceptions:
Ethereal Leader = Navigator, Medic, Engineer;
Muton Soldier = Medic, Leader, Commander;
Snakeman Soldier = Medic.
3.1.3. The Cydonia Alien Squad
Let me make a report of my latest mission to Cydonia to show you what awaits
in the final fight. I had 242 scientists to research, 164 engineers to make
the Avenger-1, and only 8 soldiers to fight, so I could launch for Mars very
early: 25th of February. My men had Heavy Cannons and Auto Cannons with
AP ammo as the best weapons and a Tank/Cannon for the challenge.
I fought Sectoids outside: Soldier x6, Leader x5, Commander x5, and four
Cyberdiscs. Their weapons were random: P or R or H., but the regular player
gets to Cydonia later when all carry H. by the Heavy Plasma rule. It is dark
no matter when you go. The terrain, the number and type of the pyramids are
random.
The Cydonia Base is very similar to an alien base on Earth, it is a little
bigger, but the places are not random. The staff inside was:
Ethereal Soldier with B3 x4
Ethereal Leader with H1. x3
Ethereal Commander with H1. x5
Chryssalid x5
Celatid x5
Silacoid x5
Sectopod x4
To hunt down the Sectopods were hard still possible. They could be hurt by
the cannons from behind only. This explains well how the game works. The
Sectopod has 100 for rear armor, the UFOpedia says the Heavy Cannon has 56
for damage (AP ammo). This is the average value, so a Heavy Cannon may do 112
damage, and you may do 12 damage to a Sectopod for a start. Each hit which
wounds takes a few points from armor too, so when the Sectopod has around 40
hit points, it will have around 90 armor, and you may do 22 damage. Did you
see a soldier shoot dead a Floater (35 HP) with one Pistol shot (26 damage)
or a Reaper (148 HP) with one Heavy Laser shot (85 damage)? Average values.
All in all, the Cydonia mission isn't hard if you bring psi strong men or
even HWPs. You can do it with one single Hovertank/Launcher. And you know I
just play X-COM without the final fight. The war on Earth is the fun, not a
mere Martian Alien Base even if it is a double mission.
3.1.4. The Alien A.I.
Do not expect a plan or any cunning from aliens. They simply walk up and down
on the terrain and MAY open fire at your soldiers. They act completely out of
reason, so it may appear to you that it was a trick when it caused you
trouble, however, they usually do stupid movements.
They generally move where your men are. And they KNOW where your men are as
far as the program knows where your men are. They can find a soldier's hiding
place though he hasn't been seen move there. They can psi-attack anybody
without a look. So the A.I. cheats.
If they made use of their equipment better and more frequently (Heavy Plasma-
auto-shots, Blaster Launcher, Alien Grenade) and their better stats, you would
lose every mission.
3.2. Your Arsenal
Pistol
A good weapon against Sectoid and Floater, especially Sectoid: when you have
Personal Armor or better, your soldiers won't kill each others under mind
control or berserking or simply missing their target and hitting the wrong
one. I often equip some soldiers with two pistols in both hands: when one
pistol happens to go empty, there will be the other to fire. I also use the
Pistol+Stun Rod combo when I enter the UFO, to capture aliens. I put a Pistol
in heavy weapon men's belt.
Rifle
It is similar to Pistol, but I equip my good shooters with Rifles. My shooters
are in the back, and take out anything the scouts have spotted. For reaction
shots Pistol is better.
Heavy Cannon
It has three kinds of ammo, but I always use the AP. HE ammo is "good" for
destroying the "money bags" on the ground and killing each others. I use Heavy
Cannons while the default ammo lasts, then I sell them. If you haven't got any
better than default weapons facing Cyberdiscs or Reapers, Heavy Cannons will
prove useful, and nowhere else.
Auto-Cannon
An auto-shot with its barrel touching the skin, and any Sectoid or Floater
should die. Use this weapon for nothing else, because it is easier to hit
something with a stone. You can use it as a lamp firing incendiary ammo into
the night.
Rocket Launcher
An open terrain heavy weapon; you don't even need to hit the target, just a
shot into the ground close to it and your men will rule that turn. And, if an
alien is camping in cover, it is safer to send the whole place up in the air.
Laser Pistol
Powerful lil'friend of your soldiers. You can do four auto-shots in a turn, so
it is the winner of the auto-shot award. I love this weapon especially on
Alien Bases; I can comb the place most safely, if I meet something, an
auto-shot or two in the face, and it is not often that any alien is still
standing afterwards. I generally combine it with Stun Rod, Blaster Launcher,
Mind Probe, and Medi-kit.
Laser Rifle
Excellent weapon for general use.
Heavy Laser
Excellent weapon for agile soldiers to camp beside doors. Laser Rifle happens
to fail to kill even weak opponents (Sectoid, Floater, Snakeman), Heavy Laser
does very rarely. It may kill even a Muton in one shot.
Plasma Pistol
Powerful weapon, but later in the game you won't find enough clips to equip
your squad, and who the hell wants to manufacture silly pistol clips.
Plasma Rifle
Excellent weapon for general use.
Heavy Plasma
The best weapon. It isn't astounding that aliens do not use other weapons than
this later in the game: they can shoot down any soldier wrapped in the
thickest armor and any HWP in one shot.
Small Launcher
It is good to capture live aliens, but I usually research this artefact last,
there are things of higher priority, so I catch them all by Stun Rod by that
time.
Blaster Launcher
This weapon ruins the fun of the game. It is very powerful, and its waypointed
shooting makes any other tactics useless. You can bring any place down to
earth equal without even getting out of the transport. You can make holes on
UFOs, and burn the hiding aliens out of there by further bombs. And it is LUCK
and not your wits, that you can clear a mission when aliens carry these
hellish things. When you have gotten in a nasty situation, you can "cheat your
way through" by this item.
3.3. What To Do on Missions
3.3.1. UFO Ground Assault
You may have a bad time coming out of your craft. The first soldiers should be
equipped with weapons that can do auto-shots (triple-shot) and are powerful
enough (Heavy Plasma) to shoot the target dead in one hit. The second group is
supposed to cover the first group (that probably used up their TUs clearing
the nearby area) by reaction shots, so they should not move farther than the
line of the first group. The rest should take good firing positions; in the
next turn they will be the execution force from behind the scouts.
After you have cleared the outside area, you generally have to enter the UFO
to smoke the fox out. Place your most agile men beside doors in case aliens
want to come out to look around. And you will need auto-shots again. The
scouts should open the doors but not enter the room by pressing the O button
instead of the X. If an alien is standing before you, shoot it, if you face
more barrels pointing at you, just step aside out of their sights. If you have
a faraway shooter, you can get him shoot into the UFO through the open door.
If you see an alien with its back to you, walk up close, and auto-shot only
then, hitting it thrice.
3.3.2. Crash Site
You should do similarly as above. Crash recovery missions usually have fewer
opponents and some corpses in a damaged UFO. The survivors may be wounded
already or even faint, so you can kill them more easily. Also, their morale
may be reduced from the very start. The damaged UFO has sometimes better
"entrances" besides its doors.
3.3.3. Terror Site
You should act fast to save as many civilians as you can. Aliens are not
grouping in their UFO this time, but are scattered all over town and making
havoc of the place and searching for targets. And some towns are hard to comb:
aliens may hide in huge buildings; parks make aiming and shots difficult.
Your soldiers should have max TUs (80) and high Stamina to be able to walk
much without a rest.
Use Bug #4 to avoid a night mission.
3.3.4. Base Defense
Aliens are coming from Hangars and the Access Lift. You have some time to hide
and camp well in the other facilities of the base. Have your lone soldiers
join and help each others. Choose places to have some rooms to retreat in
danger. A General Store is an excellent camping place. Don't leave anybody on
a corridor for fear of Blaster Launcher attacks. Defend the Laboratory and the
Workshop! Aliens can destroy the objects upstairs and you will lose them (and
the linked facilities too) even if you have won! And I noticed that the game
mysteriously puts an alien there just for destruction about twenty turns.
After your soldiers have taken their firing posts, just wait for the aliens to
enter your traps and finish them one by one. Reactions is the most important
ability this time. The faster weapons are the better (pistols).
Near the end you will have to search for some panicked aliens. You may find
them by looking for their dropped weapons. Easy practice for rookies.
3.3.5. Alien Base
It is a bit harder than an X-COM base, because all the place isn't but
corridors and halls, nowhere to hide from Blaster Bombs. You will need fast
walkers (TUs=80 with high Stamina) to be able to surprise aliens or retreat.
Leave the green room quickly and hunt down as many aliens as you can to break
their morale down. If you find their command center, assault it with full
force to get rid of the high officers. You don't need to destroy it and
escape. I always clear the mission by killing all aliens to score more
prestige and items to sell.
3.4. Poured Tips
3.4.1. The Save/Load "Tactics"
When one of my soldiers dies, I reload game. It is hard to complete a mission
without casualties, but easier than with fewer men and dead morale. And I
cannot keep all my soldiers in mind if they come and go daily.
3.4.2. Off Transport
When you have a hard time getting out of the transport because your soldiers
are under alien reaction fire:
-Wait a turn; aliens may move and they won't be at top TUs.
-Blow up two Smoke Grenades, one in the transport, and another on the ramp.
-Save/Load "tactics".
3.4.3. Night Mission
Aliens are dangerous in dark due to Bug #32, but the case is not hopeless:
-Scatter Electro-flares around your squad and wait for the aliens instead of
searching for them in the dark.
-If there are buildings around or the UFO itself, hide in them camping. Close
combat is better than blind combat.
3.4.4. Item Circle
Soldiers have TUs, so their actions per turn are limited, but items have not
limits. You can fire with a weapon (Blaster Launcher) as many times as many
soldiers can handle it. Shoot-drop-step-step-take-load-drop-step-step-take-
-shoot-drop-step...
A grenade crosses the whole battlefield: prime-drop-step-step-take-throw-take-
-throw...take-throw-bang!
3.4.5. Stun Rod Warning
When you crept up to an alien from behind and used Stun Rod, but it is still
standing, never walk away right after that, because the WALK may cause a
reaction shot. Click on somebody else then back, THEN you can walk away
safely.
3.4.6. Make Doors
It is faster to destroy obstacles than to walk them around.
3.4.7. Reaction Shot Tactics
Camp your soldiers with full TUs at good posts and wait for the aliens to
come. You really need not to do anything but click on "Next Turn" all along
the mission. You don't have to click on here and there all the time and walk
through and through the whole site. Plus your soldiers will gain high
Reactions. I move on only when they are stuck in their UFO and don't budge.
3.4.8. Flying Suit against Grenades
Keep your men in the air and let the aliens waste their useless grenades. They
throw at you, but the grenades will fall to the ground where they hurt no one.
3.4.9. Prepare for Psi-attacks
When you have problems with a soldier, just keep his weapon on the ground and
take it when you want to shoot. He won't be able to return fire, but he won't
be dangerous either if he is turned over under mind control or goes berserk.
3.4.10. Grav Lift Tip
You can go up and down in the Grav Lift kneeling, so you should do like when
you look around the floors to be able to open fire at once with a better aim.
4. Bug Report
This section helps you to avoid some nasty surprises, and you can even use
some of the bugs to cheat. But the main cause of this list of mine is serve
those who wish to rejuvenate this classic someday. It's a crying shame that
this great game suffers from such ugly and numerous bugs. Microprose had a
year to recover and correct these errors until the PSX release.
I list not just the programming errors but also the parts that they
accomplished the wrong way in my opinion.
#1 Waypoint Bug
There are some events when a Waypoint remains on the Geoscape permanently.
When an aircraft leaves a base which will be destroyed by aliens, the craft
will disappear, but its Waypoint will stay. It's an extreme case, but once, I
don't remember how, a Waypoint was left on the globe and was gazing at me from
then on.
#2 Bug Targetted by
When an Alien Base appears on the globe, sometimes the Interceptors that are
in the air at the moment will be shown in the check window as "Targetted by"
crafts, but they aren't heading for there.
#3 Refuelling Bug
When you transfer a craft at 100% fuel to another base and it arrives, it will
have 0% fuel though "ready" status. If you launch this craft, it will be able
to stay in the air until the end of the world. This way you can install a
"mini locator" in a blind area, or you can equip an Avenger with Plasma Beam
and get it shoot down everything from the sky while the 2x100 rounds last. If
you don't want to cheat, then you have to make the craft do a short flight,
and refuel it well.
#4 Terror Site Awaiting
A Terror Site won't disappear from the globe while it is targetted by a craft.
This way you can choose when you want to do the mission (wait for daylight!).
And you don't have to worry whether your slowest craft get to the farthest
spot on the globe in time.
#5 Infiltration Landing Fatal Error
An alien vessel landed on Jakarta, and when I wanted to attack it on ground,
the program wasn't be able to load the mission; it crashed all the time I
tried. It must be a data invalidation error.
#6 Battleship Suddenly Drops from the Heights
When a Battleship in Retaliation mission is spotted coming to destroy your
base, it has 5000 speed and Very High altitude, but right after you check it
again, it will have 5000 speed and Very Low altitude. It's Very Strange.
#7 The Confused Battleship Bug
One of my favorites: When a Battleship in Retaliation mission approaches your
base, and you decide to dismantle everything and close the base down, the ship
will be patrolling on the spot of the late base. Be careful, because after a
while the program will crash.
#8 Aliens Keep Retaliating
Sometimes Battleships attack a base many times. If you are well prepared and
able to handle the invasion with crafts and soldiers, your rating for the
foundation will skyrocket and your money as well. If you rely on the defense
facilities of the base, then you will watch them destroy the ships, but you
gain nothing else.
#9 Last Rounds
When you fight an alien vessel, and your aircraft shoots its last rounds
(Avalanche, Fusion Ball, etc.) at the target, they will miss due to outrange
because your craft pulls back right after the shot. The program checks for
range at the moment of hit not the shot. To avoid this, you have to attack
aggressively with the last rockets, and pull back after they hit the UFO.
#10 Unequip Craft Problem
You can equip a craft or replace its weapons, but you cannot unequip them! So
if you want to get rid of a useless craft, you have to throw two cannons away
as well.
#11 Personnel Overflow Error
You are able to build 17 Living Quarters and Laboratories to research with 850
Scientists on one base, but do not apply more than 250 though, because the
program has a Byte sized variable for them, and will go crazy above 255
scientists.
#12 Alien Containment and General Store Space
There is a limit of ten for AC, and fifty for GS. However, they can accept
more from missions. It's a cheat of some kind. I would have been strict about
this. I would have put the sell and sack window after a mission to make the
player decide what to do when the GS or AC is full.
#13 Alien Containment Problem
Sometimes you get live aliens from missions even if you didn't want to (faint
Soldier, for one). And the only way to empty an AC is research the prisoners.
You can't just send to shoot one and shovel the thing outta there! I use the
Medi-kit to wake them up and shoot them in the missions, because you can't
shoot them dead lying on the ground either! And you cannot wake up a Reaper, so
when it faints, reload the game and try again.
#14 Ghosts in Base Bug
Try this: attack agressively a Battleship with a Skyranger full of people.
After the Skyranger has been destroyed, the soldiers' "ghosts" stay on the
base, occupying space. You cannot sack them, cannot do anything. You are being
haunted!
#15 Transfer Bug
When you transfer a craft, watch out not to pay for it twice or more times. If
you want to transfer something else, transfer the items at the same time, or
wait until the sent item arrives. Otherwise the program will add the cost of
the craft each time you transfer something.
And there is a limit of supplies, so you must wait until the transferred or
bought items arrive. The program usually warns you, but sometimes it does not,
and you just order and pay, but nothing is coming.
#16 Soldier Transfer Bug
You can transfer soldiers at zero cost. When you transfer armor, that costs
some dollars. Put the armor on a soldier, and transfer the soldier instead,
take the armor off, and return the soldier.
#17 Memory Card Errors
It happens that after "Save Successful" the next time "Load Unsuccessful". It
may be Memory Card Connection fail, but who knows? When I save in the
Geoscape, I always reload the game to be sure. If "Load Unsuccessful", then I
save again; no problem, because I stay in the old game. But due to this, there
is a very amusing bug: if "Load Unsuccessful" occurs in the main menu, you
will be put in a New Game as you can't be put in an old game (there isn't an
old game), and a variety of bugs begin to make a show (invisible base,
homeless aircrafts, and so on).
#18 Base Selection Bug
For example you have two bases in a game and you load a game that has only one
base, you will be put in an invalid base if you had operated on the second base
in the old game.
#19 Base Defense Equipment and Soldier Problem
If you have lots of stuff in the General Stores, there will be two annoying
problems due to item limits in missions:
-You will lose those weapons that haven't gotten within the limit as the
mission starts.
-Killed aliens' corpses and weapons will disappear above the limit.
You can do two things: keep the General Stores "tidy" or pack the surplus on
the transports of the base, and launch them before the attack ship lands at
your base. After the mission, they return with their equipment not missing.
There can be soldiers on the attacked base that you don't want to be present
in the battle. You can do two things: transfer them or send them on the crafts
and leave the place, just like the items above.
If the base is full of soldiers (50-100), the game selects the first 40
people for the combat, and the place will be a bit crowded.
#20 Stupid Equipment Problem
When you start a mission, the game "helps" you to equip your soldiers giving
them weapons, clips, grenades, and stuff. And you have to remove all the
things before you can equip them as YOU wish. It's clear that each soldier has
individual skills to fight. The one who's excellent shooter should get a rifle
and clips, the one who's an athletic thrower should get grenades, and the one
who's good for nothing carries Mind Probe, Medi-Kit, Motion Scanner, Rockets,
and so on to support the others. It would be better that I could equip
soldiers as I can give them armor.
#21 Stupid Order in Craft Problem
The program places the soldiers in the craft as they are serials in the
soldier segment. I would prefer to place them by myself: the crips behind
(out of the way), the natural born killers to the front.
#22 Unhandled Turn Based Error Complex
Here is a bunch of bugs, the origin the same: the programmers weren't able to
accomplish the ideas of the design.
-If a soldier is lying unconscious, and the mission ends in the aliens' turn
(reaction shot), s/he will disappear like a dream followed up by the message
"X has become unconscious".
-If a soldier is lying unconscious out of the craft, and you abort the mission
with nobody aboard, strangely s/he will leave with the craft...
-If a soldier is lying unconscious inside the craft, and you abort the mission
with nobody able aboard, everybody and craft is gone.
-If a soldier is lying unconscious inside the craft, and you abort the mission
with somebody able aboard, the unconscious one will be missing in action.
-If a mission ends with somebody under mind-control, s/he will be missing in
action.
-If somebody faints while under mind-control (you disabled her/him with a Stun
Rod), s/he will disappear like a dream in the end of mission.
-If somebody faints while under mind-control (you disabled her/him with a Stun
Rod), and you wake her/him up (using a Medi-Kit), s/he will be an alien from
then on.
-If you put a civilian under mind-control, s/he will be an alien from the next
turn.
-If a civilian is killed by the aliens' grenade, s/he will be recorded as
"Civilians killed by X-COM operatives".
-If a civilian is lying unconscious when you end the mission, s/he will be
recorded neither killed nor saved.
-If a soldier or alien is lying unconscious and it is destroyed by an
explosion, s/he won't be recorded anyway.
-Aliens don't get fatal wounds, but, while under your mind-control, they do.
#23 Alien Equipment Bug
You aren't supposed to access mind-controlled aliens' equipment, but you can
page to them in the inventory menu. And look at that, how it is cheating, all
weapons in the left boot-leg!
#24 Rifle Floating in the Air Bug
Listen: a soldier in Flying Suit has panicked, drops the gun, and drifts away,
but what's that, isn't his rifle that floats in the air? He was in a hurry, he
haven't waited until the gun could hit the ground!
#25 Abandoned Weapons on the First Floor Bug
What are these abandoned guns everywhere on the first floor? Well, they were
dropped by panicked aliens upstairs. Strangely they "fell through" the floors.
#26 Clip in the Corpse Bug
Sometimes explosions stuff the rifle clips into the corpses. As you pick up
the corpse, you can see the rounds shown. You can even unload the corpse.
#27 Disappearing Aliens Bug
Grenade explosions oddly erase the killed or faint targets because explosions
destroy items on the ground, and as the alien falls to the ground, the body
will be destroyed, as well.
#28 Invisible Soldiers Bug
When you restore a soldier or an alien from faint by Medi-Kit, s/he will be
invisible because the programmers forgot to put the figure on screen again
after the wake-up.
#29 Clip and Gun Matches Not Bug
When you defeat the pilot of a Small Scout, sometimes you will find a Plasma
Rifle (loaded) and a Heavy Plasma Clip. And once I found a Sectoid Leader in
an Abducter with two empty Plasma Pistols and a wrong clip.
#30 Chryssalid's Attack Bug
An attack of this being draws no reaction shots, and it seems the last attack
always corrupts the target even if it is the first. It is similar to Stun Rod
attack: you can stun an alien until you have TU's, the game does not check for
TUs-Reactions after a stun attack.
#31 Battleship Roof Error
When a soldier walks on the roof of a Battleship or you just fiddle with the
cursor on it, it happens the game freezes.
#32 Aliens in the Dark Problem
Do aliens see in dark better than humans? No. The area around your soldiers
are highlighted imitating the range of sights. But it also means to the A.I.
that your soldiers are like damned glow-worms. They can't see the aliens who
do see them. If you mind-control an alien it will be also a blind glow-worm.
#33 Grenade Sound Bug
When an alien throws a grenade, the sound effect will be the same as the
previous shot: Plasma Rifle, Laser Pistol, Rifle, and yes, sometimes the
sound of thrown items, too.
#34 Holes on Crafts
There are "holes" on alien ships and the Avenger at the edges where the
combatants can see each others and even shoot through. For example you stand
on the corner of the entrance-room of a Battleship, you can see through the
wall diagonally.
#35 Movement Bugs
There are a couple of bugs concerning to walking on battlefields.
-When you move a soldier two squares and after one square s/he halts having
seen an alien, he will lose 8 TU's instead of 4. So you ought to move your
scouts step by step.
-When you move a soldier on stairs/ramps, s/he needs more TU's to walk, but if
you move her/him THROUGH it, it will take normal TU cost (4 per square).
A very illustrative example: to get out of the Skyranger to beside the ramp
(two squares and one level) takes 8 TU's, but step by step it will take more
(s/he have to walk down the ramp, because s/he can't pass between the ramp
and the wall, and moving on the ramp will cost more TU's regardless s/he
moves downwards) plus the latter method will draw reaction shots.
-Jump into an alien's skin: from the roof of a house your soldier can jump
into an alien. The soldier's TUs must turn to 0..3 on the place where the
alien is standing so the soldier should halt, and the alien must be unseen
otherwise the soldier would walk it round.
-The alien detector: sometimes you cannot tell your soldier to walk where an
unseen alien is standing.
-Under the ramp: your two men will be in the way if they stand between the
two rear wheels of the transport. The others may not pass through as though
the two were standing one level upper.
#36 Unconscious Bug
An unconscious soldier/alien's stun level (white bar in the Health bar) will
drop only when somebody is standing on the same square between the turns, or
the unconscious body is in somebody's hand or backpack. If somebody is "left
alone", that will never wake up by his/her own. An unconscious Reaper (four
square sized) will never wake up.
#37 Alien Stupidity Problems
-Aliens reload their weapons right before they want to shoot again only.
-Aliens do not pick up weapons or anything from the ground even if they stand
on something and they are completely unarmed.
#38 Berserker Bug
Once a Floater was firing at my soldiers until the rifle ran out of ammo. It
is far more than three auto-shots weapons can generally do per turn.
#39 Infinite Laser Weapons Problem
Laser weapons do not need ammo (or energy) to fire. It seems X-COM invented
the Pertetuum Mobile; you just tie down the trigger and it works for ever.
#40 Mind Control Gives You Time Bug
When aliens put a soldier under mind control, s/he will get full TUs no matter
how much s/he has acted already.
5. Edit Codes
If you have a cheat device like Gameshark, you can edit the soldier data. It
means you can provide parameters to any soldier as you wish. You may have 250
soldiers in X-COM: Enemy Unknown. Each soldier occupies 68 bytes in the RAM,
this is called a record or structure. The soldier data takes 68x250=17000
bytes. You can address this area by the cheat engine and overwrite words
(word=double byte), because its location is fixed. The first soldier starts at
80015084. The 2nd one starts at 80015084+44=800150C8; the 44 is 68 in
hexadecimal. The address is also in hexadecimal as cheat codes are in
hexadecimal. If you wish to modify the tenth soldier's data for example, you
should calculate the address: 68x10=680 is 2A8 in hex, so the address will be
80015084+2A8=8001532C. If you have Windows, the calc.exe can take this
headache from you.
The soldiers' row is by the order you recruit them. If one dies or is sacked,
the next recruit will occupy its place. If you are not sure, transfer all of
them in one base, and they will be listed in the proper order.
I explain what each byte of the data structures means, so you can tell what
you wish to modify. I just leave the '8001' from the addresses to be shorter.
5084 0001 This is the rank of the soldier. From 0000 (Rookie) to 0005
(Commander). Now it is set to Squaddie. Do not modify this word,
especially when the original is Rookie, because the program uses
other bytes, too, to promote operatives, and it may result a bug.
You can change ranks if you no longer recruit new ones, and the game
no longer promotes rookies and anybody.
5086 ???? Do not modify.
5088 FFFF Craft. Now it is set to NONE. Do not modify, because it is a bit
complicated to edit this word properly and safely, and you do not
need to cheat this anyway. However, you can handle numerous missions
with just a few men by sending out only empty crafts for a group of
UFOs to intercept. Edit the crew on the craft right before landing
for a mission, and remove them to another craft after the mission to
do a new one.
508A ???? It is a logical variable used for selections in menus like sell/sack
and transfer. Do not modify.
508C 03E8 Missions. Now it is set to 1000, to call him a feasting veteran.
508E 05DC Kills. Now it is set to 1500. He killed 1.5 alien per mission, for
the statistics.
5090 0000 Wound recovery. Set it to zero days just like this to heal them.
5092 ???? Do not modify.
5094 654A Name begins.
5096 6E61
5098 4A2D
509A 6361
509C 7571
509E 7365
50A0 5220
50A2 756F
50A4 7373
50A6 6165
50A8 0075 Name ends. Now the name is "Jean-Jacques Rousseau". The game allows
21 characters for names. The characters (letters) are by ASCII. Note
the 00 in the last word. You must indicate the end of every name by
a zero coded character so the program know how long is the name. And
note the "-" character which you cannot use normally, unfortunately,
just the stupid underline.
50AA ???? Do not modify.
50AC ???? Do not modify. (These two words are probably not used.)
50AE 1932 Health and Time Units. Now they are set to the lowest rookie
parameters, 25 and 50. These are permanent values.
50B0 1E28 Reactions and Stamina, 30 and 40.
50B2 2814 Firing Accuracy and Strength, 40 and 20.
50B4 ??32 Unknown and Throwing Accuracy, not set and 50.
50B6 0001 Psi Skill and Psi Strength, 0 and 1. If the Psi Skill is 00, these
parameters will be invisible (though Psi Strength is valid all the
time), otherwise they are shown.
50B8 0B0A Time Units+ and Bravery. Bravery is a bit tricky. 0A does not mean
10 nor 100, but it means 110-100=10. If it is set to 00, the man
will be a golem (Bravery: 110)! If it is set to 04, the man has 70
for Bravery. 0B for Time Units+ means that the program adds 11 to
Time Units, so the actual TUs will be 61. This makes the stat bars
show in two shades.
50BA 0B0A Stamina+ and Health+, 40+11=51 and 25+10=35.
50BC 0B0A Strength+ and Reactions+, 20+11=31 and 30+10=40.
50BE 0B0A Throwing Accuracy+ and Firing Accuracy+, 50+11=61 and 40+10=50.
50C0 03?? Bravery+ and Unknown, 10+30=40 and not set.
50C2 0003 Improvement (in the Psi Lab menu) and Armor. The armor is set to
Flying Suit. 00 is NONE, 01 is Personal Armor, 02 is Power Suit.
50C4 ??00 Unknown and In Psi Training (a logical value: 00 is for no, any for
In Psi Training). Do not modify.
50C6 0600 Face and Gender. The Face indicates what the soldier looks like in
the mission inventory menu; the Gender indicates whether the soldier
appears a man or a woman on the combat scene, and whether they say
"Argh" or "Eek" when they die. The actual setting means a black
male. The 0601 would look like a black man in the inventory menu
and a woman on the scene. So you have to set both bytes properly for
transsexualism. Gender 00 means male, any means female; Face from
00 to 03 woman of blonde, brown, black, brown hair, from 04 to 07
man of blonde, brown (red), black, brown hair. To be closer to the
truth, only three bits are used of the Face byte: 00000010 (this is
binar) is a black woman, 00000110 is a black man; the third binar
digit from the right means the "gender of the face" (0 or 1), the
1st and 2nd bits make the code for hair and skin. Why do I tell you
this? Because I cannot be sure whether the game uses the other bits
for anything.
So that is the structure. I guess the most useful modification is of the Psi
Strength. So the initial eight soldiers will be practically immune to mind
control (100 Psi Strength) if you input these codes in the cheat device:
800150B6 0064
800150FA 0064
8001513E 0064
80015182 0064
800151C6 0064
8001520A 0064
8001524E 0064
80015292 0064
Then save and reload your game to play normally with these boosted stats as if
it were a very lucky rookie picking.
6. Credits
X-COM: Enemy Unknown is Copyright 1994 Mythos Games Ltd., 1995 Microprose Ltd.
This FAQ is Copyright 2005-2008 Borjati Csaba, for private use only.
E-mails are welcome to: [email protected]
Thanks to:
Amore, who introduced "UFO" to me, I hope we meet again;
GameFAQs, Neoseeker for being at gamers' disposal.
That's all, folks!
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