*** Warning ***
This document gives some hints on the plot of XCOM/UFO. If you don't want to
spoil your fun with the game, you might consider reading only part of this
document or not reading it at all.
***************
Technical note: XCOM was published in Europe as UFO, Enemy Unknown. I don't
know of any differences between the releases. Version 1.2, where some bugs
have been fixed, can be downloaded in Microprose's section in GAMBPUP.
***************
Ok, let's go now. And remember: These are only hints, based on my own
experiences. I'm sure there are other ways to win the game.
Getting Started
===============
Check your soldiers. Sack all with a firing accuracy of less than about 60.
Sack and recruit soldiers until you have 10 good marksmen. This will take
some time, probably a couple of days. Don't worry. The funding countries will
be content if you shoot the ufos down with your interceptors. You don't have
to go for each and every ufo with your Skyranger. (If you do, the larger ones
are the most worthwhile.)
Buy 3 Avalanche launchers and missiles, equip your interceptors with
Avalanches only. They're the most efficient. Sell the other missiles and guns
and so on.
Get rid of all that fancy, heavy stuff. Your soldiers are hardly strong
enough to carry those gimmicks, and they won't be able to fire a single
shot. Equip them with rifles and grenades only.
Hire 30 more scientists and 10 more engineers. Let your scientists research
laser weapons and produce laser rifles for your soldiers.
Build new facilities in this order: large radar, living quarters, storage.
If you still have money left, start building your second base. The most
efficient way is to build the bases roughly on the equator. If the first one
is located in Florida, the second one should be built on the other side of
the globe, let's say in India or in Africa. The next bases could be in Japan,
on the tiny pacific islands, and in Europe.
You don't have to build the bases within the boundaries of the funding
countries. Build facilities in the following order: large radar, storage,
hangar, living quarters. Sometimes five bases can be enough. (Later on you
should build a second and a third large radar in each base.) As soon as the
hangar and the storage in the second base are ready, you should transfer one
interceptor to the new base. You'll need the empty hangar in your first base
later on.
Recruit soldiers for your new bases as soon as the living quarters are ready.
Don't forget to transfer some rifles and Personal Armours! 5 Soldiers for
each new base should be enough.
Buy some electro flares and put them on your Skyranger. They come in handy
for your graveyard shifts, so to speak.
Close Encounters
================
Now you should be ready for your first encounter with the aliens. If you've
shot down a ufo, save the game. If it's dark, wait until daybreak before you
send your Skyranger. If you can't wait, don't forget electro flares. Move
your soldiers under your Skyranger first and let them check the area. Turn
them around on the spot, until you've covered the surroundings. Then
cautiously move them on, always leaving them some movement points for their
automatic reactions. In some situations, it's a good idea not to move your
soldiers but to just let them throw grenades.
Save often and restore if you don't like what the aliens do to you.
After a successful fight you'll come home with a lot of stuff. Don't sell it
all. Let your scientists research it. Start with Alien Alloys which will lead
to Personal Armour. Then go for Heavy Plasma which will lead to Plasma Beam.
If you've researched Plasma Beam, equip your interceptors with these weapons.
Thus you don't need to buy new Avalanche missiles twice a day. If necessary,
one Plasma Beam on each interceptor is enough.
Keep all Elerium if possible. It will be important later in the game. (Of
course, if an alien attack on your base leaves you with 5000 units of
Elerium, you can sell 4000.)
Making Money
============
Sooner or later you'll be running out of cash. Keep your engineers busy!
Check the prices for production and sale, hire more engineers and let them
produce stuff you can sell. Apart from that, you get stuff you can sell from
almost each ufo encounter. Keep Heavy Plasma guns and enough Heavy Plasma
Clips. If your soldiers are strong enough, give them Heavy Plasma.
Help, the Aliens Strike Back ...
================================
If you're too successful, they'll get mad and start visiting your bases. Save
often and restore if necessary.
Sometimes they'll terrorize cities. Send your Skyranger and get rid of them.
... And Mind Control My Soldiers
================================
Yes indeed, they are nasty. Fortunately, they only can mind control your
soldiers if at least one alien can see them. There are three types of aliens
who can do this: Sectoid Leaders, Sectoid Commanders and all Ethereals.
Buy stun rods and try to catch one of them alive (having built an Alien
Containment first, of course.) Research the living alien. After that you can
build a Psi Lab and develop your soldiers' psionic abilities. Some soldiers
will get mind controlled easier than others. Sack them. Their psionic
abilities are poor. Recruit and sack soldiers and train them until you've got
at least 2 or 3 with a psionic strength of 90 or more. Put your super brains
on your Avenger (see below) or Skyranger and have them mind control aliens.
Even if they don't succeed in the beginning, the practice will accelerate the
development of their skills. Once their psionic abilities have reached 50 or
more, they even can control Ethereals.
Use the Mind Probe to boost your soldier's movement points. Only those
soldiers who come in direct contact with aliens will get a movement bonus.
Using Mind Probes, you can scan your enemies _and_ build up your soldier's
movement points at the same time.
Preparing for the Showdown
==========================
Catch living alien navigators/physicians/engineers and research them. They
often have valuable information for you. Alien navigators or engineers can
tell you something about alien crafts and their weapons or about new
facilities for tracking ufos.
Finally you'll have to catch a few alien commanders. They'll tell you
something about "Cydonia". Don't waste your time and money with weak
interceptors. Research the Avenger, send it to Cydonia and do what you have
to do.
Some Tactical Hints
===================
What I said above is only a rough outline of the game. There are still enough
things you'll have to find out yourself by trial and error. Here are some
more useful ideas.
Try to get Flying Suits as soon as possible. Use the Blaster Launcher like a
can opener. Use your own entrance and send your soldiers through this hole.
Why bother with heavily guarded doors? If you don't need anything from the
craft, simply shoot it to pieces with 4 Blaster Launchers and send in 2 or 3
soldiers to clean up the rest.
In a base, try to find the control room as soon as possible. The first
Blaster Bomb goes through the tiny window at the side and opens a hole in the
second wall. The second Blaster Bomb goes through this hole to the elevator,
then up and left or right. Enjoy the explosions! Even if you don't like this
style of fighting, it's worthwile seeing it. You can find the elevator even
in complete darkness. If you put the cursor on it, you'll see the elevator
rays.
Use your psi abilities wisely. Don't walk aliens up to your guns and shoot
them. Rather let them do a relay race. Make them drop their weapons and move
them a little. Search for the next alien. Mind control him, too. Move him
until he finds the next one and so on. Very soon, you'll have a nice alien
ballet going. Gather the aliens at a convenient spot and hit five or six of
them with one Blaster shot. Nice, cruel and efficient. Oh, you can't access
the personal equipment screen of alien soldiers? Well, you can. Activate one
of your own soldiers, then use the "next soldier" arrows until you reach the
alien soldier.
In your own base, you can fire at the barrels that are standing around in
the corners. This will sometimes kill several aliens with one shot.
In the middle of the game, I usually have 5-8 bases. In my main base (the
first one) I have 2 Psi Labs, 2-3 Workshops, 20-30 Soldiers (2 Avengers with
about 10 soldiers each and 10 always left behind to protect the base.), 50
scientists and 80-100 engineers. Building an Avenger with only a few
engineers takes a lot of time.
Don't waste your time with weak tanks. The Hovertank/Plasma is the one you
should use.
Beware of "very large" ufos. They are too fast and too tough for your crafts.
Wait until they land and send your Skyranger or Avenger.
Frequently move your interceptors to different regions (don't forget
Antarctica!) and let them patrol for a couple of hours. Try to find and
eliminate alien bases as soon as possible.
Besides, I build Psi-Labs in all other bases and hire new soldiers there.
This accelerates the process of finding those with superb psi abilities. I
sack all those who are inadequate as soon as possible.
Build additional bases or ufo tracking facilities if ufos frequently
disappear. The combination of 3 large radar/1 small radar/1 Hyperwave Decoder
seems to work well.
Why No Base Protection?
=======================
In my games, I never build defensive facilities in my bases. The aliens are
more than welcome because they bring excitement and fancy stuff, and I need
the space for other facilities.
One more technical note:
Even in version 1.2, there still are some bugs. Watch the MPS section in
GAMBPUB for workarounds or further updates.
Save often, have fun and be prepared for surprises. (It just comes to my mind
that I forgot to tell you about the mean Chryssalids and mind controlled
Cyber Disks which can shoot themselves, explode and kill all aliens in the
vicinity.)
