Movement (EU2012)

Movement (or Mobility) is a hidden unit stat in XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Basics

A soldier's standard movement stat has the value of 12, which translates into 7 tiles (cell/square) for a half-turn move, and 15 tiles when dashing - both when running a straight line.

According to this post, the conversion for a half-turn move is:

round_down(attribute value * 0.625)

So, with a value of 12, we get:

12 * 0.625 = 7.5 => round_down(7.5) = 7 tiles

For conversion proposes, this page will use the following ratio:

1 game square (or cell/tile) costs 1.625 movement points to cross in a straight line (horizontal or vertical)

Dashing

With dashing (using both actions to move), the value is doubled, so we get:

12 * 0.625 * 2 = 15 tiles

Diagonal Movement

The cost of diagonal movement is determined by the Pythagorean theorem so value is:

 square root of (2 * (1.65 * 1.65)) = ~2.33

Diagonal movement is the most difficult element to consider when trying to figure out how much squares an enemy unit can move. One rule of thumb is to consider that moving 1 straight and 1 diagonal square cost almost 4 movement points, so a Chryssalid with 20 points can move 5 straight and 5 diagonal squares in a single action.

Movement Modifiers

A unit's movement stat can be increased/decreased by several modifiers.

Positive modifiers

• Abilities
  • The Sprinter ability of the support class: +4 movement (or 3 tiles as on its description)
  • Muton's Blood Call ability: +4 movement
• Armor
  • Skeleton Suit: +3 movement
  • Ghost Armor: +3 movement
  • Psi Armor: +2 movement
• Other
  • Combat Stims: +4 movement
  • MEC's Kinetic Strike Module: +4 movement
  • Combat Rush (triggered by the Adrenal Neurosympathy gene mod): +2 movement
  • Foundry's Advanced Servomotors project for MECs and SHIVs: +3 movement

Negative modifiers

• Injuries suffered while using Second Wave's Red Fog option: -2 movement
• Units under the influence of Flashbang grenades: -50% movement
• Units under the influence of Mind Fray psionic abilitiy: -50% movement
• Units poisoned: -25% movement
• Units who are catching breath after a Seeker's Strangle attack: -75% movement

Second Wave Options and Movement

While on a vanilla game all your soldiers will have 12 movement points, there are 2 Second Wave options that can allow for soldiers with different movement stats.

Not Created Equally

When a soldier is recruited, the movement attribute may vary between 11 and 14 points.

Hidden Potential

Your soldiers may gain +1 movement per additional rank gained through promotions. The chance for that to happen is 10% for Heavy soldiers and 20% for all other classes.

Theoretically, it would be possible to gain +7 movement points by the time a soldier reaches Colonel rank. However, the chances for that happening are extremely low.

Min/Max movement

With both Second Wave options enabled, the possible range of soldier movement is between 11 (minimum) and 21 (maximum), although the latter value is almost impossible to happen during a game. If all of the possible positive modifiers are applied to the maximum value, then theoretically the unit with highest movement value possible would be a soldier with the Sprinter ability, equipped with Skeleton Suit/Ghost Armor and under the influence of both Combat Rush and Combat Stims. That would give him 34 movement points on that turn, making it possible to move 21 straight squares on a single action, or 42 squares while dashing.

Without both the Second Wave options enabled, the highest possible value for the movement stat is 25, or 15 straight tiles on a single action and 31 while dashing.

Movement Table

The table below converts most of the movement ranges possible in the game into how many tiles the unit can move in a straight line. Decimal values are converted to the nearest down/up integer.

Movement, Tiles and Modifiers

Movement Stat	# Tiles (No Modifiers)	# Tiles (+4)	# Tiles (+3)	# Tiles (+2)	# Tiles (-25%)	# Tiles (-50%)	# Tiles (-75%)	# Tiles (-2)	Unit
8	4,92	7,38	6,77	6,15	3,69	2,46	3,69	3,69	Zombie
11	6,77	9,23	8,62	8,00	5,08	3,38	5,08	5,54
12	7,38	9,85	9,23	8,62	5,54	3,69	5,54	6,15	Standard for soldiers and most aliens
13	8,00	10,46	9,85	9,23	6,00	4,00	6,00	6,77
14	8,62	11,08	10,46	9,85	6,46	4,31	6,46	7,38	Mechtoid, Seeker (Normal difficulty and above)
15	9,23	11,69	11,08	10,46	6,92	4,62	6,92	8,00	´
16	9,85	12,31	11,69	11,08	7,38	4,92	7,38	8,62
17	10,46	12,92	12,31	11,69	7,85	5,23	7,85	9,23	Berserker, Outsider (Classic/Impossible)
18	11,08	13,54	12,92	12,31	8,31	5,54	8,31	9,85	Cyberdisc
19	11,69	14,15	13,54	12,92	8,77	5,85	8,77	10,46
20	12,31	14,77	14,15	13,54	9,23	6,15	9,23	11,08	Chryssalid
21	12,92	15,38	14,77	14,15	9,69	6,46	9,69	11,69
22	13,54	16,00	15,38	14,77	10,15	6,77	10,15	12,31
23	14,15	16,62	16,00	15,38	10,62	7,08	10,62	12,92
24	14,77	17,23	16,62	16,00	11,08	7,38	11,08	13,54
25	15,38	17,85	17,23	16,62	11,54	7,69	11,54	14,15
26	16,00	18,46	17,85	17,23	12,00	8,00	12,00	14,77
27	16,62	19,08	18,46	17,85	12,46	8,31	12,46	15,38
28	17,23	19,69	19,08	18,46	12,92	8,62	12,92	16,00
29	17,85	20,31	19,69	19,08	13,38	8,92	13,38	16,62
30	18,46	20,92	20,31	19,69	13,85	9,23	13,85	17,23
31	19,08	21,54	20,92	20,31	14,31	9,54	14,31	17,85
32	19,69	22,15	21,54	20,92	14,77	9,85	14,77	18,46
33	20,31	22,77	22,15	21,54	15,23	10,15	15,23	19,08
34	20,92	23,38	22,77	22,15	15,69	10,46	15,69	19,69