Alien Resources (LWR)

In General

Aliens accrue resources as the campaign progresses and spend these resources to repair and replace UFOs that XCOM shoots down. Alien resources indirectly affect what kinds of UFOs the aliens deploy on Missions, what types of missions they run each month, and how much Meld you get per canister. Alien resources do not effect the quality of aliens on any mission (this role is performed by Alien Level and Alien Aggression), but they can influence the quantity of aliens that appear.

Alien resources are capped to at most 100% and at least 0%.

Effects of Alien Resources

Alien Missions and UFO Types

Every 5 minutes, Alien Resources is computed and used in conjunction with alien Aggression to generate the UFO Missions that will be conducted.

Different types of alien missions will be generated based on the following Resource thresholds:

Tight Resources: <17%
Modest Resources: 17-33%
Adequate Resources: 34-50%
Ample Resources: 51-66%
Surplus of Resources: >66%

Each mission that is launched will require a specific UFO. Alien Resources are used again (in conjunction with Alien Level) to determine which types of UFOs to send on Missions. See the Missions page for detailed information on this decision.

Increased Aliens on Missions

If current alien resources exceed 40/60/80%, an extra +1/2/3 aliens are added to the following missions:

Abductions, Terror Missions, Landed UFOs, and Crashed UFOs (except for the Overseer).

Meld Rewards

Alien Resources helps determine the rewards obtained from meld canisters.

Meld Reward = 0.3 * Alien Resources (Min: 33%) * (1 + Alien Level/6) * Difficulty Modifier[1, 1.3, 1.6, 2.0]

The amount of meld per canister is set to a minimum of 10 and is modified by Campaign Length.

Increasing and Decreasing Alien Resources

Aliens gain resources in a variety of different ways. At the beginning of a month, they are set to a minimum level of 3% for each month that has passed. In addition, each Alien Base they have online generates +6% resources at the end of each month. Lastly, the Aliens can conduct Harvest missions with UFOs to award themselves large chunks of resources.

Aliens only lose resources in two ways: first, paying the initial cost to construct Alien Bases costs them resources. Second, aliens accrue resource costs to replace or repair UFOs that XCOM shoots down, assaults, or damages.

Minimum Monthly Resources

At the beginning of a month, aliens resources are set to at least a base minimum. If their current resources exceeds this minimum amount, there will be no effect.

Minimum Resources per month: 3% per month (up to a maximum of 100%)

Since the maximum amount of resources for aliens is 100%, a campaign that progresses for long enough will eventually see Alien Resources permanently set to its 100% cap at the beginning of each month, regardless of XCOM activity.

Income from Bases

At the end of a month, aliens generate resources for each base they have in play and pay for each base they created.

Existing alien bases: +6% per base
Creation of a new alien bases: -20% per base

Harvest Missions

The UFOs can conduct Harvest missions in an attempt to obtain resources. This is particularly likely if resources from last month were low. Successful Harvests award them with a bunch of resources, depending on the class of UFO used.

Transport: +12% resources
Harvester: +9% resources
Raider: 6% resources
Scout: 3% resources

Successful harvest missions rewards are modified by Campaign Length.

Combat Patrols

Undamaged interceptors can be sent on Combat Patrols. This will cost 550 credits, but will lower continent panic, alien research, and alien resources. Performing a Combat Patrol will raise Alien Aggression by 12.5%. The aircraft sent on combat patrol will return immediately and will have received 10-90% of it's max health in damage.

The amount of effect of the Combat Patrol on all factors (continent panic, alien research, alien resources) is based on the following:

  Aircraft:
    Interceptor: 2-4
    Firestorm: 4-6

  Weapon:
    Avalanche Missiles: +0
    Stingray Missiles: +0
    Phoenix Coilgun: +1
    Laser Cannon: +1
    EMP Cannon: +2
    Plasma Cannon: +3
    Fusion Lance: +3

  Pilot Rank:
    Rookie: +0
    Lieutenant: +1
    Captain: +1
    Major: +2
    Colonel: +2
    Commander: +3

Cost of Repairing / Replacing UFOs

As a month progresses, shooting down, damaging, or assaulting UFOs accrues costs to replace and repair them, reducing alien resources.

The resource costs to replace shot down, assaulted, or destroyed UFOs is as follows:

Scout: -2% resources
Fighter: -2% resources
Raider: -3% resources
Destroyer: -4% resources
Overseer: -7% resources
Transport: -8% resources
Abductor: -5% resources
Harvester: -4% resources
Terror Ship: -7% resources
Assault Carrier: -9% resources
Battleship: -11% resources

All resource costs are modified by campaign length with shorter campaigns having more of an effect on resources and longer campaigns having less of an effect.

Damaged UFOs cost a fraction of their full resource value to replace, proportional to the percentage of damage accrued:

UFO Repair Cost: Regular Resource Cost of UFO x % of Damage Dealt to UFO