Alien Resources (Long War)

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 composition of aliens on any mission (this role is performed by Alien Research), but they do indirectly influence the quantity of aliens that appear.

Alien resources are capped to at most 300, and are reset back to at least 0 at the beginning of the month, though they can sit in the negative between months if XCOM is judicious in shooting down numerous alien craft.

Effects of Alien Resources

UFO Types

Starting monthly Alien Resources are used (in conjunction with Alien Research) to determine which types of UFOs to send on Missions. See the Missions page for detailed information on this decision.

Meld Rewards

By themselves, Alien Resources determine the rewards obtained from meld canisters.

• Meld Reward: Alien Resources / 10, rounded to the nearest integer

The amount of meld per canister is set to a minimum of 5.

Monthly Missions

At the end of a month, Alien Resource Level is computed and used in conjunction with XCOM Threat to generate the UFO Missions that will be run that month. The decision for which missions to run as well as which UFO to send on those missions depends on current Alien Resources at the time the mission is scheduled.

• Resource Level = Alien Resources / 50, rounded down

Note that Alien Resource Level is clamped to a range between 0 and 4, so amounts below 0 or above 200 result in Resource Levels of 0 and 4, respectively.

Other Effects

If current alien resources exceed 180, an extra 0-3 aliens are added to Abductions.

Changes in Alien Resources

Aliens gain resources in a variety of different ways. At the beginning of a month, they gain an automatic minimum amount of resources, which scales up as time progresses. In addition, each Alien Base they have online generates a monthly resource reward. 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 an Alien Bases costs them resources. Second, aliens accrue resource costs to replace or repair UFOs that XCOM shoots down, assaults, or damages.

Income from Bases

At the end of a month, aliens generate resources for each base they have in play, and pay a cost for any Alien Bases they constructed that month. Allowing Aliens to construct bases and then immediately assaulting them is one possible means to deprive Aliens of resources.

• Existing alien bases: +20 per base
• Base built this month: -50 per base

Minimum Monthly Resources

At the beginning of a month (after determining the Missions list for that month), the aliens resource count are set to at least a base minimum. If their current resources exceeds this minimum amount, they do not gain any additional resources.

• Minimum Resources per month: 9 per months past (up to a maximum of +300)

Since the maximum amount of resources for aliens is 300, a campaign that progresses for long enough will eventually see Alien Resources permanently set to its 300 cap at the beginning of each month, regardless of XCOM activity.

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: +37-40 resources [37 + rand(5)]
• Harvester: +27-30 resources [27 + rand(5)]
• Raider: +17-20 resources [17 + rand(5)]
• Scout: +10-14 resources [10 + rand(5)]

Aliens target countries at random. If the targeted country has a satellite, there is a chance that the aliens will re-roll its target once, depending on Threat level. This reduces the value of the resources obtained from any such mission, assuming it was successful:

• Penalty for Rerolled Harvest Missions: ??

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. This is the only way to actively reduce alien resources, as the Aliens will always be fielding UFOs.

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

• Scout: -5 resources
• Fighter: -6 resources
• Raider: -10 resources
• Destroyer: -12 resources
• Overseer: -25 resources
• Transport: -24 resources
• Abductor: -18 resources
• Harvester: -15 resources
• Terror Ship: -25 resources
• Assault Carrier: -35 resources
• Battleship: -40 resources

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