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

Alien Resources primarily determine how many UFO missions the aliens conduct each month, what kind of missions they conduct, and what UFOs they will use. Alien Resources do not determine the types of aliens one can encounter, or how strong they are; see the page on Alien Research or the individual alien type entries instead.

Monthly Missions

Main Article: Alien Missions (Long War)

At the beginning of a month, Alien Resources are used in conjunction with a XCOM Threat variable to generate the UFO Missions that will be run that month. More resources for the aliens generally means they will run more total missions, while their perception of how threatening XCOM is will determine which types of missions they conduct; see the Mission Generation Table for details.

Once the number, frequency, and date of each UFO Mission is determined, Alien Resources is also used at the beginning of the month to determine which UFOs will be sent on those missions. See the Missions page for detailed information on this decision, as each mission has a different possible UFOs that can conduct it, and which require different amounts of Alien Resources before they can appear.

Meld Rewards

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.

Extra Aliens

If current alien resources exceed 180, an extra 0-3 aliens are added to Abductions. This is a 25% chance each for +0, +1, +2, or +3.

Alien Resources have no other effect on the quantity of aliens that appear; this is determined by the mission type itself (and for landings or crashes, the size of the UFO).

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

See also: Alien 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, 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)

This resource adjustment will affect the missions for the coming month. Thus by the 7th month of a campaign (September), the aliens will always have starting monthly resources of 50+ and thus schedule missions under at least the second resource tier. By the 12th month (February) the aliens will always schedule missions under at least the third resource tier, and so forth.

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 performance. This can cause, for instance, Battleships to frequently make appearances.

Harvest Missions

See also: Alien Missions (Long War)

The UFOs can conduct Harvest missions in an attempt to obtain resources. This is particularly likely if their resources coming into the month are low and they tend to use larger UFOs in that case. Successful Harvests award them with a bunch of resources, depending on the class of UFO used. The exact amount is randomly rolled, with each amount equally likely:

• Transport: +37-40 resources
• Harvester: +27-30 resources
• Raider: +17-20 resources
• Scout: +10-14 resources

Aliens target countries for harvest at random and at the beginning of the month. If the targeted country has a satellite, there is a chance that the aliens will re-roll its target to a region without a satellite (assuming such a region exists), depending on the Threat they perceive XCOM to be. This accrues a flat resource cost to the aliens.

Penalty for Rerolled Harvest Missions: -5

Cost of Repairing / Replacing UFOs

See also: UFOs (Long War)

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

Resource Levels

Alien Resources are often used as a level, in the range 0-4, as follows:

• Level 0: up to 49 resources
• Level 1: 50-99 resources
• Level 2: 100-149 resources
• Level 3: 150-199 resources
• Level 4: 200-300 resources