Alien Terror (EU2012)

Mission Objectives

Alien Terror site Approach civilians to enable evacuations Minimize civilian casualties Neutralize all hostile targets

Source: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)

Notes

• Alien Terror Attacks, or Terror missions, have made a return from the original game. In this missions, the civilians will be spread randomly throughout the map. As you approach them nearby aliens will engage both you and the civilians. Each civilian lost counts against your final score. To rescue a civilian all you need to do is get close to them. Necessary proximity is indicated by a circle around each civilian.
• Although there is no timer or countdown on this type of mission, you need to be very quick without being reckless. Too slow and you lose civilians which can then be turned into zombies by a Chryssalid and then eventually hatch into a new Chryssalid. Too reckless and you'll lose your troops to the overwhelming forces in these fights.
• Civilians still alive when all aliens are dead are automatically counted as rescued; they do not all have to personally rescued, although that makes them immune to further attack.
• All civilians count as dead if you lose or abort the mission, even ones that you've rescued.
• Any civilian count at 14 or above at the end of the mission is considered "Excellent", so there's some room for error, depending where the civilians spawn.
• If all civilians are killed you'll get a "Terrible" result at the end of the mission and the country may leave the Council.
• An "Excellent" score on civilians saved can drop a country's panic level by as much as 3, and subtract 1 or 2 Panic points from the other nations on that continent. "Good" or "Poor" ratings will have a lesser or zero impact on the country/continent's panic rating.
• If there are still Chryssalid packs inactivated since their presence will cause random infections on any civilian present on the map and turn them into zombies. The chance for off screen infections increases in higher difficulty levels.
• If there are no remaining Chryssalids, active or inactive, extendeding your front line ahead of any civilians means they're safe from the aliens. If anything, keeping civilians around is good, since a dead civilian hurts your cause less than a dead or wounded soldier. Whenever a civilian gets shot, think to yourself "better him than me".
• Unlike the original XCOM, there is no additional penalty for XCOM killing a civilian (although the number of survivors will determine the panic reduction on that country/continent) if such an unfortunate event does happen (with explosives, primarily). Remember, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few! ;)
• Aliens almost always take priority to shoot civilians over your troopers, and never miss killing them. In fact, they will often skip on a close-range flanking shot on a soldier, and shoot a civilian halfway down the street instead.
  • If you're hurting on the panic levels, you might find it a worthwhile risk to move out of cover, just to get a clear/flanking shot, if it means getting 3 "Excellent" ratings.
  • The two exceptions to this priority rule are the high-HP Cyberdiscs, Sectopods and Berserkers: they will always ignore civilians to get at your troops. This forces you to concentrate your fire on them while their squadmates pick off civvies at will.