Avenger
The Avenger is the ultimate replication of Alien technology. It is both the best troop transporter and best interceptor available in the game.
How to use it
The Avenger is the fastest craft available to X-COM, capable of reaching any point on earth within three hours and intercepting any UFO. With enough fuel for ten hours of flight, it can still patrol a bit and/or follow UFOs around. It's also very resilient to damage. When armed with dual Plasma Beams, the Avenger is the only craft available to X-COM that can reliably intercept an alien battleship single-handedly without risk of complete destruction.
On top of that, it has a huge amount of room in the cargo holds, enough to carry 26 soldiers (or a mix of soldiers and up to four Heavy Weapons Platforms). So once you have the Avenger, you don't need any other craft any more.
Or do you? The downside is that an Avenger is expensive and takes a long time to build; and although it can take a lot of damage and still limp home, it will then be grounded for over a month until it is repaired and back in service. It is therefore recommended to still join forces and attack Battleships with several of your craft at once to minimize damage sustained. Many players find it more convenient to employ numerous cheap Firestorms all over the world, and have only a few Avengers to supplement them in times of great need.
The Avenger, for all its glory, shares the same design flaw as the Firestorm and the Lightning that forces it to return to base after depleting half of it's fuel.
Special Requirements
The "Avenger" craft is fuelled by Elerium-115. Before manufacturing this craft, ensure that you have sufficient stocks of Elerium in your general stores.
While airborne, the Avenger consumes 1 fuel unit (1/5th unit of Elerium-115, 1.66% total fuel) every ten minutes, regardless of the speed of the craft. The Avenger has a maximum (radial) range of 27,000 nautical miles, while being airborne for 5 hours. Its maximum (distance) range is 54,000 nautical miles for a total fly time of 10 hours. Patrolling has no effect on fuel consumption.
One Avenger requires 12 units of Elerium for refuelling. When refuelling, the Avenger receives 8.33% more fuel (one unit of Elerium) every half hour, on the half hour. So it can take up to six hours to refuel, and will be finished fuelling precisely on the turn of a half hour.
If Plasma Beams have been fired, it will take 3 hours to re-arm, regardless of how many PB shots were used. At the turn of the first hour after refuelling (measured by hour on the clock, straight up), your left Plasma Beam goes to 100 ammo. Turn of second hour, right one goes to 100. Turn of third hour: Craft drops out of REARMING status and is ready to fly. Even if your craft has not fired (ammo=100), it will still wait until the next hour (straight up) going through that last REARM phase after refuelling.
Avengers are repaired at the rate of 2% damage per day. Thus it can take e.g. THIRTY DAYS to fix a 60% damaged Avenger. A Firestorm would recover from 60% in just 12 days (5%/day). However, what's really happening here is that they both repair approximately the same Damage Capacity (i.e., "hit points") per day... 2% of 1200 equals 24/day for Avenger, and 5% of 500 equals 25/day for Firestorm.
Service is done in this order: Repairs, refuelling, rearming. If you transfer an Avenger between bases, it will still need refuelling and rearming when it arrives even though 12+ hours have passed (if it needed them before it left).
Vital Statistics
| Maximum Speed: | 5,400 |
| Acceleration: | 10 |
| Fuel Capacity: | 60 |
| Weapon Pods: | 2 |
| Damage Capacity: | 1,200 |
| Cargo Space: | 26 |
| HWP Capacity: | 4 |
| Work Space Required: | 36 |