Difficulty Levels (Apocalypse)
X-COM: Apocalypse has 5 difficulty levels, from Novice to Superhuman. Like the previous games, the difficulty levels modify aliens' stats, but they also alter your initial cash and funding levels, the city map and the alien technology levels.
Unit Stats
All enemy units, civilians and Security Station turrets have their stats increased on difficulties above Novice. For more information on this, see here.
Starting Money and Funding
| Difficulty Level | Starting Funding | Weekly Income |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 140000 | 92000 |
| Easy | 130000 | 89000 |
| Medium | 120000 | 86000 |
| Hard | 110000 | 83000 |
| Superhuman | 100000 | 80000 |
The base weekly income is modified each week depending on your last weeks total score and becomes the new base funding amount.
The government itself earns money each week (from income tax?). The government's income seems to rise in tandem with X-com's rise in income? The government has to pay for repairs to the city, so damage to the city will reduce it's current cash, when the clock goes past 23:59 to the new day, repairs are done to the cityscape and whoever pays for the repairs will have that day's repair bill deducted from their current cash.. The government will never give more than half its current balance (after adding it's weekly income) to X-COM as income.In fact, if the government is short on cash, it will reduce X-com's BASE funding amount. For example, say X-com has an income of 500,000 per week. but due to the government losing a ton of cash, they can only afford to pay you 100,000. The government will lower X-com's income to 100,000 a week. Even if the government returns to having 5 million next week, this 100,000 income level stays, and will be the new baseline that will,for example, be multiplied by 120% if you get above 6400 score the next week.
X-COM funding will also be terminated if the government ENDS THE WEEK in the hostile state for any reason. (so if you mess up and get the government hostile to you, as long as you can bribe or get them out of hostile status before sunday evening, you are Gucchi) The decision to terminate is irrevocable.
| Weekly score | Base Funding Change (%) |
|---|---|
| 12801 | 25.00 |
| 6401 | 20.00 |
| 3201 | 12.50 |
| 1601 | 8.33 |
| 801 | 6.25 |
| 401 | 5.00 |
| -1 | -6.66 |
| -401 | -10.00 |
| -801 | -20.00 |
| -1600 | -25.00 |
Source: Roger Wong's Game Guide
City Maps
Each difficulty level has its own city map. The higher the level the bigger the map will be. In addition to this, the larger maps also contain more potential for destruction via chain reaction - for example, if one of your craft hits a Transtellar "people tube", the collapsing segments will cause a significant amount of damage to the city (lowering your score and negatively affecting relations). Likewise, at the higher difficulty levels many buildings can be completely destroyed with just a shot or two to the right spot.
Organization Friendliness
X-COM's interactions with other Organizations become more difficult as difficulty rises:
- Organizations' starting attitude is improved by 5% on Easy, but worsened by 5% on Hard and 10% on Superhuman. This can result in the Mutant Alliance and S.E.L.F. initially refusing recruits on Superhuman difficulty.
- The relations penalty for an unwarranted investigation (no hostiles found) is increased (~2x from Novice to Superhuman)
- The amount of money demanded for an increase in relations is sharply increased (~8-9x from Novice to Superhuman)
Alien Technology
The higher the level the quicker the aliens will bring their most advanced weapons and equipment to the battlefield, such as Devastator Cannons or Large Disruption Shields. For more information check the specific page dealing with alien technology levels.