Equipment Recovery

All Alien Artefacts recovered at the end of a mission are added to the stores of whichever base the participating squad was stationed at. This is done instantly and automatically: the equipment is available for use before the troop carrier returns. The equipment will be recovered even if there is insufficient storage space, and even if the base has no General Stores at all. However, new equipment cannot be bought at or transferred to that base until sufficient space is freed up.

UFO Component Recovery

If X-COM wins a battle by killing or incapacitating all enemy forces, you will recover the following UFO Components from the map. For every undamaged tile on the map, one corresponding unit will be recovered (except where noted):

• UFO Power Source
• UFO Navigation
  • (Not recovered from alien bases).
• Alien Food
• Alien Entertainment
• Alien Surgery
• Examination Room
• Alien Alloys
  • From a UFO: INT(<alloy tiles present> / 10)
  • From a base: INT(<alloy tiles present> / 150)

UFOs are not present on the ground during Terror Missions and Base Defence missions, and no UFO components can be recovered.

Equipment Recovery

Winning a battle awards you all equipment remaining on the map. However, how many ammunition clips you will recover depends on what version of the game you are using and whether they are loaded in a gun. Whether the weapon itself exists doesn't matter.

• Full ammo clips (loaded and unloaded) are always kept.
• Partial ammo clips loaded in a weapon are never kept.
• Partial ammo clips unloaded are kept ONLY in the DOS version.

Elerium-115 is a carryable item, same as the rest of your standard equipment. There is typically one Elerium module (containing 50 units of Elerium) spawned underneath each UFO Power Source on the map. On alien base maps, you will get one fewer Elerium modules than there are power sources present (one module from two power sources, three modules from four power sources, etc.). A glitch in older versions of the game caused Elerium pods to appear in missions when your base was attacked by aliens. Because each would be converted to 50 units at mission end, this provided players with a significant increase in stocks.

In the case that you abort the mission with units in the drop ship (or exit area, in the case of a UFO base), you will only recover that equipment which is also in the drop ship (or exit area), either on the ground or on your soldiers that are inside the drop ship.

Live aliens who are unconscious will automatically be captured if you have an Alien Containment facility. Unconscious aliens can also be recovered if you abort the mission if their bodies are inside the drop ship or exit area, on the ground or in soldier inventories.

For a full listing of components and equipment available from each UFO or mission type, see UFO Recovery Values.