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For Free

Extra Ammo Collection

NOT FINALISED Any partly-used clips will be discarded at the end of combat. However, in DOS versions of X-COM, partly-used clips (in X-COM or alien weapons) will be kept as full clips if they are unloaded from the weapon before the end of combat. XcomUtil also has an option to let you bring back to base any partly-used clips in weapons.

• 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

Free Ammo for Tanks

If you have a tank at a base without sufficient ammunition to arm it, when that base comes under attack from an alien retaliation mission, the tank (ie: Tank/Cannon, Tank/Rocket, and Hovertank/Launcher) is automatically loaded with a full load of ammo for free.
The Heavy Weapons Platform (HWP) receives ammunition for free only on base defense missions, hence, you cannot get free ammo any other way. Once the base defense mission is complete, the muntions are returned to your general stores which you can then transfer out to another base or sell it. Use this exploit when you have many Hovertank/Launchers since the ammo uses Elerium, is expensive, and takes time to manufacture.
To get the most from abusing this exploit:

• do not stock any HWP ammo at the tank's home base.
• transfer out all HWP ammo to the base which consumes it on missions.

NOTE: you must have at least one soldier at your base to start a base defense mission. You cannot defend it using only HWPs.

Free Manufacturing

When starting the process to manufacture an item, you typically assign some engineers to build a quantity of items. As soon as you click OK, you'll pay the costs for that first item, and any subsequent ones, to be built.
To have an item manufactured for free, do not allocate a quantity for production. Leave it at zero. When you confirm that zero quantity production cue by clicking OK twice, any engineers assigned (if you put them to work) for that production sequence are made idle. Now, go back to that zero production cue and make a build quantity of one (ie: build only one item). Assign some engineers to that project and click OK. You will now build that item for free, however, if you build the second item from the same production sequence, you'll pay for its manufacture. To get the most use of this exploit, repeat the steps each time you want to manufacture one item for free.

WARNING There is a minor bug which is connected to this exploit. Read about it here: Cancel Manufacturing Bug

Tanks and craft weapons seem have the biggest profit margins.

Free Wages

At the end of the month, your soldiers, scientists and engineers collect their pay. If any person is in transit between bases, they will not be paid.
Use this exploit save money by transfering your personel just before the end of the month. If you transfer scientists and engineers to bases that have labs and workshops, and sufficient living space, they can start working as soon as they arrive and you have assigned them to a task.
Leased craft (Interceptor, Skyranger, Barracuda, and Triton) also have expenses which a paid at the end of the month. This exploit does not work with craft, only personel.

Infinite Fuel

If you transfer a craft, when it arrives at its destination, its fuel gauge will read empty (ie: 0% FUEL). If you launch your craft for a mission (any mission will do), its fuel gauge will still be empty. Your craft now has an infinite fuel load. To abuse this exploit, loadout your craft with weapons (dual Plasma Cannons/Sonic Oscillators are recommended). Once it has "Ready" status, transfer it to another base. After it arrives, select a random point on the globe away from any of your bases and have it patrol the area. When a UFO is in the vicinity you can either pursue it at standoff range, or just attack it. If you attack it, this craft will automatically head back to base. If it returns, it will refuel. Do not let it land by giving it another point to patrol.

Phantom Radar Trick

The radar coverage of your base is calculated only when a module is constructed at your base. Therefore, once you have a radar built, you can dismantle it, and your base will continue to retain the detection abilities of that radar until you order another base module of any type to be built. This allows you to make your base slightly smaller than it would be otherwise. However, the practicality of this bug is small, because the maximum maintenance for a radar is 35K per month for the Hyper-Wave Decoder, and dismantling the radar will trigger the Paying For Dirt bug. And if you attempt to rebuild over the square to avoid said bug, you will lose the Phantom Radar. So this exploit is only useful if you have spare cash and need a slightly smaller base. More data in in NKF:Talk

UFO Redux

It is possible to collect loot from the same UFO two or even three times (similar to "milking" an Alien Base). If you perform a UFO Ground Assault and abort the mission before killing all the aliens, the UFO will have all its aliens and equipment restored, even if you took or destroyed its Elerium. (Bring all captured equipment/corpses back to the transport and unload the alien guns if you wish to recover the clips). If the UFO has another landing scheduled, it will meander around until it reaches its second landing point, at which point you can perform another ground assault. Once a UFO has no further landings scheduled, it will head off at top speed. If you have a fast enough craft, you can shoot it down and perform an additional UFO Recovery on it.

Score Points For Free

Warning: You are crashing the game on purpose.

Works only with the DOS versions of UFO:EU and TFTD

The way this all works is based on the previous tactical in which you went really well and completed it. If the current tactical mission you are on does not go well, press CTRL-C. What has just happened is your current mission has ended with the results of the previous mission. That is, the score, items, corpses, Elerium/Zrbite, and stat increases are carried forward to this mission, from the last. Soldiers will get experience again even if they didn't come on this current mission and are back at base.

What is 'CTRL-C'?
Xcom1 and Xcom2 are DOS games (Disk Operating System, not denial of service). A command used in DOS is "break" which is keyed in as CTRL-C. What this keypress does is halt the current process. Xcom1 & 2 have a failsafe to "crashing" by returning to the previous "good" process, which was a completed tactical mission.

How to Cheat?
Setup: Do a tactical mission with a landed (not crashed) Battleship. Avoid using any weapons that consume ammo (including the tank). Make sure no soldiers die, or tanks. Don't use grenades, flares, etc. Try to do this mission in a 'bean counter' mindset. On the very last turn of the mission (you need to guess it) save your game in a new slot, and then don't overwrite it from here on. Now end the tactical mission normally and continue to play your game normally as well.

Using It:
Later on when you do your next tactical mission and are able to move your guys off the craft, just press CRTL-C. The mission now ends with the results from the Battleship tactical mission. The battleship mission was stored in a folder which is not overwritten when you save your game. It is only overwritten once a tactical mission has been terminated (either from abort, total loss, or from winning). You have just received the score and equipment from a previous mission!

Notes:

• If you terminate a tactical mission by accident (by winning or losing - doesn't matter), the results of this current mission will be stored in the "MISSDAT" folder, overwriting the previous tactical mission stored there. To get your Battleship mission back, save the game in your usual spot (you should be back in geoscape view if you have just completed your (accidental) mission). Load the Battleship mission, then end it successfully. The mission results are now refreshed in the MISSDAT folder. Now load your game normally (from the usual spot) and keep playing as per usual. When you next play a tactical mission, just press CTRL-C.
• If you use this cheat regularly, you'll find that your score goes up very quickly (just like used space in General Stores). Be ready to face more agressive aliens, and more agressive actions (base attacks) from the race of aliens present on that battleship tactical mission.
• Using this exploit would be best when you still have all the Xcom agents that participated on the original mission. Experience is wasted if most of the agents are dead (it doesn't matter if they are in hospital or at a different base, they'll still get experience), so to get the most benefit from using this exploit, either make new a tactical mission with some of your current seasoned agents, or try not to kill off/sack anyone from the original mission.
• Big Cheat: Sometimes the icon denoting a crashed UFO/USO does not disappear from the geoscape view after ending a mission using the CTRL-C method (Intact alien craft will take off after the first visit). This means that you can revisit the crash site again and again and rack up a ridiculously large score for the month. If you have multiple multi-role craft (such as the Lightning or the Avenger), then you could have a constant stream of craft visiting the crash site!

Warning: You are crashing the game on purpose.

Due to such drastic methods to cheat, the game may behave strangly (resurrected soldiers, wrong calculations of experience, invunerable crash sites etc.) and it may corrupt files. If you choose to use this exploit, then save you game before you use it, then save your game again IN A DIFFERENT SPOT after you have used it. No one is forcing you to use this cheat, so decide if you want to risk it.