Difference between revisions of "Making the Game Harder"

Latest revision as of 23:15, 4 May 2022

This page is intended for players who finish the game frequently on the highest difficulty and would like to keep the challenge alive.

Making the game harder is done in two ways: one can accept handicaps (not use some of the options the game puts at your disposal, or use them only under certain circumstances), or modify the game files via utilities or direct editing to make things harder.

This page contains a list of simple handicaps to get you started. It may be worth also examining these sub-pages:

Making the Game Harder/Scenarios - More complex scenarios, by assorted UFOpaedians.
Making the Game Harder/Modding - Scenarios that require third-party tools or direct hacking of game files to set up.

Mix and match these handicaps as you like, or invent your own variations. Note that certain combinations may make the game very difficult. Within each section, challenges are generally listed from least to most difficult.

Refrain from using exploits

The most obvious way to make the game harder is to avoid "cheating" by using the various exploits discovered over the years. A full list, and instructions on how to use the various exploits, are in the link above, but the most egregious and game-breaking are listed here for convenience.

Free Wages and Engineer/Scientist overflow - The majority of X-Com's expenditure consists of salaries and hiring engineers and scientists; removing these expenses trivialises financing.

Free Manufacturing - Building items for free makes Elerium management trivial (as you only ever need it to fuel advanced craft) as well as making manufacturing about 7 times as profitable.

UFO Redux - Multiplies the score and most of the loot (including Elerium) from a given UFO by a factor of 2 (or potentially even more).

Collision Detection exploits - Turns breaching UFOs from a nightmare into cake and allows risk-free extermination of aliens on higher levels than your troops.

Avoiding night missions - Removes one of the advantages aliens have on the Battlescape, and the use for incendiaries and flares.

Geoscape

Interception

Unarmed Avengers - Do not mount weapons on Avengers (which are otherwise clearly the most effective interceptors).

No Advanced Interception - In addition to the above, do not build any Firestorms or Lightnings. (This makes it almost impossible to shoot down Battleships.)

No Plasma Beams - Do not build any Plasma Beams. As these are, by far, the most effective craft weapons, you will have great difficulty shooting down Large and Very Large UFOs.

No Interception - The most extreme interception restriction is, of course, to never shoot down UFOs at all. Most UFOs land in one fashion or another, so you can still win the game.

Funding

These challenges reduce the ways X-Com can obtain money.

No commercial manufacturing - Don't manufacture items for profit. Only sell items that you bought, or recovered from missions (and don't manufacture more of the latter yourself).

Council income only - Don't sell any advanced technology (recovered and manufactured items) at all. Your revenue is to come solely from the Council of Funding Nations.

Bases

These challenges involve restrictions of one kind or another on how X-Com builds its bases. These are all independent and can be combined, though in some cases this may make the game extremely difficult.

One base - Simply don't build any more bases after the one you start with. Note that you will lose if all your bases are destroyed, so keep a garrison in case aliens come calling while the Skyranger is out. For a much harder challenge, build that single base in Hawaii.

Limited base size - Limit the size of your bases to 4x4 or (for the truly skilled) 3x3. Your starting base is larger than this, so you'll have to scrap significant parts of it.

No-base start - Start without a base at all, by selling everything and then scrapping your initial base. Then construct a new base from scratch and play as normal. The difficulty here comes from the extra cost and time taken to rebuild your base.

No advanced base modules - Do not build Hyper-Wave Decoders, Psionic Laboratories, or the researchable defence systems (Laser Defences, Plasma Defences, Fusion Ball Defences, Grav Shield and Mind Shield). None of these are actually necessary in order to win the game, although the lack of Hyper-Wave Decoders and Psi-Labs makes the task much more difficult.

Battlescape

Psionics

No Mind Control - Do not mind-control aliens with Psi-Amps. (This ability turns missions into boring cakewalks.)

No Psionic Training - Do not train soldiers in Psionic Laboratories. (This means you will not learn your soldiers' Psi-Strengths, or be able to use Psi-Amps.)

Weaponry

(Note that these handicaps are designed for use with No Mind Control, above; there is no point otherwise, as mind-control is by far the strongest available "weapon".)

No heavy alien weaponry - Do not use the Heavy Plasma Gun or Blaster Launcher, the most devastating armaments available.

No alien equipment - Do not use any alien weaponry or devices at all (Plasma weapons, Small Launcher, Blaster Launcher, Alien Grenade, Mind Probe).

Conventional equipment only - Use only weaponry that is available for purchase at the beginning of the game (no lasers or alien weaponry, no armour, no Medi-Kits, Psi-Amps or Motion Scanners).

And beyond... - Theoretically, one can restrict one's equipment even further and still have a chance of victory. The two actual requirements in terms of weaponry are these:
- You must have a weapon capable of inflicting stun damage (Stun Rod or Small Launcher), in order to reliably capture the required aliens.
- You must have a weapon capable of damaging the Alien Brain in Cydonia (40 tile armour). HC-AP rounds, Large Rockets, High Explosives, Laser Rifles, Heavy Lasers, Plasma Rifles, Heavy Plasma Guns, Blaster Launchers, Alien Grenades and all HWP weapons can do this; other weapons cannot.

Squads

Skyranger capacity only - Bring only 14 spaces (14 soldiers, 10 soldiers + 1 HWP, etc.) worth of troops into battle. This restriction only becomes relevant when you obtain Avengers, and has the main effect of making Cydonia much harder.

Maximum HWPs - Bring the maximum number of Heavy Weapons Platforms on each mission. This means only 2 soldiers on a Skyranger, which makes missions harder due to lack of firepower. This becomes much less of a restriction when Lightnings and Avengers become available, so consider combining it with Skyranger Capacity Only.

Commando missions - Use very small squads, or even a single soldier, to complete missions.

General

Saves

No Battlescape saves - Do not save while on the Battlescape. This makes it impossible to save-scum through missions and essentially gain prescience.

Iron Man - Save only when you quit, and overwrite your save every time you quit. This means no reloading from mistakes at all.

Other

One-mission X-Com - Beat the game with only one mission before Cydonia. This mission must be a UFO Ground Assault on a Battleship, in order to obtain all the necessary items (including captured aliens) to reach Cydonia.

Speed run - Beat the game in as little time as possible (either in-universe clock time, or real-life time; note that the two approaches differ dramatically). The current record for the latter is 1:02:21.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-This page is destined for players who finish the game frequently on the highest difficulty and would like to keep the challenge alive.
+This page is intended for players who finish the game frequently on the highest difficulty and would like to keep the challenge alive.
-Naturally it is quite easy to handicap yourself while playing the game: using only conventional weaponry, no armor, fighting only on night missions, etc. However, the idea here is not to go those extremes but to identify a number of exploits/cheats/tactics that make the game easier.
+Making the game harder is done in two ways: one can accept handicaps (not use some of the options the game puts at your disposal, or use them only under certain circumstances), or modify the game files via utilities or direct editing to make things harder.
-Fell free to try any of these ideas (or all of them!). Some may make the game very hard but not impossible to win.
+This page contains a list of simple handicaps to get you started. It may be worth also examining these sub-pages:
+* [[Making the Game Harder/Scenarios]] - More complex scenarios, by assorted UFOpaedians.
+* [[Making the Game Harder/Modding]] - Scenarios that require third-party tools or direct hacking of game files to set up.
-==Don't use game exploits==
+Mix and match these handicaps as you like, or invent your own variations. Note that certain combinations may make the game very difficult. Within each section, challenges are generally listed from least to most difficult.
-All strategy guides for UFO have plenty of mentions to [[Exploits]]. Their influence on  [[Battlescape_Overview|Tactical]]/[[Geoscape_Overview|Geoscape]] varies, here's a list of those that you should avoid and their consequences.
+==Refrain from using [[Exploits|exploits]]==
-===Alien Inventory Screen===
+The most obvious way to make the game harder is to avoid "cheating" by using the various exploits discovered over the years. A full list, and instructions on how to use the various exploits, are in the link above, but the most egregious and game-breaking are listed here for convenience.
-Although you are not supposed to be able to access an alien's inventory screen when you mind control it, there is a [[Exploits#Alien_Inventory_Screen|way]] to do so. This allows for nasty things like priming grenades and dropping them at the feet of the alien.
+*[[ExploitsA#Free_Wages|Free Wages]] and [[ExploitsA#Robotic_Factories|Engineer/Scientist overflow]] - The majority of X-Com's expenditure consists of salaries and hiring engineers and scientists; removing these expenses trivialises financing.
-Another thing to consider is to stop using [[Psionics]] all together (see below).
-===Faulty Collision Detection===
+*[[ExploitsA#Free_Manufacturing|Free Manufacturing]] - Building items for free makes Elerium management trivial (as you only ever need it to fuel advanced craft) as well as making manufacturing about 7 times as profitable.
-A full description can be found on [[Exploits#Faulty Collision Detection|here]]. This exploit allows you to bypass map chokepoints (such as UFO doors) which can be used by the aliens to ambush your soldiers.
+*[[ExploitsA#UFO_Redux|UFO Redux]] - Multiplies the score and most of the loot (including Elerium) from a given UFO by a factor of 2 (or potentially even more).
-===Free Wages/Manufacturing/Fuel===
+*[[Exploiting_Collision_Detection|Collision Detection exploits]] - Turns breaching UFOs from a nightmare into cake and allows risk-free extermination of aliens on higher levels than your troops.
-These exploits are commonly used to prevent your finances from going negative at the end of the month or to keep your planes flying for free. The [[Exploits#Free_Wages|Free Wages]] avoids having to pay your scientists/engineers/soldiers' salaries. Most of your monthly expenses are made of those, so having to pay for your 250 scientists makes financial matters more hard to deal with.
+*[[Other_Geoscape_Exploits#All_Terror_Missions_During_Daylight|Avoiding night missions]] - Removes one of the advantages aliens have on the Battlescape, and the use for incendiaries and flares.
-==Excessive Firepower==
+==Geoscape==
-===Heavy Plasmas===
+===Interception===
-Don't equip the majority of your squad with [[Heavy Plasma|Heavy Plasmas]].
+*'''Unarmed Avengers''' - Do not mount weapons on [[Avenger]]s (which are otherwise clearly the most effective interceptors).
-===Blaster Launchers===
+*'''No Advanced Interception''' - In addition to the above, do not build any [[Firestorm]]s or [[Lightning]]s. (This makes it almost impossible to shoot down [[Battleship]]s.)
-To put it simply: the weapons are too powerful and thus the temptation to overuse them too great. Completely destroying a map is fun at start but butchering the aliens gets boring after a while. Either do not use the weapons or only bring 1 on each mission.
+*'''No Plasma Beams''' - Do not build any [[Plasma Beam]]s. As these are, by far, the most effective craft weapons, you will have great difficulty shooting down Large and Very Large UFOs.
-===Enlarged Squads===
+*'''No Interception''' - The most extreme interception restriction is, of course, to never shoot down UFOs at all. Most UFOs land in one fashion or another, so you can still win the game.
-Restrict your squad regarding soldiers and tanks. Never use more than 20 plane slots to bring units into a battlefield.
+===Funding===
-The logic behind this is that you can easily outnumber the aliens, especially if you are facing small UFOs thus assuring victory.
-Also, smaller squads allow for quicker play (you don't have to move 26 units each turn) and they make your soldiers more memorable, since you'll remember more their heroic achievements (or stupid deaths).
-==No Psionics==
+These challenges reduce the ways X-Com can obtain money.
-[[Psi-Amp|Psi-Amps]] completely unbalance the game towards the human player. Even 1 Psi-Amp is bad enough for the aliens, but to bring a squad full of psi-trained soldiers will mean that all the aliens will be mind controlled during the first turn (including even [[Cyberdisc|Cyberdisks]] or [[Sectopod|Sectopods]]. Once you start, the uncertainty and the risk will go down, and so will the fun.
+*'''No commercial manufacturing''' - Don't manufacture items for profit. Only sell items that you bought, or recovered from missions (and don't manufacture more of the latter yourself).
-The same applies to [[Mind Probe|Mind Probes]] since those devices can be used to screen aliens for their rank or to check if they will reaction fire.
+*'''Council income only''' - Don't sell any advanced technology (recovered and manufactured items) at all. Your revenue is to come solely from the Council of Funding Nations.
-Finally, the use of [[Psionic Laboratory|Psi Labs]] should be restricted to screening troops but not training them, since they can't use Mind Probes or Psi Amps. A harder setting would be not to use them at all and only find out during a fight who are the psi weaklings.
+===Bases===
-==XComUtil's Features==
+These challenges involve restrictions of one kind or another on how X-Com builds its bases. These are all independent and can be combined, though in some cases this may make the game extremely difficult.
+*'''One base''' - Simply don't build any more bases after the one you start with. Note that you will lose if all your bases are destroyed, so keep a garrison in case aliens come calling while the Skyranger is out. For a much harder challenge, build that single base in Hawaii.
+*'''Limited base size''' - Limit the size of your bases to 4x4 or (for the truly skilled) 3x3. Your starting base is larger than this, so you'll have to scrap significant parts of it.
+*'''No-base start''' - Start without a base at all, by selling everything and then scrapping your initial base. Then construct a new base from scratch and play as normal. The difficulty here comes from the extra cost and time taken to rebuild your base.
+*'''No advanced base modules''' - Do not build [[Hyper-Wave Decoder]]s, [[Psionic Laboratory|Psionic Laboratories]], or the researchable defence systems ([[Laser Defences]], [[Plasma Defences]], [[Fusion Ball Defences]], [[Grav Shield]] and [[Mind Shield]]). None of these are actually necessary in order to win the game, although the lack of Hyper-Wave Decoders and Psi-Labs makes the task much more difficult.
+==Battlescape==
+===Psionics===
+*'''No Mind Control''' - Do not mind-control aliens with [[Psi-Amp]]s. (This ability turns missions into boring cakewalks.)
+*'''No Psionic Training''' - Do not train soldiers in [[Psionic Laboratory|Psionic Laboratories]]. (This means you will not learn your soldiers' Psi-Strengths, or be able to use [[Psi-Amp]]s.)
+===Weaponry===
+(Note that these handicaps are designed for use with '''No Mind Control''', above; there is no point otherwise, as mind-control is by far the strongest available "weapon".)
+*'''No heavy alien weaponry''' - Do not use the [[Heavy Plasma]] Gun or [[Blaster Launcher]], the most devastating armaments available.
+*'''No alien equipment''' - Do not use any alien weaponry or devices at all (Plasma weapons, [[Small Launcher]], [[Blaster Launcher]], [[Alien Grenade]], [[Mind Probe]]).
+*'''Conventional equipment only''' - Use only weaponry that is available for purchase at the beginning of the game (no lasers or alien weaponry, no armour, no [[Medi-Kit]]s, [[Psi-Amp]]s or [[Motion Scanner]]s).
+*'''And beyond...''' - Theoretically, one can restrict one's equipment even further and still have a chance of victory. The two actual requirements in terms of weaponry are these:
+**You must have a weapon capable of inflicting stun damage ([[Stun Rod]] or [[Small Launcher]]), in order to reliably capture the required aliens.
+**You must have a weapon capable of damaging the Alien Brain in [[Cydonia]] (40 tile armour). [[Heavy Cannon|HC-AP rounds]], [[Rocket Launcher|Large Rockets]], [[High Explosive]]s, [[Laser Rifle]]s, [[Heavy Laser]]s, [[Plasma Rifle]]s, [[Heavy Plasma]] Guns, [[Blaster Launcher]]s, [[Alien Grenade]]s and all [[Heavy Weapons Platform|HWP]] weapons can do this; other weapons cannot.
+===Squads===
+*'''Skyranger capacity only''' - Bring only 14 spaces (14 soldiers, 10 soldiers + 1 [[Heavy Weapons Platform|HWP]], etc.) worth of troops into battle. This restriction only becomes relevant when you obtain [[Avenger]]s, and has the main effect of making [[Cydonia]] much harder.
+*'''Maximum HWPs''' - Bring the maximum number of [[Heavy Weapons Platforms]] on each mission. This means only 2 soldiers on a [[Skyranger]], which makes missions harder due to lack of firepower. This becomes much less of a restriction when [[Lightning]]s and [[Avenger]]s become available, so consider combining it with '''Skyranger Capacity Only'''.
+*'''Commando missions''' - Use very small squads, or even a single soldier, to complete missions.
+==General==
+===Saves===
+*'''No Battlescape saves''' - Do not save while on the [[Battlescape]]. This makes it impossible to save-scum through missions and essentially gain prescience.
+*'''Iron Man''' - Save only when you quit, and overwrite your save every time you quit. This means no reloading from mistakes at all.
+===Other===
+*'''One-mission X-Com''' - Beat the game with only one mission before Cydonia. This mission must be a [[UFO Ground Assault]] on a [[Battleship]], in order to obtain all the necessary items (including captured aliens) to reach Cydonia.
+*'''Speed run''' - Beat the game in as little time as possible (either in-universe clock time, or real-life time; note that the two approaches differ dramatically). The current record for the latter is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wo71zOr5aU 1:02:21].
+[[Category:Enemy Unknown/UFO Defense]]