Making the Game Harder

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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 Medi-Kits 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, and Alien Grenades can all do this; other weapons cannot.

Squad Management

Avoid Large Squads

Restrict your squad regarding soldiers and tanks. Never use more than 14 plane slots to bring units into a battlefield (the capacity of a Skyranger). 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).

Load up your Skyrangers with maximum HWPs

A variant of the preceding scenario, not quite so hard. Instead of bringing 14 units into a battle you'll get just 5 (3 HWPs + 2 Soldiers) or 8 (2 HWPs + 6 soldiers).

Commando Missions

Use as few men to complete ground missions as possible-without HWPs, of course. Stealth, patience, care and caution become the priority. Even two or three-man teams can be effective if used properly. The logic behind this is that either way, aliens are probably too busy carrying out their mission or repairing the UFO to notice the dropship approaching (as evidenced by the fact that if you go against psionic aliens, you are safe from psionic attacks as long as none of them sees you, adding an extra difficulty: you have to kill every alien from behind and with one shot so they won't turn around and see you). Plus, micromanaging a three-man team is easier than managing a fully loaded Avenger. You have the advantage of surprise, use it! Just make sure you try to get at least most of the aliens before Turn 20 comes around (when they automatically spot you).

Large Squads

For those that are content with small squads between 4 - 8 soldiers, break the habit and take the opposite approach. Start using large squads. Hire a large quantity of soldiers and fill the all available spaces on the transport. Rotate the entire team regularly so that there are no outstanding individuals or superstars amongst the tea.

During the battle, keep the slogan "There's no I in Team" in mind all the time. Make every effort to send out the whole squad into the battlefield and that everyone gets some piece of the action. No more than 1 rear commanders if at all possible.

The difficulties introduced here include longer turns due to the increased coordination of the larger squad. Larger squads make bigger targets and increases the danger of friendly fire. When things do go wrong, the level of severity tends to be great, with the possibility of mass hysteria. Weapon by stat assignment may also be a problem with so many troops to handle and if you are in the regular habit of rotating the team.

If you find that this makes it too easy, consider dropping your weapon technology down a few notches.

One Mission X-COM

A more hardline version of Funding Council Income Only, detailed here. In short, one Battleship mission, properly executed, can provide all the research needed to complete the game. The focus is on intercepting that Battleship and completing the game with only the spoils from that mission.

Speed Run

See how fast you can complete the game! For a very strict challenge, the clock starts when you choose a difficulty, and ends when you shoot the Brain on Cydonia.

The current record seems to be 62:21 minutes, not including save/load time, by tbgox. Yes, that's JUST over an hour of playing. He's got the videos up on youtube showing how he did it too. Good lord. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wo71zOr5aU

Limited save/Reload

Depending on how strict you want to be with yourself, you can ban in-battle saves, save only when you want to quit the game and get on with real life, or for the really hard core, no save/reload at all: finish the game in one sitting, possibly combining this with a Speed Run. For a smaller challenge, try to keep a tally of how many times you save and reload, and see if you can minimise this number.