Missions (EU2012)
Tactical missions are XCOM's main operations and can be generated through either Mission Control or the Situation Room. Each mission will have a codename, and will have a Brief and Objectives for XCOM to achieve. At the end of the mission the XCOM Commander will be shown an After Action Report detailing the success/failure of the mission.
Mission Types
Alien Missions
Missions involving aliens are the bread and butter of XCOM. You'll be asked to either stop alien activity in specific countries or to recover landed/crashed UFOs. Ignoring these missions increases the Panic level of the country where they occur, with the exception of Crashed UFO sites.
Council Missions
These missions will appear periodically and you'll be given resources (credits, soldiers, etc.) in exchange for completing these missions, in addition it may also reduce the panic level of the country where it takes place.
The most difficult Council missions are usually the Bomb Disposal sites because of the time window involved to deactivate the alien bomb. After a player has reached the mid/late game the Council missions will turn into training runs since your advanced weapons and armor will be more than a match for the usual Thin Men found in those missions.
Council Missions
Slingshot DLC Missions
Slingshot is a DLC available for Enemy Unknown which consists in a series of 3 missions that unlock a playable soldier Zhang along with additional resources. The Slingshot missions will only be offered once in the first month of the game and you'll be given the choice of taking it instead or a regular Council mission. After each mission appears available on the Situation Room it is possible for the player to delay it indefinitely by choosing the 'Not Now' option.
Storyline Missions
These are special missions that you'll need to complete in order to progress in the storyline. Failure to complete certain missions will be considered a game loss. There are five Storyline missions, although the two Tutorials are optional at game start.
- Tutorial
- Meld Tutorial (EW DLC)
- Alien Base Assault
- XCOM Base Defense (EW DLC)
- Temple Ship Assault
For more details see the Storyline Missions page (massive spoilers!).
Enemy Within DLC Missions
Covert Operations Missions
XCOM Base Defense
Council Missions
Progeny Missions
Progeny vs. Slingshot
- Portent first appears in April, but the other two missions in this side plot won't take place until the aliens have done their assault on the XCOM HQ, which only takes place after the assault on the Alien Base.
- Friends in Low Places takes place after Portent and the whole Slingshot campaign is usually finished before the rest of Progeny.
- Annette and her fellow abductees' stats, recruited months into the game, won't be as useful as getting Zhang in just a few weeks in, especially since pre-leveled recruits (such as from Abduction/Council rewards) don't benefit from OTS's Iron Will.
- This also includes having your later-game soldiers in mind, if Hidden Potential and Not Created Equally are chosen, and you have already begun farming and raising for your Psi Squad; they can easily get higher stats than pre-leveled soldiers.
- Pre-leveled soldiers are not a priority reward in general: generic Abduction/Council Reward soldiers will always be one level below your highest-ranked solider for that class, and Zhang was the one exception as he would be the only one that could be of higher rank than any soldiers you'll have at the time, at least in vanilla EU, where he could be gotten in March.
- What you can sell and research from Slingshot's Battleship mission in (as early as) April, has now been moved to May.
- At the very least, the Council rewards of the first missions are more profitable from Slingshot.
Slingshot | Progeny | ||
---|---|---|---|
Friends in Low Places |
Council Rewards:
Enemies:
Note:
|
Portent |
Council Rewards:
Enemies:
Note:
|
Confounding Light |
Council Reward:
Enemies
Note:
|
Deluge |
Council Rewards:
Enemies:
Note:
|
Gangplank | align="center"
Council Reward:
Enemies:
Note:
Spoils of Victory:
|
Furies |
Council Rewards:
Enemies:
Note:
|
Mission Frequency
Abductions
- Before the Alien Base mission, there will be 2 Abductions each month, regardless if there's 3 or more countries left in the Council without a satellite.
- After the Alien Base is assaulted it can be none or up to 2 monthly missions, depending if there's still 3 or more countries remaining on the Council without satellites.
- The aliens will target any countries still in the Council that don't have a satellite deployed and avoid any country already marked for a Terror Site during the month.
- The number of countries with abductions is 3, but it can be less, depending on the number of countries without a satellite, if the Alien Base hasn't been assaulted yet.
Terror Site
- Before the Alien Base mission, there's 1 Terror Site every even month (April, June, etc.). After the base is destroyed, it takes place every month.
- There's a 75% chance that the aliens will choose to terrorize the most panicked country. If not, the aliens will prioritize countries in continents with the most panic levels.
- The targeted country will also be removed from any Abduction missions that take place.
UFOs
- Detected UFOs can be conducting 4 types of missions: Scout Target, Destroy Satellite, Harvest Live Specimens, and Final Preparations.
- 1 UFO is detected each month, either crashed or landed.
- 50% chance for a 2nd detected UFO during April or May (March to July with Second Wave's Marathon).
- There's a monthly limit of 2 UFOs being detected either landed (Harvest Live Specimens mission) or flying (Scout Target mission)
- More UFOs can appear in case a Destroy Satellite UFO mission is generated but there's a maximum of 2 UFO ground missions.
- If any Harvest Live Specimens or Scout Target missions are completely ignored the aliens will send quickly a Large Scout/Battleship on a Destroy Satellite mission. If the first mission is ground assaulted or intercepted, regardless of the final result, the 2nd mission will not be generated.
- If the last ground mission has been a Crashed UFO, there's a 66% chance that a UFO will appear on a Scout Target mission. Otherwise it will be a Landed UFO mission. This value is defined on the UFO_INTERCEPTION_PCT setting at DefaultGameCore.ini.
- The Final Preparations UFO mission is only assigned to Overseer UFOs and only appears after you've progressed enough on the Storyline to build the Hyperwave Relay.
Council
- On Enemy Unknown, 1 Council Mission every month, between the 13th and the 27th, can be filled by Slingshot campaign missions.
- On the Enemy Within DLC, there are two monthly time windows, between the 5th and 15th days and between the 17th and 27th.
- There can be only 1 Council Mission each month. On each window there will be either a Mission or Request (25% chance for 2 Requests, 50% for Mission and a Request, 25% for a Request/Mission). The Slingshot and Progeny missions can fill either window.
EXALT
(Work in progress)
Mission Factors
Response Times
Each mission will have a window of opportunity of 1-2 days, specific values below:
Mission | Deadline (Hours) |
---|---|
Abductions | 48 |
Terror Site | 30 |
Crashed UFO | 30 |
Landed UFO | 30 |
Council | ?? |
Mission Difficulty
- The number of aliens present in a mission depend on its type and the Difficulty level. For a detailed breakdown of the numbers, check Alien Deployment.
- Certain missions (Abductions, Terror Sites) will also appear with individual difficulty levels of: Easy/Moderate/Difficult/Very Difficult. These indicate the number of alien "pods" (groups of 1-3 aliens) present on the mission, with Easy usually having 2 packs and Very Difficult around 4-5.
Alien Species Deployment Table
For detailed information on the actual probabilities of seeing an alien species during a mission, check Alien Deployment.
Enemy Unknown
Mission | Sectoid | Thin Man | Outsider | Drone | Floater | Muton | Chryssalid | Sectoid Commander | Heavy Floater | Muton Elite | Cyberdisc | Berserker | Ethereal | Sectopod |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Abductions | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO | NO |
Terror Site | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES 1 | YES | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | NO | YES |
Scout UFO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO |
Large UFO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
Council | YES | YES | NO | NO | NO | YES | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO |
Slingshot | YES | YES | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | NO | NO | NO | YES | NO | NO | NO |
Storyline | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
1 As escorts to Berserkers.
Enemy Within DLC
Mission | Sectoid | Thin Man | Outsider | Drone | Floater | Muton | Chryssalid | Sectoid Commander | Heavy Floater | Muton Elite | Cyberdisc | Berserker | Ethereal | Sectopod | Mechtoid | Seeker |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Abductions | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | NO | YES1 | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO | NO | YES | YES |
Terror Site | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES2 | YES | NO | YES | NO | YES | YES | NO | YES | ? | ? |
Scout UFO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES |
Large UFO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
Council | YES | YES | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES3 | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO |
Slingshot | YES | YES | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | NO | NO | NO | YES | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO |
Progeny | YES | YES | NO | NO | ? | YES | ? | YES | ? | ? | ? | YES | NO | ? | YES | ? |
Storyline | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
1 As escorts to Mechtoids.
2 As escorts to Berserkers.
3 Site Recon mission only .
See Also
- Mission Control
- UFOs - For more information regarding salvage from landed/downed UFOs.
- Maps - For details on the types of terrain for each mission.
- Managing Panic - For more information regarding country and world panic.
- Alien Deployment - For data on the number of aliens present during a mission.