Missions (LWR)

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In General

When a mission appears in the Mission Control room you have a certain amount of time to deploy to it before it disappears. Noting that you can only engage in one mission at a time and it takes time to travel to and from missions.

Any soldier lost will have a 10% chance to lose each piece of equipment (from 40% in LW 1.0).

Squad Sizes

Squad sizes in Long War Rebalance vary depending on the mission type. Unlike, LW 1.0, they can not be increased through Officer Training School upgrades.

The We are Legion (#25) Second Wave option allows bringing 2 additional soldiers on all Covert Op missions.

Mission Type	Squad Size
UFO Sites, DLC Missions, and Base Assaults	8
Abduction, Council, Terror, and Covert Op Data Recovery Missions	6
Covert Op Extractions	2
Temple Assault	7-10*

* 1 additional soldier can be brought for every 5 council nations still supporting XCOM.

Rewards

All missions reward bounties for most aliens killed and usually some form of panic reduction for a successful mission. Most missions will have meld canisters that yield meld if collected. UFO Missions and Alien Base Assaults reward extra scavenged resources of alloy (based on the type of UFO) and elerium (based on recovered UFO Power Cylinders). Council missions will have set rewards that can include scientists, engineers, credits, panic reduction, and reward soldiers.

Any abduction, terror, or council mission that is completed in under 10 turns has a chance (10% per turn under 10) to have the council offer a 50-100 credit bonus (double on council missions).

All of these rewards will increase in value by 10% per month of the campaign and are modified based on the campaign length.

Abductions

Reward for Succeeding: credits/scientists/engineers/soldiers (see below), -1 panic in country, and -1 panic in continent (modified by Campaign Length)

Penalty for Failure: +5 alien research, +3 country panic, and +3 continent panic (modified by current country panic) (modified by Campaign Length)

Expiration Time: 12 hours

Alien Abductions are generated by an Abductor and are an Alien Mission that occurs a few times a month (depending on Campaign Length) but decreases in frequency by 5% (multiplicatively) each month that passes.

Each time the aliens successfully land an abductor on an abduction mission XCOM will be notified, regardless of where in the world they land. The aliens will attempt 2-3 abductions at a single time so abductions can be quite taxing on XCOM's roster and they may need to bring in fatigued soldiers to complete all missions.

The maps for each abduction will be chosen randomly, but smaller maps will be filtered out of more dense abductions.

The density of the abduction is determined on the Light(0) -> Moderate(1) -> Heavy(2) -> Swarming(3) scale as follows:

Density = 3 - Rand(5) + Country Panic(out of 100)/33

If density is Light(0) or Swarming(3), 75% of the time push the density back to Moderate(1) or Heavy(2), respectively.
Highest density is capped at Moderate(1) for the first month and Heavy(2) for the 2nd month

The number of aliens at the abduction site depends on the density of the abduction and other factors:

Condition	Number of Aliens
Light	8-10
Moderate	10-12
Heavy	12-14
Swarming	14-16
Every 4 months	+1
Alien Resources exceed 40/60/80%	+1/2/3

Under the alien activity display (see image on right) it will list the density of the abduction, the current level of the aliens, as well as give 1 or 2 + signs. One + sign means that there is either increased aliens due to alien resources being high or increased alien leader levels due to alien aggression being high. Two + signs means both.

An abduction which is not stopped by XCOM causes panic in the target country and continent, and provides the aliens with additional research. The panic increase is higher if the abduction was conducted in a country with less panic.

Panic in Abduction Country	Country and Continent Panic Amount
0-20	+9
21-40	+6
41-100	+3
Campaign Length	x2 / x1 / x0.5 / x0.334

Rewards

Completing an abduction mission has a chance to grant a reward of credits, scientists, engineers, or a soldier, each with the following amounts:

Reward	Amount
Credits	(40 + Rand(20)) * (1 + month/10) * Abduction Density (1.0/1.2/1.5/1.9) * Campaign Length (2.0/1.0/0.5/0.334)
Scientists	Light or Denser: 2x (40% chance for +1) Moderate or Denser: +1 (40% chance for +1) Heavy or Denser: +1 (40% chance for +1) Swarming: +1 (40% chance for +1) Chances multiplied by Campaign Length (2.0/1.0/0.5/0.334) Final Result increased by 10% per month Minimum of 1
Engineers	Light or Denser: 2x (40% chance for +1) Moderate or Denser: +1 (40% chance for +1) Heavy or Denser: +1 (40% chance for +1) Swarming: +1 (40% chance for +1) Chances multiplied by Campaign Length (2.0/1.0/0.5/0.334) Final Result increased by 10% per month Minimum of 1
Soldier	Soldier Rank = Month/3 + Rand[2 * Abduction Density (1/2/3/4)] Clamped between 0 and the lower of the # of months that have passed or your highest ranked soldier (0-7), and then set to at least 1 (Specialist)

Note that soldier rewards are NOT modified by campaign length to accommodate for more soldiers lost on longer campaigns.

Terror Sites

Reward for Succeeding: 20 credits per civilian saved (modified by Campaign Length) (+10% per month), reduced country and continent panic (possibly increased panic if not enough civilians saved) (modified by Campaign Length)

Penalty for Failure: Loss of Country and 10 panic across the continent (modified by Campaign Length)

Expiration Time: 8 hours

During Terror Missions you are required to eliminate all hostiles and save as many of the 18 civilians that you can. Aliens, who are active, but can see no XCOM soldiers, will target civilians. As well, each inactivated pod will have a chance to kill multiple civilians every turn that passes. This means that XCOM should try to engage all pods quickly and stay within sight of active aliens as much as possible if they want to minimize casualties. This can lead to some unwinnable situations though, so the balance between being aggressive and saving civilians vs being cautious and saving XCOM will likely vary mission to mission.

Terror missions will automatically generate 15 panic in the target country, and 4 panic across the same continent. However, each civilian saved will decrease the panic generated by the mission by 1 in the target country and 0.3 across the continent. Additionally, each civilian saved in a country that has NOT left the Council of Nations will award 20 credits. Both the panic alterations and bonus credits are modified by campaign length (2.0/1.0/0.5/0.33). The credit reward increases by 10% each month.

A Terror Site which is not stopped by XCOM causes the target country to immediately leave the Council of Nations and generates 10 continental panic (modified by Campaign Length).

Terror Sites are generated by a UFO, so you can prevent a terror mission by shooting down the incoming UFO before it can create the terror site.

The number of Terror Missions decrease in frequency by 10% (multiplicatively) each month that passes.

The first Terror Site will contain:

3 Chryssalids, 2 Chryssalids, 4 Zombies, 4 Zombies, and either 5 Floaters, Thinmen, or Mutons

Subsequent Terror Sites will contain

2 Chryssalids or 4 Zombies, 2 Chryssalids or 4 Zombies, + extra aliens

The number of aliens at the Terror Site is:

Condition	Number of Aliens
Base Amount	2x 2 Chryssalids / 4 Zombies
Extra Aliens	+8
Every 4 months	+1
Alien Resources exceeds (40/60/80)%	+1 / +2 / +3

After a certain number of terror missions, you make experience some missions that have fewer overall aliens but some high level aliens bosses.

UFO Sites

UFO sites are unique missions in that they will always have a command pod consisting of one or more outsiders. These outsiders have the growth perk meaning waiting to engage them can result in them becoming very strong. As well, any activated outsiders will call all other enemies on the map to their location, making dealing with multiple pods quite common. The choice of whether to engage the outsiders early when they are weak or to clear out the rest of the map first is up to the commander.

After a UFO mission the player has the option to send additional salvage teams (at a cost). They will yield additional alloy and elerium with a random cost proportional to the size of the resource haul.

UFO Class

The UFO Class (see image on right) will list the type of UFO (unknown will show a ?), current level of the aliens, boosted level of the aliens, as well as give 1 or 2 + signs.

The boosted level of the aliens (number in brackets beside the current alien level) will only increase the attribute boosts from level upgrades that aliens receive. This means you will still fight the same enemies, but they may have increased attributes. The boosted level does not affect what types of enemies will be present or the leader levels (though a larger UFO class will lead to higher level aliens).

Leader levels of aliens on UFOs are independently increased based on UFO class as described here: Leader Levels.

One + sign means that there is either increased aliens due to alien resources being high or increased alien leader levels due to alien aggression being high. Two + signs means both.

UFO Crash Site

Reward for Succeeding: UFO equipment and resources (with damage), -1 panic in country

Penalty for Failure: 2 panic in country

Expiration Time: 36 hours

When a UFO is shot down and not destroyed, a UFO Crash Site mission becomes available. Completion of a UFO Crash Site mission rewards the player with the possibility of recovering valuable components from the UFO; however, a crashed UFO is now even more likely to have destroyed artifacts.

Enemies on crashed UFOs will sometimes die on the crash or receive a wound. The amount of aliens killed or wounded on a crash is random, with an average of 25% dying and 33% becoming wounded. However, it's possible none are dead or wounded or almost all are dead or wounded. Wounds will randomly leave enemies with anywhere between 1 to full HP. An exception to this is Outsiders, Sectopods, and Ethereals cannot be wounded or killed during a crash.

UFO Landing Site

Reward for Succeeding: UFO equipment and resources (pristine), -1 panic in country

Penalty for Failure: 2 panic in country, UFO mission completion

Expiration Time: 16 hours

Some UFO missions will involve a landing. Whether or not this will be the case can often be determined by looking at the UFO's altitude (NOE altitude often means it will land). If you allow the UFO to land it will either generate a terror mission, an abduction, or simply a landing site. It may actually be in your interests to let NOE-flying UFOs land, as (a) it will save your interceptor craft some damage, and (b) it will net you a lot more salvage, including intact flight computers and power sources. On the other hand, it may be on a bombing mission. Successfully assaulting a landed UFO will also stop the alien mission from being completed.

The command pod may not be on the bridge. This is so you won't know exactly where this pod is, and thus won't be able to prepare a blitzkrieg to take it out.

Landed UFOs are both more difficult and more rewarding than crashed UFOs. This is because there are no enemies killed or wounded and none of the alien artifacts on the UFO will start damaged. Undamaged UFO power source cylinders are one of the best sources of elerium.

Council Missions

Council missions have also been modified, mostly to the tune of larger numbers of enemies, both seeded and airdropped. Airdrop spawns may be random, and include enemies other than Thin Men.

Drop-in aliens will increase based on difficulty and for each month that has passed.

Site Recon

Condition for Succeeding: Trigger the air strike and reach the EVAC zone

Reward for Succeeding: Variable, bonus +100 mission xp

Penalty for Failure: ?

Expiration Time: 1 hour

The Chryssalid Hive is not exclusively populated by Shark-lids and free-roaming Chryssalids anymore. You may find other aliens have been invited to the party too. Keep an eye on your ammo and move your troops carefully. Unlike vanilla, think twice before skipping this mission lest you be punished for your negligence.

Note that you cannot recover any corpses from the mission.

Target Extraction

Condition for Succeeding: VIP reaches the EVAC zone

Reward for Succeeding: Variable, Van Doorn, Friendly, Watson, Green

Penalty for Failure: ?

Expiration Time: 1 hour

Rescuing Peter Van Doorn will now add him to your roster. Just remember that it's not fair if he has all the fun.

Target Escort

Condition for Succeeding: VIP reaches the EVAC zone

Reward for Succeeding: Scientists, Engineers, Credits, possibly Carlock, possibly reduced panic

Penalty for Failure: ?

Expiration Time: 1 hour

Escort Dr. Marazuki, Sgt. Carlock or Mr. Thorne to the Skyranger, while killing all hostiles.

Asset Recovery

Condition for Succeeding: Kill all aliens

Reward for Succeeding: Scientists, Engineers, Significant Credits

Penalty for Failure: ?

Expiration Time: 1 hour

Eliminate all hostiles and secure the asset.

Bomb Disposal

Condition for Succeeding: Defuse the bomb

Reward for Succeeding: Scientists, Engineers, Credits, -10 country panic

Penalty for Failure: ?

Expiration Time: 1 hour

With the help of power nodes to gain time, find the Bomb and deactivate it.

DLC Missions

The DLC missions include the Slingshot and Progeny missions. Each DLC consist of a set of 3 missions which require success on each previous mission in order for the next to spawn.

The date for the DLC missions to occur in LWR is somewhat randomized and not predictable.

Slingshot

	Friends in Low Places	Shaojie Zhang, a Triad operative from China, has decided to defect to XCOM and is requesting pickup. He brings with him a mysterious briefcase containing alien technology. Zhang must be escorted to the extraction zone through a graveyard. Completing this mission sees Zhang join XCOM. The opposition consists mostly of Thin Men, but may also contain Sectoids, Chryssalids, and Seekers. Condition for Succeeding: Zhang reaches the EVAC zone and all aliens are eliminated
	Confounding Light	The equipment provided by Zhang proves to be navigational aids for an alien battleship approaching China. XCOM must plant these beacons on a train to send it off-course. This mission plays similar to a bomb disposal, in that your units must "activate" transponders on the train before finally heading to the engine cabin and having it leave the station. There is a time limit of 10 turns (which is not extended as you proceed). Opposition can vary, but mostly consists of Thin Men and Mutons. Note that with all transponders activated, reaching the engine cabin controls on the train immediately ends the mission. Condition for Succeeding: A soldier reaches the engine cabin controls with all transponders activated
	Gangplank	The alien battleship has been brought low, and XCOM plans to capture the whole thing from the air. Your squad must move through the ship, disabling its engines to bring it to the ground with minimal damage. This can either be done in a manner similar to bomb diffusing or via the use of explosives. This mission rewards XCOM with 2 Fusion Cores required for certain advanced technology. Opposition mostly consists of mostly Mutons, Cyberdiscs, and Thinmen, some of which will drop from behind XCOM as they progress through the ship. Condition for Succeeding: All aliens are eliminated

Progeny

	Portent	The Council has been monitoring unusual reports about a hijack attempt on an unauthorized French military convoy. Although the alleged perpetrators were human, our intel indicates the aliens may also have been in the area. If true, this raises a number of questions about the cargo being moved. We'll need a squad to investigate; Central should have our complete report momentarily. A French military convoy was caught in an ambush. The convoy's current status is unknown. Be prepared for anything. Success on this mission has Anton Smits join XCOM. Condition for Succeeding: Anton Smits reaches the EVAC zone and all aliens are eliminated
	Deluge	The surviving EXALT operative has provided additional intel on the location of our missing transport vehicle, and not a moment too soon. It appears the aliens have cornered the truck on a dam in eastern France. If we're going to recover the cargo, we'll need to act fast. The transport is stopped on a dam in France; it's likely the aliens have sabotaged the structure. They clearly consider this transport to be high value. Expect substantial opposition. Success on this mission has Annette Durand join XCOM. Condition for Succeeding: A soldier reaches the convoy where Annette Durand awaits
	Furies	The intelligence provided by Annette indicates the aliens are attempting to transfer at least three other captives in a remote area near the Alps. If each of these abductees harbors the same potential that Annette has demonstrated, it is imperative we do not allow the aliens to keep them captive. The aliens are holding Annette's fellow abductees on their ship and will not easily let them go. Secure the captives as quickly as possible. Success on this mission has the Furies join XCOM (depending upon who was saved). Condition for Succeeding: All aliens are eliminated

Exalt Missions

Exalt missions will be unique in that they will consist almost entirely of Exalt soldiers. These soldiers are more similar to XCOM in their strength and weaknesses.

Exalt Covert Op Data Recovery

Condition for Succeeding: Transmitter is not destroyed and all Exalt are eliminated

Reward for Succeeding: 200 credits, 40 meld

Penalty for Failure: x country panic, y continent panic

Expiration Time: 48 hours

These missions are similar to their vanilla equivalent. You field a squad of six and defend an encoder and transmitter. Exalt Comm arrays are available for your covert operative to hack which will disable all exalt on the map, for at least 1 turn. Reinforcements will continue throughout the mission so be prepared to fight from all flanks.

Due to the constant reinforcements and Exalts desire to rush the encoder and transmitter, an ideal squad for this mission should involve units that can deal a lot of damage (especially to flanked units). This is because if you fail to deal enough damage, the reinforcements may quickly result in you facing unsurmountable numbers of Exalt, forcing you to retreat or die.

Exalt Covert Op Extraction

Condition for Succeeding: Covert Op reaches the EVAC zone with all towers hacked

Reward for Succeeding: 100 credits, 30 meld

Penalty for Failure: x country panic, y continent panic

Expiration Time: 48 hours

In this mission type you are limited to only 2 soldiers and your Covert Operative. As such, you want to avoid getting in to a pitched battle with EXALT, so if you can, try to get your Covert Operative to the arrays, hack them and get out fast.

It is advisable to bring units that can help the Covert Operative hack the relays, such as officers or soldiers who have the smoke and mirrors perk and equipped concussion grenades.

Exalt reinforcements to secure the Covert Operative will begin on turn 6-9 (depending on difficulty) and last until 18.

There are 5 sets of reinforcements. Each set, when active will have a chance to spawn more Exalt reinforcements every turn until turn 18. Reinforcements automatically start on turn 5-8 (depending on difficulty). However, if the covert operative activates an array, it will automatically start a set of reinforcements at that relay 2 turns later (so as early as turn 3).

Due to the sheer number of possible reinforcements, it is advised to NOT try to fight all of the reinforcements, but simply activate the relays and retreat.

Exalt Base Assault

Condition for Succeeding: All enemies eliminated

Reward for Succeeding: 1250 credits, Illuminator Gunsight, Cognitive Enchancer, Neuroregulator, 400 meld, -5 Worldwide Panic

Penalty for Failure: x country panic, y continent panic

Expiration Time: Does not expire

This mission is considerably tougher than it is in vanilla. The Exalt base is crawling with randomly generated elite EXALT squads. In addition you may find some elite aliens here as well.

The EXALT base is in a large cubic map, in an office/residence atop a Skyscraper. You are dropped off near a Helipad. Inside consists of a foyer, that splits to a library/sitting room and a sparse Situation Room (where Annette's photo is visible) (rooms and floor plan are symmetrical), and to a large sunken central room (with surrounding high hallways) with EXALT's own bootleg Hologlobe. There are paths that reach around on the outside of the building on the perimeter. The roof is accessible. You may have some success firing down through the skylights for the elevated bonus, but the line of sight from the skylights to ground level is quite restrictive.

There are no airdropped EXALT squads.

Expect several squads of EXALT Elite units inside.

Falsely accusing a country of harboring the exalt base will cause a massive spike in panic as well as a significant gain in alien research, so it is unadvised to "guess" where the exalt base is until you know for sure.

Storyline Missions

These missions are required to progress and pass the game. They are significantly easier than their counterparts in LW 1.0 in order to make them less of a roadblock. The exception is the Temple Ship Assault which is significantly harder than LW 1.0 and may be the most difficult mission of a campaign.

Alien Base Assault

Reward for Succeeding: 1 Hyperwave Beacon, -10 Alien Research, Alien Aggression to 100%, Recover Country at 55 Panic, -5 Continent Panic, 1 Fusion Core, 4 Alien Surgeries, 15 Alien Stasis Tanks, 10 Alien Foods, 2 Alien Entertainments

Penalty for Failure: No specific penalty -- though you will lose the entire squad as you cannot retreat from this mission

Expiration Time: Does not expire

The 1st alien base is auto-generated when you lose a country in the first month. You need to develop a Skeleton Key, and then place a satellite over an alien occupied country to locate and assault the alien base. With that in mind, you may want to do your first Alien Base Assault as soon as possible, as to face weaker aliens. That way, even if you do lose more countries, but don't want to risk soldiers attacking another Base, at least you can still progress with the storyline. The most difficult enemies to face will be a sectoid commander (or later in the game an ethereal) and an Exalt elite pod.

Like with UFOs, the commander will not necessarily be in the last room with the Hyperwave Beacon, so this isn't necessarily the best place to capture one like it is in vanilla.

Note that each time you successfully raid an alien base the next alien base will be more heavily fortified with extra aliens:

# of Alien Bases Raided	Additional Aliens (cumulative)
1	A Monster pod
2	A Muton Elite pod
3	A Heavy Floater pod
4	A Sectopod pod
5	An Ethereal pod

Overseer Crash Site

Reward for Succeeding: Ethereal Device, UFO equipment and resources

Penalty for Failure: None

Expiration Time: 36 hours

While the Overseer contains a small crew, they still pack quite a punch. The enemies you fight will be 1 Ethereal, 1 Sectopod + 1 Drone, 4 Heavy Floaters, 4 Muton Elites, and 3 Outsiders. Since it is a crash, multiple enemies may be injured and or dead upon arrival. This mission is otherwise fairly straightforward.

If you fail, more overseers will spawn allowing you to attempt one again, so do not feel bad about retreating if you get overwhelmed on a first attempt.

Temple Ship Assault

Reward for Succeeding: Win the game!

Penalty for Failure: Lose the game!

Expiration Time: ~2 hours

Depending upon how many council nations are still supporting you, your soldiers will receive a significant morale/attribute boost for the final mission:

# of Council Nations Supporting XCOM and Soldier Boosts
1	2	3
All soldiers gain +0-8 will	All soldiers gain +0-4 aim All soldiers gain +0-8 will	All soldiers gain +0-2 HP All soldiers gain +0-4 aim All soldiers gain +0-8 will
4	5	6
All soldiers gain +0-0.6 mobility All soldiers gain +0-2 HP All soldiers gain +0-4 aim All soldiers gain +0-8 will	Squadsize increased to 8 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-0.6 mobility All soldiers gain +0-2 HP All soldiers gain +0-4 aim All soldiers gain +0-8 will	Squadsize increased to 8 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-0.6 mobility All soldiers gain +0-2 HP All soldiers gain +0-4 aim All soldiers gain +0-16 will
7	8	9
Squadsize increased to 8 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-0.6 mobility All soldiers gain +0-2 HP All soldiers gain +0-8 aim All soldiers gain +0-16 will	Squadsize increased to 8 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-0.6 mobility All soldiers gain +0-4 HP All soldiers gain +0-8 aim All soldiers gain +0-16 will	Squadsize increased to 8 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-1.2 mobility All soldiers gain +0-4 HP All soldiers gain +0-8 aim All soldiers gain +0-16 will
10	11	12
Squadsize increased to 9 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-1.2 mobility All soldiers gain +0-4 HP All soldiers gain +0-8 aim All soldiers gain +0-16 will	Squadsize increased to 9 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-1.2 mobility All soldiers gain +0-4 HP All soldiers gain +0-8 aim All soldiers gain +0-24 will	Squadsize increased to 9 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-1.2 mobility All soldiers gain +0-4 HP All soldiers gain +0-12 aim All soldiers gain +0-24 will
13	14	15-16
Squadsize increased to 9 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-1.2 mobility All soldiers gain +0-6 HP All soldiers gain +0-12 aim All soldiers gain +0-24 will	Squadsize increased to 9 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-1.8 mobility All soldiers gain +0-6 HP All soldiers gain +0-12 aim All soldiers gain +0-24 will	Squadsize increased to 10 (from 7) All soldiers gain +0-1.8 mobility All soldiers gain +0-6 HP All soldiers gain +0-12 aim All soldiers gain +0-24 will

The volunteer on this mission will gain access to every single psionic ability, including Rift, making quite a formidable psionic soldier.

The Temple Ship will contain some of the strongest alien leaders in the game. Go in heavy, hit hard, and let nothing stand in your way. This may be the most difficult mission in your campaign.

At the end of the brutal road, in the Ethereal Cathedral awaits the Uber Ethereal, Lord of the Alien Collective. Rushing the Uber Ethereal is not advised, as he will have 100% DR until all the Muton Elites and Ethereals around him have been killed.

Good luck, Commander.

XCOM Base Defense

Reward for Succeeding: None

Penalty for Failure: -500 credits, all alien captives released, 20% of scientists and engineers slaughtered

Expiration Time: Immediate

This mission is always called: Operation Ashes and Temples.

When the aliens have high resources AND high aggression they will come for your base. Your base is assaulted by a UFO - typically a NOE altitude Assault Carrier, but it may have backup from other craft - which you can see coming and can shoot down, but it's extremely difficult: when the UFO alert/interception prompt appears, it will say "Warning! Warning! UFO vectoring to XCOM HQ!" on the lesser notifications on the lower-left of the screen. Shooting down that UFO will prevent the assault.

Like vanilla, you will get the chance to select and equip a squad for this mission. You select and equip 8 soldiers, of which a random 5 will be selected at the start. Additional soldiers from this pool will arrive as reinforcements, one automatically and further soldiers can arrive to replace losses. You'll also get a complement of Blueshirts (new Rookie soldiers). The reinforcements you get do not vary with Blueshirt casualties, only XCOM casualties.

The aliens will drop in to the command center, followed by flyers in the back and drops in to the MEC bay and two waves in the forward access tunnels. Expect this mission to be difficult, though the forces deployed can vary wildly based on RNG. However, always look around and check for the falling dirt to see if any waves are about to drop in the MEC Bay, particularly the upper areas at all four corners.

Failing this mission does not mean the end of XCOM, however it is damaging. The aliens will ransack your base, killing engineers and scientists and destroying credits before regular military arrive and bail you out. This mission can only happen once during a campaign, and can only occur after September.

If you succeed, any surviving Blueshirts will join your roster, retaining any XP they gained during the base defense.

XCOM Air Base Defense

Reward for Succeeding: None

Penalty for Failure: severe damage and/or destruction of multiple interceptors

Expiration Time: Immediate

In addition to assaulting your base, aliens can now go after your interceptor stations. These missions will only be launched after your air game becomes significantly strong (a Firestorm is built). It will generate similar to an abduction mission, with XCOM soldiers outfitting in the Skyranger as per usual. The map takes place in the previously multiplayer only Interceptor bay. This mission must be completed to avoid severe damage or destruction of your interceptors.

If the Hyperwave Relay is built, the mission notice on the approaching UFO will say "Retaliation". Be aware you will enter the area through one of the side tunnels in the center of the map, so odds are that there will be aliens in both wings, and can easily be flanked by a wandering pod due to this.

Unlike the XCOM Base Defense, the Air Base Defense mission will not only happen frequently (especially after the player has started fielding plasma weapons) but it is also MUCH easier than the standard Base Defense.