Murphy's Laws (X-COM)

Battlescape (UFO Defense)

Soldiers

• If a soldier can miss, it will.
• If a soldier can panic, it will.
• If a soldier is unarmed, it will get MCed.
• The soldier with the most powerful weapon is surely the one with the worst morale / MC resistance.
• If a soldier can hit an alien, it won't
• If your soldier holds a primed Proximity Grenade and panics he'll drop it and start running
• If a soldier goes berserk, he/she will turn to face your nearest soldier and autofire
• If a soldier has a Rocket Launcher, he will get MCed while still in the craft
• If your soldier panics he'll drop his weapon and run next to an alien
• Your first unit out is always shot down
• Your first unit out is always your commander
• A wounded soldier will die before you find the last alien
• As soon as you get better armor, the aliens get better weapons
• Flares will land where they cannot be picked up
• If your base is attacked, you will always get flares instead of Heavy Plasmas

Civilians

• If a civilian sees a fire he will run into it
• If a civilian sees an alien he'll move right next to it
• If a civilian can block your line of fire to an alien he will do that
• Civilians will always be attracted towards dropped primed proximity grenades
• Civilians block doorways if you run out of time units before you can reach it
• Civilians will always run towards the aliens

Aliens

• If an alien can miss, it won't
• If an alien can MC you, it will
• Alien commanders will always kill themselves (with their Blaster Launchers) to avoid capture
• If there are Chryssalids, you will get at least one zombified soldier
• If a Reaper can get stuck, it will
• If a Cyberdisk can explode on one of your men, it will.
• Unconscious aliens capable of melee attacks wake up when you least expect them to
• If you opened a door and turned left, the aliens are all on the right
• Sectopods will always reaction fire to you
• Aliens are smarter than they look

Geoscape

• When you need money the most, some of your funders will stop funding you.
• As soon as you get a new base online, it will be attacked
• As soon as you get lots of money, the aliens will make you spend it all
• Terror sites always appear only at night
• Seas always appear below a crashing UFO
• The first country to drop funding always gave the most money
• X-COM bases are always attacked when the squads are out
• Crashed UFO's never have Elerium
• Landed UFO's take off before you can get to them
• UFO's will always arrive after your Skyranger is refueling from a two day patrol
• If you have forgotten to save the game for at least 3 missions, the game will crash
• If you launch a craft fully equipped for night fighting it will arrive at its intended location during daytime
• When a base becames operational UFO activity on that area will cease to zero immediately afterwards
• If your craft only has 1 missile left when it shoots it will miss
• Alien UFO scouts will always outrun your Interceptors