Panic (EU2012)

Basics

Panic is the mechanic that will make you lose the game, once you have enough (8) countries reach high enough panic to leave the XCOM project; then the game is over. As the Commander, it's your task to keep this from happening. Each country has a panic value of 0-5, and a country has a high chance of leaving the project if its panic level is 5 at the end of a month. Failing a terror mission will cause the targeted country to leave the project immediately.

Panic Increase
Panic will increase in countries as they are targeted by alien attacks, and will also spread to other countries on that continent. Abduction and Terror activity will cause panic to neighbouring countries; UFO activity and Council missions will only cause panic (if unsuccessful) in the targeted country, and not in neighbouring countries.

Panic Decrease
Satellites are the primary way to lower panic; deploying a satellite over a country will immediately calm the population. Succeeding at a Terror mission will reduce the panic level in that country and continent, as will many council missions. Completing the Alien Base mission will cause global panic to decrease.

Panic Level The panic level of a country will be reflected on the content of the news headlines displayed under the world map at the Situation Room.

Choosing a Mission

• Often you will be presented with multiple missions at the same time and asked to choose 1 (e.g., Abduction sites).

While Panic plays a big role in your choice, so does the reward.

The rewards generally consist of either Scientists, Engineers, Soldiers, or credits.

• Engineers are generally better than Scientists – Building things requires a minimum number of Engineers, and that number keeps going up each time you build a type of facility.

So the third Generator needs more engineers than the second, and so on.

Plus, you tend to get enough scientists via monthly bonuses from the Funding Council.

• If you are offered more than one country from the same continent to chose from, choosing one of the countries on the continent will mean that this country gets panic decrease and other countries from same continent get no change in panic levels. Leaving more than one country on same continent unattended will not multiply continent-wide panic (eg., on classic ignoring China and Japan will raise panic in those countries by 2 and in other asian countries by 1)
• It might be worth ignoring South American abduction missions. An unanswered abduction on that continent raises total panic by 3 points (2+1) while an unanswered one in Europe or Asia gives 5 panic points (2+1+1+1).

Satellite Management

• Overall, to have no countries leave your project your aim is to have, by the end of the month, no more countries in the "red" (full panic) zone than you have satellites, and launch those satellites to save those countries from defecting. This means you will not be getting the continent you want, but the continent that got more unlucky with panic levels.
• Your other goal is to cover full continents as soon as possible for both the continent bonus AND no furhter panic problems with this country. Having a country not covered in a partially covered continent leaves you very vulnerable, because you cannot manage panic in already covered countries (like you can with uncovered countries by launching satellite in those countries right before council report). Worst case scenario, when you barely saved a country from defecting (launched satellite into panicked country), you can only afford to have 1 abduction there until you have full panic again, plus 1 for each council mission that awards worldwide panic reduction. Therefore, there is a huge incentitive to cover full continents.
• Getting all continents but one covered stops abduction missions from happening alltogether, and solves the panic problem for the rest of the game. Therefore, deploying satellites as fast as possible is the best way to control the panic. Consider deploying 1 satellite in the first month, 3 in the second month, at least 3 (if you can, 5) in the third month and cover all remaining countries except one in the next month.
• It is never a good idea to launch a satellite at any time except right before council report. That is, because abductions can happen even right before the council report, and if you dont have spare satellites to fix panic after them, you will lose countires. Launch satellites right before the council report, first fixing any countries in "Red", and then according to your plan.