Scoring

X-COM Scoring

X-COM's performance is measured by way of a score that accrues monthly and is used in part to make the decisions of the funding countries in both their council deliberations on the organisations success, and also when making their individual judgements to change funding levels.

Bonus Points

Starting from the second month, X-COM receives +400 bonus points at each month.

Interception

X-COM receive points each time a UFO is destroyed or grounded. Note that if a UFO 'crashes' (per Intercept popup) over the ocean, it only counts as 'grounded' as the funding countries cannot be sure the aliens do not have the ability to repair craft and return from an underwater crash site, and there is no way to do a UFO Crash Recovery in the oceans to be sure.

UFO Type	UFO Destroyed	UFO Grounded
Small Scout	100	50
Medium Scout	150	75
Large Scout	250	125
Harvester	500	250
Abductor	500	250
Supply Ship	800	400
Terror Ship	1000	500
Battleship	1400	700

However, it is actually impossible to destroy a Supply Ship, Terror Ship or Battleship, unless you use a game editor.

X-COM lose points if one of their own craft are destroyed.

Craft Type	Craft Destroyed
Skyranger	-200
Interceptor	-250
Firestorm	-250
Lightning	-300
Avenger	-400

Battlescape Missions

During an X-COM battlescape mission, points can be gained or lost by the following actions.

Note that if you abort the mission without completing it, you still get points for performing the actions below. Specifically, you have to kill aliens and/or drag stunned aliens, equipment, and/or Elerium back to your ship (or base green area - NOT the red elevator area). Aliens that were killed in a UFO crash (already dead when you got there) do not count. (Briefly visiting a crash site, then dusting off, doesn't get you any points - you have to do things to get points.)

Also note that generally speaking, you get more points from Destroying small UFOs, than for Crashing them and then completing a ground mission. The reverse is true for large UFOs. (Compare Destroying vs. Grounding points vs. Points you can walk away from a Crash with.)

However, the salvage value of UFOs may be of greatest importance -- and no equipment can be recovered from destroyed UFOs. The greatest possible recovery value can be gotten from UFOs which are attacked after they land under their own power -- although that earns you no Interception points.

Mission Objectives

Action	Points
Civilian killed by X-COM	-50
Civilian killed by Aliens	-30
X-COM soldier MIA	-20
X-COM soldier killed	-20*
HWP destroyed	-20
Civilian Saved	30
Alien Base destroyed	500

* This increases as the soldier gains rank and experience.

Alien Casualties

X-COM receives point for capturing or killing an Alien during a battlescape mission.

Race/Rank	Killed	Captured*
Floater Soldier	12	24
Floater Navigator	14	28
Floater Medic	16	32
Floater Engineer	18	36
Floater Leader	25	50
Floater Commander	35	70
Sectoid Soldier	10	20
Sectoid Navigator	12	24
Sectoid Medic	14	28
Sectoid Engineer	16	32
Sectoid Leader	20	40
Sectoid Commander	25	50
Snakeman Soldier	15	30
Snakeman Navigator	17	34
Snakeman Engineer	20	40
Snakeman Leader	28	56
Snakeman Commander	36	72
Ethereal Soldier	20	40
Ethereal Leader	30	60
Ethereal Commander	40	80
Muton Soldier	15	30
Muton Navigator	17	34
Muton Engineer	19	38
Reaper	25	50
Chryssalid	25	50
Silacoid	20	40
Celatid	20	40
Sectopod	30	60
Cyberdisc	20	40
Zombie	18	--

However, it is actually impossible to capture a live Sectopod or Cyberdisk.

* You will only receive 10 points for capturing any alien species + rank combo already in containment. Ethereal Cereal: What about ones that have been researched & are no longer in containment? Needs more testing. tequilachef: I repeatedly got zero points for capturing Reapers while already having a bunch of them in containment, but not researched.

Item Recovery

Collection of Alien Artefacts, corpses and craft parts also gains X-COM points. An "artefact" is something you have yet to research that was carried by the aliens (weapons, ammo and Mind Probe). Once you research an artefact you no longer receive points for finding that item in future missions. This is a reason not to research alien weapons you likely won't use such as the Plasma Pistol. Items that spawn in the Battlescape (as opposed to alien inventories) continue to generate X-COM points after they have been researched.

Item	Points
Alien Alloys	1
Alien Grenade	1
Blaster Bomb	1
Heavy Plasma Clip	1
Mind Probe	1
Plasma Pistol Clip	1
Plasma Rifle Clip	1
Stun Bomb	1
Alien Entertainment	2
Alien Food	2
Alien Surgery	2
Examination Room	2
Celatid Corpse	3
Chryssalid Corpse	3
Cyberdisc Corpse	3
Plasma Pistol	3
Reaper Corpse	3
Sectopod Corpse	3
Silacoid Corpse	3
Plasma Rifle	4
Small Launcher	4
Blaster Launcher	5
Elerium-115 (Per 50 units)	5
Ethereal Corpse	5
Floater Corpse	5
Heavy Plasma	5
Muton Corpse	5
Sectoid Corpse	5
Snakeman Corpse	5
UFO Navigation	5
UFO Power Source	20

Evaluations

An evaluation on your total score is given at the end of each mission.

Ranking	Score
Excellent	501 or better
Good	201 to 500
OK	1 to 200
Poor	-199 to 0
Terrible	-200 or worse

Research

X-COM also receive points for the completion of research projects.

Research Project	Points
Plasma Pistol Clip	5
Plasma Rifle Clip	6
Heavy Plasma Clip	7
Blaster Bomb	10
Craft Laser Cannon	10
Heavy Laser	10
Laser Pistol	10
Laser Rifle	10
Laser Weapons	10
Stun Bomb	10
Laser Defenses	15
Tank/Laser Cannon	15
Alien Grenade	20
Flying Suit	20
Medi-Kit	20
Motion Scanner	20
Personal Armor	20
Plasma Pistol	20
Power Suit	20
Psi-Amp	20
Craft Fusion Weapon	25
Craft Plasma Weapon	25
Fusion Defenses	25
Grav Shield	25
Hovertank/Launcher	25
Hovertank/Plasma	25
Hyper-Wave Decoder	25
Mind Probe	25
Mind Shield	25
Plasma Defenses	25
Plasma Rifle	25
Psi-Lab	25
Alien Abduction	30
Alien Alloys	30
Alien Entertainment	30
Alien Food	30
Alien Reproduction	30*
Alien Surgery	30
Heavy Plasma	30
New Fighter Craft (Firestorm)	30
New Fighter-Transporter (Lightning)	30
Small Launcher	30
UFO Construction	30
UFO Navigation	30
UFO Propulsion	30
Ultimate Craft (Avenger)	30
Blaster Launcher	40
Elerium-115	40
Alien Autopsies (Each)	50
Alien Interrogations	50**
Alien Origins	60
Cydonia or Bust	60
The Martian Solution	60

* Alien Reproduction is normally not accessible (or researchable) during the game, but you can add one to your General Stores via hacking.

** You receive 50 points for each new UFOpaedia entry generated by an alien interrogation. A given alien can generate several UFOpaedia entries, or none at all. (See Researching aliens for more information.)

Alien Scoring

Aliens score points for various actions as well.

Alien Action	Score
Each UFO that flies over the Earth (per 30 mins)	1
Each UFO that lands (per 30 mins)	2
Each day an alien base exists on Earth (Per base)	5
A terror mission in a remote area is performed successfully*	10
A harvest mission is performed successfully*	30
An abduction is performed successfully*	50
Alien base is built	50
Aliens sign a pact with a funding country	150
A city terror site is ignored by X-COM	1000

Notes on Alien Score

• Success is counted each time an UFO takes off. If a single ufo lands multiple times, it will score each time it starts flying again including if disturbed by an unsuccessful X-COM mission.
• Successful Alien Research, Retaliation and Supply missions do not score any points for the aliens.
• The aliens' score can be viewed by looking in the graphs menu. At the end of the month it is subtracted from X-COM's score to give the player's score for the month. It is reset at the end of each month just like the player's.

Losing The Game

You can lose the game in the following ways:

• If you are in debt over $1 million at the end of any month, after funding and maintenance has been calculated, the council will give you a warning. The warning they give about not going over $2 million in debt should presumably read $1 million. The 2nd time you are over $1 million in debt, the project is cancelled. However, there is a rather large bug. There is actually a check whether the "Has X-COM received a financial warning?" flag has been raised. If no, a warning is issued and the flag is raised. If yes, then the game ends, and the flag is lowered. HOWEVER, this flag is erroneously not connected to any particular savegame, it is global across all savegames. This allows strange results when saving and loading games.
• If you have two consecutive "bad" months in terms of score--
  • -900 (Beginner)
  • -800 (Experienced)
  • -700 (Veteran)
  • -600 (Genius)
  • -500 (Superhuman)
  • The actual equation is Terminator= -900 + difficulty*100; where beginner is 0, experienced is 1, veteran is 2, genius is 3 and superhuman is 4.
• If all X-COM bases are captured by Aliens. (But you can stay in the game by starting a new base before your last base is captured - see Access Lift.)
• If you fail your attempt to destroy Cydonia!

See Also

ALIEN.DAT - Where the aliens' score is tracked
XCOM.DAT - Where score from missions and interceptions is tracked
UIGLOB.DAT - Where scores generated from research completion is stored