Time Units

Time Units

Time units or TUs are one of several vital resources available to X-COM Soldiers.

A single game turn is an unspecified amount of time. There has been many arguments as to what duration of time this could be, but no one can agree on any given figure. It could be a minute, it could be 5 seconds. In any case, a game turn is merely the duration in which actions are taken by each side.

The Time Unit is a fraction of this time. If a soldier has a maximum of 64 Time Units, then each TU is worth 1/64th of a turn. A soldier with 80 TUs uses 1/80th of the turn for every TU spent. This means that Time Units are synonymous with speed.

Time Unit Expenditure

Time Units are spent in two ways. In fixed amounts and in percentages.

Fixed Costs

Actions such as walking, turning, moving equipment around, reloading weapons, using medicine and a variety of other actions all cost the same amount of TUs no matter the soldier. (For a table of TUs for moving inventory, see below.) Soldiers with high TUs benefit the most from fixed TU actions more than soldiers with low TUs. Scouts benefit from high TUs the most. Dedicated medics and psi troopers can also benefit from high TUs

Percentage Costs

Actions that cost a percentage, such as firing a gun or priming a grenade, will always take a percentage of the soldier's overall Time Units to perform. This means that the amount of TUs has no bearing on how many times the action can be performed during any given turn. For example, if a weapon costs 25% to fire, it can only be fired a maximum of 4 times a turn, for every soldier, regardless of the maximum amount of TUs. It it recommended that low-TU soldiers are given long range support fire roles.

Note: Costs are based on the maximum amount of your soldier's TUs. Not the current amount. Therefore, if your current amount is under the maximum, or above the maximum (brought on by going berzerk), percentage costs will remain the same.

Note: Due to integer rounding, some TU values will allow certain weapons to be fired more than usual. For example, a solder firing a heavy plasma with auto-fire (35% TUs) will get 3 rounds at some TU values but not others.

Encumberance

Encumberance is the weighing down, or burdening, of a soldier. Any weight over the soldier's strength stat will cause encumberance. This lowers their available TUs, essentially slowing them down.

Formula:

Encumberance = Strength / Carried Weight*


If Encumberance >= 1 then

   Available TUs = Base TUs

Else

   Available TUs = Encumberance x Base TUs

Example:

A soldier with a base of 54 TUs, 34 strength, and carrying 74 weight units, will
have an encumberance of 46%, leaving him with 24 TUs** per turn. 

*If Carried Weight = 0, then Carried Weight = 1

**Actual encumberance is 24.8, but the decimal is clipped by the game.

Starting Values

New recruits will always begin with a value between 50 and 60 time units.

Maximum Caps

An X-COM soldier's TUs caps at 80, but you can obtain a maximum of 81 if your last value was at 79. Officially, all TU improvements stop once you reach 80 or above.

Older versions of X-COM did not have this cap and stats would reach 255 and then wrap back to 0. This could potentially cripple an otherwise good soldier.

Improvement

This is just a stub at the moment. To include a detailed explanation on how TUs are earned.

Influences

• Time Units heavily influences a unit's Reactions.
• Closely associated with TUs is the Energy stat.
  • A moving unit consumes both TUs and Stamina (Energy) points. How many energy points are consumed depends on the type of terrain the unit is walking on. More difficult terrain consumes more energy and time units. All other actions only consume TUs.
  • Energy recovery is calculated by taking your soldier's base time units (i.e. the time units that the soldier started with) and divide it by three. Drop the fraction. This will be the soldier's energy recovery rate throughout the campaign.

TU Costs for Moving Inventory

		To...
		Backpack	Shoulder	Belt	Leg	Hand	Ground
From...	Backpack	0	14	12	16	8	10
	Shoulder	16	8	10	12	3	4
	Belt	16	12	0	10	4	6
	Leg	18	10	10	10	6	6
	Hand	14	10	8	8	4	2
	Ground	20	12	12	10	8	0

Can anybody show me how to center the numbers, and make the columns a standard width? - MikeTheRed

For the same place (e.g. From Hand, To Hand) means e.g. transferring it from left hand to right hand. There is no cost for moving things around within the same area (e.g. a different belt square).

TUs do not seem to be affected by any soldier stats (energy, strength, etc.). They appear to be the same for everyone, even mind-controlled aliens. Also, weight and size of items doesn't seem to matter.

As you can see, it generally takes more TUs to go "farther" (backpack to ground vs. leg to ground) although shoulder to ground oddly takes less time. Also, it takes more time to make something go "up" than "down". It's best to loadout 1-square items on the shoulder - it's the quickest to get to the hand. 2-square items like Medkits are best put on the belt, not the backpack. It takes the longest times to put stuff into the backpack. If picking stuff up, it's quickest to put it in hand, or leg. If you're likely to want it in your hand later, overall the shoulder (12 then 3) is a little quicker than the leg (10 then 6).

I saw one old FAQ that talked about an "alien inventory bug" where, if you pick up something from a leg slot with more than one item in it, but don't have enough TUs to put the item down, you're screwed - you have to quit the game. But actually, you can simply put it in the other (empty) left leg square. This doesn't cost any TUs, so it's doable. Just don't screw up again, soldier!

It always takes 15 TUs to load a weapon, no matter where the ammo comes from (ground, backpack, belt, other hand, etc.). The empty weapon must be held in the hand - you can't load it if e.g. it's on the ground or in backpack.

It always takes 8 TUs to unload a weapon, no matter where the weapon was (ground, backpack, in hands). You might've thought this could be a quick way to get things out of your backpack, but since it only takes 8 to get from backpack to hands, it's not. Unloading is also not a quicker way to get a weapon to the ground from your backpack. The total time with unloading is 12 (8+2x2 to drop weapon and ammo), which is longer than just dropping it straight from your backpack (10 TUs). Your hands must be free to use the Unload icon (or, have the weapon in your hand).

See also:
Inventory TU Table, Raw recruit statistical likelihood
Reactions, Energy, Strength