UFO Power Source

General Information

The power source of alien craft is an anti-matter reactor which uses Elerium (element 115) to generate powerful gravity waves as well as other forms of energy. The conversion of matter to energy is an incredible 99% efficient, therefore tiny quantities of Elerium can produce a huge amount of power. This unit can be reproduced easily using Alien Alloys.

Additional Information

The UFO Power Source is one of the three UFO Components you must have on hand to manufactore a new ship. It is essentailly an engine, and uses Elerium-115 to propell a craft.

The UFO Power Source requires 1400 man-hours to build, $130,000, and the materials Elerium-115 and Alien Alloys. You can also obtain them from Alien Bases, and UFOs. They can be sold for $250,000.

Hint: Don't bother building them. Salvage them from landed alien craft. If you choose to sell power units, keep a sufficient supply for any aircraft that you wish to build. A minimum of two power units are required for an Avenger, and one for a Firestorm or Lightning.

With the exception of one UFO Power Source found in a certain Alien Base module, every UFO Power Source that is intact at the beginning of a mission will have an Elerium-115 item stored in, or more correctly on, it. If a UFO should crashland, you will often find that the UFO Power Source(s) stored inside have exploded with great force; however, if they are destroyed during play, they will not detonate. --Bomb Bloke 15:16, 4 Mar 2005 (GMT)

The UFO Power Source has 50 armour, which means that an explosive needs a damage rating of 100 (or higher) to destroy it:

• Large Rocket
• High Explosive
• Hovertank/Launcher
• Blaster Launcher

However, this is NOT the right way to get Elerium out of a Power Source, because explosions affect everything in their square equally, and Elerium itself (an object on the ground) is destroyed by explosive blast power over HE 20. (Elerium is not created when the UPS dies - it's actually sitting right there and can be seen in the overhead map; you just can't get to it until the Power Source is gone.) Thus, unfortunately, the UPS is much more resistant to explosions. You can destroy the Elerium with a standard Grenade exploding two tiles away, but the grenade can't hurt the Power Source even if right on top of it!

Because of this, you have to use firearms to take out the UFO Power Source surgically, leaving the Elerium behind. UPSs have a 25% resistance to conventional ammunition types (AP, Laser, and Plasma; a.k.a. firearms only do 25%-75% of listed Strength/Damage to terrain objects), so you need a listed weapon strength of at least 67 (50/.75) to destroy it:

• Tank/Laser Cannon
• Hovertank/Plasma
• Heavy Laser
• Plasma Rifle
• Heavy Plasma

However, because these weapons can roll 25-75%, the chance of the weapon breaching the UPS's armour are as follows:

                  Damage  Breach
Weapon            Range   Chance
------            ------  ------
Plasma Rifle      20-60   26.8%
Heavy Laser       21-63   32.6%
Tank/Laser Cannon 27-82   58.9%
Hovertank/Plasma  27-82   58.9%
Heavy Plasma      28-86   62.7%

Am I the only one who doesn't destroy power sources at all? I just sight the power source, then treat it with kid gloves-- as long as the power source is left untouched, you'll get your elerium at the end of the battle.

More on finding UFO's with elerium: Whenever a UFO lands of its own accord, the mission starts with the elerium intact.

If a Small Scout or Large Scout crashes and the roof isn't blown out, the elerium is usually intact at mission start. If the room(s) containing the power sources inside of the UFO isn't blown out, the elerium in that section is certainly intact at mission start.

In anything but an alien base, any functioning power source will start the mission with its elerium intact. It shows up as purple knob at the base of the power unit. However, glancing fire or even light explosions can destroy the elerium but leave the power supply intact.

Alien base power supplies will have elerium about 50% of the time. --Papa Legba 23:28, 5 Dec 2005 (PST)

Well, most of us don't destroy intact power units on a regular basis. The exercise of destroying power units generally comes into play when you wish to either secure the elerium (when you're a bit too eager with the high explosives), or you wish to make a tactical withdrawal, such as leaving an alien base after a successful robbery of equipment and elerium, or you're failing a recovery mission and are making a retreat when you find an opportunity to nick an elerium pod on your way out.

In general, alien bases only produce elerium when the large module with the four upper storage areas is generated. Of the two power units generated in the southern storage room, only one is ever "powered" with elerium. Zombie has more specifics on elerium generation in alien bases. - NKF