UFO Recovery Values

Although Country Funding is the mainstay of X-COM's working budget, and manufacturing can be a great supplement to that, alien artefacts and UFO components recovered from UFO Ground Assaults are the greatest source of funds for commanders.

The following tables list values for fully-intact ships. If you attack ships while they are landed, you can recover most of the items listed below.

UFOs which have been shot down will usually have several destroyed components, especially UFO Power Sources and the Elerium-115 contained within them. That's half a mil down the drain, for each lost Power Source & Elerium. Aliens which were standing near the power source(s) will often be killed. Their corpses and personal armament may or may not survive the blast.

To minimise the amount of damage done to a UFO during interception, select the "Cautious Attack" setting. Or just let it land without shooting it down, to maximize loot (except for Terror ships).

Artefacts and UFO components can also be destroyed during the course of a mission, particularly by Explosions -- so use HE munitions and grenades sparingly inside UFOs if you want maximum salvage value.

Alien Armaments

Items which the aliens carry -- weapons, almost exclusively -- are identified as "Alien Artefacts" until you fully research them. They can still be sold at full price once you get them back to base.

In the first few months of the game, the aliens will be relatively lightly armed -- Plasma Pistols or Rifles. As time progresses, they will start sporting Small Launchers, Heavy Plasmas, and eventually Blaster Launchers. Within a few months, they will abandon pistols and rifles altogether, and most aliens will carry a Heavy Plasma.

Aliens on the smaller (scout) ships will also sometimes carry a Mind Probe, worth $304,000, the highest-priced alien artefact you will ever encounter. Since the UFOs you encounter in the first few months will mostly be scout ships, the value of alien artefacts (per alien) will remain relatively constant throughout the game.

Here are items carried by aliens, and their value:

                        Value
  Plasma Pistol        84,000 
    Clip                4,440 

  Plasma Rifle        126,500 
    Clip                6,290 

  Heavy Plasma        171,600 
    Clip                9,590 

  Blaster Launcher    144,000 
    Blaster Bomb       17,028

  Small Launcher      120,000
    Stun Bomb          15,200

  Alien Grenade        14,850
  Mind Probe          304,000

So each time an alien fires a Heavy Plasma for the first time (and its clip becomes unrecoverable), $10k is lost. Bang goes an Alien Grenade? $15k up in smoke.

Here are item sets commonly found on aliens:

                                                          Total Value
Plasma Pistol + 2 Plasma Pistol Clips                       $92,880
Plasma Rifle + 2 Plasma Rifle Clips + 1 Alien Grenade      $153,930
Heavy Plasma + 2 Heavy Plasma Clips + 1 Alien Grenade      $205,630
Small Launcher + 3 Stun Bombs                              $165,600
Blaster Launcher + 4 Blaster Bombs                         $212,112

You will only recover ammunition clips if they have not been used. In the CE edition (but not DOS), even full clips in alien guns are lost at the end of a mission. You can avoid this by unloading them first (see Known_Bugs#Disappearing_Ammo).

Every alien corpse you recover is worth $20,000. Terror units have built-in weapons and will never carry artefacts, although their corpses are worth $20,000 as well. Don't stun everything in sight; only stun what you need (see Research). You don't get money for live aliens (but do get more Score, if you don't currently have that alien species+rank in containment.)

In the tables below, the average value of each alien's armament is assumed to be about $180,000. The number of aliens found on each ship type varies; on higher difficulty settings, many more aliens will appear.

UFO Recovery Value Tables

Small Scout

Total Aliens

1 (all difficulty levels)

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
Alien Alloys	$6,500	1	$6,500
Corpses	$20,000	1	$20,000
Alien Armament	$180,000	1	$180,000
Total			$206,500

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Medium Scout

Total Aliens

Beg./Exp.: 3 - 6

Vet./Gen.: 4 - 7

Super.: 6 - 9

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
UFO Power Source	$250,000	1	$250,000
UFO Navigation	$80,000	2	$160,000
Alien Alloys	$6,500	11	$71,500
Elerium-115	$5,000	50	$250,000
Corpses	$20,000	3 - 9	$60,000 - $180,000
Alien Armament	$180,000	3 - 9	$540,000 - $1,620,000
Total			$1,331,500 - $2,531,500

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Large Scout

Total Aliens

Beg./Exp.: 3 - 10

Vet./Gen.: 4 - 11

Super.: 6 - 13

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
UFO Power Source	$250,000	1	$250,000
UFO Navigation	$80,000	2	$160,000
Alien Alloys	$6,500	35	$227,500
Elerium-115	$5,000	50	$250,000
Corpses	$20,000	3 - 13	$60,000 - $260,000
Alien Armament	$180,000	3 - 13	$540,000 - $2,340,000
Total			$1,487,500 - $3,487,500

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Abductor

Total Aliens

Beg./Exp.: 9 - 14

Vet./Gen.: 11 - 16

Super.: 13 - 18

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
UFO Power Source	$250,000	2	$500,000
UFO Navigation	$80,000	5	$400,000
Examination Room	$9,000	4	$36,000
Alien Alloys	$6,500	70	$455,000
Elerium-115	$5,000	100	$500,000
Corpses	$20,000	9 - 18	$180,000 - $360,000
Alien Armament	$180,000	9 - 18	$1,620,000 - $3,240,000
Total			$3,691,000 - $5,491,000

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Harvester

Total Aliens

Beg./Exp.: 10 - 15

Vet./Gen.: 12 - 17

Super.: 16 - 21

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
UFO Power Source	$250,000	2	$500,000
UFO Navigation	$80,000	10	$800,000
Alien Food	$5,000	14	$70,000
Alien Surgery	$38,000	8	$304,000
Alien Alloys	$6,500	97	$630,500
Elerium-115	$5,000	100	$500,000
Corpses	$20,000	10 - 21	$200,000 - $420,000
Alien Armament	$180,000	10 - 21	$1,800,000 - $3,780,000
Total			$4,804,500 - $7,004,500

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Supply Ship

Total Aliens

Beg./Exp.: 9 - 15

Vet./Gen.: 10 - 16

Super.: 14 - 20

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
UFO Power Source	$250,000	3	$750,000
UFO Navigation	$80,000	4	$320,000
Alien Food	$5,000	20	$100,000
Alien Surgery	$38,000	2	$76,000
Alien Alloys	$6,500	141	$916,500
Elerium-115	$5,000	150	$750,000
Corpses	$20,000	9 - 20	$180,000 - $400,000
Alien Armament	$180,000	9 - 20	$1,620,000 - $3,600,000
Total			$4,712,000 - $6,912,000

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Terror Ship

Total Armed Aliens

Beg./Exp.: 8 - 10

Vet./Gen.: 9 - 11

Super.: 12 - 14

Total Terrorists

Beg./Exp.: 2 - 6

Vet./Gen.: 4 - 8

Super.: 6 - 10

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
UFO Power Source	$250,000	4	$1,000,000
UFO Navigation	$80,000	8	$640,000
Alien Entertainment	$20,000	8	$160,000
Alien Alloys	$6,500	92	$598,000
Elerium-115	$5,000	200	$1,000,000
Corpses	$20,000	10 - 24	$200,000 - $480,000
Alien Armament	$180,000	8 - 14	$1,440,000 - $2,520,000
Total			$5,038,000 - $6,398,000

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Battleship

Total Armed Aliens

Beg./Exp.: 9 - 13

Vet./Gen.: 12 - 16

Super.: 18 - 22

Total Terrorists

Beg./Exp.: 0 - 2

Vet./Gen.: 2 - 4

Super.: 4 - 6

Item	Sell Price	Quantity	Value
UFO Power Source	$250,000	4	$1,000,000
UFO Navigation	$80,000	4	$320,000
Alien Entertainment	$20,000	24	$480,000
Alien Alloys	$6,500	231	$1,501,500
Elerium-115	$5,000	200	$1,000,000
Corpses	$20,000	9 - 28	$180,000 - $560,000
Alien Armament	$180,000	9 - 22	$1,620,000 - $3,960,000
Total			$6,101,500 - $8,821,500

Terror Missions

When a Terror Mission has begun, there is no ship to recover: the Terror Ship will disgorge its aliens upon some hapless city and take straight off into space. Alien corpses and their armament can still be recovered.

X-COM Base Defense

As with Terror Missions, there is no ship to recover during a Base Defense mission: only corpses and armament can be recovered.

It is presumed that the same number (and type) of aliens present on a Battleship will appear during a base invasion.

Alien Base Assaults

The loot available from alien bases is quite variable. Each base is randomly assembled from several standard modules, which may contain Alien Food, Alien Entertainment, and even UFO Power Sources (and Elerium).

Each base will also contain several hundred Alien Alloys, and many aliens, meaning lots of corpses and lots of armament.

It is presumed that the same number (and type) of aliens present on a Battleship will appear in an alien base.