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 several 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.
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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.