UFOs (Long War)

UFOs come in a variety of different sizes and configuration, and knowing what works well against what UFO can make the difference between victory and defeat. Below is a short general description of the types of UFOs that the player can encounter in the Long War. Unlike Vanilla, Long War UFOs get better over time. Just as the player researches and upgrades their fighters, the Aliens upgrade their UFOs. This means that new tactics need to be employed during later stages of the game, as late game UFOs can vary wildly from early game UFO of the same type.

It is also important to note that a new UFO Analysis research project will become available after raiding a crashed or landed UFO, one for each type of UFO. Once this Analysis project is completed, your Interceptors will gain +10% damage against the matching UFO type (and +20% more salvage from it too), providing your air force a better chance of taking down UFOs of the same type in future (and for better rewards).

Alien crew is subject to Pod Overflow and Pruning rules; in short, if there are too many aliens to fit in the number of available pods, additional aliens are discarded. Conversely, if this is not the case, the game may randomly use fewer than the maximum number of pods, compacting the aliens into fewer pods. This process does not apply to the Bonus pods.

Small UFOs

Scout

Firepower: 1x Single Plasma
Armor Penetration: 15%
Durability: 750 HP
Armor: 0%
Equipment: 1x UFO Power Source, 2x UFO Flight Computers
Salvage: 28 Alloys, 35/30/25/25 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Scout, Research, Harvest
Crew:

Aliens: 5-11 Crash, 9-11 Landing, or 20-23 Trap; also, +3 aliens at AR > 360

Pods: 2 Soldier Crash or Landing, 3 Soldier & 1 Terror Trap; +1 Soldier 50% of the time (or 100% for Small pods); +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod of 1 outsider (before ABA) / 2 outsiders (after ABA)

These will be the first UFO's that the player will encounter; use Avalanche Missiles to down them efficiently. They will start appearing right from the start of a campaign and continue to show up throughout the game. Scouts are unarmored and lightly armed, but fast moving, meaning that the interception window is very small; expect to have to send 2-3 interceptors after Scouts on Aggressive, at least in the early months when Interceptor accuracy and damage is low. Once you get Laser Cannons, you can safely switch to Defensive Stance; Laser Cannons are enough of a firepower upgrade that you can down Scouts in fewer Interceptions on Defensive that an Avalanche can on Aggressive, and you'll take significantly less damage from enemy UFOs. Following this, you can use Scouts to train up your low-kill pilots; each pilot gains +3% accuracy (max +30%) and +1% damage (no cap) per kill, so try to hit 10 with as many different pilots as you can.

Although they give very little in terms of alloys and elerium, crashed Scouts offer a great opportunity to train up rookie soldiers throughout the early months, due to the extremely low number of aliens encountered. Furthermore, the presence of certain high level enemies (in this case, the guaranteed Outsider pod) grants the squad bonus XP; this is just enough to grant PFCs a level to Specialist without needing to obtain any kills, assuming no soldiers die on the mission. During the mid and lategame you can use crashed Scouts as a safe method of capturing alien captives, farming multiple meld cannisters at low risk, and training up lower level soldiers. Just remember that tough aliens can still appear randomly on any mission, so make sure your squad has a good enough alpha strike. For landed Scouts, keep in mind the chances of a Trap UFO and prepare your squad accordingly.

Fighter

Firepower: 1x Single Plasma (Upgrade at AR > 330: 2x Single Plasma)
Armor Penetration: 35%
Durability: 850 HP
Armor: 60%
Equipment: 1x UFO Power Source, 2x UFO Flight Computers
Salvage: 28 Alloys, 35/30/25/25 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Hunt, Bomb
Crew:

Aliens: 3-9 Crash; also, +3 aliens at AR > 360

Pods: 2 Soldier Crash; +1 Soldier 50% of the time (or 100% for Small pods); +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod of 1 outsider (before ABA) / 2 outsiders (after ABA)

Fighters can be distinguished from Scouts by the purple strobe emanating from their hologlobe signature. They can appear in the first month if you fail to shoot down a Scout, but are guaranteed to start appearing in the second and subsequent months trying to shoot down your satellites. They have slightly more health and significantly more armor than Scouts; enough armor, in fact, to make Stingray Missiles the optimal choice in the early months, at least until you acquire Laser Cannons. Unlike the Scout, the Fighter poses a more serious threat to interceptors, not only due to its higher base armor penetration but also because it gains significantly more damage as it's research progresses, gaining a second Plasma Cannon after the first year is nearly complete. Engage it with Stingrays or Phoenix Cannons on Aggressive Stance, or Laser Cannons (if you have them) on Defensive Stance. A Fighter in high orbit will be targeting your satellites, and if successful you'll have to pay §200 to replace it; try to down it, or at least deal 50% damage to it to prevent it from succeeding. Conversely, a Fighter flying NoE will be bombing cities; allowing it to complete its run unmolested will spike panic by 10 in a target country, but you can reduce this by dealing damage (or negate it entirely if you shoot it down).

Fighters never land and must be shot down for alien materials to be salvaged. They also have significantly less aliens overall than Scouts, with as few as 4 total; a crashed Fighter in March or April is a perfect opportunity to train up a bunch of rookies, so long as you're prepared for the Outsider. For mid-to-late game, crashed Fighters are an easy way to secure 2-3 meld cannisters: bring enough Motion Trackers, Battle Scanners, SMGs, and high mobility troops and spread your squad out so you can collect them all.

Medium UFOs

Raider

Firepower: 1x Single Plasma (Upgrade at AR > 570: 2x Single Plasma)
Armor Penetration: 35%
Durability: 1500 HP
Armor: 25%
Equipment: 2x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers
Salvage: 42 Alloys, 70/60/50/50 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Scout, Research, Harvest, Hunt
Crew:

Aliens: 11-15 Crash, 16-20 Landing, or 32-36 Trap; also, +4 aliens at AR > 360

Pods: 2 Soldier Crash, 3 Soldier Landing, or 4 Soldier & 1 Terror Trap; +1 Soldier 50% of the time (or 100% for Small/Medium pods); +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod of 2 outsiders (before ABA) / 2-3 aliens (after ABA)

These UFOs can start appearing during the latter half of the first month, in place of either Fighters or Scouts. Tougher and better armored than the Scout, the Raider serves a similar purpose, though their higher armor penetration puts you at much greater risk of losing Interceptors to critical hits. Several interceptors are required to reliably bring one down, though a Raider is slow enough in the air that it will typically stick around long enough to be engaged by the 3-4 interceptors you'll likely need to down it in the early game. Both Avalanche and Stingray Missiles are equally as bad against this UFO, though Stingrays are much less variable. A Phoenix Cannon provides improved performance over both Stingray and Avalanche, while also being about as good as either against Fighters and Scouts, making it a decent bridge option to outfit your air force with. But the best counter for early Raiders, as well as Scouts and Fighters, is Laser Cannons.

Raiders are a good way to gather alloys and elerium, as the crew contingent is rather small on crashes. You should be quite careful during landings, however, due to the risk of traps.

Destroyer

Firepower: 1x Single Plasma (Upgrade at AR > 270: 1x Double Plasma)
Armor Penetration: 75% (Upgrade at AR > 540: +25%)
Durability: 1600 HP
Armor: 90% (Upgrade at AR > 540: +70%)
Equipment: 4x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers
Salvage: 42 Alloys, 140/120/100/100 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Hunt, Bomb
Crew:

Aliens: 11-15 Crash; also, +4 aliens at AR > 360

Pods: 2 Soldier Crash; +1 Soldier 50% of the time (or 100% for Small/Medium pods); +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod of 3 outsiders (before ABA) / 2-3 aliens (after ABA)

Well armored and well armed, this aptly named UFO will annihilate unprepared interceptors and roughly fills a similar role to the Fighter. It too can be easily distinguished from the Raider at a glance by the telltale purple strobe on the hologlobe. Appearing as early as June, the Destroyer requires a concerted effort to bring down, and while it's not impossible it is usually not worth the risk early on, and attempting to do so will most likely mean that there are no interceptors left to defend the continent's airspace for several weeks. You can prevent the aliens from fielding them much in the early and mid game if you do a good job shooting down or assaulting all of the Scouts, Fighters, and Raiders that appear, as well as assaulting any larger UFOs that land; this will keep alien resources low enough that Destroyers won't be available.

As the Destroyer is well-armored, Phoenix Cannons (with the Phoenix Coilguns Foundry project) or a Laser Cannon (with the Penetrator Weapons Foundry project) should be used if available to allow a solo kill. If not, a couple of experienced pilots (8+ kills) armed with Laser Cannons and Aircraft Boosters (all three if you have it, but you can get away with just Boost and Aim if you have to) might be able to do the job instead. Mid-game Interceptor Upgrade Foundry Projects like Improved Avionics (+10% Interceptor Aim), UFO Countermeasures (-15% UFO Aim), and Penetrator Weapons (+25% Armor Penetration) are essential to ensuring swift and effective takedowns - once it's equipped with a "Double Plasma" (start of December at the very latest), you'll require Armored Fighters (+1000 Interceptor HP) as well so your Ravens don't get one shot killed by a critical hit, but of course it helps to have it even earlier than that.

Destroyers never land. They must be shot down for alien materials to be salvaged. Their internal structure is based on the Overseer UFO, rather than the Raider: a high-value target to raid for the elerium resources of a Transport, and only the enemy numbers of a Raider. Plus, they contain few aliens, barely more than a crashed Scout, so once you've progressed enough to start downing them semi-reliably you can usually take the opportunity to rush around for the meld canisters as well.

Overseer

Firepower: 1x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma
Armor Penetration: 125%
Durability: 2500 HP
Armor: 200%
Equipment: 4x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers
Salvage: 48 Alloys, 140/120/100/100 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Infiltrate, Retaliate, Command Overwatch
Crew:

Aliens: 15

Pods: 2 Soldier, 1 Terror, 1 Command

Overseers are stealth UFOs that can't be detected until the Hyperwave Relay is built. They are roughly tied with the Battleship as the hardest to shoot down. It's got good armaments (comparable to an Assault Carrier or late game large UFOs); is extremely well-armored; and most importantly, blindingly fast, giving you an extremely small engagement window and making it difficult for your Interceptors to chase around pursue on the hologlobe. Plus, you can't take it down with Laser Cannons, so your pilots will have 15% less aim than what you've been used to for for most of the midgame. An experienced (10+ kill) Firestorm pilot on Balanced stance with an EMP Cannon or Plasma Cannon, all three modules used, and all of the major Interceptor-boosting Foundry Projects can take it down. Notably, Elerium Afterburners and Boost modules are crucial here, each adding +33% engagement time on your Firestorms (or +50% to Ravens, but you won't be able to down it with them).

Overseers never land; they must be shot down for alien materials to be salvaged, and at least one Overseer is required to be downed in order to recover the Ethereal Device and unlock the Temple Ship assault. One thing to keep in mind is that additional Overseers can appear, as opposed to it being a one-time plot event. Given the challenge of shooting this craft down, compared to the material rewards, one may wish to ignore these additional Overseers, although they can provide the large amounts of elerium needed to build most of the lategame tech.

All Overseers have the following forces:

1 Soldier Pod led by a Tough (+3 leader level bonus) Muton Elite leader, with 4 supporting aliens.

1 Soldier Pod led by a Tough (+3 leader level bonus) Muton Elite leader, with 3 supporting aliens.

1 Terror Pod led by a Tough (+3 leader level bonus) Sectopod leader, with 2 supporting aliens.

1 Command Pod led by an Tough (+3 leader level bonus) Ethereal leader, with 2 supporting aliens.

Large UFOs

Abductor

Firepower: 1x Double Plasma (Upgrade at AR > 390: 1x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma)
Armor Penetration: 10%
Durability: 4000 HP
Armor: 150%
Equipment: 2x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers, 6x Alien Stasis Tanks, 2x Alien Surgeries
Salvage: 56 Alloys, 70/60/50/50 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Research, Abduction
Crew:

Aliens: 13-20 Crash, 18-25 Landing, or 38-45 Trap; also, +5 aliens at AR > 360

Pods: 3 Soldier & 1 Terror Crash & Landing, or 4 Soldier & 1 Terror Trap; +1 Soldier 50% of the time (or 100% for Small/Medium pods); +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod of 4 outsiders (before ABA) / 3-5 aliens (after ABA)

These UFO's will pop up randomly and fly directly towards a country, immediately generating either a Landing or Abduction mission. You won't be able to take these on during the early stages of the war. They're heavily armored, so you'll need multiple veteran (10+ kill) pilots with lots of armor penetration stacking to take one on: the Penetrator Weapons Foundry project (+25% armor penetration) is mandatory, and then either Phoenix Cannons with the Phoenix Coilgun Foundry Project, or Laser Cannons with the Supercapacitors Foundry project, plus generous Aircraft Booster module usage. A single veteran pilot in a Firestorm can also do the job, thanks to its significantly increased armor penetration and longer engagement window.

That being said, it is never necessary to shoot down Abductors, as they will not go after satellites or go on bombing runs over cities. Abductors are exclusively used for either Abduction or Research missions, both of which allow you to thwart its mission with a ground assault. It is significantly harder to shoot down an Abductor than it is to let it land and then handle the Abduction mission. Also keep in mind that you have a very narrow window to take one down, as they head straight for their Abduction target, so it is unlikely you'll have time to send two craft: if you're going to take one down, you'll have to go all in with boosters. The reward for shooting down and successfully assaulting one of these crafts are plenty, but the difference between the credits received from salvage versus the Council reward for the Abduction mission can be minimal, so only shoot it down if there is some strategic value in doing so, e.g. you you're short on alloys and elerium (not cash), or you want to cost the aliens resources to rebuild the UFO.

Harvester

Firepower: 1x Double Plasma
Armor Penetration: 15%
Durability: 6000 HP
Armor: 100%
Equipment: 2x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers, 6x Alien Stasis Tanks, 2x Alien Surgeries
Salvage: 56 Alloys, 70/60/50/50 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Harvest
Crew:

Aliens: 13-20 Crash, 18-25 Landing, or 38-45 Trap; also, +5 at AR > 360

Pods: 3 Soldier & 1 Terror Crash & Landing, or 4 Soldier & 1 Terror Trap; +1 Soldier 50% of the time (or 100% for Small/Medium pods); +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod of 4 outsiders (before ABA) / 3-5 aliens (after ABA)

These UFOs sometimes pass through airspace with a satellite during the early stages of the war. Like Abductors, going against one early is a very unwise decision as it can decimate interceptors rather quickly, and you'll want experienced pilots in well-equipped interceptors to have a good chance of taking them down. Furthermore, these UFOs always land to gather materials, so any time you see one you can just assault it after it lands and enjoy much better salvage than you would for a crash. During the early months this can be extremely difficult, but if successful, you gain large amounts of resources while disrupting the aliens own resource-gathering endeavors. This limits their ability to field powerful UFO types against your Satellites (e.g. Destroyers, Battleships) and limits the number of aggressive missions (e.g. Research, Terror, Bomb, Hunt, Retaliate) they can field against you. However, this will also reduce the meld rewards received per canister.

If you can reliably clear out landed ones, but not fast enough to get to the Meld canisters on this lengthy mission: don't worry. The large quantities of elerium and alloys, as well as the intact Power Sources and Flight Computers will probably be more useful to secure; no need to risk an entire squad wipe rushing through for 2-3 meld canisters and accidentally pull 30 aliens down on you all at once.

Transport

Firepower: 1x Double Plasma
Armor Penetration: 0%
Durability: 5000 HP
Armor: 160%
Equipment: 4x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers, 10x Alien Food, 8x Alien Stasis Tanks, 2x Alien Surgeries
Salvage: 70 Alloys, 140/120/100/100 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Harvest, Infiltrate
Crew:

Aliens: 22-39 Crash, 30-39 Landing, or 40 Trap; also, +5 aliens at AR > 360, to a maximum of 40 regular aliens

Pods: 3 Soldier & 2 Terror; +1 Terror for Small/Medium pods; +1 Soldier 50% of the time (or 100% if Small pods); +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod of 3-6 Crash / 6 Landing aliens; plus a random level 9 boss pod with 5 supporting aliens (after ABA)

This UFO is functionally identical to the Supply Barge from vanilla, but it has even heavier armor and packs some pretty formidable weaponry. The vast majority of Transports are landing to harvest resources, and tend to show up often when aliens are resource starved, such as in the very first month or when you're doing a very good job in the midgame constantly shooting down every UFO they field. You will likely never see a Transport that doesn't land, unless you're losing the campaign rather badly and leaving the aliens free to launch Infiltration missions, which instantly force a target country to leave the XCOM project regardless of its current panic levels.

Assaulting Transports early game is very risky, but can give your campaign a flying start, both in captured artifacts and denying the aliens resources for their UFO sorties. And if you continue to keep the aliens on the back foot, they won't be able to field powerful UFOs like Destroyers or Battleships that often (if at all) to conduct bombing campaigns or hunt down your Satellites, allowing you to snowball even further. But always keep in mind that enemy troop counts are substantial with landed larges and that good cover is quite sparse. Find a good spot to sit tight, eliminate as many patrolling pods as you can with overwatch ambushes, and then move through the map carefully and systematically destroying one pod at a time, leaving the command pod for last. The 6 Overseer Command pod can be decidedly lethal to an unprepared, low-level squad by itself, let alone if there are multiple other surviving pods it can call in as reinforcements.

Terror Ship

Firepower: 1x Double Plasma (Upgrade at AR > 390: 1x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma)
Armor Penetration: 0%
Durability: 6000 HP
Armor: 125%
Equipment: 4x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers, 10x Alien Food, 8x Alien Stasis Tanks, 2x Alien Surgeries
Salvage: 70 Alloys, 140/120/100/100 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Research, Terrorize
Crew:

Aliens: 22-39 Crash, 30-39 Landing, or 40 Trap; also, +5 aliens at AR > 360, to a maximum of 40 regular aliens

Pods: 3 Soldier & 2 Terror; +1 Terror for Small/Medium pods; +1 Soldier 50% of the time (or 100% for Small pods); +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 command pod of 3-6 Crash / 6 Landing aliens; plus a random level 9 boss pod with 5 supporting aliens (after ABA)

Structurally identical to Transport (albeit with different armaments), you may encounter these in high-panic continents, but won't be able to take them on until lategame. If they don't land, they give advance warning on the location of terror missions, since they do a fly around the target country before the bulk of the alien forces are inserted via an Assault Carrier. Shooting down the Terror Ship won't stop the Terror mission, but it does give you a large chunk of salvage and cost the aliens resources. Terror Ships that land, on the other hand, are doing Research missions, and can be assaulted for their valuable rewards.

In either case, shooting one down is neither necessary nor easy, and typically something you only consider while snowballing. If you want to try on a Raven, you'll need a veteran (10+ kill) pilot with at minimum a Phoenix Cannon upgraded with not just the Phoenix Coilguns Foundry Project and a full assortment of boosters but also all the notable Interceptor Combat Foundry upgrades unlocked via Advanced Aerospace Concepts including Penetrator Weapons, Improved Avionics, Wingtip Sparrowhawks, Armored Fighters, etc. Firestorms make it significantly easier, and a Phoenix Cannon + Phoenix Coilguns or a Laser Cannon + the Supercapacitors Foundry project and minimal other upgrades will do.

Very Large UFOs

Assault Carrier

Firepower: 1x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma (Upgrade at AR > ???: 2x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma)
Armor Penetration: 90%
Durability: 8000 HP
Armor: 140%
Equipment: 4x UFO Power Sources, 6x UFO Flight Computers, 2x Fusion Cores
Salvage: 84 Alloys, 140/120/100/100 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Terrorize, Retaliate, Research
Crew:

Aliens: 26-30 Crash (+5 aliens at AR > 360), or 38 Land

Pods: 2 Soldier & 5 Terror; +1 Terror for Small pods; +1 Soldier for Small/Medium pods; +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod with 6 supporting aliens, plus 1 Boss pod with 4 supporting aliens

A less armored variant of the Battleship, it sacrifices some durability and armaments to allow it to rapidly unload large quantities of troops for large-scale ground operations. For the vast majority of the game, you won't be able to shoot these down, and will be powerless to stop any Terror Missions or XCOM Base Defense missions it spawns. It can land, however, but only if the aliens have extremely high resources; this allows you the opportunity to come back in the late game if you have a particularly disastrous series of months and the aliens surge ahead in resources, as well as if a campaign stretches into year 3 and aliens monthly resource income snowballs high enough.

It has moderately less firepower than a Battleship, and noticeably less durability than both a Battleship and an Overseer. Ultimately, it offers the same rewards for shooting it down at less risk to your Interceptors, and is generally responsible for some of the most dangerous and difficult missions of the game: shooting it down means replacing that tough mission with a significantly less difficult one. A Firestorm on Balanced stance, crewed by a top pilot (10+ kills) with the full assortment of Interceptor-boosting Foundry projects, including either Supercapacitors to boost the Laser Cannons damage or Phoenix Coilguns to boost Phoenix Cannon damage, as well as all three Aircraft Booster modules, could potentially shoot one down in a single attempt. In the late game while you're waiting to tech into Plasma and/or EMP, you could potentially avoid some Terror missions and XCOM Base Defense missions by shooting down the Assault Carrier before it can arrive at its destination, as well as potentially farm Fusion Cores for a Fusion Lance and/or Blaster Launcher. If your Firestorms are armed with Plasma, EMP, or Fusion weaponry instead, it becomes very easy to close out the game by reliably downing these.

Battleship

Firepower: 1x Fusion Lance
Armor Penetration: 125%
Durability: 9000 HP
Armor: 180%
Equipment: 4x UFO Power Sources, 6x UFO Flight Computers, 2x Fusion Cores
Salvage: 84 Alloys, 140/120/100/100 Elerium (difficulty-dependent)
Missions: Scout, Hunt, Bomb, Infiltrate
Alien Crew:

Aliens: 26-30 Crash (+5 aliens at AR > 360)

Pods: 5 Soldier & 2 Terror; +1 Terror for Small pods; +1 Soldier for Small/Medium pods; +1 Soldier at AR > 360

Bonus Pods: 1 Command pod with 6 supporting aliens, plus 1 Boss pod with 4 supporting aliens

As the name implies, these massive ships are some of the most dangerous craft an Interceptor can go against. They are highly armored, packed to the teeth with weaponry, and very frustrating to deal with when they appear; unlike all of the large UFO types, Battleships will never land. They'll spawn in place of Scouts, Fighters, Raiders and Destroyers to target your satellites or bomb countries, which means you either shoot them down or pay the price of panic or satellite replacement costs. That said, DON'T engage them at any point except very late in the game when you have almost all possible Interceptor upgrades; you won't have any possibility of shooting it down, and they can even one-shot Interceptors without health and armor upgrades. All you can really do when one appears is watch powerlessly and hope you don't see another one any time soon.

Fortunately, Battleships may only be fielded in this manner if the aliens are snowballing (i.e. you do an extremely poor job shooting down their UFOs over a stretch of time or let them build and maintain too many bases), or you allow the campaign to stretch on well into the latter half of the second year and especially into the third. Conversely, if you're doing well or even just holding out decently well in the air, they'll almost never show up... except as a harbinger of arguably one of the most difficult missions of the entire campaign, the XCOM HQ Base Defense, where it will be used to shoot down the satellite over your starting country. This will allow the follow up Assault Carrier (which delivers the troops used in the mission) to land at your base undetected, potentially catching you by surprise as it triggers the mission without warning. Fortunately, this mission type is rare; see the UFO Missions page for details.

Battleships can only realistically be taken down with 10+ kill pilots in Firestorms with Plasma/EMP Cannons (or Fusion Lances from downed Assault Carriers) with max Foundry upgrades and triple modules; 1 might work but 2 should guarantee it. Once you've downed one, you can try and use the Fusion Cores within to build Fusion Lances to make it easier to take down more, but realistically you can finish the campaign more easily than you can build an air force that can routinely take down Battleships.

Other UFO Statistics

Salvage

The values listed above are the salvage obtained from a landed UFO. Crash sites provide significantly less salvage. Each individual alien device has its own specific chance of surviving a crash site:

25% per Flight Computer

20% per Power Source

30% per Alien Surgery

30% per Stasis Tank

50% per Alien Food

100% per Fusion Core

Each UFO class allows for a base number of alloys when salvaged, but only a fraction of that survives the crash site. However, all percentages are additively increased if an EMP weapon is used to down the UFO.

Alloys recovered from a crash site: 30% to 45% of the base value

EMP Cannon Bonus: +20% Device Survival Chance & Alloys Salvaged (applied additively)

Elerium rewards scale directly with the base number of Power Sources the UFO awards. The amount per Power Source is set by difficulty, but each destroyed Power Source takes with it some or all of the Elerium stored within. This amount isn't improved by using an EMP Cannon, but since the survival rate of Power Sources is, you should still expect to see an increase in the amount of Elerium recovered from crash sites.

Elerium for an intact Power Source: 35/30/25/25 on Normal/Classic/Brutal/Impossible

Elerium recovered per destroyed Power Source: 0% to 30% of base value

UFO Weapons

Weapon	Hit Chance %	Range	Fire Rate	Damage	Armor Pen.
Single Plasma	18/33/48	Long	1.15	450	0%
Double Plasma	25/40/55	Long	1.25	800	20%
Fusion Lance	30/45/60	Long	1.25	1300	50%

UFO Upgrades

All UFOs gain an additional +75 HP, +8 damage and +2% aim (capped at 95% of accuracy) for every 30 points of Alien Research, to a maximum of +2400 HP, +256 damage, and +64% aim at 960 points. Some UFOs will also gain upgraded weapons over time.

UFO Armor vs Damage Penetration

Raw formula:

Penetration = Ship Armor Penetration + Weapon Armor Penetration
Mitigation = Armor - Penetration; min 0%, max 95%
Damage = Damage * (100% - Mitigation)

The above formula for armor damage reduction can be summed up as (Armor - Penetration) with a low cap of 0% and a high cap of 95%. The formula allows for ships AND weapons to have armor penetration that stacks. Thus the same weapons will cause different amounts of damage when mounted on different UFOs.

A comparison of high end weapons against a Battleship gives an idea of various weapons effectiveness against heavily armored targets. Note that alien research increases UFO health steadily over the course of the game so these "minimum" number of hits would only be true during the first month of the game.

Battleship: 9000 base health (+75 per 30 alien research), 180% armor

Plasma Cannon: 650 dmg, 110% pen, rate of fire 1.00/s, Balanced Accuracy 40%

Damage reduction per hit 180-110=70%, actual damage per hit becomes 195, or a minimum of 47 hits per Battleship. Requiring an average of 117 seconds of firing to score 47 hits at 40% accuracy, RoF 1/s. As accuracy increases time-to-kill on the UFO reduces towards a minimum of 47 seconds with 100% accuracy (95% accuracy is the maximum for Plasma Cannons).

EMP Cannon: 310 dmg, 150% pen, RoF 0.55/s, Balanced Accuracy 30%

Damage reduction per hit 180-150=30%, actual damage per hit becomes 217, or a minimum of 44 hits per Battleship. Requiring an estimated of 79 seconds of firing to score 44 hits at 30% accuracy, RoF 0.55/s. As accuracy increases time-to-kill on the UFO reduces towards a minimum of 24 seconds with 100% accuracy (85% accuracy is the maximum for EMP Cannons).

Fusion Lance: 1200 dmg, 130% pen, RoF 1.25/s, Balanced Accuracy 30%

Damage reduction per hit 180-130=50%, actual damage per hit becomes 600, or a minimum of 13 hits per Battleship. Requiring an estimated of 53 seconds of firing to score 13 hits at 30% accuracy, RoF 1.25/s. As accuracy increases time-to-kill on the UFO reduces towards a minimum of 16 seconds with 100% accuracy (85% accuracy is the maximum for Fusion Lances).

UFO Bounties

UFOs that sustain excessive damage may be completely destroyed by an attack. In this case, the Council pays a bounty, depending upon the UFO type. Additionally, a small amount of alloys is recovered.

UFO	Cash bounty	Alloys Recovered		Average Alloys
		With Alien Metallurgy	Without Alien Metallurgy	With Alien Metallurgy	Without Alien Metallurgy
Scout or Fighter	§100	2-7	2-5	4.5	3.5
Destroyer or Raider	§200	2-11	2-7	6.5	4.5
Abductor or Harvester	§300	2-14	2-9	8	5.5
Transport or Terror Ship	§500	2-17	2-11	9.5	6.5
Battleship or Assault Carrier	§750	2-21	2-13	11.5	7.5
Overseer	§500	2-12	2-8	7	5

The exact value is rolled randomly every time a UFO is destroyed, and each value in the range is equally likely.

See also

• Air Combat
• UFO Sorties