Weapons (EU2012)

The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

For the original UFO: Enemy Unknown (1994) version, see Weapons

For the version that appears in The Bureau, see Weapons (Bureau)

Tech Levels

Your soldiers' primary weapons will fall under three tech tiers/levels: Conventional, Laser, and Plasma.

Conventional Weapons

Conventional weapons include the X-9 Assault Rifle, the standard issue for all XCOM rookies, Supports and Assaults, as well as Class-specific ballistic weapons, and the Frag Grenade. You have unlimited amounts of conventional weapons.

Conventional weapons can't destroy terrain features, with the exception of the Frag Grenade and the Rocket Launcher, which is one of their biggest drawbacks when compared to Laser/Plasma weapons. Their Damage level is adequate against the initial aliens encountered but as advanced races start to appear they will become less and less useful.

Conventional Weapons
Pistol
Assault Rifle
Shotgun
Sniper Rifle
LMG
Rocket Launcher
Minigun (EW DLC)

Laser Weapons

The Laser level is one of the larger priorities for early research. Descriptions imply some pre-war laser weapons development, but the attempts were failures due to overheating issues (and may explain why a laser shotgun has pump-action: some kind of cooling mechanism), and that the models XCOM produces are just on this side of "safe" and have been made operable by techniques derived from captured alien weapons. In Enemy Within, EXALT operatives will eventually field their own designs, which you can use if you've completed the appropreate research. However, this will most likely be long after you've completed on making full sets for your own squad(s).

It is only required to complete research on 3 topics to unlock all 6 laser weapons: Beam Weapons (Laser Pistol and Laser Rifle), Precision Lasers (Laser Sniper Rifle and Scatter Laser) and Heavy Lasers (Heavy Laser and Laser Cannon for aircraft).

Interrogating a Sectoid halves all laser-research time. Their engineering requires the durable alien alloys. Council requests will occasionally ask for these, and you can agree to them at a fair markup of the production cost to your benefit.

Plasma Weapons

The Plasma level weapons are reverse-engineered alien technology, and even carry some improvements, in the case of Alloy Cannons, Blaster Launcher, and Plasma Sniper Rifles. When these are fully acquired, the playing field becomes more equal, but you'll be also facing some of the toughest aliens. Naturally, their research takes the longest time and requires captured advanced materials, and will often be among your final research projects. Research time can be halved by interrogating a Muton, and Engineering requires both alloys and Elerium to power them. However, capturing an alien weapon (either by stunning an alien, or MCing it and letting it get killed), recovers it intact, and can be modified for human ergonomics at no cost (once that kind of weapon has been researched). Late-game, these will be frequently be requested by Council nations, and can be thusly sold for a massive profit.

Weapon Stats

Precision Weapons

The game has a bug when calculating Critical Damage for Precision Weapons that gives different damage results during missions than the weapons stats listed in the Barracks. Instead of the 3 listed values, the damage output will only consist of 2 results, with one having a 66% chance of being chosen, and the 2nd a 33% chance.

Pistols

Pistols
Weapon	Base Damage	Listed Crit Damage ¹	Actual Crit Damage ²	Critical Chance	Range	Class	Terrain Damage	Abilities
Pistol	1-2	2-4	2 or 3	0	Medium	All except Heavy	10	Unlimited ammo
Laser Pistol	1-3	3-5	3 or 4	10	Medium	All except Heavy	125	Unlimited ammo
Plasma Pistol	2-4	5-7	4 or 6	0	Medium	All except Heavy	125	Unlimited ammo
¹ Listed in the Barracks. ² Actual results during missions (EU and EW DLC), bold value more likely to appear. See Random Damage for more details.

Pistols are secondary weapons, designed to be carried as a complementary sidearm, to be used either in regular fire or in Overwatch mode.
They have low power and nearly all have a zero chance for critical hits but they don't need to be reloaded.
Pistol Critical Hit chance, Aim Bonus, and Base Damage of can be increased via Foundry research. Pistol upgrades don't stack with S.C.O.P.E. and its upgrade.
Generally speaking, upgraded Pistols should be given to Snipers, then to shotgun wielding Assault soldiers (for Overwatch at longer ranges).
Pistols cannot be used by the Heavy class due to them being replaced by Rocket Launchers.
Gunslinger ability adds +2 damage to all pistols.

Rifles

Rifles
Weapon	Base Damage	Listed Crit Damage ¹	Actual Crit Damage ²	Critical Chance	Range	Class	Terrain Damage	Abilities
Assault Rifle	2-4	5-7	4 or 6	10	Medium	Assault/Support/Rookie	20
Laser Rifle	4-6	8-10	7 or 9	10	Medium	Assault/Support/Rookie	125
Light Plasma Rifle	4-6	8-10	7 or 9	10	Medium	Assault/Support/Rookie	125	Aim +10
Plasma Rifle	6-8	11-13	10 or 12	10	Medium	Assault/Support/Rookie	125	None
¹ Listed in the Barracks. ² Actual results during missions (EU and EW DLC), bold value more likely to appear. See Random Damage for more details.

Assault Rifles are most common squad weapon, offering medium firepower and versatility.
They can be used by Rookies, Assault and Support classes, but not Snipers or Heavies.
They are an upgrade from pistols but their damage ratings are below those of specialized firearms (Shotgun, LMG, Sniper Rifle)
They are both capable of Overwatch and Suppression, as well as inflicting Critical Hits.
Assault Rifles can fire 4 shots (before Ammo Conservation upgrade).

Shotguns

Shotguns
Weapon	Base Damage	Listed Crit Damage ¹	Actual Crit Damage ²	Critical Chance	Range	Class	Terrain Damage	Abilities
Shotgun	3-5	6-8	6 or 7	20	Short	Assault	40	Limited range
Laser Scatter	5-7	9-11	9 or 10	20	Short	Assault	125	Limited range
Alloy Cannon	8-10	14-16	13 or 15	20	Short	Assault	125	Limited range
¹ Listed in the Barracks. ² Actual results during missions (EU and EW DLC), bold value more likely to appear. See Random Damage for more details.

Shotguns are close-range, high-power firearms capable of inflicting Critical Hits.
All shotguns receive a aim penalty if the target is too far. However, they receive a higher Aim bonus at closer range relative to rifles.
Shotguns can fire 4 shots (before Ammo Conservation upgrade).

LMG and Heavy Rifles

LMG and Heavy Rifles
Weapon	Base Damage	Listed Crit Damage ¹	Actual Crit Damage ²	Critical Chance	Range	Class	Terrain Damage
LMG	3-5	6-8	6 or 7	0	Medium	Heavy	60
Heavy Laser	5-7	9-11	9 or 10	0	Medium	Heavy	125
Heavy Plasma	8-10	14-16	13 or 15	0	Medium	Heavy	125
¹ Listed in the Barracks. ² Actual results during missions (EU and EW DLC), bold value more likely to appear. See Random Damage for more details.

Heavy rifles are an upgrade to Assault Rifles on damage capability.
Due to their size they can only be carried by Heavy troopers.
In addition to Overwatch, they also offer the possibility of Suppression for soldiers who possess that ability.
LMG offers significant less ammo before reloading. 3/6 rounds (before/after Ammo Conservation upgrade), compare to Assault Rifle's 4/8 rounds. This means LMG is less efficient at Suppression (spends 2/3 of ammo) when compared to Support's Rifle Suppression (consumes only 1/2 of ammo).

Sniper Rifles

Sniper Rifles
Weapon	Base Damage	Listed Crit Damage ¹	Actual Crit Damage ²	Critical Chance	Range	Class	Terrain Damage	Abilities
Sniper Rifle	3-5	6-8	6 or 7	25	Long	Sniper	30	Limited move
Laser Sniper Rifle	5-7	9-11	9 or 10	30	Long	Sniper	125	Limited move
Plasma Sniper Rifle	8-10	14-16	13 or 15	35	Long	Sniper	125	Limited move
¹ Listed in the Barracks. ² Actual results during missions (EU and EW DLC), bold value more likely to appear. See Random Damage for more details.

Sniper rifles have the best Damage and Critical Hit chance (which increases with each tech upgrade) of all non-explosive firearms.
They also have a range of 100 (63 tiles), although it requires for the Sniper to have the Squadsight ability to shoot targets out of their own sight.
Units revealed by a Battle Scanner are counted as being in the throwing Sniper's own vision for firing purposes (if they don't have Squadsight, for example.)
Their drawbacks are their restrictions on movement and firing (which can be addressed with the Snap Snot ability with a -20% Aim penalty, -10% in EW DLC).
Unlike other weapons (Assault Rifle, LMG, Shotgun). Sniper rifles will receive a Aim penalty if the target is too close. However, this does not mean that Sniper Rifle will receive bonus against distant targets. It will just receive no penalty.
Sniper Rifles can fire 5 shots (before Ammo Conservation upgrade).

S.H.I.V. Weapons

S.H.I.V. Weapons
Weapon	Base Damage	Listed Crit Damage ¹	Actual Crit Damage ²	Critical Chance	Range	Class	Terrain Damage	Abilities
S.H.I.V. Minigun	5-7	9-11	9 or 10	10	Medium	S.H.I.V.	80
S.H.I.V. Laser	7-9	12-14	12 or 13	15	Medium	S.H.I.V.	125	+15 Aim
S.H.I.V. Plasma	9-11	15-17	15 or 16	20	Medium	S.H.I.V.	125	+25 Aim
¹ Listed in the Barracks. ² Actual results during missions (EU and EW DLC), bold value more likely to appear. See Random Damage for more details.

MEC Primary Weapons

MEC Primary Weapons (EW DLC)
Weapon	Base Damage	Listed Crit Damage ¹	Actual Crit Damage ²	Critical Chance	Range	Class	Terrain Damage	Abilities
Minigun	4-6	8-10	7 or 9	10	Medium	MEC Trooper	60	Collateral Damage
Railgun	6-8	11-13	10 or 12	10	Medium	MEC Trooper	125	Collateral Damage
Particle Cannon	9-11	15-17	15 or 16	10	Medium	MEC Trooper	125	Collateral Damage
¹ Listed in the Barracks. ² Actual results during missions (EU and EW DLC), bold value more likely to appear. See Random Damage for more details.

These weapons can only be used by MEC Troopers, a new class of soldiers introduced on the Enemy Within DLC.
Unlike other precision weapons, they allow for a MEC Trooper to directly target and destroy terrain through the Collateral Damage ability, although it will consume a lot of the weapon's ammunition.
MEC Troopers with the Vital Point Targeting ability gain a static +2 damage bonus against any enemy which you have completed Autopsy research for. This includes EXALT soldiers, even though you can't autopsy them.
MEC Trooper weapons have the lowest ammo of any in the game, containing only 2 shots. Expanded Storage ability increases ammo by 50% to 3 shots, and stacks with the Ammo Conservation upgrade (+100% ammo). Collateral Damage will always consume all of the weapon's ammo, regardless of its capacity.

Other Precision Weapons

Other Precision Weapons
Weapon	Damage	Actual Crit Damage ²	Critical Chance	Class/Unit	Terrain Damage	Abilities
Arc Thrower	0	NA	0	Any	0	No reaction shot
Drone Beam	1-3	3 or 4	0	Drone	2	Repair
Cyberdisc Cannon	7-9	12 or 13	10	Cyberdisc	125	Overwatch
Death Blossom	7-9	NA	10	Cyberdisc	2
Chest Cannon	9-11	15 or 16	0	Sectopod	801	Overwatch
Psi Lance	10	NA	25	Ethereal	0

Area Weapons

Launchers

Launchers
Weapon	Damage	Range¹	Critical Chance	Class	Terrain Damage	Blast Radius	Abilities
Rocket Launcher	6	27	N/A	Heavy	500	336	Limited move No reload
Blaster Launcher	9	100	N/A	Heavy	500	336	Limited move No reload
Poison	1	27	N/A	Thin Man	0	175
Cluster Bomb	6	27	25	Sectopod	250	144	Limited move No reload
Flamethrower EW DLC	6	8 tiles	N/A	MEC Trooper	sets on fire	60° arc	Fire takes time to destroy cover
Grenade Launcher EW DLC	4	17	N/A	MEC Trooper	125	300
Proximity Mine Launcher EW DLC	8	17	N/A	MEC Trooper	125	300
Electro Pulse EW DLC	5	0	N/A	MEC Trooper	0	432	Disables robotic units for 1 turn
¹ Divide by 1.5 to get range in tiles.

Launchers can pack a high explosive charge capable of inflicting damage over a large area and knocking out terrain features.
They have restrictions on movement and firing and are usually 1 shot weapons.

Throwables

Throwables
Weapon	Damage	Range¹	Critical Chance	Class	Terrain Damage	Blast Radius	Abilities
Frag Grenade	3	15	0	Any	250	240
Alien Grenade	5	17	0	Any	250	240
Smoke Grenade	0	15	0	Support	0	336	Defense +20-40 or (+20 Will, +20 Aim, +10% Critical Chance)
Battle Scanner	0	27	0	Sniper	0	225	Grants temporal vision for remote areas
Needle Grenade EW DLC	3	15	0	Any	0	528	Doesn't destroy cover
Gas Grenade EW DLC	1	15	0	Any	0	240	Damage applied per turn (for 1-3 turns), -20 Aim, -25% movement
Ghost Grenade EW DLC	0	15	0	Any	0	240	Causes units in radius to become invisible
Flashbang Grenade EW DLC	0	15	0	Any	0	240	-50% aim and movement for enemy units in radius for 1 turn
Mimic Beacon EW DLC	0	27	0	Any	0	2880	Lures aliens to an area
¹ Divide by 1.5 to get range in tiles.

Melee Weapons

Weapon	Damage	Critical Chance	Class	Terrain Damage	Abilities
Chryssalid Claw	6	20	Chryssalid	1	Implants an egg on kill
Zombie Fist	8	0	Zombie	1
Muton Blade	9	33	Berserker	125
Seeker tentacles EW DLC	2	0	Seeker	1	Strangles
Kinetic Strike Module EW DLC	12	0	MEC Trooper	high	+4 mobility