UFO - Enemy Unknown


 PLAYING TIPS:

 Getting Started
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 First of all, check your soldiers and sack any that have a firing
 accuracy of less than about 60. Keep hiring and firing soldiers until
 you have 10 good marksmen. This may take some time but don't worry.
 The funding countries won't kick up a fuss as long as you shoot down
 the UFOs with your interceptors. By the way, you don't have to go for
 every UFO with your Skyranger - the larger ones are the most worthwhile.
 Buy three Avalanche launchers and missiles and equip your interceptors
 with Avalanches only. They are undoubtedly the most efficient. While
 you're at it, buy some Electro Flares and put them on your Skyranger.
 They come in handy for your graveyard shifts.
 As for your soldiers, equip them with rifles and grenades, then hire 30
 more scientists and 10 more engineers. Let your scientists research laser
 weapons technology to produce laser rifles for your soldiers.
 If you still have some money left, start building your second base.
 The most efficient way is to build the bases roughly on the equator.
 If the first one is located in Florida, the second one should be built
 on the other side of the globe, in India or Africa. The next base could
 be in Japan, on the tiny Pacific islands or in Europe.

 Meeting The Enemy
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Now you should be ready for your first encounter with the aliens.
 If you've shot down a UFO, save the game. If it's dark, wait until
 daybreak before you send in your Skyranger. If you can't wait, don't
 forget those Electro Flares. Move your soldiers under your Skyranger
 first and let them check the area. Turn them around on the spot, until
 you've discovered the surroundings, then cautiously move them on, always
 leaving them some movement points for their automatic reactions.
 After a successful fight you'll return with lots of useful stuff.
 Don't sell it all, let your scientists research it. Start with Alien
 Alloys (which leads to Personnel Armour) and then go for Heavy Plasma
 (which leads to Plasma Beam). If you've already researched Plasma Beam,
 equip your interceptors with these weapons as soon as possible.
 Keep all elerium if possible, it will be important later in the game. Of
 course, if an alien attack on your base leaves you with 5000 units of
 elerium, you can sell 4000.

 Mind Games
 ~~~~~~~~~~
 If you are too successful, the aliens will start attacking your bases.
 Sometimes they terrorise cities as well so just send out your Skyranger
 and get rid of them. The aliens can only mind control your soldiers if
 at least one alien can see them. There are three types of alien that can
 do this: Sectoid Leaders, Sectoid Commanders and all Ethereals.
 Buy stun rods and try to catch one of them alive (having built an Alien
 Containment first, of course). Research the living alien. Now you can
 build a Psi Lab and develop your soldiers' psionic abilities. Some
 soldiers will get mind controlled more easily than others, so sack them.
 Recruit and sack soldiers and train them until you've got at least two
 or three with a psionic strength of 90 or more. Put your super brains
 on your Avenger or Skyranger and let them mind control the aliens.
 Even if they don't succeed in the beginning, the practice will accelerate
 the development of their skills. Once their psionic abilities have
 reached 50 or more, they can even control Ethereals.
 Try to catch living alien navigators, physicians and engineers to
 research them. Alien navigators or engineers can tell you something
 about alien crafts and their weapons or about new facilities for
 tracking UFOs.
 Finally, you'll have to catch a few alien commanders. They'll tell you
 something about 'Cydonia'. Don't waste your time and money with weak
 interceptors. Research the Avenger, send it to Cydonia and kick some
 alien butt.

 Tactics
 ~~~~~~~
 You can use the Blaster Launcher like a can opener. Make your own
 entrance and send your soldiers through. If you don't need anything
 from the craft, simply shoot it to pieces with four Blaster Launchers
 and send in two or three soldiers to clean up the rest.
 In a base, try to find the control room as soon as possible.
 The first Blaster Bomb goes right through the tiny window at the side
 and opens a hole in the second wall. The second Blaster Bomb goes
 through this window to the elevator, then go up and left or right.
 Enjoy the explosions! Even if you don't like this form of fighting,
 it's worthwhile seeing it. You can find the elevator even in complete
 darkness. If you put the cursor on it, you'll see the elevator rays.
 In the middle of the game, you should aim to have five to eight bases.
 In the first base you should have two Psi Labs, two Workshops, 20-30
 soldiers (two Avengers with about 10 soldiers each and 10 left behind
 to protect the base), 50 scientists and 80-100 engineers.
 Building an Avenger with only a few engineers takes a lot of time.
 Above all, save the game as often as possible. If you lose a battle,
 or something goes drastically wrong, you can just reload and try again.