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.