This page is intended for players who finish the game frequently on the higher difficulties (Classic/Impossible/Ironman/Second Wave) and would like to keep the challenge alive or to add a little extra spice to their games.

Naturally it is quite easy to handicap yourself while playing the game: using only conventional weaponry, no armor, only pistols, etc. Some of these situations are detailed here, in addition to exploits/cheats/tactics that make the game easier, which you might want to refrain from using.

Feel free to suggest more or try any of these ideas (or all of them!). Some may make the game very hard or even impossible to win. Most of these ideas are based on a [[Making_the_Game_Harder|similar page]] for the original game.

==Second Wave Settings==
[[Second Wave (EU2012)|Second Wave]] is designed to enhance the game play experience. Most settings increase the difficulty level but others have a mixed effects after players have mastered them.

===Maximum Difficulty===
* '''Damage Roulette''' - random damage can affect both sides in battle but it limits more the planning of the human player than the AI, specially when playing without enemy HP bars visible (one of the game options). You'll only know if that Plasma Sniper Rifle shot dealt 19 or 1 damage to that still standing Ethereal if you hit it with the next shot...
* '''More Than Human''' - a must have. Limits the use of Psionic soldiers to 1 or 2 on each game, instead of bringing a full Psionic squad and walking completely over the aliens. And, with '''The Greater Good''' you may also start considering how wise it is to bring your only Psionic soldier to every fight due to the rare chance of finding another one.
* '''The Greater Good''' - requires a live alien to research Psionics.
* '''Red Fog''' - affects only XCOM soldiers. Makes prolonged fights more difficult due to the loss of stats from injuries in combat.
* '''Results Driven''' - funding is affected by panic level. Once full satellite coverage is achieved it becomes less effective.
* '''Diminishing Returns''' - satellite cost greatly increases after each one is build (can be double).
* '''Total Loss''' - losing a fully equipped soldiers will now also cost greatly in credits and material resources, besides its training.
* '''War Wariness''' - funding will drop each month until it reaches zero. Period.
* '''Alternate Sources''' - HQ power costs are doubled. More credits and construction space required for Engineering.

===Mixed Difficulty===
*'''Marathon''' - despite doubling or trebling the time required for injury recovery, research, etc., a player actually has more time to train soldiers because Marathon gives more missions with the same type of aliens before the next higher type of alien species or UFO appears.
*'''New Economy''' & '''High Stakes''' - both the randomization of the countries funding and the mission rewards can work either way, either helping or challenging the player. But unlike in the battlefield it is more easy to correct any mistakes.
* '''Not Created Equally''' & '''Hidden Potential''' - if you have the credits, you can just sack lower stat rookies and replace them with better ones.
* '''E-115''' - stockpiling Elerium becomes more difficult but at the same time selling it right after UFO recovery brings much needed credits in the early game.
*'''Absolutely Critical''' - actually balances the effect of '''Damage Roulette''' due to the certainty it provides of the shot inflicting some Critical Damage. The aliens will also benefit from it but it also makes the player to use more deadly flanking maneuvers.

==Psionics==
===Offensive Psionics===
* No use of psionic powers allowed.
* Only 1 Psionic soldier capable of using Psionics
* No Mind Control
===Defensive Psionics===
* No Mind Shields or Psi Armor allowed (with the exception of the Volunteer for the final mission).

==Pacifist==
* You may never shoot down any UFOs (but you may assault landed ones) and you may never command any of your soldiers to fire their weapon (with the exception of the Arc Thrower since it won't kill the alien). You may however set your soldiers on Overwatch (self-defense) instead of using Firing.

==Firepower/Technology==

===Technophobe===
* You may not use or research any alien related items. All artifacts recovered from missions must be sold immediately, with the exception of those required to progress the storyline. This essentially means that you'll be restricted to only conventional weapons to fight, either on air on on the ground. Good luck.
* You may also never accept scientists as mission rewards or build any Labs unless the scientists comes from the satellite coverage bonus.
===Conventional Only===
* You may only use conventional weapons and/or armor throughout the entire game.
===Laser Squad===
* You may only deploy Lasers weapons and/or Carapace/Skeleton armor on any combat mission.
===Rise Of The Robots===
* After getting the Foundry (which should be your 1st priority) you'll use as many SHIVs as possible instead of human soldiers.
===Limited Squads===
* Don't purchase Squad Size I & II and stick to the 4 soldier squad throughout the entire campaign.

===Gunslinger===
* Only use pistols throughout the entire game
** Heavies and several abilities become useless, together with Frag and Alien grenades.
** On the plus side, you'll never have to reload your weapon or worry about ammo the entire game.
** On the minus side, most aliens will now require at least the double of shots to eliminate them, even with a fully upgraded Plasma Pistol (and capturing and researching one should be a top priority).
** The key abilities to have for Pistols are: Rapid Fire and Bring 'Em On (Assault) and Gunslinger and Double Tap (Sniper), which have both effects of allowing a 2nd shot and increasing the pistol's damage. The Foundry's Improved Pistol upgrades are also essential.
** Headshot, Snap Shot and Disabling Shot are useless for Snipers and Rifle Suppression for Supports.

===Top Gun===
* Only use Ravens - don't build Firestorms
* Don't research advanced Air to Air weapons and stick to Avalanches

==Classes/Abilities==
===Trying Something New===
Don't choose any of these abilities while leveling up soldiers:
* Squad Sight (Sniper)
* Field Medic (Support)
* Rapid Fire (Assault)
* HEAT Ammo (Heavy)
===Voluntary Retirement===
* Once a soldier reaches Colonel rank it is immediately retired and dismissed from service as a reward for his/her services fighting the alien invasion.
* Or the same as above but dismiss all commissioned officers, which means everyone from Lieutenant upwards.
* Or you could limit your soldiers to a single "tour of duty" comprising a set number of deployments. 10 is a challenge; 20 is close to a normal game.

===Valkyrie Squad===
* Dismiss all the ugly XY mutts still alive at the Barracks after the 1st mission and only use female soldiers during the entire game.
===Single Class===
* Use only one class of soldiers during a mission or the entire game.
[[Category: Enemy Unknown (2012)]]
===V.I.P.s===
*Near the start of the game select ten soldiers to be your Very Important People. (or V.I.P.s for short)
*Change their armour or names to indicate that they are V.I.P.s.
*You must bring at least one V.I.P. along to every mission.
*If a V.I.P. is killed you may not replace him.
*If all of your V.I.P.s are dead, you must completely abandon the current campaign.
*In the event that all of your remaining V.I.P.s end up in the infirmary and awaiting recovery you may still play until they recover, after that you must again bring at least one V.I.P. to each mission.
*You may also pull a V.I.P. out of a mission if things get hairy.

===The Few===
:''Never was so much owed by so many to so few.''
* Complete your game without hiring any additional soldiers.
* If all survivors fail the Psi test that's game over.

==High Five==
* Win the game while only performing 5 missions:
** 1st Mission/Tutorial
** Capture Live Alien and an Outsider
** Alien Base Assault
** Overseer UFO
** Final Mission
* Challenges
** Time is NOT on XCOM's side - panic levels will raise very quickly because the aliens will be left alone to terrorize the Earth and expect whole continents to fall to the alien's influence.
** The only way to deal with panic levels will be with satellites but landed UFOs will pose a major risk to the satellites since you'll have to pass on these missions.
** Research and Engineering will take longer - no mission rewards and not much recovered alien artifacts until the Alien Base is hit.
** Squads will be inexperienced and lacking key abilities and using inferior weapons and armor.
** The choices are, the longer you wait before taking the key next mission, the bigger the odds of getting better gear for your soldiers but also of more deadlier alien species to appear and 8 countries withdrawing from the Council thus losing the game. Have fun.

==Adding more players==
This option makes the game more interesting, rather than harder, for now, there are more players, each one having a role in XCOM. Now, real-world events could effect XCOM, such as illness, marriage, jobs etc. etc. Teamwork, and cooperation are very much an important an important element now, because there is now more than one player.
It could make the game harder because arguments and other problems could create a rift between players, and thus, divide XCOM.
It could also make the game easier because one player only has to worry about one thing at once.

*Multiple Players for the soldiers
**Pretty self explanatory, one player for every soldier
*One player as "Commander" and more players to control research and/or engineering.
**This requires fewer players, one to control the army, one player on research, and one player handles engineering, they can now all agree on a budget for each other, such as dividing the alloys and weapon fragments for the research team and engineering, for example. You can even have another player to control interceptors and/or satellites and seeing that country requests are fulfilled.

2012-11-22T06:18:48Z

Brass.Dragon: /* Tactical (Enemy Unknown) */

==[[Battlescape|Battlescape (UFO Defense)]]==
===[[Soldiers]]===
*If a soldier can miss, it will.
*If a soldier can panic, it will.
**If your soldier holds a primed [[Proximity Grenade]] and panics he'll drop it and start running
***If holding any other weapons he'll drop them and run right next to an alien
*If a soldier is armed, it will get MCed.
*When a member of your squad is mind controlled, his/her accuracy and reactions increase.
**The opposite is true when you mind control an alien
*The soldier with the most powerful weapon is surely the one with the worst morale / MC resistance.
*If a soldier can hit an alien, it won't
*If a soldier goes berserk, he/she will turn to face your nearest soldier and autofire
*If a soldier has a [[Rocket Launcher]], he will get MCed while still in the craft
*Your first unit out is always shot down
**Your first unit out is always your commander
*A wounded soldier will die before you find the last alien
*As soon as you get better armor, the aliens get better weapons
*[[Electroflare|Flares]] will land where they cannot be picked up
*If your base is attacked, you will always get flares instead of [[Heavy Plasma|Heavy Plasmas]]
*You will always end up short of 1 TU to perform the action you wanted to do
**You will prime a grenade at 1 turn then be 1 TU short of throwing it
*If an alien grenade can explode and take out half or all of your squad, it will
*The soldiers with the worst stats will always be promoted
**When you build the [[Psi Lab]] you will always discover that your officers are psi weaklings
*On [[Ethereal]] [[Terror Mission]]s, you will always get the most [[Sectopod]]s as possible.
*If you can not remember, do not use Proximity/Particle Disturbance Grenades.
**All Five Second Grenades are Three Seconds
*If there is a civilian near the enemy you want to kill, your soldiers will always kill that civilian instead.

===[[Civilian|Civilians]]===
*If a civilian sees a fire he will run into it
*If a civilian sees an alien he'll move right next to it
*If a civilian can block your line of fire to an alien he will do that
*Civilians will always be attracted towards dropped primed proximity grenades
*Civilians block doorways if you run out of time units before you can reach them
*Civilians will always run towards the aliens

===[[Alien Life Forms|Aliens]]===
*If an alien can miss, it won't
*If an alien can MC you, it will
*Alien commanders will always kill themselves (with their [[Blaster Launcher|Blaster Launchers]]) to avoid capture
*If there are [[Chryssalid|Chryssalids]], you will get at least one zombified soldier
*You'll never want to know the answer to "why did the Chryssalid cross the road?"
*If a [[Reaper]] can get stuck, it will
*If a [[Cyberdisk]] can explode on one of your men, it will.
*Unconscious aliens capable of melee attacks wake up when you least expect them to
*If you opened a door and turned left, the aliens are all on the right
*[[Sectopod|Sectopods]] will always reaction fire to you
*Aliens are smarter than they look

==[[Geoscape|Geoscape (UFO Defense)]]==
*When you need money the most, some of your funders will stop funding you.
*As soon as you get a new base online, it will be attacked
*As soon as you get lots of money, the aliens will make you spend it all
*[[Alien Terror|Terror sites]] always appear only at night
*Seas always appear below a crashing UFO
*The first country to drop funding always gave the most money
*X-COM bases are always attacked when the squads are out
*Crashed UFO's never have [[Elerium]]
*Landed UFO's will take off before you can get to them
*UFO's will always arrive after your [[Skyranger]] is refueling from a two day patrol
*If you have forgotten to save the game for at least 3 missions, the game will crash
**The game will always crash when it is the least convenient
*If you launch a craft fully equipped for night fighting it will arrive at its intended location during daytime
*If you launch a craft fully equipped for day fighting it will arrive at its intended location during nighttime
*When a base becames operational UFO activity on that area will cease to zero immediately afterwards
*If your craft only has 1 missile left when it shoots it will miss
*[[Small Scout|Alien UFO scouts]] will always outrun your [[Interceptor|Interceptors]]

==[[Cityscape (Apocalypse)]]==
*If you're almost broke after buying a new flagship for your fleet, it will be destroyed in the next UFO incursion.
*The pride of your fleet is always stuck in alien dimension when you get attacked by a Mothership.
*UFOs carrying infiltrators always spawn at the gate you don't have covered.
*Griffon AFV is tough. The road under it is not. The tracks are just for show.
*There are only two types of vehicles that are always in abundance on the market. Blazer bikes and Stormdogs.
*While en route to a building, your craft will shoot at a Cult civilian car and demolish half of the city trying to hit it. However, the car will survive.
*Megapol is useless.
**Transtellar is annoying.
***Everyone else is both annoying and useless.
*Government's weekly paycheck,after paying the overhead, will buy you a Lawpistol clip. Maybe two.
*If your base is in a slum, a single stray shot from a light disruptor will destroy it all.
**If your base is in a warehouse, said stray shot will still hit the tile with your agents
*Hoverbike swarm is a good idea. Too bad they'll all get shot down anyway because of sheer dumb luck on the aliens' part.
*Research will always be completed right after when you needed it the most.
*After a firefight in the city, the only one to be blamed for the devastation will be you, even if it was an Overspawn that did it.
*The Overspawn will coincidentally be dropped right at your doorstep.
*The Overspawn will never, EVER get hurt from falling debris. Unless you drop the said debris and level half of the city with it.
*People Tubes can collapse from an angry glare or a single bullet.
*You're the only one who has a problem with the aliens. Every other corp has them on neutral.
*Subversion attacks WILL succeed, 100%.
*Your carefully built Dimension Probe will be welcomed by a volley of Heavy Disruptor Guns.At least it just needs to appear at the dimension just once to start the infiltration.
*Your very first invasion of the Alien Dimension will require an hour's savescumming to get it right without being reduced to scrap metal.
*You WILL forget to not to move the XCOM craft when you succeed in destroying an alien building, killing everyone in the process.

==[[Battlescape Overview (Apocalypse)|Battlescape (Apocalypse)]]==
*If your base is raided, there will be as few of your agents spawning as possible.
**Said agents will spawn as far away from the access lift as possible.
***Guess where the scientists will appear.
*If you're raiding a building, there will always be a retard with a heavy launcher.
**Despite your best efforts, he will manage to fire at least one missile.
***And he will do so even if you're breathing in his face.
****There is no way to avoid the missile and injuries or casualties from it.
*****Even if you somehow actually manage to avoid the missile, it'll bring down the building on you.
*That stupid grenade will go off at the cultist corpses and destroy all the goodies you came here for.
*If an agent in a squad gets attacked by a brainsucker, the rest of the squad won't hit it at point blank range.
**Or they'll fire a missile launcher. Guess the results.
*If you turn around the corner where you think that last alien is hiding, it'll turn out to be half a dozen of Anthropods. All armed to the teeth.
*Berserking agent will cause more chaos and destruction than all of your other agents put together. And it won't be directed at the enemy.
*If someone throws a Boomeroid at an agent, he'll try to run away from it.
**Because it will always turn out that you forgot to set him to aggressive mode.
*If you try to capture a Megaspawn, he'll die before you can stun it.
*You'd wish you gave that mind controlled agent a Toxigun instead of a Dimension Missile Launcher.
*You'll encounter cloaked and flying Skeletoids much more often than you'd like to.
*Good stuff always comes too late.
*Psi attacks are only successful when they're not necessary.
*Dynamic music always ignores what you're actually doing.
*That agent you sent to scout ahead will always be the one without a motion scanner.
*Every raid is a horrible decision between property damage and greed. Either way, you lose.
*The agent with a Mind Bender won't see the enemy until he's standing right next to it.

==[[Enemy_Unknown_(EU2012)|Strategic (Enemy Unknown)]]==
*When you need §§§ the most, the US and Russia (which you have satellite coverage over) will pull out of the XCOM project.
*Your satellites will always be available one day too late to prevent a country from withdrawing.
*When you do have satellites available, you will never have enough Satellite Uplink/Nexus space for them.
*When you do have Satellite Uplink/Nexus, you will never have enough satellites.
*If you have one more satellite to go before getting a continent's bonus, that last country will pull out of the XCOM project.
**The one continent's bonus you don't want to get? The aliens will ignore that continent.
*You will always be at least §1 short of buying the next level of armor/weapons for all your troops.
*If a Colonel can be checked for having the Psi gift, he won't have it.
*If a Rookie can be checked for having the Psi gift, he will.
*Your interceptor will always lose contact 0.1 seconds before the enemy UFO is destroyed.
*Your interceptor will blow up one round of fire exchange after you press the Abort button.
*Just a bit more than a day from getting your Colonel out of the medbay? Time for a Terror Mission!
*Just a bit less than a day from getting your Colonel out of the medbay? Time for a Terror Mission!
**Fast forwarding will result in the Terror Mission succeeding for the aliens before you can react to your Colonel getting out of the medbay.
*Steam vents will be placed in inconvenient locations.
**Second floor steam vents will block your 2x2 Satellite Uplink block.
***The remaining steam vents will be on the 4th floor.
****In the corner.
*Research or Foundry upgrades will be completed one day after a critical mission appears.

==[[Enemy_Unknown_(EU2012)|Tactical (Enemy Unknown)]]==
*The Overseer will only appear when you have no Firestorms.
**When you build your firestorm with dodge matrix, fusion lance, and uplink targeting, the overseer will appear in the continent your new Firestorm is NOT stationed in
***You are always one buck away from building a new firestorm at said contient
****You WILL intercept the Overseer. And you will die.
*If a soldier's chance to hit is <99%, he will miss.
*If a soldier's chance to hit is 100%, he won't do enough damage to kill the alien.
*If an alien's chance to hit is >1%, he will hit.
*If an alien's mind control chance is >1%, it will work.
*When aiming at an Ethereal with the last shot of your turn, it will reflect it.
**''Especially'' if that soldier has only 1 HP.
*If the vehicle that your soldier is dashing to for cover can be set on fire, it will be.
*Your soldier will always have the exact amount of health for a vehicle to blow him up.
*You will always reveal new enemies on your last move of the turn.
**Who will then take up flanking positions behind anyone who dashed.
*The more soldiers who perform an Overwatch reaction shot against a single alien, the more likely they will all miss.
**Soldiers who hit the alien will barely kill the alien.
***The alien, in turn, will kill your highest-ranking soldier.
****After killing the highest-ranking soldier, the other aliens will come in and mop everyone else up.
*When you have your whole squad on overwatch they will all shoot one floater.
**And then all die to his Chryssalid buddy.
*Your Revive spec medic will always be the one critically wounded.
*When trying to capture a commander with one stunner, he will be the one MCed,
*Aliens will always hit soldier's hunkering down behind high cover.
**The alien will do just enough damage to not kill him, but to cause him to panic.
***The panicking soldier will kill a soldier and start a panic chain.
*If a soldier can panic, it will.
**Soldiers that panic will aim for the highest ranking officer he can see.
***Even behind high cover, on a higher elevation, and covered by a smoke grenade, a panicking rookie will still be able to kill the "protected" Colonel.
*Rockets will always fly off target.
**ESPECIALLY when you squad is surrounded by explosive vehicles and forklifts.
*Aliens will position themselves right outside the radius of a grenade throw.
**If a grenade can clip through and explode harmlessly under ground while you are trying to aim it, it will.
*When it is time to face Sectopods or Cyberdiscs, your HEAT ammo heavies will not be with you.
*When it is time to face Muton Elites, your psionics will not be with you.
*Your soldiers are always one grid point away from moving to safely flank an alien.
*When a large UFO lands and you assault with your elite squad you will fight 3 Floaters, 3 Sectoids and a Sectoid Commander.
*When a moderate alien abduction comes up and you assault with a squad comprised of your Col. Sniper, squaddies, and rookies for training purposes, you will fight 9 Mutons (who will each throw their grenades asap), a Cyberdisc, and 2 Drones you just can't seem to hit.
*Even when you use the rookie to scout ahead, he will always stumble on no less than every enemy on the map on a single turn, who will then, with most of the laws stated above, wipe your elite squad before you can say Jenkins.
*You decide to research offensive tech first and the Arc Thrower later only to find that Sectoids have been removed from the alien roster. But after killing 7 Mutons on a map you decide to zap the last two for their weapons only to have the last group be a trio of Sectoids.