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{{Toc (Long War)|60}}
[[Long_War_Rebalance|Back To Main Page]]


{{Template:REWRITE NEEDED (EU2012)}}
==In General==


==Overview==
UFOs are tougher, faster, and much stronger in Long War Rebalance than in either Long War 1.0 or Vanilla EU/EW. Along with that, your crafts and armaments are significantly less potent, at least at first. However, in Long War Rebalance you can send up full squadrons of up to 5 aircraft at once, and store up to 10 aircraft in each continent, which helps you handle such strong UFOs.
UFOs are tougher, faster, and much deadlier in Long War. Along with that, your crafts and armaments are significantly less potent, at least at first. You will need to cycle your craft regularly like your soldiers. UFO kills will grant experience to your pilots and provide a bonus to accuracy. Your pilots will learn UFO flight patterns and weaknesses, therefore they will become much better at shooting down alien craft: sortie experience provides +3% to hit per kill (up to + 30%) and +1% damage per kill (with no top limit). Also, you will find that both your craft and UFOs may sometimes get 'critical hits', with UFOs being downed in a few hits, or your undamaged Interceptor immediately going into near-full red damage indicator.


At the start of the game your fresh pilots are equipped with Avalanche Missiles, which now have an abysmal 40% accuracy. While it is still possible to down the first Scout with one Interceptor, this is an incredibly unlikely event. It's more probable that it would take two, or even three interceptions to bring down even the most basic alien craft. It is also a good idea to switch some of your aircraft armaments to Stingray missiles at the game start, details on that below.
'''Housing more than 5 aircraft on a single continent has an increased upkeep cost of 5/10/15/20/25 (for 6/7/8/9/10 planes).'''


Players should exert caution and pick and choose their air battles carefully. You will not be able to bring down every single enemy UFO. Sometimes attempting high risk interceptions against tough targets would be detrimental to your campaign due to the highly unpredictable nature of the engagements at the start of the game. Your early game goal should be to get experience for some of your pilots and advance your air-warfare technology in order to keep aliens at bay on the battleground for the Earth's skies. In case you overreach too early, you might quickly find yourself crippled with long repair times and unable to stop alien operations.  
Players should exert caution and pick and choose their air battles carefully. You will not be able to bring down every single enemy UFO. Sometimes attempting high risk interceptions against tough targets would be detrimental to your campaign due to the highly unpredictable nature of the engagements at the start of the game. Your early game goal should be to get experience for some of your pilots and advance your air-warfare technology in order to keep aliens at bay on the battleground for the Earth's skies. In case you overreach too early, you might quickly find yourself crippled with long repair times and unable to stop alien operations.  


There are Research and Engineering projects that will assist in aerial sorties. There are multiple foundry projects to improve your interceptors. There are also three consumables that remain from Vanilla.
If the aliens send a UFO and it is damaged, destroyed or lost, the aliens will pay resources for it, possibly limiting their options in the upcoming weeks.


As you progress, each type of UFO's statistics also increase, from general 'health' to firing rates, as to keep you on your toes; so don't expect to ever truly dominate the skies. Plus with the added variables to air-interception, there is no clear-cut "UFO X can be brought down by Interceptor Y" table. As such, the Long War's [[UFOs_(Long_War)|UFO]] page will be your general guide for how--- or if-- to attempt to engage these potent UFOs.
As well, XCOM can counteract alien panic levels by running [[Combat_Patrols_(LWR)|'''Combat Patrols''']].


If the aliens send a UFO and it is damaged, destroyed or lost, the aliens will pay resources for it, limiting their options in the next month.
XCOM starts with 3 interceptors.


===Damaging UFOs===
==Damaging and Destroying UFOs==
It is not necessary to shoot down enemy UFOs in order to prevent them from completing their mission. Doing damage to them is sometimes enough to spoil their plans or reduce their effectiveness. The damage that UFO sustains is stored between interceptions, therefore multiple interception attempts is a good idea to limit the damage to your own Air Force. When a player does more than 50% damage to a UFO, you will start seeing explosion effects around it.


Some UFOs will wander about a country's airspace before zooming off. For these, it is sufficient to get the yellow effect described above. Those effects signify that UFO sustained enough damage to prevent it from completing its mission, such as an Anti-Satellite hunt. Note however that you still have a chance to prevent the UFO's mission while doing less than 50% damage, which is simply linear (i.e., the UFO abort mission chance is 0% at full health, 100% at 50% health, and in 2x% general at (100-x)% health). Otherwise, when they leave detectable airspace (whether you have a satellite over the target country or not), there will be a notification of the damage they did in the minor notices that play alongside the Hologlobe during in-game time progression.
It is not necessary to shoot down enemy UFOs in order to prevent them from completing their mission. Doing damage to them is enough to spoil their plans or reduce their effectiveness. The damage that UFO sustains is stored between interceptions, therefore multiple interception attempts may be a good idea to limit the damage to your own Air Force. When a player does more than 50% damage to a UFO, you will start seeing explosion effects around it. A non-landing UFO at 50% health will fail the mission it was sent on. It is important to consider dealing some damage (even 1) to all non-landing UFOs, as this will prevent them from increasing [[Country_Panic_(LWR)|panic]] in the country below (except for the [[Alien_Missions_(LWR)#Bomb|bomb]] mission, which causes some panic anyway, unless foiled by damaging the craft for at least 50%).


Other UFOs will have a set flight path, and a narrow window of opportunity to intercept: to disrupt these missions entirely, these need to be shot out of the sky. Cases like this include Assault Carriers and Abductors.
Fighters and Destroyers will always be destroyed (as they never crash land) and XCOM will receive a credit reward and a modicum of alloys for their efforts.


Long War mod brings back a mechanic from previous generations of XCOM: UFOs can now have full DOA crashes (with minimal Alloy recovery, and no corpses or other artifacts), so in some cases you may want to pull your punches. To compensate, the Council will give cash rewards for UFOs obliterated in flight. The harder hitting weapons have a greater chance of reducing UFOs to a pile of smelted alloys: specifically, it is the strength of the killshot that determines the UFO's survival.
Crashed UFO Missions and Scuttle Rush Missions can both be avoided by sending in your air force to finish off the damaged UFO. If you decided to do this you will get a cash reward similar to destroying a fighter or destroyer in air.


According to johnnylump on the [http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/2967954-beta-15e-final-feedback/page-41 Nexus Forums],
== Destroying Crashed UFOs ==


* When a UFO lands it is either conducting a harvest mission (gain resources) or a research mission (gain research). Research missions happen only in countries with satellites -- this is an alien recon-in-force that's a direct attempt to engage XCOM.  
If a UFO is shot down, it will be vulnerable to an aerial bombardment and destruction.  


* Harvest missions ''try'' to avoid countries with satellites, with a greater chance when alien aggro is high, but they pay a resource penalty when they do (representing a second-best, safer option.)
You can choose to do this by clicking on '''Destroy UFO''' when selecting a crashed UFO mission.  


* Damage to UFOs, or losses on the ground, have no bearing on research points or resources gained from the mission ... if the UFO survives, it gets full value.  
If you do, you will be rewarded with a small bounty similar to if you destroyed that UFO in the air.


* Damage to UFOs in the air does deduct resources as a repair cost, which is calculated separately from harvest gains.
== Pilot Rank and Kills ==


===Interceptor Weapons and Stances===
UFO kills are awarded to all pilots in a sortie that downs a UFO, and not just the pilot who lands the final hit.
Air-to-air weapons now have three main damage statistics - Damage, Rate of Fire, and Armor Penetration. UFOs have different armor levels, which reduces the damage done by a weapon if its armor penetration isn't high enough. For example, you start with a choice between Avalanche missiles (medium damage, low armor penetration) and Stingray missiles (low damage, medium armor penetration). Avalanches will be better against unarmored and very lightly armored UFOs, while Stingrays will be better against more armored UFOs.


When launching you can set a combat stance for your interceptors as they launch on a mission:
Pilots gain 0.5 aim for each kill they make (modified by campaign length).
* Aggressive gives +15% to hit for both you and the UFO. You may not use the dodge consumable when aggressive.
* Balanced plays out like normal.
* Defensive gives -15% to hit for both you and the UFO. You may not use the auto-hit consumable when defensive.
Mathematically and not accounting for interception time, this means that Aggressive is the most efficient stance when your Interceptor aim is lower than UFO aim, while Defensive is strongest when your Interceptor aim is higher than UFO aim. These effects are stronger the bigger the difference.
However, Interception time is an issue as UFOs will just leave after some time. Obviously, Aggressive is the most time-effective stance.


===UFO Flight Patterns===
Pilots can also earn ranks through kills (modified by campaign length) and the ranks will allow them to command larger sorties than the default of 2 aircraft.  
UFOs can fly at three altitudes: "High", "Low" and "NOE" ("Nap of the Earth,"). The altitude is a clue of what mission the UFO is going on - UFOs flying at NOE altitude are most likely to land, are performing bombing runs, or will generate an Abduction or Terror mission immediately upon arriving at their destination. UFOs at high altitude are most likely to be hunting satellites. UFOs at low altitude are likely to be scouting satellites, so they must be dealt with. Unless playing in Ironman, you may want to see if a UFO will land before shooting it down (and reload if it does not): while a landed UFO is always more dangerous, an intact UFO and it's material components is a valuable prize, given how fragile Power Sources and Flight Computers are from being shot down in Long War.


Once you successfully raid a UFO type, either landed or crash landed, you can research that craft for a damage bonus against it in future.
'''Lieutenant''': Requires 4 kills and can command a sortie of 3 planes.


===Strategic Plan===
'''Captain''': Requires 6 kills.
* You start with the Avalanche and Stingray missiles. These will work for small and medium craft for a while until Aliens research better upgrades for their craft.
* After some time, sticking with conventional weapons will leave you totally outgunned. Next you'll want to upgrade to Laser and Phoenix cannons: Laser Cannons are built for accuracy, so a pilot can still reliably hit UFOs on Balanced or Defensive stances, while the Phoenix Cannon is built for armor penetration and higher rate of fire. You would likely need multiple interceptions with frequent use of boost modules to reliably bring down larger UFOs.
*Eventually, you may be able to purchase the Guass/Coilgun and Supercapacitor Foundry projects for the Phoenix and Laser Cannon: these vastly upgrade every aspect of these mid-level aerial weapons
* The Plasma Cannons need to be built from Alien Rifles. Once the Mutons start fielding them, you would want to build up a cache of those items to convert to plasma cannons for your Interceptors. The EMP Cannon is built from 1 Sectopod wreck each. It has a higher rate of fire and lower damage than Plasma which increases the chance of UFOs not being destroyed outright. It also increases the chance for more resources to remain intact for UFO crash-site missions.
* Last, but certainly not least, the Fusion Lance is the most powerful air to air weapon that can only be used by Firestorms. They're built from Fusion Cores, and the only way to get Fusion Cores is to take down Battleships and Assault Carriers... or save the cores from [[Slingshot_DLC_(EU2012)|Slingshot]] mission. Though once you do get them set up, you would have a good chance to disrupt even the Terror Mission ships.


===Interception Strategy===
'''Major''': Requires 8 kills and can command a sortie of 4 planes.
* You can have more than six interceptors when you defend one continent. store your spare interceptors on the other continents and make them rotate.
* Choose an appropriate stance based on your equipped weapon, researched upgrades, and UFO type.
* Always be prepared to cancel an interception if the engagement is not going well for you. Losing an aircraft with an expensive weapons can be devastating to your resources.
* Consider aborting interception if your first shot hits while UFO misses. You can refuel within an hour and try again or send another bird out with the same hit and run tactics.
* Pressing escape instantly after aborting, reselecting mission control and the UFO will allow you to send a new interceptor out without having to wait for the first one to fly back to base. If the interceptor you aborted with wasn't damaged, you can even send the same interceptor back mid-air and instantly re-engage, without having to fly back & forth and refuel.
* Consider aborting when a satellite hunter displays explosion effects. You have prevented the destruction of the satellite, so you might not want to risk additional damage. 
* Use modules in tough situations when you need an extra boost to get the job done.
* Although Wingtip Sparrowhawks are an ''expensive'' investment, they are an option to consider pushing for as soon as you can:
** Their Foundry project can be unlocked fairly early.
** They don't have any artifact costs, like rare Power Sources or a high number of corpses.
** The long development time means you want to get them underway as soon as you can.
** The mass-firing tactic they present for inaccurate pilots helps in early-game, when just causing damage is difficult.
*** Especially for dealing with Satt-hunting UFOs: when you just need to get them to 50% health as soon as you can so they leave your satellites alone, while giving the aliens less time to damage your own craft (ie: DPS race).
** Lastly: they are a permanent upgrade to all current and future XCOM craft, which only needs to be made once, and can't be lost alongside downed interceptors.
* Have an idea of how many interceptions are possible before UFO completes its mission or attempts to escape. For example Scouts usually can only be engaged twice with Ravens.
* If/once you get enough EMP Cannons to be distributed throughout each continent's squadron, remember that higher damage weapons have a greater chance to outright destroy enemy craft. Plan your engagements around that fact and consider which ground tactical missions you would rather go on.
** Consider saving craft equipped with more damaging weapons to go against larger UFOs, while EMPing the smaller craft may be a better risk/reward scenario, given that their full compliment of aliens won't be much larger than if shot down with other weapons.
* Late-game, you may find that the aliens favor sending more and the larger UFOs to one continent/country in particular (more commonly whichever continent/country has the highest Panic level, but attention of whichever one has XCOM HQ is also to be expected), meaning that you'll remained burdened by repair times: simply cycle out damaged fighters with fresh fighters from other continents.
** Transit time puts repair times on pause, but transfer time will almost always be far less than the days it'll take to repair a single fighter.
** This will also help you by evening out experience between your pilots, and spreading them out between each continent, so you don't get blindsided by, say, a Battleship appearing in a continent with an inexperienced squadron.
* The modules are much more worthwhile-- nearly essential-- in Long War. As said, Dodge cannot be used in an aggressive stance and Aim cannot be used in a defensive stance. And as they do take time to build, it pays to maintain a stock of them.
** The Aim module is fairly cheap, and is useful throughout a campaign. Keep a large stock of Floater corpses to make these. While an aggressive stance means that all shots have more accuracy, using an Aim module early in a normal stance dogfight means drawing first blood while being a little harder to be hit yourself.
** The Boost module can be used in any stance, and only extends time (as all air-to-air weapons now are counted as 'long range', approach reduction time no longer is affected). More useful in early game, when you need more time to do enough damage with the weaker weapons and less experienced pilots.
** The Dodge module is exceedingly useful, and still hard to make, due to the necessity of Cyberdisc wrecks needed to construct them.
*As mentioned, the aliens will most often focus their efforts on wherever they have the greatest foothold: expect Terror Ships and Assault Carriers on any country that's in the red, as the aliens commit Terror Missions in order to send a country over the edge to withdraw from the Council. So, be prepared to swap out any of your aircraft with those stationed in other continents, even if it only got dinged on a smaller UFO: this screening tactic the aliens may use can lead to you trying to fend off the larger UFOs with insufficient weapons and craft.
**Ergo: If repair time is longer than transit time, swap it.
**That goes double if it's been a while since you downed one of the larger UFOs: that may be a sign that they're making the down payment on the resource cost to send something big your way.
**So once you got a Firestorm built: guess where it should go?


By swatting UFOs out of the sky, you may be able to keep Panic tempered down: a UFO brought crashing to the ground is a pack of aliens not completing missions in the cities, and a smoking impact crater is a mission your soldiers don't need to get fatigued/injured on: heavy weapons obliterating the smaller UFOs may be desirable, at least to avoid the 'Fatigue Spiral.' If you've managed to take by the sky for a month, you may have a easier time in the next, as the aliens recoup their losses... unless you've managed to ''really'' piss them off. In which case, expect them to come a-knockin' on your base's door soon...
'''Colonel''': Requires 12 kills.


==Damage Calculations==
'''Commander''': Requires 16 kills and can command a sortie of 5 planes.
*Armor Mitigation = 0.05 * (Target Armor - Armor Penetration)
 
**0 is the minimum Armor Mitigation and 0.95 is the maximum
==UFO Flight Patterns==
*Base Damage = Weapon Damage * (1 - Armor Mitigation)
 
*Crit Chance = (Armor Penetration - Target Armor) / 2
UFOs can fly at three altitudes: "High", "Low" and "NOE" ("Nap of the Earth"). The altitude is a clue of what mission the UFO is going on - UFOs flying at NOE altitude may land (and only such UFOs), are performing bombing runs (then their icon would flash in the mission view), or will generate an Abduction or Terror mission immediately upon arriving at their destination. UFOs at high altitude are hunting satellites. UFOs at low altitude are most likely to be scouting satellites, so they must be dealt with. Unless playing on Ironman, you may want to see if a UFO would land in a place visible to XCOM before deciding to shoot it down (and reload if it does not land). While a landed UFO is always more dangerous, an intact UFO and it's material components is a valuable prize, given how fragile Power Sources and Flight Computers are from being shot down in Long War.
**5% is the minimum Crit Chance and 25% is the maximum
 
*A successful Crit multiplies damage by 2
Once you successfully raid, shoot down, or destroy a UFO type, you can research that craft for a damage and resource bonus against it in the future.
*total damage is then randomized to between 100% and 150% of its current value.
 
*For XCOM Aircraft:
== Formation ==
**If the appropriate UFO analysis has been researched, total damage is multiplied by 1.1
 
**total damage is also multiplied by (Pilot Kills / 100) + 1
When launching you can set a combat formation position for your interceptors as they launch on a mission:
* '''LEAD''': +10 hit chance (1.5x hit chance for UFO)
* '''MID''': no change
* '''REAR''': -10 hit chance (0.67x hit chance for UFO)
 
You may only use the '''aim booster''' when the active aircraft is in the '''LEAD''' of a formation.
 
You may only use the '''tracking booster''' when the active aircraft is in the '''MID''' of a formation.
 
You may only use the '''dodge booster''' when the active aircraft is in the '''REAR''' of a formation.
 
Mathematically and not accounting for interception time, this means that lead can be more efficient when your Interceptor's aim is very low, while rear is more efficient when your Interceptor's aim is high enough. However, lead formation positions can lead to taking too much damage and rear formation positions can lead to not dealing enough.
 
== Aircraft Hit Chance ==
 
The Hit Chance of a XCOM's aircraft is determined mostly by the aim of the weapon they are using. It can then be modified by their position in the formation, their experience, foundry upgrades, and the size of their opponent.
 
*As discussed in the section above, aircraft in the lead of the formation will gain 10 hit chance and aircraft in the rear of the formation will lose 10 hit chance.
*Experienced aircraft pilots will gain +0.5 aim for each UFO they have been involved in killing. There is no limit to this increase. This makes them especially effective using aircraft weapons with low aim.
*[[Engineering (LWR)#Aerospace Improvements|Improved Avionics]] foundry upgrade increases the hit chance by 10.
*Larger UFOs are (reasonably) easier to hit. As such, XCOM aircraft will find their hit chance to be 150% and 200% of the original amount, respectively, for medium and large UFOs.
 
== Interception Time ==
 
The interception time of a squadron and a UFO is based on their speeds. 
 
The specific formula is:
<div style="max-width:750px;">
'''Interception Time''' = 30s * (Average Battle Speed of all aircraft in the sortie / UFO Speed)
</div>
Interception time can be modified by:
*UFO Scanners: +10% interception time
*UFO Tracking: +10% interception time
*Elerium Afterburners: +10 squardron speed
*Damaged Aircraft: -20% aircraft speed
*Boosters: +50% interception time
An example of a squadron of Interceptors with UFO scanners vs a Scout.
<div style="max-width:400px;">
'''Interception Time''' = 30s * (20 / 35) * 1.1
'''Interception Time''' = 18.9s
</div>
 
== The Active Aircraft ==
<div style="max-width:1600px;">
<div style="width:530px;height:295px;float:right;">[[Image:LWRActiveAircraft.png|right|500px]]</div>
 
The active aircraft is chosen randomly from all aircrafts in the lead of the formation. If there are no aircrafts in lead, an aircraft will be randomly select from the mid of the formation. Likewise, if there are no aircrafts in mid, an aircraft will be randomly selected from the rear of the formation.
 
The active aircraft will take 50% of all shots from the UFO, which makes it the most likely to take damage when there are more than 2 aircraft in a sortie. Support aircraft (non-active aircraft in the squadron) will evenly share the remaining 50% of shots from the UFO.
 
The active aircraft also dictates which aircraft boosters can be used (for example an active aircraft in lead restricts the use of tracking/dodge boosters).
 
The active aircraft is also the only aircraft which you can tell to disengage. Supporting aircraft will automatically disengage if their HP has dropped below 25%. The active aircraft will continue to engage until you issue a disengage order.
 
<div style="max-width: 800px;">
'''Note that the disengage order can take a second or two to occur.'''
'''This means UFOs can still destroy aircraft AFTER they have been given an order to disengage.'''
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
</div>
 
==Damaged Aircraft==
 
Damaged aircraft can engage UFOs but will have -10 aim and only 80% of their base speed. The entire sortie will always fly at the speed of the slowest aircraft, so sending in a single damaged aircraft may end up reducing the overall damage of your sortie.
 
You can speed the repair of aircraft by hiring additional repair crews in the hangar at the cost of 150 credits per crew. This cuts remaining repair time in half, though it cannot go below 1 day.
 
== Refueling ==
 
After engaging a UFO, all aircraft will need to refuel. The refuel time is 8 hours which mostly prevents an aircraft from engaging the same UFO more than once.
 
Refuel times are modified by campaign length (NSLW/VLW/ELW) as follows:
 
Refuel_Time /= Sqrt(Campaign_Length)
 
Campaign_Length is 0.5, 2, and 4 for NSLW, VLW, and ELW, respectively.
 
== Country Air Forces ==
 
If you engage a UFO over a country that has some Country Defense (gained by completing council requests for that country) then there is a chance they may aid you in the air battle by sending up one of their own aircraft.


Examples:  
The chance is:
* Avalanche Missiles (340 damage, 0 armor penetration) vs Fighter (armor 12): no armor is penetrated, so 12×5=60% of damage is blocked, and the avalanche has an effective damage of 136-204.
<div style="max-width: 800px;">
* Laser Cannon (290 damage, 5 armor penetration) vs Fighter (armor 12): armor mitigation value of 12-5=7. Consequently, 7×5=35% of the damage is blocked, and the cannon has an effective damage of 188-282.
'''Chance for Country Air Force Aid''' = (Country Defense / 2) * (Number of XCOM Aircraft / 3)
* Stingray Missiles (200 damage, 10 armor penetration) vs Fighter (armor 12): armor mitigation value of 12-10=2. Only 10% of damage is blocked, the stingray has an effective damage of 180-270.
</div>


Note that in the above example while the Laser Cannon and Stingray Missiles are about equal on a per-hit basis, the Laser Cannon is more effective in combat due to its higher rate of fire and higher accuracy.
Country Air Force Aid will only occurs for XCOM sorties of 4 or less aircraft.


==Tables==
The strength of the aircraft the country sends up is based upon their Country Defense:
===UFO Types===
{|class="wikitable" width=400px
{| class="wikitable" width="100%"
|-
! width="10%" align="left" | UFO Type
! width="3%" align="left" | Durability
! width="3%" align="left" | Armor
! width="3%" align="left" | Firepower
! width="60%" align="left" colspan="1"| Description
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Scout.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Scout|Scout]]'''|| Low (800) || None || Low || The speedy Scout-class UFO is fortunately within Earth's native capabilities to shoot down ... on occasion. It appears to be used for general reconnaissance, resource-gathering and research.
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Fighter.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Fighter|Fighter]]'''|| Low (400) || Moderate (75% DR) || Low || The alien Fighter, while similar in outward appearance to the Scout, is much better protected. Armor-piercing weapons like our Stingray Missiles will be helpful in bringing these craft down. This class of craft is used primarily for air raids and anti-satellite operations.
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Raider.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Raider|Raider]]'''|| Moderate (4000) || None || Low || The Raider class of UFO seems to be a multirole craft that thus suffers in combat power. The aliens appear to use it for reconnaissance, research and resource-gathering operations.
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Destroyer.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Destroyer|Destroyer]]'''|| Low (1500) || Moderate (75% DR) || Low || The Destroyer presents a much greater threat to our aircraft than its sister class of ships. Armor-piercing weapons are required to defeat this craft. It appears to primarily be used for air raids and anti-satellite operations, although we may see it conduct reconnaissance missions as well. Our analysts note the presence of unused hardpoints on some images of this craft, so we should look out for upgraded versions with even more killing power.
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Abductor.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Abductor|Abductor]]'''|| High (12000) || Very Heavy (225% DR) || Moderate || Abductors appear to be much better protected than other ships of this size. Perhaps the aliens particularly value the abduction and research missions they are used for.
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Harvester.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Harvester|Harvester]]'''|| High (8000) || Heavy (100% DR) || Moderate || The Harvester class of UFO seems to have one role - to recover important biological materials and minerals from Earth in support of other alien operations. We should try to interdict alien harvest operations whenever possible to slow the alien advance. These craft may be vulnerable to a concentrated attack.
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Transport.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Transport|Transport]]'''|| High (14000) || Heavy (150% DR) || Moderate || This ponderously slow craft will be a tough nut to crack. It appears to be primarily used in alien terrestrial resource-gathering but could also be used in support of other major alien operations.
|| '''Country Defense''' || '''Aircraft Upgrade'''
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_TerrorShip.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Terror Ship|Terror Ship]]'''|| High (10000) || Heavy (125% DR) || High || The rarely encountered Terror Ship appears suited for rapid deployment of alien shock troops. They appear to presage alien terror missions, but they may be used for alien research on XCOM as well.
|| >= 30 || Phoenix Cannon
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_AssaultCarrier.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Assault Carrier|Assault Carrier]]'''|| Very High (20000) || Very Heavy (200% DR) || High || The Assault Carrier, while built on a battleship hull, lacks some of its sister's firepower and may be easier to shoot down. Nevertheless, we expect to see the aliens use this craft only against high-value targets, so it should be taken seriously whenever it is detected.
|| >= 60 || EMP Cannon
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Battleship.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Battleship|Battleship]]'''|| Very High (20000) || Heavy (175% DR) || Extremely High|| An unbelievably dangerous piece of hardware, these UFOs never appear to land but are used in bombing, anti-satellite and air superiority roles.
|| >= 90 || Firestorm
|-align="center"
|<div style="background:#333333">[[Image: UFO-Analysis_Overseer.png|center|128x64px]]</div> '''[[UFOs (Long War)#Overseer|Overseer]]'''|| Moderate (4000) || Heavy (125% DR) || High || This class of ship appears to be used as a airborne command center for the Ethereal race of alien. Only our strongest weapons will be able to penetrate its armor.
|}
|}


===Aircraft===
==Damage Calculations==
 
<div style="max-width:1600px;">
<div style="width:530px;height:414px;float:right;">[[File:LWRAirGame.png|right]]</div>
 
The damage each aircraft deals when it lands a hit is based upon its weapon and the damage resistance of it's target.
 
To aid the player, the average '''damage per second''' of your current aircraft (in its selected formation position) against the current UFO will be displayed on any aircraft you select to join a squadron. As well, the '''aim of your aircraft''', '''damage per second of the UFO''' and the '''HP of the UFO''' will be displayed. This allows for quick calculations of the amount of damage you will be dealing during the engagement.
 
'''Air Game Damage Calculation Formula:'''
*DR = (Armor Tier - Penetration Tier) * 0.25 <-- Clamped between 0.0 and 0.95
*Base Damage = Weapon Damage * (1 - DR)
*Critical Hit Chance [x1.5 damage] = 10% * (Penetration Tier - Armor Tier)
*All damage is randomized between 80-120%
 
Example of Phoenix Cannon (350 damage, 3s cooldown, Tier 2 penetration, 30 aim) vs Fighter (Tier 3 armor):
<div style="max-width:700px;">
Base Damage = 350 * (1 - Clamp((3 - 2) * 0.25, 0, 0.95))
Base Damage = 350 * 0.75
Base Damage = 263
Critical hit Chance = 10% * (2-3) = -10% = 0%
Base Damage is then randomized between 80% and 120%
Rate of Fire = 3s
'''Damage per Second'''(if all shots connect) = 263/3 = 88 dps
</div>
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
</div>
 
==UFOs and UFO Weapons==
 
For information on UFOs click here: '''[[UFOs (LWR)#Scout|UFOs]]'''
 
For information on UFO Weapons click here: '''[[UFOs (LWR)#UFO Weapons|UFO Weapons]]'''
 
==Aircraft==
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
|-
|-
!rowspan="2" {{Item name (Long War)}}!!rowspan="2"|Health!!rowspan="2"|Damage Resistance!!rowspan="2"|Speed!!colspan="2"|Prerequisites!!colspan="6"|Cost!!Maintenance
!rowspan="2" {{Item name (LWR)}}!!rowspan="2"|Health!!rowspan="2"|Fire Rate!!rowspan="2"|Armor!!rowspan="2"|Battle Speed!!rowspan="2"|Map Speed!!rowspan="2"|Other!!colspan="2"|Prerequisites!!colspan="5"|Cost!!Maintenance
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|{{Research required (Long War)}}||{{Engineers required (Long War)}}||{{Credits cost (Long War)}}||{{Alloys cost (Long War)}}||{{Elerium cost (Long War)}}||{{Meld cost (Long War)}}||{{Items cost (Long War)}}||{{Time cost (Long War)}}||{{Maintenance cost (Long War)}}
|{{Research required (LWR)}}||{{Engineers required (LWR)}}||{{Credits cost (LWR)}}||{{Alloys cost (LWR)}}||{{Elerium cost (LWR)}}||{{Items cost (LWR)}}||{{Time cost (LWR)}}||{{Maintenance cost (Long War)}}
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Inv Skyranger.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Aircraft|Skyranger]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Aircraft|Skyranger]]'''||colspan="3"|Can't be damaged or destroyed||colspan="8"|XCOM starts with one, unable to produce more||title="Cost in Credits"|20
|[[File:Inv Satellite.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft|Satellite]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft|Satellite]]'''||colspan="5"|Increases funding and provides unique bonuses|| || ||10||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|250|| || || ||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|27&nbsp;days||
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Inv Satellite.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Aircraft|Satellite]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Aircraft|Satellite]]'''||colspan="3"|Increases funding and provides unique bonuses|| ||10||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|200<br />(300)|| || ||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|0<br />(7)|| ||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|25&nbsp;days<br />(12.5&nbsp;days)||
|[[File:Inv Skyranger.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft|Skyranger]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft|Skyranger]]'''||colspan="4"|Cannot engage in interceptions||3000||colspan="8"|XCOM starts with one, unable to produce more||title="Cost in Credits"|0
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Inv Interceptor.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Aircraft|Interceptor]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Aircraft|Interceptor]]'''||2000||0%||10|| || ||title="Cost in Credits"|500|| || || || ||title="Duration in days"|20&nbsp;days||title="Cost in Credits"|100
|[[File:Inv Interceptor.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft|Interceptor]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft|Interceptor]]'''||4000||100%||Unarmored||20||5500|| || || ||title="Cost in Credits"|300|| || || ||title="Duration in days"|20&nbsp;days<br>(cannot be rushed)||title="Cost in Credits"|1
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Inv Firestorm.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Aircraft|Firestorm]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Aircraft|Firestorm]]'''||6000||100%||15||[[Research (Long War)#Materials and Aerospace|Alien Propulsion]]||75||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|750<br />(1125)||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|180<br />(270)||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|120<br />(180)||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|10<br />(30)||8 [[Alien Artifacts (Long War)#Alien devices|UFO Flight Computers]]<br />4 [[Alien Artifacts (Long War)#Alien devices|UFO Power Sources]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|28&nbsp;days<br />(14.0&nbsp;days)||title="Cost in Credits"|50
|[[File:Inv Firestorm.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft|Firestorm]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft|Firestorm]]'''||8000||150%||Tier 4||30||7000||Can wield a [[Air Combat (LWR)#Aircraft Weapons|Fusion Lance]] ||[[Research (LWR)#Main Tech|Alien Propulsion]]||55||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|500||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|200||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|100||2 [[Alien Artifacts (LWR)#UFO Flight Computers|UFO Flight Computers]]<br />2 [[Alien Artifacts (LWR)#UFO Power Sources|UFO Power Sources]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|80&nbsp;days||title="Cost in Credits"|2
|}
|}


===Interceptor Weapons===
==Aircraft Weapons==
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
|-
|-
!rowspan="2" {{Item name (Long War)}}!!rowspan="2"|Hit chance!!rowspan="2"|Damage!!rowspan="2"|Penetration!!rowspan="2"|Firing<br />cooldown!!colspan="2"|Prerequisites!!colspan="6"|Cost!!rowspan="2" {{Sell value (Long War)}}
!rowspan="2" {{Item name (LWR)}}!!rowspan="2"|Hit chance!!rowspan="2"|Damage!!rowspan="2"|Firing<br />cooldown!!rowspan="2"|Penetration!!colspan="2"|Prerequisites!!colspan="6"|Cost
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|{{Research required (Long War)}}||{{Engineers required (Long War)}}||{{Credits cost (Long War)}}||{{Alloys cost (Long War)}}||{{Elerium cost (Long War)}}||{{Meld cost (Long War)}}||{{Items cost (Long War)}}||{{Time cost (Long War)}}
|{{Research required (LWR)}}||{{Engineers required (LWR)}}||{{Credits cost (LWR)}}||{{Alloys cost (LWR)}}||{{Elerium cost (LWR)}}||{{Meld cost (LWR)}}||{{Items cost (LWR)}}||{{Time cost (LWR)}}
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Avalanche Missiles Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Avalanche Missiles]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Avalanche Missiles]]'''||title="Def / Bal / Agg "|25% / 40% / 55%||340<br />(170 per second)|| ||2.0 second||colspan="8"|XCOM starts with an unlimited supply||
|[[File:Avalanche Missiles Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Avalanche Missiles]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Avalanche Missiles]]'''||title="Rear / Mid / Lead "|30% / 40% / 50%||160<br />(80 per second)<br />(24 / 32 / 40 dmg/s realised)||2.0s||No Penetration||colspan="8"|XCOM starts with an unlimited supply
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Stingray Missiles Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Stingray Missiles]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Stingray Missiles]]'''||title="Def / Bal / Agg "|25% / 40% / 55%||200<br />(133 per second)||10||1.5 second||colspan="8"|XCOM starts with an unlimited supply||
|[[File:Stingray Missiles Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Stingray Missiles]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Stingray Missiles]]'''||title="Rear / Mid / Lead "|45% / 55% / 65%||40<br />(40 per second)<br />(18 / 22 / 26 dmg/s realised)||1.0s||Tier 3||colspan="8"|XCOM starts with an unlimited supply
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Phoenix Coilgun Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Phoenix Cannon]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Phoenix Cannon]]'''||title="Def / Bal / Agg "|25% / 40% / 55%||140<br />(183 per second)||5||0.75 second||[[Research (Long War)#Materials and Aerospace|Alien Materials]]||15||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|120<br />(180)||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|12<br />(18)|| ||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|0<br />(5)|| ||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|10&nbsp;days<br />(5.0&nbsp;days)||48
|[[File:Phoenix Coilgun Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Phoenix Cannon]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Phoenix Cannon]]'''||title="Rear / Mid / Lead "|20% / 30% / 40%||350<br />(117 per second)<br />(23 / 35 / 46 dmg/s realised)||3.0s||Tier 2||[[Research (LWR)#Defensive Tech|Alien Materials]]||15||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|90||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|10|| ||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"| || ||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|13&nbsp;days
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Phoenix Coilgun]]'''|| ||230<br />(307 per second)||18|| ||[[Foundry (Long War)#Aerospace Improvements|Phoenix Coilguns (Foundry)]]|| || || || || || || ||
|'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Phoenix Coilgun]]'''|| || || ||Tier 3||[[Foundry (LWR)#Aerospace Improvements|Phoenix Coilguns (Foundry)]]|| || title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|40|| title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|80|| || title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"| || 12 UFO Power Sources<br>260 Weapon Fragments || 10 days
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Laser Cannon Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Laser Cannon]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Laser Cannon]]'''||title="Def / Bal / Agg "|40% / 55% / 70%||290<br />(290 per second)||5||1.0 second||[[Research (Long War)#Laser and Gauss Weapons|Advanced Beam Lasers]]||25||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|160<br />(240)||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|30<br />(45)|| ||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|0<br />(6)|| ||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|10&nbsp;days<br />(5.0&nbsp;days)||64
|[[File:Laser Cannon Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Laser Cannon]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Laser Cannon]]'''||title="Rear / Mid / Lead "|35% / 45% / 55%||400<br />(160 per second)<br />(56 / 72 / 88 dmg/s realised)||2.5s||No Penetration||[[Research (LWR)#Offensive Tech|Advanced Beam Lasers]]||35||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|310||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|25|| ||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"| || ||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|18&nbsp;days
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Pulse Cannon]]'''|| ||300<br />(400 per second)||11||0.75 second||[[Foundry (Long War)#Aerospace Improvements|Supercapacitors (Foundry)]]|| || || || || || || ||
|'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Pulse Cannon]]'''|| ||800<br />(320 per second)<br />(112 / 144 / 176 dmg/s realised)|| || ||[[Foundry (LWR)#Aerospace Improvements|Supercapacitors (Foundry)]]|| || title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|200|| title="Cost in Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|70|| title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|40|| title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|30|| 8 UFO Power Sources<br>40 Weapon Fragments || 5 days
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Plasma Cannon Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Plasma Cannon]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Plasma Cannon]]'''||title="Def / Bal / Agg "|25% / 40% / 55%||650<br />(650 per second)||22||1.0 second||[[Research (Long War)#Plasma Weapons|Vehicular Plasma Weapons]]||95||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|500<br />(750)||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|50<br />(75)||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|60<br />(90)||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|5<br />(19)||1 [[Alien Artifacts (Long War)#Alien weapons|Alien Rifle]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|14&nbsp;days<br />(7.0&nbsp;days)||200
|[[File:EMP Cannon Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|EMP Cannon]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|EMP Cannon]]'''||title="Rear / Mid / Lead "|25% / 35% / 45%||420<br />(120 per second)<br />(30 / 42 / 54 dmg/s realised)||3.5s||Tier 4||[[Research (LWR)#Offensive Tech|EMP Weapons]]||55||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|400|| ||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|80||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"| ||1 [[Alien Artifacts (LWR)#Drone Wrecks|Drone Wreck]] ||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|28&nbsp;days
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:EMP Cannon Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|EMP Cannon]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|EMP Cannon]]'''||title="Def / Bal / Agg "|15% / 30% / 45%||310<br />(563 per second)||30||0.55 second||[[Research (Long War)#Laser and Gauss Weapons|Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons]]||100||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|575<br />(862)||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|60<br />(90)||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|160<br />(240)||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|0<br />(16)||1 [[Alien Artifacts (Long War)#Aliens|Sectopod Wreck]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|20&nbsp;days<br />(10.0&nbsp;days)||230
|[[File:Plasma Cannon Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Plasma Cannon]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Plasma Cannon]]'''||title="Rear / Mid / Lead "|10% / 20% / 30%||1600<br />(356 per second)<br />(35 / 71 / 106 dmg/s realised)||4.5s||Tier 4||[[Research (LWR)#Offensive Tech|Vehicular Plasma Weapons]]||95||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|400||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|80||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|55||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"| ||   ||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|33&nbsp;days
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Fusion Lance Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Fusion Lance]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Interceptor Weapons|Fusion Lance]]'''||title="Def / Bal / Agg "|15% / 30% / 45%||1200<br />(960 per second)||26||1.25 second||[[Research (Long War)#Plasma Weapons|Fusion Weapons]]||120||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|800<br />(1200)||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|70<br />(105)||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|120<br />(180)||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|40<br />(62)||1 [[Alien Artifacts (Long War)#Alien devices|Fusion Core]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|25&nbsp;days<br />(12.5&nbsp;days)||320
|[[File:Fusion Lance Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Fusion Lance]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Interceptor Weapons|Fusion Lance]]'''||title="Rear / Mid / Lead "|5% / 15% / 25%||2500<br />(625 per second)<br />(31 / 94 / 156 dmg/s realised)||4.0s||Tier 6||[[Research (LWR)#Offensive Tech|Fusion Weapons]]<br>Only equippable on '''Firestorm'''||120||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|600||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|90||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|230||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"| ||1 [[Alien Artifacts (LWR)#Fusion Cores|Fusion Core]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|49&nbsp;days
|}
|}
Note: EMP Cannons increase the chance to retrieve artifacts from shot down UFOs by 40% if they are responsible for the fatal hit (see [[UFOs_(LWR)#UFO_Equipment|UFO Equipment]])


===Modules===
==Boosters==
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
{|class="wikitable" width="100%"
|-
|-
!rowspan="2" {{Item name (Long War)}}!!rowspan="2" {{Special properties (Long War)}}!!colspan="2"|Prerequisites!!colspan="6"|Cost!!rowspan="2" {{Sell value (Long War)}}
!rowspan="2" {{Item name (LWR)}}!!rowspan="2" {{Special properties (Long War)}}!!colspan="2"|Prerequisites!!colspan="6"|Cost
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|{{Research required (Long War)}}||{{Engineers required (Long War)}}||{{Credits cost (Long War)}}||{{Alloys cost (Long War)}}||{{Elerium cost (Long War)}}||{{Meld cost (Long War)}}||{{Items cost (Long War)}}||{{Time cost (Long War)}}
|{{Research required (LWR)}}||{{Engineers required (LWR)}}||{{Credits cost (LWR)}}||{{Alloys cost (LWR)}}||{{Elerium cost (LWR)}}||{{Meld cost (LWR)}}||{{Items cost (LWR)}}||{{Time cost (LWR)}}
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:UFO Tracking Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Modules|UFO Tracking (Boost)]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Modules|UFO Tracking (Boost)]]'''||Increases the duration of this air combat||[[Research (Long War)#Materials and Aerospace|Alien Materials]]<br />[[Foundry (Long War)#Aerospace Improvements|Aircraft Boosters]]||12||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|15<br />(22)|| ||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1<br />(1)||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1<br />(3)||2 [[Alien Artifacts (Long War)#Aliens|Drone Wrecks]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|5&nbsp;days<br />(2.5&nbsp;days)||6
|[[File:UFO Tracking Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Modules|Aim Booster]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Modules|Aim Booster]]'''||The active aircraft automatically hits the next two attacks<br>Increases interception time by 50%<br>Only usable when active aircraft is in LEAD||[[Research (LWR)#Alien Autopsies|Floater Autopsy]]<br />[[Foundry (LWR)#Aerospace Improvements|Aircraft Boosters]]||35||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|4||1||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1||10 [[Alien Artifacts (LWR)#Floater Corpses|Floater Corpses]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|12&nbsp;days
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Defense Matrix Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Modules|Defense Matrix (Dodge)]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Modules|Defense Matrix (Dodge)]]'''||Dodges the next two incoming attacks||[[Research (Long War)#Alien Autopsies|Cyberdisc Autopsy]]<br />[[Foundry (Long War)#Aerospace Improvements|Aircraft Boosters]]||50||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|25<br />(37)|| ||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|2<br />(3)||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1<br />(3)||2 [[Alien Artifacts (Long War)#Aliens|Cyberdisc Wrecks]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|5&nbsp;days<br />(2.5&nbsp;days)||10
|[[File:Defense Matrix Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Modules|Dodge Booster]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Modules|Dodge Booster]]'''||Dodges the next two shots that would hit the active aircraft<br>Increases interception time by 50%<br>Only usable when active aircraft is in REAR||[[Research (LWR)#Alien Autopsies|Cyberdisc Autopsy]]<br />[[Foundry (LWR)#Aerospace Improvements|Aircraft Boosters]]||50||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|5|| ||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|2||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1||1 [[Alien Artifacts (LWR)#Cyberdisc Wrecks|Cyberdisc Wreck]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|15&nbsp;days
|-align="center"
|-align="center"
|[[File:Uplink Targeting Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (Long War)#Modules|Uplink Targeting (Aim)]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (Long War)#Modules|Uplink Targeting (Aim)]]'''||Automatically hits the next two attacks||[[Research (Long War)#Alien Autopsies|Floater Autopsy]]<br />[[Foundry (Long War)#Aerospace Improvements|Aircraft Boosters]]||35||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|20<br />(30)||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1<br />(1)||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1<br />(1)||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1<br />(3)||3 [[Alien Artifacts (Long War)#Aliens|Floater Corpses]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|5&nbsp;days<br />(2.5&nbsp;days)||8
|[[File:Uplink Targeting Long War.png|128px|link=Air Combat (LWR)#Tracking Booster]]<br />'''[[Air Combat (LWR)#Modules|Tracking Booster]]'''||Increases interception time by 50%<br>Only usable when active aircraft is in MID||[[Research (LWR)#Defensive Tech|Alien Materials]]<br />[[Foundry (LWR)#Aerospace Improvements|Aircraft Boosters]]||12||title="Cost in Credits&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|3||title="Cost in Alien Alloys&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"| ||title="Cost in Elerium&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1||title="Cost in Meld&#10;(Cost when building quickly)"|1||4 [[Alien Artifacts (LWR)#Drone Wrecks|Drone Wrecks]]||title="Duration in days&#10;(Duration when building quickly)"|7&nbsp;days
|}
|}


Latest revision as of 16:24, 26 February 2026

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In General

UFOs are tougher, faster, and much stronger in Long War Rebalance than in either Long War 1.0 or Vanilla EU/EW. Along with that, your crafts and armaments are significantly less potent, at least at first. However, in Long War Rebalance you can send up full squadrons of up to 5 aircraft at once, and store up to 10 aircraft in each continent, which helps you handle such strong UFOs.

Housing more than 5 aircraft on a single continent has an increased upkeep cost of 5/10/15/20/25 (for 6/7/8/9/10 planes).

Players should exert caution and pick and choose their air battles carefully. You will not be able to bring down every single enemy UFO. Sometimes attempting high risk interceptions against tough targets would be detrimental to your campaign due to the highly unpredictable nature of the engagements at the start of the game. Your early game goal should be to get experience for some of your pilots and advance your air-warfare technology in order to keep aliens at bay on the battleground for the Earth's skies. In case you overreach too early, you might quickly find yourself crippled with long repair times and unable to stop alien operations.

If the aliens send a UFO and it is damaged, destroyed or lost, the aliens will pay resources for it, possibly limiting their options in the upcoming weeks.

As well, XCOM can counteract alien panic levels by running Combat Patrols.

XCOM starts with 3 interceptors.

Damaging and Destroying UFOs

It is not necessary to shoot down enemy UFOs in order to prevent them from completing their mission. Doing damage to them is enough to spoil their plans or reduce their effectiveness. The damage that UFO sustains is stored between interceptions, therefore multiple interception attempts may be a good idea to limit the damage to your own Air Force. When a player does more than 50% damage to a UFO, you will start seeing explosion effects around it. A non-landing UFO at 50% health will fail the mission it was sent on. It is important to consider dealing some damage (even 1) to all non-landing UFOs, as this will prevent them from increasing panic in the country below (except for the bomb mission, which causes some panic anyway, unless foiled by damaging the craft for at least 50%).

Fighters and Destroyers will always be destroyed (as they never crash land) and XCOM will receive a credit reward and a modicum of alloys for their efforts.

Crashed UFO Missions and Scuttle Rush Missions can both be avoided by sending in your air force to finish off the damaged UFO. If you decided to do this you will get a cash reward similar to destroying a fighter or destroyer in air.

Destroying Crashed UFOs

If a UFO is shot down, it will be vulnerable to an aerial bombardment and destruction.

You can choose to do this by clicking on Destroy UFO when selecting a crashed UFO mission.

If you do, you will be rewarded with a small bounty similar to if you destroyed that UFO in the air.

Pilot Rank and Kills

UFO kills are awarded to all pilots in a sortie that downs a UFO, and not just the pilot who lands the final hit.

Pilots gain 0.5 aim for each kill they make (modified by campaign length).

Pilots can also earn ranks through kills (modified by campaign length) and the ranks will allow them to command larger sorties than the default of 2 aircraft.

Lieutenant: Requires 4 kills and can command a sortie of 3 planes.

Captain: Requires 6 kills.

Major: Requires 8 kills and can command a sortie of 4 planes.

Colonel: Requires 12 kills.

Commander: Requires 16 kills and can command a sortie of 5 planes.

UFO Flight Patterns

UFOs can fly at three altitudes: "High", "Low" and "NOE" ("Nap of the Earth"). The altitude is a clue of what mission the UFO is going on - UFOs flying at NOE altitude may land (and only such UFOs), are performing bombing runs (then their icon would flash in the mission view), or will generate an Abduction or Terror mission immediately upon arriving at their destination. UFOs at high altitude are hunting satellites. UFOs at low altitude are most likely to be scouting satellites, so they must be dealt with. Unless playing on Ironman, you may want to see if a UFO would land in a place visible to XCOM before deciding to shoot it down (and reload if it does not land). While a landed UFO is always more dangerous, an intact UFO and it's material components is a valuable prize, given how fragile Power Sources and Flight Computers are from being shot down in Long War.

Once you successfully raid, shoot down, or destroy a UFO type, you can research that craft for a damage and resource bonus against it in the future.

Formation

When launching you can set a combat formation position for your interceptors as they launch on a mission:

  • LEAD: +10 hit chance (1.5x hit chance for UFO)
  • MID: no change
  • REAR: -10 hit chance (0.67x hit chance for UFO)

You may only use the aim booster when the active aircraft is in the LEAD of a formation.

You may only use the tracking booster when the active aircraft is in the MID of a formation.

You may only use the dodge booster when the active aircraft is in the REAR of a formation.

Mathematically and not accounting for interception time, this means that lead can be more efficient when your Interceptor's aim is very low, while rear is more efficient when your Interceptor's aim is high enough. However, lead formation positions can lead to taking too much damage and rear formation positions can lead to not dealing enough.

Aircraft Hit Chance

The Hit Chance of a XCOM's aircraft is determined mostly by the aim of the weapon they are using. It can then be modified by their position in the formation, their experience, foundry upgrades, and the size of their opponent.

  • As discussed in the section above, aircraft in the lead of the formation will gain 10 hit chance and aircraft in the rear of the formation will lose 10 hit chance.
  • Experienced aircraft pilots will gain +0.5 aim for each UFO they have been involved in killing. There is no limit to this increase. This makes them especially effective using aircraft weapons with low aim.
  • Improved Avionics foundry upgrade increases the hit chance by 10.
  • Larger UFOs are (reasonably) easier to hit. As such, XCOM aircraft will find their hit chance to be 150% and 200% of the original amount, respectively, for medium and large UFOs.

Interception Time

The interception time of a squadron and a UFO is based on their speeds.

The specific formula is: 

Interception Time = 30s * (Average Battle Speed of all aircraft in the sortie / UFO Speed)

Interception time can be modified by:

  • UFO Scanners: +10% interception time
  • UFO Tracking: +10% interception time
  • Elerium Afterburners: +10 squardron speed
  • Damaged Aircraft: -20% aircraft speed
  • Boosters: +50% interception time

An example of a squadron of Interceptors with UFO scanners vs a Scout. 

Interception Time = 30s * (20 / 35) * 1.1
Interception Time = 18.9s

The Active Aircraft

The active aircraft is chosen randomly from all aircrafts in the lead of the formation. If there are no aircrafts in lead, an aircraft will be randomly select from the mid of the formation. Likewise, if there are no aircrafts in mid, an aircraft will be randomly selected from the rear of the formation.

The active aircraft will take 50% of all shots from the UFO, which makes it the most likely to take damage when there are more than 2 aircraft in a sortie. Support aircraft (non-active aircraft in the squadron) will evenly share the remaining 50% of shots from the UFO.

The active aircraft also dictates which aircraft boosters can be used (for example an active aircraft in lead restricts the use of tracking/dodge boosters).

The active aircraft is also the only aircraft which you can tell to disengage. Supporting aircraft will automatically disengage if their HP has dropped below 25%. The active aircraft will continue to engage until you issue a disengage order. 

Note that the disengage order can take a second or two to occur.
This means UFOs can still destroy aircraft AFTER they have been given an order to disengage.

Damaged Aircraft

Damaged aircraft can engage UFOs but will have -10 aim and only 80% of their base speed. The entire sortie will always fly at the speed of the slowest aircraft, so sending in a single damaged aircraft may end up reducing the overall damage of your sortie.

You can speed the repair of aircraft by hiring additional repair crews in the hangar at the cost of 150 credits per crew. This cuts remaining repair time in half, though it cannot go below 1 day.

Refueling

After engaging a UFO, all aircraft will need to refuel. The refuel time is 8 hours which mostly prevents an aircraft from engaging the same UFO more than once.

Refuel times are modified by campaign length (NSLW/VLW/ELW) as follows: 

Refuel_Time /= Sqrt(Campaign_Length)

Campaign_Length is 0.5, 2, and 4 for NSLW, VLW, and ELW, respectively.

Country Air Forces

If you engage a UFO over a country that has some Country Defense (gained by completing council requests for that country) then there is a chance they may aid you in the air battle by sending up one of their own aircraft.

The chance is: 

Chance for Country Air Force Aid = (Country Defense / 2) * (Number of XCOM Aircraft / 3)

Country Air Force Aid will only occurs for XCOM sorties of 4 or less aircraft.

The strength of the aircraft the country sends up is based upon their Country Defense:

Country Defense Aircraft Upgrade
>= 30 Phoenix Cannon
>= 60 EMP Cannon
>= 90 Firestorm

Damage Calculations

The damage each aircraft deals when it lands a hit is based upon its weapon and the damage resistance of it's target.

To aid the player, the average damage per second of your current aircraft (in its selected formation position) against the current UFO will be displayed on any aircraft you select to join a squadron. As well, the aim of your aircraft, damage per second of the UFO and the HP of the UFO will be displayed. This allows for quick calculations of the amount of damage you will be dealing during the engagement.

Air Game Damage Calculation Formula:

  • DR = (Armor Tier - Penetration Tier) * 0.25 <-- Clamped between 0.0 and 0.95
  • Base Damage = Weapon Damage * (1 - DR)
  • Critical Hit Chance [x1.5 damage] = 10% * (Penetration Tier - Armor Tier)
  • All damage is randomized between 80-120%

Example of Phoenix Cannon (350 damage, 3s cooldown, Tier 2 penetration, 30 aim) vs Fighter (Tier 3 armor): 

Base Damage = 350 * (1 - Clamp((3 - 2) * 0.25, 0, 0.95))
Base Damage = 350 * 0.75
Base Damage = 263
Critical hit Chance = 10% * (2-3) = -10% = 0%
Base Damage is then randomized between 80% and 120%
Rate of Fire = 3s
Damage per Second(if all shots connect) = 263/3 = 88 dps

UFOs and UFO Weapons

For information on UFOs click here: UFOs

For information on UFO Weapons click here: UFO Weapons

Aircraft

Name Health Fire Rate Armor Battle Speed Map Speed Other Prerequisites Cost Maintenance
Research required
Engineers required to prevent increase in production time
Cost in Credits
Cost in Alien Alloys
Cost in Elerium
 Other
Duration in days
Monthly maintenance cost in Credits
Satellite
Satellite		 Increases funding and provides unique bonuses 10 250 27 days
Skyranger
Skyranger		 Cannot engage in interceptions 3000 XCOM starts with one, unable to produce more 0
Interceptor
Interceptor		 4000 100% Unarmored 20 5500 300 20 days
(cannot be rushed)		 1
Firestorm
Firestorm		 8000 150% Tier 4 30 7000 Can wield a Fusion Lance Alien Propulsion 55 500 200 100 2 UFO Flight Computers
2 UFO Power Sources		 80 days 2

Aircraft Weapons

Name Hit chance Damage Firing
cooldown		 Penetration Prerequisites Cost
Research required
Engineers required to prevent increase in production time
Cost in Credits
Cost in Alien Alloys
Cost in Elerium
Cost in Meld
 Other
Duration in days
Avalanche Missiles
Avalanche Missiles		 30% / 40% / 50% 160
(80 per second)
(24 / 32 / 40 dmg/s realised)		 2.0s No Penetration XCOM starts with an unlimited supply
Stingray Missiles
Stingray Missiles		 45% / 55% / 65% 40
(40 per second)
(18 / 22 / 26 dmg/s realised)		 1.0s Tier 3 XCOM starts with an unlimited supply
Phoenix Cannon
Phoenix Cannon		 20% / 30% / 40% 350
(117 per second)
(23 / 35 / 46 dmg/s realised)		 3.0s Tier 2 Alien Materials 15 90 10 13 days
Phoenix Coilgun Tier 3 Phoenix Coilguns (Foundry) 40 80 12 UFO Power Sources
260 Weapon Fragments		 10 days
Laser Cannon
Laser Cannon		 35% / 45% / 55% 400
(160 per second)
(56 / 72 / 88 dmg/s realised)		 2.5s No Penetration Advanced Beam Lasers 35 310 25 18 days
Pulse Cannon 800
(320 per second)
(112 / 144 / 176 dmg/s realised)		 Supercapacitors (Foundry) 200 70 40 30 8 UFO Power Sources
40 Weapon Fragments		 5 days
EMP Cannon
EMP Cannon		 25% / 35% / 45% 420
(120 per second)
(30 / 42 / 54 dmg/s realised)		 3.5s Tier 4 EMP Weapons 55 400 80 1 Drone Wreck 28 days
Plasma Cannon
Plasma Cannon		 10% / 20% / 30% 1600
(356 per second)
(35 / 71 / 106 dmg/s realised)		 4.5s Tier 4 Vehicular Plasma Weapons 95 400 80 55 33 days
Fusion Lance
Fusion Lance		 5% / 15% / 25% 2500
(625 per second)
(31 / 94 / 156 dmg/s realised)		 4.0s Tier 6 Fusion Weapons
Only equippable on Firestorm		 120 600 90 230 1 Fusion Core 49 days 
Note: EMP Cannons increase the chance to retrieve artifacts from shot down UFOs by 40% if they are responsible for the fatal hit (see UFO Equipment)

Boosters

Name Special
properties		 Prerequisites Cost
Research required
Engineers required to prevent increase in production time
Cost in Credits
Cost in Alien Alloys
Cost in Elerium
Cost in Meld
 Other
Duration in days
Aim Booster
Aim Booster		 The active aircraft automatically hits the next two attacks
Increases interception time by 50%
Only usable when active aircraft is in LEAD		 Floater Autopsy
Aircraft Boosters		 35 4 1 1 1 10 Floater Corpses 12 days
Dodge Booster
Dodge Booster		 Dodges the next two shots that would hit the active aircraft
Increases interception time by 50%
Only usable when active aircraft is in REAR		 Cyberdisc Autopsy
Aircraft Boosters		 50 5 2 1 1 Cyberdisc Wreck 15 days

Tracking Booster		 Increases interception time by 50%
Only usable when active aircraft is in MID		 Alien Materials
Aircraft Boosters		 12 3 1 1 4 Drone Wrecks 7 days

See also

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