UFOs (LWR)

In General

UFOs come in a variety of different sizes and configuration, and knowing what works well against what UFO can make the difference between victory and defeat. Below is a short general description of the types of UFOs that the player can encounter in the Long war. Unlike Vanilla, Long War UFOs get better over time. Just as the player researches and upgrades their interceptors, the Aliens upgrade their UFOs. This means that new tactics need to be employed during later stages of the game, as late game UFOs can vary wildly from Early game UFO of the same type.

It is also important to note that a new UFO Analysis Research will become available after raiding a crashed or landed UFO, matching the type of the UFO. Once this Analysis project is completed, your interceptors will have better chances of quickly taking down UFOs of the same type in future. This is essential if you intend to engage the tougher craft more than once! It will also grant significantly increased resource yields from downed and destroyed UFOs.

UFOs that are destroyed in the air will cause the council to give a small credit bounty to XCOM. Fighters and Destroyers will always be destroyed once their HP reaches zero. Other types of UFO can be manually destroyed while on the ground after crashing down instead of assaulting them via a tactical mission. This incurs no damage/risk to interceptors and xcom personnel, but also grants far less rewards.

Detecting UFOs

Each satellite in a country will detect all UFOs that enter that country.

UFOs above countries without satellite coverage can still be detected by XCOM aircraft positioned in the continent which contains that country. The chance of an aircraft detecting a UFO in a country without a satellite is 7% per aircraft (can be increased to 14% per aircraft with the UFO Tracking foundry project). With a maximum of 10 aircraft per continent this chance maxes out at 70% (or 100% with UFO Tracking).

UFO Equipment

Crashed UFOs will have some their equipment damaged. This is represented by a flat black scar left where the equipment used to be. As well, explosives and other environmental damage can destroy UFO equipment that was not damaged in the crash. Landed UFOs will start the mission with all their UFO equipment intact, but it can still be damaged during the tactical battle.

The chance for each artifact to remain intact is 0-50%:

Power Cylinder: 0%
UFO Flight Computer: 50%
Alien Stasis Tank: 30%
Alien Surgery: 30%
Alien Food: 50%

If the UFO is shot down and the final hit was from an EMP Cannon, all chances for artifacts to remain intact are additively increased by 40% (to 40-90%).

Each Power Cylinder on a UFO contains 4-6 UFO Power Sources. So you may acquire up to 6 from a Scout and up to 24 from a Battleship. All other UFO equipment is acquired on a 1:1 basis from what you see on the tactical map. Damaged Power Cylinders will yield 1-2 UFO Power Sources.

Each Power Cylinder yields 37.5 elerium and each Damaged Power Cylinder yields 7.5 elerium (both modified by difficulty and campaign length).

Every UFO will also always have 2 Damaged Power Cylinders worth of elerium.

Small UFOs

Scout

Firepower: Low (1x Single Plasma)
Durability: Low (600 + 100%/lvl)
Armor: Unarmored
Speed: 35
Equipment: 4-6x UFO Power Sources, 2x UFO Flight Computers
Missions: Recon, Research, Harvest
Alien Count: 6-10, +2 aliens per difficulty above Easy, a command pod of 2 outsiders (before May) / 3 outsiders (after April)
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: None

These will likely be the first UFO's that the player will encounter. They will start appearing during the first half of the first month and continue to show up throughout the game. Scouts are unarmored and lightly armed, but fast moving, meaning that the interception window is smaller. Although they give less in terms of alloys and elerium, they offer a great opportunity to train up rookie soldiers and get alien captures. The scouts gain a lot of health each alien level up so they can become quite durable in the later game.

Fighter

Firepower: Low (1x Single Plasma)
Firepower Upgrade (Level 6): Moderate (2x Single Plasma)
Durability: Low (1100 + 50%/lvl)
Armor: Tier 3
Speed: 40
Missions: Hunt, Bomb
Alien Count: Will never land or be shot down

These UFOs usually start appearing at AL3 and can be recognized by a purple strobe emanating from their blip. They have much less health but are armored. This makes Stingray Missiles the optimal choice in the early months. A Fighter in high orbit will be targeting your satellites, so aggressively engage it with Stingrays or Phoenix Cannons if you can, to destroy it or at least damage it enough to dissuade it from completing its mission (50% damage will prevent a hunt mission from succeeding).

Fighters never land. They must be destroyed for alien materials to be salvaged by the military forces of the affected country, resulting in an award to XCOM, too.

Like the scouts, fighters gain a lot of health each alien level up so they can become quite durable in the later game.

Medium UFOs

Raider

Firepower: Low (1x Single Plasma)
Firepower Upgrade (Level 11): Moderate (2x Single Plasma)
Durability: Moderate (3200 + 25%/lvl)
Armor: Unarmored
Speed: 35
Equipment: 8-12x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers
Missions: Recon, Research, Harvest
Alien Count: 6-10, +2 aliens per difficulty above Easy, +1 command pod of 4 outsiders
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: +1

These UFOs start appearing regularly at AL3. Tougher than the Scout, the Raider serves a similar purpose. With a larger chassis, several interceptors are required to reliably bring one down, though a Raider is slow enough in the air that it will stick around longer. Both Avalanche and Stingray Missiles work effectively against this UFO, though Stingrays deal less damage. Raiders are a good way to gather Alloys and Elerium.

Medium UFOs will have onboard aliens that are 1 level higher than the player normally encounters. As well, alien leaders will be 1 level higher than normal, at least. Expect more difficult aliens on these missions. This is reflected in the UFO description in geoscape saying, e.g., 'Raider - Level 1(2)' if the alien level is 1 and the boost to alien soldiers and leaders brings them to level 2. If the leaders are additionally boosted on top of that, a plus sign appears in the description.

Destroyer

Firepower: Low (1x Single Plasma)
Firepower Upgrade (Level 7): Moderate (1x Double Plasma)
Durability: Moderate (1800 +50%/lvl)
Durability Upgrade (Level 7): Moderate (2400 +50%/lvl)
Armor: Tier 4
Armor Upgrade (Level 7): Tier 5
Speed: 50
Missions: Hunt, Bomb
Alien Count: Will never land or be shot down

Well armored and well armed, this aptly named UFO will annihilate unprepared interceptors. Usually appearing in the mid-game, the Destroyer requires a concerted effort to bring down, and while it's not impossible it is usually not worth the risk early on. As the Destroyer is armored, Stingray Missiles will be more effective than Avalanche Missiles - though higher tier weapons such as the Phoenix Coilgun or EMP Cannon should be used if available. Interceptor Upgrade Projects are useful to ensuring swift and effective takedowns - otherwise a full contingent of unupgraded interceptors may be required, and doing so will most likely mean that there are no interceptors left to defend the continent's airspace for several weeks.

Destroyers never land. They must be destroyed for alien materials to be salvaged by the military forces of the affected country, resulting in an award to XCOM, too.

Overseer

Firepower: High (1x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma)
Durability: Low (3200 +10%/lvl)
Armor: Tier 3
Speed: 75
Equipment: 16-24x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers
Missions: Infiltrate, Retaliate, Command Overwatch
Alien Count: 28 (7 pods - Ethereal pod, Sectoid Commander pod, Outsider pod, Heavy Floater pod, Muton Elite pod, Sectopod pod, Cyberdisc pod)
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: +1

The Overseer is offensively very dangerous UFO, even surpassing firepower of upgraded Destroyers. Its weakness is lower durability, matching the ones of Fighter UFOs at Alien Levels this UFO starts to appear. Firestorms are recommended due to the high damage output of Overseer.

One thing to keep in mind is that additional Overseers can appear, as opposed to it being a one-time plot event.

Overseers never land and cannot be destroyed in air combat (they will always be shot down instead).

Large UFOs

Abductor

Firepower: Moderate (1x Double Plasma)
Firepower Upgrade (Level 8): High (1x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma)
Durability: Moderate (5000 + 10%/lvl)
Armor: Tier 8
Speed: 50
Equipment: 8-12x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers, 6x Alien Stasis Tanks, 2x Alien Surgeries
Missions: Research, Abduction
Alien Count: 6-10, +2 aliens per difficulty above Easy, +1 command pod of 4 outsiders
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: +2

These UFO's will pop up randomly and fly towards a country. They can be difficult to take down due to their short flight path, high speed, and extremely high armor.

They will not go after satellites or go on bombing runs over cities. Abductors are exclusively used for either Abduction or Research missions, so they will almost always either land or spawn an abduction mission, either way allowing you to thwart its mission with a ground assault.

Harvester

Firepower: Moderate (1x Double Plasma)
Durability: Moderate (5000 + 30%/lvl)
Armor: Unarmored
Speed: 32
Equipment: 8-12x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers, 6x Alien Stasis Tanks, 3x Alien Surgeries
Missions: Recon, Harvest
Alien Count: 6-10, +2 aliens per difficulty above Easy, +1 command pod of 4 outsiders
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: +2

These UFOs sometimes pass through airspace with a satellite during the early stages of the war. Like Abductors, going against one early is a very unwise decision as it can decimate interceptors rather quickly and be very difficult to take down. You'll want experienced pilots in well-equipped interceptors to have a good chance of taking them down. These UFO's fly around and gather materials, meaning that sometimes there is a chance to assault one while it is landed. During the early months this can be a suicide mission, but if successful, you gain a lot resources, as well as disrupt alien research, slowing down alien level ups.

Transport

Firepower: Moderate (1x Double Plasma)
Durability: High (13000 +10%/lvl)
Armor: Tier 6
Speed: 32
Equipment: 16-24x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers, 8x Alien Stasis Tanks, 2x Alien Surgeries
Missions: Harvest, Infiltrate
Alien Count: 6-10, +2 aliens per difficulty above Easy, +1 command pod of 4 outsiders
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: +2

This UFO is a tough ship to take down due to strong armor. You're liable to have one land long before you can shoot one down; in fact you may see landed Transports even in the early-mid game. Assaulting Transports early game is very risky, even more so than assaulting Harvesters, but can give your campaign a flying start, both in captured artifacts and denying the aliens resources for their missions.

Terror Ship

Firepower: Moderate (1x Double Plasma)
Firepower Upgrade (Level 8): High (1x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma)
Durability: High (16000 + 10%/lvl)
Armor: Tier 5
Speed: 32
Equipment: 16-24x UFO Power Sources, 4x UFO Flight Computers, 10x Alien Food, 8x Alien Stasis Tanks, 2x Alien Surgeries
Missions: Research, Terrorize
Alien Count: 6-10, +2 aliens per difficulty above Easy, +1 command pod of 4 outsiders
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: +2

You may encounter these in high-panic continents, but won't be able to take them on until late game. If they don't land, they give advance warning on the location of terror missions, since they do a fly around the target country before the bulk of the alien forces are inserted via an Assault Carrier. Terror Ships that land, on the other hand, are doing Research missions, and can be assaulted for their valuable rewards.

Very Large UFOs

Battleship

Firepower: Extremely High (1x Fusion Lance)
Durability: High (22000 +10%/lvl)
Armor: Tier 7
Speed: 30
Equipment: 16-24x UFO Power Sources, 6x UFO Flight Computers, 2x Fusion Cores
Missions: Hunt, Bomb, Infiltrate
Alien Count: 11-19, including a number of terror pods, +2 aliens per difficulty above Easy, a command pod of 7-8 outsiders, +1 monster pod
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: +3

As the name implies, these massive ships are some of the most dangerous craft an interceptor can go against. They are highly armored and packed to the teeth with weaponry. They sometimes spawn as lead guards for Terror missions, DON'T engage them unless you really know what to do. They will quickly destroy XCOM fleet.

Battleships can be taken down only with several Firestorms and Fusion weapons. Once you've downed one, you can use the Fusion Cores to build Fusion Lances to make it easier to take down more, but realistically you can win the game more easily than you can build an air force that can routinely take down Battleships.

The aliens on these ships are high level and will have some max level leaders you might not have encountered yet.

Assault Carrier

Firepower: High (1x Double Plasma, 1x Single Plasma)
Firepower Upgrade (Level 11): Extremely High (2x Double Plasma)
Durability: High (32000 + 10%/lvl)
Armor: Tier 9
Speed: 30
Equipment: 16-24x UFO Power Sources, 6x UFO Flight Computers, 2x Fusion Cores
Missions: Research, Terrorize, Retaliate
Alien Count: 10-18, including a number of terror pods, +2 aliens per difficulty above Easy, a command pod of 7-8 outsiders, +1 monster pod
Attribute/Leader Level Boost: +3

A variant of the Battleship. It has less firepower but much more durability.

Just like the Battleship, the aliens aboard are high level and you should expect to face some max level leaders you might not have encountered yet.

UFO Weapons


Weapon	Hit Chance	Fire Rate	Damage	Penetration	Average Realized DPS (vs Firestorm)
Single Plasma	40%	1.0s	350	Tier 2	154 (70)
Double Plasma	60%	0.5s	400	Tier 4	576 (480)
Fusion Lance	50%	1.0s	2500	Tier 6	1625 (1375)