UFO Recovery Values

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Although Country Funding is thought of as the mainstay of X-COM's working budget, and manufacturing can be a great supplement to that, alien artefacts and UFO components recovered from UFO Ground Assaults are the greatest source of funds for commanders.

The following tables list values for fully-intact ships. If you attack ships while they are landed, you can recover most of the items listed below.

UFOs which have been shot down will usually have several destroyed components, especially UFO Power Sources and the Elerium-115 contained within them. That's half a mil down the drain, for each lost Power Source & Elerium.

The best way to ensure a UFO is intact in order to maximize loot is to let it land without shooting it down.

Artefacts and UFO components can also be destroyed during the course of a mission, particularly by Explosions -- so use HE munitions and grenades sparingly inside UFOs if you want maximum salvage value.

Alien Armaments

Items which the aliens carry -- weapons, almost exclusively -- are identified as "Alien Artefacts" until you fully research them. They can still be sold at full price once you get them back to base.

In the first few months of the game, the aliens will be relatively lightly armed -- primarily Plasma Pistols or Rifles, although sometimes they will carry Small Launchers or Heavy Plasmas instead. Within a few months, they will abandon pistols and rifles altogether in favor of Heavy Plasmas. Blaster Launchers can be found on Battleships, Alien Bases, and Base Defence missions.

Aliens on Small, Medium, or Large Scout ships will also sometimes carry a Mind Probe, worth $304,000, the highest-priced alien artefact in the game. Since the UFOs you encounter in the first few months will mostly be scout ships, the average value of alien artefacts (per alien) will remain relatively constant throughout the game.

Here are items carried by aliens, and their value:

                        Value
  Plasma Pistol        $84,000 
    Clip                $4,440 

  Plasma Rifle        $126,500 
    Clip                $6,290 

  Heavy Plasma        $171,600 
    Clip                $9,590 

  Blaster Launcher    $144,000 
    Blaster Bomb       $17,028

  Small Launcher      $120,000
    Stun Bomb          $15,200

  Alien Grenade        $14,850

  Mind Probe          $304,000

Here are item sets commonly found on aliens:

                                                          Total Value
Plasma Pistol + 2 Plasma Pistol Clips                       $92,880
Plasma Rifle + 2 Plasma Rifle Clips + 1 Alien Grenade      $153,930
Heavy Plasma + 2 Heavy Plasma Clips + 1 Alien Grenade      $205,630
Small Launcher + 3 Stun Bombs                              $165,600
Blaster Launcher + 4 Blaster Bombs                         $212,112

You will only recover ammunition clips if they have not been used. Each time an alien fires a Heavy Plasma for the first time, its clip becomes unrecoverable, and $10k is lost. Bang goes an Alien Grenade? $15k up in smoke.

Every alien corpse you recover is worth $20,000. Terror units have built-in weapons and will never carry artefacts, although their corpses are worth $20,000 as well. Unconscious (i.e., live) aliens don't leave behind corpses and aren't worth any money, so don't stun everything in sight -- only stun what you need (see Research). Live aliens do produce a higher score, but only if you don't currently have that alien species+rank in containment.

UFO Recovery Value Tables

In the tables below, the average value of each alien's armament is assumed to be about $180,000. The number of aliens found on each ship type varies; on higher difficulty settings, many more aliens will appear. In addition, on Terror Sites with Chryssalids the number of alien corpses could climb as high as 16 more if the max amount of civilians were turned to Zombies. This doesn't take into account X-COM soldiers which get turned either.


Small Scout

Total Aliens
1 (all difficulty levels; guaranteed to spawn carrying a Mind Probe)


Item Sell Price Quantity Value
Alien Alloys $6,500 1 $6,500
Corpses $20,000 1 $20,000
Alien Armament $180,000 1 $180,000
Mind Probe $304,000 1 $304,000
Total $510,500


Medium Scout

Total Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 3 - 6
Vet./Gen.: 4 - 7
Super.: 6 - 9
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
UFO Power Source $250,000 1 $250,000
UFO Navigation $80,000 2 $160,000
Alien Alloys $6,500 11 $71,500
Elerium-115 $5,000 50 $250,000
Corpses $20,000 3 - 9 $60,000 - $180,000
Alien Armament $180,000 3 - 9 $540,000 - $1,620,000
Total $1,331,500 - $2,531,500


Large Scout

Total Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 3 - 10
Vet./Gen.: 4 - 11
Super.: 6 - 13
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
UFO Power Source $250,000 1 $250,000
UFO Navigation $80,000 2 $160,000
Alien Alloys $6,500 35 $227,500
Elerium-115 $5,000 50 $250,000
Corpses $20,000 3 - 13 $60,000 - $260,000
Alien Armament $180,000 3 - 13 $540,000 - $2,340,000
Total $1,487,500 - $3,487,500


Abductor

Total Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 9 - 14
Vet./Gen.: 11 - 16
Super.: 13 - 18
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
UFO Power Source $250,000 2 $500,000
UFO Navigation $80,000 5 $400,000
Examination Room $9,000 4 $36,000
Alien Alloys $6,500 70 $455,000
Elerium-115 $5,000 100 $500,000
Corpses $20,000 9 - 18 $180,000 - $360,000
Alien Armament $180,000 9 - 18 $1,620,000 - $3,240,000
Total $3,691,000 - $5,491,000


Harvester

Total Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 10 - 15
Vet./Gen.: 12 - 17
Super.: 16 - 21
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
UFO Power Source $250,000 2 $500,000
UFO Navigation $80,000 10 $800,000
Alien Food $5,000 14 $70,000
Alien Surgery $38,000 8 $304,000
Alien Alloys $6,500 97 $630,500
Elerium-115 $5,000 100 $500,000
Corpses $20,000 10 - 21 $200,000 - $420,000
Alien Armament $180,000 10 - 21 $1,800,000 - $3,780,000
Total $4,804,500 - $7,004,500


Supply Ship

Total Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 9 - 16
Vet./Gen.: 10 - 17
Super.: 14 - 21
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
UFO Power Source $250,000 3 $750,000
UFO Navigation $80,000 4 $320,000
Alien Food $5,000 20 $100,000
Alien Surgery $38,000 2 $76,000
Alien Alloys $6,500 141 $916,500
Elerium-115 $5,000 150 $750,000
Corpses $20,000 9 - 21 $180,000 - $420,000
Alien Armament $180,000 9 - 21 $1,620,000 - $3,780,000
Total $4,712,000 - $7,112,000


Terror Ship

Total Armed Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 8 - 10
Vet./Gen.: 9 - 11
Super.: 12 - 14
Total Terrorists
Beg./Exp.: 2 - 6
Vet./Gen.: 4 - 8
Super.: 6 - 10
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
UFO Power Source $250,000 4 $1,000,000
UFO Navigation $80,000 8 $640,000
Alien Entertainment $20,000 8 $160,000
Alien Alloys $6,500 92 $598,000
Elerium-115 $5,000 200 $1,000,000
Corpses $20,000 10 - 24 $200,000 - $480,000
Alien Armament $180,000 8 - 14 $1,440,000 - $2,520,000
Total $5,038,000 - $6,398,000


Battleship

Total Armed Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 9 - 13
Vet./Gen.: 12 - 16
Super.: 18 - 22
Total Terrorists
Beg./Exp.: 0 - 2
Vet./Gen.: 2 - 4
Super.: 4 - 6
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
UFO Power Source $250,000 4 $1,000,000
UFO Navigation $80,000 4 $320,000
Alien Entertainment $20,000 24 $480,000
Alien Alloys $6,500 231 $1,501,500
Elerium-115 $5,000 200 $1,000,000
Corpses $20,000 9 - 28 $180,000 - $560,000
Alien Armament $180,000 9 - 22 $1,620,000 - $3,960,000
Total $6,101,500 - $8,821,500

Terror Missions

When a Terror Mission has begun, there is no ship to recover: the Terror Ship will disgorge its aliens upon some hapless city and take straight off into space. Alien corpses and their armament can still be recovered.

It is presumed that the same number (and type) of aliens present on a Terror Ship will appear during a terror mission.


Total Armed Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 8 - 10
Vet./Gen.: 9 - 11
Super.: 12 - 14
Total Terrorists
Beg./Exp.: 2 - 6
Vet./Gen.: 4 - 8
Super.: 6 - 10
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
Corpses $20,000 10 - 24 $200,000 - $480,000
Alien Armament $180,000 8 - 14 $1,440,000 - $2,520,000
Total $1,640,000 - $3,000,000

X-COM Base Defence

As with Terror Missions, there is no ship to recover during a Base Defence mission: only corpses and armament can be recovered.

It is presumed that the same number (and type) of aliens present on a Battleship will appear during a base invasion.


Total Armed Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 9 - 13
Vet./Gen.: 12 - 16
Super.: 18 - 22
Total Terrorists
Beg./Exp.: 0 - 2
Vet./Gen.: 2 - 4
Super.: 4 - 6
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
Corpses $20,000 9 - 28 $180,000 - $560,000
Alien Armament $180,000 9 - 22 $1,620,000 - $3,960,000
Total $1,800,000 - $4,520,000

On DOS versions, a known bug may occur, which can multiply Elerium in stores up to 50 times in the base. This is a completely unintentional glitch and Elerium will not spawn during base defence on any game version past 1.2.

Alien Base Assaults

The loot available from alien bases is quite variable. Each base is randomly assembled from several standard modules (see Alien Base Terrain), which contain Alien Entertainment, Alien Alloys, and sometimes UFO Power Sources (and Elerium-115).

In eight trials, the number of Alien Entertainments recovered from different bases ranged from 26 to 95, and averaged 55; Alloys ranged from 42 to 50, averaging 45; and Power Sources were only seen in two bases -- one with two Power Sources (and 50 Elerium), the other with four Power Sources (and 150 Elerium). The largest share of recovered value from an alien base is likely to be from alien armaments.

Based on the following figures, it seems that "milking" an alien base is less profitable overall (and probably more dangerous) than just waylaying its Supply Ships. Especially considering the propensity of the aliens to blow up all the loot under the grav lift with a stray blaster bomb. Attacking but not destroying alien bases may still have some use for Experience Training.


Total Armed Aliens
Beg./Exp.: 11 - 15
Vet./Gen.: 13 - 17
Super.: 17 - 21
Total Terrorists
Beg./Exp.: 1 - 3
Vet./Gen.: 3 - 5
Super.: 5 - 7
Item Sell Price Quantity Value
Alien Entertainment (average) $20,000 55 $1,100,000
Alien Alloys (average) $6,500 45 $292,500
Corpses $20,000 12 - 28 $240,000 - $560,000
Alien Armament $180,000 11 - 21 $1,980,000 - $3,780,000
Total $3,612,500 - $5,732,500

Also, if any:

Item Sell Price Quantity Value
UFO Power Source (per) $250,000 1 $250,000
Elerium-115 (per) $5,000 50 $250,000


See Also