The UFO will inflict 8 x (100-x)% panic to a target country (and an additional +2 if it has 100% health). Bombing missions are different, in that the total amount of panic generated scales directly with the amount of damage dealt to the UFO, and only shooting it down is sufficient to completely negate the panic. 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., in general UFO failure chance is equal to (100-2x)% where x is their health percentage). You can visually identify when you've reached this threshold during an interception: yellow explosions will flash around the UFO, as if it is continually being hit by your attacks. But if most of your Interceptors are being repaired, or you're facing down a powerful UFO that you're not sure you can destroy, simply dealing enough damage to the UFO can disrupt the mission even if it isn't shot out of the sky.įor Hunt missions, when a player does more than 50% of its health in damage to a UFO, the mission will be successfully scuttled. Generally speaking, you'll have a window of opportunity to engage such UFOs 2-3 times before they fly off - and you should, not only to deny the enemy and cost them resources, but also to harvest materials from the crash site. Some UFOs will fly about a country's airspace before zooming off (see the Scout, Hunt, and Bomb mission entries). In terms of the resource costs accrued to replace the destroyed UFO, a successful assault is functionally equivalent to shooting the UFO down. Some UFOs will simply land, allowing you to assault them directly these include UFOs on Research and Harvest missions. Plus, UFOs that are damaged or shot down cost the aliens resources to repair or replace. Shooting them down is a reliable method of preventing whatever they're trying to do from occurring. Also, both your craft and UFOs may sometimes get 'critical hits' (200% damage), with UFOs being downed in a few hits, or your undamaged Interceptor immediately going into near-full red damage indicator.Įach UFO you encounter is running a particular mission that benefits the aliens strategically in some specific way, whether it be generating panic, shooting down your Satellites, or harvesting resources. Your pilots will learn UFO flight patterns and weaknesses, therefore they will become much better at shooting down alien craft: pilots gain +3% aim per kill (up to + 30%) and +1% damage per kill (with no top limit). 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. Try to finish your campaign within two in game years, and don't expect to ever truly dominate the skies. There are also the aircraft boost modules, which return from vanilla.Īs the campaign goes on, UFOs will slowly gain tiny but permanent increases to their health, accuracy and damage, which act as a de facto time limit on the campaign: after several in-game years have past, you may find interceptions to become near impossible.

There are Research and Engineering projects that will assist in aerial sorties, including multiple Foundry projects to improve your Interceptors. In case you overreach too early, you might quickly find yourself crippled with long repair times and unable to stop alien operations. Your early game goal should be to get kills 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. Sometimes attempting high risk interceptions against tough targets will be detrimental to your campaign due to the highly unpredictable nature of the engagements at the start of the game. You will not be able to bring down every single enemy UFO. Players should exert caution and pick and choose their air battles carefully. It's more probable that it would take two, or even three interceptions to bring down even the most basic alien craft. While it is still possible to down the first Scout with one Interceptor, this is an incredibly unlikely event. You will need to cycle your craft regularly like your soldiers.Īt the start of the game your fresh pilots are equipped with Avalanche Missiles, which now have an abysmal 40% accuracy. Along with that, your crafts and armaments are significantly less potent, at least at first. UFOs are tougher, faster, and much deadlier in Long War.

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