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On the other hand... Aliens build colonies like CRAZY in XCOM2. They
build MORE THAN ONE PER MONTH, almost geometric growth! You have to
take out a few or else... (I've got a saved game where there's OVER
TWENTY alien colonies on the map, and I kill at least two a month...)

Alien colonies are A LOT TOUGHER in XCOM2. It's a "two-parter",
meaning you have to fight your way INTO the base, then fight to
destroy the heart of the base. You'll see LOTS of enemies, including
the really deadly ones. Take no mercy... No stun weapons, at least in
first half.

See 11.2 Colony assaults for more information.

3.3 USO Attack methods

Once you got a fighter sub in range of the USO, it's time to attack.
Here's what different attacks mean:

Cautious Attack: causes least damage per attack but remains at the
longest range and therefore has the least chance of getting counter-
attacked.

Cautious attack is useful when you want a not too badly damaged USO
(just enough to "sink" it).

Normal Attack: average damage per attack, enough for most attacks if
your weapon outranges the USOs.

Normal attack is useful as a general purpose attack.

Aggressive Attack: close to point-blank and let them have it in the
face! Causes the most damage per attack, but exposes craft to counter-
fire.

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XCOM: The UN-official Strategy Guide Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang

Aggressive attack is good for brave/suicidal charges (toward an alien
battleship or dreadnaught, for instance). You want maximum amount of
damage done in the short time the fighter sub may live under fire, so
aggressive it is.

3.4 Weapons

Replace Ajax and Gas Cannon with D.U.P. launchers ASAP. Gauss cannons
are okay but I would go for Sonic Oscillators (equivalent to Plasma
Cannon in XCOM, though far less accurate)

I would not really recommend PWT launchers, since, like Fusion Ball
Launchers of XCOM, they don't cause enough "total" damage.

3.5 Go Home Early

When you send multiple crafts after one subs and the subs gets shot
down, the shooter will go home, but other crafts will continue onto
the crash site and THEN return. Instead, click on them and turn them
back early (Return to base). They will return earlier, thus be
refueled and rearmed faster for the next mission.

3.6 Keep Landed USOs covered

Even if subs has landed, keep a fighter sub on top of it until your
landing craft arrives for the action. That way, if the USO takes off,
you still have a chance to shoot it down.

3.7 Weapon vs subs analysis

Before attacking, click on the VIEW subs button to take a look at your
target before deciding whether to attack or not. Attacking with wrong
weapons means either the loss of your fighter sub or the USO totally
destroyed so that nothing can be recovered.

For this reason, if you WANT to go after the smaller USOs, keep a
fighter around with "wimpy" weapons.

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XCOM: The UN-official Strategy Guide Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang

4.0 FINANCE

4.1 What really eats up money at XCOM?

The answer is: maintenence, and salary. If you have 100 scientists,
their monthly salary is $3 million (!). Add that to your bases (the
BARE MINIMUM sonar base costs over $1 million a month to maintain!),
and you will go broke pretty quick. Sponsors' money will barely make a
dent in your expenses, as they only pay you a few million, probably
not even enough for base maintainence.

Remember that expenses are deducted all at the end of the month. So
if you don't have enough money in the bank for monthly maintainence,
you will end the month with a NEGATIVE balance, and two months like
that will result in your DISMISSAL as XCOM supreme commander!

4.2 How do I earn more money?

Three (real) ways to make money in XCOM:

Make your sponsors happy, so they will increase their payments. The
problem is: they don't pay much to start with, and the increase is
just enough to sneeze at. Their payments may be enough to buy some
ammo and stuff, but don't expect much of an increase.

Manufacture arms for sale -- See 4.4 What do I manufacture to make
more money? As in XCOM, the equivalent of Laser Cannon, Craft Gauss
Cannon, takes the top prize as the top TFTD moneymaker.

Sell captured/surplus equipment--most of your money will be made this
way. Dump off all your obsolete equipment (harpoons rifles, etc) and
surplus and you will get LOTS of money. You will usually end with with
plenty of surplus sonic cannons, etc., and those fetch very good
prices on the market. :-) Doing this also means you need less storage
space (and less maintainence) and more "real" weapons on base defense
(due to the 80 item limit). Keep only one item of each type for
research, sell the rest. You need the money and the space for more
useful stuff.

Trick: once the research has started on the item, you can sell the
item for more money.

As a last resort, you can always cheat. See the last section for how.

4.3 How do I cut expenses?

* Cut Maintenence--dismantle any unused facility.
Transmission resolver SHOULD detect 100% of UFOs in range,
so get rid of all sonars once you have one. Also, you don't
EVER need more than one Alien Containment module.

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XCOM: The UN-official Strategy Guide Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang

* Build your own crafts--Tritons and Barracudas have a monthly
rental fee, your own crafts do not. Of course, this means
you have to research subs construction and things.

* Minimize salary--use the salary transfer trick! (see 4.5)

4.4 What do I manufacture to make more money?

TOP SECRET -- XCOM2 Profitability study -- TOP SECRET

by Kasey Chang original (XCOM1 version) by Jeff Shaffer

We assume that you, as XCOM supreme commander, are willing to support
technicians long-term in order to make a profit. I calculated results
for a hypothetical 2 workshop operation. You would get slightly
better results with larger facilities, due to the economy of scale.

Technician actually costs $25000 a month, and scientist $30000 a
month. Check your base information screen.

[some numbers are rounded down to nearest 1000 (K) for space]

Work Eng Raw Sale Unit|Monthly|Net
Item Space Hrs Material Cost Price P R O F I T
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Par. Disp. Sensor 4 220 - 34K 45K 11K 3765K 1275K
Medikit 4 420 - 28K 46K 18K 3146K 656K
M.C. Disruptor 4 500 1Z 160K 194K 29K 4242K 1752K
Aq.plas. Armor 12 800 4A 22K 54K 6K 491K -
Ion armor 16 1000 5Z+5A 42K 85K - - -
Mag. Ion armor 16 1400 16Z+5A 58K 115K - - -
Aqua Plastic 10 100 - 3K 6K 3K 2343K 3K
Gauss Pistol 2 300 - 8K 20K 12K 2916K 376K
Gauss pistol clip 2 20 - 1K 1050 -
Gauss Rifle 3 400 - 20K 36K 16K 3049K 534K
Gauss rifle clip 4 45 - 2K 1950 -
Heavy gauss 4 700 - 32K 61K 29K 2958K 468K
Heavy gauss clip 4 70 - 4K 3220 -
Sonic Pistol 3 600 1A 56K 84K 21K 2586K 71K
Sonic Pistol Clip 4 60 1Z 2K 4K - - -
Sonic Blasta Rifle 4 820 1A 88K 126K 32K 2787K 297K
Blasta Power Clip 4 80 2Z 3K 6K - - -
Sonic Cannon 4 1000 1A 122K 171K 43K 3078K 588K
Cannon Power Clip 4 80 3Z 6K 9K - - -
Dis. Pulse L'cher 5 1200 1A 90K 144K 47K 2797K 332K
Dis. Pulse ammo 3 220 3Z 8K 17K - - -
Thermo Shok l'cher 3 900 1A 78K 120K 35K 2846K 331K
Thermo Shok bomb 2 200 1Z 7K 15K 3K 1166K -
Sonic pulser 2 200 2Z 6K 14K - - -
M.C. Reader 4 1200 1Z 262K 304K 37K 2202K -
Ion beam accel. 22 1400 16Z+5A 130K 250K 7K 310K -
Mag Navigation 18 1600 3A 150K 80K - - -
P.W.Torp l'cher 6 400 1A 242K 281K 36K 6294K 3874K

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XCOM: The UN-official Strategy Guide Kuo-Sheng "Kasey" Chang

P.W.T ammo 6 600 4Z 28K 53K 5K 617K -
Gauss Craft Cannon 6 300 - 182K 211K 29K 6904K 4434K
Gauss Cannon ammo 2 5 - 200 200 - - -
Sonic Oscillator 8 500 15Z 226K 267K - - -
Coelacanth/Gauss 25 1200 - 500K 594K 94K 4371K 2406K
Displacer/sonic 30 1200 30Z+5A 850K 980K - - -
Displacer/P.W.T. 0 1400 25Z+8A 900K 1043K - - -
P.W.T. SWS ammo 25 400 5Z+8A 15K 31K - - -

The "Unit Profit" column is sale price minus cost, minus the cost of
any Zrbite/Aqua plastic used in manufacture. A '-' means a net loss,
no further analysis. Of course, Zrbite is of alien manufacture and can
be hard to find...

"Monthly Profit" column is based on an "XCOM Month" of 24*31 = 744
hours. The calculation is number of technicians that fit in two
workshops times 744 times unit profit, divided by the hours required
to make one item. For example, the monthly profit for Motion Scanners
is 96*744*11600/220 = 1275993 (1275K).

Of course, that is not quite accurate since TFTD does do months more
correctly now (Feb has 28 days, etc.)

"Net Profit" column is the bottom line. Monthly expenses are the
salaries of as many engineers as fit in the workshops times $25K, plus
the maintenance on 2 workshops and 2 living quarters (70000 monthly).

As you can see, Gauss Craft Cannon is the winner, closely edging out
PWT Launcher. A profit can be made early in the game on particle
displacement sensors, however.

One final note:It costs roughly $7M to hire engineers and build the
facilities, so you'll need to "borrow" some money (preferably from
alien supply ships :) to get started.

[Editor's note: don't forget the "transfer salary trick" below]

4.5 The "Transfer Salary Savings" trick

Have two bases approximately equivalent to each other, like both
research (or manufacturing), about same living quarters, and
scientists (or engineers). Just before end of the month (last day,
last hour), transfer ALL of the scientists (engineers) to the other
base, and do the same on the other base (i. e. they swap their
contingent). When the end of month comes along, NEITHER side has their
scientists (engineers) (they are in transit), no salary is paid. If
you have like 100 scientists moving each way, you save $30,000x100x2 =
$6 million!

Of course, you don't get to "keep' the research, but that's nothing
compared to the money you saved. :-)

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