Part 15

UFO Missions (Alien Landings and Crash Landings): Approach these missions with the same strategy as outlined previously: advance at a steady pace and eliminate threats before they can attack. Be aware that Meld containers can appear both inside the UFO and on its roof.

UFO Boss Characters: All UFOs contain a boss alien. Early in the game, you can defer research into Xeno Biology to acquire better weapons and armor, making these bosses easier. As you progress the story, boss characters will become significantly tougher, requiring your entire squad to focus fire. Some bosses possess abilities that can incapacitate your soldiers if not dealt with quickly. Ensure you engage these leaders alone and with adequate equipment.

Alien Terror Missions: These missions involve rescuing up to 15 civilians scattered across the map by moving an XCOM soldier within their rescue radius. Each rescued civilian contributes to your score, while aliens also score by killing civilians. The difficulty of these missions depends on your willingness to prioritize saving civilians. If you choose to save them, be aware that civilians often seek cover (press the cover button to crouch behind walls or objects) in disadvantageous locations, making it difficult to rescue them while simultaneously engaging aliens. A common mistake is splitting your squad to rescue multiple civilians, which increases the chance of activating more alien squads. Instead, focus on advancing steadily in a single direction, forming a concentrated spearhead to focus fire on alien threats. Fight aliens while civilians are still present, advancing as a group. Advancing too slowly will result in civilian deaths and no benefit. Rescued civilians reduce panic, with a minimum of one rescue needed for this effect.

Council Missions (Generic Variants): After unlocking the Situation Room, you will receive missions from the Council. Ignoring most missions lowers your Council rating but does not increase panic. However, ignoring specific DLC (downloadable content — extra missions or items released after launch) Council missions can prevent the entire DLC campaign from occurring. These missions can be highly rewarding. Be cautious about ignoring missions like "Friends in low places" and "Progeny." Later missions from the Slingshot DLC and Progeny DLC (except for "Gangplank") can be safely ignored.

Non-Skippable DLC Missions: Certain missions are marked as "can't skip" and will not reappear if ignored, locking the mission chain.

Slingshot DLC: "Friends in low places" (can't skip), "Confounding light." Completing "Confounding light" triggers "Gangplank" shortly after (can't skip "Gangplank").

Progeny DLC: "Progeny" (can't skip). "Deluge" and "Furies" can be skipped but appear after story progression.

Bomb Disposal Missions: These missions take place on maps such as a trainyard, train station, graveyard, butcher, or bridge. You typically have 3 turns to find and disarm a bomb (a green container) while disabling nodes for extra time. To disarm, position a soldier next to the bomb/node and use their remaining action points to disarm. If action points are depleted, you must wait until the next turn. Thin Men are common, and the limited turns require steady advancement and enemy elimination. Maps are often small, increasing the risk of activating multiple alien squads simultaneously.