Beginner's Guide

Strategy layer
The world is divided into 6 regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, Soviet Russia and Africa & Middle East. Each region has a panic level ranging from 0 to 100. If panic level is 100 at the end of a month the region will surrender to the aliens. If two regions surrender the game will end.

The strategy layer can run at the following speeds:
 * Slow: 5 seconds pass every real world second
 * Normal: 5 minutes pass every real world second
 * Fast: 20 minutes pass every real world second
 * Fastest: 100 minutes pass every real world second

It is recommended to construct the first base on the border between Asia Pacific and Soviet Russia. The base coverage will be able to protect both regions and all UFOs will be downed over land.

Ground Combat
Land combat consists of turns during which each team chooses what actions its soldiers will take.

The green bar below a unit's health shows its Time Units, or TU, the starting amount depending on the soldier's Time units attribute. Each action consumes Time Units. Moving, rotating, crouching and uncrouching consumes a fixed number of TUs and most attacks consume a percentage of the TU bar. This means soldiers with higher TU are more mobile and versatile but cannot fire more times per turn. Any TU left at the end of the turn will be spent on Overwatch Fire during the opponent's turn. Time Units are replenished at the start of each turn.

Weapons inflict between 50% and 200% of their Damage value each time they hit, depending on the body part hit. Each weapon has a maximum range, visible during combat with green squares when targeting an enemy. It is possible to fire beyond a weapon's maximum range but its damage and hit chance will be reduced.

Most weapons have multiple fire modes, with varying Accuracy and TU costs. The most expensive fire mode is selected by default but can be changed by right-clicking on the target.

Most forms of cover are destructible. Free Fire mode can be used to manually attack pieces of cover and destroy them.