I was really enjoying TTFD at first but now it's always the same. Send sub in with the same equipment, kill all aliens (usually Aquatoids or Gillmen) and then repeat the process again and again...

Somehow EU seemed to be a lot more varied, and not just visually.

I don't want to abandon the game as I've come quite far and would feel that all the time had been wasted unless I complete it. So I would like to know some tips for getting to the final mission more rapidly. So far my only solution has been to mass scientists and research everything ASAP.

TFTD is actually more varied than EU, but the tactical maps are larger, so the battles take longer; and I think that makes it more likely to become monotonous after awhile.

You don't have to recover every USO that you shoot down. Technology (including captured aliens), money, and experience (for your aquanauts) are the reasons for recovering them. If you don't need any of that, then just leave them.

The terror missions (especially the ones on ships) can take a very long time to complete, but you don't really need to do those either. Just make an appearance, and then leave if you don't feel like doing them. If you're doing well enough in other areas of the game, then this won't hurt you. Once you've recovered the Deep Ones and Calcinites required for the research tree, then there isn't anything else in these missions that you really need (you don't actually even need Calcinites to finish the game). When you're powerful enough, you'll be able to shoot down the USOs that trigger these missions before they can do so.

Are you aware that the research tree has bugs? If you research certain things in the wrong order, then you'll never be able to get to the Leviathan (the ultimate X-COM craft) which you'll need to finish the game. If you've triggered that bug, then the game will be neverending and will certainly become monotonous. Here is a site devoted to helping people avoid such problems.

Thanks for the tips!

If you don't recover the USOs you shoot down though, won't this negatively effect your funding? When I played through and completed EU, I had lost about half the nations' funding even though I completed every mission and had bases all over the world running very efficiently. I didn't need the money but didn't want to lose due to having zero funding.

I was indeed aware of the research bug and thought I had walked into it but it turns out I'm OK! (I think! :o)

Recovering USOs will get you money for the items that you recover and sell, so in that way, not recovering them means you will have less money. However, I'm pretty sure that not visiting the crash site will not have any negative effect on your relationship to governments and their funding - except that your "score" will be lower, but that isn't necessarily a problem unless your score is really low (like negative). If you allow USOs to fly around unchecked, then that can certainly affect government funding; however, once you've shot them down, I think you've already dealt with that threat.

I think it's virtually unavoidable that you will lose the funding of a number of countries during the course of the game, but I have never had it get to the point where it affected my ability to finish the game.

You can't lose the game by getting your funding chopped to 0 by participating nations. Keeping the countries happy early on is a primary concern as your funding is limited. However, later in the game you will be getting more $$$ from loot than from funding nations so they can fall by the wayside.

My only advise to get to the end in a timely fashon is to follow NKF's research tree bug avoidance guide to the "T", get Psi ASAP and train your soldiers well for the final mission. Stuff happens, so be prepared as some bumps along the road are always possible (such as not getting a particular live alien for research when you need it or your best soldier getting killed on a seemingly easy mission).

- Zombie

TFTD does have more varied missions than UFO. They're really all technically the same in the end, but the variety is there. In UFO it was just recover a crashed UFO, terror site, base defence or base assault. TFTD adds a pot pourri of different variants to the terror site (and increasing a number of them to two-parters), new rules for underwater/land missions (I really like this - and I don't know why), added artefact sites which are a combination of a terror site (brief and massive penalty for ignoring) and an alien base rolled into one. I'm not keen on the colonies with their fixed race inhabitants though.

Of course, they all become monotonous as the actual missions are played the same. Even in UFO. However, I find that the monotony in TFTD mainly comes in from the length of the missions. UFO's missions on the other hand were short and sweet.

Just keep at it. Master TFTD and you'll be an even better UFO player.

- NKF

In TFTD, you get to the stage where about once a month you'll have to go save a boat. IIRC, there are only two types of boats, and their layouts don't change.

It doesn't help that they're two part missions (each of which is a decent battle in it's own right), and that aliens tend to get lost in them.

That'd probably be my biggest gripe about the game.

I love the boat missions, but hate all the nooks and crannies the aliens can hide. Just clearing out one level sometimes takes me the better part of a day. After doing that you have to look forward to a second level. Joy of joys. These missions aren't really monotonous, just time consuming. The drills would be great to use here, but I never get them early enough and never tried them on dry land. (Do they even work on land? I know they work underwater...)

- Zombie

You'll be pleased to know that the drills do work out of water. In fact, the boat missions, particularly the pleasure cruiser map, are the most ideal locations to be weilding a drill thanks to all the cabins below deck and other tight places where aliens will be hiding.

The only weapons that stop working normally when out of the water include the hydro-jet cannon, the Torpedo Launcher, and disrupter pulse launcher.

- NKF

Personally I rather like that phase when you're ticking over quickly with 2 or 3 bases each sending out ships to do stuff all over...

The way I tend to look at my many retrieval missions is thus: If the sub I'm going after is likely to contain an intact pile of Z I'll go and grab it - if not, I'll leave it be.

The subs which I've found to have the most reliable stocks of Z are Escorts and Light Cruisers.
(Okay, ALL subs carry the stuff but these 2 seem to make it to the bottom with thier engines intact more often than the others.)
The best bit though, is that these are both pretty small ships and so make decent 'training' missions for any green squads you may have.

I think any ship that lands is a reliable source of Zrbite. The real trick is to not blow up the IBA's they're hiding in.

Supply ships that dock at colonies are a grand and infinite resource of practically everything if you clear them regularly. Especially useful if you were able to get some relatively easy to fight alien race to construct the colony, like the Gillmen. I'm sure Gillmen commander's don't show up on supply runs, so there's no chance of getting MC'd by them. They're top notch MC users too!

- NKF

I've always found that Supply ships rarely ever have any Z (even though they're supposedly FULL of it...)
And with the Escorts and Cruisers it doesn't matter weather the IBAs survive or not, so long as *most* of the sub is intact theres usually some Z to recover.

The larger ships never seem to have any Z if the engines don't survive though - very weird, I would have thought it would have been the other way about.

Personally, I love recovery missions and so very rarely succumb to boredom.
(With the possible exception of the Research Lab missions: I have never liked those horrid yellow buildings with appaling lighting inside - the source of my first ever "everything wrong" mission )

To speed it up:

Don´t reload, its more fun anyway

Don´t build more then 1-3 bases

Concentrate on the objectives in colony and artifact missions - don´t hunt them down

Don´t do every mission, avoid lobstermen and shipping route.

kill colonies by two pwt tanks and sonic tank for escort, this will also reduce ship activity.

avoid base defence by 6-8 pwt defenses - what is said here on forums is not true, after 10-20 failed  attacks, the aliens will stop attacking you.

The endless repeating base attacks is very true in UFO (depressingly so as it happened to me a LOT of times), and it won't stop until at least one of the attackers break through the defences. However, I don't know if we've ever really tested this in TFTD - it's possible this has been fixed.

About the bases, if you have the money, it might be more efficient to use all of your bases. But instead of making them all clones of your main base (function-wise), they should be as bare-bones as possible. Basically mini small-sonar outposts (one of the cheapest functional facility you can build!) or intercept outposts all around the globe armed with one barracuda and one sonic oscillator goes a really long way to saving your precious zrbite stockpile, while at the same time giving you exceptional global coverage and plenty of interceptors to catch USOs no matter where they are headed. These would be the barest base you can build. Air lock, sub-pen, sonar (of your choice) and maybe stores if you intend to use weapons that require ammo (or if you want to stock a spare AJAX launcher so that you can quickly swap out the sonic oscillator and transfer it before a dreadnaught wipes out the base - if you can't move the barracuda itself). No troops at all - so the base gets wiped out completely if attacked. However, if this happens, they're cheap to replace, and you lose a total of 0 activity points for losing the base and the time and money to rebuild it. At least the country you're protecting won't really notice the loss if you can get the base up and running again.

Surgical strikes on colonies works easily with any PWT device. PWT tanks tend to be a bit more expensive on zrbite (unless you make use of the free ammo base defence bug to get a free round of ammo for your underwater adventures). It mostly involves a brute-force shelling of the central building, getting troops onto the exit pads, heading to the next area and launching a PWT torpedo or a sonic pulser down the synonium device chamber and then dusting off. Not as quick and simple as UFO's surgical base strikes, but it gets the job done.

I hate colonies with a passion, so like to be rid of them quickly. However, I'd recommend hanging onto at least one colony - preferably one that's been built by gillmen - if only for the regular supply ships that visit the colony. It's a very good way to train your aquanauts and you get really familiar with the supply ships.

- NKF

Also, don´t build sonar bases all over the globe - just one near america, and one near china.


To speed things up, you want to play less missions, that means you need to detect less ships.

You don´t loose score for not detecting a ship, you only loose score if you detect a ship, and don´t shot it down/investigate.

Skipping missions that already appeared needs a lot of practice, you might loose the game if you skip too much.

Aliens gain score regardless of whether you detect them or not. They do tend to operate mainly near your bases, though.

Mind you, nothing is lost by leaving shot down UFOs alone. Accept the spoils of war, of course. You don't have to deal with them once your Interceptors have done the work though.

I've noticed at least in my current game that the ship terror missions always occur in the middle of the Pacific. If you were to build a base there wouldn't you detect the terror USOs and be able to shoot them down. I know that in XCOM I hardly had to do any terror missions at all because I shot down the UFOs carrying the mission.

Sure, you can build anywhere you see frequent alien activity. The Pacific does seem to get a lot of shipping missions so I usually put a base in the North and another in the South to catch the terror USOs before they land. If there is one thing I hate more than anything, it's a ship terror mission.

- Zombie