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I shot down a UFO, but a few of my "must have" soldiers are recovering from wounds. I would like to send them in 4 days, or 2 if I had to. Will the crash site disappear or otherwise go bad if I wait too long? If so, how long is too long?

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why not take this opportunity to train up some rookies? :) –  z ' Oct 12 '12 at 12:34
@spartacus I've had this happen when I was waiting for the rookies to arrive (it was either wait or send out a 2 man squad :\ ) –  therefromhere Nov 3 '12 at 22:00

2 Answers 2

up vote 27 down vote accepted

These are the timers for all game modes in hours taken from game data:


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This is very useful info! Is there also a timer for how long you have to shoot down a flying UFO? –  Elbyron Nov 7 '12 at 18:38
Just to add expansion info : These times are unchanged in Enemy Within. –  Simon W Dec 7 '13 at 10:43

Based on some testing:

  1. On Normal, I have observed several of scout-classed UFOs take between 24 and 48 hours before being "repaired" and disappearing.

  2. On classic, I have observed two scout-classed UFOs taking between 24 an 30+ hours to disappear.

Small sample sizes, and I don't know if bigger ships are more or less likely to take off quickly.

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I'm playing on NORMAL with ironman and a medium crash site just vanished in about 17 hours. Dammit! So the advice of 24-48 is not accurate. –  user41039 Jan 17 '13 at 3:49

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