XCOM: Enemy Unknown iPhone/iPad Cheats and Tips

Before advancing to a new mission check your research projects and take full advantage of any upgrades that you may have earned.

It is important that you keep adding engineers, scientists and solidiers to your base in more or less equal numbers because when you start playing the tougher difficulty level you need to be more responsive to situations as they evolve.

Make sure you have a sniper on your team and that they are in an elevated position as their shots are so lethal they can single-handedly change the course of a game with a good view of the battlefield.

Try to keep your squad members alive as they level up because if you lose them you will have to start over. A good way to help you not forget about them is to name them after family and friends.

Make a point of regularly changing missions and providing coverage to areas that are close to chaos.

The ideal percentage for maintaining a smooth operation is to have 70% engineers and 30% scientists, this also includes the workshops.

Remember that the deeper you dig the more expensive each expansion becomes so it makes sense to only create the rooms that you need.

The best way to approach this game is to be slow and steady, whenever possible use covers and deliberately move between close cover points. The most important thing though is to make gratutious use of overwatch to ensure you do not get caught out by ambushes.

Whenever there are downtimes between battles make a point of reloading your weapons so you are prepared for the next assault.

It is important that you build satelites as soon as the game starts and keep building them. Satellites give you monthly money and reduce panic levels. Also, if you manage to fill a continent you will get extra bonuses. Start with South America as this is the easiset continent to fill.

Focus on leveling up your snipers first as they are deadly accurate and able to shoot any alien that any of your squad members see.

Keep building satalites to help prevent losing a country to Panic. Another way of reducing Panic is to choose your missions carefully, for example it is sometimes better to select missions where the panic reduction is most needed as opposed to the ones that give you great rewards.

Although shotguns are extremely powerful against aliens the drawback against them is that they force you to position your soldiers up close to the aliens for the shotgun to be effective. One way of helping this situation is to instruct your soldiers to switch back to the assault rifle before the battle begins.

Adopt a mercenary attitude and focus your attention on the nations who give you the most money each month.