Getting more Elerium in mid-late game

[CurryCatastrophe]

Hey all-

I've been really enjoying the mod thus far. Very challenging and has added so many new layers of strategy!

I'm in the mid-late game territory atm (not ironman). Got basic coil guns and warden armor researched and was trying to slowly phase out magnetics and pred armor, but I feel like I can't get any more elerium and meanwhile Advent is definitely outpacing me in strength now. I've only been able to liberate 2/4 of my regions thus far, but I have those 2 going HAM on supplies with engineers staffing both (was gonna go for the 3rd lib when i got 2 UFOs chasing me for a month...)

I realize you can rend corpses for alloys/elerium but I've gone through all my corpses possible at this point. (well-stocked on alloys thankfully) I also don't want to burn through all of my elerium cores because i think I will need them for the last tier of items (i have 5 or 6 cores). So am I missing other ways to get more elerium? It feels way too inefficient/slow to wait for the monthly supply drop, then buy the 20-30 elerium that pops in the Black Market.

I noticed I haven't really been getting supply raid missions in my non-liberated areas, as well (bug?). Anyone else having a similar problem? Did I screw something up somehow?

[trihero]

Supply raids are difficult to detect even with a lot of intel, so it's not a bug.

Elerium's tough to come by and I have no real solution for you. We all run out of elerium in late to mid game. Yes don't render those cores; there are tons of late game projects that require them, and most plasma weapons require a core to build per each (ouch). I think you're doing all you can - buy elerium from the black market, and pray for supply raids/ambushes/UFO missions.

I have started rendering all my faceless corpses. I don't really need cham suits/stiletto rounds but I do need the elerium. I have 52 corpses from all the faceless fishing I've been doing all game, so that's 104 elerium right there.

There is a reason that the last tier officer perk is Scavenger; hopefully you have some officers with that perk to squeeze out the most elerium out of those raid missions.

A not-so-great idea is to try to do more missions without stealth, in order to try to maximize the number of drops you get from creatures, hence more cores. Also try to do raid missions at low infiltration so you can hopefully get more exotic alien corpses to render into elerium.

Also spend some time planning what items you really need what you don't need. Trying to build everything for everyone is going to make scarce elerium feel even scarcer. (coil guns have virtually the same elerium cost as plasma weapons, so try not to overbuild coilguns if you plan to use plasma in the future)

[Jacke]

Elerium Core shortages is the reason the mod Elerium Grounds exists (which also provides upgrading to Spider Suits and EXO Suits). Not that you should install a mod (or mod the game INI files directly) just because there's a challenge. But I can understand why too.

[CurryCatastrophe]

Also spend some time planning what items you really need what you don't need. Trying to build everything for everyone is going to make scarce elerium feel even scarcer. (coil guns have virtually the same elerium cost as plasma weapons, so try not to overbuild coilguns if you plan to use plasma in the future)

Think it's worth skipping coil tier then? it was easy enough getting a fully stocked lab which brought research times down to almost nothing. How about skipping pred armor to spend it on wardens?

[trihero]

Well with my playstyle I already skipped magnetic tier, so I had to pick up coils to catch up with the alien's defenses. If you can skip coils without gimping your main forces, by all means yes because they suck up quite a bit of elerium which competes with your plasma tech. But if you're facing down a difficult mission, don't hesitate to build whatever you have to to get through it without deaths.

Pred armor is fine; as I recall it only sucks up supplies and alloys, not elerium, while warden armor takes like what 5 or was it...10 elerium per one? Warden armor is like a luxury for those really high-flying missions like HQ/network tower assaults or avenger defense, not every day use. Pred armor is excellent for every day use, and it doesn't compete with the limiting factor elerium.

Oh also small tip, I'm not sure I would actually do it but you can consider putting a scientist as your adviser to help you boost your detection for missions in general (and thus, supply/ambush missions).

[CurryCatastrophe]

Pred armor is fine; as I recall it only sucks up supplies and alloys, not elerium, while warden armor takes like what 5 or was it...10 elerium per one? Warden armor is like a luxury for those really high-flying missions like HQ/network tower assaults or avenger defense, not every day use. Pred armor is excellent for every day use, and it doesn't compete with the limiting factor elerium.

Oh also small tip, I'm not sure I would actually do it but you can consider putting a scientist as your adviser to help you boost your detection for missions in general (and thus, supply/ambush missions).

Definitely been having a scientist on Intel staffing until i'm ready to weed out the Faceless spy. I think I just let ADVENT strength get way too high (was at 10 and 11), which caused me to get outpaced.

Do you mean you only keep enough Warden armor to supply one Squad, so like 10 or so? You're right in that it doesn't seem very feasible to trying and constantly keep every single soldier with the best upgrades like in vanilla.

I'm gonna start over and try skipping laser, getting mag then skipping coil for plasma and see how that shakes out.

[aimlessgun]

More havens will help, because it means more troop ambushes and supply raids. I just built all my coil weps with no troubles and I have plenty of elerium to spare with 8 havens (2 lib). Also you can a bit from the black market. I am running super low on cores though.