When defeated, enemies sometimes drop loot, which contains different items: weapon mods, PCS, Elerium Core, ADVENT Data Pad, Alien Data Cache, Chosen Information. When dropped, the loot appears on the map with a radius marker (3x3) and a turn timer (3 turns). To collect the loot, move a unit within the radius marker before the timer expires, otherwise the loot is irreversibly lost. Loot may be destroyed if the enemy carrying the loot is killed with explosives (a red-colored text message will appear along the damage dealt to the enemy unit - Loot Destroyed!). Any non-expired loot left on the map when the mission is completed will be recovered automatically. The loot dropped by an enemy unit cannot be destroyed once it appears on the map.
While the loot can be picked up by any player-controlled unit, except for civilian VIPs, the loot will not actually be salvaged after the mission completion if it is picked up by an allied ADVENT unit (Double Agent Resistance Order) or Resistance volunteer soldier (Volunteer Army Resistance Order). Likewise, the loot will not be salvaged if picked up by XCOM soldiers acquired during a current mission (these soldiers also have Squaddie-rank only abilities and the basic variants of weaponry and equipment). The loot previously picked up by a soldier will be dropped, if the soldier is killed in combat. The unit who picked up the loot must be evacuated in evac-type mission or if the squad is evacuated at will - in order to bring the loot aboard the Avenger.
If an ADVENT soldier who carried the loot was killed by explosion, the loot can be salvaged if this unit is reanimated as a Psi-Zombie. In this case the Psi-Zombie needs to be killed without using explosive weapons, and the loot will be dropped as usual, requiring picking it up. The loot picked up in this manner are actually 2 loot drops, resulting in salvaging more items, some of them being in quantity of 2 even in the early game and without the additional loot drop bonuses.
Usually there is only 1 enemy unit carrying the loot on the mission map (except for the Lost, turrets, Alien Rulers, and Chosen, which never drop loot) - one of the units already present on the map at the start of the mission. Enemy reinforcements do not drop loot. However, if a Chosen summons his minions (General/Mechlord/Beastmaster/Shogun/Prelate chosen strength summons, but not the spectral summons), the first one or one of the first ones always carries a loot.
More loot can be picked up with Vulture (Resistance Order in WotC / Guerrilla Tactics School tactics upgrade in non-WotC).
Disoriented units or units carrying another unit cannot pickup the loot. The loot cannot be picked up if the soldier doesn't have the loot in direct line of sight, despite moving into the loot marker area.
Loot: Technical Data[]
File XCOM 2/share/data/xcomgame/config/defaultgamecore.ini has around 321-337 LootTables and up to 1119 Loots.
File XCOM 2/share/data/xcomgame/config/defaultmissions.ini mentions:
- bGroupDoesNotAwardLoot
- If true, this reinforcement group will not drop loot.
- bGroupDoesNotAwardLoot=true
- The file has around 57
- LootTableName=
- The file had around 79
- AverageAdventTimedLoot
- The average number of advent soldiers who should drop timed loot when killed in this mission. (Default: 1.0)
- AverageAlienTimedLoot
- The average number of aliens who should drop timed loot when killed in this mission. (Default: 1.0)
NOTE: This article or section is in need of cleanup or verification. You can help the XCOM Wiki by improving it. Reason: 1. Test if mind-controlled and evacuated enemy units can pickup but do not let salvage the loot -- very much likely it is so.
2. Find out which other status effects prevent picking up the loot.
3. Add relevant technical information about the loot (instead of the current one).
4. Test if there are occasions when the enemy reinforcements carry the loot.
5. Specify which other enemy units never carry loot, e.g. Avatar.
NOTE: This article or section is a stub. You can help the XCOM Wiki by expanding it. Reason: 1. Create actually useful loot tables, e.g. which units (commonly, or are guaranteed to) drop Elerium Core or other types of loot.
2. Add info about the Templar Focus loot drops.
3. Add images of different loot types lying on the ground - so that it can be determined what is actually or most likely is there in the drop (this is especially useful in the beginning of the game, on the hardest difficulty, where a suitable weapon mod makes a whole difference between a solid win or a painful struggle - e.g. Stock.