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Worth: 60G

Description: Beat the game on Classic difficulty.

How to Earn: You still get this achievement after changing the difficulty from Easy.

You can start the game on Easy difficulty (credit to Goatlips). Playing on Easy means you will have more HP, the enemy will have less HP and you will get more monthly income. A month before you start the last mission, set the difficulty back to Classic and complete at least one mission on Classic before you finish the game to get this achievement. I found the difficulty reverted back to Classic for the Alien Base Assault, so I carried on from there on Classic.

In January 2013 the Second Wave title update was released. It will download automatically the first time you play while connected to Xbox Live. This makes the game even easier.

From the Main Menu select Single Player then press Y for Second Wave. Select the following:
New Economy
Not Created Equally
Hidden Potential
Press B to return to the Select Difficulty menu, then select Classic and press A. At the Base Location screen select Africa.

After the first mission, go to the Barracks menu and select Hire Soldiers and hire 1 soldier then create a save. Now press Y to go to Mission Control and press A to scan for activity. As soon as the new Soldier arrives press B to stop scanning. Now go back to the Barracks and look at the Will and Aim of your new soldier. Normally your Rookie's stats would be Will:40, Aim:65. What Not Created Equally does is gives you Will:20-62 (increments of 2) and Aim:50-85 (increments of 5). You can keep reloading your previous save until you get some high stats, then repeat it to get more soldiers.

Hidden Potential means the increase in Aim is also randomised. So save just before the end of each mission, and if a soldier gets a promotion check how much their Will and Aim increased, and reload if required. Aim increases vary by class as follows: Sniper 3-9; Support 2-6; Assault 1-5; Heavy 0-2. This means by the time you reach Colonel rank, you could have a Sniper with Aim:148 shock

The key to having an easy time of XCOM, is getting money as fast as possible by building Satellite Uplinks and Satellites as quickly as possible. Your next 2 Satellites should go to South America, for instant Autopsies and Interrogations. Other solutions written before Second Wave was released will recommend starting in North America as the United States gives the most credits per month. New Economy randomises the credits, and starting with 1 Satellite in Africa gives you +30% credits.