Thargoid Combat: Difference between revisions
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When attacked, Interceptors will deploy a swarm of '''Thargons'''; small, independent drones, capable of firing their own caustic projectiles. The most dangerous aspect of the swarm is its powerful '''phasing damage.''' While Interceptors do a standard 10% of their damage through shields, Thargon Swarms have a much more potent effect, dealing nearly 100% damage directly through shields onto the hull. As a result, shielded targets will suffer extreme amounts of hull damage due to the phasing damage, as well as being a larger target compared to unshielded vessels.
Even if the swarm can be avoided, they also possess a second capability. Swarms can become 'agitated', at which point small groups of them will employ a suicide run, ramming into their target for massive damage to hull and modules. This can be crippling to unshielded vessels, but
Additionally, Thargoid Interceptors will trigger an enraged state if a Heart has not been destroyed after 7 minutes of combat, instantly regenerating the swarm after it is destroyed. Rather than in small groups, the entire Thargon swarm will attempt to kamikaze the target, and this cannot be avoided or disabled.
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The only way to kill Swarms is via the experimental '''[[Remote Release Flak Launcher|Flak Launcher]]''' Class 2 hardpoint, as Thargons are immune to [[Point Defence Turret|Point Defence Turrets]] (they will attempt to destroy the swarm, but will deal 0 damage if they hit). Players must fire and hold the trigger as the projectile moves towards the swarm, releasing it while inside the swarm to destroy some of the Thargons. Notably, the position of each individual Thargon does matter; detonating in the center of the swarm is ineffective if the swarm is in a ring formation far from the explosion. By contrast, the swarm can be destroyed extremely rapidly if the swarm is in a more dense formation. Learning swarm behavior is a major part of advanced AX combat.
The swarm can take several different formations. Typically, smaller swarms will start in a 'spiral' formation, while larger swarms will tend to take a ring formation, or even worse, a larger ring that is only a single thargon thick, making it very difficult to damage. The swarm changes formations occasionally on its own, or whenever a player flies through the swarm; this can be a risky, but effective, way of changing the swarm to a more convenient formation. With luck and skill, swarms can be destroyed in only a few shots
The easiest way to destroy the swarm is via the technique known colloquially as 'reverski'. The player should boost away, disable Flight Assist, and reverse their orientation so they are pointing backwards. The Swarm will give chase, but maintain a relatively stable position, allowing it to be targeted more easily, and destroyed. Once the swarm is destroyed, the player can move in and begin to focus on the Interceptor. This technique, however, is not as effective in situations with multiple targets (
If the destruction of the swarm is absolutely required, there is an advanced technique that can be employed, taking advantage of the Swarm's targeting procedures. Upon being agitated, the swarm must move to at least 1.8km away from any enemies before it can switch to missile mode, and while it attempts to do so, it will often swap to a very easy-to-hit 'cone' formation. Using this knowledge, a player can ''intentionally'' agitate a swarm, and then give chase, not allowing it to move further than 1.8km away. At this point, the player can fire point-blank shots into the swarm, generally destroying it in just a few rounds. Notably, however, this is a risky technique, as if the player fails to destroy the swarm, it will be in the highly dangerous state of agitation ''and'' be perfectly placed to destroy the player. This technique is often referred to as 'Painbeavering', for the player who first discovered and mastered its use.
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After the destruction of the first heart, all interceptors will employ a short-range lightning attack, which will randomly overload and disable modules on the target ship.
This attack
When first activated, the Thargoid will start to glow yellow, and begin a high-speed pursuit of its target, forgoing its regular cannon entirely as it seeks to get within range. After approximately 30 seconds, if it has not yet reached its target, it will transition back to its normal attack pattern, but the lightning will remain active for the rest of the fight.
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===Caustic Missiles===
After the destruction of the second heart, the Interceptor will launch a wave of powerful
The Thargoid has an unlimited number of these missiles, but will only fire one per target it can see. These missiles cannot be shot down by [[Point Defence Turret|Point Defence Turrets]] or disabled via countermeasures, so players wishing to counter caustic missiles should bring turreted multi-cannons or a fast ship to either shoot down or outrun the missiles.
===Shutdown Field===
Following the destruction of the second to last heart, the Thargoid will
There are two general ways to deal with this. The first is to employ a Shutdown Field Neutralizer, a utility module that cancels the shutdown field entirely. This must be properly timed, because it heavily drains Distributor power while active. The general best practice is to count to three after the warning message, and then activate the Neutralizer until after the wave has passed over. In multiplayer instances, it may be wise to hold it slightly longer, in case the player is desynchronzied. Do keep in mind that multiple Thargoids can deploy consecutive shutdown fields, so holding it for several seconds after the initial pulse can allow the player to negate subsequent pulses.
The second way is to boost away from the
== Anti-Thargoid Ships ==
While players often tend towards Large ships for standard PVE content, they are often a poor choice for Thargoid combat. Their large size and slower speed make them an easy target for Thargoids, and they cannot take full advantage of their higher number of hardpoints, due to the experimental weapons limit. More often, players choose Medium ships, which have better speed and agility, as well as a smaller
The '''[[Alliance Chieftain|Chieftain]]''' is the most common choice among expert players. It has incredible agility and speed, especially in its lateral thrusters, which makes maneuvering to avoid Thargoid fire much easier than other choices. However, this comes at the cost of hardpoints, and it will typically run with two medium weapons and two smalls, leaving room for either a cooling beam or a flak launcher. However, many find its excessive agility frustrating to control.
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The '''[[Krait MkII|Krait Mk.2]]''' is another common choice. It is slightly less maneuverable than the Chieftain, but makes up for it with a full complement of C2 weapons, paired with nearly perfect weapon convergence. Many players start with this ship. It can also mount a fighter bay, allowing for truly exceptional damage.
The '''[[Corsair]]''', a recent addition to the game, is by far one of the best AX options available. With stats effectively superior to the Krait in every way, it is one of the best options available -
The '''[[Alliance Challenger|Challenger]]''' falls in a similar vein to the Krait, trading agility for durability compared to the Chieftain. It also has the capability to mount four C2 weapons.
Other ships
== Basic Anti-Thargoid Modules ==
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[[File:Aegis AX Multi-cannon.png|250px|right]]
Thargoids are almost completely immune to normal human damage types
*Special Note: Most anti-Thargoid weapons fall under the category of ''Experimental Weapons''. These weapons have a special limit of 4 weapons per ship -
=== AX Weapons ===
Largely ineffective except against the
Importantly, human AX weapons cannot be engineered
=== Enhanced AX Weapons ===
Following the arrival of the Thargoid Maelstroms in the Bubble, several Community Goals were carried out for the creation of Enhanced AX Weapons. These are very similar to standard AX weapons, but with slightly (~10%) enhanced DPS, and much more importantly,
Especially notable is the addition of Gimballed Enhanced AX Multicannons; they offer the same DPS as unenhanced AX Multicannons, but on a gimballed mount, making targeting much easier
=== Advanced Weapons ===
Advanced Weapons are a special and rarely-used type of AX weaponry, and are humanity's first attempt at applying Guardian technology to technology of our own design. Coming in Multicannon and Missile Rack form like the standard AX weapons, these weapons do standard human damage types by default, and must be synthesized to deal AX damage. Unfortunately, the synthesis cost to create AX ammo (which requires Guardian materials) makes them an expensive choice for long-term use, and since they are generally inferior to the Guardian modules, they are rarely seen.
However, they do have two critical strengths; firstly, they are *not* experimental weapons. This means that a player can equip these *in addition to* their standard AX weaponry. Secondly, unlike the standard AX weapons, they can be engineered. This can easily make them substantially superior to the standard AX weapons.
=== Flak Launcher ===
One of the most important weapons for
* Important Note
== Guardian Technology ==
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[[File:Elite_Dangerous_The_Guardians.jpg|250px|right]]
Guardian Technology is the core of human defense against the Thargoids, and what
===Hybrid Human-Guardian Weapons===
The default Guardian weapons are the Shard Cannon (Fragment Cannon), Plasma Charger (Plasma Accelerator), and Gauss Cannon (Railgun). These are Guardian-modified variants of their original human counterparts, designed to deal AX damage rather than normal damage.
The '''Shard Cannon''' fires a shotgun spray of energy, dealing massive damage at short range. While these are somewhat effective against lower grades of thargoid, their short range places pilots at high risk, especially to the deadly Lightning attack. However, the Shard Cannon has the highest potential damage output out of all hybrid weaponry.
The '''Plasma Charger''' has a unique mode of firing; the player charges up the weapon, and then can release the charged energy at will. These weapons uniquely deal pure absolute damage, unlike human plasma weapons which typically do either 50/50 Thermal/Kinetic, or 20/20/60 Thermal/Kinetic/Absolute. Unfortunately, Plasma Chargers have slow projectiles, low heart damage, and low Damage per Energy, making them the most challenging Guardian weapon to use for Thargoid combat.
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