Thargoid Combat

Thargoid Combat is the most difficult content available in Elite Dangerous. It requires a combination of advanced ships, specialized modules, and high-skilled piloting to be successful, but in return it is one of the most lucrative activities in the game, and the central focus of the current narrative.

This guide is designed to help players learn the details to get started fighting this dangerous enemy.

Thargoids

Main article: Thargoids

Thargoids are an ancient race of ammonia-based aliens, who spend most of their time in Witchspace. They enter our universe to seed systems with their Barnacles, and periodically return to tend them for unknown reasons. These barnacles create Meta-Alloys]], a substance with incredible durability and material properties. Humanity's harvesting of these alloys has led to conflict between the two races, and as a result the Pilots Federation has placed hefty bounties on any confirmed kill.

Thargoid Types

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination

Thargoids come in several varieties, each more durable and deadly than the last.

Scouts

The smallest and weakest Thargoid is the Scout. Scouts are, small, agile, and always aggressive. Scouts come in four subtypes; Marauders(the most common type, with a caustic main gun and the ability to fire small, fast caustic missiles), Regenerators(capable of healing nearby thargoids), Enciters(Capable increasing the speed and agility of nearby thargoids), and Berserkers(capable of increasing the damage of nearby thargoids and prompting them to launch additional missiles.) All scouts are resistant to human weapons, but still take approximately 33% damage from human damage types.

Interceptors

The next four varieties are all described as 'Interceptors'. Interceptors are much more durable than scouts, taking 1% damage from standard human damage types, requiring the use of specialized 'anti-xeno' weapons. They are also not always aggressive; often they can be encountered simply minding their business, largely ignoring nearby players. However, if they scan a player carrying Guardian or Thargoid materials, they will warn - and then attack - the player in question, as well as any bystanders in the area. They will also attack immediately if any scouts are in the area.

Fighting them is far more complex than fighting human vessels. Before destroying them, players must first destroy their hearts.

Thargoid Hearts

Interceptors have a specialized organ called a 'Heart', which renders the interceptor nearly invulnerable to damage. Hearts have two modes; their default state, which gives Interceptors a slow, passive regeneration, and an exerted state, which lasts 20 seconds and gives the interceptor almost instantaneous regeneration to full health.

It is in the second state that these hearts can be destroyed; players must first damage away 20% of the interceptor's health, exerting the heart. This will cause one heart to glow, and makes that heart vulnerable to damage. Once that heart is destroyed, the interceptor will then permanently lose a portion of its health, and players can begin focusing on the next heart.

More difficult interceptors have more hearts to destroy, and as more hearts are destroyed, the Thargoid will employ different and more potent attacks.

Variants

Variant	Hull Integrity	Hardness	Thargoid Hearts	Heart HP	Thargon Swarm Size	USS Threat Level	Speed	Credit Payout
Cyclops	800	100	4	35	32	5-6	450 m/s	8,000,000
Basilisk	1800	140	5	70	64	6-7	530 m/s	24,000,000
Medusa	2500	175	6	70	96	7-8	450 m/s	40,000,000
Hydra	3200	220	8	140	128	8-9	450 m/s	64,000,000

Special Attacks

Thargons

When attacked, Interceptors will deploy a swarm of Thargons, small, independent drones capable of firing their own caustic projectiles. They can also 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. Agitation occurs when the swarm flies through a target; the swarm can then be pacified by flying through it a second time. Naturally, this comes at the risk of taking damage from the agitated swarm!

Interceptors will deploy one swarm each time a heart is destroyed. If a swarm is already deployed, they have the ability to save up(or 'bank') one swarm when a heart is destroyed, immediately deploying it if the old swarm is killed.

The only way to kill Swarms is via the experimental Flak class 2 hardpoint. 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 middle of the swarm doesn't matter if the swarm is in a ring formation far from the explosion!

The swarm can take several different formations. Typically they start in a 'spiral' formation, but they can also 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 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 destroyed effectively. Once the swarm is destroyed, the player can move in and begin to focus on the Interceptor.

Lightning

After the destruction of the first heart, all interceptors will employ a short-range lightning attack, which deals massive damage to shields, and will randomly overload and disable modules on the target ship. However, this attack does relatively minimal(about 5%) damage to armor. Devastatingly, this attack, will dramatically slow the target vessel, stopping normal movement entirely and reducing boost speed to less than a quarter it's normal value, making it very difficult to escape before it naturally ends.

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.

From this point onward, this attack will be activated if the target moves within 700m, with a maximum range of 800m. Notably, however, this attack can only be used once per 'reload cycle'; if a player moves inside its range, causing it to activate this attack, but then moves back outside that range before it can actually be employed, the lighting will be unavailable until the interceptor has rearmed its weapons.

Caustic Missiles

After the destruction of the second heart, the Interceptor will launch a wave of powerful Caustic Missiles. These are slower and more easily dodgeable than the ones fired by Scouts, but deal vastly more damage. Like the scout variant, they ignore shields and deal damage to hulls directly, and they do not go away on their own. They must be removed either by Decontamination Limpets, overheating the ship, or docking and repairing. Interceptors will launch additional missiles at the destruction of every additional heart, save the second to last one.

The Thargoid has an unlimited number of these missiles, but will only fire one per target it can see.

Shutdown Field

Following the destruction of the second to last heart, the Thargoid will employ a Shutdown Field; an EMP-like pulse that forces all ships in a multi-kilometer radius to shut down and reboot, leaving them helpless under the Thargoid's fire. This will be announced via a warning message on the player's HUD.

There are two general ways to deal with this. The first is to employ a Shutdown Field Neutralized, 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.

The second way is to boost away from the thargoid and turn Flight Assist off. This will cause the player to drift away from the Thargoid until the ship reboots, keeping them safe until their weakness has passed. This has the benefit of allowing the player to use the utility slot for other purposes, such as additional Heat Sinks or a Xeno Scanner.

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 damage profile to avoid enemy damage.

The Chieftain is the most common choice among expert players. It has incredibly 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.

The 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 Python is also a reasonable choice, with similar speed and agility, but it trades good weapon convergence and the fighter bay for hull integrity.

The Challenger falls in a similar vein to the Python, trading agility for durability compared to the Chieftain. It also has the capability to mount four C2 weapons.

Other ships are become progressively more challenging to use. Some experts use alternative builds, ships, and methods, but they are beyond the introductory scope of this article.

Anti-Thargoid Modules

Thargoids are almost completely immune to normal human damage types, like Thermal or Kinetic. Because of this, it's necessary to use the special Anti-Xeno damage type, which, despite its name, is only necessary for fighting Thargoids, not other alien races, like the relics of the Guardians.

Special Note: Most anti-Thargoid weapons fall under the category of Experimental Weapons. These weapons have a special limit of 4 weapons per ship. This means that a Corvette could only carry 4 AX multicannons, even if it has other hardpoints to spare! Some experimental weapons, most notably the Flak Launcher, do not count for the purposes of this limit.

AX Weapons

The most basic type of anti-Thargoid weaponry are the AX weapons, the AX Multicannon and AX Missile Rack. These can be purchased freely from many stations, and were the first line of defense against the Thargoids before the Guardians were discovered. Unfortunately, these weapons are largely ineffective against anything but the most basic Thargoid forces. The main benefit of these weapons are their ease of access; a new player can buy them and get started on fighting the Thargoid menace right away! Unfortunately, due to their low damage, they are mostly effective against Scouts, requiring great skill to kill even a Cyclops using them. Killing a Basilisk using AX weapons is actually considered one of the greatest challenges in the game!

Importantly, AX weapons cannot be engineered. What you see is what you get. Additionally, following the adaptation of the Thargoids against them, AX Missile Racks cannot damage Thargoid Hearts; this makes them incapable of destroying Thargoids on their own, so be sure to take at least one weapon capable of damage the hearts.

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, just like the standard AX weapons, these weapons instead 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.

Guardian Technology

Guardian Technology is the core of human defense against the Thargoids, and what allowed us to turn the tide and repel them, at least for the moment. Standard Guardian Modules are unlocked by traveling to a Guardian site, approximately 500ly from the bubble, charging the site by firing into the pylons spread across the site, fighting off the defensive Guardian Sentinels, and finally scanning the Orb to acquire Guardian data materials. These can then be brought to a Guardian Technology Broker to unlock a wide variety of modules.

Guardian Weapons

The default Guardian weapons are the Shard Cannon, Plasma Charger, and Gauss Cannon.

The Shard Cannon is 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.

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.

The Gauss Cannon is the most powerful of the default three weapons against Thargoids. They have an incredibly high 140 Armor Piercing, are hitscan, and deal heavy heart damage, making them the most effective of the standard weapons, and default choice for many years. Players who simply want to get into Anti-Thargoid combat as quickly as possible should choose this module to unlock. However, they can also be difficult to hit with, due to their railgun-style firing style, wherein you hold the trigger for one second, at which point they automatically fire.

Modified Guardian Weapons

Released several years later, these are specially-modified Guardian weapons created by the individual who called himself Salvation. They are dramatically more potent than their standard forms, and finally create clear competition with Gauss for best anti-Thargoid weapon. However, these weapons are more difficult to acquire; unlike standard modules, they cannot be unlocked and then purchased in unlimited quantity, but instead must be purchased using guardian materials each time, making them dramatically more expensive. They also can only be acquired in the Mbooni system, which requires a permit from the Glorious Prospect megaship in the nearby LHS 1163 system.

Modified Shard Cannons have double the Armor Piercing, four times the projectile speed, and half the spread of their standard variants, in exchange for massively higher heat generation. They deal even better DPS to Interceptors than Gauss Cannons, and even better heart damage, while their spread and speed has been improved enough to make hitting a breeze. They also do not require learning the challenging firing style of Gauss Cannons. However, their massive heat can be challenging to control.

Modified Plasma Chargers have 60% more Armor Piercing, 66% more damage, and four times the projectile speed of their standard variants. Their damage is absolutely massive, far exceeding Gauss or Shard Cannons, but because of this, their distributor draw is equally massive, making it nearly impossible to sustain them over long periods of time. Furthermore, their heart damage falls substantially behind either gauss or shards, which is compounded by their massive distributor draw. Generally, they require more specialized builds to use(such as Large ships), or combination with other weapon types.

Finally, Modified Gauss Cannons are the only variant that are not strictly an upgrade. They fire a burst of four shots instead of one single shot, but the total damage per second is the same, and they have lower effective range, making it more difficult to use them effectively. They do have higher ammo totals, but these are better considered a 'side-grade' than a pure upgrade, like the other variants.

Weapon	Effective DPS	Heart DPS	Range
C3 Shard Cannon	16.5	12.5	500
C2 Shard Cannon	8.75	6.5	500
C1 Shard Cannon	3.2	2.4	500
C2 Gauss Cannon	17.5	8.75	1500
C1 Gauss Cannon	10	5	1500
C3 Plasma Charger	22.6	6.4	750
C2 Plasma Charger	13.5	3.9	750
C1 Plasma Charger	6.5	1.9	750
C2 Modified Shard Cannon	17.6	13.5	1500
C1 Modified Shard Cannon	6.4	4.8	1500
C2 Modified Plasma Charger	36	9	1000
C1 Modified Plasma Charger	17.2	4.2	1000
C2 Modified Gauss Cannon	17.5	8.75	1200
C1 Modified Gauss Cannon	10	5	1200

Other Guardian Modules

Guardian Powerplants are effectively pre-engineered G4 Overcharged power plants. They are not as powerful as fully engineered Overcharged power plants, but also do not have lowered integrity. They are a great way to get a new ship or build going more quickly without spending time engineering.

Guardian Power Distributors are similar, functioning effectively as G4 Charge Enhanced power distributors. These, however, do have a unique perk, increasing the power output of any power plant(not just Guardian) to a new maximum of 104%. They are a great way to get a new ship or build going more quickly without spending time engineering.

Guardian Module Reinforcements are a Guardian variant of the standard Module Reinforcement. It offers slightly superior integrity in exchange for a power cost. However, the effective protection value remains the same, so for players using an AFMU to repair their module reinforcements, their benefit is small. While they claim to protect against module shutdowns from lightning, the effect(if any) is minimal.

Guardian FSD Boosters increase FSD jump range by a flat amount. They are extremely useful for general purposes, but are not specifically useful for Thargoid combat.

Guardian Hull Reinforcements

Guardian Hull Reinforcements offer resistance to the 'caustic' damage type, in exchange for a power cost and lower raw hull integrity. While there is a significant degree of depth to their perks and drawbacks, overall, they can be summarized as follows:

Guardian Hull Reinforcements offer equivalent hull integrity to G4 Heavy Duty engineered hull reinforcements, with slightly lower weight.
In addition, they also increase the effective integrity of modules, as resistances also apply to module damage.
Furthermore, they boost effective repair rates and speeds, since repairs ignore resistances, while incoming damage does not.
Finally, they can be purchased and sold at any Guardian Technology Broker, rather than needing to be engineered.

The dividing line lies at about 1200 repairs. If a player is going to repair less than 1200 hull(about 4 C5 Repair Limpets), then human hull reinforcements are superior - however, at that point, players are better off swapping repair modules for more hull reinforcements, which will give more than 1200 hull. Often, this higher hull total will still make some amount of Guardian Hull Reinforcements worthwhile, but this will vary based on the ship and build.

If a player is going to repair *more* than 1200 hull, then the resistance values of the Guardian Hull Reinforcements will result in a player ending up with more hull in the long run, with the tertiary benefit of greater module integrity. Assuming sufficient power is available, Guardian Hull Reinforcements are generally a good idea. EDSY now has a section that shows effective health including repairs, which can be a useful tool for determining which choice is superior for your build in particular.

Notably, thargon kamikaze missiles are the main source of non-caustic thargoid damage. All other damage types(except for lightning, which does negligible hull damage) is of the caustic damage type.

Guardian Fighters

WARNING! Ship-Launched fighters are controversial in the AX community, largely due to their long history of buggy gameplay. It is commonly believed that they cause lag and desynchronization in group settings. ALWAYS check beforehand if SLFs are allowed, and be sure to check and comply with group rules!

The arguments for SLFs are more nuanced for solo fights, with both pros and cons.

Cons

SLFs are prioritized by the swarm, making it fly erratically, thus harder to destroy.
Swarms will destroy fighters very rapidly.
SLFs NPC will be allocated half your combat rank.
SLF NPCs will be allocated up to 16% of your bonds, depending on their rank.
SLFs will not aggro the interceptor, or distract it in any way.
Fighter Bays take space that could be filled by armor, reducing the maximum durability of the mothership.
NPCs cannot attack subtargets, leaving heart destruction to the mothership.

Pros

SLFs offer damage roughly equal to an additional experimental weapon, increasing DPS between 25-50%, depending on the target and player accuracy.
Increased damage results in faster fights, and therefore less damage taken.
SLFs have unlimited ammo, saving ammo for the mothership, allowing longer fights and more mistakes.
SLF distributor draw and heat is independent from the mothership, allowing damage to continue while the mothership may be out of ammo or distributor capacity.
SLFs will not be targeted once the swarm has been destroyed, making them a consistant source of damage.
SLFs are particularly skillful at attacking smaller targets like scouts, which can be difficult to shoot down for newer players.

As you can see, there are good arguments both for and against the use of fighters. Generally, fighters will be more useful for newer players, becoming somewhat less effective as players grow more skilled, though retaining utility for ammo effiency even among the best players. This utility may not be necessary or desired, however, and the added complexity of using the fighter can be irritating.

Subtypes

There are three types of Guardian fighters.

Lance

The Lance is a powerful fighter for AX combat, carrying a gauss cannon with high enough armor piercing to heavily damage all types of interceptor. This fighter can deal damage nearly, but not quite, as powerful as a single medium gauss cannon. In NPC control, it is more than capable of killing scouts quickly and effectively. In the hands of an Elite NPC, it is fully capable of singlehandedly exerting a basilisk interceptor, an impressive accomplishment for most players, let alone a solo NPC in an SLF!

Javelin

The Javelin is incredibly powerful, but limited by short range and slower projectile velocity. It carries a Shard Cannon with the highest fighter DPS in the game, but its spread and projectile speed make it challenging to use. In practice, it offers similar DPS against Thargoids as the Lance against interceptors, but inferior results against scouts. This SLF, too, can exert a Basilisk, though somewhat less consistently than a Lance.

Trident

The Trident is the weakest of the Guardian fighters for AX purposes. It uses a plasma autocannon that deals pure absolute damage. It does respectable damage, but not on the same level as the other two fighters. This fighter cannot typically exert a Basilisk on its own, but can easily exert Cyclopses.

AX Taipan

There is one more type of fighter, but it is not of guardian design. The AX Taipan uses AX multicannons, and so deals significantly lower damage than the guardian fighters. However, it is also significantly more durable, and can survive swarm fire far longer than other alternatives. It can be a good way to distract the swarm for several minutes, if outright destruction is not necessary or desired.

Additional AX Modules

Xeno Scanner

By default, Thargoids emit alien signals that confuse sensors, hiding their health values, preventing module subtargeting, and filling the HUD with gibberish. This can be overcome by equipping the specialized Xeno Scanner utility. This allows for two different scan modes; the first, basic scan occurs automatically, and allows players to see their health values. The second, deeper scan requires the player to close to below 500 meters of range and activate the scanner. If they can maintain that range for approximately 10 seconds, then the Interceptor's Hearts will become subtargetable, and their health can be seen in the standard subtarget menu.

Repair Limpets vs Decontamination Limpets

Most players doing Thargoid combat will typically carry some means of Repairs. There are two different choices for this purpose; Repair Limpets, and Decontamination Limpets.

The main difference between these two is total repairs. As a rule of thumb, both repair about the same rate, but Repair limpets repair for a significantly greater duration. Decontamination Limpets repair for a shorter duration, but can also remove the caustic damage over time left by caustic missiles. Either can be used effectively, according to player preference.

In general, these should be as large as the player can carry. The smallest size variants are rarely worth using at all.

AFMU

Additionally, most players choose to bring an Auto Field Maintenance Unit. The size of this depends on how often the player is willing to synthesize additional ammo, but this will typically take up one of the smaller module slots. Importantly, these repair Module Reinforcement Packages 10x as much as normal modules; by keeping MRPs repaired and active, the entire ship can be kept functional far longer than otherwise.

Shield Usage

While shields are ubiquitous in normal combat, they are often omitted for Thargoid combat. There are three primary reasons for this.

Most importantly, the Thargoid lightning attack deals massive damage to shields, and avoiding it relies on careful range control many players do not have.
Adding to this, Thargon Swarms fire a shotgun spray of bullets, and Shields widen the hit profile of ships, causing shielded ships to take more damage.
Shields also require far more pip usage to properly take advantage of their durability and regeneration. This dramatically increases the complexity of a fight.
Finally, caustic missiles will ignore shields entirely, directly damaging the hull beneath. Unless the player sacrifices their shields, they cannot use Silent Running to help overheat themselves to remove this caustic damage.

Many players instead choose to forego shields entirely, relying on speed to avoid damage, and repair limpets to counteract it.

Engineering

Engineering is heavily encouraged for Thargoid Combat. While Guardian modules do reduce the engineering requirement for an Anti-Thargoid ship, players should still engineer the following modules:

Power Plant - Armored, for lower heat, higher durability, and higher power generation.
Power Distributor - Charge Enhanced, for higher regeneration on all modules.
Armor - For maximum raw strength. Standard human resistances should be ignored.
Engines - Possibly the most critical of all engineering, it takes a powerful engine to cold orbit; the more powerful the engine, the more easily the orbit can be maintained. Dirty Drives and Drag Drives are the only good choice.

Combat

Locating a Thargoid

Thargoids are most commonly found at Non-Human Signal Sources, which are found in high densities in Thargoid territory, such as the Pleiades, the Coalsack Nebula, and the Witchhead Nebula.

To find a lone thargoid Interceptor, players should look for NHSSs with not just the AX combat icon, but also the Salvage and Search and Rescue icons. With this combination, Threat 5 Non-Human Signal Sources will be a lone Cyclops, Threat 6 will be a Basilisk, Threat 7 will be a Medusa, and Threat 8 will be a Hydra. Threat 3 and 4 will usually contain Scouts in varying numbers.

Cold Orbiting

The meat and potatoes of Thargoid combat is based on a practice known as Cold Orbiting. Thargoid Interceptors, just like human ships, have a hard time targeting very cold targets. While they can still see them visually, they lose the ability to predict their direction of movement, instead firing directly where they appear to be. Since their weapons have travel time, if a player is able to move laterally(sideways) fast enough, their projectiles will pass harmlessly by. There are three primary ways to maintain low enough heat.

Thermal Vent experimental engineering on Beam Lasers can be used to maintain low heat indefinitely. This is an excellent to practice cold orbiting when first starting. However, guardian weapons need full usage of a player's distributor, so using a beam laser at the same time is typically a bad idea.
Attack runs are usually carried out using Heat Sinks. They give 10 seconds of extreme heat dispersal. Additionally - and not displayed in their statistics - they also give a bonus 2MW of bonus distributor power to weapons. This is what is usually used during attack runs, with additional charges synthesized between attack runs.

Silent Running can also be used for pure avoidance. However, it must be used judiciously, or it will lead to rapid overheating and internal damage.

Of course, just moving laterally will quickly move the player out of range of the Thargoid, making it difficult to damage it in turn, so the pilot must maintain distance while moving laterally and staying cold - in other words, a cold orbit.

While this sounds simple in theory, in practice can be substantially more difficult. Thargoids will attempt to match velocities with the player so their projectiles can hit, and during later parts of the fight, they will use alternative weapons such as lightning and caustic missiles. Players will need to maintain a distance between 800m and 1500m while sustaining fire to break the Thargoid's regeneration and/or destroy the heart.

Fire Groups

An often-forgotten aspect of Thargoid combat is fire groups, specifically in relation to heat. While Heat Sinks can counteract almost any amount of heat generation, they cannot stop the heat from appearing in the first place. If a player fires too many hot weapons at once, their heat will briefly spike over 20%; more than enough for the Thargoid to briefly see them, and potentially deal heavy damage.

To prevent this, players should split their weapons between their primary and secondary fire buttons, staggering their fire to keep heat below that critical threshold.

Conclusion

You are now ready to approach your first Thargoid. However, this is only enough to get started, and there is far more to learn about Thargoids. Please remember that this is the hardest content Elite Dangerous has to offer, and expect rebuys the first few times; death is part and parcel of the Anti-Thargoid experience.

With time, patience, and proper preparation, your first kill should come soon enough.

Good luck!