Killing Scouts without the Guardians Grind

[Kamiyoda]

Current build at the moment, having a lot of success with threat 3s and 4s. The big issue is the caustic damage as unfortunately with the FAS you'd just be sacrificing too much to fit decon limpet and cargo rack. Gave in and tried to get the mats for the guardian module, completely forgetting how painful it was.

https://s.orbis.zone/ztb

The threat 8s with that interceptor though just aren't doable with this build and struggled with even the threat 5s (just bought a rebuy a few minutes ago)

EDIT: Not sure if it's already been answered on this thread but has any one been able to deduce if the corrosive shell special is any more effective against scouts?

To my Knowledge none of the special effects that apply themselves to targeted ships work on thargoids.

Will comment on the ship build in a bit, have to get on my laptop

 

[Speedcuffs]

Hmm. The Bi-weaves shields.
Is enhanced low power better?
Is thermal resistance of any use against the scouts?

Also for hull reinforcement, are the Guardian ones better or stick with max engineering heavy duty?

 

[Kamiyoda]

Hmm. The Bi-weaves shields.
Is enhanced low power better?
Is thermal resistance of any use against the scouts?

Also for hull reinforcement, are the Guardian ones better or stick with max engineering heavy duty?

Not really. Any resistance that isnt Caustic is useless vs Thargoids.

Guardian MRPs are flat our better than normal MRPs but they draw power. HRPs it depends on what you want. I prefer the Guardian HRPS because it means my Decon limpets have less actual hull to repair because of the high resistance. But if you want to be safe from gankers I guess go with normal Hull stuff?

Here is my AX FAS with Decon Limpets.

Prismatic and Heavy Duty shields, though you can probably get away with Bi-weaves if you want. Really they are just there to let me thin the herd. don't really need MRPs the one is just there cause I left it on by accident. They will most likely kill you before you loose anything important. Had to make this in somewhat of a hurry so Im hoping I didnt leave off anything important

 

[Speedcuffs]

Not really. Any resistance that isnt Caustic is useless vs Thargoids.

Guardian MRPs are flat our better than normal MRPs but they draw power. HRPs it depends on what you want. I prefer the Guardian HRPS because it means my Decon limpets have less actual hull to repair because of the high resistance. But if you want to be safe from gankers I guess go with normal Hull stuff?

Here is my AX FAS with Decon Limpets.

Prismatic and Heavy Duty shields, though you can probably get away with Bi-weaves if you want. Really they are just there to let me thin the herd. don't really need MRPs the one is just there cause I left it on by accident. They will most likely kill you before you loose anything important. Had to make this in somewhat of a hurry so Im hoping I didnt leave off anything important

Missed Docking Computer.

Thanks, started kitting a FAS out, looks like I got the right idea. Time to sort out more Guardian junk.[up]

 

[Kamiyoda]

Missed Docking Computer.

We need a Guardian Docking Computer

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

We need a Guardian Docking Computer

more then guardian docking computer, we need a guardian Bulkhead... or engineer

 

[JetsonRING]

I am in Ross 129 today. In my Krait Mk II, hull-tank engineered with three size 3 turret AX MC and two size 2 gimbal beam lasers I set a personal single-sortie record of 72 scouts killed this morning while losing only 12 % of my hull. You do not necessarily need Guardian tech to defeat scouts but I am betting that it helps.

 

[DNA-Decay]

I am in Ross 129 today. In my Krait Mk II, hull-tank engineered with three size 3 turret AX MC and two size 2 gimbal beam lasers I set a personal single-sortie record of 72 scouts killed this morning while losing only 12 % of my hull. You do not necessarily need Guardian tech to defeat scouts but I am betting that it helps.

That's pretty impressive.
I'm running an engineered hull-tank Krait as well, and I did 38 while winged, and got back to Yang Hub with 12% hull.

The American bloke I was winged with didn't understand that I meant it when I said I would take it to 17% hull and then bail.
"One more Threat 4"
"Dude, you're like 21% hull"
"One more"


It was a fun wing, but the feller hadn't picked up that the USS spawn rate doesn't change regardless of your speed. He would fly flat out in Super-Cruise all over the system.
Me, I get out of the repair station and kick along slowly. Might get 17Ls away max, but always stay close in case you end up in one of those under 10% hull situations.

The threat 8s with that interceptor though just aren't doable with this build and struggled with even the threat 5s (just bought a rebuy a few minutes ago)

Those Interceptors are something, aren't they? I won't even stick my nose into a Threat 8 anymore.

But Threat 5 & 6 are definitely doable.
I think someone has said this already, but Threat 5 has like 8 or 11 scouts.
When you get in boost away, FA-OFF, turn around and reverse thrust while scanning them all.
The kill order is:

• Regenerators.
• Inciters.
• Beserkers.
• Marauders.

Take out the Regenerators so that they don't heal the others.
Then the Inciters because they make EVERYONE attack you.
Then the Beserkers give a damage buff to all Thargies.
And finally mop up the rest.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried leaving the Inciters alone on the premise that: ordering everyone to attack you is a defensive response; and not "just what they do".
I don't have any spare Situational Awareness to notice or experiment.


The other thing I've found tactically useful is to stay in reverse thrust.
With human NPCs if you keep reversing, they do the same and open up some distance.
The bugs don't seem to do that so much.
So I boost to close the distance, and then control my reverse speed to keep them in my sights.
The damage drop off on the AX cannons is pretty sharp. They're great under 1.2km; but you can be getting shots on with nothing happening if they're out past that range.

Current build at the moment,
https://s.orbis.zone/ztb

I had a look at this. Now - I am prepared to be wrong here, so AshenFox or Fretnox or someone combatty tell me I'm an idiot, BUT:
My understanding is that Module Reinforcement Packages don't get better with size.
I thought MRPs reduce the chance of a hit on the modules, and that maxes out at 3 MRPs.
So I would have thought that having all your small slots with MRPs would give you the max bonus, and then you could have one more Size 4 Engineered HRP.

Also looking at your build makes me realise I don't need an FSD interdictor in this context, so I can have another MRP or HRP myself. - Thanks.

 

[Kamiyoda]

That's pretty impressive.
I'm running an engineered hull-tank Krait as well, and I did 38 while winged, and got back to Yang Hub with 12% hull.

The American bloke I was winged with didn't understand that I meant it when I said I would take it to 17% hull and then bail.
"One more Threat 4"
"Dude, you're like 21% hull"
"One more"


It was a fun wing, but the feller hadn't picked up that the USS spawn rate doesn't change regardless of your speed. He would fly flat out in Super-Cruise all over the system.
Me, I get out of the repair station and kick along slowly. Might get 17Ls away max, but always stay close in case you end up in one of those under 10% hull situations.





I think someone has said this already, but Threat 5 has like 8 or 10 scouts.
When you get in boost away, FA-OFF, turn around and reverse thrust while scanning them all.
The kill order is:

• Regenerators.
• Inciters.
• Beserkers.
• Marauders.

Take out the Regenerators so that they don't heal the others.
Then the Inciters because they make EVERYONE attack you.
Then the Beserkers give a damage buff to all Thargies.
And finally mop up the rest.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried leaving the Inciters alone on the premise that: ordering everyone to attack you is a defensive response; and not "just what they do".



The other thing I've found useful is to stay in reverse thrust.
With human NPCs if you keep reversing, they do the same and open up some distance.
The bugs don't seem to do that so much.
So I boost to close the distance, and then control my reverse speed to keep them in my sights.
The damage drop off on the AX cannons is pretty sharp. They're great under 1.2km; but you can be getting shots on with nothing happening if they're out past that range.

Actually its the Berserkers that make everyone attack you. I was down in Gnosis for a while and killed some 1000 scouts that day so I did a little testing. Berserkers buff damage and make the scouts spam their missile attack. I have only guesses as to what inciters do.

 

[CMDR Ahab]

Those Interceptors are something, aren't they? I won't even stick my nose into a Threat 8 anymore.

But Threat 5 & 6 are definitely doable.
I think someone has said this already, but Threat 5 has like 8 or 11 scouts.
When you get in boost away, FA-OFF, turn around and reverse thrust while scanning them all.
The kill order is:

• Regenerators.
• Inciters.
• Beserkers.
• Marauders.

Take out the Regenerators so that they don't heal the others.
Then the Inciters because they make EVERYONE attack you.
Then the Beserkers give a damage buff to all Thargies.
And finally mop up the rest.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried leaving the Inciters alone on the premise that: ordering everyone to attack you is a defensive response; and not "just what they do".
I don't have any spare Situational Awareness to notice or experiment.


The other thing I've found tactically useful is to stay in reverse thrust.
With human NPCs if you keep reversing, they do the same and open up some distance.
The bugs don't seem to do that so much.
So I boost to close the distance, and then control my reverse speed to keep them in my sights.
The damage drop off on the AX cannons is pretty sharp. They're great under 1.2km; but you can be getting shots on with nothing happening if they're out past that range.



I had a look at this. Now - I am prepared to be wrong here, so AshenFox or Fretnox or someone combatty tell me I'm an idiot, BUT:
My understanding is that Module Reinforcement Packages don't get better with size.
I thought MRPs reduce the chance of a hit on the modules, and that maxes out at 3 MRPs.
So I would have thought that having all your small slots with MRPs would give you the max bonus, and then you could have one more Size 4 Engineered HRP.

Also looking at your build makes me realise I don't need an FSD interdictor in this context, so I can have another MRP or HRP myself. - Thanks.

Thanks for the tip DNA, was attacking the regenerators first but didn't think to go straight after the inciters straight after. At least the rebuy was only about 2 Mil (that's what I love about the FAS as Mil Grade Armour!). To be fair, was already down to like 50% hull or something when I jumped into that threat 5, I will give it another try tomorrow on my day off.

Having two MRPs means that your total module damage is reduced to 60% IIRC (a single one only protects 30%). Have noticed that the scouts don't do that much damage to internals so might swap the C4 for a C2 and see if I've got another C4 engied HRP squirreled away somewhere. *EDIT: MRPs don't get better with size but larger ones do soak up more hitpoints before expiring and needing repair.

Also I'm spending most of my time just relearning combat after a break of nearly six months so my situational awareness is practically none existant. Back in the day I would have thought nothing of just avoid most of the damage by going full FA off, but my controller setup and bindings all got wiped so having to go through the nightmare of adjusting things as a go along.

 

[Faded Glory]

Great thread all, very useful advice given.

Never bothered with Targoids before, but since I had a Krait hanging around doing nothing, I thought I'd chuck a few AX weapons on and see how I'd get on. I put two AX turrets and one AX fixed on the large hardpoints (put two overcharged fixed pulse lasers on the other two hardpoints, and used them from time to time also, not sure how effective they are, but the scouts seemed to pop anyway), and off I went to Ross 129.

Playing solo I tentatively looked for lowish level NHSS, and found plenty of threat level 4's. I did three of them, destroying a total of 15 scouts, returning to Yang Hub between each one to repair, which was fine for me as the signal sources were all close to the station.

A couple of questions. I'm assuming that as a solo player I cannot use repair or decontamination limpets on myself? And the dropped materials, what are they useful for? I'm sure I'd have time to scoop them up even with the corrosion going (seemingly full blast), since I never dropped below 60% hull. Just not sure if I have any use for alien mats.

Edit: Looks like the mats are used primarily for synthesis for AX ammo...

 

[JetsonRING]

Great thread all, very useful advice given.
Never bothered with Targoids before, but since I had a Krait hanging around doing nothing, I thought I'd chuck a few AX weapons on and see how I'd get on. I put two AX turrets and one AX fixed on the large hardpoints (put two overcharged fixed pulse lasers on the other two hardpoints, and used them from time to time also, not sure how effective they are, but the scouts seemed to pop anyway), and off I went to Ross 129.
Playing solo I tentatively looked for lowish level NHSS, and found plenty of threat level 4's. I did three of them, destroying a total of 15 scouts, returning to Yang Hub between each one to repair, which was fine for me as the signal sources were all close to the station.
A couple of questions. I'm assuming that as a solo player I cannot use repair or decontamination limpets on myself? And the dropped materials, what are they useful for? I'm sure I'd have time to scoop them up even with the corrosion going (seemingly full blast), since I never dropped below 60% hull. Just not sure if I have any use for alien mats.

You need the weapons parts for synthesizing AX MC ammo, the others I picked up because I never know when I will need them. No point in mixing fixed with turret weapons, just means your turret weapons are less effective due to the fixed weapons not being brought to bear on the target as often. I have a throttle button bound to 25%. I fly at that speed in SC, T3 and T4 USS spawn constantly.
Here is my current Krait build: https://s.orbis.zone/z_p

 

[Speedcuffs]

Great thread all, very useful advice given.

Never bothered with Targoids before, but since I had a Krait hanging around doing nothing, I thought I'd chuck a few AX weapons on and see how I'd get on. I put two AX turrets and one AX fixed on the large hardpoints (put two overcharged fixed pulse lasers on the other two hardpoints, and used them from time to time also, not sure how effective they are, but the scouts seemed to pop anyway), and off I went to Ross 129.

Playing solo I tentatively looked for lowish level NHSS, and found plenty of threat level 4's. I did three of them, destroying a total of 15 scouts, returning to Yang Hub between each one to repair, which was fine for me as the signal sources were all close to the station.

A couple of questions. I'm assuming that as a solo player I cannot use repair or decontamination limpets on myself? And the dropped materials, what are they useful for? I'm sure I'd have time to scoop them up even with the corrosion going (seemingly full blast), since I never dropped below 60% hull. Just not sure if I have any use for alien mats.

Edit: Looks like the mats are used primarily for synthesis for AX ammo...

Fire the decon/repair limpet with no target selected.[up]
(You can only have one working on your ship at a time, any more will just self destruct.)

 

[Faded Glory]

You need the weapons parts for synthesizing AX MC ammo, the others I picked up because I never know when I will need them. No point in mixing fixed with turret weapons, just means your turret weapons are less effective due to the fixed weapons not being brought to bear on the target as often. I have a throttle button bound to 25%. I fly at that speed in SC, T3 and T4 USS spawn constantly.

Thanks.

I'm sure you're right about the fixed weapon being less effective, I just like to attempt some manual aiming and shooting while the turrets do most of the work.

Fire the decon/repair limpet with no target selected.

(You can only have one working on your ship at a time, any more will just self destruct.)

Thanks, I'll have a look at giving that a go. Do the limpets stop the contamination damage or just slow it down?

 

[Speedcuffs]

Thanks.

I'm sure you're right about the fixed weapon being less effective, I just like to attempt some manual aiming and shooting while the turrets do most of the work.



Thanks, I'll have a look at giving that a go. Do the limpets stop the contamination damage or just slow it down?

They totally remove the gunk after a few seconds, then give you a small amount of hull repair.

 

[Spacecat]

I think the focus on specific anti-Thargoid weapons was a misstep....

 

[JetsonRING]

Not a fan of the decon limpet thingy

They totally remove the gunk after a few seconds, then give you a small amount of hull repair.

Meh. I tried the decon limpet thingy and decided that, in the middle of a furball it is quicker and easier to simply cook off the contamination using silent running and use the extra slot for another HRP. I find that, as long as I maneuver I can fight scouts just fine w/o shields and the middle of a furball is not a good time/place to be launching decon limpets as you can unintentionally run away from them during the fight. I just killed 48 scouts in a single sortie (and set a personal single-sortie record of 72 this morning) with a loss of only 6% shields/hull i.e.: I docked with 94% shields/hull remaining. I have had about 3000 scouts of practice, though. Only about 132 more scouts (+/-) and I will be EEE!

Pro tip: If you drop into a T-4 USS and an 8-pack of scouts pop up, discretion becomes the better part of valor: boost away, pull in your weapons and escape back into Supercruise. Those packs of 8 scouts do the most damage to my ship and if I run away from these I can stretch out a sortie MUCH longer due to the much lower damage I receive from 4-packs of scouts. In the long-run this adds up to many more scouts destroyed. o7

 

[pzykozomatik]

I find it funny how NPC ships in these instances are totally unfazed by the caustic damage they're taking. Yesterday after killing all scouts I noticed a Vuture that was steadily taking hull damage, so I thought I might as well do a good deed before jumping out and shoot a decon limpet over, no charge. Problem was, the guy was just flying in a straight line at full throttle (maybe he thought he could somehow speed the goo off?). I tried getting a limpet to him from every angle, even laying it in front of his ship like a mine, but to no avail, "limpet destroyed due to max range exceeded" every time. His hull eventually reached zero and with an anticlimatic "pop" he was gone, not even giving me the satisfaction of leaving materials behind for me to scoop up. NPCs are dumb.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

There has been Interceptor kills with Sidewinders and Haulers with Guardian Guess Cannons

For Thargoid Scouts, any weapons will do, for a Sidewinder I use 2 railguns since there are no size 1 AX weapons

the question is before i go too far down this route... do i need to target the hearts still or can i ignore this?

i didnt like that part of the gameplay so if its not there anymore with fixed then im game... if i've got to hit hearts with size one gauss cannons... then im out, but the sidewinder video i saw of Gluttony didnt look like he was targeting anything other than the ship???

#confused

 

[Sylow]

i didnt like that part of the gameplay so if its not there anymore with fixed then im game... if i've got to hit hearts with size one gauss cannons... then im out, but the sidewinder video i saw of Gluttony didnt look like he was targeting anything other than the ship???

.
I by now have killed only three of the big Thargoid ships, each of them with somebody along. So I am definitely not an expert on them. But as far as I am aware, killing the hearts is still essential.
.
Of course, if you watch a video of Gluttony, he knows where the hearts are without having to sub-target them. I think by now you could switch his monitor off and he'd still hit the hearts based purely on sound and smell...
.