Limpets Vs Thargoids Results - SCIENCE!

I'm pretty new to Elite Dangerous, only really got into it a few months ago.

I searched the forum before I posted this so hopefully this isn't that much well known info that people will just shrug at. Not sure what it means but I found it interesting!

Preface: I gathered every type of limpet I could find and took them on a diamondback explorer and went to a system near Maia. There I equipped them one at a time to test. Interesting results!

All results were gathered on a ship with no weapons on the hard points and no cargo other than limpets. I have never killed a Thargoid in the past. All results were obtained via non-hostile targets, varying from Cyclops, Basilisk and yes Medusa too.

Results in alphabetical order:

Decontamination: This one surprised me the most, I expected to get invalid target or the Thargoid to go hostile but it acted just as it would with a human, tracking to the target and locking on. It did the repairing thing and then said it was complete and detached. No change in hostility and the Thargoid left unhindered.

Fuel: This worked, once the Thargoid was targeted and I launched it the limpet tracked the Thargoid, docked to it like it would a ship and then said it was fueling and fueling complete then detached. No change in hostility by the Thargoid, and it left unhindered. It seemed to ignore the interaction for the most part.

Hatch Breaker: This was highly surprising! It acted normally, went to the target, latched on, and started to 'break' the 'hatch'. Once it latched on the Thargoid instantly went red (hostile) but the limpet continued and then gave a message that the "Syphon Resource Failed". I was able to flee once but once I was killed after doing this. But this was the only time I died doing this research. I was so shocked by the first result I didn't react fast enough to flee. It makes me wonder if some Thargoids ARE able to be the target of a Hatch Breaker limpet with actual results as if this is the message for no cargo or if this is an auto failure on all Thargoids, or if the game just didn't know how to process it and the default Thargoid ships lack a 'cargo' field. But all in all this is one of the more interesting results.

Prospector: My testing showed this limpet seems to phase through any invalid target for the most part and this was the case here. It passed through the body of the Thargoid without any interaction. I tested this repeatedly in several encounters and at no time did it appear to have any interaction with the Thargoid. I would note this is the same effect you get when used against a player ship as well.

Recon: Simple invalid target reply on this one, so wouldn't even fire in the first place.

Repair: Just like Decon this limpet would fire, track, latch on and then say it was repairing then repairs complete and detach. Again surprised me. But considering the Decon results I suppose it shouldn't have.

Research: I did this one just to give the basic full board of results. Of course the Thargoid instantly went hostile when the limpet hit. We already know the purpose/results of this one as it was designed to be used against Thargoids in the first place but I wanted to be consistent. I hadn't used this one before so was a bit surprised that just having this on me when scanned did not give hostile reactions.

In each case I entered the area, let the Thargoid scan me, scanned it back, and THEN used the limpets.

I did try using the Hatch Breaker limpet in silent running mode which did make it go hostile when hit but it couldn't find me until I turned that off to flee. So that was an interesting side note.

Finally just a tad more info which probably is more widely known: Manifest scanner failed completely. D-Link doesn't work either.

So that ends my phase of limpet testing against Thargoids. I have tried to communicate with them by flashing my lights in any pattern I could think of, but no reaction. I have a few other experiments still up my sleeve but that's all I have for now here. If you want to see the raw video of this, it can be found here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/262484928

Anyway, that's what I found out! Hope some find it interesting!
 
I'm pretty new to Elite Dangerous, only really got into it a few months ago.

I searched the forum before I posted this so hopefully this isn't that much well known info that people will just shrug at. Not sure what it means but I found it interesting!

Preface: I gathered every type of limpet I could find and took them on a diamondback explorer and went to a system near Maia. There I equipped them one at a time to test. Interesting results!

All results were gathered on a ship with no weapons on the hard points and no cargo other than limpets. I have never killed a Thargoid in the past. All results were obtained via non-hostile targets, varying from Cyclops, Basilisk and yes Medusa too.

Results in alphabetical order:

Decontamination: This one surprised me the most, I expected to get invalid target or the Thargoid to go hostile but it acted just as it would with a human, tracking to the target and locking on. It did the repairing thing and then said it was complete and detached. No change in hostility and the Thargoid left unhindered.

Fuel: This worked, once the Thargoid was targeted and I launched it the limpet tracked the Thargoid, docked to it like it would a ship and then said it was fueling and fueling complete then detached. No change in hostility by the Thargoid, and it left unhindered. It seemed to ignore the interaction for the most part.

Hatch Breaker: This was highly surprising! It acted normally, went to the target, latched on, and started to 'break' the 'hatch'. Once it latched on the Thargoid instantly went red (hostile) but the limpet continued and then gave a message that the "Syphon Resource Failed". I was able to flee once but once I was killed after doing this. But this was the only time I died doing this research. I was so shocked by the first result I didn't react fast enough to flee. It makes me wonder if some Thargoids ARE able to be the target of a Hatch Breaker limpet with actual results as if this is the message for no cargo or if this is an auto failure on all Thargoids, or if the game just didn't know how to process it and the default Thargoid ships lack a 'cargo' field. But all in all this is one of the more interesting results.

Prospector: My testing showed this limpet seems to phase through any invalid target for the most part and this was the case here. It passed through the body of the Thargoid without any interaction. I tested this repeatedly in several encounters and at no time did it appear to have any interaction with the Thargoid. I would note this is the same effect you get when used against a player ship as well.

Recon: Simple invalid target reply on this one, so wouldn't even fire in the first place.

Repair: Just like Decon this limpet would fire, track, latch on and then say it was repairing then repairs complete and detach. Again surprised me. But considering the Decon results I suppose it shouldn't have.

Research: I did this one just to give the basic full board of results. Of course the Thargoid instantly went hostile when the limpet hit. We already know the purpose/results of this one as it was designed to be used against Thargoids in the first place but I wanted to be consistent. I hadn't used this one before so was a bit surprised that just having this on me when scanned did not give hostile reactions.

In each case I entered the area, let the Thargoid scan me, scanned it back, and THEN used the limpets.

I did try using the Hatch Breaker limpet in silent running mode which did make it go hostile when hit but it couldn't find me until I turned that off to flee. So that was an interesting side note.

Finally just a tad more info which probably is more widely known: Manifest scanner failed completely. D-Link doesn't work either.

So that ends my phase of limpet testing against Thargoids. I have tried to communicate with them by flashing my lights in any pattern I could think of, but no reaction. I have a few other experiments still up my sleeve but that's all I have for now here. If you want to see the raw video of this, it can be found here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/262484928

Anyway, that's what I found out! Hope some find it interesting!
Good work cmdr, and welcome to the forums!
 
I'm pretty new to Elite Dangerous, only really got into it a few months ago.

I searched the forum before I posted this so hopefully this isn't that much well known info that people will just shrug at. Not sure what it means but I found it interesting!

Preface: I gathered every type of limpet I could find and took them on a diamondback explorer and went to a system near Maia. There I equipped them one at a time to test. Interesting results!

All results were gathered on a ship with no weapons on the hard points and no cargo other than limpets. I have never killed a Thargoid in the past. All results were obtained via non-hostile targets, varying from Cyclops, Basilisk and yes Medusa too.

Results in alphabetical order:

Decontamination: This one surprised me the most, I expected to get invalid target or the Thargoid to go hostile but it acted just as it would with a human, tracking to the target and locking on. It did the repairing thing and then said it was complete and detached. No change in hostility and the Thargoid left unhindered.

Fuel: This worked, once the Thargoid was targeted and I launched it the limpet tracked the Thargoid, docked to it like it would a ship and then said it was fueling and fueling complete then detached. No change in hostility by the Thargoid, and it left unhindered. It seemed to ignore the interaction for the most part.

Hatch Breaker: This was highly surprising! It acted normally, went to the target, latched on, and started to 'break' the 'hatch'. Once it latched on the Thargoid instantly went red (hostile) but the limpet continued and then gave a message that the "Syphon Resource Failed". I was able to flee once but once I was killed after doing this. But this was the only time I died doing this research. I was so shocked by the first result I didn't react fast enough to flee. It makes me wonder if some Thargoids ARE able to be the target of a Hatch Breaker limpet with actual results as if this is the message for no cargo or if this is an auto failure on all Thargoids, or if the game just didn't know how to process it and the default Thargoid ships lack a 'cargo' field. But all in all this is one of the more interesting results.

Prospector: My testing showed this limpet seems to phase through any invalid target for the most part and this was the case here. It passed through the body of the Thargoid without any interaction. I tested this repeatedly in several encounters and at no time did it appear to have any interaction with the Thargoid. I would note this is the same effect you get when used against a player ship as well.

Recon: Simple invalid target reply on this one, so wouldn't even fire in the first place.

Repair: Just like Decon this limpet would fire, track, latch on and then say it was repairing then repairs complete and detach. Again surprised me. But considering the Decon results I suppose it shouldn't have.

Research: I did this one just to give the basic full board of results. Of course the Thargoid instantly went hostile when the limpet hit. We already know the purpose/results of this one as it was designed to be used against Thargoids in the first place but I wanted to be consistent. I hadn't used this one before so was a bit surprised that just having this on me when scanned did not give hostile reactions.

In each case I entered the area, let the Thargoid scan me, scanned it back, and THEN used the limpets.

I did try using the Hatch Breaker limpet in silent running mode which did make it go hostile when hit but it couldn't find me until I turned that off to flee. So that was an interesting side note.

Finally just a tad more info which probably is more widely known: Manifest scanner failed completely. D-Link doesn't work either.

So that ends my phase of limpet testing against Thargoids. I have tried to communicate with them by flashing my lights in any pattern I could think of, but no reaction. I have a few other experiments still up my sleeve but that's all I have for now here. If you want to see the raw video of this, it can be found here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/262484928

Anyway, that's what I found out! Hope some find it interesting!

So we can refuel thargoids? AWESOME. Now for some payback after all that probing...
 
That was one of the funniest yet interesting research i've heard recently.
Well done cmdr, o7!

On a side note; what about flashing smth else? Maybe they pay attention? :D
 
Nice write-up OP - very thorough :)

I help maintain the Canonn website, any chance we can integrate this info into our Codex? I think it would fit in well (full credit to you of course).

o7
 
I might try this with the Thargoid scouts. It might be tricky staying in range and the scouts will be hostile but in a well shielded ship it should be doable.
 
I might try this with the Thargoid scouts. It might be tricky staying in range and the scouts will be hostile but in a well shielded ship it should be doable.

I would love to hear the results of that, I am harmless without a single kill (not even a skimmer) on purpose so I am not flying ships able to do combat, in fact I fly without weapons other than mining lasers sometimes. But I'd love to know the results against scouts!
 
Nice write-up OP - very thorough :)

I help maintain the Canonn website, any chance we can integrate this info into our Codex? I think it would fit in well (full credit to you of course).

o7

Please do! I searched your website a few times to see if the data was there of anyone else trying it!

I wouldn't mind if you credited my commander name for the research either? Cmdr OakPanda here.
 
So we can refuel thargoids? AWESOME. Now for some payback after all that probing...

Interesting, my early attempts failed miserably ...

[video=youtube_share;v_1pDGSXk6w]https://youtu.be/v_1pDGSXk6w[/video]

[video=youtube_share;4Zk4zAXiQXc]https://youtu.be/4Zk4zAXiQXc[/video]

:p
 
Interesting, my early attempts failed miserably ...

:p

Watched both videos, on the first one he warped out before it could do it's thing and you got the message it started.

The second one you got close and he went all 'swarm' but I watched it a few times and he didn't go hostile you just booked it. I've found if they deploy the swarms on me they won't kill me if I back off, it's more a 'Hey I have fangs! Don't get so close!'

That said, interesting side note, you didn't have either target scanned so it still said unknown. I wonder if that changes the results at all... or if the game has changed the responses. I have the video in my first post on the thread but I hope to edit things down to clean youtube vids and will post that here if/when I do.

So my only thought is basically maybe scanning makes a difference and the first one he left before it could complete but the second one that's all I could see different, although the 'failed' message came at the same time he deployed the swarm, so maybe when he does that he destroys the limpet? I honestly do not know. Would take a while to test all permutations but it is clear there is more at play here in the variations of results.
 
Research Limpets work on scouts

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Decontamination: This one surprised me the most, I expected to get invalid target or the Thargoid to go hostile but it acted just as it would with a human, tracking to the target and locking on. It did the repairing thing and then said it was complete and detached. No change in hostility and the Thargoid left unhindered.



Repair: Just like Decon this limpet would fire, track, latch on and then say it was repairing then repairs complete and detach. Again surprised me. But considering the Decon results I suppose it shouldn't have.

Repair limpets do actually repair Thargoids that are damaged/injured

I have accidentally launched Repair limpets against Cyclopes with no hearts remaining and Healed/repaired them

It does not make them not hostile

If your interceptors were undamaged then your results would be comparable to using the Decontamination & repair Limpets on an Undamaged Human ship

Research Limpets work on scouts


The Description in the Black-market is disappointing however
 
Repair limpet works on aliens?! It would be interesting to see Thargoid flash green for a change and shoot us up with a temporary shield boost... Something we're unlikely to see if Guardians have anything to say about it.
 
Repair limpet works on aliens?! It would be interesting to see Thargoid flash green for a change and shoot us up with a temporary shield boost... Something we're unlikely to see if Guardians have anything to say about it.

Important to note at no time did they go 'green' but stayed yellow even when not going hostile. Only variation I saw was between yellow (neutral? Annoyed? ignoring?) and red, ie ready to kill me. Did get several swarm deploys after getting too close but if you back off fast enough they stay yellow and eventually retract the swarm.
 
New Information collected!

I was intrigued by the hatch breaker limpets. They showed an act of breaking with the lock icon and the timer as it 'broke' the lock but said siphon resources failed.

Now I just HAD to know what would happen if they DID have cargo.

Using a Diamondback Explorer and a 16 tn corrosive resistant cargo bay and hatch breaker limpets I tried the following with the following results:

Phase I: I dropped meta alloys. Now this is a pretty well known thing that if you drop 5 another ship comes in, but I did try to drop them one at a time so at no time was more than 4 out in open space. But when about the 7th dropped I got the frame shift anomaly message and was suddenly pushed out 8 km from the core of the action... I have not seen THAT effect before and can only theorize the incoming Thargoid some how entered on top of me?

Anyway, that was the start of phase one but the important bit I tried several times. I dropped meta alloy, ensured that the Thargoid picked it up and THEN fired a hatch breaker limpet at the target. I used silent running and heat sinks and while the Thargoid went red (hostile) as soon as the limpet hit as long as I was in silent running and not detected not only did it not act towards me it did not even release the swarm cloud. Basically Thargoids seem pretty blind if you fly silent and keep your heat down. Interesting note.

Each and every attempt after meta alloy was gathered resulted in no siphoned resources.

Phase II: I watched Thargoids gather multiple escape pods (remember I do not fly with weapons and do not have the core ability to stop them!). I let them pick up one or two (tried this a few times) and again resource siphon failed each time.

Phase III: Thargoid Sensor! I tried this twice, once with a sensor I collected from a debris field that was on a threat 6 but with no Thargoid presence (Was in Maia at the time, seeing more of these threat 5/6 with no actual Thargoids ?). The second time there was a sensor already in the debris field. Both times I waited until it had tractored the sensor into its center. Both times the hatch breaker failed to syphon resources.

Net result, in no case was I able to actually get the Thargoid to release any resources even after they had gathered something up into what should be a cargo bay of some kind or storage.

Theory: One of three possibilities comes to mind, although I am sure there are others.

Theory 1: Thargoids simply are not able to be hatch broken and the message is simply the limpet attempting to do the act it was programmed to but unable to process the situation properly and therefore the cargo is not actually released.

Theory 2: The material is NOT stored but mulched up immediately. This makes potential sense for the meta alloy, and even potentially (Although this raises the horror level) with the escape pods. But if this is true then that means they are also grinding up the sensors and probes. I find that a bit unlikely, but it is possible.

Theory 3: Witch Space Storage - Either the act of storage is pushing the material into some kind of inter-dimensional storage space OR it is sending it through witch space to some off site storage. This actually makes the most sense to me as the sound it makes is not THAT far off when scanning/sucking in materials from the frame shift sound. It could be it is a micro frame shift that does not register on our scanners, perhaps only from internal location inside the Thargoid to another location prepped for transmission.

Theory 1 makes some sense as does theory 2 but there are a few things that raise the flag on those theories. I did some checking and it appears that the Thargoids have no maximum cargo capacity. I have been unable to test this myself due to resource constraints and money constraints, but I have been told of at least one experiment that dropped off over 700 meta alloys and all 700 were taken up by the two Thargoids (The story says no other Thargoids were spawned).

If this above story is true, about the 700 meta alloys, then theory 1 and theory 2 can not be true. 700+ tons would simply not fit inside a Cyclops. Heck, I doubt it could hold more than 128 if the systems are similar in storage. And I seriously doubt that based on physical construction this would be much different with a Basilisk. While two Medusae might be able to handle 700ish tons, I do not believe the story indicated there were two. I would love to do research on this but my resources do not allow this last step of testing, especially on a repeated basis. Even if they are 'mulching' the material or adding it to the ship there is no indication of growth or change in the target in that nature. And there is no additional cloud of material dropped in the process.

So I go with theory 3. This is further backed up with the fact that Thargoids can summon an friend to help with this kind of heavy meta alloy load almost instantly. Think about this, the second Thargoid shows up in seconds after the fifth unit is in the field of view. This means they can effectively teleport at least small distances (as in several light years I imagine). We know they do not use super cruise the way we do.

So after all of this research my standing theory is #3, although I still allow that 1 or 2 COULD be viable and that there may be other theories I have not considered, this may be especially true if the 700+ unit story is inaccurate. I have no way of independent confirmation of that story at this time.

Finally I am aware that Thargoid interactions are still evolving and it may be that what we are seeing now is not what was seen before, or that interactions may be situationally dependent with the researcher. For the record I have never killed or fired upon a Thargoid other than with a research or hatch breaking limpet. I have not killed a skimmer or any other object or person. As such I may be seen as beneath concern by the forces I am studying.

Thank you for your consideration of my research. I hope it may help other in other Thargoid investigations.

-Cmdr OakPanda
 
Phase I: I dropped meta alloys. Now this is a pretty well known thing that if you drop 5 another ship comes in, but I did try to drop them one at a time so at no time was more than 4 out in open space. But when about the 7th dropped I got the frame shift anomaly message and was suddenly pushed out 8 km from the core of the action... I have not seen THAT effect before and can only theorize the incoming Thargoid some how entered on top of me?

Was it THIS effect?

+Rep for the Science.
Maybe we need corrosive resistant hatch braker limpets because cutting into an Interceptor might spill Thargoid goo all over it.
 
Was it THIS effect?

+Rep for the Science.
Maybe we need corrosive resistant hatch braker limpets because cutting into an Interceptor might spill Thargoid goo all over it.

YES! That was pretty much EXACTLY what happened! Freaked me out to be booking at over twice my normal boost speed! Thank you for that link!
 
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