Alternative anti-Thargoid tactics: Overloading their healing ability?

Sophokles Logimo

Sophokles Logimo
Today I collided with a Thargoid Interceptor while scanning it. As a result, it immediately released its swarm and attacked me, long before I was ready to target its heart. It also started moving erratically, making it hard to complete the scan.

So I thought, well, this is for learning about them, not so much for the bounty, let us just try shooting at it. I have two turreted AX multicannons, and as long as I was able to sustain the fire with those, its health dropped. Only when it outmaneuvered me did it recover, though quickly.

Now, the obvious question from this is: If you attack an Interceptor with a pack f 3-4 ships, wouldn't it be easier to just thrash it down with constant fire, saturating its healing ability until it bursts into pieces?

I suppose as old as the Thargoid menace is, some squadron or wing must have tried this already?
 

Bunkerkind Anni

Bunkerkind Anni
There are lots of Insta-kill footages on YT if you search for it.
from the eraly days before the AX missiles got nerfed into oblivion, to later when they introduced the large Shards.

problematic was, AFAIK, that the instance my crash sometimes if to many player are present, going for the insta-kill
 

ZAKALWEINC8876

ZAKALWEINC8876
Well on measly old PS we have had over a dozen CMDRs blasting at a Hydra in the same instance. Sure it was glitchy at times, sure 4 swarms from a Hydra at the same time is very bad news if you can't outrun them (i could, some others couldn't).

Two 'condas both running large fixed gaurdian shards can fairly comfortably "gib" a cyclops in a very short period of time. Not great gameplay imo but it is there. I think after the Basi the armour makes anything other than gauss a bit pea-shootery though.

4 x gauss is the way, go big or go home!

o7
 

ZAKALWEINC8876

ZAKALWEINC8876
I took out the last 3% of a Cyclops today by ramming, in a spikey Cutter. I have been fairly sure of damaging them before but this time was 100%. Didn't even have the gauss firegroup up.

More experiments required🤓

o7
 

Eckee

Eckee
Sophokles Logimo said:
Today I collided with a Thargoid Interceptor while scanning it. As a result, it immediately released its swarm and attacked me, long before I was ready to target its heart. It also started moving erratically, making it hard to complete the scan.

So I thought, well, this is for learning about them, not so much for the bounty, let us just try shooting at it. I have two turreted AX multicannons, and as long as I was able to sustain the fire with those, its health dropped. Only when it outmaneuvered me did it recover, though quickly.

Now, the obvious question from this is: If you attack an Interceptor with a pack f 3-4 ships, wouldn't it be easier to just thrash it down with constant fire, saturating its healing ability until it bursts into pieces?

I suppose as old as the Thargoid menace is, some squadron or wing must have tried this already?
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There are a couple of mechanics that prevents overdamaging its healing. One of which is its health regen rate increases drastically when a heart is exerted, and a heart is exerted when the Interceptor's hull drops to a certain point so it's inevitable. And Interceptors have "panic shields", that triggers when they receive too much damage in a short amount of time.

Yet it's still possible to kill a Thargoid quickly without giving it enough time to trigger its panic shields. You need to be quick, you can do it against a Cyclops by yourself but you'll need people to do it against Basilisk, Medusa and Hydra. We call this "insta-gibbing" and as AXI we have insta-gibbed every variant multiple of times as a squadron for scientific purposes. However, we don't like insta-gibbing. Even though it's legal, we find it a little bit too cheesy.
 

Sophokles Logimo

Sophokles Logimo
Eckee said:
[...] However, we don't like insta-gibbing. Even though it's legal, we find it a little bit too cheesy.
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What is cheesy about the right tactics to win?

I mean, it's cheesy of them not to fly in larger formations, obviously, sure. But shooting at them with multiple ships is just the logical thing to do, I'd say, and not at all "cheesy".
 

Eckee

Eckee
Sophokles Logimo said:
What is cheesy about the right tactics to win?

I mean, it's cheesy of them not to fly in larger formations, obviously, sure. But shooting at them with multiple ships is just the logical thing to do, I'd say, and not at all "cheesy".
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Because it's a video game and gathering 15 people and shooting down a Medusa in 2 seconds is not really a gameplay.
 

Sophokles Logimo

Sophokles Logimo
ZAKALWEINC8876 said:
Yes. Gauss are by far and away the best AX weapons.
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I'll stick with my class 3 AX multi-cannon turrets. No need to bother myself with collecting stuff... I don't play Elite to be bored, after all. Also, fixed cannons are much harder to sustain fire with, I am not that good of a shot.

And if those weapons allow to solo enemies that are supposed to be group content, aren't they, by definition, OP and make things more boring than they should be?
 

Sophokles Logimo

Sophokles Logimo
Eckee said:
Because it's a video game and gathering 15 people and shooting down a Medusa in 2 seconds is not really a gameplay.
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So 15 would theoretically be possible without crashes?

But anyway, I understand what you mean, but there's a middle ground, isn't there. Three or four ships that need half a minute should be fine as an experience.

The usually recommended "scan, shoot the hearts, boom" is, after all, just as "cheesy" if you want to look at it this way.
 

Eckee

Eckee
Sophokles Logimo said:
So 15 would theoretically be possible without crashes?

But anyway, I understand what you mean, but there's a middle ground, isn't there. Three or four ships that need half a minute should be fine as an experience.

The usually recommended "scan, shoot the hearts, boom" is, after all, just as "cheesy" if you want to look at it this way.
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Well the way should be killing hearts one by one and destroying the Thargoid afterwards, as it's originally intended. It will take more than half a minute. You either insta-gib it or kill it in intended way. If you want to learn about fighting Thargoids, visit our Anti-Xeno Knowledge Base here: https://axi.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AKB/overview
You will find every information that you will ever require in AX combat there. Including lots of videos, ship builds, engineering and weapon guides. It's our collective information base, written by the most experienced and best AX fighters and AX scientist in ED.

Also, if you have further questions you can join our Discord server: https://discord.gg/bqmDxdm. But I'd suggest reading through our guide before asking questions because you'll be redirected there anyway.
 

ZAKALWEINC8876

ZAKALWEINC8876
Sophokles Logimo said:
I'll stick with my class 3 AX multi-cannon turrets. No need to bother myself with collecting stuff... I don't play Elite to be bored, after all. Also, fixed cannons are much harder to sustain fire with, I am not that good of a shot.

And if those weapons allow to solo enemies that are supposed to be group content, aren't they, by definition, OP and make things more boring than they should be?
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If you kill a Cyclops with AXMC's i will tip my hat to you sir👍
I used to be terrible with fixed weapons, shooting scouts with gauss for practice made me a better pilot.

o7
 

Sophokles Logimo

Sophokles Logimo
Eckee said:
Well the way should be killing hearts one by one and destroying the Thargoid afterwards, as it's originally intended. It will take more than half a minute. You either insta-gib it or kill it in intended way. If you want to learn about fighting Thargoids, visit our Anti-Xeno Knowledge Base here: https://axi.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AKB/overview
You will find every information that you will ever require in AX combat there.[...]
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link!
 
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