Alternative anti-Thargoid tactics: Overloading their healing ability?

No, I could not. Aquiring them requires annoying, boring grind, and I am not here to do that.

Have you tried it?? Do you know it's boring, or are you just judging by the complaints of others?

In truth, it doesn't take long to unlock Gauss Cannons, AT ALL. You can do it in an hour or two even at a leisurely pace, and it isn't particularly boring, at least not the first couple of times you do it. The Guardian Structures are cool environments, and the task involves combat with unique extraterrestrial enemies, and is more engaging and interactive than MOST things in this game. Most of the complaints I've seen are from completionists trying to unlock multiple things/everything in a oner. The biggest enemy of fun is between the keyboard and the chair in those cases.

If you only want the Gauss Cannons, you won't have to do the actual Guardian Structure activity more than once. You MIGHT have to make a second trip to another site to mop up the other Guardian mats, depending on what spawns (or relog if you like), but that's it.

Medium Gauss Cannons only need a single Guardian Weapon blueprint, so only one "puzzle" quest needed, a smattering of Guardian bits and bobs you'll easily find at any type of Guardian site, and one or two normal mats you likely already have. Small ones are even easier.

Don't take others' complaints about this game too much to heart. Years ago, I put off trying engineers for a long time, because I heard all the horror stories. And when I finally tried it, I realised I had ALREADY, unknowingly saved up enough materials for several medium-to-high end modifications while just playing the game. An hour later (mostly spent travelling around Engineers) and my ship felt twice as deadly as before.
 
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Have you tried it?? Do you know it's boring, or are you just judging by the complaints of others?

It involves flying around a lot. And I have tried that, and it is boring.

In truth, it doesn't take long to unlock Gauss Cannons, AT ALL. You can do it in an hour or two

Two hours spent on something boring are two hours not spent on something fun. This approach of "it just takes a few hours" quickly put me off of ED the first two times. Only when I started to just do what I really want to could I enjoy the game.
 
It involves flying around a lot. And I have tried that, and it is boring.

It really doesn't involve that much flying. Synuefe sector isn't that far these days. If I remember correctly, it's about 1.5x further than the Pleiades, where you'll be going to fight Thargoid these days anyway.

Maybe 10 or 15 jumps to reach it in a lightweight, non-engineered ship with a decent FSD. So if you don't mess around, it's maybe fifteen minutes to get there. Tops.

You'll spend much more time on the ground, fighting and evading Guardian sentinels, hunting/activating pylons, dodging the FUS-RO-DAH missiles or watching your point defence fireworks try to shoot them down, and breaking open and looting Guardian technology.

It's genuinely quite good fun for a while. In all honesty, it's a unique activity in the game that would be worth doing once or twice even if there wasn't a reward, and luckily you only have to do it once or twice to get the Gauss cannons. It's a shame that you're so wed to the preconceived idea it's boring. It simply isn't.
 
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Yeah, having to get out of my preferred ship is another downer.

Ground combat? Doesn't sound fun to me, sorry. And as a reward, all I get are fixed class 1 and class 2 weapons, which are difficult to use, do not really fit my preferred ship (the Mamba, which really fares better with turrets due to its high speed/low maneuverability combination) and don't have THAT much higher damage.

I'd rather fight the Thargoids in groups. If this was a real war, I'd of course inflict the pain on myself, but then again, if it was, I wouldn't have to, because those weapons would be issued to the Federal Navy Auxiliary for money without that silly barter economy trading.

So in short: Nope, no guardian weapons for me. I can kill Thargoids scouts with my AX MC turrets, and I'll need a second player for bigger stuff. That's okay.
 
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IMHO the most anyoing thing about the guardian weapons unlock, ist that you need to unlock each size and variant seperately - if you want them all, especially the turreted and fixed shards... then its a real grind.
 
You just need small and medium Gauss. It doesn't take long, you just visit a GSS and solve a puzzle. It's not grinding.

The minority who obsessively torture themselves to max out all unlockables at once, burn out, and complain about the game "forcing" grind, have probably scared away far more people who would have unlocked some useful items sensibly, organically, and without pain had they just tried it.

I was in that camp once. Put off Engineers for a couple of years. Finally tried it and found I could get a number of upgrades for no "grind" at all. I'm happily flying several engineered-but-not-grade-5-maxed ships that are still way better than stock, and working on improving them when I happen upon the mats or just whenever the desire strikes me. It was a hundred times more painless than I'd been primed to expect.

Sure, there's "grind" if you're trying to do lots in a hurry. I'm grinding credits right now to save for a fleet carrier. But unlocking one Guardian weapon is basically just a single short puzzle you need to solve. It's not remotely grinding.
 
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The minority who obsessively torture themselves to max out all unlockables at once, burn out, and complain about the game "forcing" grind, have probably scared away far more people who would have unlocked some useful items sensibly, organically, and without pain had they just tried it.

I was in that camp once. Put off Engineers for a couple of years. Finally tried it and found I could get a number of upgrades for no "grind" at all. I'm happily flying several engineered-but-not-grade-5-maxed ships that are still way better than stock, and working on improving them when I happen upon the mats or just whenever the desire strikes me. It was a hundred times more painless than I'd been primed to expect.

Sure, there's "grind" if you're trying to do lots in a hurry. I'm grinding credits right now to save for a fleet carrier. But unlocking one Guardian weapon is basically just a single short puzzle you need to solve. It's not remotely grinding.

Good advice👍 (I would at least get the guardian fsd booster as well personally, that will in fact SAVE grind in the form of less jumps to travel anywhere ever)

o7
 
Good advice👍 (I would at least get the guardian fsd booster as well personally, that will in fact SAVE grind in the form of less jumps to travel anywhere ever)

o7

Agreed, if you've got spare time and inclination, the FSD Booster is a good addition. The unlock for it includes all sizes (unlike the weapons, where you unlock each size separately -- I'd recommend just getting the medium if you want to save time), so one unlock gets you boosters you can fit in all your ships.
 
You are talking about the stupid barter economy called "technology brokers" and their annoying-to-obtain guardian gauss weapons, right?
Rather fun to unlock, imo.
/shrug
Seriously, unlocking those is more meaningful gameplay than the instagibbing. Not Everything in this game is a grind... It's only a grind if you force yourself to do it (or try to get EVERYTHING) tip: do it together with a friend, much more fun.
 
...grind for canons is something like ....drive to exact known point (reddit). Scan left, scan right, relog, repeat (no moves!) until you have enough data (all possible to full took 75 mins).
Then fly to another place, "solve puzzle" (visit exact 6 points, known, marked on map - reddit). Pick blueprint. Relog. Repeat 1-2 more times. - about 20 mins/run.
Fly to Jameson -- unlock.

Grind comes later. After 1 day of "grinding" all guardian tech (except grade 1 ..i skip it), developing ship meself, trying it on scouts, fine-tuning, failing interceptor couple times ... today I killed it. Finally. 7 times. And? I feel like, what for ? :D Ok, I'm happy - I killed it...and that's all. - any other kill will be true grind, because it has no reason.
 
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No, I could not. Acquiring them requires annoying, boring grind, and I am not here to do that.

Only the first try is annoying. After you understand the site and the order you do things it's not bad.
In fact, I found the Guardian unlocks to be some of the most fun things in ED. I unlocked everything
except turrets and two fighters. I find the "kill interceptors minigame" to be the most irritating and boring.
But hey, I got a butt load of toys to do it with. Now if they would only removed the 4 AX weapon limit
I might even go out and use them.
X.
 
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