First thargoid encounter

[Anarkst]

Hello,

First post here. So i apologize in advance if its been discussed before. I just got back in to ED yesterday after about two years off.
It didnt take long to reacquaint myself with the game despite the recent changes.
I jumped right back in to my solitary explorer routine. As i was on my way to the witch head nebula exploring i encountered a non human signal for the first time. Despite my better judgement curiosity got the better of me and i had to go see an alien ship for the first time. Especially the threat level was LOW.
I barely got out of supercruise and i was immediately being shot at. It didnt take him long to get through my shields and by the time i jumped in to supercruise i had 50% of hull integrity left. But to my surprise that number kept on going down very quickly even though i escaped the threat. It reached zero and my ship was destryed for the very first time.
I was roughly 800ly away from the mentioned nebula and i explored and mapped every system and some planets on the way. All gone. Frustrated to the point that i want to take another 2 year break.
My question is why was my hull health still depleting even after escaping the fight and in supercruise.
Please advise and thanks in advance.

 

[Magichp]

Thargoids can hit you with Acid damage (or is it Corrosion damage, I haven't played in a while myself ^^ ) that keeps damaging your Hull until you repair it at a station, or use a Decontamination Limpet, or make your ship hot enough to burn the acid (somewhere around 180% I think, never tried that way myself.)

This seems to be the most likely scenario here, but I can be wrong

 

[Knispels]

You were hit by a caustic missile which the Thargoids employ as one of their weapons. Your hull percentage indicator will flash a green color and continue to flash until the corrosion is cleaned off. You will continue to take hull damage until it is cleaned off. The three methods described in the post above are the methods to clean off the corrosion material off your ship. Most people accomplish the heating your ship up method to 180% temp by turning on silent running and firing off a weapon or boosting until they reach that temp and you get a message that the caustic material has dissipated in the upper right of your screen. At that point just turn off silent running and your ship will cool back down on it's on or you can fire off a heat sink to cool down faster and prevent further heat damage to your modules.

 

[Anarkst]

Thanks guys. Thats crazy. All together i think it took roughly around 60 seconds to destroy my ship from the moment i encountered that . It was a cobra mk iii with pretty good modules installed. Of course i had insurance but it doesnt bring back millions of cr worth of exploration data.
The thargoids have just made an enemy for life.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

put up a friendly support ticket, explaining the situation, maybe they revive your ship and data.
meanwhile, watch the tutorial for the new scanner mode

 

[Anarkst]

Hey good idea. Although it sounds tempting to get my data back it wouldnt be very fair. I made the stupid decision to go in there and i paid for it. Lesson learned.
Now i have a new goal. Make as much credits as possible to build a thargoid hunter/destroyer.

 

[BDelacroix]

As explained, sounds like you hit a scout signal source (they start out aggressive) and was hit by corrosive damage.

 

[Axilleas]

Do some deep core mining, you'll make enough credits in no time for a 'goid killing machine.

 

[JetsonRING]

Yup, corrosion/caustic damage. Your ship health meter will begin to flash a dull yellow, your ship's health % will begin to drop and you must get to a station or cook it off before your ship explodes. The quick and easy method is to drop to normal space, put the ship in Silent running (to hold in heat) and either fire lasers or boost to get ship's heat levels up between 150-200% and "cook off" the caustic substance. Then you will get a "Caustic Damage Removed" message in the INFO panel. Secure from Silent running and pop a heat-sink. Problem solved until next time. Method #2 is to get thee to a space-station! When you land safely at a space station all caustic damage is automatically removed.

[up] As another poster noted, deep-core mining is the latest gold rush. Void Opals seem to be the most lucrative material to mine. This is what a Corvette-sized load of void opals can go for:

Spoiler

o7