The Pilots’ Federation have issued an alert to all independent pilots for each of the star systems where Orthrus vessels have been detected:
“If Oya can be prevented from reclaiming territory, then it’s likely that this third Titan will fall within mere weeks. We encourage all pilots to track and eliminate any Orthrus vessels found patrolling these star systems before the Thargoids can move their assault forces into these footholds.”
Again and again, Galnet has prodded us into killing Orthrus vessels. But is doing so worth it? Here's EVERYTHING we know about the elusive Orthrus.
Speed: 115 - Quite slow.
Shields: 6250
Hull: ~3000
Special Abilities: Anti-Guardian Field, Shutdown Field, Caustic Trail, Summon Scouts
Location: Spire Sites, Non-Human Signal Source(Threat 4)(Alert Systems).
So the best way to generate plenty of Orthrus Signals is to clear out OTHER types of signals. Also, signals tend to come in waves; a system can vary from as few as 2, to as many as 50+. Sometimes, all you can do is be patient.
When they first jump in, they spawn a relatively potent shield, with a value of around 6250. This shield will degrade at a rate of 25/second, but as soon as the Orthrus completes its business in the system, it will begin to maneuver to escape, so don't wait for the shield to degrade on its own. You CAN wait for it to finish analyzing or deploying the Sensor, and save ~15 seconds and a few missile rounds, if you're willing to be patient and don't want to rearm.
Note that it's not when you first fire, but when the thargoid SEES you that triggers the countdown. Cold-running ships can observe the Thargoid from up to 1000m away without triggering it to begin running, while hot ships will be seen immediately from a much greater distance. By cold-running, I mean ~20% heat.
Either way, once it sees you(either via heat or shooting at it), it will disregard its original objective and begin to run. From this point, you have about 90 seconds to kill it before it escapes back into Witchspace, so you will need to deal enough damage in that timeframe to kill it.
The best weapon choice here is AX Missile Racks. They are not damaged by the anti-guardian field, and deal the most damage per second by far, thanks to their high Armor Piercing value. The minimum comfortable loadout is 4 Enhanced Ax Missile Racks and one additional weapon, either another AX Missile Rack or a gimballed AX Multicannon, if you want to kill scouts. This will kill the Orthrus in approximately 85 seconds, meaning you do need to be skillfully on-target to succeed.
As it runs, the Orthrus will deploy two additional defensive countermeasures:
And...that's it! Congrats, you've killed an Orthrus Interceptor. Especially for a newer player, this is not an ineffective way to make credits with relatively little risk, and get a hang for your controls.
A few days ago, there were theories that Orthrus kills might have any number of effects, including multiplying the value of turning in Tissue Samples(the current predominate method of fighting the war) or of turning in Escape Pods, etc.
Unfortunately, the initial testing results did not pan out on a larger scale, so it does seem that there is NO multiplicative effect of killing Orthruses. What you see is what you get.
As for what you get, one Orthrus kill is worth approximately 3.14 tissue samples. Now, this can have a meaningful impact on more distant systems; according to wonderful calculations done by AXI and DCoH(and others), Alerts take as low as a few hundred tissue samples for outlying systems, but upwards of 50,000+ for closer systems. This means it would take on the order of 100 orthrus kills for outlying systems, and 15000+ Orthrus Kills for close systems.
So the current methodology, based on fairly extensive testing, is that Orthrus killing - while somewhat lucrative and by no means dangerous - is not an effective means of controlling Thargoid Alerts.
Thanks for reading, and glory to mankind!
“If Oya can be prevented from reclaiming territory, then it’s likely that this third Titan will fall within mere weeks. We encourage all pilots to track and eliminate any Orthrus vessels found patrolling these star systems before the Thargoids can move their assault forces into these footholds.”
Again and again, Galnet has prodded us into killing Orthrus vessels. But is doing so worth it? Here's EVERYTHING we know about the elusive Orthrus.
Orthrus Interceptor
Credit Reward: 40 Million CreditsSpeed: 115 - Quite slow.
Shields: 6250
Hull: ~3000
Special Abilities: Anti-Guardian Field, Shutdown Field, Caustic Trail, Summon Scouts
Location: Spire Sites, Non-Human Signal Source(Threat 4)(Alert Systems).
Location
The basic way to find them is to local Non-Human Signal Sources in Alert systems(yellow). On dropping into the Signal Source, you will find one of three things.- A floating Thargoid Sensor in empty space. No Orthrus will spawn. (33%) (in some cases, destroying the sensor will spawn an Orthrus).
- A floating Thargoid Sensor in empty space. After a few seconds, an Orthrus will warp in and approach the Sensor, doing something mysterious to it, and then leave.(33%).
- Empty space. An Orthrus will warp in, deploy a Thargoid Sensor, and then leave.
Finding NHSS4's
Some players have a hard time finding NHSS 4's. Based on extensive testing, the game seems to spawn Signal Sources based on what other types of signal sources you've been clearing. For example, I was attempting to collect a large number of escape pods for testing, and rapidly ran out - but for a while, I had over twelve Orthrus signal sources in the system.So the best way to generate plenty of Orthrus Signals is to clear out OTHER types of signals. Also, signals tend to come in waves; a system can vary from as few as 2, to as many as 50+. Sometimes, all you can do is be patient.
Observing Orthruses
Orthruses are unlike other types of Thargoid. They don't personally fight; instead, they will deploy a variety of defensive measures as they maneuver to escape. Fortunately, most of these can be easily counteracted.When they first jump in, they spawn a relatively potent shield, with a value of around 6250. This shield will degrade at a rate of 25/second, but as soon as the Orthrus completes its business in the system, it will begin to maneuver to escape, so don't wait for the shield to degrade on its own. You CAN wait for it to finish analyzing or deploying the Sensor, and save ~15 seconds and a few missile rounds, if you're willing to be patient and don't want to rearm.
Note that it's not when you first fire, but when the thargoid SEES you that triggers the countdown. Cold-running ships can observe the Thargoid from up to 1000m away without triggering it to begin running, while hot ships will be seen immediately from a much greater distance. By cold-running, I mean ~20% heat.
Either way, once it sees you(either via heat or shooting at it), it will disregard its original objective and begin to run. From this point, you have about 90 seconds to kill it before it escapes back into Witchspace, so you will need to deal enough damage in that timeframe to kill it.
Killing Orthruses
Once the Orthrus sees you, it will begin by deploying its Anti-Guardian Field and a standard Shutdown Pulse. You will need a Shutdown Field Neutralizer(available from Rescue Megaships) to stop your ship from getting shut down for 30 seconds, which will ruin any hope of killing it. Also, any guardian weapons you carry will degrade in ~30 seconds, meaning they are generally not an effective way of killing Orthruses, as they will reach 0% integrity before the Orthrus does.The best weapon choice here is AX Missile Racks. They are not damaged by the anti-guardian field, and deal the most damage per second by far, thanks to their high Armor Piercing value. The minimum comfortable loadout is 4 Enhanced Ax Missile Racks and one additional weapon, either another AX Missile Rack or a gimballed AX Multicannon, if you want to kill scouts. This will kill the Orthrus in approximately 85 seconds, meaning you do need to be skillfully on-target to succeed.
As it runs, the Orthrus will deploy two additional defensive countermeasures:
- First, it will emit a potent caustic trail, which is clearly visible in space behind it. Unless you have multiple caustic sinks, this will rapidly build up and deal heavy damage, so players should stay either beside or in front of the Orthrus, via lateral thrusters.
- It will summon three groups of four scouts out of witchspace, for a total of twelve. Their damage is relatively low, but they will knock off any repair limpets and do gradual damage, more than enough to kill a careless player.
Aftermath
If you kill it, the Pilots Federation will reward you with 40m credits, and the dead Orthrus will drop an assortment of Thargoid goodies, such as probes, sensors, meta-alloys, and Biological Material. All of these have reasonable war value if delivered to the Rescue Megaships. You may also kill the scouts at this point, if you chose to carry a gimballed Enhanced AX Multicannon. However, the kill value on scouts is relatively low, and the main reason to kill them is to collect their materials for synthesis purposes. Both scouts and Thargoid goodies can be ignored at no real cost.And...that's it! Congrats, you've killed an Orthrus Interceptor. Especially for a newer player, this is not an ineffective way to make credits with relatively little risk, and get a hang for your controls.
Orthrus Wartime Value
Now, the real question people wonder is, how much does killing an Orthrus impact the war?A few days ago, there were theories that Orthrus kills might have any number of effects, including multiplying the value of turning in Tissue Samples(the current predominate method of fighting the war) or of turning in Escape Pods, etc.
Unfortunately, the initial testing results did not pan out on a larger scale, so it does seem that there is NO multiplicative effect of killing Orthruses. What you see is what you get.
As for what you get, one Orthrus kill is worth approximately 3.14 tissue samples. Now, this can have a meaningful impact on more distant systems; according to wonderful calculations done by AXI and DCoH(and others), Alerts take as low as a few hundred tissue samples for outlying systems, but upwards of 50,000+ for closer systems. This means it would take on the order of 100 orthrus kills for outlying systems, and 15000+ Orthrus Kills for close systems.
Conclusion
If Tissue Sampling is not something you're interested in, by all means, kill Orthruses! But in approximately 8 hours, I was able to find and kill about 20 of them, meaning it would take me about 40 hours just to clear a relatively small outlying Alert. By contrast, a tissue sampling player can generally achieve the same result in something like 2 hours, or approximately 20x faster. Highly-skilled tissue samplers have achieved rates around 500 samples/hour, or approximately 50x faster.So the current methodology, based on fairly extensive testing, is that Orthrus killing - while somewhat lucrative and by no means dangerous - is not an effective means of controlling Thargoid Alerts.
Thanks for reading, and glory to mankind!
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