Thargoid Attacks: Where, When and What you can do about it

[Phoenix_Dfire]

We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile!

Borg?

Ha!

Amateurs! Couldn't even take over one Galaxy.

The Cybermen took over three galaxies before the Human Empire had to wipe them out by destroying those galaxies. I bet you the Doctor could wipe out the Borg without having to use the sonic screwdriver.

Allons-y!

;-)

 

[Oaktree]

Allons-y!!! Best Doctor! David Tennant!

See, this is what happens when we cant save systems from the borked infested state. We turn into Star Trek and The Doctor!

 

[JeanGrey]

Anyone knows if Frontier will lift the restriction of 4 AX/Guardian weapons in the ship load out this year?
I'm thinking about putting together an AX Corvette, but what is the point since some weapon slots will be wasted. Is it worth it?

 

[Assimilator1]

If you can power & keep cool 4 gauss cannons, that in itself will be damn powerful! You could use at least some of the remaining HPs for scouts weapons.

 

[JeanGrey]

If you can power & keep cool 4 gauss cannons, that in itself will be damn powerful! You could use at least some of the remaining HPs for scouts weapons.

I might try that. It's just that I feel it's a waste to mount class 2 weapons in class 3 hard points.
I've been using a combo with 2 Gauss and 2 Shard Cannons.
Very effective against Cyclops, as I can take down two hearts at a time before having to rebuild my Krait's shield, but fighting bigger Interceptors is different story.

Thanks for the advise!

 

[Spike K]

If you can power & keep cool 4 gauss cannons, that in itself will be damn powerful! You could use at least some of the remaining HPs for scouts weapons.

What about the Swarm of Thrargons? You cant out run them. Tank builds make it even slower. Flack me.

\\///
Oo
>
Spike.K

 

[JeanGrey]

I'm terrible at fighting Thargons, so far I've avoided them by using fast ships.
Requires some flight skill but what I do is to boost in the right time to scape the Thargons when they charge at me, and in the sequence make a fly by near the Interceptor and hit him with Shard cannons to expose the heart. All done with flight assist on.
Once the heart is exposed, the Gauss cannons do their job.

Looks like I still need to give some thoughts about a heavier ship fighting strategy, but I need to change as the one I'm using can't take down anything bigger than a Cyclops.
Just don't want to fly backwards with flight assist off, seems lazy!

 

[Assimilator1]

I know what your saying, re cls 2 in cls 3 HPs, & I can only speak from using them in my Python, then my Krait mk2, but they seem pretty powerful anyway, and when I used 3 at once it was a job to keep the ships cool, but it certainly sped up taking cyclops down .

Like you I am nowhere near being able to take down a Basi solo, although I had some partial success killing some of the swarm by FAing off backwards, I've no idea how much as I didn't have room for a xeno scanner , I needed the shld booster there!
I also tended to boost away from the Thargons at an angle when they charged at me to reduce their damage.

Apparently the trick to fighting bigger interceptors with a medium ship is to orbit around them with FA off all the time (!), and so avoiding their firepower, also spamming heatsinks so that your heat doesn't go over 20%!
Personally I refused to do the later as I don't want to go on regular farming missions for mats for it, & I can't do the former atm until I set up response curves for my joystick. Anyway, I'm fed up with AX fighting atm, so I've quit for the time being. (Fed up with caustic missiles being spammed from the scouts, sometimes. Overheating issues, failing cargo hatch, trying to shoot scouts with gauss cannons etc).

What about the Swarm of Thargons? You cant out run them. Tank builds make it even slower. Flack me.

\\///
Oo
>
Spike.K

Huh? Clarify? , slower than what?

 

[Uvelius Sång]

I'm terrible at fighting Thargons, so far I've avoided them by using fast ships.

I've actually started to target the Swarm specifically when in a Wing, distract it from the others and flak it to pieces (while it does it's best to shred me to pieces, so fair game there), and find it quite entertaining.

Outside of wings I try to avoid it and only target Scouts, since a 4x AX (non-Guardian) not-max-engineered Python is probably not able to take down even a Cyclops anyway, aside from tickling it to death with the AX MCs maybe ...

 

[Factabulous]

Targets this week :

Incursions (AX CZ)

(just check galnet 2nd post )

Infestations (NHSS)

Tangua - 2 Large Orbitals
HIP 9141 - 3 Large Orbitals * No NHSS found yet
Turbacobo - 1 Large Orbital
Cegreeth - 2 large Orbitals
61 virginis - 1 Large Orbital
Ross 490

None are marked as Infested in the galmap, nhss reported unless otherwise stated



Eagle Eye:

EE1: Tangua - 2 Large Orbitals
EE2: HIP 9141 - 3 Large Orbitals
EE3: Turbacobo - 1 Large Orbital
EE4: Cegreeth - 2 large Orbitals
EE5: 61 virginis - 1 Large Orbital
EE6: Ross 490 - 1 Large Orbital

Warning: Try and not be in the Infested / Incursion systems on Thargsday for the server restart - CMDRs have reported CtD issues otherwise.

Notes:

• Incursions are listed in the 2nd Galnet article and dynamically update through the week (they start at 'massive thargoid presence' and are beaten when we reach 'no thargoid presence'.
• Thargoids first Infest a system (this has now been hidden), if the Infection is not fought then they begin an Incursion, and we lose stations until the incursion is repelled.
• Incursed systems can be seen in the Galmap left panel. Sometimes the system also switches allegiance to the Thargoids (not always). It's worth checking a system is still Incursed before travel (in the 2nd Galnet post), as they change through the week. Sometimes the Galmap does not show the correct states, but systems targeted by Eagle Eye should still be targets. Unless that is broken ...
• There is a galmap filter to help find Incursion systems
• Incursion systems : fight in the AX CZ until they are no longer listed in Galnet
• Thargoids can only attack space stations with 'L' landing pads, if a system has none of these then ot is a lower priority.
• Infested Systems : are saved by kills in the target systems- each kill counts the same, so a Scout is as useful as an Interceptor. Bonds do not matter. They only update state once a day, just after the BGS tick.
• You can also find NHSS all over the Pleiades - within about 166 Ly of Merope, but it won't help save any systems.
• And you can get (bugged) missions from the Aegis megaships to kill Thargoids, but they also don't count to save systems unless the destination system for the mission is also a target this week.
• Infested Targets are found by decoding the aegis Eagle Eye system https://canonn.science/codex/eagle-eye-installations/
• Decoding Eagle Eye is now simpler - use this decoder and type in the phonetic letters called out by the eagle eye unregistered comms beacons - this gives the target system

 

[Assimilator1]

Cheers for the update Facta [up]
It's still 175 LYs though

 

[JeanGrey]

I actually have no trouble keeping my Krait Mk2 cool with two Gauss and two Shard cannons. What did the trick was clean drive lvl 4 + drag drives (clean drive lvl 5 would reduce the drive durability too much imo) and armoured PP lvl 5 with thermal spread.
I have the heat sink only to cool down the ship if I have to overheat it to remove caustic damage.

load out:
https://s.orbis.zone/2hdv

 

[Eckee]

I actually have no trouble keeping my Krait Mk2 cool with two Gauss and two Shard cannons. What did the trick was clean drive lvl 4 + drag drives (clean drive lvl 5 would reduce the drive durability too much imo) and armoured PP lvl 5 with thermal spread.
I have the heat sink only to cool down the ship if I have to overheat it to remove caustic damage.

load out:
https://s.orbis.zone/2hdv

Shards are useless against higher tier Interceptors because of their low armour penetration. 4 gauss is the meta because they get more effective against higher tier Interceptors compared to shards and plasma, plasma being the most effective at exerting hearts on paper but not in practice. Shards are only good for gibbing Cyclopses. In a regular fight their effective dps range is too short, close to Interceptors’ lightning attack which is 800 meters.

 

[JeanGrey]

Shards are useless against higher tier Interceptors because of their low armour penetration. 4 gauss is the meta because they get more effective against higher tier Interceptors compared to shards and plasma, plasma being the most effective at exerting hearts on paper but not in practice. Shards are only good for gibbing Cyclopses. In a regular fight their effective dps range is too short, close to Interceptors’ lightning attack which is 800 meters.

Interesting.
On Cyclops I can hit them with shards in a fly by and evade before being hit by the lightning, which makes the weapon very effective for both putting down their shields and expose the heart, but I didn't know this detail about the big ones.
Looks like I got no option but to try 4 Gauss agains Basilisk.

When you say plasma is not the most effective in pratice, is it because they are difficult to hit, or they just don't deliver the DPS which is on paper?

 

[Eckee]

Interesting.
On Cyclops I can hit them with shards in a fly by and evade before being hit by the lightning, which makes the weapon very effective for both putting down their shields and expose the heart, but I didn't know this detail about the big ones.
Looks like I got no option but to try 4 Gauss agains Basilisk.

Yes they are great for the shields altough you shouldn't have to take down the shield, it'll be down shortly after you kill the swarm. You can use them against Cyclopses, their exerting damage is higher than the gauss' on Cyclops in a closer range yet they are useless at destroying hearts. Come to AXI Discord if you want further help and/or fellow commanders on the case.

AXI Forum page | AXI Discord

When you say plasma is not the most effective in pratice, is it because they are difficult to hit, or they just don't deliver the DPS which is on paper?

They deliver the dps on the paper. There are several reasons.

- They are useless at sniping out the hearts, which means you practically don't have them in heart destruction phase. Reduced dps on hearts.
- Gauss cannons are hitscan, their projectile has no travel time, they hit the target instantly right after you shoot. Plasmas are not, you need to aim to the travel trajectory of the target. That's why if you're gonna use plasmas, you won't be able to use gauss at the same time in heart exertion phase. Reduced potential heart exertion dps.
- Gauss' are easier to hit and you can keep your target in your FOV at all times.

If you take plasmas with gauss, you'll lack dps in both heart exertion and destruction phases.

If you take 2x plasmas and 2x gauss, you're gonna have 2x plasma's dps while exerting the heart and 2x gauss dps while destroying the heart.
If you take 4 gauss, you're gonna have 4x gauss dps while exerting (which is greater than 2x plasmas), ~3x gauss dps on heart. (depending on the ship's hardpoint convergence ofc)

 

[Assimilator1]

I actually have no trouble keeping my Krait Mk2 cool with two Gauss and two Shard cannons. What did the trick was clean drive lvl 4 + drag drives (clean drive lvl 5 would reduce the drive durability too much imo) and armoured PP lvl 5 with thermal spread.
I have the heat sink only to cool down the ship if I have to overheat it to remove caustic damage.

load out:
https://s.orbis.zone/2hdv

I have the same PP as you, but DD G5 drag drives for max speed.
When you try cooling 3, or even 4 Gauss's, then you'll see it's a whole lot harder!

I only used my heatsinks when charging the shields, but I would often try to do it when needing to shoot, so I could fire more during that time.

 

[JeanGrey]

Thanks for all the feedback, really appreciate!

I'm doying some trials with other weapon load outs against Cyclops, to get a better feeling since I can easily compare against my initial Gauss/Shard load out.
Tried already two class 3 Plasma and two class 2 Gauss. Up side was to be able to expose the heart most effectively and from a bigger distance when compared to Shard. These things really carry a punch.
Downside is that they are not effective against the interceptor shields, so overall I took more time to destroy it and the Thragons damaged my ship more.

I've just finished making a new load out with three class 3 Plasma, 1 class 2 Gauss and a Flak Cannon. Here is where I miss being able to load 5 AX weapons in ths ship, but got to work with what I have.

 

[Eckee]

Thanks for all the feedback, really appreciate!

I'm doying some trials with other weapon load outs against Cyclops, to get a better feeling since I can easily compare against my initial Gauss/Shard load out.
Tried already two class 3 Plasma and two class 2 Gauss. Up side was to be able to expose the heart most effectively and from a bigger distance when compared to Shard. These things really carry a punch.
Downside is that they are not effective against the interceptor shields, so overall I took more time to destroy it and the Thragons damaged my ship more.

I've just finished making a new load out with three class 3 Plasma, 1 class 2 Gauss and a Flak Cannon. Here is where I miss being able to load 5 AX weapons in ths ship, but got to work with what I have.

So you did literally the exact opposite what I recommended I’m not judging ofc it’s all about your fun and how you feel comfortable. However it won’t be easy to kill a Basilisk with those weapons and Medusa would be harder than a Hydra fight with a proper build.

But in general, lose the SDFN and Xeno Scanner, you could’ve put more shield boosters there. You can evade the EMP attack by dropping a heatsink and boosting away and you can hear&see when a heart is exerted.
Definately kill the swarm, their regular attacks are not powerfull but when they do kamikaze on you they will deal huge damage.
We usually use 2x smallest slots for MRP’s on Krait, because the canopy is so vulnerable. With a 2A AFMU (if you want one).
This is the ship I have used for Medusae: https://s.orbis.zone/2izs

Before I get shoo’d away for hijacking this thread, I recommend you to come to AXI Discord once again. You can get help from the experts in the field (like me ). We have cookies people from different timezones and there are always some online willing to help and answer your questions.

 

[Rick Bravo]

So I wanted to touch on why and how it is that so many stations are suddenly burning. The thargoid attacks are due to FDev screwing (maybe intentionally) up again. They changed the EE targets the day before tick so it was impossible to defend and like 10 system all went into incursion.
Now the target systems are 'infested', but we don't get to see this hidden state and we have no idea how many goids have to be killed in any system for it to be defended. The fix is in at Fdev and they are intentionally withholding the needed info to successfully defend. This needs to fixed and pressure needs to be put on Fdev to provide the needed into and stop playing games. Devs are godhanding again and its not ok

 

[Assimilator1]

I agree with you, expect for 1 thing, you don't know that Fdev are intentionally withholding the info, unless you have proof?

Btw we have been putting pressure on Fdev via that bug thread, which IIRC was linked from here (at least), worth posting the link again so people who haven't already, have somewhere to post their pressure. Here it is.