Thargoid Interceptor Combat - The Noobs Corner

[Arkadi]

I have made my first solo Cyclops kill today. It took quite some time to get there from the first encounters in the Pleiades nearly a year ago when we only had Aegis' weaponry, until the discovery of the Guardian legacy and the gathering of theire technology blueprints in the Synuefe systems, the knowledge gained through Eagle Eye and the emerging of the Thargoid Scouts in the bubble, testing ships and outifits, trying to learn from the experienced AXI hunters and studying tutorials and combat-records.

So I am here to show off my first Cyclops kill, with my engineered speed FAS with 3 Gauss Cannons, Heat Sinks and one Flak, applying hit and run tactic mostly, and struggeling with the swarm.

[video=youtube_share;pyuSXtAQhLY]https://youtu.be/pyuSXtAQhLY[/video]

And this is my outfit:

FAS Tintif AX at Coriolis

Still many questions remain. How does an enraged Cyclops look like? Is there a pattern to the swarms regeneration and respawn? What does it mean when the Cyclops changes color on the scanner. What is this yellow shield-bubble that pops up after the last heart is destroyed?
Also I doubt that it is still true that the Cyclops spawns only one swarm per heart and I believe that swarms regenerate every 2 or 3 minutes of combat.

I hope I will find out more details how the Interceptors fight in the future.

Also I want to say thank you to the Canonn and AXI for the provided resources tutorials and advice given when needed. And feel free to leave advice, critique and tips.

Fly save, everyone and good hunting.

 

[ZAKALWEINC8876]

Congrats! I remember my first Cyclops kill, i was strutting round the house like a pre fight Connor Magregor!

Not sure on the swarm spawns, i think it is, one swarm per heart but if u expose a heart and then take too long to destroy it, the Tharg becomes enraged and launches another swarm.

The “shield” upon destruction is in fact a massive cloud of very toxic stuff, sounds like you had a lucky escape! If you wait a bit then it will dissappear and you are free to go in and scoop the heart.

o7

 

[Arkadi]

Hi,
yes I was really happy after killing this one. I think this must have been the 8th attempt this week

Fortunatly I already knew of the caustic dangers of the final death cloud. But I was wondering what the function of this yellow bubble is:

In the video it's on minute 8:29

Is this shield also caustic?

Also I was experiencing that the swarm was always respawning, everytime I managed to kill it during my training fights. I don't really believe that I have enraged the Cyclops that often. If it is so, then the time to enrage a Cyclops must be well under 7 minutes. I only have seen this after destroying the final heart. Idk.

\o/

 

[BDelacroix]

The yellow shield is what we call the panic shield. It pops up after a heart is killed and fades over time. It is vulnerable to normal weapons, but I usually let it fade on its own unless I'm in a bit of a hurry. Gives me time to deal with the swarm.

I try the flak cannon every so often but I just can't get it to work well. I have discovered recently, however, that my x52 trigger button is sticky sometimes which means when I release, it isn't really released. I need to fix that some day.

So the swarm. The interceptor gets 1 swarm per heart and keeps 1 in reserve. If you take too long, the interceptor enrages. I don't know if it changes color or anything but gives out a groan. The swarm then just keeps spawning until the current heart is blown up.

What this means is that you get the first swarm and if you deal with it, the interceptor gets to toss out another swarm. It then won't have anything until you kill a heart (or it enrages). Doesn't take long to kill a heart now that you've killed a cyclops. It just gets easier but you can lose the skill a bit.