Thargoid Maelstrom Observations

[Tiron Elite]

07 Commanders, As the thargoid war rages, there is much to learn through observations and information.
It is my hope that this thread starts a wave of investigations into the maelstrom created by the Stargoid Taranis
Here is a short video of my observations.
Basically, the maelstrom is a cloud of turbulent gas created by the Stargoid Taranis. It's about 180 km in diameter and the outer layer is laden with mines also known as caustic generators. This video also shows that Hydras and Medusas patrol and scan the mines. More information to come.

Vidoe:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLSFOI-rVc

 

[Chaparral]

Can you kill the mines?

 

[CMDR X]

Can you kill the mines?

You can but you don't have to. Just get close to them and they fart themselves to death.
Make sure you bring some collector limpets for the mats they poop out.

 

[CMDR Tom Laeplight]

I'm blown away by the Thargoid Maelstrom and what FDEVs done by adding the war, totally impressive audio-visual experience and I can wait to see what comes of it all.

Does anything happen if you get close to the maelstrom and jump to a system that's on the other side of the maelstrom? Like you get close and then your inter-system jump would make you cross paths with the center of the maelstrom.

 

[gibbotronic]

I've attempted to investigate the Maelstrom with little success. It is impossible to get towards the centre. I tried boosting in but you get pulsed/pushed out at 1500+ speed (like the repulsor wave out of Homeworld Cataclysm...). I did flying really slowly in supercruise towards the centre but the FSD malfunctions and you get dropped out.

Other things to try:
1. Fly backwards?
2. Try scanning it with a planetary scanner in supercruise?
3. Increase speed towards the centre but then when you see it raring up for a pulse, set engines to 0 so that it doesn't "see" you.
4. Use a fighter? Sadly the Maelstrom is 100km in diameter and a fighter only has 30km range so you can't park your ship and fly in....?
5. Use a Thargoid pulse deflector thingy?
6. Put a Thargoid object in your hold so that it "sees" you as a Thargoid and fly in?
7. Drift in with flight assist off deploying heatsinks constantly?

Any other ideas welcome. The pulse that pushes us out must be related to identifying you as a human vessel so I am wondering how to avoid that.

 

[CMDR X]

I've attempted to investigate the Maelstrom with little success. It is impossible to get towards the centre. I tried boosting in but you get pulsed/pushed out at 1500+ speed (like the repulsor wave out of Homeworld Cataclysm...). I did flying really slowly in supercruise towards the centre but the FSD malfunctions and you get dropped out.

Other things to try:
1. Fly backwards?
2. Try scanning it with a planetary scanner in supercruise?
3. Increase speed towards the centre but then when you see it raring up for a pulse, set engines to 0 so that it doesn't "see" you.
4. Use a fighter? Sadly the Maelstrom is 100km in diameter and a fighter only has 30km range so you can't park your ship and fly in....?
5. Use a Thargoid pulse deflector thingy?
6. Put a Thargoid object in your hold so that it "sees" you as a Thargoid and fly in?
7. Drift in with flight assist off deploying heatsinks constantly?

Any other ideas welcome. The pulse that pushes us out must be related to identifying you as a human vessel so I am wondering how to avoid that.

Did you try ringing the doorbell? How about sneaking in through the back door?

 

[gibbotronic]

Did you try ringing the doorbell? How about sneaking in through the back door?

It's spherical so there is no back door unfortunately!

 

[BDelacroix]

Checked it out again last night with a friend. Will just report observations. Probably nothing new discovered here.

Went in with a cutter and a federal corvette.

The gas mines move about with a puff. The puff itself is harmless at the distance we first encountered them. Getting too close will make them explode violently enough to push a corvette around like a ping-pong ball and apply caustic damage.
Was able to approach with using a heatsink to keep temp below 20% (I wasn't in the corvette, don't remember if it was 28% or 20% my friend reported). Doing that he was able to scan the mine.

Picked up some blown up mine parts.

Could see interceptors servicing the mines they acted odd (bug?, intended?) There is a depth of the cloud where caustic damage begins, it seems the nearest interceptor (turned out to be a cyclops) wouldn't go past that point and just stared at us. We could approach and scan it. It never took shots.

Can't tell the depth at which the caustic damage begins because before that point the targeting scan no longer can keep a lock on the maelstrom and shows no distance. It's < 85km though.

Neither of us had a composition scanner as these ships were for fighting and we decided to go look just to see. Didn't expect to get as much as we did. Which granted is little, but more than the nothing we expected.

Conclusions:
Surprise to no one, colder works better than hot. 33% is how my ship runs idle. I didn't get close to a mine myself, at least not closer than when the tips start to blink red. They emit a warbling sound as you approach. If the warble isn't excited, you seem to be ok. Night vision on will help you see the mines a bit but that stops after a little while.

Layered defenses. Blinding fog. Then fog and mines. Then fog, mines, corrosive damage and interceptors. Unknown beyond that yet.

Did see the blue pulse happen once but it was far away and probably someone else was there on another side of the cloud.

 

[R-Irish]

I read something (i think it was IGN or some press crowd which released info a few hours before it launched) whereby the Thargoids are protecting some sort of alien nav beacon(s) near the maelstroms, and if you destroy them it helps 'target' it? Is there beacons near the maelstrom you can attack to weaken/uncover/target the maelstroms?

 

[BDelacroix]

A side observation. Not necessarily only about the maelstrom.
My friend's corvette runs hotter than my cutter when idle. It seemed that every time scouts spawned they'd all go after him regardless of distance to their spawn. Could it be that initial aggro is toward whatever is the hotter object? Could this be exploited? A lure or bait or distraction?

 

[Guyperson]

I don't imagine anyone's getting so much as a peek at the center of these until the requisite number of plot points have passed. At this point Frontier knows better than to provide even the faintest possibility of solving the mystery early, knowing how that usually works out. The maelstrom always reacts when you cross the trigger threshold for the pulse. It doesn't matter what you do to hide, shut down, cool off, what you're carrying or how fast or slow you approach it. The pulse can't be prevented by any means currently at our disposal and a neutralizer provides no protection from it. Even if you could glitch yourself into the red cloud at the center of the maelstrom right now I bet the asset (I assume a hive ship) isn't even in the game client's data files yet, since it would probably get mined immediately.

As for observations,

• It breaks down Guardian modules even while you're in supercruise.
• You can't do a normal disengage from supercruise and have to either manually drop or just run into it.
• It breaks your wing beacon so your teammates can't just drop on your beacon inside of it.
• It applies caustic to your ship once you get deep enough into the cloud, and it gets worse the farther in you go.
• Your nav reticle loses lock and goes into search mode while in the maelstrom, but you don't really need it since the center is an obvious, persistent big red cloud within the larger maelstrom cloud.
• If you try to approach the center of the maelstrom it will emit a roar, then a charge-up up sound and briefly glow blue before unleashing a giant pulse that damages and shuts down your ship for a couple of seconds and flings you out of the maelstrom at over 1000m/s.
• The pulse has a maximum range and you're safe outside of it, but the lack of a distance marker makes it hard to say just how big it is.
• The caustic generators are responsible for creating and maintaining the gas cloud, and occasionally push themselves around by emitting jets of the gas similar to what we've seen space molluscs do.
• The generators also double as mines if any warm ship gets too close (or they get shot). In which case bands on the arms flash red and it makes angry sounds before causing a 3KM caustic explosion with a significant impulse effect, potentially flinging you into other mines like a game of caustic pinball.
• Destroyed generators drop materials to be used for:
  Spoiler: Something we probably weren't meant to see because it was quickly hidden from view.

  A synthesis recipe of ammo reloads for "caustic sinks"
• Interceptors in the maelstrom go around checking on the caustic generators but so far have been passive unless hit. Sometimes they approach where a destroyed generator used to be and glitch out, just staring at that spot.
• You can use limpets inside the maelstrom. They don't melt instantly for whatever reason. Decon limpets can't keep caustic off you but they do seem to reduce the severity of the damage for as long as they're attached, moreso than regular repair limpets.

Neither of us had a composition scanner as these ships were for fighting and we decided to go look just to see.

Composition scanner is standard equipment. You just need to assign it to a fire group.

 

[CMDR X]

..

As for observations,

• It breaks down Guardian modules..........

Very well round-up of what happens. I can personally vouch for everything written here.
Only thing I would add is:

• Getting bumped by the core gives you a new type of High Grade Data material.

This and the fact that generators also drop new mats, leads me to believe that we are in for a new round of Fun-Fun-Fun GRIND.

 

[BDelacroix]

went in with some fresh cool scanner ships today. Got a composition scan on the mines. Mamba scanner ship is fun. pushed one of the thargoids around but he got tired of that and let us know. Best part of that is I don't even need boost to get away, the no boost speed is plenty fast. Tiny fuel tank though.

Nothing new really other than the composition scan but that's just new to me, not the community at large.

 

[Tiron Elite]

07 everyone, I did some testing and found that we CAN bring the guardian hull reinforcement into the Maelstrom.
Doing so extends our time there and allows for further study and investigation.

Here is the video for information and proof.

[TLDR]
I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, but I keep hearing people tell me they can't bring guardian tech into the Maelstrom and I want to give us all the correct answers.

In this video, I've tested the viability of the guardian modules and weapons within the thargoid Maelstrom. The short answer is that we can only bring one, the hull reinforcement.

Many commanders have told me that they think they can't bring any guardian modules into the Maelstrom. In this video, I prove that we CAN and possibly should bring the guardian hull reinforcement into these conditions. Further, I detail the implications of what my findings mean to the greater Elite Lore.

Source: https://youtu.be/u8hGEyNsnEU

 

[Guyperson]

07 everyone, I did some testing and found that we CAN bring the guardian hull reinforcement into the Maelstrom.
Doing so extends our time there and allows for further study and investigation.

This was first discovered in HIP 22460. Like other HRP types they don't have an integrity value, so they can't actually take module damage.

 

[Tiron Elite]

This was first discovered in HIP 22460. Like other HRP types they don't have an integrity value, so they can't actually take module damage.

Do you think FDev will wrap the G hull reinforcements immunity into the lore?

Further, atop their immunity, they also provide a 5% reduction to caustic damage.
Maybe they were meant to allow us to enter the maelstrom.

 

[Alec Turner]

Other things to try:
1. Fly backwards?
2. Try scanning it with a planetary scanner in supercruise?
3. Increase speed towards the centre but then when you see it raring up for a pulse, set engines to 0 so that it doesn't "see" you.
4. Use a fighter? Sadly the Maelstrom is 100km in diameter and a fighter only has 30km range so you can't park your ship and fly in....?
5. Use a Thargoid pulse deflector thingy?
6. Put a Thargoid object in your hold so that it "sees" you as a Thargoid and fly in?
7. Drift in with flight assist off deploying heatsinks constantly?

Any other ideas welcome. The pulse that pushes us out must be related to identifying you as a human vessel so I am wondering how to avoid that.

If you try to approach the center of the maelstrom it will emit a roar, then a charge-up up sound and briefly glow blue before unleashing a giant pulse that damages and shuts down your ship for a couple of seconds and flings you out of the maelstrom at over 1000m/s.

Here's one idea - go in with a few team mates who are packing cannons with force shell experimentals. Just before the pulse knocks you back at 1000m/s get your mates to stack force shell effect to send you in at >1000m/s (I'm sure I've seen amusing videos in the past of people doing this kind of thing but maybe it's been nerfed?).

 

[Ryuto]

Has anyone tried anything with those corrupted Guardian relics and the Malestroms? Since those were created around the same time as these things were called into the Bubble by the Thargoids effected by Salvation?

 

[Tiron Elite]

This is a short video showing the existence of Caustic Crystals, a grade 4 rare thargoid material. They are found in the Maelstroms among the caustic generators. It seems like they spawn as the generators are killed, but this information needs to be confirmed.

The information panel says "This material is used by engineers when building upgrades"

Source: https://youtu.be/epSRMVwSLqo

 

[Tiron Elite]

Has anyone tried anything with those corrupted Guardian relics and the Malestroms? Since those were created around the same time as these things were called into the Bubble by the Thargoids effected by Salvation?

Yes, today, many have tried flying into the center with the Grelic or unclassified relic in their cargo hold and found nothing special happens.
This includes flying to an interceptor, a caustic generator, and to the center of the maelstrom.

Is there something specific you had in mind?