Thargoid Scout Hunting Questions

[Kamiyoda]

IMHO with the GHRPs you're better off using the smallest ones to get the resists (all sizes have the same resists), and use bigger GMRPs to protect internals.
my own preference for fighting scouts longer, is having the largest possible REPAIR limpet controller with me, and just a small decon unit. that way i can remove the caustic effect, and repair my hull more efficiently

its a pitty the DEVs deny us the option to engineer all other limpet controllers with the lightweight option

Eeww that sounds meh, Decon limpets do both pretty well so really dont see the point in this. The extra repair doesnt seem worth the loss in slots at all, especially if running GRMPs for scouts. My FAS and krait don't bother with thm and I can clear out threat 5s with it shieldless just fine. Never had them shoot out my modules and I SUCK at dodging those things.

Also I tried using the class 1 Decon limpets on my Anaconda once, wouldnt remove caustic damage. I went throught about 8 limpets before giving up and going to a station. No I wasnt under fire, yes it completed its... repair thing. Just assumed I needed a bigger limpet for a bigger ship and it worked. Was weird, need to test that one again.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

Eeww that sounds meh, Decon limpets do both pretty well so really dont see the point in this. The extra repair doesnt seem worth the loss in slots at all, especially if running GRMPs for scouts. My FAS and krait don't bother with thm and I can clear out threat 5s with it shieldless just fine. Never had them shoot out my modules and I SUCK at dodging those things.

Also I tried using the class 1 Decon limpets on my Anaconda once, wouldnt remove caustic damage. I went throught about 8 limpets before giving up and going to a station. No I wasnt under fire, yes it completed its... repair thing. Just assumed I needed a bigger limpet for a bigger ship and it worked. Was weird, need to test that one again.

never tested lower then class3 decon, and that works fine on my corvette and type10.
but to repair my corvette up to 100% hull down from 50% after a massive missile barrage due to the newer scouts (inciter+berserker).. the repair amount of the decon limpets is laughable.
class7 decon limpet repairs 180 HP, a class7 450 HP in the same time.

on a smaller ship with limited slots i would probably just bring the decon limpet. krait already has lots of internal slots, especially if you dont use the slf bay at all.

 

[khaos526]

Add beam laser to your empty slot. Helps to show you where the targeted scout is when things get hectic.

Actually the fuel scoop was ditched when I got to the Pleiades as I found a good one system for my hunting grounds so already have changed a few things. I was thinking earlier what other weapon I could use for that last medium weapon slot and good thing I checked back here. So going to go for the beam and then if it works I can just remote engineer it as well.

never tested lower then class3 decon, and that works fine on my corvette and type10.
but to repair my corvette up to 100% hull down from 50% after a massive missile barrage due to the newer scouts (inciter+berserker).. the repair amount of the decon limpets is laughable.
class7 decon limpet repairs 180 HP, a class7 450 HP in the same time.

on a smaller ship with limited slots i would probably just bring the decon limpet. krait already has lots of internal slots, especially if you dont use the slf bay at all.

Currently I'm running out of ammo way before I'm getting my hull down much. I've only dong the Threat 4 and 5's but mainly the 4's. Going to try starting more on the 5's as I like the combat ranking against Thargoids better than elite NPC's in Comp NAV's or RES's. Decon limpet only is for the caustic effect which I get here and there. Not worried about the hull repair as I'm returning to base to restock anyways...

 

[Kamiyoda]

never tested lower then class3 decon, and that works fine on my corvette and type10.
but to repair my corvette up to 100% hull down from 50% after a massive missile barrage due to the newer scouts (inciter+berserker).. the repair amount of the decon limpets is laughable.
class7 decon limpet repairs 180 HP, a class7 450 HP in the same time.

on a smaller ship with limited slots i would probably just bring the decon limpet. krait already has lots of internal slots, especially if you dont use the slf bay at all.

Wait hold on I, have never been lower than 88 percent in my Cutter and it only takes a few limpets to get back up to 100, and I have a ton of them anyway. Thats beside the point though, how are you taking that much hull damage? The only things that take me that close are thargoid interceptors, Scouts even in a threat 6 dont even come close.

 

[Factabulous]

Hull engineering seems to make a big difference to damage taken - once I got G5 Heavy Duty + Deep Plating on a military hull it rarely goes below 90% even in T6 (I'm sure interceptors would be different )

Plus of course having a good shield to take more of the attacks, Bi-Weave etc

 

[Conte_Vincero]

Hull engineering seems to make a big difference to damage taken - once I got G5 Heavy Duty + Deep Plating on a military hull it rarely goes below 90% even in T6 (I'm sure interceptors would be different )

Plus of course having a good shield to take more of the attacks, Bi-Weave etc

I was trying my best to work out why on earth you would be fighting thargoids in a Lacon Type 6.

Then again I really want to outfit my Beluga for scout hunting.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

Wait hold on I, have never been lower than 88 percent in my Cutter and it only takes a few limpets to get back up to 100, and I have a ton of them anyway. Thats beside the point though, how are you taking that much hull damage? The only things that take me that close are thargoid interceptors, Scouts even in a threat 6 dont even come close.

i'm an agro magnet when it comes to scouts
that low hull was during my experimentation time, when i tried to figure out what weapons can i use against scouts, as someone who absolutely hates multicannons.
pair it with bad luck of dropping into a threat5 and beeing instantly barraged by caustic missiles with zero caustic resists.

a few weapon tests later, i still can't find anything that works vs. scouts even comparable to a set of gimbal multicannons in terms of shredding power
so i have to go with the slightly slower beam laser option against them

the only thing i haven't tried yet, are frags.

 

[Kamiyoda]

i'm an agro magnet when it comes to scouts
that low hull was during my experimentation time, when i tried to figure out what weapons can i use against scouts, as someone who absolutely hates multicannons.
pair it with bad luck of dropping into a threat5 and beeing instantly barraged by caustic missiles with zero caustic resists.

a few weapon tests later, i still can't find anything that works vs. scouts even comparable to a set of gimbal multicannons in terms of shredding power
so i have to go with the slightly slower beam laser option against them

the only thing i haven't tried yet, are frags.

Awww!!! That sucks >_<! Hey could be worse, could have dropped in and wondered why there was only 4 scouts! Then get disabled by an newly arrived Interceptor and remember why XD

Turreted AX Multicannons are your friend!! All they need is the cute portal voices!! Or maybe Bettt from X when you use MARS and fight the Kha'ak. "Pest Control, ready!"

They will do way more damage than the gimballed normal Multis, actually they do more sustained damage than most things to be honest when vs scouts.

But you dont like multis!! So I recommand lasers, cause you wont run out of Ammo, I think Long Range PAs can work well in theory but I have not tried yet. I know I would absolutely not recommand rails(7% damage at point blank range with 2 G5 short range medium rails, you'd run out after 1 and a half threat 4s at most if my sleepy self is doing math right.)

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

Awww!!! That sucks >_<! Hey could be worse, could have dropped in and wondered why there was only 4 scouts! Then get disabled by an newly arrived Interceptor and remember why XD

Turreted AX Multicannons are your friend!! All they need is the cute portal voices!! Or maybe Bettt from X when you use MARS and fight the Kha'ak. "Pest Control, ready!"

They will do way more damage than the gimballed normal Multis, actually they do more sustained damage than most things to be honest when vs scouts.

But you dont like multis!! So I recommand lasers, cause you wont run out of Ammo, I think Long Range PAs can work well in theory but I have not tried yet. I know I would absolutely not recommand rails(7% damage at point blank range with 2 G5 short range medium rails, you'd run out after 1 and a half threat 4s at most if my sleepy self is doing math right.)

haha, to bad it doesn't save friend streams on steam...
yesterday i wanted to test my new internet bandwidth and went multicrew with a friend while streaming the thing via steam.

what happened? my 4x turret shard t10 dropping into a threat 7 nhss - 4 scouts and well, that interceptor before i realised what key key was for the anti-emp... bam... drifting helpless in space with lots of thargons hammering on my hull.
yes, that was another 250k repair bill...

while i know that the turreted AX multis work like a charm vs. scouts, i have compared them already vs. my 4 overcharged class 3 gimbal Incendiary multicannons i still had in storage. with them, the scouts seem to melt even faster.

and yes, i had 2 ggaus, 1 med rail and 2 small rails on the t10 to compare and the performance vs. scouts was not worth the heat management.

so currently my testing of damage vs scouts:
- focused pulse laser turrets: no satisfaction
- long range cannons : no satisfaction
- regular rails : no satisfaction
- turreted short range inertial pulse lasers: no satisfaction
- efficient thermal vent beams: feels right
- gimbal multicannons: works best yet, but cant stand the spin-up and reloading
- regular rails: no satisfaction

so... gimbal frags and long-range PAs are still on my todo.
if those wont work, i have to hope for FDEV fixing the **** droprate for the stuff you need to unlock shards.

 

[khaos526]

so currently my testing of damage vs scouts:
- focused pulse laser turrets: no satisfaction
- long range cannons : no satisfaction
- regular rails : no satisfaction
- turreted short range inertial pulse lasers: no satisfaction
- efficient thermal vent beams: feels right
- gimbal multicannons: works best yet, but cant stand the spin-up and reloading
- regular rails: no satisfaction

Trying the 2D Overcharged Oversized Beam and it seems to be helping out a lot. Not sure if it's doing damage, but it seems to get me more on target for using the Gauss.

I do have a 2D Gimballed Multi-Cannon, but it's overcharged and Auto-Load not Incendiary. So not sure how much a difference that will make at all, being it's a Med and not a Large. But I'll try it out next since it's already out here local at the system I'm in, in storage already...

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

as far as i can tell, the scouts have either higher or equal thermal resists, so the incendiary secondary on my multicannons is not helping at all, except heating up my ship.
my friend confirmed that beam lasers high DPS works well for him,
so as it looks now, my T10 will get a full set of beams in the near future too

 

[Kzak]

I use a Federal Corvette vs the scouts, with 2x G5 Efficient huge gimballed beam lasers (Thermal Vent) + 1 large laser modified and set up the same way. Melts the scouts nicely.

 

[Kamiyoda]

as far as i can tell, the scouts have either higher or equal thermal resists, so the incendiary secondary on my multicannons is not helping at all, except heating up my ship.
my friend confirmed that beam lasers high DPS works well for him,
so as it looks now, my T10 will get a full set of beams in the near future too

Im pretty sure they just straight up resist anything that isnt Anti-Xeno or Absolute. Even the latter im unsure about.

A single large Long Range PA did around 8% Damage to the Scouts, which is much better than the numbers I was getting with rail guns (Around 5% with a Short Range Rails within the damage falloff range)

Also threw some math at the wall and got Scouts having hull of around 800 intergrity as a ballpark figure.

 

[khaos526]

as far as i can tell, the scouts have either higher or equal thermal resists, so the incendiary secondary on my multicannons is not helping at all, except heating up my ship.
my friend confirmed that beam lasers high DPS works well for him,
so as it looks now, my T10 will get a full set of beams in the near future too

Well not noticing much on my overcharged MC with Auto-Load other than it runs out of ammo faster than the AX Multi's. Think I'll just stick with the beam (over charged and oversized) for a tracker as I had better luck with it and my Guass. Plus it shoots off right away while the others prep at the start of battle and it has a further range and I noticed does damage the scouts at a decent rate for a non Anti-Xeno weapon...

 

[Lobey]

I tend to hunt scouts with ax stuff on Cobra 4 and Challenger- but my Python's two large beam lasers (with Thermal Vent) and a large mc (with corrosive) can chew them up nearly as fast as a dedicated ax build - other two slots tend to be Guardian gauss - but again other stuff works fine. Long as you maintain a good time on target and can put down the dps they pop fairly fast.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

Im pretty sure they just straight up resist anything that isnt Anti-Xeno or Absolute. Even the latter im unsure about.

A single large Long Range PA did around 8% Damage to the Scouts, which is much better than the numbers I was getting with rail guns (Around 5% with a Short Range Rails within the damage falloff range)

Also threw some math at the wall and got Scouts having hull of around 800 intergrity as a ballpark figure.

well,
shooting with different weapons at them, while knowing what damage types they deal and how much per hit - thats a good way to find out the resists and hitpoints.

i have not tested normal PAs yet. they deal mostly absolute and just a fraction thermal and kinetic damage.
and subjectively, i think flechette and flak deal more damage then cannons

 

[Kamiyoda]

well,
shooting with different weapons at them, while knowing what damage types they deal and how much per hit - thats a good way to find out the resists and hitpoints.

i have not tested normal PAs yet. they deal mostly absolute and just a fraction thermal and kinetic damage.
and subjectively, i think flechette and flak deal more damage then cannons

I cant help but wonder what horrible cannons you have found. Are you using High Yield Shell?

Also PAs deal 60 Absolute, 20 Thermal and 20 Kinetic AFAIK

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

I cant help but wonder what horrible cannons you have found. Are you using High Yield Shell?

Also PAs deal 60 Absolute, 20 Thermal and 20 Kinetic AFAIK

no HYS... i have freshly remodded long range autoloader C4's on my corvette.
and hitting scouts with those yamato-class rounds hardly puts a dent into their hulls compared to the 106 shots you have.

a bit more on topic:
could it be that non-AX weapon turrets wont fire on scouts when set to Fire at will?

 

[Kamiyoda]

no HYS... i have freshly remodded long range autoloader C4's on my corvette.
and hitting scouts with those yamato-class rounds hardly puts a dent into their hulls compared to the 106 shots you have.

a bit more on topic:
could it be that non-AX weapon turrets wont fire on scouts when set to Fire at will?

Well yeah like I said, they resist Human weapons, the same way AX weapons do less damage against human ships. I highly recommend only using Plasma slug or Laser based weapona because of it if your not planning on using AX stuffs


And yes that is it exactly, turrets will not work on scouts in fire at will mode, only fire on target mode. Not exactly sure why though.

Edit: Also yay I got the name of the experimental right!!

 

[space voyager]

My loadout is two Gauss, two large AX MC turrets and a flak. Two heatsinks, one shield booster and... that thingy that saves my behind from drifting helplessly in space. Size 1 cleaning limpet controller, size 3 cargo for 8 limpets, size 6 AX hangar with now a dangerous pilot, size 5 SCBs and a bi-weave fast charging reinforced shield. I hunt for size 6 signals with either a load of scouts or a Cyclops. Hoping for a Cyclops which pays a lot more.

Oh, two weapon settings, one for scouts (no flak) and the other for interceptors. The latter has AX MCs tied to Gausses as they actually help expose the heart quite nicely.

The fact that Krait can be oufitted for both scouts and interceptors and csn also fit a large hangar makes it the most fun AX ship available. When the scouts are whithering down I let my pilot have the ship while I have fun in the SLF. Then you can see the pilot's accuracy with Gausses - or see her idiotically try to use a flak against them... More fun!