Thargoid shutdown field neutraliser

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Hi
I have been doing some thargoid combat and it's going well (only lost 1 ship so far and that was because I pushed it too far being greedy with a broken ship)

but I cannot get the hang of the field neutraliser. does anyone have any hints how best to use it? I fire it off the moment i get the energy surge warning but it doesn't work for me. does it have to be aimed?

thanks for any thoughts.

 

[HRDiagram]

That's because it's not mentioned anywhere.

You have to hold the button for as long as it has to be active (you'll see the SYS being drained). Press the allocated key a few seconds after you hear the warning, and only release it after you see the shockwave run past you.

I used to "fire" it, and get systematically shut down, until I realised it's a channeled function.

 

[HappyMoonMonkey]

You have to hold the button for the neutraliser to continue to be effective until the shutdown field is passed. 4 pips to sys helps maintain it.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

ahhh brilliant thanks for that.

 

[SlickPBW]

When you get the warning about the incoming pulse, quickly: put 4 pips into SYS, select the correct fire group, count to 3, then fire & hold the SFN until the pulse passes your ship.

 

[Mordu]

When you get the warning about the incoming pulse, quickly: put 4 pips into SYS, select the correct fire group, count to 3, then fire & hold the SFN until the pulse passes your ship.

You can hot key it so you don't have to switch fire groups. Saves some extra key presses.

 

[Chaparral]

I am always grateful in Open when someone has one - it protects more than just your ship I think. I usually fly without them relying on the boost with FA off to scoot away when the pulse happens.

 

[St0rmFury]

I've read somewhere that while the neutraliser is in mid charge, only you are protected.

Once it's fully charged, then all ships around you (within max range) are protected as well.

Don't know how true is this.

 

[Mrc_NorthEast]

I have not successfully used the field neutralizer yet either. But I have read the best way is to count to 3 after getting the warning, and then hold the button for it, until the wave has passed you, 4 pips to sys before firing it...

good luck

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

You can hot key it so you don't have to switch fire groups. Saves some extra key presses.

I have voice attack. I may look into setting up a voice command which will put pipps to system and run the device when I give the command before putting back to attack mode

 

[Ned Flandalorian]

Couple of people above mentioned the neutralizer protects others, here's how it works: when you fire and hold it, you can see a bar filling up. That's the range of the neutralizer growing, up to a maximum of 3km. So it can protect all other ships within a 3km radius bubble around you (if you get it fully charged before the wave hits).
Without charging it up, it will still protect your ship when it's active. So if your SYS is low and the wave's coming you can get by just by timing it correctly, triggering it right as the wave passes.

When in multiplayer instances it is a good idea to hold it for a little bit of extra time, it seems the animation of the wave isn't always properly in synch with the shutdown effect and you can get caught out by relying on it.

 

[Andy_Pipkin]

Found this a little while ago:

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

1. During interceptor combat make sure your sys charge is full
2. As soon as you see the "Power Surge" msg popup then switch fire groups and fire off the field neutraliser by holding down the fire button (I think you can bind this to a button if you don't want to set a fire group for it)
3. While doing step 2 put 4 pips to sys, all while keeping your finger on the trigger
4. The field neutraliser will keep going until you have 0 charge in systems. As soon as the power surge has passed your ship you can let go of the trigger
5. Go to step 1

The issue I have with this is sometimes I don't see or hear a warning. Because I'm playing in VR I am not always looking straight forward at the exact spot where the msg pops up I sometimes I have no clue a power surge is inbound. Caught me out a good few times!!! Wish an audio alert would also play every single time.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Hi thanks all for the info. i managed to jump into the cockpit last night and shoot some flowers and armed with the info above had much more success with my neutraliser. i miss timed a few but caught the large majority.

mostly i forgot to change pipps as well and managed to time it to full charge with only half a pip in sys for the most part.

 

[St0rmFury]

Hi thanks all for the info. i managed to jump into the cockpit last night and shoot some flowers and armed with the info above had much more success with my neutraliser. i miss timed a few but caught the large majority.

mostly i forgot to change pipps as well and managed to time it to full charge with only half a pip in sys for the most part.

I've got the sequence down after multiple practice runs but my problem is I keep forgetting to redirect my pips back to wep after the wave has passed and wondering why the heck are my guns not firing after a while.

 

[Jmanis]

I fire it off the moment i get the energy surge warning but it doesn't work for me. does it have to be aimed?

Way too early imo. If you're close you can hear it spooling up before discharging... basically after the warning you have a good 3-4 seconds before you want to hit the button. And in case it's not teaching you to suck eggs...

• 4 pips to sys, and
• hold down the trigger til the wave passes over you.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

@St0rmFury lol i did that too, hence coming to the conclusion in general i just fly with half a pip in sys all the time and get my timing better....

That said IF i end up in an instance with higher level interceptors which as i found out with my 1 ship loss so far, (touch wood it stays that way, i hate losing ships way more than the rebuy cost its more than that, it was only my 5th maybe ship loss in 3000 hrs) the higher level interceptors do a lot more damage when you are shut down than the base cyclops.

so if i end up with nastier ships i will definitely put more pipps into sys to try to make sure i do not get shut down

 

[tolm]

As others have said:

• 4 pips to SYS
• Press and hold!!

I have spacebar mapped to it as it's easy to panic hit but, actually, what's helped me a lot is to have both of my Fire Groups having the Shutdown Field Neutralizer on Secondary and then whichever Guardian Weapon (Plasma / Shards) I want to be firing on Primary. Saves having to change Fire Group or letting go of the controller!!

 

[Jmanis]

As others have said:

• 4 pips to SYS
• Press and hold!!

I have spacebar mapped to it as it's easy to panic hit but, actually, what's helped me a lot is to have both of my Fire Groups having the Shutdown Field Neutralizer on Secondary and then whichever Guardian Weapon (Plasma / Shards) I want to be firing on Primary. Saves having to change Fire Group or letting go of the controller!!

I have some great footage of me panic- flipping through weapon groups looking for the right one XD

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

I have some great footage of me panic- flipping through weapon groups looking for the right one XD

and accidentally firing off a heat sink or repair limpet