to kill the mightiest Thargoid flower ship... with a Herring!

[Kenneth McGrew]

well with a Dolphin not quite a Herring (that's the aim)

but lets start with a cyclops and move up the scale first.

So being *new* to all this Thargoid nonsense and my first encounter with a medusa left me running for the hills with my tail between my legs i need some outfitting assistance

My first iteration was just your standard PvE Bi weave (low power mod at that) and loads of HRPs and MRP which worked well on the Fynn vs NPCs...

but Vs thargoids its like hiding behind an iceberg lettuce...

so i came up with this which has pretty much 10x more of everything defensive - thoughts?

LinkyMcLinkface


additional questions

- Are Gauss cannons the right answer?
- Any other Dolphins want to wing up on Xbox? - i will do this - its only a matter of time!

 

[Dr. Nagi]

Gauss are definetly the answer
But you need more hull points! You have to deal with attacks that go through your shields and caustic debuff that eats away your hull.
Also you need a Shutdownfield Neutraliser and a Xeno Scanner.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Gauss are definetly the answer
But you need more hull points! You have to deal with attacks that go through your shields and caustic debuff that eats away your hull.
Also you need a Shutdownfield Neutraliser and a Xeno Scanner.

i thought i could get away without the Xeno scanner, do i need point defence or is a shutdown field better?

between a rock and hard place at the moment, i can up the Caustic resistance but im trying to keep my shields above 1k

new linky

the Shutdown field could go in place of the Point defense?

 

[Dr. Nagi]

i thought i could get away without the Xeno scanner, do i need point defence or is a shutdown field better?

between a rock and hard place at the moment, i can up the Caustic resistance but im trying to keep my shields above 1k

new linky

the Shutdown field could go in place of the Point defense?

Point defense is useless against goids. The Shutdownfield Neutraliser protects you from the EMP they emit after downing the 3rd heart. Once you hear "Energy Surge detected" activate it with 4 pips into systems and hold it until the pulse hits you.

 

[Dr. Nagi]

I have adjusted your build. Resistances are useless against thargoids, you want absolute values. And more hull.
https://s.orbis.zone/11wi

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

I have adjusted your build. Resistances are useless against thargoids, you want absolute values. And more hull.
https://s.orbis.zone/11wi

thanks,

but if its base hull value, (im not interested in gathering the hearts (not sure what i need them for) + i will just overheat to burn the caustic effect off??) so should i just stick Guardian hull reinforcements in to up my hull stats further.

+ the Xeno scanner only shows me the health... do i really need to know? or are shields basically useless vs thargoids, if so should i just lose them completely? (which means i can run a low emissions PP and run cooler and stick heat sinks in)

so from;

	Original build	New build	With guardian doodars	Just more HRP's	No Shield
Absolute shields	838	352	527	527	0
Absolute hull	879	1,798	2,361	2,649	3,387
Caustic resistance	8.7%	0%	9.8%	0%	0%
HP vs Caustic	963	1,798	2,616	2,649	3,387
			linky	linky	link

 

[Dr. Nagi]

thanks,

but if its base hull value, (im not interested in gathering the hearts (not sure what i need them for) + i will just overheat to burn the caustic effect off??) so should i just stick Guardian hull reinforcements in to up my hull stats further.

+ the Xeno scanner only shows me the health... do i really need to know? or are shields basically useless vs thargoids, if so should i just lose them completely? (which means i can run a low emissions PP and run cooler and stick heat sinks in)

so from;

	Original build	New build	With guardian doodars	Just more HRP's	No Shield
Absolute shields	838	352	527	527	0
Absolute hull	879	1,798	2,361	2,649	3,387
Caustic resistance	8.7%	0%	9.8%	0%	0%
HP vs Caustic	963	1,798	2,616	2,649	3,387
			linky	linky	link

No shields are not useless, it's just... you WILL lose them at some point and a part of the damage goes through.
Dunno about Guardian Hull reinforcements, afaik normal ones engineered are better.
Also caustic resistance can be ignored. But yeah overheating can burn off the debuff.

 

[Cmdr Nemo LXXI]

Regardless of ship one has to modify it to fight fire with fire. Thought it may look like an human type ship, all avaible mods must be alien. But even then if one doesn't have the skill one is going to get burned. Hence the general public doesn't fight fires, only trained experience fire fighter's do.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Regardless of ship one has to modify it to fight fire with fire. Thought it may look like an human type ship, all avaible mods must be alien. But even then if one doesn't have the skill one is going to get burned. Hence the general public doesn't fight fires, only trained experience fire fighter's do.

Thank you for that insightful yet useless information, so just to clarify: firefighters should only kill Thargoids and i need a firetruck with a class 2 hose??

any actual help or info you could shed on the topic is sincerely appreciated though

 

[Johnny Cairns]

Gaurdian hull reinforcement is pointless. The caustic resistance is so low that engineered g5 heavy duty hrp with deep plating is far superior. Have a read through the anti xeno ship outfit suggestion thread for lots of engineering advice.

 

[Factabulous]

I have adjusted your build. Resistances are useless against thargoids, you want absolute values. And more hull.
https://s.orbis.zone/11wi

This build looks good - I would suggest start with that and then see what you want to change. Dolphin isn't the easiest ship to win in - maybe more suggestions (as suggested ^^) in the Anti Xeno thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...nitiative-and-Ship-Outfit-Suggestions-for-All is worth a look, if a little overwhelming (but start with Dr. Nagi's build).

 

[Jmanis]

Gaurdian hull reinforcement is pointless. The caustic resistance is so low that engineered g5 heavy duty hrp with deep plating is far superior. Have a read through the anti xeno ship outfit suggestion thread for lots of engineering advice.

It's a good sub in if you can't get that level of engineering.

 

[The Chairmaker]

I never fought a thargoid with my Dolphin but use it for sampling.

The big advantage dolphin has is its lateral/yaw movement. I found when playing with cyclops that i could avoid fire by using yaw/lateral movement to keep on the edge of their firing arc. Also its more important to run cool as thargoids appear to recognise threat via heat.

This makes sense if they are ammonia based life forms as the range in which Ammonia goes from solid to Gas is a lot narrower than for water eg Amonia is solid at -77C and gaseos at -33C

 

[Arkadi]

So what do you all think about the Guardian Module Reinforcement and AFMU. I like this combo. Usually Thargoid lightning attack does lot's of module damage, swarm missiles also do. So it's good to have some protection and repair ability. If you'r lucky you can keep repairing your Guardian MRP's and minimize module damage. Since AFMU also can repair canopy it's really great to have. Also maybe think about taking a heatsink with you, you might need it when firing those gauss a lot.

 

[foobaron76]

Over the last three months, I have progressed from needing an Anaconda to solo a cyclops to the Viper Mk 3.

Based on my experience with running gauss cannons on small ships, heat management is key for doing enough damage (so you can keep firing without cooking your ship), and having a good deal of hull makes for endurance during the fight.

I would suggest this build: https://s.orbis.zone/1311

I haven't unlocked Guardian module reinforcements yet, with those you can probably get away with less module reinforcements and pack even more hull reinforcements.

A decon limpet controller shouldn't be necessary, the caustic missiles from a cyclops are much slower than those from scouts, and should be easy to avoid in a Dolphin. The xeno scanner isn't needed if you're running gauss cannons, it's easy enough to hit a heart without being able to select it as a sub-target. The shutdown field can be avoided by boosting away from the cyclops -- if you get to 4 km or more distance quickly enough, it often won't fire. If it does go off, you will get an announcement "energy surge detected" -- then you can go FA off and boost away, and normally the cyclops won't be able to close in while your ship is powered off.

Good hunting!

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

hazaar! i killed my first cyclops in the trusty Dolphin steed last night!

I first tried with shields but heat was a nightmare, i could have fried eggs on the controls constantly and they lasted as long as a pack of jaffa cakes, Guardian hull reinforcement packs took power so i went with the standard and some 3,387 Caustic hp, which also allowed heat sinks and a G5 low emissions 4A PP to run cooler.

I also wimped out & opted for premium ammo - finished ship

some 15/20mins later i killed the Thargoid and walked away with 38% hull but the modules held up quite well.

Onwards and upwards!

Thanks for all your help.

 

[foobaron76]

Nicely done!