Thargoid Combat

Thargoid Combat is the most difficult content available in Elite Dangerous. It requires a combination of advanced ships, specialized modules, and high-skilled piloting to be successful, but in return it is one of the most lucrative activities in the game, and the central focus of the current narrative.

This guide is designed to help players learn the details to get started fighting this dangerous enemy.

Thargoids

Main article: Thargoids

Thargoids are an ancient race of ammonia-based aliens, who spend most of their time in Witchspace. They enter our universe to seed systems with their Barnacles, and periodically return to tend them for unknown reasons. These barnacles create Meta-Alloys, a substance with incredible durability and material properties. Humanity's harvesting of these alloys has led to conflict between the two races, and as a result the Pilots Federation has placed hefty bounties on any confirmed kill.

Thargoid Types

Cyclops

Basilisk

Medusa

Hydra

Thargoids come in several varieties, each more durable and deadly than the last.

Scouts

The smallest and weakest Thargoid is the Scout. Scouts are small, agile, and always aggressive. Scouts come in four subtypes; Marauders(the most common type, with a caustic main gun and the ability to fire small, fast caustic missiles), Regenerators(capable of healing nearby thargoids), Enciters(Capable increasing the speed and agility of nearby thargoids), and Berserkers(capable of increasing the damage of nearby thargoids and prompting them to launch additional missiles.) All scouts are resistant to human weapons, but still take approximately 33% damage from human damage types.

Hunters

Hunter-class vessels are a new creation by the Thargoids, and are a middle ground between Scouts and Interceptors. While they lack the powerful defensive capabilities of Interceptors, they have far more firepower and durability than Scouts, and are particularly effective at taking down medium-class vessels. There are two varieties of Hunters. Scythes are weaker and slower, and completely ignore most targets, unless they are carrying Escape Pods, which they will attempt to steal for unknown purposes. The second type is the far more dangerous Glaive, which can move at up to 750m/s, can steal shields to replenish its own, fire FSD-reboot missiles, preventing their targets from escaping, and have an anti-guardian field, rapidly damaging Guardian modules on nearby ships. While dangerous, these vessels can be taken down effectively via gimballed Enhanced AX Multicannons.

Interceptors

The next four varieties are all described as Interceptors. Interceptors are much more durable than scouts, taking 1% damage from standard human damage types, requiring the use of specialized 'anti-xeno' weapons. They are also not always aggressive; often they can be encountered simply minding their business, largely ignoring nearby players. However, if they scan a player carrying Guardian or Thargoid materials, they will warn - and then attack - the player in question, as well as any bystanders in the area. They will also attack immediately if any scouts are in the area.

Fighting them is far more complex than fighting human vessels. Before destroying them, players must first destroy their hearts.

How to Kill Thargoids.

Thargoid Hearts

Interceptors have a specialized organ called a 'Heart', which renders the interceptor nearly invulnerable to damage. Hearts have two modes. By default, they are inactive, and give Interceptors a slow, passive armor regeneration. If you deal enough damage to a thargoid, they will enter an exerted state, which lasts 20 seconds, and gives the interceptor almost instantaneous regeneration to full health.

It is in the second state that these hearts can be destroyed; players must first damage away 20% of the interceptor's health, which will exert the heart. This will cause the exerted heart to glow, and makes that heart vulnerable to damage. Shooting the glowing spot will deal damage directly to that heart, which does not regenerate. Once that heart is destroyed, the interceptor will permanently lose a portion of its health, and the process starts over with the next heart.

More difficult interceptors have more hearts to destroy, and as more hearts are destroyed, the Thargoid will employ different and more potent attacks.

Thargoid Special Abilities

Thargoid Shields

Thargoid Interceptors, unlike Scouts, have shields, which are generated whenever a Heart is destroyed. Thargoid shields function very similarly to human shields; unlike their hulls, they can be damaged by standard damage types, taking the most damage from Thermal weaponry. Unlike human shields, however, they do not regenerate if damaged, and in fact, they will gradually decay over time, eventually vanishing on their own after several minutes. Many players save ammo by not shooting at them at all, or only using lasers to accelerate their removal.

Thargoids also have the ability to generate a panic shield if their hulls take enough damage while a heart is exerted, instantly restoring the full strength of their shield. This happens most often on Cyclopses, with their relatively low health pools, but can happen on any interceptor. This can best be avoided via precise targeting of the heart.

Variant Shield and Armor Totals

Variant	Hull	Hardness	Effective Hull	Hearts	Heart HP	Effective Heart HP	Thargon Swarm Size	Threat Level	Speed	Credit Payout
Cyclops	800	100	800	4	35	35	32	5-6	450 m/s	6,500,000
Basilisk	1800	140	2520	5	70	98	64	6-7	530 m/s	20,000,000
Medusa	2500	175	4375	6	70	122.5	96	7-8	450 m/s	34,000,000
Hydra	3200	220	7040	8	140	308	128	8-9	450 m/s	50,000,000

Effective hull is calculated using Cyclops Hardness as a baseline.

Thargoid Special Attacks

Thargons

Thargon Swarm

When attacked, Interceptors will deploy a swarm of Thargons; small, independent drones, capable of firing their own caustic projectiles. The most dangerous aspect of the swarm is its powerful phasing damage. While Interceptors do the standard 10% of their damage through shields, Thargon Swarms have a much more potent effect, dealing nearly 100% of their damage through the shield, all while dealing the same damage to the shield itself! This damage is multiplied even further by the fact a shield has a larger and easier-to-hit hitbox. A shielded ship can easily take dozens of times more damage from a swarm than an unshielded vessel!

Even if this powerful phasing damage is evaded, there is another danger. Swarms can also become 'agitated', at which point small groups of them will employ a suicide run, ramming into their target for massive damage to hull and modules. This can be crippling to unshielded vessels, but is more easily avoided; agitation can only occur when the swarm flies over a target, initiating the missile mode; the swarm can then be pacified by flying through it a second time. Naturally, this comes at the risk of taking damage from the agitated swarm! And of course, a shielded vessel will take heavy damage attempting to pacify an agitated swarm! Especially against larger shielded vessels, the Thargon Swarm can be the most devastating aspect of the fight.

Interceptors will deploy one swarm each time a heart is destroyed. If a swarm is already deployed, they have the ability to save up(or 'bank') one swarm when a heart is destroyed, immediately deploying it if the old swarm is killed. But how do you kill them in the first place?

The only way to kill Swarms is via the experimental Flak Launcher class 2 hardpoint. Players must fire and hold the trigger as the projectile moves towards the swarm, releasing it while inside the swarm to destroy some of the thargons. Notably, the position of each individual thargon does matter; detonating in the center of the swarm doesn't matter, if the swarm is in a ring formation far from the explosion. By contrast, the swarm can be destroyed extremely rapidly if the swarm is in a more dense formation. Learning swarm behavior is a major part of advanced AX combat.

The swarm can take several different formations. Typically, smaller swarms will start in a 'spiral' formation, while larger swarms will tend to take a ring formation, or even worse, a larger ring that is only a single thargon thick, making it very difficult to damage. The swarm changes formations occasionally on its own, or whenever a player flies through the swarm; this can be a risky, but effective, way of changing the swarm to a more convenient formation. With luck and skill, swarms can be destroyed in only a few shots!

The easiest way to destroy the swarm is via the technique known colloquially as 'reverski'. The player should boost away, disable Flight Assist, and reverse their orientation so they are pointing backwards. The Swarm will give chase, but maintain a relatively stable position, allowing it to be targeted more easily, and destroyed. Once the swarm is destroyed, the player can move in and begin to focus on the Interceptor. This technique, however, is not as effective in situations with multiple targets(IE, multiple players or NPCS) for the Swarm to attack. In many cases, especially wing combat, it can be simpler and more practical to simply leave the swarm alive and focus on the interceptor, as the swarm will self-destruct once the mothership has been destroyed.

If the destruction of the swarm is absolutely required, there is an advanced technique that can be employed, taking advantage of the Swarm's targeting procedures. Upon being agitated, the swarm must move to at least 1.8km away from any enemies before it can switch to missile mode, and while it attempts to do so, it will often swap to a very easy-to-hit 'cone' formation. Using this knowledge to your advantage, a player can intentionally agitate a swarm, and then give chase, not allowing it to move further than 1.8km away. At this point, the player can fire point-blank shots into the swarm, generally destroying it in just a few rounds. Notably, however, this is a risky technique, as if the player fails to destroy the swarm, it will be in the highly dangerous state of agitation and be perfectly placed to destroy the player. This technique is often referred to as 'Painbeavering', for the player who first discovered and mastered its use.

Lightning

An Interceptor's energy attack

After the destruction of the first heart, all interceptors will employ a short-range lightning attack, which deals massive damage to shields, and will randomly overload and disable modules on the target ship. However, this attack does relatively minimal(about 5%) damage to armor. Devastatingly, this attack, will dramatically slow the target vessel, stopping normal movement entirely and reducing boost speed to less than a quarter it's normal value, making it very difficult to escape before it naturally ends.

When first activated, the Thargoid will start to glow yellow, and begin a high-speed pursuit of its target, forgoing its regular cannon entirely as it seeks to get within range. After approximately 30 seconds, if it has not yet reached its target, it will transition back to its normal attack pattern, but the lightning will remain active for the rest of the fight.

From this point onward, this attack will be activated if the target moves within 700m, with a maximum range of 800m. Notably, however, this attack can only be used once per 'reload cycle'; if a player moves inside its range, causing it to activate this attack, but then moves back outside that range before it can actually be employed, the lighting will be unavailable until the interceptor has rearmed its weapons.

Caustic Missiles

After the destruction of the second heart, the Interceptor will launch a wave of powerful Caustic Missiles. These are slower and more easily dodgeable than the ones fired by Scouts, but deal vastly more damage. Like the scout variant, they ignore shields and deal damage to hulls directly, and their caustic damage over time does not go away on its own. It must be removed either by Decontamination Limpets, overheating the ship, or docking and repairing. Interceptors will launch additional missiles following the destruction of every additional heart, save the second to last one.

The Thargoid has an unlimited number of these missiles, but will only fire one per target it can see.

Shutdown Field

Following the destruction of the second to last heart, the Thargoid will instead employ a Shutdown Field; an EMP-like pulse that forces all ships in a multi-kilometer radius to shut down and reboot, leaving them helpless under the Thargoid's fire. This will be usually be announced via a warning message on the player's HUD.

There are two general ways to deal with this. The first is to employ a Shutdown Field Neutralizer, a utility module that cancels the shutdown field entirely. This must be properly timed, because it heavily drains Distributor power while active. The general best practice is to count to three after the warning message, and then activate the Neutralizer until after the wave has passed over. In multiplayer instances, it may be wise to hold it slightly longer, in case the player is desynchronzied.

The second way is to boost away from the thargoid and turn Flight Assist off. This will cause the player to drift away from the Thargoid until the ship reboots, keeping them safe until their weakness has passed. This has the benefit of allowing the player to use the utility slot for other purposes, such as additional Heat Sinks or a Xeno Scanner.

Anti-Thargoid Ships

While players often tend towards Large ships for standard PVE content, they are often a poor choice for Thargoid combat. Their large size and slower speed make them an easy target for Thargoids, and they cannot take full advantage of their higher number of hardpoints, due to the experimental weapons limit. More often, players choose Medium ships, which have better speed and agility, as well as a smaller damage profile to avoid enemy damage.

The Chieftain is the most common choice among expert players. It has incredible agility and speed, especially in its lateral thrusters, which makes maneuvering to avoid Thargoid fire much easier than other choices. However, this comes at the cost of hardpoints, and it will typically run with two medium weapons and two smalls, leaving room for either a cooling beam or a flak launcher.

The Krait Mk.2 is another common choice. It is slightly less maneuverable than the Chieftain, but makes up for it with a full complement of C2 weapons, paired with nearly perfect weapon convergence. Many players start with this ship. It can also mount a fighter bay, allowing for truly exceptional damage.

The Python is also a reasonable choice, with similar speed and agility, but it trades good weapon convergence and the fighter bay for hull integrity.

The Challenger falls in a similar vein to the Python, trading agility for durability compared to the Chieftain. It also has the capability to mount four C2 weapons.

Other ships are become progressively more challenging to use. Some experts use alternative builds, ships, and methods, but they are beyond the introductory scope of this article.

Basic Anti-Thargoid Modules

Thargoids are almost completely immune to normal human damage types, like Thermal or Kinetic. Because of this, it's necessary to use the special Anti-Xeno damage type, which, despite its name, is only necessary for fighting Thargoids, not other alien races, like the relics of the Guardians.

• Special Note: Most anti-Thargoid weapons fall under the category of Experimental Weapons. These weapons have a special limit of 4 weapons per ship - increasable to 5 or 6 via the Experimental Weapon Expander. Some experimental weapons, most notably the Flak Launcher, do not count towards this limit.

AX Weapons

Largely ineffective except against the most basic of Thargoids, the most basic type of anti-Thargoid weaponry are the AX weapons, the AX Multicannon and AX Missile Rack. These can be purchased freely from many stations, and were the first line of defense against the Thargoids before the Guardians were discovered. The main benefit of these weapons are cheapness and ease of access; a new player can buy them and get started on fighting the Thargoid menace right away! Unfortunately, due to their low damage, they are mostly effective against Scouts, requiring great skill to kill even a Cyclops using them. Killing a Basilisk using basic AX weapons is actually considered one of the greatest challenges in the game!

Importantly, AX weapons cannot be engineered. What you see is what you get. Additionally, following the adaptation of the Thargoids against them, AX Missile Racks cannot damage Thargoid Hearts; this makes them incapable of destroying Thargoids on their own, so be sure to take at least one weapon capable of damage the hearts.

Enhanced AX Weapons

Following the arrival of the Thargoid Maelstroms in the Bubble, several Community Goals were carried out for the creation of Enhanced AX Weapons. These are very similar to standard AX weapons, but with slightly(~10%) enhanced DPS, and much more importantly, massively superior projectile speed. This are broadly superior to standard AX weapons in every way, and should be preferred over their unenhanced counterparts in every case. They are only available from Rescue Megaships placed throughout the bubble.

Especially notable is the addition of Gimballed Enhanced AX Multicannons; they offer the same DPS as unenhanced AX Multicannons, but on a gimballed mount, making targeting much easier than ever before. However, they still cannot subtarget Inteceptor Hearts without a full Research Scan from a Xeno Scanner, which remains very challenging in AX Conflict Zones. If acquired, however, these can allow players to kill basilisks and even Medusas with persistence, practice, and NPC support!

Advanced Weapons

Advanced Weapons are a special and rarely-used type of AX weaponry, and are humanity's first attempt at applying Guardian technology to technology of our own design. Coming in Multicannon and Missile Rack form like the standard AX weapons, these weapons do standard human damage types by default, and must be synthesized to deal AX damage. Unfortunately, the synthesis cost to create AX ammo(which requires Guardian materials) makes them an expensive choice for long-term use, and since they are generally inferior to the Guardian modules, they are rarely seen.

However, they do have two critical strengths; firstly, they are *not* experimental weapons. This means that a player can equip these *in addition to* their standard AX weaponry. Secondly, unlike the standard AX weapons, they can be engineered. This can easily make them substantially superior to the standard AX weapons.

Flak Launcher

One of the most important weapons for Anti-Thargoid combat, the Flak Launcher is a specialized weapon used to kill the Thargon Swarm. It has a unique means of attack; the player presses and holds the trigger to fire a missile, which will begin to beep as it gets close to the swarm. It will display a visual indication when in the optimum range, at which point the trigger should be released, generating a large explosion that will destroy any thargons inside its radius. Learning to use the Flak Launcher properly is a big part of learning to fight Thargoids; players must learn to anticipate the movement of the swarm, and not just aim directly at the reticle, as the swarm often changes directions. As a rule of thumb, aiming halfway between the reticle and the swarm will often give good results, but player skill plays a large role in success or failure.

• Important Note! There is another experimental weapon that has a similar effect and firing pattern to the Flak launcher, the Flechette Launcher. Be sure not to accidentally use this module instead, as it is designed to penetrate human shields, and is ineffective against Thargons!

Guardian Technology

Guardian Technology is the core of human defense against the Thargoids, and what allowed us to turn the tide and repel them, at least for the moment. Standard Guardian Modules are unlocked by traveling to a Guardian site, approximately 500ly from the bubble, charging the site by firing into the pylons spread across the site, fighting off the defensive Guardian Sentinels, and finally scanning the Orb to acquire Guardian data materials. These can then be brought to a Guardian Technology Broker to unlock a wide variety of modules.

Guardian Weapons

The default Guardian weapons are the Shard Cannon, Plasma Charger, and Gauss Cannon.

The Shard Cannon fires a shotgun spray of energy, dealing massive damage at short range. While these are somewhat effective against lower grades of thargoid, their short range places pilots at high risk, especially to the deadly Lightning attack.

The Plasma Charger has a unique mode of firing; the player charges up the weapon, and then can release the charged energy at will. These weapons uniquely deal pure absolute damage, unlike human plasma weapons which typically do either 50/50 Thermal/Kinetic, or 20/20/60 Thermal/Kinetic/Absolute. Unfortunately, Plasma Chargers have slow projectiles, low heart damage, and low Damage per Energy, making them the most challenging Guardian weapon to use for Thargoid combat.

The Gauss Cannon is the most powerful of the default three weapons against Thargoids. They have an incredibly high 140 Armor Piercing, are hitscan, and deal heavy heart damage, making them the most effective of the standard weapons, and default choice for many years. Players who simply want to get into Anti-Thargoid combat as quickly as possible should choose this module to unlock. However, they can also be difficult to hit with, due to their railgun-style firing style, wherein you hold the trigger for one second, at which point they automatically fire.

Modified Guardian Weapons

Released several years later, these are specially-modified Guardian weapons created by the individual who called himself Salvation. They are dramatically more potent than their standard forms, and finally create clear competition with Gauss for best anti-Thargoid weapon. However, these weapons are more difficult to acquire; unlike standard modules, they cannot be unlocked and then purchased in unlimited quantity, but instead must be purchased using guardian materials each time, making them dramatically more expensive. They also can only be acquired in the Mbooni system, which requires a permit from the Glorious Prospect megaship in the nearby LHS 1163 system.

Modified Shard Cannons have double the Armor Piercing, four times the projectile speed, and half the spread of their standard variants, in exchange for massively higher heat generation. They deal even better DPS to Interceptors than Gauss Cannons, and even better heart damage, while their spread and speed has been improved enough to make hitting a breeze. They also do not require learning the challenging firing style of Gauss Cannons. However, their massive heat can be challenging to control.

Modified Plasma Chargers have 37.5% more Armor Piercing, 66% more damage, and four times the projectile speed of their standard variants. Their damage is absolutely massive, far exceeding Gauss or Shard Cannons, but because of this, their distributor draw is equally massive, making it nearly impossible to sustain them over long periods of time. Furthermore, their heart damage falls substantially behind either gauss or shards, which is compounded by their massive distributor draw. Generally, they require more specialized builds to use(such as Large ships), or combination with other weapon types.

Finally, Modified Gauss Cannons are the only variant that are not strictly an upgrade. They fire a burst of four shots instead of one single shot, but the total damage per second is the same, and they have lower effective range, making it more difficult to use them effectively. They do have higher ammo totals, but these are better considered a 'side-grade' than a pure upgrade, like the other variants.

Weapon	Effective DPS	Heart DPS	Range
C3 Shard Cannon	16.5	12.5	500
C2 Shard Cannon	8.75	6.5	500
C1 Shard Cannon	3.2	2.4	500
C2 Gauss Cannon	17.5	8.75	1500
C1 Gauss Cannon	10	5	1500
C3 Plasma Charger	22.6	6.4	750
C2 Plasma Charger	13.5	3.9	750
C1 Plasma Charger	6.5	1.9	750
C2 Modified Shard Cannon	17.6	13.5	1500
C1 Modified Shard Cannon	6.4	4.8	1500
C2 Modified Plasma Charger	30.8	7.7	1000
C1 Modified Plasma Charger	14.8	3.6	1000
C2 Modified Gauss Cannon	17.5	8.75	1200
C1 Modified Gauss Cannon	10	5	1200

Other Guardian Modules

Guardian Powerplants are effectively pre-engineered G4 Overcharged power plants. They are not as powerful as fully engineered Overcharged power plants, but also do not have lowered integrity. They are a great way to get a new ship or build going more quickly without spending time engineering.

Guardian Power Distributors are similar, functioning effectively as G4 Charge Enhanced power distributors. These, however, do have a unique perk, increasing the power output of any power plant(not just Guardian) to a new maximum of 104%. They are a great way to get a new ship or build going more quickly without spending time engineering.

Guardian Module Reinforcements are a Guardian variant of the standard Module Reinforcement. It offers slightly superior integrity in exchange for a power cost. However, the effective protection value remains the same, so for players using an AFMU to repair their module reinforcements, their benefit is small. While they claim to protect against module shutdowns from lightning, the effect(if any) is minimal.

Guardian FSD Boosters increase FSD jump range by a flat amount. They are extremely useful for general purposes, but are not specifically useful for Thargoid combat.

Guardian Hull Reinforcements

Guardian Hull Reinforcements offer resistance to the 'caustic' damage type, in exchange for a power cost and lower raw hull integrity. All Thargoid damage(save for their lightning attack, which deals negligible damage to hulls) is all or partially of the caustic damage type, so this resistance can be considered fairly universal for AX purposes. Whether or not this resistance is worth it depends on a number of factors:

• Guardian Hull Reinforcements offer equivalent hull integrity to G4 Heavy Duty engineered hull reinforcements, with slightly lower weight.
• In addition, they also increase the effective integrity of modules, as resistances also apply to module damage.
• Furthermore, they functionally boost repair speeds, as the repaired hull can resist more damage.
• Finally, they can be purchased and sold at any Guardian Technology Broker, rather than needing to be engineered.

The dividing line lies at about 1200 repairs. If a player is going to repair less than 1200 hull(about 4 C5 Repair Limpets), then human hull reinforcements are superior - however, at that point, players are better off swapping repair modules for more hull reinforcements, which will give more than 1200 hull. Often, this higher hull total will still make some amount of Guardian Hull Reinforcements worthwhile, but this will vary based on the ship and build.

If a player is going to repair *more* than 1200 hull, then the resistance values of the Guardian Hull Reinforcements will result in a player ending up with more hull in the long run, with the tertiary benefit of greater module integrity. Assuming sufficient power is available, Guardian Hull Reinforcements are generally a good idea. EDSY now has a section that shows effective health including repairs, which can be a useful tool for determining which choice is superior for your build in particular.

Guardian Fighters

• WARNING! Ship-Launched fighters are controversial in the AX community, largely due pre-3.4 lag in multiplayer instances. It was commonly believed that they cause lag and desynchronization in group settings; this seems to have been fixed post-3.4, but ALWAYS check beforehand if SLFs are allowed, and be sure to check and comply with group rules!

Ship-Launched Fighters are a contentious subject. While they have some perks, they also die very easily in AX combat, often in frustrating ways, which can make them not worth the effort to some players.

Their most significant disadvantage is that they have no effective defense against being attacked, including lacking the vital Caustic Sink module. As such, they will die instantly when flying through the caustic clouds left behind by the death of thargoids. Since these clouds are usually invisible, this can lead to constant and frustrating deaths. Swarms, too, can destroy them extremely rapidly, due to their potent phasing damage. Since Guardian Fighters have very small hull totals relative to their shield values, they will often die long before their shields fail, often from the very first hit.

They also lack any way to go cold; fighters cannot use Silent Running, and lacking that ability and heat sinks, they have no way to consistently evade Thargoid fire, if they should come under attack. Generally speaking, if anything looks at them funny, they die.

On the flipside, the fact they are being fired on generally means a more important target is not being prioritized, so simply by existing, they can be a protective factor for all other ships in the area, as swarms tend to focus on them. They also offer a surprisingly decent amount of damage, comparable to an entire ship armed with human AX weapons. A skilled player in a fighter can multiply the damage being dealt without needing to be anywhere nearby, as they can use telepresence to multicrew into the pilot's seat of the fighter. A mothership with two active fighters and a gunner can be a surprisingly fun experience!

Broadly speaking, Fighters are mostly useful for this sort of niche gameplay. Most notably, NPCs cannot subtarget hearts, so in wing instances where DPS is plentiful but heart damage is limited, they often offer limited to no functional utility, other than as a brief damage sponge. For solo combat, however, their presence can be a net benefit, saving ammo, dealing bonus damage, and shielding the pilot from harm.

There are good arguments both for and against the use of fighters, ultimately coming down to player preference. Generally, fighters will be most useful in any case where a player has a hard time exerting an interceptor.

Subtypes

There are three types of Guardian fighters.

Lance

The Lance is a powerful fighter for AX combat, carrying a gauss cannon with high enough armor piercing to heavily damage all types of interceptor. This fighter can deal damage nearly, but not quite, as powerful as a single medium gauss cannon, or four AX multicannons. In NPC control, it is more than capable of killing scouts quickly and effectively. In the hands of an Elite NPC, it is fully capable of singlehandedly exerting a basilisk interceptor, an impressive accomplishment for most players, let alone a solo NPC in an SLF!

Javelin

The Javelin is incredibly powerful, but limited by short range and slower projectile velocity. It carries a Shard Cannon with the highest fighter DPS in the game, but its spread and projectile speed make it challenging to use. In practice, it offers similar DPS against Thargoids as the Lance against interceptors, but inferior results against scouts. This SLF, too, can exert a Basilisk, though somewhat less consistently than a Lance.

Trident

The Trident is the weakest of the Guardian fighters for AX purposes. It uses a plasma autocannon that deals pure absolute damage. It does respectable damage, but not on the same level as the other two fighters. This fighter cannot typically exert a Basilisk on its own, but can consistently exert Cyclopses.

AX Taipan

There is one more type of fighter, but it is not of guardian design. The AX Taipan uses AX multicannons, and so deals significantly lower damage than the guardian fighters. However, it is also significantly more durable, and can survive swarm fire far longer than other alternatives. It can be a good way to distract the swarm for several minutes, if outright destruction is not necessary or desired.

Additional AX Modules

Xeno Scanner

By default, Thargoids emit alien signals that confuse sensors, hiding their health values, preventing module subtargeting, and filling the HUD with gibberish. This can be overcome by equipping the specialized Xeno Scanner utility. This allows for two different scan modes; the first, basic scan occurs automatically, and allows players to see their health values. The second, deeper scan requires the player to close to below 500 meters of range and activate the scanner. If they can maintain that range for approximately 10 seconds, then the Interceptor's Hearts will become subtargetable, and their health can be seen in the standard subtarget menu.

Enhanced Xeno Scanner

The Enhanced Xeno Scanner was developed during the Second Thargoid War, and massively improves the range of the Xeno Scanner, from 500 meters to 2000 meters. In exchange, its power draw is also quadrupled, but this trade is generally seen as more than worth it, and it allows for mid-combat scanning of hostile Thargoids. In general, this module - available from rescue megaships - should always be used instead of the standard Xeno Scanner.

Caustic Sinks

Caustic Sinks are a recent invention in the Thargoid conflict, which actively absorb caustic damage over time, shunting it into a sacrificial anode on the outside of the ship. Once full, they must be manually ejected to load a new one. While not strictly necessary, they are extremely beneficial, avoiding the need for Decontamination Limpets or overheating of the mothership entirely. They do, however, require a Utility Slot, which can make then unusable in certain niche scenarios.

Broadly speaking, one caustic sink can absorb one caustic missile impact, which is plenty for Cyclopses and Basilisks, but more may be desired for fighting Medusas(which fire 2), or Hydras(which fire three).

Repair Limpets vs Decontamination Limpets

Most players doing Thargoid combat will typically carry some means of Repairs. There are two different choices for this purpose; Repair Limpets, and Decontamination Limpets.

The main difference between these two is total repairs. As a rule of thumb, both repair about the same rate, but Repair limpets repair for a significantly greater duration. Decontamination Limpets repair for a shorter duration, but can also remove the caustic damage over time left by caustic missiles, while repair limpets repair longer, and can repair the ship's canopy. Since the release of Caustic Sinks, the utility of Decontamination Limpets has been somewhat diminished, leaving most players preferring repair limpets, outside certain niche scenarios like Malestroms.

In general, these should be as large as the player can carry. The smallest size variants are rarely worth using at all.

AFMU

Additionally, most players choose to bring an Auto Field Maintenance Unit. The size of this depends on how often the player is willing to synthesize additional ammo, but this will typically take up one of the smaller module slots. Importantly, these repair Module Reinforcement Packages 10x as much as normal modules; by keeping MRPs repaired and active, the entire ship can be kept functional far longer than otherwise.

Shield Usage

While shields are ubiquitous in normal combat, they are often omitted for Thargoid combat. There are three primary reasons for this.

• Thargoid lightning attack deals massive damage to shields, and avoiding it relies on careful range control many players do not have.
• Most importantly, Thargon Swarms fire a shotgun spray of bullets with 100% phasing damage. Since shields widen the hit profile of ships, shielded ships can take double to triple the damage.
• Shields also require far more pip usage to properly take advantage of their durability and regeneration. This dramatically increases the complexity of a fight. The worst outcome is if an interceptor targets a player when their SYS capacitor is empty, preventing them from using a Heat Sink, forcing them to either discard their shields by activating Silent Running, or soak up enormous damage trying to escape while running hot!
• Finally, caustic missiles will ignore shields entirely, directly damaging the hull beneath. Unless the player sacrifices their shields, they cannot use Silent Running to help overheat themselves to remove this caustic damage.

Many players instead choose to forego shields entirely, relying on speed to avoid damage, and repair limpets to counteract it.

Engineering

Engineering is heavily encouraged for Thargoid Combat. While Guardian modules do reduce the engineering requirement for an Anti-Thargoid ship, players should still engineer the following modules:

• Power Plant - Armored, for lower heat, higher durability, and higher power generation.
• Power Distributor - Charge Enhanced, for higher regeneration on all modules.
• Armor - For maximum raw strength. Standard human resistances should be ignored.
• Engines - Possibly the most critical of all engineering, it takes a powerful engine to cold orbit; the more powerful the engine, the more easily the orbit can be maintained. Dirty Drives and Drag Drives are the only good choice.

So, you're ready to start.

Locating a Thargoid

Thargoids are most commonly found at Non-Human Signal Sources, which are found in high densities in Thargoid territory, such as the Pleiades, the Coalsack Nebula, and the Witchhead Nebula.

To find a lone thargoid Interceptor, players should look for NHSSs with not just the AX combat icon, but also the Salvage and Search and Rescue icons. With this combination, Threat 5 Non-Human Signal Sources will be a lone Cyclops, Threat 6 will be a Basilisk, Threat 7 will be a Medusa, and Threat 8 will be a Hydra. Threat 3 and 4 will usually contain Scouts in varying numbers.

Cold Orbiting

The meat and potatoes of Thargoid combat is based on a practice known as Cold Orbiting. Thargoid Interceptors, just like human ships, have a hard time targeting very cold targets. While they can still see them visually, they lose the ability to predict their direction of movement, instead firing directly where they appear to be. Since their weapons have travel time, if a player is able to move laterally(sideways) fast enough, their projectiles will pass harmlessly by. There are three primary ways to maintain low enough heat.

• Thermal Vent experimental engineering on Beam Lasers can be used to maintain low heat indefinitely. This is an excellent way to practice cold orbiting when first starting. However, guardian weapons need full usage of a player's distributor, so using a beam laser at the same time is typically a bad idea. The best engineering for this is Long Range, because thermal venting capability is reduced alongside damage; being able to vent at full capacity at longer ranges is critical for survival!
• Heat Sinks are usually used for attack runs. They give 10 seconds of extreme heat dispersal. Additionally - and not displayed in their statistics - they also give a bonus 2MW of bonus distributor power to weapons. This is what is usually used during attack runs, with additional charges synthesized between attack runs.
• Silent Running can also be used for pure avoidance. However, it must be used judiciously, or it will lead to rapid overheating and internal damage.

Of course, just moving laterally will quickly move the player out of range of the Thargoid, making it difficult to damage it in turn, so the pilot must maintain the same range, while moving laterally and staying cold - in other words, a 'cold orbit'.

While this sounds simple in theory, in practice can be substantially more difficult. Thargoids will attempt to match velocities with the player so their projectiles can hit, and during later parts of the fight, they will use alternative weapons such as lightning and caustic missiles. Players will need to maintain a distance between 800m(maximum lightning range) and 1500m while sustaining fire to break the Thargoid's regeneration and/or destroy the heart.

Fire Groups

An often-forgotten aspect of Thargoid combat is fire groups, specifically in relation to heat. While Heat Sinks can counteract almost any amount of heat generation, they cannot stop the heat from appearing in the first place. If a player fires too many hot weapons at once, their heat will briefly spike over 20%; more than enough for the Thargoid to briefly see them, and potentially deal heavy damage.

To prevent this, players should split their weapons between their primary and secondary fire buttons, staggering their fire to keep heat below that critical threshold.

Approaching your first Thargoid.

Once the Thargoid has been located, it will approach the player and scan them. This is your opportunity to scan it in return, if you choose to carry a xeno scanner. If not, the attack can begin.

Start by moving to a distance just shy of your maximum range, and tag the interceptor with your weapons, making it hostile. Immediately turn and boost away; the Interceptor will deploy its swarm before giving chase, giving time to move well out of range.

At this point, you should boost one more time, disable Flight Assist, and reverse orientation. You will now moving backwards, and looking in the direction of the Thargoid. Select the Flak Launcher, target the swarm, and begin the process of taking it down. Be aware that the last few thargons can be tricky to finish off, and that the target may not disappear immediately when the last one is killed!

With the swarm now eliminated, it is time to engage the Interceptor. Slow down to allow the thargoid to catch up to you. When it is about 3500m away, activate your first heat sink and begin moving laterally - up, down, left, or right, depending on your preference. The Thargoid will drift past, attempting to target you, and when it begins to drift out of range, it will adjust course and start to give chase. It is at this point that the Cold Orbit can be initiated.

• Be careful! Attempting to initiate a Cold Orbit on a Thargoid moving at full speed can lead to disaster! It is much more difficult to outpace a full speed thargoid than one that has come to a rest. Be patient and give it a chance to slow down before engaging. It may be wise to use a cooling beam to practice Cold Orbiting a few times first, before planning to go all the way and kill the Thargoid.

While staying cold and moving laterally, begin to use forward thrust to approach the Thargoid, until under 1500m of range. At this point, begin firing, alternating between both fire groups of divided weapons.

If done properly, the Thargoid will soon exert, and one of its hearts will begin to glow! Stay calm; this is the most critical point. Target the heart and fire, destroying the heart.

When the heart is destroyed, immediately boost away! The thargoid will activate a shield and give chase while glowing, attempting to use its lightning attack. If it begins to get too close, in an emergency, it is possible to boost directly past the thargoid, moving in and out of its range fast enough to avoid being tagged - but do this in emergencies only!

• IMPORTANT NOTE: Moving too far from the Thargoid can result in the Interceptor jumping away! Be careful not to move much further than 5000m from the thargoid.

After getting close enough to engage the attack, or after about 30 seconds, the Thargoid will give up and swap back to its normal behavior, deploying another swarm. Be warned that this lightning attack remains available to the thargoid for the rest of the fight!

Destroy the swarm and repeat the procedure from the previous heart. Killing the second heart is typically considered the hardest, so if you succeed at killing it but die, don't despair! You're almost there.

Repeat this process until all four hearts are destroyed. Unlike previous hearts, this is the time to strike! There is a brief window before the final shield is deployed, during which time the Interceptor can be destroyed, saving time waiting for the last shield to decay. This is the time to throw caution to the wind and fire all weapons, hoping to destroy it once and for all!

Finally, when the interceptor has been destroyed, be cautious! Even in death, Thargoids are dangerous. They leave behind a spreading cloud of caustic enyzmes that can stack in unlimited quantity on your ship. Staying inside this cloud is guaranteed death; instead, target one of the dropped thargoid materials(not the heart), and wait for its integrity to reduce to 50%. At that point, the cloud should have fully dissipated.

Congratulations! You've killed your first Thargoid Interceptor, and completed one of the hardest challenges in Elite Dangerous! All that remains is to practice, as you progress your way to higher and higher variants, each more difficult than the last!

Conclusion

You are now ready to approach your first Thargoid. However, this is only enough to get started, and there is far more to learn about Thargoids. Please remember that this is the hardest content Elite Dangerous has to offer, and expect rebuys the first few times; death is part and parcel of the Anti-Thargoid experience.

With time, patience, and proper preparation, your first kill should come soon enough.

Good luck!