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The Thargoid Titan is a presumed Capital Ship manufactured by the Thargoids. Thargoid vessels of this size had not been sighted since the First Thargoid War, but have been spotted recently residing in the cores of the Thargoid Maelstroms

Overview[]

The Thargoid Titan is a colossal vessel found at the core of the Maelstroms. It is larger than a Thargoid Surface Site (although has a very similar structure on the hemisphere opposite its 'maw') and possesses a great number of weapons and defensive mechanisms.

The area around the Titan, the Maelstrom, is a caustic environment filled with patrolling Interceptors and Caustic Generators, which necessitate the usage of Caustic Sinks and either a cold running ship or Silent Running, to navigate. The caustic damage subsides at the centre of the Maelstrom, an asteroid field containing the Titan. The asteroid field is patrolled by Interceptors, Caustic Generators, Scouts and Hunters. Interceptors may also be found nearby, docking with and departing the Titan via the 'maw'.

Firing at the Titan prompts retaliation by swarms of Hunters, the activation of the Titan Dual-Fire Turrets, and rarely (mostly with high damage), the activation of the Titan Field.

History[]

Thargoid Titan

Titan close-up

During the First Thargoid War between 3125 and 3151, the Intergalactic Naval Reserve Arm facility Carmichael Point was armed with anti-Thargoid weaponry and disguised as an important military site to bait the Thargoids. Logs recovered from the location over a century later described the arrival of a huge Thargoid mothership. Carmichael Point and all INRA operatives present were destroyed. The mothership suffered minimal damage from the site's defensive batteries.[1]

CMDR John Jameson's recovered ship logs mentioned that he got up close to the superstructure of a "hive ship" while on his mission to deploy the mycoid bioweapon and end the war. He claimed it had hyperdrives, and described it as amazing and beautiful.[2] It is not currently known whether this the same class of ship as the Titan.

In mid-3303 a number of vast structures of Thargoid origin were found in star systems containing high concentrations of Non-Human Signal Sources. More of these Surface Sites were quickly discovered through the use of Thargoid Link devices discovered within them. All of these structures appeared damaged and largely inert, seemingly being either repaired or dismantled by Thargoid Scavenger drones. Given their sheer size, star map facilities and critically damaged condition, it was theorised these structures were in fact crashed Hive Ships, killed by the mycoid virus during the First Thargoid War. This was supported by areas of biological damage on the remains that were consistent with those seen on decayed vats of Mycoid at INRA bases.

Following the failure of the Proteus Wave during the Second Thargoid War, eight Rogue Signal Sources made their way towards the bubble at superluminal speeds, eventually deploying eight Maelstroms within systems containing Ammonia Worlds. After a Maelstrom was established, vast Thargoid fleets commenced invasions of adjacent star systems, many of which being human populated. The core of these Maelstroms was unknown until May 9th 3309, where the Thargoid Pulse Neutraliser (commonly used on ships outfitted with Caustic Sink Launchers to mitigate the extreme corrosive damage) made it possible to see these vessels up close.

Analysis of the Thargoid Titans using the Pulse Wave Xeno Scanner confirmed the presence of human captives held inside storage chambers on all eight Titans. The Sirius Corporation and Aegis created the Sub-surface Extraction Missile to rescue these captives.

Research on a way to destroy the Titans, conducted by Professor Palin and Ram Tah, resulted in the development of Guardian Nanite Torpedo. This weapon targets Heat Vents on the Titan's hull, forcing it to expose a heat core which can be damaged by Enhanced AX Multi-cannons and Enhanced AX Missile Racks.

Taranis was the first Titan to be destroyed by commanders on March 2, 3310.[3][4] Following extreme damage to the Titan's thermal core over the course of several days by AX teams it entered a state of meltdown, during which its defenses failed and Thargoid vessels of all kinds were observed evacuating the structure. After a period of 24 hours, Taranis suffered a catastrophic structural failure, detonating in an explosion estimated to be at least 100km in diameter, greatly spiking the Maelstroms caustic levels.[5] It took almost two weeks for caustic levels to drop low enough for commanders to safely enter the fading Maelstrom and inspect the wreckage.

Capabilities[]

Hyperdrive[]

Titan Firing

Thargoid Titan firing its Dual-Fire Turrets in Laser Mode towards an incoming player.

It is assumed that the Thargoid Titan possesses a unique form of hyperdrive when it comes to the Thargoids. Normal Thargoid Hyperdrives operate on the principle of stable wormholes, however, the Titan appeared to have been capable of superluminal hypercruise between star systems at speeds unreachable by Human Supercruise.

Weaponry[]

Titan Field

The Thargoid Titan emitting its blue distruption field in response to incoming fire. Credit: CMDR Lion12

The Titan deploys multiple forms of weapons. Dual-fire turrets found on the Titan's hull will fire projectiles that deal phasing damage, similar to weapons on Interceptors, Scouts and Hunters. Titans can also fire a large volley of seeker missiles at targeted ships, dealing explosive damage.

Electromagnetic pulse[]

The titan intermittently produces an electromagnetic shockwave that affects ships within the caustic cloud, pushing ships with enough force to remove them from the caustic cloud while causing light systems malfunctions. Ships that experience this shockwave will record Massive Energy Surge Analytics. The Thargoid Pulse Neutraliser is required to mitigate this shockwave. This shockwave does not affect any ships inside the asteroid field.

At the centre of the Maelstrom, the electromagnetic pulse can be seen up-close. The Titan forms blue lines that resemble a magnetic field in the shape of a torus, connected between the top and bottom centre portions of the Titan. This field disrupts ship systems/modules and causes visual glitches on the Head-Up Display. This disruption field can be evaded by moving out of range - there is a safe zone in the asteroids between the disruption field and the caustic cloud. Ships can also hide directly 'above' the centre portion of the Titan, at either the top or its bottom, as this will place them outside the torus-shaped field, thus leaving them unaffected.

When the Titan Taranis was destroyed, it released a pulse wave with a yellow or orange glow. This pulse had far more energy than any pulses previously recorded, repulsing all ships from the area 150km around the Titan. Massive Energy Surge Analytics were recorded, identical to the analytics produced from a typical electromagnetic shockwave.

The Maw[]

The Maw of the Titan is a large, sometimes yellow, pool like opening on one of its faces. This acts like a doorway for Thargoid vessels as they can be seen entering or exiting this opening when not engaged with human ships. This opening is theorised to be something called a "Phasing Membrane" as there is an engineering material able to be collected near it and similar openings, called "Phasing Membrane Residue". This suggests that the Maw, and the other glowing orange openings on the Titans superstructure, are a form of phasing matter that can not only shift from solid to liquid, but differentiate the matter of human ships from Thargoid. When a Thargoid vessel approaches the Maw, the pool surface begins to glow and seemingly turn liquid or semi-solid, allowing the vessel to push through it. Once through the light fades and the surface appears to quickly become solid. Similar to Thargoid Wormholes, the Maw repels craft that approach it.

Additional smaller vents along the arms of the Titan appear to produce a similar glow when releasing Scouts and Hunters.

Vulnerabilities[]

Aegis produced Gaurdian Nanite Torpedoes allow commanders to disrupt the heat vent nodules found on the eight 'fins' on a Titan's dorsal structure; once all eight have been bombarded, the Titan will initiate an emergency thermal vent that briefly exposes the vulnerable thermal core on its ventral side. Through continual assault, this thermal core can eventually be destroyed, forcing the vessel into a state of meltdown. The rate at which the core can be damaged however, is dictated by the Titan's current Damage Resistance.

All Titans have a Damage Resistance rating (visible in the Thargoid War view for the specific Titan in the Galaxy Map) that ranges on a scale from 'Maximum' down to 'Compromised'. This governs how effective AX assaults on a Titan's thermal core are, and is affected by how many star systems the Titan currently has control over. In order to effectively attack a Titan, neighboring systems need to be cleared of Thargoid influence (in effect, cutting off its supply lines). While the exact impact is currently unknown, it is possible that nearby Thargoid Spire Sites also play a large role in protecting a Titan.

Titans[]

The powerful signals of the Titans have been named for tracking purposes.

Titans
Name Status Notes
Taranis Destroyed Destroyed on March 2, 3310.
Indra Active
Leigong Destroyed Destroyed on March 17, 3310.
Cocijo Active
Oya Active
Thor Active
Raijin Active
Hadad Active

Notes[]

  • Files datamined from the Elite Dangerous: Odyssey alpha mention two Installation-sized Thargoid craft, "Thargoid Seedship" and "Thargoid Titan", which may relate to the Thargoid Mothership.[6]
  • In the days leading up to Update 15 releasing, Frontier released information relating to the content in the update. Included in this was confirming that the Thargoid Surface Site is actually a downed vessel being deconstructed.[citation needed] Due to the outwards similar appearance, it is theorised that these are dead Titans.
  • in update 17 independent pilots already can perform Titan mining via specially developed module. Reason is the fact Thargoids started to harvest human refugees for unknown purposes, most likely a plan to continue their invasion.

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