A Thargon is an autonomous attack drone deployed by Thargoid Interceptors in a swarm. They were first identified on September 26, 3303, when Interceptors began attacking independent pilots in addition to Federal and Imperial military convoys. At present, the only countermeasure against Thargon Swarms is the Remote Release Flak Launcher.
Overview[]
Thargons are small enough that many can be easily stored on a single Thargoid Interceptor at once. When the Interceptor detects a threat, it deploys its complement of Thargons in a defensive holding pattern around itself. The Cyclops variant of the Interceptor has a swarm comprised of 32 individual Thargons, the Basilisk variant contains 64, the Medusa variant contains 96, and the Hydra variant contains 128.
Thargons are hive mind controlled by the parent Thargoid ship. They can move together as a single mass with various formations. When attacked they reform as members of the swarm. As the Interceptor gets damaged the swarm will move with less cohesion.[1] The drones will fire upon any ship that either attacks the Interceptor or loiters near it for too long.
A single Thargon is armed with multiple shield-penetrating projectile weapons and possesses unparalleled speed and agility. In a swarm, Thargons are capable of destroying their targets with ruthless efficiency, charging and disorienting foes while the Interceptor utilizes its own powerful weaponry. Thargons will also double as missiles if left alone for too long and will suicide-bomb the ship they are targeting, dealing devastating hull and module damage. It is important to note that the Point Defence Turret is completely ineffective against these missiles; while a Point Defence Turret will shoot at them, it deals zero damage to the missiles and is therefore completely useless.
Thargon Swarms can be destroyed using a Remote Release Flak Launcher, which releases a cloud of explosive shrapnel that shreds the drones. A few well-placed shots can take out the entire swarm, significantly reducing an Interceptor's total offensive capacity.
Thargon Swarms will spawn from a Thargoid Interceptor at the beginning of combat and every time a Thargoid Heart is destroyed. If a heart is destroyed prior to defeating the current Swarm, another Swarm will be queued up, and the Thargoid will almost immediately spawn the queued up Swarm to replace the previous Swarm once it is destroyed. Lastly, if a heart is left alive for a certain amount of time (6 minutes for Cyclops, 7 for Medusa and Basilisk, and 8 for Hydra), the Thargoid will enter an "enraged" state where it will continually replace a Thargon Swarm immediately after one is destroyed. The swarm deployed during "enraged" state will also aggressively utilize suicidal missile bombing runs. Destroying a heart will reset this timer and return Thargon Swarm spawns to their regular mechanics.
Notes[]
- When in their "suicide" phase, Thargons deal damage to targets in a unique way. Not only does a hit from a suicide Thargon not interrupt in-progress Synthesis, but the amount of damage dealt by a hit inexplicably varies based on the size of the target ship. This ranges from 20 damage per Thargon on a very small ship such as the Eagle MkII, to over 120 damage per Thargon on a very large ship such as the Type-10 Defender.