I think.

I had flown the Orca out to Professor Palin in Maia to engineer the thrusters to G5 Clean Drives. After finishing, I decided to hang around and see if I could pick up any good passenger missions. Flew to Obsidian Orbital and found a single-stop sightseeing mission that paid 800k for a 22 light year jump and visit to a tourist site. Decent money for a short trip.

Left the station and got lined up to jump and did so. During the jump something happened, my ship suddenly was being thrown around out of control, the colors changed and I freaked out. I was brought out of hyperspace with a dead ship. I couldn't access the panels, I was panicking and wanted to reboot. But couldn't. I tried peering out of the cockpit to see if I could see anything out there. I saw nothing. Just me in a dead ship floating in space millions of miles from anywhere. After a couple of minutes of saying 'WTF is going on' repeatedly the ship suddenly came to life, undamaged. I tried to see if anything could be locked on the sensors and nothing. At this stage I had been dropped 300,000 ls away from where I had jumped, still in the Maia system.

I got the hell out of there and flew all the way to Arjung where I told the passenger 'so sorry chum, this is the end of the line' and abandoned the mission.

The system I was jumping to is Pleiades Sector JC-U B3-2. I googled it and it is apparently well known for barnacles and other Thargoid related shenanigans. Beware Commanders.

Sounds like a Thargoid hyperdiction. This has never happened to me, even though I spent a good deal of time out there hoping!

Did you hear them making a scanning/screeching sound?

My last few play sessions have been focused on destroying Thargoid Scout ships. Killed about 30 of them so far. Some good fun!

Yes some weird sounds, but I saw nothing. After jumping out I regretted not checking the contacts page.

I googled and this shows exactly what happened, though I didn't see any Thargoid. Having watched this video I am disappointed not to have experienced this during the mission and seeing it first hand for the first time.

Thargoid spoilers alert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaxqSJa_P_U

Up until this commander sees the Thargoid, it was exactly the same. Freaked me out I'll tell ya.

Thargoids!!

I noticed in my stats in the right panel that I now have Encounters listed, with this one showing. I bet there was a Thargoid there, but behind me the entire time and with no thrusters I couldn't turn around to see him (I could have used externals I suppose) but at the time I had no idea what was happening. Now I know.

Ah, yep that's the proof!

So far, the good news is that the large Cyclops types don't seem to attack if you don't get too close. Generally, I've been safe by simply backing away from the Cyclops after it's scan completes.

The little Scouts on the other hand... They go guns blazing immediately. They are far less damaging than a Cyclops, but they attack in swarms. My FGS can survive long enough to kill 4 to 6 Scouts (maybe 6 to 10 minutes). Once I dropped into a group of 8+ Scouts, and with the entire swarm focusing on me alone, the shields lost a ring by the time I was jumping out (maybe 1 minute).

When I was flying around Thargoid infested space to get the sensor fragments for Palin I came across many of the non-human USSs, as high as threat level 8. Of course I steered clear. But what would I find in there? Is that where you are seeing the Thargoids?

Yep, that's where I'm finding them. The Threat levels I've found range from 3 (containing 2 Scouts), 4 (4 Scouts), 5 (been a while, but had a Cyclops), 6 (had 8 Scouts), 7 (supposedly may have a dozen Scouts or even a Medusa), and 8 (I can't recall what's supposedly in here).

The higher Threat levels can be hairy. Check this video of a guy killing 3 Interceptors solo in a single USS...

I have to try this.. I'll watch the video later, not safe for work

In all of my hundreds of hours of playing Elite I have just 3 re-buys for a total of 2 million, so they were all very early on before I had much of a clue. It's been a long time since I've died.

So with that said I am a bit wary of jumping in to this unknown. What ship are you using to fight Thargoids? Any other tips for taking them on?

It's the same for me, just a single rebuy of $4 million, thanks to my over confidence and inexperience in a Fed de Lance. And I'm leery of losing another ship, but versus the Thargoids I'm a bit more content with the idea.

I'm using a Federal Gunship, it's fitted with loads of armor, AX weapons. There isn't much engineering, mostly the armor and FSD. I've got an NPC crew along, they assist using AX Taipan fighters. The ship was purpose bought and built for Anti-Thargoid play.

So far I've only used this ship against Scouts, and it's been solid. My original plans for this ship were begun when Scouts were unknown, and I was planning on facing off with the Cyclops. Still uncertain on whether I'll try that! I tangled with a Cyclops once back when I collected a Tissue Sample from one, and it beat up my Anaconda pretty good. Of course I know a bit more now, and would probably do better, so who knows.

A gunship hmmm....

I cannot compete with that....

Sold my FDL, which may have been a good choice. I think the Vulture won't have enough firepower?

I've been thinking of buying another Chieftain now that I am engineering. I'd like another go with that ship and see what she could become. Maybe could fight Thargoids in it?

Anyway, I won't just jump in with both feet. Need to size up these 'Goids and learn a bit about them first. I'll start with your video

The key issue seems to be having enough Class 2 (or 3) hardpoints. Since AX weapons aren't available in Class 1 size, this makes some ships a tough fit. You can only have a max of 4 AX weapons per ship. For players who've unlocked some Guardians weapon blueprints, they are apparently quite more potent (as I hear... don't have any unlocked myself), and more ships become viable.

The FGS is probably overkill for the Scouts I'm blasting. But being so averse to losing a ship... Well it's a big safety net while I learn, really.

Really though, I'm honestly prepared for a rebuy or three, playing against the Thargoids. It's sort of a new dimension for me in Elite, compared to the more rigid way I've played up to now as a non-violent trader type. Probably why I'm also getting a pretty good bit of fun, as it's a such a change of pace for a largely non-combat player.

Oh and Thargoid Scout kills do advance my Combat rank. They pay 10,000 credits per kill. After my combat rank being "Harmless" and "Novice" since day one (about 90% skimmer kills)... this week I finally crossed into "Competent". I suppose the larger Thargoids advance combat rank, too. They pay like 2,000,000 per kill IIRC.

Firstly I want to say that I like how you identified a goal --in this case Thargoid hunting -- and then followed through on a plan to buy and build a ship expressly for the purpose. That's gettin' it done 101. Some players seem to be a bit aimless in how they approach this game, but not you

Secondly, I think I will wait a while to do the same. Until you just mentioned it I didn't even realize special weaponry was required. I don't know enough to pursue this, at this time. I was really happy I didn't lose my spankin' new Orca during the encounter, and I think I'll leave well enough alone for the time being. But I wouldn't mind occasional updates from your Goid-hunting excursions.

Is there a new stats category added for alien kills?

Hahah, well it's been good fun. Frontier could improve a good few things about the experience, but there is more content to engage with now, compared to a few months back.

Not sure about a new stat. I don't see a counter for my Thargoid kils.

Thanks. I agree. I'm finding the game a bit more compelling this second go 'round. I've diversified my play some which has helped. It also helps to have more and better ships. Plus the whole engineering thing has given me a lot more to do.

Hey Adlabs, I was thinking about me being hyperdicted on one of my first flights in Thargoid space, and you actually wanting this to happen and not getting it to trigger. It could all be explained away by RNG. But I have about 40 sensor fragments onboard. I wondered if having Thargoid stuff on board could factor in the chance of this occurring?

Do you have Thargoid bits on your ship?

Ah... nope I have never carried anything but a Thargoid Tissue Sample.

That indeed could be part of the equation! Many times in the Thargoid USS there are NPC transports with Thargoid sensors and probes... I always did wonder whether they were supposedly hyperdicted because they were transporting the stuff.

Yeah, maybe you need some bait.

On a exploration jaunt out toward Maia and got hyperdicted again, though this time there was no freaking out. This is only the second time I've been back to this region since the initial encounter. I had been hoping for it on the last trip, but the Thargies left me be. This time, however, they decided to check me out. Probably because of the super sexy DBX. There isn't much in Elite that most seasoned commanders haven't seen, but hyperdictions may be one of them. So please be aware that the images that follow are serious spoilers if you want to take it in all for the first time when it happens for you in the game. It's hard to miss the huge images I am about to post, so this is probably a useless spoiler alert

I had been ready for it, knew I was in the right sort of space. And snapped some pics of the encounter.

This shot is after of course, but shows the system where it occurred. It was about 150 light years this side of Maia.




During the jump, sh!t hits the fan, and systems go haywire. This is where I started freaking out the first time, since I had no idea what was going on. This is the Thargoid Interceptor pulling me out of hyperspace.




Mad Hops comes to a stop, dead in the water. Thusters go offline and I'm adrift. But I know they are out there and I look out of the top of the canopy and see one of the buggers peeking back




After a bit they begin to move off and my ship pulses back to life. I turn to chase, but I am in a DBX. It has G4 clean drives, but still cannot gain on the Thargies and they jump. As I turn around I see there are two of them.




The Thargoid ship cannot be scanned due to Thargoid witchcraftery.




They jump out and leave a big green cloud behind. I am a fanatical wake scanner and I have them on all of my ships, err, most of the time. But since I was heading out of the bubble I left it behind to save maybe two-tenths of a light year. Stoopid. They left behind Thargoid wakes and dammit I couldn't scan them. What wonders of encrypted data did I just miss? Could kick myself and won't make that mistake again.

Wow, a second visit... They must like you!

I sure hope you're right