Guardian artefacts for CG – how and where?

Hello everyone,

below is a short guide I wrote to help people who have not been to Guardian sites before to quickly get up to speed.

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The latest CG has us picking through the rubble on ancient Guardian sites looking for artefacts. These are then to be delivered to Delphi in the middle of a Thargoid Bubble (of all places) to be used in research for better AX weaponry.

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What are we looking for?

As in CG description Orbs, Caskets, Totems, Urns, Tablets, Relics found on Guardian sites. The more, the merrier.

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Where do we find them?

First we need to differentiate between Guardian sites: There are two main categories of sites: "Ancient Ruins" and "Guardian Structures". These have different layout patterns labeled as "Alpha", "Beta", "Turtle", "Fistbump" etc. The Ancient Ruins were the first Guardian sites added into game and are large surface sites with lots of obelisks and artefacts lying around. They are typically on plains and easy to land on even in a big ship. Later, the Guardian Structures were added. They (structures) contain different blueprints depending on site, Guardian Tech Components behind panels as well as Guardian Sentinels defending the site against intruders. Some artefacts can also be found lying around in Structures. They are typically in rough terrain and a lot smaller in size than Ruins.

Therefore, you want to head to Ancient Ruins instead of Structures because:

– Ancient Ruins are accessible: you can easily land in the middle of them in a Krait Phantom or even a Cutter if you so desire. The terrain is typically flat all over the surrounding area too.

– not a "dangerous area": when you log in and out, you will not be moved to a "safe location" because there are no Sentinels. Therefore, your farming speed improves quite a lot.

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Okay, so.. where do we find them?

There is an excellent site that lists all known Ancient Ruins giving they layouts, coordinates, locations. Just open the webpage, select a Ruin and head out.

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Any recommendations for loadout?

The essentials are:

Shutdown Field Neutralizer, found on High Tech(surface) and Military(surface) sites and Jameson Memorial at least. It occupies a Utility Slot and can be found under Utilities-Experimental. This is not strictly necessary, but if you have *ever* been scanned by a Thargoid Sensor or picked up a Probe, Sensor or Link they will remember you and you have about 20% chance of being hyperdicted when jumping between systems in Thargoid space. Also, it can happen outside of their bubbles too: I was hyperdicted about 250 LYs from Merope while going there for the first time coming from a Guardian site. So, better safe than sorry.

Planetary Vehicle Hangar

Fuel Scoop

Cargo racks (standard is sufficient, artefacts are not corrosive)

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Once on site, one full SRV Fuel and Ammo load lets you harvest about 100-120 artefacts. I was able to get 258 artefacts from a Ruin before I was completely exhausted from the grind and headed to Delphi in my Cutter to turn them in. YMMV.

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Any good spots?

I harvested the artefacts at Synuefe TP-F b44-0 CD 1 in Ancient Ruins 3. There is a good spot on the southern side of ruin where there are six artefacts right next to each other with flat ground to the south. Land there, harvest, log off/on, rinse-repeat.

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The coordinates are:

Landing site (fits an Imperial Cutter):

59.3497

15.0972

Heading 171

Totem:

59.3459

15.0962

Urn:

59.3457

15.1032

Relic:

59.3420

15.1122

Tablet:

59.3383

15.1096

Urn:

59.3431

15.1061

Orb:

59.3407

15.1035

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Feel free to find your favourite spot though: there are plenty ruins out there 🙂

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I have collected enough artefacts, now what?

Next, you need to plot a course to Delphi to sell them. While en-route to Delphi, keep your Shutdown Field Neutralizer in the ready. No sweat, but if the Thargoids hyperdict and scan you finding out you are carrying Guardian artefacts they will become immediately hostile and attack you. They might wait a few seconds for you to drop the artefacts but since we dont want to do that we do the following in case of hyperdiction:

– immediately after crashing out of hyperspace, hit boost and put engines to full throttle

– all pips to SYS

– FA off

– deploy hardpoints if you have the Shutdown Field Neutralizer in a fire group

– wait for "energy surge detected" message and activate the SFN. If you have a small/undersized Power Distributor wait 2 seconds after the message before firing the SDF. SFN drains the SYS capacitor very quickly and has a ten second cooldown before you can fire it again. You have only one shot in stopping the EMP pulse from shutting you down.

– once the EMP pulse has passed you, retract hardpoints, all pips to engines, FA on and boost away until you can high wake out

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It shut me down, now what?

If you boosted and turned FA off, you are now drifting at high speed. The Thargoids need to catch up with you before they can scan you, meaning you bought yourself some time. As soon as systems come back online, start charging your FSD and keep boosting away. Unless you got a Basilisk they typically will not bother following you and will high wake out themselves. If it is a Basilisk or they finish scanning you, they will start shooting sooner or later. Deploy fighter if you have one, all pips to shields, deploy heatsink to prevent target lock after they start shooting and high wake as soon as you can. Appealing to a higher power is optional but might also be considered if you are flying a Type-9 or an extra-fragile exploration build.

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And one last thing, after landing on Alexandria:

***REMEMBER TO SIGN UP TO THE CG BEFORE SELLING YOUR CARGO***

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Thats all, good luck out there.

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