When you go to a station affected by Thargoids, there are three main ways to help:
- Passenger missions to collect refugees from the station.
- Cargo missions to collect wounded people in escape pods from the station
- Supply missions of cargo to the station
You can find these missions at stations that are currently under direct attack from Thargoids, and also those just in a system affected by Thargoids. Missions at the stations currently under attack will pay more, but you will have to manage the risk of being attacked while docking – more on that below. If you can, go to those under attack as your efforts might help save that station from falling.
PASSENGER MISSIONS AND ESCAPE POD COLLECTIONS
These pair well together, as they will both target the nearest escape megaship. Your ship should have Economy-class cabins in the larger slots and a small amount of cargo capacity in the smaller slots, ideally between 8-32 tonnes. Passenger capacity should be as high as possible after fitting any other modules needed.
You will likely be hyperdicted on entry to the system, interdicted within the system, or attacked while docking. To withstand this, your ship should have:
- Top-quality thrusters. Faster ships can opt to outrun Thargoids in interdictions, and even unengineered or low-grade engineering (available at Farseer's) will drastically reduce damage taken.
- A large shield generator+boosters and/or military armour. Speedy engineered ships can opt to forgo the shield generator and rely on the armour, slightly boosting capacity. Not worth dying over, though.
- A heatsink or two. Thargoid targeting is heat based, pop one of these when caught to escape much more easily.
- A good FSD and a Fuel Scoop, or enough fuel in the tank to carry you to the nearest rescue megaship. Most are about 150LY max from the target system. Plan for at least an extra jump's of capacity due to hyperdictions on approach. Guardian Boosters help too.
- A Shutdown Field Neutralizer. Can be useful if visiting stations under attack, engineered ships can likely tank through if needed.
Passenger missions from assaulted stations pay about 150k/passenger, so not bad. I get about 20M a run in my to the outpost in Modigi, and you'll be able to fit more if going to a large station. The cargo missions are low-tonnage so don't contribute much to the payout (~60kcr/ton), but equally they're easy to take on the side and will hopefully boost the contribution to the relief effort.
SUPPLY MISSIONS
Supply missions have to be handled differently, and are possibly best as a group effort on a fleet carrier (this is code for "they kinda suck but I hope they help"). Similar ship builds apply as above, just swap your passenger cabins for more cargo racks and your ship can have a shorter range.
Missions will be available to import whatever cargo the station typically imports based on its economy, and unfortunately this makes it hard to focus on a single thing. I'd suggest loading a Fleet Carrier with a variety of cargo, especially if it can be exported to a wide range of economies. High Tech and Industrial stations are good for supplying these, but see what your target station generally wants first. Then take the carrier as close as you can get to the target station and start unloading.
Take as many missions as you can on each visit based on your stock levels on the carrier. Avoid wing missions unless you can coordinate – the payout tends to be less than the cost of the cargo if done alone.
Stations not currently under attack will have their markets enabled as normal, but it's dubious if this has an impact. Stick to missions.
COORDINATE
We don't have the manpower to save every system at once right now. You should find out what other commanders are doing and combine your efforts with theirs. are running deliveries and are focusing combat efforts. In general, see what system they're focusing and help there.
If you're an Imperial pilot, check out to defend Imperial systems. If any Federal or Allied focused initiatives start up, let me know and I'll link them too, I'm not biased or anything 🙂
o7
