Elite Dangerous' mysterious alien race, the Thargoids, appear to have broken their shakey, unspoken peace agreement with human players and have begun not only shooting at them but capturing their escape pods too. The war is on, but what they're fighting for and how humanity can hope to hit back, is currently unknown.
The story of the Thargoids goes back to the early days of Elite, where strange remnants of a bizarre alien species were discovered. Bits of old structure and hints of alien inhabitance littered the galaxy. Then, several months ago, a player was pulled out of their warp jump and confronted with a strange, flower-petal-like alien ship. It blocked all attempts to scan it, sensors proving useless against its foreign jamming technology and then jumped away faster than the player could keep up.
Several more encounters like that followed, as well as the discovery of even more alien artefacts and abandoned settlements. Whether that angered the Thargoids, or they were merely biding their time is unclear, but they've now turned hostile, taking shots at players that come within range and pursuing them heavily with powerful laser weaponry and drone strikes.
The first recorded conflict comes from player Sapphire'sHideout, who posted a video of them coming into contact with a Thargoid. Discovered amidst the wrecks of several other vessels, the Thargoid ship turned and began targeting the player. It sent out drones and powered up its seeming laser weapons, all of its light turning red in the process.
Others had more successful attempts at combating the new threat, in some cases even managing to shoot off sections of the Thargoid hull. However, capturing it shows it to be made of organic matter which attacks the very structure of your ship in a corrosive manner.
With little to scan and only vague numbers spat out in response to even the hardiest of attempts, players are left trying to figure out the mystery of what these aliens want. Oddly enough though, it might be human life itself. One player reports having sent out NPC filled escape pods, which the Thargoids gobbled up with interest (thanks PCgamer).
What do you think this new race wants?
