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Elite Dangerous players have a surprisingly restrained first contact protocol

Elite Thargoids

The Thargoid threat seems to be mounting in Elite Dangerous. In order to combat the amount of players finding themselves up against the game’s mythical insectoid alien race, the community has put together an official first contact protocol as part of an initiative labelled the ‘First Contact Defence Initiative’.

The Thargoids are Elite Dangerous’ horror story.

That protocol was posted on Reddit earlier today, and does seem to be a reasonably pacifist approach, especially against a race famed for their lack of diplomacy. The desired approach seems to be to learn as much as possible about the Thargoids, as players are instructed to take screenshots, scan any ships they come across, and attempt communications with the Thargoids.

After that, it seems to be a waiting game, with players told to contact their superiors, share where they encountered the alien ship, and then await further orders. In fact, any action against the Thargoids is supposed to be entirely retaliatory, with players ordered not to open fire unless they are attacked first.

The introduction of this defensive protocol stems from the fact that the Thargoids are due to return in today’s Elite Dangerous update, which is literally called The Return. Developers Frontier have been teasing the Thargoid’s renewed presence in the galaxy for a while now. First contact was made earlier this year, and since then, Thargoid bases have been growing in size. Frontier also released a trailer for The Return, which sees humanity take quite an aggressive stance.