Elite Dangerous reveals the mysteries of its Thargoid Maelstrom anomalies in next update

rockpapershotgun.com:

After being invaded by Thargoids at the end of last year, Elite Dangerous is now letting its players fight back in its next update. Update 15 introduces a new tool to help players finally get inside the mysterious Thargoid Maelstrom clouds that have been cropping up across the galaxy ever since the invasion began last November. However, there are also new enemy classes and Thargoid vessels to encounter, and one in particular - the Hunter-class Glaive - looks very nasty indeed.

"In Update 15, we want to heighten the stakes of the Thargoid war, and really showcase the Thargoid's ability to bio-engineer solutions to their problems," Frontier Development's lead game designer Luke Betterton says of the new Glaive vessel.

The Glaive is a hyper aggressive vessel that can shutdown a commander's ability to escape, he continues, and will present a "challenge that players won't have been able to see coming." Players will likely have to adapt their existing space combat strategies, as well as their current loadouts, to take down. Betterton stresses that the Glaive "is not the hardest ship that anyone's had to fight 1v1," but it will require different tactics to the current crop of Interceptors and Scout Thargoid ships, so you'll need to make sure you're prepared before you head out. "Running away from it is not an option," he says.

There's also a new on-foot mission arriving with Update 15, although this, too, has its own Thargoid threat to deal with. It will involve restoring power to an abandoned settlement deep in Thargoid territory, and can be activated from any port or station in a state of alert on the frontlines of the invasion, or systems that have already been enveloped by said invasion.

Of course, with your main task