 This is Witchface news for Friday the 5th of August 2022 I'm CMDR Buur In Elite Dangerous News this week The crescendo moment of the Azimuth Saga looms large in the viewport of every commander As we move into the final moments before the arrival of update 13 To make sure you don't miss any of our videos you know the drill, the subscribe and like buttons are just there That stuff really does help the channel and if you want to directly support the work we do here at the pit Then our Patreon as always is linked below This is the last episode of Witchspace news before the Proteus wave is unleashed on the Thargoids A series of events that began in game with the arrival of the Adamastor ghost ship in the Chukchan system Has resulted in the decimation of the Aegis Xenological Research and Defence Agency And the elevation of a Xenocidal Madman known as Salvation The same Xenocidal Madman has been directly linked to human Thargoid cross species experimentation As well as the destruction of the Alexandria Megaship with the loss of all hands That's the murder of over 4000 crew members The same Xenocidal Madman has orchestrated and utilised the combined might of the galaxy's independent pilots To construct a weapon of mass destruction whose technological basis is at best poorly understood At worst utterly outside the experience and knowledge of all but a few human scientists He is now claiming that he will wield this weapon against a technologically superior species of unknown origin All in the name of protecting humanity and we're not even sure that this technologically superior species is even our enemy All of this has happened with the endorsement and support of the major factions power players When previously activated the Proteus wave weapon has increasingly proven to be largely ineffective at actually killing Thargoids And has in point of fact seemingly made them more prone to attacking starports Frontier are quite rightly very tight lipped about where all this is going Elite has generally always delivered its major in universe changes as surprises And they're obviously keen not to spoil what's ahead of us You can however look closely at what's happening in Elite Dangerous and what Frontier are doing and saying publicly and make some assessments Whatever happens next week the Thargoids are not going away The Azimuth saga has through its many community goals made serious attempts to arm the games population with a significant arsenal of ever more powerful anti-thargoid weaponry Further in recent weeks as the wave has built up in HIP 22460 the game has made Thargoid combat in that system very specifically more accessible to more people Toning down the damage and panic inducing actions of the Pleiades party poopers allowing more commanders to get a handle on what Elite's PvE current endgame is all about We think it's safe to assume from these actions alone that Frontier not only has no intention of removing their iconic aliens Conversely in fact their presence and perhaps influence in the game is about to be amped up Selected streamers on Twitch have announced that next week they'll be using the Twitch drop system to gift Azimuth themed paint jobs from Frontier Just for watching as they experience what is about to happen Frontier themselves have been ramping up their communications on social media with more and more salvation related material hitting the intertubes What they're communicating however is much more than just regular engage with us please corporate chatter Their posts on Facebook and Twitter in particular are very much giving a timetable to events and doing more than just alluding to the fact that A something is going to happen in game the end of all this is not just a story on Galnet and B it's going to be kind of a big deal Currently every day Frontier are posting an infographic that shows what stage the Proteus weapon is at as it moves toward firing Prior to this we didn't know if the Proteus weapon would be firing before Tuesday's patch or not The countdowns daily updates seem to indicate that at the current rate the weapon will fire on Tuesday And further in Frontier's latest communique yesterday as I speak these words they directly advise commanders to make their way to HIP 22460 In order to quote be part of history History isn't too strong a word for Elite Dangerous either Long time commanders myself included will go misty eyed when recalling where they were when the first Thargoid hyperdictions began Or when the first stations got attacked or when the first generation ships or guardian sites were discovered These are all key juncture points in the history of a game that for many is a second life And I firmly believe we are now fast approaching one of those juncture points again In years to come newer commanders will be told by the new veterans 3308 I was there in HIP 22460 when salvation fired the Proteus wave If you're a resident in Colonia 22,000 light years from Seoul and feeling that this is all a distant problem for someone else to deal with Then think on this for a moment During the same period of ascension for the secretive salvation Humanity has built a largely unbroken string of starports and mega ships that draws a direct line across the galaxy all the way to Colonia's doorstep Thargoids have proven many times in the past that they like burning starports And their attacks have often time spread from one system to the next to the next Food for thought perhaps Whatever happens next it all kicks off on Tuesday the 9th of August after what is likely to be some extended downtime for the game Frontier have said that whatever is coming regardless of platform or version of the game will all see it happen History indeed Are you heading to HIP 22460 before Tuesday and if so what do you think you'll see? Let us know in the comments below That's it for now, thanks very much for watching, we'll be back later this week with more videos Until then, 07 commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack We very much look forward to seeing you next time