It took a few days, but Elite Dangerous players have destroyed their first Thargoid vessel. It comes after the mysterious aliens began attacking player-controlled pilots after update 2.4, called The Return. Early reports suggested that the Thargoid ships had weaponry that could rip you apart in seconds—but pilots have now found a way to take them down.

Credit for the first kill goes to Joshua 'Harry Potter' Chamberlain and his Smiling Dog Crew (SDC) clan, who managed to chip away at the alien ship, exposing its heart before blasting it to bits.

The key to destroying the vessel, Chamberlain told Polygon, is to exclusively use the game's new anti-xeno (AX) missile systems, which appears to be the only way to damage the ship.

Check out footage of the 20-minute battle in the video below.

While SDC can claim the first kill, they're not the only players to have destroyed a Thargoid vessel: another player destroys the ship in this video but the ensuing blast claims his life.

If you too want to take down the alien ship, you should first follow Commander Balladoc's step-by-step instructions on how to encounter a Thargoid vessel. Most encounters appear to be happening in the Pleiades Sector.

The SDC video serves as a decent tutorial to actually bringing the thing down, too. Make sure you've got a lot of other pilots on side, and fast ships wouldn't go amiss.

If you've tried to take on a Thargoid ship, how did you fare? Let me know in the comments.