How to start the Autophage Questline, They Who Returned

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Step 1) Finish the Artemis Path
Step 2) Lift the seal from a Harmonic Camp
Step 3) Warp to any system

That's it! If you need more details, the rest of the guide will dive in.

You might variously see this questline referred to as Echoes, They Who Returned, Those Who Returned, or its pieces Audience with the Autophage, Prayers of the Machine

Specifically, you need to finish The Purge mission that is part of the Artemis Path.

The Artemis Path
• Awakenings
• Alone Amidst the Stars
• Ghosts in the Machine
• A Leap in the Dark
• The First Traveler
• Patterns in Time
• 16 / 16
• The Purge
• New Beginnings

The Purge mission directs you to progress to the core, but you just need to warp 16 times in any direction.

New Beginnings will forever remain in your log.

To find a Harmonic Camp, you're going to need an Echo Locator.

Start by going to a Dissonant star system. It'll tell you in the star's infobox on the galaxy map.
Scan the planets to find one with Dissonance.
Scan around for this symbol. I think cruising around on an exocraft is the easiest way to scout it out.
These are Dissonance Resonators. You can destroy them for an Inverted Mirror or an Echo Locator. Echo Locators seem to drop less frequently, so move on to the next Resonator if it doesn't drop. You can find other uses for those Inverted Mirrors, so don't throw them out.
Use the Echo Locator (resonate) to find a Harmonic Echo.
Which will lead you to a Harmonic Camp.
Access the Harmonic Interface and Scan the Memory Registers to infer the numbers you need. In the case shown in this example, the numbers are 15, 4, and 10. Put those corresponding glyphs into the Override interface.
Now deactivate the Multi-Tool seal. You can also locate Dissonance Spikes, which will put a marker on a crashed Sentinel Interceptor.

That's it. You can pick up your free multi-tool in the tent to your left and go check out that crashed Sentinel Interceptor if you want. You can now move on to the last step.

Once the previous two steps are completed, you merely have to warp to any system. However, if this triggers a freighter battle, you will need to warp again.

You will then get a Starship Alert starting They Who Returned.

• You do not need to start a Settlement.
• You do not need to complete the secondary mission A Trace of Metal.
• You do not need to do anything with the Atlas Primary Mission.
• No part of starting They Who Returned requires you go to a Korvax System specifically.
• The galaxy you're in does not matter.
• Your ship type does not matter.

• Bobblehead Bonuses
• Extraction Bases and Resource Guide
• Multi-Tool Guide
• Starship Guide