Notoriety

Notoriety

Notoriety is a statistic tracked in relation to Crime & Punishment and introduced in Chapter One (3.0) of ED: Beyond. It is tied directly to pilots, whereas bounties are tied only to whichever ship is used to commit a crime. As a pilot commits crimes, especially murder, their Notoriety will increase. Pilots who attain high Notoriety levels will attract the attention of powerful Advanced Tactical Response units.

Note: Notoriety as it currently exists will be removed. It will be repurposed and assigned to ships with the Law & Disorder update in December 2026.

Overview

Notoriety is measured from 0 to 10, with pilots gaining one point for each murder they commit. ^{[citation needed]} If a criminal pilot is defeated while one of their bounties has been detected, they will respawn at a nearby Detention Centre with no more bounties after being forced to pay off all of their accumulated bounties in addition to their ship rebuy costs.

Pilots with outstanding bounties and lower Notoriety have the option of turning themselves in at a station's Security Contact, which will let them pay off the bounties and deport them to the nearest Detention Centre. Pilots with outstanding bounties and zero Notoriety can use an Interstellar Factor contact to pay off the Bounty without having to Turn themselves in.

Notoriety gain actions

• Killing clean ships. 1 notoriety per ship destroyed. Even ships that shoot at the wanted player. Even bounty hunters sent after the player.
• Directly killing any NPC or player on foot. About 1 notoriety per 3 characters killed.
  • Even in Anarchy system, if in a base of non-Anarchy Faction
  • Even if the kill was mandated by legal kill mission
  • Obviously also if the kill was mandated by illegal mission

No notoriety actions

• Shooting down Skimmers, and destroying turrets and generators gives bounties, but doesn't increase Notoriety.
• Scanning private datapoints and trespassing restricted zones also does not lead to Notoriety gain.
• Destroying clean ships in Anarchy systems
• Destroying Wanted ships in non-Anarchy systems (that is, being a Bounty Hunter). You have to target the ship and do basic scan to reveal Wanted status before you attack otherwise you are committing a crime.
  • Be careful, as most dropships carrying hostile criminals, pirates or enemy soldiers in On-foot missions are themselves clean. And game considers it unlawful to attack or destroy them.
• Killing Wanted NPC or player character in non-Anarchy systems (that is, being a Bounty Hunter). You have to scan the character with your suit's Profile Analyser to reveal Wanted status before you attack otherwise you are committing a crime.
• Killing any character on foot, in Anarchy system and in a base owned by Anarchy Faction
• Some actions that indirectly result in killing of a character, like shooting an explosive canister
• Any action against any soldiers while officially participating in Conflict Zone (On Foot) (that is, being a Mercenary soldier). Officially joining the conflict requires either:
  • Joining via Frontline Solutions desk and dropship
  • Choosing a Faction when prompted when nearing the Conflict zone
  • Or the latter is done for you while being in Multicrew by your ship's Commander (Helm)
• Any action against any ship while officially participating in space Conflict Zone (that is, being a Mercenary pilot). Officially joining the conflict requires either:
  • Choosing a Faction when prompted when entering the Conflict zone
  • Or the latter is done for you while being in Multicrew by your ship's Commander (Helm)
• Any action during Operation

Removing notoriety

Notoriety will decay on its own at the rate of one point per two hours of active game time, even while docked at a station; decay will pause if the player exits the game, and resume upon re-entering the game. This is the only way to remove notoriety.

To reduce notoriety, a criminal pilot should avoid system security scans and bounty hunters and wait.

There is also a Squadron perk 'Notoriety decay​' that doubles the decay to 2 points / hour, and will also slowly deplete any Bounties and Fines you incur.

Living with Notoriety

The Notoriety system gives the actions of the player more weight, but requires planning and an understanding of underlying mechanics.

Since bounties are in most cases tied to a faction, leaving the jurisdiction of a faction that has a bounty on the player also removes "wanted" status until the player re-enters that faction's jurisdiction. If the player has accrued Notoriety, they can simply travel to a system where they are not wanted and wait out the timer there. On the other hand, if a player has a galaxy-wide bounty as opposed to a local bounty, they can expect to have to deal with NPC Bounty Hunters (and possibly other players, too) in any inhabited system they visit.

Carrying a Fuel Scoop is advised in case the player has to make a sudden detour to a safe system after gaining Notoriety.