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This FAQ is outdated so please update it. New pilots should check the Pilots Guide.

What is Elite Dangerous?

Elite Dangerous is a massively multiplayer space epic and flight simulation game. It is the fourth in the legendary and Guinness world record making Elite series. It includes mass-multiplayer with a shared narrative and a 1:1 scale Milky Way galaxy as an integral part, while still allowing online single player. It's the first in the series that has expanded with walking around known as space legs.

Elite is the longest running space simulation series in history. It has over 30 years of heritage. This is verified by Guinness World Records.^[1]

The subtitle "Dangerous" refers to the 3rd best Elite Rating you could achieve during combat in the Elite games. In the new game it has been expanded to include more than combat. The origin of the series is Elite, the genre defining open world sandbox, space adventure, trading and combat simulator first released in 1984. It spawned two sequels Frontier: Elite II in 1993 and Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) in 1995, which already attempted to simulate a realistic Milky Way galaxy with realistic star systems and seamless freeform interplanetary and atmospheric flight and landing on moving planets, with realistic orbits and day/night cycles. The developers have gone to great lengths to map and electronically recreate the Milky Way to scale to make the game as realistic as possible.

The original Elite (1984) is a true classic and revolutionary at the time. It inspired the creation of many space games, new game genres and the creation of the "Grand Theft Auto (GTA)" series.

Elite Dangerous is set in the same fictional universe called the Elite Universe. The Elite Dangerous page on this wiki has more information.

Elite series

Elite - 1984
Frontier: Elite II - 1993
Frontier: First Encounters (Elite III) - 1995
Elite Dangerous - Q4/2014
⤷ ED: Horizons - Q4/2015
⤷ ED: Beyond - Q1/2018
⤷ ED: Odyssey - Q1/2021

What are official websites & fansites?

Please check the Fansites page for an elaborate overview of official websites and fansites.

What are the features of ED?

An immersive, evolving galaxy with dynamic society, economy and stories, allowing pilots to join each other and together change the story of the Milky Way.
Free-form play allows everyone to choose their own path, becoming an angry pirate, a spy, a peaceful trader, an explorer, a bounty hunter, or a mix between these roles.
Player actions can change the narrative and history of humankind. Such as battle pirate s, participate in community events, leaving a mark in the galaxy.
There are no classes or skill levels, strength is decided by ship equipment and player skill.
More than 30 different and customizable ships.
Surface vehicles such as the Scarab to explore planets and moons.
The vast 1:1 scale Milky Way galaxy is based on real scientific principles, scientific data, star catalogues and theories. It is created using a mix of procedural generation and artist direction.
- Around 400 billion star systems according to current scientific theories of star system formation with planets and moons that orbit and rotate.
- Groundbreaking in that it's based on a lot of hard science with all sorts of star surveys that are fixed and merged to for the first time in gaming history compose a very consistent model of the Milky Way galaxy and it's rich enough to plot the night sky.^[2]
- Cosmic phenomena, all different kinds of stars, star systems, black holes, detailed planets, moons, mountains, canyons, craters, planetary ring systems, star rise etc.
- Specially handcrafted overrides for 160,000 known stars in the night sky and planetary objects that we know and love. For example, our solar system Sol with Earth, the Moon and Mars. There are systems with recently discovered planets such as Trappist-1.
- Alien life such as fungal life.
- 141 nebula in the Milky Way galaxy.
- Star Clusters with rich survey data opportunities.
- 32 other galaxies are visible from the Milky Way.
- Several sentient species in the galaxy. The most notable are Humans, Thargoids and Guardians. More species are yet to be discovered.
- 57 Galactic Regions, 9 major galactic arms and the Galactic Plane.
- Constellations can be seen from Sol.
Flight Model of Elite Dangerous has Newtonian physics with a fly-by-wire layer applied over the top to make the combat feel visceral and seat-of-the-pants, rather than Frontier's jousting at huge distances. Newtonian space combat (ships will continue to move unless intervened but without orbital mechanics)
Freeform (manual yaw/pitch/roll) interplanetary flight allows to fly freely through star systems in realistic scale to get to a destination. Players can choose to travel wherever they want, including vista points to see Earth rise on the moon, the sun appearing behind Mars, or they could choose to explore the vast expanse of space and discover new points of interest in star systems.
Multicrew adds the ability to join a seat of another commander's ship or let others join your ship.
Holo-Me is the name of the character customization feature for the player's commander. It allows deep character customization.
Camera Suite is a fully functional third-person camera suite.
Players can choose between the following game modes: Solo (single player), Private Group (only with friends and invited people) or Open Play (multiplayer, play with everyone).
The Background Simulation is dynamic, complex and reflects the evolution of the known galaxy with ever changing power and system influence of factions in response to player behavior. Every station has its own demands and supply that change dynamically. Players on different platforms cannot directly play with each other. However, every player on every platform affects the same shared galaxy, star systems, factions and the dynamic background simulation.
A shared narrative which is influenced by players on all different platforms. This occurs with community events like Salomé, community goals and Powerplay activities. All of the meta data for the galaxy is shared between players. It's not traditional storytelling, rather an interactive, overarching narrative. Players have influenced and changed the course of events. The story unfolds in real time, in which players decide the outcomes and can be the stars. The latest information on in-game events and stories are reported on GalNet. See the Elite Dangerous Timeline for a chronological list of events.

Milky Way galaxy in Elite
Terrestrial planet and a brown dwarf
Gas Giant SRV and Asp

The scope of Elite Dangerous is huge. It has expanded with ambitious features such as Atmospheric Landings and on-foot and out-of-ship activities also known as Space Legs. This includes FPS combat, walking around planets and stations, and including entering vehicles and visiting settlements on 1:1 scale populated living planets, multi-player crew and player executive controlled capital ships.

More detailed information on a lot of the planned features can be found in the Design Discussion Archive (2014).

What are good videos of ED?

Here are some carefully selected fan made videos that show various aspects of the game:

On which platforms is ED released?

 Elite Dangerous has been released on:

Microsoft Windows on 16 December 2014. - Core + Horizons + Beyond + Odyssey
Apple Mac OS X on 12 May 2015. - Core (won't be playable as of the Beyond Q4 update)
Xbox One on 6 October 2015. - Core + Horizons + Beyond
Sony PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro on 27 June 2017.^[3] - Core + Horizons + Beyond
Xbox One X with 4k resolution support on 7 November 2017.^[4] - Core + Horizons + Beyond

Since November 29, 2022, Console editions of Elite dangers have been relegated to a "Legacy" version of the game. This Galaxy is separate from ongoing development, since the supported console platforms were unable to handle the upgraded engine used for the Odyssey DLC.^[5]

What are the System Requirements?

The base game Elite Dangerous includes the Horizons expansion and the Beyond updates. The Odyssey expansion is required to unlock on foot content such as first person exploration, combat, exobiology, mercenary, tenuous atmospheric landing, operations, system colonisation and newer ships.

Purchase

Elite Dangerous is a buy-to-play game which means you can play it indefinitely after a one-time purchase. There is no subscription fee.

The full version of Elite Dangerous + ED: Odyssey are available for Windows PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, Frontier Store, and Meta Store. Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have the legacy version which excludes the Odyssey expansion. Development for Xbox One and PS4 consoles ended on 10 March 2022.^[6] However, they are still purchaseable in the Playstation Store and the Xbox Store.

System requirements

Minimum PC Requirements for Elite Dangerous^[7]

OS *: Windows 8/10 64-bit
Processor: Quad Core CPU (4 x 2Ghz)
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 470/AMD R7 240
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 25 GB available space
VR Support: SteamVR. Keyboard or gamepad required

Recommended PC Requirements for Elite Dangerous^[7]

OS *: Windows 8/10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad Core CPU or better / AMD FX 4350 Quad Core CPU or better
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 770 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 25 GB available space
Additional Notes: Supports SteamVR, Oculus Rift and TrackIR
* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.

Recommended PC Requirements for ED: Odyssey^[8]

OS: Windows 10 64bit
Processor: Intel i5-8600 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060 (6 GB VRAM) / AMD RX 580 (8 GB VRAM)
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 75 GB available space
* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.

Does ED support Physically Based Rendering?

Yes according to an interview with a graphics programmer dated August-29-2013.

My specialism for this project has mostly been full-scene things, like updating our lighting model to a “physically based” system.

And according to the executive producer.

Short answer: yes it does.
Elite Dangerous adopted a physically-based rendering (PBR) model right from the start - we want it to look as good as possible under a variety of lighting conditions (and space certainly gives you that!). We expect the visual quality of Elite Dangerous will continue to improve as we progress through development.
It's worth mentioning though that PBR isn't a one-size-fits-all solution as much as it's the start of a discussion that could probably occupy someone for their entire career - kind of like the way "High Dynamic Range" was quickly adopted by everyone years ago but people are still arguing over the fine details!

Does ED have positional damage?

Yes, the modules all have a position in or on the ship, and some calculations are done based on your armour to decide if there's any penetration at all (which gets more likely as your armour gets beaten up), then how far it's likely to penetrate and which modules are along the path of that penetration and might take damage (there's several more subtle rules, but that's the broad strokes).

Damage is also visually represented.

How do we travel the vast galactic distances?

There are two modes of super luminal (faster than light) travel to cover those vast 1:1 scale distances.

Supercruise, formerly known as frame shifting, is used for freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) travel within star systems. The maximum speed varies based on proximity to celestial bodies, up to 2001 times the speed of light (2001C) that rarely gets reached, to be able handle the most extreme spatial distances. It consumes a small amount of fuel and you can also see other ships that are super-cruising within a star system from a long distance away visually and with long range sensors and also do combat manoeuvring to perform interdictions.
Hyperspace drives are used to travel from anywhere between star systems. Hyperdrives with different ranges, charge up times and fuel consumption parameters are available, and so your particular model of hyperdrive governs your specific ability to move around the galaxy. The game ensures that you will get grouped with other ships near the star with the largest mass during hyperspace exit.

Hyperspace jump
Star Rise and a Corvette

How do players meet in the galaxy?

You can use the Galaxy Map to navigate through the Milky Way galaxy. The System Map displays a system's layout and information. Most of the action will take place within the human populated core systems of the major factions. This region is known as The Bubble. It's where powers compete for influence, resources, territory and control. Powerplay is an ongoing battle for interstellar conquest and control in the galaxy.

Due to the way interstellar hyperspace travel works, the game will ensure that you will get grouped with other ships near the star with the largest mass during hyperspace exit. You will also be able to find other ships that are super-cruising within a star system from a long distance away visually and with long range sensors. There will also be ways to follow each other's hyperspace trail.

Multicrew is a feature introduced in 2.3. Multicrew adds the ability to join a seat of another commander's ship or let others join your ship, which can be done by being in a Team. You can only have up to 3 people in a ship which has enough seats. A crew of 3 people in a Multicrew set-up performs similarly to a Team of 3 ships.

Players won't be able to just take off and disappear into uncharted areas of the galaxy without a huge amount of preparation and logistical equipment, and even when they do start doing that, a big reason for exploring is to find rich systems with lots of resources, so you can make more money by trading or selling information about the location of the resources, which leads them back to the core systems yet again. And if new interesting places with rich resources are found, then one of the major factions may claim the system leading to it becoming part of the core and space stations being built in those systems. But of course, you can also just go sightseeing.

Having such a large quantity of star systems permits the game to have many major discoveries and many more minor ones, enough for hundreds of thousands of players to experience the opportunity of unique finds without the feeling of tripping over the Ark of the Covenant every two minutes.

Multicrew in a Corvette
Galaxy Map of the Milky Way
Sol system map

Is there a dynamic economy?

Yes, Elite: Dangerous involves a dynamic Background Simulation, reflecting the evolution of the known galaxy with ever changing power and system influence of factions in response to player behaviour. Every station has its own demands and supply that dynamically change.

Elite: Dangerous features a complex background simulation which drives a dynamic system of ever changing power and influence. Struggles between minor factions are commonplace throughout the galaxy and are led by the actions of player commanders both inadvertently and intentionally through the mission system and other activities. Many players enjoy actively supporting a chosen faction indefinitely; helping to win their battles, defending territory and expanding the faction's operations into nearby star systems - ultimately building a small empire in their chosen sector of space. Playing the game this way offers an almost strategic, board game like experience and it can be immensely satisfying when your goals and objectives are met. Player actions can turn a small faction into an interstellar operation. It is important to note that while altering the local politics of a star system can be done by a lone commander, it will be far easier in groups of people all working towards a common goal, particularly as the faction grows. Where there is unity, there is victory. ^[9]

File:Trade Routes in Elite Dangerous
File:Elite Dangerous Trading Dev Diary
File:Elite Dangerous Dev Diary 2- How the Galaxy will Evolve Over Time
Orbis station and traffic
Coriolis station

Are there missions?

Yes, missions fall into several types, the ones that you find en route and the ones that will have you actively engage in through a contract. These can earn you both credits and status within the faction you are working for, whether it is a disreputable criminal group or the Federation or Empire themselves. Scenario Missions feature voice acting and storytelling.

Are there roleplaying elements?

Just like in all the previous Elite games, you are not fixed to a specific role like in a traditional roleplaying game: there are no skill points that directly affect the way your avatar performs. Instead you will always be directly in control of your avatar so your own skill will determine the outcome of your interactions.

That said there are extensive ratings and reputation systems that affect how NPCs and players perceive you, even going so far as taking ship appearance (age/damage) into consideration. There is also an extensive customization option for the ships. You can change your character's appearance at any time with the Holo-Me.

Can I smuggle illegal goods?

Yes

File:Elite Dangerous How To Make Money Smuggling The Hauler

Is there mining?

Yes, just like the last two Elite games, there is mining. Mining can be done from Asteroids and Planetary Ring Systems, or by salvaging.

Metal Asteroids and Viper Mk III
Type 9 Heavy mining
Mining duo

Is ED groundbreaking?

Yes, it's groundbreaking in that the galaxy is based on a lot of hard science with all sorts of star surveys that are fixed and merged to, for the first time in gaming history, compose a very consistent model of the Milky Way galaxy and it's rich enough to plot the night sky.^[2] It's also one of the first major titles to offer full virtual reality support with an exceptionally immersive experience in an all-encompassing universe, and every player on every platform affects the same shared galaxy with an interactive overarching narrative via the background simulation.

Does ED have a storyline?

No. Elite Dangerous features a shared narrative which is influenced by players on all different platforms. This occurs with community events like Salomé, community goals and Powerplay activities. All of the meta data for the galaxy is shared between players. It's not traditional storytelling, rather an interactive, overarching narrative. Players have influenced and changed the course of events. The story unfolds in real time, in which players decide the outcomes and can be the stars. The latest information on in-game events and stories are reported on GalNet. See the Elite Dangerous Timeline for a chronological list of events.

While the original Elite and Frontier: Elite 2 didn't have an in-game story, the 3rd Elite game, Frontier: First Encounters did have an in-game storyline centered around the Thargoids alien encounter that you could follow if you chose to do so. The story wasn't explicitly told with traditional cut-scenes, but unfolded from a first person perspective with the help of news events and corresponding missions. Elite: Dangerous continues with that style of storytelling and is set 45 years after the events of Frontier: First Encounters, in the year 3300 and the Thargoids will make a return. It features more dynamic events, available from newsfeeds within the game or outside, based on both developer injected, dynamic procedural stories , player-caused events and missions. The game will also have more than 13 official book tie-ins to tell different stories about Elite universe, with lots of places, events and people referenced in the game.

Ranks with the Pilots Federation, Federal Navy and Imperial Navy
NPCs (non-playable characters)

In addition to this the Elite universe does have an extensive background history which is covered in many different sources, like In the official novellas - The Dark Wheel from Elite, Stories of Life on the Frontier Life On The Frontier and The Gazetteer from Frontier: Elite 2, and Further Stories of Life on the Frontier from Frontier: First Encounters which can all be found in the following links [1] [2] [3] . In addition to this there is also Fan Fiction.

Is there ship management and avionics?

Yes, see the following links:

Can I hire ship crew?

Yes, as with previous Elite games you will be able to hire NPC crews and player crews for the larger multi-crew ships in future updates.

Can I hire teammates?

You can hire NPC crew who can pilot your ship and ship launched fighters hire teammates and escorts, but you won't be able to own them. They take a percentage of your profits as payment for their services. Their loyalty will depend on their morality and faction connections, so they will be able to betray you, or simply refuse to engage in certain criminal acts. You can hire other players to join your Team.

Can I manually land on planets?

Yes, just like the previous two Elite games you will be able to seamlessly freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) enter and fly through entire 1:1 scale planets. Populated planets with Atmospheric Landings and living cities and wildlife enabling extra-vehicular activities will be added with major updates and expansions.

The scope for Elite is huge, so a sensible strategy is used to add to the game in stages.

Keep in mind that the game has been well planned and designed from the start with all these features in mind (it is not an afterthought) and Frontier Developments already has the technology for this.

Surface Port

Will landing and docking be seamless?

Yes, just like in all the previous Elite games you are able to manually dock with space stations seamlessly. Future expansions will also add the possibility to seamlessly freeform land on planets. Landing and docking will be doable either using auto pilot, or manually.

Will gas giants be realistically represented?

Yes, there are gassy and cloudy gas giants.

Can I walk inside ships, planets and stations?

The expansion Elite Dangerous: Odyssey added On Foot functionality, the ability for players to disembark from their ships and explore planetary surfaces, settlements, and station Concourses.

It has always been a core vision of David Braben that the player is a person in a real futuristic setting, not just a ship. In 2016, Braben confirmed that Frontier Developments was working on walking about features: "Yes. We have ongoing work on planets, including atmospheres, planetary life, walking about and lots of other very exciting things for the future."^[10]

Some additional extra-vehicular activity features envisioned by Frontier Developments in 2014 for future game expansions include walking around ship cockpit interiors, boarding and stealing other ships with Zero-G FPS combat, conducting space walks to repair ships, and walk on entire 1:1 scale populated planets with NPCs in living cities and forests, and hunting wildlife such as "dinosaurs". As of 2022, these features are not confirmed to be development and have not been announced for any planned updates or expansions.

How big are planets and star systems?

Elite: Dangerous has a vast scientifically accurate 1:1 scale, seamless Milky Way galaxy, based on scientific first principles current scientific data and theories. Stars and planets are accurately positioned relative to your view. Just like the last two Elite games the planets and stars are on a 1:1 scale realistically sized with vast distances between them. The detail in Elite ranges from the macroscopic to microscopic scale.

Do planets rotate and orbit around stars?

Yes, just like in the last two Elite games, Frontier: Elite 2 and Frontier: First Encounters (Elite 3), planets and moons orbits and rotates in 1:1 scale real-time and tilt will affect their seasons. Full orbital periods are noticeable in-game.

Earth in the year 3302 in Elite Dangerous
Mars terraformed, 3300
Jupiter in 3303

Can I create my own character?

Yes, the player can customize their commander via the Holo-Me interface, introduced in Elite Dangerous: Horizons. The player's outfit, physical features, and gender can be changed using Holo-Me at any time.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey adds the ability to equip the player with three additional types of Suits that are specialized for different activities, as well as Handheld Weapons for On Foot combat.

Holo-Me character
Holo-Me character close-up

Are there alien lifeforms?

Alien life is common in Elite Dangerous, but sentient alien life is rare.

There are many species and sub-species of non-sentient alien life that can be encountered both in space and on terrestrial worlds. These lifeforms are typically analogous to plants, fungi, or micro-organisms. Note that some of these species can only be seen On Foot, which requires owning Elite Dangerous: Odyssey. A number of non-sentient species are also indirectly present in the game in the form of certain Rare Commodities that can be traded at ports.

The only known sentient species are humans, Thargoids, and Guardians. Currently, only Thargoid ships and other biomechanical constructs can be encountered, and these are often hostile. The Guardians went extinct millions of years ago, but their ruins and relics can still be found across the galaxy.

Guardians ancient ruins
The Alien structure or "Barnacle" and its surrounding organic growths.
Colonia 3 C A fungal Bark Mounds valley

How many ships are flyable?

There are 36 flyable ships and 6 flyable ship launched fighters, and there are plans for more ships with major updates. Both new, modified, and improved models from the previous Elite games.

Federal Corvette at Earth
Federal Dropship
Imperial Courier
Dolphin
Python
Anaconda

Can I own multiple ships?

Yes, there is no limit to the amount of ships you can own, but you can only fly one at a time.

Can I own and control capital ships?

Players can purchase a Fleet Carrier, a Capital Ship with Landing Pads to accommodate smaller ships. Fleet Carriers cannot be piloted directly by the player, but can be jumped almost anywhere in the galaxy provided they are supplied with Tritium fuel. Players can also install a variety of optional services for other players to use. Owning a Fleet Carrier requires being able to pay a weekly upkeep fee of credits, otherwise the vessel will be decommissioned. Fleet Carriers can be customized with different paintjobs and layouts.

Other large-scale ships exist, such as Megaships, Farragut-Class Battle Cruisers, and Majestic-Class Interdictors, but these are restricted to NPC ownership. In the launch livestream for Elite Dangerous: Horizons update 2.3, a viewer asked "any chance of playing capital ships in the future?", David Braben answered: "it's on the list, but a long way down it, because there's a lot of gameplay to make it work. The issue is what we call the difference between direct control and executive control. Where rather than flying by the seat of your pants you're giving orders to a giant ship. Because you can't expect it to change course very rapidly and that sort of thing. So it's certainly a long-term possibility, but it's long-term."^[11]

The Gnosis megaship of The Canonn
Farragut Battle Cruiser
Majestic Class Interdictor

Can I build an empire, own stations and fleets?

You will be able to own small inflatable asteroid stations as depicted here as part of an update, but you can't fully own large stations, build empires or own fleets, since that would change the nature of the game. However, David Braben stated that they will add this type of functionality to some degree in the future.

Question: "Will it be possible to own a fleet of ships, staffed by NPCs and given orders to follow so that they trade or scout or mine ore etc?" David Braben answered: "With time we will add this sort of functionality to some degree, but we don't want it to be the be all, end all of the game."^[12]

The third expansion Elite Dangerous: Beyond planned to add Fleet Carriers in Q4 2018, but this feature has been delayed to a future update. Fleet Carriers will be very large capital ships that will serve as mobile bases. They will be purchasable by Squadrons, which are like player-managed guilds.

For example, why would you pilot space ships yourself, when the most efficient way to make money and progress in a game is to sit back in an office and hand out commands? It's also problematic from a lore and immersion standpoint, since the game is simulating realistic societies, social structures and time scales, so building an empire would involve a lot of resources and politics that only big nations can afford and would stretch over months or years, even building a large space station can take a month or more.

So as an Elite federation pilot, you will initially only be able to aid in building empires and large space stations through Community Goals, by taking missions to transport resources and defend them, but you are too low on the social ladder (not important enough) to be able to command or own these kind of things. When they add this type of features to "some degree" it would need to strike a balance between realism and gameplay.

That said, you will be able to hire NPC teammates and escorts and give them simple commands, but you won't be able to own or remote control them directly.

Development Plans

Why do some ships have a simpler design?

Because Elite: Dangerous is set in a realistic galaxy where there is no anti-gravity or gravity generators. Atmospheric capable ships are engineered to be symmetrical and aerodynamically streamlined, therefore they carry their weapons inboard within a bay to be able to believably skim, enter and freeform (manual pitch/yaw/roll) fly through planet atmospheres at hypersonic speeds. Many ships are based on the iconic wireframe designs of the original Elite.

The ships in Elite: Dangerous have airlocks, proper mass distribution with no off-centre main thrusters and separate tessellated cargo holds.

However, just like the ships in the previous Elite games, there will be a lot of variety in designs with each manufacturer having its own unique style, which can customized into numerous configurations.

Ships

File:Designing the Future - The Ships of Elite Dangerous
Imperial Clipper
Cobra MkIII with with ship kit equipped

Can I use vehicles?

Aside from standard ships, players can also directly control Surface Recon Vehicles (SRVs) and Ship-Launched Fighters (SLFs), both of which were added in Elite Dangerous: Horizons.

Scarab and crystals
SRV and a brown dwarf

Can I make Cinematic Videos?

Yes, the Camera Suite is a fully functional third-person camera suite. It lets players take sophisticated screenshots, make cinematic videos and fly ships in third person. It succeeds the old Debug Camera and is part of update 2.3 The Commanders. In the revamped version you can move around much quicker and further away from your ship. There's a UI legend of shortcuts which can be hidden, and it features a zoom slider. You can lock the camera to your ship and are able to control the ship in a third-person perspective. The camera can ignore rotation so it has the same orientation.

Camera Suite

How do I play Elite Dangerous?

Please check the Pilots Guide on this wiki. It is designed to help a new or experienced pilot get the most out of their ships.

It is also recommended that new pilots check out the following guides:

Why is yaw so slow?

There is an inherent flaw with the premise of close combat space flight, leading to endless turreting and circle-strafing especially in PVP multiplayer, due to the lack of terrain features in mid space, compound that with the fact that Elite also features lightspeed pulse and beam lasers making this issue even more apparent. A fly-by-wire layer is applied on top of the Newtonian physics and it limits the yaw speed.

Elite: Dangerous deals with this by limiting the yaw rate and enforce an optimum corner speed by way of thruster placement and limits in the flight control computer, forcing to roll and then pitch to get the most efficient turn rate (less efficient, but most comfortable for a human pilot), in addition there is a G-LOC system, a preliminary version can be seen here.

Are there Newtonian physics?

Yes, the flight model of Elite Dangerous has Newtonian physics with a fly-by-wire layer applied over the top to make the combat feel visceral and seat-of-the-pants, rather than Frontier's jousting at huge distances.

While this time the forces are fed to a proper rigid body, (so rotation is properly taken into account) instead of a simple point mass (where only linear dynamics matters), the fly-by-wire system (flight control computer) in Elite: Dangerous constrains the ship's angular and linear velocity relative to a common reference frame during regular local flight, to induce interesting tactical dogfights at close range and this flight assist can be partially disabled to be able to skid more freely. Also unlike the last two Elite games, only the Super-Cruise mode (Work In Progress) takes planet interaction into account (subject to change).

Here some quotes from the creator David Braben:

"David Braben I think in many respects it's more comparable to Frontier in terms of the way the galaxy works, that sort of thing. But in terms of the way you fly it's much closer to Elite. We're going to have Newtonian physics. But the way that we apply the fly-by-wire layer over the top of makes the combat feel really visceral and seat-of-the-pants, rather than [as in Frontier] jousting at huge distances"[4]

"David Braben Most of the ‘brutal realism’ of Frontier will continue. The real galaxy and so on. For the combat model we are doing more fly-by-wire than in Frontier, but this is to improve the feel of the game; the realism is still there. Don’t forget there was fly-by-wire in Frontier too."[5]

So there is a fly-by-wire system that keeps the ship within flight parameters, with a flight assist mode that is on by default, that helps you maintain your turns and dampen the angular momentum when rolling, pitching and yawing by automatically calculating the thruster forces needed to stabilize the ship and reduce the skidding. You can turn flight assist off, so you will have have to manually adjust the thruster forces to control the skidding and counteract the angular momentum, the fly-by-wire however will always be partially active to keep your ship constrained within the specified limits. Cargo mass will also affect the manoeuvrability of your ship.

Can I manually fire thrusters in every direction?

Yes the game allows for full 6DOF motion.

Is Elite Dangerous an MMO?

Yes, Elite Dangerous is an MMO, but with the important addition, that you can choose if you want to meet other players.

Players can choose between the following game modes: Solo (single player), Private Group (only with friends and invited people) or Open Play (multiplayer, play with everyone). In open play, you may encounter any other player who is also in Open, instancing and matching players occurs via a complex system. Players on different platforms cannot directly play with each other. However, every player on every platform affects the same shared galaxy, star systems, factions and the dynamic Background Simulation.

The game features a shared persistent galaxy, where macro effects and events such as economy, society and war status etc. are recorded and shared across all the different platforms. So all players influence the same shared galaxy.

The are no multi-player lobbies. The server transparently creates free roaming sessions (instances) when meeting other players and NPCs within that galaxy based on a perception bubble around you, that is defined by your scanner/visual range. That means that those instances are not a fixed location in space as in most other MMOs, but they dynamically move around.

The effects of those instances are then stored on the central galaxy server and shared by everybody.

Because the game features very high speed twitch combat and very detailed damage models, this is the most reliable way to do it, also keep in mind there can be many sessions within a star system and those sessions can dynamically move around, also because this game uses a 1:1 scale Milky Way galaxy, sessions will typically be spread out much further away (although most of the action will be within the core systems) and it wouldn't be immersion breaking as opposed to a space game in a smaller area.

File:Elite Dangerous SW2 WP0 Mass Jump 127 CMDRS

Do I need an internet connection to play solo?

Yes, Elite Dangerous requires an internet connection to play. The online galaxy of Elite Dangerous is a shared universe maintained by a central server. All of the meta data for the galaxy is shared between players across all platforms. This includes the galaxy itself as well as transient information like economies. The aim here is that a player's actions will influence the development of the galaxy, without necessarily having to play multiplayer.

The other important aspect for the developers is that they can seed the galaxy with events, often these events will be triggered by player actions. With a living breathing galaxy players can discover new and interesting things long after they have started playing.

Does ED have a monthly subscription fee?

No, Elite Dangerous does not use a paid subscription model. Playing only requires a one-time purchase of the Elite Dangerous base game.

Cosmetic items and premium expansions such as Elite Dangerous: Odyssey are sold separately.

Is ED Pay-To-Win?

Elite Dangerous is not pay-to-win. All ships, modules, ranks, permits, and credits must be earned in-game, and cannot be bought with real money.

All premium Livery items are entirely cosmetic and do not affect a player's performance in gameplay.

What are the expansions?

Thus far, Elite Dangerous has received two paid expansions:

Elite Dangerous: Horizons (2015)
Elite Dangerous: Odyssey (2021)

Horizons also included the free content season Elite Dangerous: Beyond.

On October 27, 2020, Horizons was converted into a free expansion and rolled into the base game, giving all players access to its content.

Odyssey is the latest expansion for the game and will continue to receive updates for the foreseeable future.

What are the future development plans?

Elite Dangerous has a truly huge scope and Frontier has ambitious development plans. During an interview at Lavecon 2015, Frontier stated to have a clear intention of a 10-year development plan. ^[13] This includes small free updates and paid major updates. Frontier uses an iterative approach which means gradually build upon features to expand and improve them. Check the Development Plans page for an overview of existing and planned updates and expansions.

Does ED support Virtual Reality Gaming?

Yes, Elite Dangerous is a groundbreaking title for virtual reality gaming, because its one of the first major titles to offer full VR support with an exceptionally immersive experience in an all-encompassing universe. It was the go to game for many VR headset demos before the devices were commercially available. From a technical standpoint, Elite Dangerous is one of the PC’s most high-end VR titles, pushing even very powerful PCs to their limit.

Elite Dangerous is designed from the ground up to support Virtual Reality and 4K Ultra HD display technology. It has Cutting-edge visual quality and performance enabled by Frontier's COBRA engine. It supports the latest displays at 4K resolution, and is built for the future with full 8K and 16K support. It's compatible with Oculus Rift, SteamVR and Vive headsets.^[14]

What does this error code mean?

A list of error codes and their meanings can be found on the error code page.

References

[:1-1] Twitter: Guinness World Records, 18 Jun 2015

[:4-2] 2.0 ^2.1 YouTube: My other car's a Cobra MKIII - Nordic Game 2014

[3] PlayStation.Blog: Elite: Dangerous Touches Down on PS4 June 27

[4] Eurogamer: Elite Dangerous will get 4K patch for Xbox One X launch

[5] Elite Dangerous: Odyssey Console Development Update

[:12-6] Milky Way Galaxy: Facts, Location & How to See It From Earth - Starwalk - 30 June 2026

[:0-7] 7.0 ^7.1 Elite Dangerous - Steam - 17 June 2024

[8] ED: Odyssey on Steam - 17 June 2024

[9] Background Simulation Guide v1.3, through archive.org

[10] reddit: Ask Him Anything: David Braben, co-creator of Elite, co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and Frontier's head honcho

[11] YouTube: 2.3 - The Commanders Release

[12] YouTube: Elite: Dangerous Progress Diary #3

[13] Frontier Forums: Lavecon News?

[:5-14] Elite Dangerous: Made for VR, through archive.org

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