Review: Elite: Dangerous is the best damn spaceship game I’ve ever played (2023)

Gaming & Culture —

But it’s also an incomplete game, caught in transition, with a lot of problems.

Lee Hutchinson -

Review: Elite: Dangerous is the best damn spaceship game I’ve ever played (1)

Game Details

Developer: Frontier Developments
Publisher: Frontier Developments
Platform: Windows (reviewed), Mac OS X (beta), Xbox One (3Q15)
Rating: T for Teen
Release Date: December 16, 2014
Price: £39.99 / $59.99
Links: Official store | Steam

This is my third attempt at an Elite: Dangerous review. It’s one thing to play a game for a few dozen hours to form some opinions and then write a release-day review—not to trivialize game reviewing, but that’s a relatively easy task (in the same way that any kind of journalism is "relatively" easy—it’s mostly a straightforward process, at least). But I’ve been living with Elite: Dangerous since June of 2014, and it’s been in a state of almost constant flux the entire time–adding features, removing features, changing gameplay elements. That means I’m not condensing a few days or weeks of playtime down into a review—I’m trying to wrap my head around ten months of time spent sailing out in the black.

Here is the plain truth: Elite: Dangerous was released unfinished, and it’s still unfinished. There’s every indication that the December 16 1.0 release occurred in order to hit an arbitrary "before the end of 2014" release date, and the 1.0 product we got was not release-worthy. Major gameplay mechanics, like the much-hyped "background simulation" whereby the galaxy’s economy and politics evolve, were broken or flat-out missing. Multiple poorly tested or overlooked gameplay exploits were present. The game’s peer-to-peer networking architecture was easily subverted and eminently hackable. The game’s multiplayer was just a wreck, with broken and unreliable player comms and no way to group up or trade money or cargo; in fact, until very recently, the only meaningful way to interact with another player was simply to blow them up.

Further Reading

A few weeks in deep space with the Elite: Dangerous premium beta

(Video) Elite Dangerous Review

And yet, in spite of how broken the game was at launch and all the ways in which it remains plagued with bugs even now after two major patches, Elite: Dangerous is so damn good that it transcends its problems. When I strap on my Oculus Rift DK2 and look around my cockpit, I am flying my own spaceship.

Blasting through Witch space, docking at stations, hauling goods on long trade routes, hunting for bounties, blowing away NPCs or other players in conflict zones, or exploring a thousand light years away from known space—David Braben and his team at Frontier Developments have built the best, most immersive, most gripping "you are flying a spaceship" experience I have ever played in the 30 years I’ve been playing video games. When I’m cruising in silence above the plane of a gas giant’s rings, banking slowly and looking down for signs of pirates that I can drop down on and crush like the fist of an angry space-god, it doesn’t matter that the game still isn’t fully baked, because I am flying my own spaceship.

My buddy Matt insightfully described Elite: Dangerous as "the best game you’ve ever thought about playing," and he’s right—long after I’ve logged off, I think about what I want to do next. I imagine new weapon layouts for my ship, or new goals I want to hit—gotta gain some Imperial rank so I can get an Achenar permit!—or new things I want to try. And that’s perhaps the key to Elite: Dangerous: it really is the successor to 1984’s Elite, and to enjoy it in the long-term after the new game shiny has worn off, you really need to be the kind of person who enjoys setting and reaching your own gameplay goals. Because there’s not a lot of structure in Elite: Dangerous to guide you.

Good luck, Commander

Elite: Dangerous starts you off in a small Sidewinder-class multirole ship with 100 credits to your name. There’s not so much a "learning curve" as there is a "learning vertical wall"—there’s a manual you can download and tutorial missions you can access from the game’s main menu, but unlike many games there isn’t anything resembling a tutorial built into the actual mainline game. Once you start a new game, you’re thrown into the deep end—just like the 1984 game after which this one is modeled.

The overall goal of the game is to advance your rankings to the titular "elite" status. You have three such rankings: one for your performance in combat, one for trading, and one for exploration. Each ranking starts out at the lowest level—your combat rank is "Harmless," your trading rank is "Penniless," and your exploration rank is "Aimless." To gain rank, you fight, trade, or explore. These three rankings encapsulate the three main "paths" of the game—there are lots of things to do, but they all come down to either fighting, trading, or exploring.

Your starter Sidewinder isn’t a bad little ship. It’s nimble and can be upgraded to hold up to ten tons of cargo, and you can build up your money by accessing the jobs board of the space station you start out at and signing up for a few quick missions—mostly light cargo transporting. Once you’ve got some more cash in hand, you can add some better components to your Sidewinder, or upgrade to a different ship. There are currently seventeen playable ships, with at least three more to be added in the near-to-midterm.

As a set of meta-goals, "get credits and upgrade ship" works for a big chunk of the game. Most of the ships in the game are good at something; trading (especially rare items) is the fastest way to make the most money initially, and so a typical route for new players to take is to try to amass enough money to buy one of the dedicated trading ships like the Lakon Type-6. Or, players more interested in shooting stuff can trade their way into a Viper, and then start hunting bounties—or become bona-fide space pirates.

The sheer number of things to do—and the lack of any externally imposed goal other than "raise your rating to elite"—has drawn criticism. The phrase "mile wide, inch deep" has been thrown around a lot, but I don’t think that’s really the best description—rather, Elite: Dangerous is a mile wide, and maybe a few feet deep. There’s plenty to do in the vast virtual galaxy of 400,000,000,000 procedurally generated star systems Frontier has brought us, but you will eventually get bored unless you can entertain yourself in the sandbox.

(Video) Elite Dangerous VR has the Best Space Travel in VR

MMORPGisms

Elite: Dangerous is properly an MMORPG by strict definition—it’s a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (an offline mode was planned during development and promised as a feature, but was scrapped prior to release). The game requires an always-on Internet connection and its persistent universe lives on Frontier’s servers. The game world is chopped up into various instances and players are added to or removed from those instances as they travel around.

The instancing means that you’ll never run into more than a few dozen players at any given moment, as that’s the upper limit on the number of players that can be in any given instance. You’ll never find yourself parked outside of Lave Station watching a thousand players shuttle in and out of the docking bay—there might be a thousand players at Lave at the moment, but only a handful will be in your instance with you.

Of course, you don’t have to play multiplayer at all—the game has three modes of play. The first, "Open," is just that—you can be dropped into an instance with anyone else who’s in open play. The second is "Private Group," where the only other players you’ll encounter are the folks you’ve manually added to your friends list. Playing in the third mode, "Solo," means that you’ll never encounter any other players. You’re still playing in the same persistent universe with all the consequences and effects of that universe—and we’ll get to that—but you’ll be joined to your own instances wherever you go.

Prior to the game’s 1.2 patch, multiplayer was relatively perfunctory and interaction with the other players you could encounter was sharply limited. You could send text or voice chat messages to them (when the comms system didn’t just give you a "cannot send message" error, which was probably about 50 percent of the time), you could dump cargo for them to pick up (which would be marked as stolen and unsellable except at a black market), or you could blow them up by shooting or ramming. The 1.2 patch has added a meaningful grouping mechanism called "Wings" whereby players can more easily join together in a flight of up to four ships, share their statuses and locations, and each get a cut of bounties from their kills.

But multiplayer in Elite: Dangerous remains a hit-or-miss affair. There’s still no way for players to form any kind of lasting alliance—like a corporation—or jointly own goods like ships. There’s still no way to trade currency (though players can now dump cargo for each other without having it automatically marked as "stolen" on pickup). "Killing" remains the primary means of interaction, and the game’s peer-to-peer networking mechanism is still grossly vulnerable to easily Google-able exploits and cheats.

It’s not uncommon for players to simply terminate the game or yank out their network cables in the middle of a firefight rather than risk losing their ships (a phenomenon referred to as "combat logging," and one that is not at all unique to Elite); though Frontier Developments has said that they are monitoring those kinds of abuses, the fact that each client’s computer maintains its own game state rather than having a central server arbitrate things makes cheat avoidance an impossibility for now.

Elite: Dangerous is not EVE—it’s old-school Elite

A not-insignificant number of players are coming to Elite: Dangerous from the enormously successful EVE Online, the biggest and most well-known space MMORPG out there. This has led to a detectable undercurrent of disappointment in a lot of comment threads at a lot of places because Elite: Dangerous is most definitely not the same type of game as EVE.

Players looking to form up in large-scale alliances or corporations will be disappointed, because Elite doesn’t have that. Players looking for spaceships that conform to traditional MMORPG roles (healer, tank, caster, and so on) will be similarly disappointed—not only can you not form player groups larger than four ships, but the ships also don’t necessarily align to traditional MMORPG classes.

(Video) 🚀 All Elite Dangerous Odyssey Ships Reviewed - The Ultimate Elite Dangerous Ship Review Guide

Elite is nothing more than it advertises itself as being: an up-to-date modernized version of the 1984 original title. It is first and foremost about the experience of being one pilot physically sitting in a cockpit, and the entire game is geared around that conceit. It is not and will never be about fleet actions or raids or players flying capital ships passing along orders. There’s no automatic docking (well, there is a docking computer, but it's extremely slow and sometimes actually rams you into walls or other ships) or automatic pilot—the ships in Elite are all hands-on, all the time. Plotting a ten-system jump across Alliance space to deliver cargo? Don’t take your hands off the stick or you’ll come out of FTL and plow into a sun. Headed into the docking bay to land? Better not prang the deck, pilot, because repairs are expensive.

More than any other game, Elite: Dangerous resembles its original predecessor, 1984’s Elite. Nowhere is this clearer than in the game’s flight model, which if you’re new to the Elite franchise can feel—well, a little weird. Your spacecraft has six degrees of freedom—that is, in space it can move without restriction along the X, Y, and Z axes and also without restriction along the roll, pitch, and yaw axes. However, every Elite ship’s yaw maneuverability—that is, the ability to turn the nose left or right—is heavily limited. From the most nimble fighter to the largest gunboat, yaw response is terrible. This is on purpose; according to both Braben and lead designer Michael Brookes, damping yaw to near non-existence was done to prevent "turrets in space"—that is, to prevent players from simply parking their ship and keeping the nose pointed at a threat.

It’s an oddly artificial limitation, considering that Chris Roberts’ Star Citizen doesn’t have it, but it’s also in keeping with the original—in 1984’s Elite, ships were incapable of yawing at all. Movement was constrained entirely to pitch and roll. In Elite: Dangerous, yaw is used for fine-tuning your aim with fixed weapons or for minor adjustments to your trajectory, but it’s not a primary maneuvering axis. It’s still an odd design choice—and not one that I particularly like or agree with—but it is at least very, very Elite-like.

Master the grind for the best flavor

Whether you’re after a multiplayer-focused experience or you just want to fly solo, the basic mechanisms are the same—you need credits to kit out your ship, or to buy better ships and kit them out. Taking a page from previous Elite games, the most profitable thing to do in the game is to trade—to haul cargo from one starport to another.

In the original Elite, trading followed a few basic rules. Different star systems had different economies, and while prices on goods varied, you could always make a profit by using common sense about supply and demand—moving food and basics from agricultural systems to high-tech systems, then moving fancy commodities and farming equipment from high-tech systems back to agricultural systems, for example. Although there were other ways to make some bonus money along the way, the first game was all about trading.

Elite: Dangerous tries to thoroughly modernize that idea by implementing not just basic supply and demand, but an entire simulated economy that stretches across thousands of inhabited systems. The idea is grand in scope, and it’s also been one of the most frustrating aspects of Elite: Dangerous because even now, four months after release, it still doesn’t really work all that well. Problems plague the background economy simulation—the rudimentary in-game trading tools are essentially useless, and players must rely on a combination of user-built tools and old-fashioned pen-and-paper (or at least a copy of Excel running on a second monitor) to perform any kind of trade route planning.

To make real money in trading, a player has to devote a significant amount of time to manually traveling between dozens of systems, scouting out market prices and webbing together a route themselves. High-profit routes are usually kept top-secret by traders who discover them, because supply and demand is finely balanced and dozens of players descending on a prized route could quickly trade it into nothingness.

As an alternative to trading, players can go on the hunt. All pilots in the game, be they NPCs or other players, can incur bounties and fines if they do something illegal or unfriendly to a system’s controlling faction; some offenses incur only local bounties, and others are almost galaxy-wide. There’s money to be made in finding ships with bounties on them and blowing them up—in fact, with the latest patch, Frontier has made bounty hunting quite profitable.

(Video) Top 5 best COMBAT ships in Elite Dangerous

Piracy is a legitimate method of making money, too. You can purchase an interdiction upgrade for your ship and snag other ships out of in-system faster-than-light travel and threaten them over comms, or even deploy "limpets" to sabotage their cargo hatches and yank canisters directly out of their cargo hold. Pirating is naturally a contentious topic, since piracy is a play choice that of necessity involves ruining someone else’s day; even the most polite and dashing pirates can have difficulty making a living, especially when dealing with stubborn players who would rather self-destruct than surrender. Still, the pirate’s life is a perfectly valid play style and there’s a substantial difference between a bona fide pirate and a "griefer."

Mining is another path toward riches, though it’s been relatively neglected since the game’s beta stage. Mining requires specialized equipment and a lot of patience, and also a lot of searching to find a high-quality asteroid belt or planetary ring to harvest from. Worse, mining areas (called "resource extraction sites" in the game’s maps) are typically crawling with wanted NPC pirates, and a lightly armed miner spends more time running away than mining. In fact, resource extraction sites are currently so lousy with bad guys that they’ve become the preferred spot for bounty hunting players to hang out and blow up wanted NPCs.

Exploration is the last major career, and it involves fitting your ship with more specialized hardware and jumping out into the unknown. The human-inhabited systems only number a few thousand out of the game’s 400,000,000,000-star galaxy, and so there are billions and billions of systems to discover and scan. Each system scanned is worth some amount of cash, and if you happen to be the first player ever to scan a system, you get your name attached to it as its discoverer.

Exploration can be monotonous, since it involves jumping to a new system, giving it an overall scan, and perhaps also giving some of the system’s bodies an additional detailed scan (Earth-like worlds and rare stellar objects like black holes and neutron stars give a significant cash bonus), but one person’s monotony is another’s zen. There can be an amazing amount of peace in just zoning out and flying through space for hours at a time, scanning systems as you go.

Regardless of the method, the twin goals of all of these activities are the same—to make money and to raise your rankings. And here’s where accusations of "grind" come into play: even though Elite: Dangerous currently has seventeen ships for players to choose between, the price variance between those ships means that you’ll be stuck in a few of them for a very, very long time while you work up the cash to upgrade. If you don’t enjoy the journey, the dozens of hours of "work" required to get the money to buy a Python or an Anaconda (and the additional dozens of hours to then get the extra money to outfit them properly) can look extremely unappetizing.

This is one of the game’s most divisive aspects, going by what feedback I’ve seen in the official forums and on the main Elite: Dangerous subreddit. The game is the proverbial pie eating contest where the prize at the end is the ability to eat more pie faster—after trading for weeks of real time, you can jump up to a ship that lets you trade more. If you don’t enjoy the time you’ve spent trading, then what have you gained? There really isn’t an "endgame" in Elite: Dangerous, other than topping out your rankings and buying the best ship for your play style and fitting it out with top-shelf gear.

To find Elite: Dangerous a good game, you have to like what it is: the greatest "I feel like I’m flying a spaceship" game that’s ever been made up to this point in the history of computer gaming. Meticulously planning out your trade routes and then hauling cargo for hours at a stretch has to be its own reward. Flying thousands of light years out into the black to see what no human has ever seen has to be its own reward. Blowing up dozens and dozens of criminals to snag their bounties has to be its own reward.

The journey has to be worth it for you, because otherwise, Elite: Dangerous is a monotonous grind-fest with no destination.

(Video) Elite: Dangerous Review

FAQs

What is the most dangerous ship in elite dangerous? ›

The Anaconda is pretty much the end-game as far as combat ships are concerned in Elite Dangerous. It's massive and armed to the teeth, but you'll need to bring around 150 million credits to the table if you want to fly one of these beauties.

Is elite dangerous fun solo? ›

You wouldn't have problems with playing this game in a Solo mode, without any other players around. You only need other players if you want to interact with them. You can also switch modes any time you want - your progress carries on. As the people say... you can play almost 100% in Solo.

What game is like elite dangerous? ›

How many hours of gameplay is elite dangerous? ›

When focusing on the main objectives, Elite: Dangerous is about 83 Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 378 Hours to obtain 100% completion.

What is the best ship for transport in Elite Dangerous? ›

The best ship for this build is the Imperial Cutter. It has the best shield output potential of any ship and an incredible amount of cargo space. It's also a sleek, stylish head turner. With some delicate engineering, the Imperial Cutter can squeeze out an impressive Jump Range too.

What is the best ship for travel in Elite Dangerous? ›

Elite Dangerous: 10 Best Ships For Exploration, Ranked
  1. 1 Anaconda. Hands down, the best ship in the game for exploring is the Anaconda.
  2. 2 Asp Explorer. The Asp Explorer was built with exploration in mind. ...
  3. 3 Diamondback Explorer. ...
  4. 4 Python. ...
  5. 5 Orca. ...
  6. 6 Krait Phantom. ...
  7. 7 Krait Mk II. ...
  8. 8 Federal Assault Ship. ...
Mar 2, 2021

What is the most profitable activity in Elite Dangerous? ›

Laser mining is the easiest and most profitable, but core mining is more engaging and may be preferable for some.

Is Elite Dangerous fully explored? ›

As of January 20, 2022, only 0.05% of the galaxy, or exactly 222,083,678 unique star systems, had been explored.

Does anyone still play Elite Dangerous? ›

We estimate the daily player count of Elite Dangerous to be 171,971, with a total player base of 18,102,243.

Which is better star Citizen or Elite: Dangerous? ›

Elite Dangerous also has more accessible multiplayer modes, while Star Citizen has a more immersive persistent universe. Ultimately, both games are worth checking out for any fan of space simulation games.

Will Elite: Dangerous ever shut down? ›

There are no current plans to turn off any servers. You can continue to play Elite Dangerous the same way you currently do on console.

Will Elite: Dangerous have cities? ›

The Alliance, Empire, Federation, and independent systems will each have distinct city and infrastructure develoment patterns on hospitable worlds that can be viewed from space. A megalopolis is defined as a chain of roughly adjacent metropolitan areas.

Is Elite: Dangerous addictive? ›

Elite: Dangerous — space travel is boring … but it's addictive as hell (review) Elite: Dangerous looks incredible. Connect with top gaming leaders in Los Angeles at GamesBeat Summit 2023 this May 22-23.

Can I play Elite: Dangerous casually? ›

Yes. You might want to stick to Solo or Private mode. You will need some initial learning, though. Just setting up controls might take like half an hour.

How long does it take to travel across Elite: Dangerous? ›

Maximum Supercruise speed (when not affected by stellar bodies) is 2,001c and takes 57 min to reach. Supercruised to another system. It would take 4h 22m 51s to travel 1 light year at maximum Supercruise speed.

Can you lose ships in Elite Dangerous? ›

Pilots who lost their ship will redeploy at the last Station, Surface Port, or Fleet Carrier that they docked at; if the last station they docked at had no shipyard function, they will redeploy at the closest station with a shipyard to the location where they had lost their ship.

What is the fastest ship in Elite Dangerous? ›

The Viper MK III is the fastest ship in the game at a maximum possible boost of 932 m/s.

How many ships do you own in Elite Dangerous? ›

As of Elite Dangerous: Beyond Chapter Four (3.3), there are 38 playable ships and 6 playable fighters, each built by one of several manufacturers with their own unique styles. Initially, there was a planned total of 30 playable ships with multiple variants in addition to some non-playable ships.

What is the best all around combat ship in Elite Dangerous? ›

The best ship for this build is the Federal Corvette. The Corvette is one of the best large ships in the game, and it's impeccably specialized for combat. Its excellent turning radius gives commanders the best chance at keeping the impressive array of hardpoints on-target.

What is the largest cargo space in Elite Dangerous? ›

You can check the max cargo space of both ships, when all optional compartment possible are fitted with cargo racks. The Imperial Cutter has a max cargo of 794t while type 9 has 790t. Statistically, the Cutter is better but it costs more and you need a very high Imperial rank to be able to buy it.

What are the best racing ships in Elite Dangerous? ›

Popular racing ships are the Eagle, Imperial Eagle and Viper MkIII due to their fast acceleration, agility an relatively low cost. The Fer-de-Lance and Mamba are quick, but quite expensive. Alternatively, informal racing events can be held at installations and stations. The SRV Scarab is suitable for surface racing.

Who is the trillionaire in Elite Dangerous? ›

Zachary Rackham, also known by the nickname "Calico Zack", is a self-made trillionaire and the owner of Rackham Capital Investments.

What is the most expensive mining in Elite Dangerous? ›

The most sought-after minerals in missions are painite, osmium and platinum. Accepting Mining contracts at the Mission Board yields much more money for the mined commodities.

What is the most valuable resource in Elite Dangerous? ›

The most profitable core mining material is either Void Opals or Low Temperature Diamonds. Void opals are commonly found around Icy rings. There are worth upwards of 650k per ton.

What percentage of Elite Dangerous has been discovered? ›

🌌 Only 0.059% of the galaxy has been discovered in the Elite Dangerous live game so far! 👣 Where will you blaze your trail next?

Can I land on any planet in Elite Dangerous? ›

Overview. Players are able to land on four types of airless planets - rocky, metal, ice and rocky/metal - which make up 61% of the planet types in the Milky Way galaxy. These planets vary in size and composition, therefore having different gravity forces affecting the flight and landing dynamics.

Is Elite Dangerous better than no man's sky? ›

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the combat in No Man's Sky is fun, engaging, and fairly arcadey. If you're looking for realistic space combat, or a more hard sci-fi experience during your space combat, then Elite Dangerous may be more of what you're looking for.

How many people play Elite Dangerous 2023? ›

Elite Dangerous
MonthAvg. PlayersGain
Last 30 Days3,573.1-426.5
April 20233,999.5+258.9
March 20233,740.6-348.4
February 20234,089.0-721.1
94 more rows

Is Elite Dangerous a pay to win game? ›

I'm happy to tell you that outside of ship skins and cosmetic enhancements, Elite: Dangerous doesn't have any "pay to win" schemes. You can't buy better weapons with real money, nor better ships with real money, nor in-game credits with real money.

Why did Elite Dangerous abandon Xbox? ›

We need to be able to move forward with the story of the game, and in order for us to do this we need to focus on a single codebase. Elite Dangerous will continue on console as it is now together with critical updates, but we will focus on new content updates on PC on the post-Odyssey codebase.”

Can you walk on planets in Elite Dangerous? ›

Ships cannot land on planets that have an atmosphere denser than 0.1 atm, and players cannot disembark onto planetary surfaces if the planet's gravity is 2.7 G or greater, or if the player's ship has a broken canopy.

Can you walk in Elite Dangerous? ›

History. The Odyssey expansion for Elite Dangerous launched yesterday, and its biggest new feature is being able to, for the first time, leave the safety of your ship's cockpit and walk around on foot.

What is the most remote star in Elite Dangerous? ›

Beagle Point (formerly designated Ceeckia ZQ-L c24-0) is a system in The Abyss. It is one of the most remote discovered star systems in the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of 65,279 Light Years from Sol, and reaching it requires a ship with a minimum jump range of 34LY.

Does Elite Dangerous have earth? ›

It is the third planet of the system, orbiting at precisely 1 AU from its parent star, a G2-V Main Sequence star known as Sol, or simply "The Sun". Earth is the largest of the system's terrestrial and rocky bodies.

What is the current year in Elite Dangerous? ›

This is the timeline of Elite Dangerous. The contemporary Elite Dangerous narrative begins in September 3300 and progresses in real-time. Currently, the year is 3309. There are some timeline disparities with the previous games of the Elite series, but it is set in the same fictional Elite Universe.

Is Elite Dangerous good offline? ›

"Any offline experience would be fundamentally empty. We could write a separate mission system to allow a limited series of fixed missions, but that would still not be a compelling game, and is only the first step in the mountain of work required.

Does Elite Dangerous have the largest map? ›

Elite: Dangerous appears on this list as the 2nd biggest video game map of all time. The game's universe consists of 400 billion star systems, making exploration absolutely endless.

Which station sells everything in Elite Dangerous? ›

Jameson Memorial - Orbiting Founders World in Shinrarta Dezhra, Jameson Memorial has all ships and modules available for purchase at a 10% discount. Pilots must reach the rank of Elite or be a Kickstarter backer in order to obtain a permit to access the system.

Can you fly capital ships in Elite Dangerous? ›

Fleet Carrier

Fleet Carriers are Capital Ships with Landing Pads that can accommodate smaller vessels. They can be purchased and operated by Pilots Federation-licensed pilots, who are responsible for commanding and paying the crew.

Is Elite Dangerous good with a flight stick? ›

Elite is perfectly playable with an Xbox controller or a mouse and keyboard, but once you've flown its ships with a proper stick and throttle setup (whether it's the Warthog or a vastly cheaper alternative like the excellent Saitek X52) it's damn near impossible to go back.

What are they smoking in Elite? ›

Many characters habitually smoke cigarettes. Teens buy hashish from a dealer, learn to roll it into a cigarette by watching an online video, and then smoke it.

What are the three most harmful addictions? ›

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.”

Can you play Elite Dangerous without other players? ›

The game is the first in the series to feature online multiplayer with access to a massively multiplayer persistent world called Open Play, as well as an online-only single player mode.

Is Elite Dangerous fun single player? ›

You wouldn't have problems with playing this game in a Solo mode, without any other players around. You only need other players if you want to interact with them. You can also switch modes any time you want - your progress carries on. As the people say... you can play almost 100% in Solo.

Can you play Elite Dangerous without gold? ›

+Offers in-app purchases. Online multiplayer on console requires Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or Xbox Live Gold (subscription sold separately).

What is the least explored area in Elite Dangerous? ›

By number of stars, the core is one of the best-explored regions. By percentage of stars, it's the least explored region by a clear margin.

Can you walk around your fleet carrier in Elite Dangerous? ›

Following this update, players can now walk around and explore the interiors of Drake Class Carriers. These interiors feature a main concourse and hanger lobby, a Command Deck, and a seating area for jumps, as well as a Vista Genomics service desk, Pioneer Supplies store, and Shipyard access point.

What is the Type 7 ship Elite Dangerous? ›

The Type-7 is an excellent shielded or Open Play trader when outfit with Military Grade Composites, a Shield Generator, and Shield Boosters. Its pitch and yaw speed combined with an acceptable base speed and adequate defenses allow it to make a hyperspace jump out of combat or potentially evade interdiction.

Is the Keelback better than the Type 6? ›

As an explorer, the Keelback has less jump range than the Type-6 due to its greater mass. Combined with more limited compartment space, the Keelback is a slightly less capable ship in the role than the Type-6. The Keelback has one role it shines in: mining.

How much is the Type 9 heavy? ›

76,555,842 Cr

What is the fastest ship in Elite Dangerous in the game? ›

The Viper MK III is the fastest ship in the game at a maximum possible boost of 932 m/s.

What is the largest small cargo ship in Elite Dangerous? ›

The Diamondback Explorer is the largest of all ships in the small ship class and its bulk allows it to be a bit more flexible than its smaller cousin, the Diamondback Scout. In fact, it's so large that it actually has less agility than ships in larger classes.

What is the top speed of the ship in Elite Dangerous? ›

Different ships have different maximum normal speeds, currently ranging from 130 to 330 m/s.

Is the Anaconda worth it Elite Dangerous? ›

The Anaconda also makes for a fantastic miner, able to fit a large amount of potential Mining Lasers as well as plenty of space for Limpets and cargo holds. Its ability to mount a Fighter Hangar for Ship-Launched Fighters coupled with great self-defense potential means the Anaconda fits the role very well.

Is the krait mk2 better than Fer de Lance? ›

Krait II is actually a far superior combat craft when you factor in all the bonuses. It just isnt when you have no idea how to fly / evade fire. Then the FDL is pretty much idiot proof once you get boosters for your shields and engineer them.

Is the Krait a good ship? ›

The Krait is a great all-round ship with a strong hull, powerful engines – which look super-cool – and a great load-out.

Is the Type-6 Transporter good? ›

In combat, the Type-6 is second only to the Hauler as the worst ship in the role. It has the same hardpoints as the Sidewinder but has much lower mobility and thus cannot evade fire or keep its fixed hardpoints on a target nearly as well and also attracts much more dangerous vessels than the Sidewinder would.

Can the Type-9 have a fighter? ›

The Type-9 Heavy is Lakon Spaceways' large freighter class. This ship is built to transport large cargos, a job it does very well, but it doesn't stand up well in a fight, although adding a fighter bay improves its combat capability considerably - in the right hands!

Is the Type-9 good? ›

As a trading ship, the Type-9 has the second best cargo capacity of all ships, behind only the Imperial Cutter, but the difference between the two is only 4 tonnes. Furthermore, the Type-9 can downgrade to a Class 5 Shield Generator, while the cutter can only equip a minimum of Class 6.

How much cargo can an anaconda hold? ›

The Anaconda is the second largest ship available in the Beta 2 stage. It has a maximum cargo capacity of 228 tons, and is able to mount formidable armament on 8 separate hardpoints.

Videos

1. Elite Dangerous: Alien Encounter
(Herr jorden runt)
2. Fleet Carrier "review" [Elite Dangerous]
(TheYamiks)
3. Elite Dangerous VR Is An Absolute Nightmare - This Is Why
(UpIsNotJump)
4. Top 10 BEST Elite Dangerous experiences
(TheYamiks)
5. Patron's Choice for May 2023: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
(Nextlander)
6. The Viper Mk3 [Elite Dangerous] | The Pilot Reviews
(The Pilot)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Fr. Dewey Fisher

Last Updated: 19/07/2023

Views: 5654

Rating: 4.1 / 5 (62 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Fr. Dewey Fisher

Birthday: 1993-03-26

Address: 917 Hyun Views, Rogahnmouth, KY 91013-8827

Phone: +5938540192553

Job: Administration Developer

Hobby: Embroidery, Horseback riding, Juggling, Urban exploration, Skiing, Cycling, Handball

Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.