For the Beta-ment of all

Today sees the release of the hotly anticipated Elite Dangerous 2.4 Beta. For those of you who don't know, Elite Dangerous 2.4 'The Return' is mostly concerning the reappearance of those dreaded insectoid extraterrestrials, The Thargoids.

 While the Thargoids are the headline act of this update, I would not expect to see much of them in this beta. Considering past leaks from Commanders who managed to get to where they should not have, I'd expect Frontier to keep these cards hidden firmly up their sleeves.


 However, there are some of the long awaited changes to the crime and punishment system, intended to help crack down on some players' nefarious deeds and bring harsher consequences to their actions. This will require some vigorous and robust testing. Remember: what happens in Beta, stays in Beta so let out your inner space pirate/marauder. Your actions on the Beta server have no influence on the Live server, just make sure you are logged into the correct server before you do anything.

The 'Holo-Me' system, introduced in the last patch, will see the introduction of eye wear and twelve new hairstyles. Now us bespectacled folk can more accurately mold our commanders into our likeness. You could speculate that the eye wear could have future functionality, possibly used for an augmented reality HUD for when we take our commanders for a walk without our helmets on. If you ever wished the sleeves of one suit and the legs of another were with the torso of the one you were wearing, well now your wish can come true. You will be able to mix and match parts from any of the pilot suits that you have purchased. once you have chosen your look, you can now save it to the new save slot system, kind of like a wardrobe for your Commander.



There are many quality of life changes too, expansion of the synthesis recipe system to include heat sinks, chaff, limpet drones and even topping up your emergency life support system. These coupled with the introduction of hull and canopy repair drone control modules, will greatly increase the self sufficiency and sustainability of explorers and combat pilots alike; so long as they have the materials.




You will now have the option to remotely sell a stored ship should you find yourself short on cash at the rebuy screen. changes to the Galaxy map include improvements to route plotting, allowing faster plotting, and routes up to 20 000 light years, twenty times the distance of the previous version. There is also the option to route via neutron stars to take advantage of the jump distance bonus you can gain from fuel scooping from their particle blooms.

The listing of 'Mysterious locations added that we're not going to tell you about', is about as obvious as a neon sign in saying there is much to this beta that is tucked away.

Full patch notes are found on the Elite Dangerous forums here.