CMDR Ouen's Ultimate Guide to Ships [2.1]

A comprehensive, user-friendly resource to assist new players, and help gently guide them into the complex and wonderful universe of Elite Dangerous! Covers fundamentals of everything ship-related in an attempt to explain things the game does not.

Introduction

Hello! I'm CMDR Ouen! Nice to meetcha! o7 (that's a salute!) Thanks for taking a peek at my guide! If you're reading this, you may be a new player that has recently purchased Elite: Dangerous, and is looking for some information on how to get started. It is quite a compex game, and to somebody picking it up for the first time, it can be very confusing and frustrating to get over the learning curve at first. Hopefully, this guide will help alleviate that for some new players.

What is this guide?

This guide aims to help new players smoothly transition into the game and get a basic handle on the mechanics of flight and spacecraft! I will teach you most of the important things about ships that you'll need to know as a fresh Commander. You will learn things such as how to choose a ship that's a good fit for you, how to operate your first ship, and more. This guide will explain mechanics thoroughly, so it will be a bit wordy. Feel free to skip around using the index to the right.

What is this guide not?

This guide is not a walkthrough on every aspect of the game. I will touch on a lot of basic things, but I will not be telling you what to do with all your credits, how to earn them, where to meet other players, how to explore, and so on. I may touch on these lightly, but those are not the focus of this guide. You can use the information in this to supplement other guides on starting out. There will also not be a complete list of ships. Due to the character limit in Steam Guides it's impractical to have that, plus those lists already exist in other great Steam Guides. However, I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have. Just leave a comment!

If this sounds like the right tool for you, then continue on! And congratulations on your shiny, new Sidewinder and Pilot's Federation License!

I. Sidewinder Owner's Manual

So you've joined the Pilot's Federation and have been loaned a Sidewinder! The first ship you're given isn't very elegant or powerful, but it will (usually) get you from point A to B in one piece. As it is only your first ship, it may not come as a surprise that it's quite weak. One of the weakest in the game, actually. However... fragility and lack of firepower are far from being the end-all, be-all of ships. Bigger does not necessarily mean "better." Although the Sidewinder is one of the weakest vessels in terms of hull armor and firepower, it is by far the smallest, and one of the most nimble. The Sidewinder is the only ship you can do this in:


Parked on top of a 13km Mountain (nearly twice as tall as Mt. Everest!)

And this:

Flying sideways through the airlock.

Elite is all about writing a story for yourself in the galaxy. You can do almost any role regardless of the ship you choose (certain ships are, however, better at different things). There are pilots that still choose to use the Sidewinder even after hundreds of hours, even having flown the biggest ships. Try out a wide variety and use what you find the most fun or appealing. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. You'll be stuck with your Sidewinder for a short while, so let's learn how to use it!

... a. Heads-Up Display

Your new Sidewinder may seem like a complicated piece of technology at first. Well, it is! But once you study your Heads-Up Display, or HUD, one step at a time, it's not too bad. Thanks to the user-friendly interface the ship manufacturers have provided, it's relatively simple to operate your craft. The first thing you'll want to do is get used to the graphical display projected onto your canopy window.

1. Target Panel: Allows you to quickly plot your course, select nearby players, NPCs, or objects, as well as displaying any bounties and active missions.
   
2. Comms Panel: This panel has various communication tools and settings to allow you to talk with other players, read NPC chat, form a Wing with your friends, or read messages in your inbox.
   
3. Info Panel: The Info Panel displays a feed of alerts and notices of importance, or warnings.
   
4. Role Panel Gives a simple description of your ship, and provides an interface with which to deploy any Surface Reconnaissance Vehicles that you may be carrying.
   
5. Ship Panel: Displays information and statistics about your ship and your relationship with factions in the local star system.
   
6. Target Information Panel: Contains information about your target. If no target is selected, it will instead show your current system and economic data.
   
7. Target Schematic: Shows a hologram of your current target, along with its hull integrity if it's loot or a ship.
   
8. Nav-Compass: Displays your position in relation to your target. A hollow circle means the target is behind you, while a full circle indicates it's to the front of you. If the dot is directly in the center, the target is directly in front of or behind you.
   
9. Internal Heat Level: The temperature contained within your ship is shown here. Temperature levels above 100% will begin to cause damage and eventual death.
   
10. Speed Indicator: Displays your current speed and throttle position. Keeping your throttle within the blue area will put your ship at the optimal travel speed based on your destination. The line to the right shows your current maximum speed.
    
11. Radar: Represents a 3D sphere centered around you, showing the locations of nearby celestial bodies, objects, and other ships.A square indicates retracted hardpoints, while a triangle represents deployed hardpoints. If the shape is a hollow outline, it is another player. Lines above or below a target indicate their distance above or below you, respectively.
    
12. Ship Schematic: The ship schematic, as it suggests, shows a blueprint of your ship and simulates any maneuvers are you performing, such as pitch, roll, and yaw. This can help prevent you from becoming disoriented when turning rapidly. Your ship's hull integrity is also displayed below. If this reaches 0%, your ship will be destroyed.
    
13. Power Distributor: The amount of power ("pips") directed toward Systems, Engines, and Weapons is displayed here. Putting pips into shields will make them more resilient. Pips into engines will make your ship maneuver faster while boosting and increasing boost recharge rate, while rerouting power to your weapons makes them charge faster.
    
14. Heat Signature: Your heat signature appears as a wave, getting more chaotic the higher your emissions are. When a ship emits heat, it enables them to be detected. Turning off modules can help reduce your heat level. NOTE: This is different, but related to, your internal heat sensor. Silent running prevents your ship from radiating heat outwards, but builds it up internally instead. This allows you to go mostly undetected by security ships and other players.
    
15. Reservoir Fuel Tank: Provides your ship with enough fuel for operating power to use modules and other internal components. When the reservoir tank is fully drained, it will leech a chunk of fuel out of the main tank.
    
16. Fuel Tank: This holds all of the fuel that you are carrying, unlike the reservoir. Also displays your fuel efficiency.
    
17. Characteristic Indicators: Buttons will toggle on or off depending on whether or not the descriptor applies. If your cargo scoop is deployed, "Cargo Scoop" will light up, etc.

... b. Flight

With that out of the way, it's time to learn how to operate your new spacecraft. Broken down, basic spaceflight consists of five things. Pitch, Roll, Yaw, Throttle, and Thrust are the most important concepts you're going to be dealing with to move your vehicle in a 3D environment. You use Pitch, Roll, and Yaw to orient and angle yourself, and once you are facing the direction you want to move, increase your throttle to move your ship forward. Focus on rolling, and then pitching to efficiently aim at something you want. If you've played a Flight Simulator game before, you'll be familiar with how these work.

• Pitch: Tilts the nose of your ship either up or down.
  
• Roll: Rotates your entire ship to the right or left around the center axis.
  
• Yaw: Turns your ship on the horizontal plane, towards the right or the left.
  
• Throttle: Controls the speed of your ship.
  
• Thrust: Pushes your ship in one direction without changing your orientation.

... c. Hyperspace

Jumping between star systems in the darkness of witchspace.

With the vast distances that you deal with in space, you must travel at many times the speed of light (c) in order to arrive at your destination in a timely manner. There are two methods of FTL (Faster-than-light) travel in E:D.

• Supercruise: Used to travel inside of star systems at speeds between 30 km/s and 2,000c. To reach a location within a system, you must lock onto it, and put your throttle in the blue zone. This will put you at the optimal speed so that you won't overshoot your destination. When you are within a certain distance and speed range, you can disengage your Frame Shift Drive with a button press to arrive precisely at your destination. While in Supercruise, you are unable to use weapons or lateral thrusters, and the minimum speed you can go is 30 km/s; there's no way to stop completely.
  
• Witchspace/Jumping: Engage your Frame Shift Drive to jump between star systems. Your ship compresses and distorts space-time within a pocket centered on your ship in order to very quickly bring you to nearby solar systems. Jumps are limited by your jump Range. Jumping is the only way to leave a star system! Attempting to use Supercruise will only cause you to run out of fuel. (Thanks to CMDR Jdude1, fuel rat, for the tip!)

Important: If you get too close to a celestial body while in Supercruise, you will Emergency Drop into normal space to prevent you from colliding with it, at the cost of damage to your ship.

Without using Supercruise and Jumping, it would literally take the fastest ship in the game...

14,990,000 YEARS

to cover ONE SINGLE 20 light year jump. Fifteen million years in real life. So clearly, this is gonna be saving you some time. To utilize FTL travel, use one of the following two methods.

• Supercruise: Successfully jumping will cause you to enter Supercruise upon arrival, as well as engaging your Frame Shift Drive without a destination locked.
  
• Witchspace: You must first plot a course on your Galaxy Map or Navigation Panel to another star system. Once a route is plotted, make sure your ship is not Mass-Locked by another ship, starport, or planet by checking your characteristic indicators. If you are Mass-Locked, travel far enough away from the source to remove the lock. Then, point yourself toward your destination using the Nav-Compass. Engage your Frame Shift Drive, and it will charge up over 10 seconds. If you have your throttle up and are aligned with your destination, you will quickly jump from your current system to your target system. Be careful! You will drop right in front of a star into Supercruise when you exit Witchspace.

Interdictions

Being interdicted by a pirate. D:

While traveling in Supercruise, you can be "Interdicted", or pulled out into normal space (Where you can be attacked) if the perpetrator has a FSD Interdictor equipped. When they target you with it, an escape vector will appear in front of you to give you a chance at escape while they try to destabilize your Frame Shift Drive.

The goal is to keep your crosshair on the vector long enough for the blue gauge on the left to fill. If you can tell you're going to lose, you can "Submit" by zeroing your throttle. This will remove the FSD cooldown and ship damage penalty for losing. Reroute power to your shields, and boost away from them until your FSD has cooled down. If you engage a jump to another system, this will prevent you from getting mass locked. I would highly reccomend setting your Target Panel filters to include systems, so that in the event you get interdicted, you can quickly target another system and "high wake" out.

... d. Docking/Landing

Before you're ready to go carve your niche in the galaxy, you'll need to learn how to dock and land on a planet.

Docking

Docking is another critical component of movement. Docking will allow you to access a Starport's numerous facilities, such as Refueling and Mission Boards. To successfully dock, follow this step by step procedure each time you arrive at a station or settlement.

1. After dropping from Supercruise, use a combination of Pitch, Roll, Yaw, Throttle, and Thrust to locate the airlock (not necessary if the starport is a smaller "Outpost")
   
2. Approach to at least 7.50 kilometers and line up straight with the door at a good distance.
   
3. Before you enter the starport, you must request permission to dock. Open your left panel and under contacts, select the name of the starport or outpost and choose "Request docking."
   
4. If access is granted, increase your throttle to enter the airlock, and be sure that you roll so you will fit into the rotating doorway. Enter at a safe speed, preferably < 100 m/s, stay in the lane marked with green lights, and avoid traffic.
   
5. As you enter the airlock, scan the room for the pad number that was assigned to you. Navigate roughly above the proper landing pad, and deploy your Landing Gear. With your landing gear deployed, slowly "thrust down" using the appropriate bind, and carefully line yourself up with the center of the docking pad. Be sure that you are facing the right way toward the numbers. The docking restraints will automatically lock your ship down when you are aligned.

Note: Stations always face the body that they orbit. In Supercruise, if you place the planet or star directly behind you, then face the station, you will always drop right in front of the airlock. (Thanks /u/moxin84!)

That's all there is to it! Taking off is much simpler than landing. Simply choose "launch" from the station menu, and the docking restraints will be pulled away. Retract your landing gear, line up with the airlock, and exit. Again, be sure to follow the starport's protocols. Avoid oncoming traffic and stay in your proper lane.

Keep in mind that every ship uses a certain size of landing pad. Starports exist in highly populated systems, and have many pads of all sizes; Small, Medium, and Large, while Outposts are much smaller, and only have Small and Medium pads. If you have a Large ship, you cannot dock at any outposts.

Planetary Landings

IMPORTANT: This section is about content contained within the Elite:Dangerous - Horizons downloadable content pack. If you have not purchased the Horizons Season Pass, you will not be able to access planetary landings.

Landing on planets is one of the most exciting experiences that this game has to offer. It shares a few similarities with docking, but for the most part it is quite different and as such, requires a different procedure. Make sure you have a shield, and a Planetary Landing Bay with a Surface Reconnaissance Vehicle if you want to get out of your ship.


The planetary approach UI, showing the Attitude Ladder (angle), Altimeter (height) and Rate of Descent indicator.

1. Locate a planet you wish to land on. As of patch 2.1, we can land on Rocky, Icy, and some High Metal Content worlds and moons. In the System Map, if a planet is able to be explored at ground level, it will have a blue circle around it. Lines in the top left of the icon indicate that the planet contains settlements (inhabited colonies).
   
2. With a planet chosen, approach it at a safe speed (in the blue throttle zone). There will be a large, deep blue ring around the planet as you get very close to it. Fly below this line cautiously, and you will begin to descend towards the planet's surface.
   
3. Hold a moderate angle and take it slow until you reach the "OC" zone marked on your Altimeter. If you have been following the steps precisely, you should transition safely into Orbital Cruise.
   
4. Keep your throttle in the blue zone or lower, and ensure that you do not go into the red zone on your Rate of Descent indicator. Turn sideways as shown in the picture above. This makes you go faster and allows you to see where you're going. Stay in the blue area of the Attitude Ladder to orbit the planet very quickly, and keep in the center of the OC zone until you find a place you'd like to land, and then start slowing down and descending very cautiously to the "DROP" area. If you are going faster than about 10km/s when you hit it, you will emergency drop.
   
5. Successfully reaching the drop zone will start your final transition into Glide. You will travel at 2.5km/s until you are about 5 kilometers above the ground. The only thing that matters here is that you don't aim too far down or up. As with every other stage, you want to keep your angle on the attitude ladder in the blue zone. Don't worry about your speed or angle other than that. You will automatically and safely slow down as your glide ends.
   
6. Fly at a shallow angle until you are about 1-1.5km above the ground. Slow down and fire your vertical thrusters early as you approach the surface of the planet, and deploy your landing gear.
   
7. At 50-200m above the surface, lower your throttle to 5-15m/s and fly parallel to the surface. Begin watching for your ship to flash blue on your radar, indicating a safe spot to land. You are now free to lower yourself onto the ground.
   
8. Open up your role panel, and under the SRV tab, select deploy.

Be extremely careful when you are attempting your first five landings or so. It is VERY easy to instantly destroy your ship by hitting the ground too hard. This is 10x more important on planets with high gravity. If you are descending too fast, pitch upwards above 0° and use your Engine Boost.

When you are ready to leave, drive your SRV under the hangar bay (make sure to pull up all the way) so that your "Board Ship" indicator flips on. Open your role panel and select board ship. When back in the cockpit, hold R to start your drives and lift off, and fly out of the mass lock zone at 2km, where you can start charging your FSD to enter supercruise. Before you can engage, you need to aim up at the escape vector at about 90°. Make sure your ship is not drifting in another direction when you aim. Boosting will force your ship to align with the vector.

... e. Combat

Now that you have the basics of movement down, you have most of the tools you need to defend yourself. With a little bit more knowledge, you'll be ready to dogfight in no time.

Weapons

Every ship in Elite: Dangerous has Hardpoints. These are platforms that your weapons and tools are mounted on, and they can either be deployed or retracted with the assigned key. In order to fire your weapons, you must have your hardpoints deployed. It is also a good idea to set a target, otherwise gimballed weapons won't work. Hardpoints can be used with three types of Weapon Mounts. Every weapon comes with a specific type of mount.

Fixed: Weapons with Fixed mounts can only fire in a straight line forward. This angle is determined by the location of the hardpoint on your ship.
Damage: High
Cost: Very Low

Gimballed: When facing a target, Gimballed weapons will automatically adjust their angle to help you aim. They will aim on their own, but you must fire them yourself.
Damage: Moderate
Cost: Moderate

Turret: Turret mounts will automatically aim at and fire upon targets and hostiles within range as long as they have a line of sight to them. Turret mounted weapons have a 360 degree field of vision, excluding blind spots blocked by your ship's body. You can change the firing mode of your turret mounts under the "Functions" tab of your Ship Panel.
Damage: Low
Cost: Very High

One more thing to note is that you must identify your target as wanted with a simple scan before you attack them. To do this, simply target them and face them until they say either "Clean" or "Wanted" in the lower left of your screen. If you attack a ship that is not a criminal, you will immediately become wanted yourself, even if you know they're Wanted but have not scanned them. Police will attack you on sight and try to kill you if you are wanted in the system.

Also important to be aware of are Damage Types. They are: Thermal, Kinetic, and Explosive varieties.

Thermal: Thermal damage is effective against shields, but not hull armor. This damage type has the perk of having infinite ammo, by means of using power instead. However, it heats up your ship very fast.

Kinetic: Kinetic damage is strong against hull, but very ineffective against shields. Kinetic weapons consume ammo, and usually fire projectiles with a travel time, but do not use very much power.

Explosive: Explosive weapons are similar to Kinetic weapons. They do extreme damage to hulls, but they are very weak when attacking shields. They also tend to cost a bit more per shot than Kinetic weapons do.

There also exists Thermal-Kinetic weapons. They are equally effective against shields and hull armor.

... f. Outfitting & Other Mechanics

As you may have picked up by this point, there are a lot of parts under the hood of a ship. And not only that, you can also swap them in and out with few restrictions! Even as unique as each ship is fresh off the assembly line, once a Commander begins to modify one, it becomes a completely new piece and special creation, much the same as a snowflake. To modify your ship, you need to dock at a station and access the "Outfitting" menu via "Starport Services".



Before you go to kit out your ship, though, you'll need to learn the different parts of your craft and the terminology to go with it. Also, you can click "read more" on any module and it will explain to you every single statistic and how it affects your ship! This is extremely helpful, don't be afraid to utilize that if you forget something.

• Top Speed: The maximum speed that your ship can travel at with full power to engines.
  
• Boost Speed: The speed at which your ship will move when using your Engine Boost.
  
• Maneuverability: Refers to your ability to Pitch, Roll, and Yaw your ship.
  
• FSD Range: The distance in light-years (how far light travels within a year; 5,879,000,000,000 miles!) that your ship can cover with a single hyperspace jump. There are two seperate stats for this: Unladen and Laden. Unladen is your range while carrying no cargo, and laden is your range while at your current maximum cargo capacity.
  
• Shields: Shields are optional temporary barriers that soak up damage in place of your hull. Once shields are down, your hull is vulnerable to damage for a time until your shields recharge.
  
• Armour/Integrity: Represents how resistant your hull is to damage.
  
• Hull Mass: How "heavy" and bulky your ship is.
  
• Cargo Capacity: Indicates how many tonnes of cargo you may carry based on how many cargo racks the ship has fitted.
  
• Hardpoints & Utility Mounts: Allow you to affix weapons and tools to your ship.
  
• Modules: Every ship has two different kinds of module types available. Core modules are critical to ship operation (Thrusters, Power Distributor, etc), while Internal Compartments/Optional Modules are additional tools and parts you can install such as Scanners, Extra Fuel Tanks, Cargo Racks, etc. Every module has a Class (1-8) and a Rating (A-I). Combining these tells you the size and strength of the module. 1H modules would be the smallest and weakest, while 8A are the largest and most powerful in the game.

Other Mechanics

Most of the other ship components are fairly self explanitory, but there are a few that function in a different way from the others.

• Cargo Hatch/Scoop: In order to pick up cargo, you have to use your Cargo Scoop. Deploy it with the keybind, and approach the object you want to pick up at 0-35m/s. The target schematic on your HUD will be replaced with a visual representation of your cargo hatch. Position the object in the exact center of the image, and fly towards it until you pick it up.
  
• Life Support: Having one of these systems installed will provide you with oxygen and keep your body protected in the vacuum for a time. If your Life Support module malfunctions, gets destroyed, or your canopy cracks and shatters, then you will immediately begin using up the reserve supply of oxygen. The only way to counteract this is to either pass through the airlock in a station (temporary, until you leave), or repair it at any starport with repair facilities.
  
• Power Plant/Power Management: Your power plant is not just something insignificant that runs idlly in the background, like in other games. In Elite, you can only use a finite amount of power before your power plant becomes overloaded. This is determined by the class and rating of your power plant. When you deploy your hardpoints, you use significantly more power than at any other time. To counteract this, your Ship Panel allows you to set priority on different modules. If a module is set to priority 1, you are telling your ship, "I ALWAYS want this to be running." If you lower the priority to 2 or below, this tells your ship, "If we're using too much power, try to shut [module marked <2>] off first. This pattern follows all the way down to level 5, the least important priority.
  
• Scanner: Your ship is equipped with the ability to perform a basic scan on various targets. Depending on whether you scan a celestial body, a ship, or a navigation beacon, it will have different effects. To perform a simple scan, simply target the entity, and face it. On ships, this will show you their criminal background, name, type of ship, and faction. If you scan an "Unexplored" planet/star/etc, then it will reveal basic data to you. If you have a Detailed Surface Scanner equipped, it will reveal materials on that planet along with gravity level and other advanced statistics. Last but not least, scanning a nav beacon will reveal the entire system's exploration information to you, excluding any advanced information.

... g. Ship Damage & Insurance

Repairing Damage to Your Ship

If your ship becomes severely damaged in a dogfight, you'll need to repair the damage in one of three ways.

1. The first is to simply dock at a station and open up the repair menu, or click "Repair All."
   
2. Another method is to purchase and install an optional "AFMS" maintenance module. With an AFMS installed on your ship, you can go into your power management menu, select a module, and choose repair. This will temporarily shut off the module, so be careful of when you repair things such as life support or weapons. You CANNOT repair your power plant, AFMS, or your hull with this method.
   
3. The final method is only to be used as a last resort. Under your Ship Panel's "Function" menu, there is a "Reboot/Repair" choice. If you select this, it will restart your entire ship and individually boot up all your modules again. If you have a module at 0% health, this process will cannibalize healthy modules in order to restore the dead one to 1%, allowing you enough functionality to limp to the nearest starport.

Rebuy Costs

You might be wondering what happens if your ship gets destroyed in combat. Luckily, we have Insurance coverage thanks to the Pilot's Federation. And thankfully, it's much less complicated than real life insurance.

When your ship gets destroyed, you will have a rebuy cost based on how much your ship is worth, around 5% of the total value of your ship and modules combined. With the cheaper ships it is only a few thousand credits and is quite manageable, but with larger ships, insurance can be anywhere from 2 million to 30 million. If you cannot afford to rebuy your ship, you will lose it, but you can have a free Sidewinder loaned to you.

Loans

Your insurance will graciously allow you to take out a loan in order to help pay your ship off if you do not have enough money to afford a rebuy. The maximum amount you can take is linked to your highest rank within the Pilot's Federation. When taking out a loan, 10% of all future income will be used to pay off the loan until you have no more debt.

DO NOT EVER FLY A SHIP YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO REBUY. Do not even make one jump unless necessary. No matter how safe you think you're being, freak accidents can and do happen. I have lost two Type-9 Heavies (76,000,000 CR each) due to ridiculous circumstances even when I was being very careful.

II. Purchasing A New Ship

After you've saved up a bit of money in your Sidewinder, you can finally afford to buy your first true ship that you can call your own. It's a simple process, but to make the best decision for yourself, you should know a few things first!

... a. Roles

All ships in Elite: Dangerous fall under one or more Roles, which tell what job each is best at performing. Like I said earlier in the introduction, almost every ship can do every job to some degree (with some exceptions), so the most important thing is that you have fun and fly what you like. These are the basic roles that all ships fall under.

• Fighter: These ships excel at combat, typically sporting multiple hardpoints, superior hardpoint placement, and resilient shields/hull, but at the cost of very poor jump range, fuel economy, and a lack of internal module compartments.
  
• Trader: Trader vessels can hold massive amounts of cargo, but are not usually able to defend themselves well.
  
• Explorer: Explorers are capable of jumping long distances, even upwards of 50 light years in a single jump. The main downside is that they don't have much in the way of self defense.
  
• Multipurpose: Designed for a wide variety of situations, Multipurpose ships are usually very versatile and dependable ships. They can function as Fighters, Traders, or Explorers, but they typically don't do their job as well as ships devoted entirely to the role.
  
• Passenger: Passenger missions have yet to be implemented, but in Patch 2.2, they will play a big role. The Orca is the only released Passenger ship as of yet.

Roles can be further divided into sub-roles, such as Courier, Pirate, Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Assasin, Mercenary and Miner, but these are not necessary to memorize. We'll get to those later; for now, just get familiar with the basic roles. For reference, below is a table showing which ships fall under which category. Ships will have a rating of ✓, ✓✓, or ✓✓✓, indicating their proficiency at performing a role relative to their price point, weight class, and compared to similar ships. "Multipurpose" implies fair combat, trading, and exploring ability.

	Fighter	Trader	Explorer	Multipurpose	Passenger
Adder				✓✓
Anaconda			✓✓✓	✓✓✓
Asp Explorer			✓✓✓	✓✓✓
Asp Scout	✓		✓✓	✓✓
Cobra Mk. III				✓✓✓
Cobra Mk. IV	✓			✓✓✓
Diamondback Explorer	✓		✓✓	✓
Diamondback Scout	✓✓		✓✓	✓
Eagle Mk. II	✓✓
Federal Assault Ship	✓✓
Federal Corvette	✓✓✓
Federal Dropship	✓✓			✓✓
Federal Gunship	✓✓✓
Fer-de-Lance	✓✓✓
Hauler		✓✓✓
Imperial Clipper				✓✓✓
Imperial Courier				✓✓
Imperial Cutter		✓✓✓		✓✓✓
Imperial Eagle	✓✓
Keelback	✓	✓✓	✓
Orca				✓	?
Python				✓✓✓
Sidewinder				✓
Type-6 Transporter		✓✓✓	✓✓✓
Type-7 Transporter		✓✓
Type-9 Heavy		✓✓✓
Viper Mk. III	✓✓			✓✓
Viper Mk. IV	✓✓			✓
Vulture	✓✓✓

... b. Manufacturers

In Elite: Dangerous, there are several different groups that produce ships. Each varies wildly in role, aesthetic, statistics, shape, theme, price, and naming conventions.

[image to come]

• Core Dynamics: Specializes in combat ships, and produces all of the aircraft within Federation's fleet. The exterior of their ships have a bulky industrial quality to them. The interiors tend to be a bit more sleek and streamlined, however.
  
• Faulcon DeLacy: Multipurpose and combat ships are DeLacy's focus. Even among the same manufacturer, many of the cockpits and designs are quite different from one another, but while their looks may be different, most of DeLacy's ships are named after various snakes.
  
• Gutamaya: Gutamaya is resonsible for the Imperial fleet. All of Gutamaya's ships are aptly prefixed with "Imperial." Falling in line with the Empire's philosophy, Gutamaya's ships share a common look; sleek, ivory colored, clean and beautiful to look at. The Empire's ships are generally all-purpose, as opposed to the combat-built ruggedness that has come to be expected from Core Dynamics.
  
• Lakon Spaceways: Lakon is one of the heavy hitters in the industry. They produce ships that tend to be the leaders in the freight and exploration areas. Lakon Spaceway ships lean towards metallic, heavy, unpolished and rough designs, with a few exceptions.
  
• Saud Kruger: Being the only modern creator of passenger carriers, Saud Kruger holds a monopoly on tourist pleasure-cruisers. They have only released one ship to date, with a heavy focus on elegance, and it's a ship that takes the phrase "sleek" to extremes.
  
• Zorgon Peterson: The main area of this company's expertise lies in small, versatile vessels. It also manufactures the larger Fer-de-Lance, which is filled to the brim with hardpoints.

... c. Making Your First Purchase

Hopefully you've managed to pick up on most of the core concepts up until now. I would encourage you to favorite or bookmark this guide so you can refer back to it as much as you need.

By now, you might have some idea of the path you would like to take. The first (and biggest) step in shopping for a new ship is to figure out what role you primarily want to do the most. You can decide on a larger umbrella role before anything else; this can help narrow down your choices. Do you want to be a Fighter, Trader, Explorer, or some combination of the three?

Once you pick a broad role, let's look at specifically what your options are. I will only be listing ships here that fall under or around 1,000,000 CR. ALSO, before you scurry off to find your dream ship, you'll want to know that rarely, certain locations will offer 10%, 15%, or 20% discounts on ships. To find these locations, check the community wikia page[elite-dangerous.wikia.com] for a particular ship and look in the comments/purchase locations.

Fighter

Pirate: Interdict stray vessels, taking their cargo for your own needs.
Cobra Mk. III, Viper Mk. IV, Diamondback Scout
Vigilante: Hunt down slave traders, smugglers, and murderers to bring them to justice.
Cobra Mk. III, Diamondback Scout, Eagle Mk. II, Imperial Eagle, Viper Mk. III, Viper Mk. IV,
Privateer: Choose a galactic superpower or minor faction to pledge alleigance to, and assist them in Conflict Zones or controlled territories.
Cobra Mk. III, Viper Mk. III, Viper Mk. IV
Bounty Hunter: Lurk in Resource Extraction Sites and Nav Beacons, hunting down wanted criminals.
Adder, Cobra Mk. III, Diamondback Scout, Eagle Mk. II, Imperial Eagle,, Viper Mk. III, Viper Mk. IV
Assassin: Take on independent contracts to assassinate key individuals.
Cobra Mk. III, Viper Mk. III, Viper Mk. IV

Trader

Smuggler: Trade illegal goods such as slaves and narcotics, and use stealth and wit to avoid law enforcement.
Adder, Cobra Mk. III, Hauler, Type-6, Viper Mk. III
Freelance Trader: Travel throughout inhabited space, buying and selling a wide variety of goods at your own pace, on your own conditions.
Adder, Cobra Mk. III, Hauler, Type-6, Viper Mk. III
Transporter: Deliver food, goods, or arms to locations in need. This is mainly for Community Goals or independent "Background Simulation (BGS)" manipulation of systems and economies.
Adder, Cobra Mk. III, Hauler, Type-6, Viper Mk. III
Courier: Deliver data and intel to nearby locations. Does not require cargo space.
Any
Miner: Travel to asteroid fields and planetary rings to extract minerals.
Adder, Cobra Mk. III, Hauler, Type-6

Explorer

Salvager: Scour the surfaces of planets, or signal sources looking for anything of value at wreckage sites.
Any
Deep-Space Explorer: Venture into the unkown, exploring nebulae and planets that have never been seen by human eyes, far from the reaches of inhabited space. Sell exploration data to Universal Cartographics in an inhabited system for profit.
Adder, Cobra Mk. III, Diamondback Scout, Hauler, Type-6 Transporter

Once you get an idea of the kind of playstyle that appeals the most to you, take a look at the table below for a summary of the beginner ships. Clicking the name of a ship will take you to the wiki page for it if you want to see some images or more information about it. A ✓ indicates that the ship can fill that role.

	Fighter	Trader	Explorer	Cost	Agility	Landing Pad
Adder [elite-dangerous.wikia.com]	✓	✓	✓	$	8	Small
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Cobra_MkIII	✓	✓	✓	$$	6	Small
Diamondback Scout [elite-dangerous.wikia.com]	✓	✓	✓	$$$	8	Small
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Eagle_MkII	✓			$	10	Small
Hauler [elite-dangerous.wikia.com]		✓	✓	$	6	Small
Imperial Eagle [elite-dangerous.wikia.com]	✓			$	8	Small
Type-6 Transporter [elite-dangerous.wikia.com]		✓	✓	$$$	3	Medium
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Viper_MkIII	✓	✓		$	6	Small
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Viper_MkIV	✓	✓		$$	4	Small

The final step after you have decided on a ship, is to find a station or settlement that harbors it, and purchase it from a shipyard! I don't really need to explain this one. Use the wiki link above to help find a place near you where the ship you wish to buy is discounted.

III. Engineers

IMPORTANT: This section is about content contained within the Elite:Dangerous - Horizons downloadable content pack. If you have not purchased the Horizons Season Pass, you will not be able to access or utilize Engineers.

If you've made the plunge by this point and purchased your own ship, congratulations! It's one of the best feelings to get a shiny new vehicle after working hard for hours to earn it. Once you get your first upgrade, you can start earning a real income. That is beyond the scope of this guide however. There are numerous guides and discussions in the various E:D communities that will help teach you how to make a living.

This section of the guide will assume you're at a comfortable point, and you've gotten a ship you're very happy with; one you intend to keep using indefinitely. I am particularly referring to the 50,000,000CR+ ships at the top of the ladder, but if you have found a cheaper ship that you're satisfied with, you can still take advantage of this! The flow of Engineers works much better as endgame content, but it is not required if you want to access it earlier. Either way, if you're at that stage, you've no doubt spent quite a while and a lot of money outfitting your ship(s) to your liking. Outfitting is not the only way to customize your ship, though...



Scattered throughout inhabited space, there are Engineers that can install extremely powerful Modifications on your ship components. If any of the following things sound like fun to you, then get hyped! You can get all these effects with Engineers!

• Heal your squad-mates by shooting them in the face with lasers
  
• Ignite enemy ships, causing their modules and weapons to malfunction if their ship doesn't outright explode
  
• Turn your Fragmentation Cannon into a sniper rifle
  
• Adjust your weapons to damage certain parts of ships
  
• Greatly extend your hyperspace jump range
  
• Give your hulking, monstrous hull the mass of a feather
  
• + Many more adjustments!

... a. Meeting an Engineer

If you have the Horizons DLC installed, you will immediately have five engineers partially revealed to you right off the bat. In your ship panel, under "status", there will be a button that says "View Engineers." This menu will show what modules an engineer specializes in, as well as the requirements to access them. There are three hurdles you have to jump before you will be able to get to all the goodies that one has to offer.

1. First, you must be invited; when you comission enough upgrades from any engineer, they will open up to you and reveal the existence of another engineer. When you get invited, the new one will appear in your menu.
   
2. Next, you need to get gain access to them. This requires you to meet a certain condition such as having a certain rank with a superpower or minor faction, traveling a certain distance, and so on. Once you do this, they will reveal their residence on your galaxy map as a purple icon.
   
3. When you satisfy that demand, all that's left is to fulfill their initial contract. The initial contract has you to delivering cargo or materials to the location that is now accessible to you.

With these requirements met, the engineer will allow you to start purchasing modifications from them. Bring or purchase from them one of their preferred module types, and choose an upgrade you would like from their workshop. If you have enough items, you can have them apply a modification, the exact effect of which will be randomized. At first, you will only be permitted to get grade 1 upgrades, but the more upgrades you buy from them, the better your relationship will be and you will gradually unlock stronger upgrades, up to grade 5.

In order to create a new modification, you'll need the required components which consist of wake and scan data, chemical and rocky materials, and commodities that take up cargo space. You can find these scattered all across the galaxy. I would highly reccomend checking most of the signal sources that you pass, along with any wakes, to help you gradually build up some of these so it won't be such a grind when you go to get an upgrade. To find chemicals and metals, you need to purchase a Detailed Surface Scanner and give a planet a simple scan (you may need a discovery scanner onboard to uncover it). This will reveal information on what materials are on the planet's surface when you check the system menu.

... b. Modifications

The major draw of the engineers is to push your ship to the very limits by installing modifications on existing parts of your ship. There are far too many upgrades to list here, but I'll explain some of the modification types and some common upgrades you can make, as well as the engineers themselves. For starters, here are the parts of your ship that you can modify.

Weapons
• Beam Laser
  
• Burst Laser
  
• Pulse Laser
  
• Fragmentation Cannon
  
• Missile Rack
  
• Torpedo Pylon
  
• Mine Launcher
  
• Multi-Cannon
  
• Cannon
  
• Rail Gun
  
• Plasma Accelerator

Core Modules
• Frame Shift Drive
  
• Hull Armour
  
• Hull Reinforcement Package
  
• Power Distributor
  
• Power Plant
  
• Shield Generator
  
• Thrusters

Utility Mounts/Optional Modules
• ***Corrosion Resistant Cargo Rack
  
• Frame Shift Drive Interdictor
  
• Shield Booster
  
• Shield Cell Bank

*** - Available for purchase at a certain engineer's settlement.

There is an incredible range of effects you can apply to all of those, but some of the most interesting ones are Experimental Effects. These fundamentally change the way your module functions, such as allowing your laser to heal an ally, or making it throw an enemy ship off course. Most weapons have a chance to roll one of these when you purchase an upgrade. Again, there are a couple dozen or so, so I won't list and describe every single one. I will however list the Engineers, so if you'd like to upgrade a certain module, you can pursue the ones that offer modifications for yours.

A few examples of common modifications might be:

• Faster Boot Sequence
  
• Higher Module Integrity
  
• Decreased Thermal Load
  
• Increase Rate of Fire/Damage
  
• Increased Optimal Mass (remember to click "read more" in outfitting!)

They may not sound that great in theory, but an upgrade can easily be the difference between a 35 Ly jump range and a 50 Ly jump range. Combat modifications are also essential if you do PvP. There are many modifications for you to utilize, and most of them have different drawbacks and quirks to them, but you'll have to discover those for yourself. :)

... c. The Engineers

There are 15 known engineers, and you start out with knowledge of 5 of them. From there, you want to commission as many modules from them as you can until they divulge information about other engineers. Do the same thing with the new engineers, and repeat the process until you have all 15 unlocked! If you want to upgrade a specific component, just look at this list and find an engineer that will work on it.

Elvira Martuk

• Frame Shift Drives
  
• Shield Generators

Discovered from: Public knowledge
System: Khun
Station: Long Sight Base
-----
Access Condition: Attain a maximum distance from your career start location of at least 300 light years.
Initial Contract: Provide 3 units of Soontill Relics.

Felicity Farseer

• Frame Shift Drives
  
• Engines and Thrusters

Discovered from: Public Data Sources
System: Deciat
Station: Farseer Inc.
-----
Access Condition: Gain exploration rank Scout or higher.
Initial Contract: Provide 1 unit of Meta Alloys.

Todd 'The Blaster' Mcquinn

• Multi-cannons
  
• Fragmentation Cannons

Discovered from: Common knowledge
System: Wolf 397
Station: Trophy Camp
-----
Access Condition: Earn more than 15 bounty vouchers.
Initial Contract: Provide 100,000 credits worth of bounty vouchers.

The Dweller

• Power Distributors
  
• Pulse Lasers

Discovered from: Common knowledge.
System: Wyrd
Station: Black Hide
-----
Access Condition: Deal with at least 5 black markets.
Initial Contract: Pay 500,000 credits.

Liz Ryder

• Missiles
  
• Mines

Discovered from: Public Sources
System: Eurybia
Station: Demolition Unlimited
-----
Access Condition: Gain Friendly status with Eurybia Blue Mafia.
Initial Contract: Provide 200 units of Landmines.

Zacariah Nemo

• Fragmentation Cannons
  
• Multi-Cannons

Discovered from: Elvira Martuuk
System: Yoru
Station: Nemo Cyber Party Base
-----
Access Condition: Gain invitation from Party of Yoru.
Initial Contract: Provide 25 units of Xihe Companions.

Lei Cheung

• Shield Generators
  
• Shield Boosters

Discovered from: The Dweller
System: Laksak
Station: Trader's Rest
-----
Access Condition: You have traded in over 50 markets.
Initial Contract: Provide 200 units of Gold.

Hera Tani

• Power Plants
  
• Power Distributors

Discovered from: Liz Ryder
System: Kuwemaki
Station: The Jet's Hole
-----
Access Condition: Gain rank Outsider or higher with the Empire.
Initial Contract: Provide 50 units of Kamitra Cigars.

Juri Ishmaak

• Mines
  
• Missiles

Discovered from: Felicity Farseer
System: Giryak
Station: Pater's Memorial
-----
Access Condition: Earn more than 50 combat bonds.
Initial Contract: Provide 1,000,000 credits worth of combat bonds.

Selene Jean

• Armour
  
• Hull Reinforcement Package

Discovered from: Todd "The Blaster" McQuinn
System: Kuk
Station: Prospector's Rest
-----
Access Condition: Mine at least 500 tons of ore.
Initial Contract: Provide 10 units of Painite.

Marco Qwent

• Power Plants
  
• Power Distributors

Discovered from: Elvira Martuuk
System: Sirius
Station: Qwent Research Base
-----
Access Condition: Gain invitation from Sirius Corporation.
Initial Contract: Provide 25 units of Modular Terminals.

Professor Palin

• Thrusters
  
• Frame Shift Drive

Discovered from: Marco Qwent
System: Maia
Station: Palin Research Center
-----
Access Condition: Attain a maximum distance from your career start location of at least 5,000 light years.
Initial Contract: Provide 25 units of Unknown Fragments.

Broo Tarquin

• Pulse Lasers
  
• Burst Lasers

Discovered from: Hera Tani
System: Muang
Station: Broo's Legacy
-----
Access Condition: Gain combat rank Competent or higher.
Initial Contract: Provide 50 units of Fujin Tea.

Colonel Bris Dekker

• Frame Shift Drive Interdictors
  
• Frame Shift Drives

Discovered from: Juri Ishmaak
System: Sol
Station: ?
-----
Access Condition: Friendly with the Federation.
Initial Contract: Provide 10,000,000 credits worth of combat bonds.

Didi Vatermann

• Shield Booster
  
• Shield Generator

Discovered from: Selene Jean
System: Leesti
Station: Vatermann LLC
-----
Access Condition: Gain trade rank Merchant or higher.
Initial Contract: Provide 50 units of Lavian Brandy.

IV. Closing

If you've made it to this point, thank you so much for reading my guide! It means a lot, and I hope it managed to address some of the confusions and problems that many new players have in this game.

If you have the time to leave a comment, I'd love to know what you thought. If you have any criticisms, please kindly be polite and civil about it. I am not going to bother dealing with rudeness. Feel free to ask any questions about the game in the comments as well, and you can also add me ingame if you want some help. My name in Elite is CMDR Ouen. :)

If you'd like to post my guide somewhere else, that's fine, but please let me know and give credit. :)

Word Count: 7,824
Character Count: 45,471
not including formatting
worse than space madness
send help

V. Extras

Here are various links, references, credits, or any other content that doesn't fit into the rest of the guide.

... a. References & Links

There are plenty of fantastic resources out there for Elite; both official and unofficial. Here are just a few of the ones that you might find helpful.

Official Website[www.elitedangerous.com]
Official Forums[forums.frontier.co.uk]

Community Wiki[elite-dangerous.wikia.com]
Elite: Dangerous Subreddit
Fuel Rats[www.fuelrats.com] - Rescue if you get stuck or run out of fuel
Elite Dangerous Assets[edassets.org] - Lots of great resources made by the community are posted here
http://inara.cz/ - Fantastic companion site for Elite: Dangerous
http://www.radiosidewinder.com/ - Fan-made radio station with in-universe advertisements for ships and rare goods, and ambient/electronic music to help set the mood for space travel

... b. Glossary

Here are some common terms in the community or in this guide that new players may not understand. Please let me know if you'd like to see any others listed here ^^

BGS - Background Simulation; the system that controls the state and economics of systems in the game.
Ceos - Distant star system that offers very profitable long-range trading missions
CG - Community Goal; A global mission available to all players; tracks progress based on how many players contribute to the goal
CZ - Conflict Zone; A signal source in systems that are in a state of Civil War, where two rival factions fight for dominance.
CMDR/Commander - A member of the Pilot's Federation. Names prefixed with CMDR are other human players. NPCs cannot be Commanders.
FSD - Frame Shift Drive; allows you to enter hyperspace to cover vast distances of space quickly.
RES - Resource Extraction Site; An area for Bounty Hunting (not mining) that is more profitable than nav beacons. Hazardous RES are the most lucrative, and most dangerous.
Robigo - Distant star system that offers very profitable long-range smuggling missions
RNG - Random Number Generator. Refers to the random outcomes and generation of certain things such as engineer modifications.
Sothis - Distant star system that offers very profitable long-range trading missions
SRV - Surface Reconnaissance Vehicle; used to explore the surface of planets.
Station - Manmade constructions in space that offer various services including restocking, repairing, refueling, commodity markets, mission boards, shipyards, and contacts. The larger variant is called a Starport, while the smaller is called an outpost.

... c. Credits

CMDR SpyTec: For creating the wonderful Elite Dangerous Assets[edassets.org] fansite, which allowed me to use the manufacturer logos and the official ED game logos.
Community Wikia & Editors: Many of the ship statistics and hard numbers were pulled from it and reformatted for the sake of clarity and to better fit my guide.
Inara.cz: For some of the engineer info and portraits to supplement my own research.
Thanks to CMDR Jdude1, /u/Pave_Low, /u/moxin84 for suggestions!

... d. Changelog

8/20/2016
Version 1.00 released!
Version 1.01 - Minor grammar/spelling fixes, added a few images I was too lazy to add
Version 1.1 - Added Insurance sub-section & changed banner

8/21/2016
Version 1.1.01 - Added a few more small changes, reformatted interdiction, added words to the Glossary

8/22/2016
Version 1.1.02 - Added information about scanning in a few sections, and details on how to scan for materials with Engineers

8/25/2016
Version 1.2 - Minor reorganization and phrasing changes, added to-do list, fuel rats link, added suggestions from Reddit

... e. To-Do List

General
• Upload collage of the various manufacturers
  
• Change "Fighter" image
  
• Create videos for docking & landing

Patch 2.2
• Add a section for Ship-Launched Fighters under Combat
  
• Add roles to Beluga Liner
  
• Expand on "Passenger" role
  
• Add new white dwarf scooping to Hyperspace
  
• Update guide image
  
• Update landable planets
  
• Ship transfer section?

[Gespenter]

great guide but you are missing the information on passengers which has come out.

[pyr0kid]

i have yet to see how much of this helps push come to shove, but this is a damn great guide.

[Fox]

Yeah, i saw that, but this one is really great. Thank you anyway.

[Ouen]

I do not, I'm sorry! But the official manual is a PDF if you need one. There's a link on the launcher

[Fox]

great!
do you have this guide in pdf? (it may be protected one, just to have it by hand)

[Splodey Dope]

Excellent guide! Bang up job dude!

[Nauk]

Oh yeah you should add just the mechanics of powerplay. The effects they produce, for example my friend eho sell his stuff at lower prices!

[Ouen]

Their tutorials are alright, they definitely help but I remember when I started, there were lots of holes in it. Like the combat one said something like "used gimballed hardpoints to destroy the target" and I had no clue what that was supposed to mean. The videos help with some of the things but yeah. I made this because I'm sure people get confused about the same things I did when I was starting. It's a great game and I really hope more people can get into it instead of getting frustrated and giving up

[Nauk]

Elite is complex and fun to master, you covered everything. Much better than the ''tutorials''. I wish that i had this when i started. Learned the hard way what to do and not do lol. Really nice!

[Ouen]

Thanks everyone :) If there's anything else you'd like to see added, let me know!