Hello Commanders,

We are pleased to announce that Chapter Two of the Beyond series of updates is nearly here! Take to the stars in the new Challenger and Krait Mk II, and show those Thargoids what it means to be Elite!

As mentioned in our announcement post, this is the first of the two smaller instalments coming as part of the Elite Dangerous Beyond series of updates, with a larger coming in Q4 of this year, bringing Squadrons and improvements to Mining and Exploration, and much more! If you’d like to contribute ideas and find out more about what’s coming in the Q4 update, please check out our Focused Feedback forums here.

Here's a breakdown of what you can experience in the 3.1 update:

Summary of features:

• New Ship: Challenger
  A modified version of the Alliance Chieftain, the Alliance Challenger has been envisaged as a frontline combat vessel. With a generous complement of hardpoints, the Challenger can more than hold its own in a fight, and although it weighs more than its sister ship, it has retained the Chieftain’s characteristic agility. It also has stronger armour than the Chieftain, allowing it to soak up a significant amount of punishment.

• New Ship: Krait Mk II
  The Krait MkII is a reimagining of the Krait Lightspeeder, which was originally manufactured by Faulcon DeLacy in the 3100s. Although the new ship is larger than the original, it possesses many of the same characteristics, emphasising speed, manoeuvrability and firepower over defensive capability. The ship also boasts a fighter bay and space for up to two crew members, making it a good option for those seeking a medium-weight, multipurpose vessel.

• Wing Missions
  First introduced in Chapter One of Beyond, we are introducing a Wing Mining Mission for you and your fellow Commanders to take on!
  

• Installation Interactions
  In a similar fashion to the Megaship interactions, which were introduced in Chapter One, Commanders will now be able to scan and interact with Space Installations.
  

  • Scan – Scanning the installation will allow Commanders to see what they can interact with: Turrets, Comms Arrays and Cargo Bays.
  • Turret hack – Disable turrets protecting other potential hackable points. This will deactivate security measures put in place to protect the Comms Arrays and Cargo Bays.
  • Comms array – Get tradable data from the Comms Array.
  • Cargo bay – Fire a limpet on the Cargo Bay to unlock and steal commodities and materials.

• Tech Broker
  There are now large variants of weapons available at Guardian Tech Brokers and Human Tech Brokers, including the return of the Guardian FSD Booster module!

• Thargoids
  Thargoids are upping their game, introducing new Scouts that will augment other Scouts.

The galaxy servers will be down tomorrow (June 28) from 8.00 AM (BST) for approximately 9 hours. There is a chance that this could run over, so we really appreciate your patience. As usual with these updates we'll keep you as up to date as possible.

While you wait, join us for a pre-launch livestream tomorrow at 12:00 PM (BST) for a Beyond - Chapter Two recap with members of the development team, on YouTube here.

We'll be posting the changelog tomorrow, and update the thread as information comes in.

Keep an eye on our social media channels too for regular updates on the server status. We will try to respond to as many queries as possible, but we will give everyone advanced notice for when the servers come back online, and social media is your best bet for knowing when the servers are back up and running!

Thanks!