Elite: Dangerous Update #68

Greetings, Commander,

Welcome to Elite: Dangerous Newsletter #68.

This week, it's competition time. With the Race To Elite wrapped up we have new prizes to win, but it'll take the most epic trading run in Elite history to walk away with one of five Nvidia Titan Black graphics cards.

Details are below, along with a brand new Peek Of The Week and an interview with Triple Elite Commander OnePercent, our Race To Elite winner.

Remember the Mac Beta will be available on Tuesday, and all players with PC Beta access also have Mac beta access, so check your account for the launcher and keep an eye on our forums for availability times.

And as always, hit our Forums, Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates from Elite: Dangerous’ galaxy, and stick with us for what’s new this week.

Contents This Week

• Nvidia Competition
• Peek Of The Week
• Race Winner
• Comms Chatter
• GalNet

Win An Nvidia Titan Black

When we visit an event like EGX or PAX we get thousands of visitors playing Elite: Dangerous and we want the game to be running at its best.

We've always insisted on demoing with Nvidia GTX Titan Black graphics cards because they'll happily run Elite: Dangerous maxed out at 4K all day long, so it made sense to work with Nvidia to offer you the chance to build a Titan rig of your own.

So starting at 5PM GMT today, you'll find Nvidia GeForce Titan Black Prototypes in stock at one mystery starport in Elite: Dangerous' galaxy.

The Titan Blacks are a rare good available in unlimited supply, and the first five players to retrieve and sell a canister of the Titan Black prototypes at Godel Ring in the Ededleen system will be rewarded with a real Titan Black, with an RRP of £899.

Crucially, the entire objective, from collection to sale of the canisters MUST happen in Open Play. That means the collection must be made in Open Play, the journey to Godel Ring must be made in Open Play, and the sale must be made in Open Play.

Remember: you don't have to BUY the canister, only retrieve and SELL the canister. And so the question is: will you go hunting across the galaxy for the one starport selling Titan Blacks? Or will you blockade Godel Ring and lie in wait?

If you make a successful delivery, email community@frontier.co.uk with your Commander name in the subject line along with the words 'I sold an Nvidia Titan Black'. The winners will be judged based on the order when the Titan Black Prototypes were sold at Godel Ring, not when the emails were received.

For full details and to discuss the event, visit our forums.

And if you're making the run, why not capture the entire thing? We'd love to see videos. We expect the competition will move fast. Happy hunting, Commanders.

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Newsletter Peek Of The Week

Look fabulous in our new Vibrant skin pack, or put on a moody face for spring with our new Tactical skin pack, available on the Elite: Dangerous store for a variety of ships soon.

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CMDR OnePercent Interviewed

Last week we announced the winners of our Race To Elite competition. Three £1,000 cash prizes were handed out to the first players who reached Elite in Combat, Trading and Exploration, and a full £10,000 went to the first player to make all three. The victorious Triple Elite player was Commander OnePercent.

We sat down to chat with him about what it takes to be the galaxy's current number one pilot, and the first player ever to stand among the Triple Elite.

Frontier: First of all, congratulations on being the first to reach triple Elite status in Elite: Dangerous – how do you feel about being the first to make it there?

OnePercent: I felt relieved, really. The stakes were indeed very high and it was a tough competition between all the players. I felt just very happy that I finally reached it. I probably dedicated more time to this per day than a full time job, alas. There really wasn't much of a social life during this period; it took two months and six days

Frontier: Did you have a plan before you started out?

OnePercent: I wasn't aware of this competition until December 18th when I saw it in the game's launcher. I decided to delete my gamma save and bite the bullet. I planned to start exploration first because I knew it was the hardest Elite rank in the game and at around 30 days later, I achieved Elite in Exploration. I used the profits made from exploration to jump me straight to a Type 9 and then used the profits from trade to blaze the way into combat without having to worry about insurance.

I set a personal goal and calculated each day what I usually should be achieving and from that extrapolated where and when I should reach my grand goal. Exploration: Get a certain number of Earthlikes, interesting phenomena – things like black holes and neutron stars. If I made the needed quota for my day – Win. Trading: reach a certain amount of profit each day; if I reach it – Win. Combat: Reach a certain amount of kills each day, If I made it – Win. In the end, each and every day was a win. It was a real feeling of achievement and that was what I needed to help me progress rather than stagnate.

OnePercent's stats. Click to enlarge.

Frontier: What were the hardest and easiest things about reaching Triple Elite?

OnePercent: Hands down to Exploration ranks. At the beginning of Elite: Dangerous v1.0, Exploration was probably the second lowest (after mining) income source In regards to time invested and profit made. But during those times it wasn't about the profits; it was about exploring the unknown and seeing things others haven't.

I saw the galactic centre first hand and explored a couple of crazy systems, one of them had this central blue hypergiant and M,K and G stars all orbiting it, and another system had two black holes orbiting each other, a neutron star and an Earthlike world all in the SAME system.

I really used my passion for exploration to drive my progress to an Elite rank. If there was one low point it would have been during my early days when I accidentally self destructed my eagle. In super cruise. After 150 detailed system scans...

Progressing my combat ranks was easier. I had already [learned to fly] while exploring, so I was able to do 600 kills/day right from the start of chasing Combat Elite, and from that I calculated when I'd get my Elite wings.

Frontier: Would you do it again?

OnePercent: I think this question should be directed towards my family. "Would you put up with him doing this again?” And the response would probably be "NO."

Frontier: What do you play on?

OnePercent: Self made PC, keyboard, mouse and an X52 Pro HOTAS from Saitek. Office chair, Desk, Headphones and single 1080p Monitor. You can see my wear and tear image on my Joystick here after two and a bit months of use.

Battle damage on OnePercent's X52 Pro.

Frontier: What’s the story behind the name OnePercent?

OnePercent: Haha! I love all the conspiracy theories regarding my name! But really my name came up last year in the beta when I encountered another commander in one of the gas giant rings. We fought and I got out of there by the skin of my teeth, with four minutes oxygen depleting FAST. I engaged Super Cruise and headed towards the station as fast as I could at ONE PERCENT hull. The one percent was engrained into my mind as a piece of good luck.

Frontier: And what now with Elite: Dangerous? Are you going to carry on playing?

OnePercent: Of course! I am anticipating the upcoming updates, and I can't wait doing things like landing on planets and walking around ships! So yes, I will carry on playing, but in a more healthy manner! I may go outside more!

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Comms Chatter

Gixxerboy 72 visited Sagittarius A* and all he got was this lousy (okay, amazing) photo of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.

Roel Wijker brings us this #selfiecam pic of his “secret” fighting force in Lugh.

With the crisis in Lugh at an end, members of the Crimson State Group celebrated in front of Hartsfield Market.

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Thousands of traders are flocking back to Kappa Fornacis following the announcement that Onionhead is once again available for sale in Harvestport. According to sources, the demand is higher than ever.

In what can only be described as a devastating blow for the Federation, the Crimson State Group and the Sons of Conn managed to wrestle control of Hartsfield Market from the Lugh for Equality Party. Despite the official withdrawal of the Federal Navy, Lugh still found itself embroiled in an ongoing civil war between the Crimson State Group and the Lugh for Equality Party. The outcome of which is still far from certain.

Recent popularity polls scored President Halsey at a shockingly low 26% approval rating, with 43% of those questioned stating that they strongly disapprove of the Federation’s President’s current policy decisions.

Senator Patreus and Aisling Duval were spotted out and about on Facece this weekend. The Empire’s newest power couple took to the fashion halls for a pleasant afternoon shopping spree, accompanied by a vast entourage of bodyguards, followers and hangers-on.

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That’s it for Newsletter #68. As always, if there's anything in particular that you’d like to hear more about, or if you'd like to ask a question, then please contact us at elite-newsletter@frontier.co.uk .

Click for the latest Game Manual, Quickstart Guide and Pilot Training Videos. Visit our Support team here and read all our previous newsletters here.

Until next time, fly safe and Right On, Commander.

The Frontier Team