The third part of this year’s season of content for Elite Dangerous is now live and brought with it a fair share of changes. Though it was being touted as one of the smaller updates there are still some substantial additions of which one is the addition of three new fighters based off Guardian technology.

The full announcment can be found here at the Frontier Forums. The list of changes is also available at the end of this post for you to check out. The team at Frontier also ran a launch Livestream (see below) to give fans a taste of the update just prior to it going live. There’s still plenty of new sights to see as well with some new reveals already having been made since the update went live.

What you see for yourself, is up to you. For the first time I immediately tried my hand at diving into one of the popular side narratives involving the engineer Ram Tah and got my first taste of the new content. Needless to say I’m happy to see something like that being surfaced in a way that is more easily accessible to lot of players. It’s given me a different path to follow that differs from my usual money making and that’s a nice change.

That new sense of purpose has improved my thoughts on the impact the update would have on players as it’s already given me a taste for what is on offer. Maybe not as earth shattering as No Man’s Sky NEXT but enough for me to get back into my ships and make a living again in the galaxy. Will post more soon… probably a screenshot or two as well… 😉

Greetings Commanders,

Here are the release notes for Beyond Chapter 3 (Appears as 1.24 on the PS4).

Weapons

The following weapons have been added to outfitting (where applicable):

• Large Dumbfire Missile
• Large Seeking Missile
• Large Torpedo Launcher
• Large Multi Cannon (turret)

The following weapons have been added to the Human Tech Broker:

• Small Shock Cannon (turret)
• Small Shock Cannon (gimbal)
• Small Shock Cannon (fixed)

The following weapons have been added to the Guardian Tech Broker

• Small Guardian plasma launcher (turret)
• Small Guardian plasma launcher (fixed)
• Small Guardian Shard Cannon (turret)
• Small Guardian Shard Cannon (fixed)
• Small Guardian Gauss Cannon (fixed)

Ships

Crusader : Latest member of the Alliance ship group. A medium sized ship based on the Alliance Chieftain, with the additional space to carry a fighter bay.

Guardians

New Guardian sites added to space and planet surfaces for players to investigate.

Three Guardian fighters added (via Guardian tech brokers):

• Trident (XG7) armed with a Plasma Auto Cannon
• Javelin (XG8) armed with a Shard Launcher
• Lance (XG9) armed with a Gauss Focus Cannon

Engineers

Players will now be able to work with a variety of Engineers across the Colonia region.

Wing Missions

Added two new wing mission types:

• Planetary settlement hack
• Planetary settlement disable

Design a Holo-Screen Advert

The winning entries have now been added to the game.

Fixes and Improvements

Art

Fixed some misaligned geometry at Pavlov Beacon

Audio

Increased the volume of the Archer COVAS pack

Galaxy Map/System Map

Renamed some systems that had duplicated names

General Fixes & Tweaks

• Fixed some German localisation issues
• Fixed some localisation issues with the unlock messages for Guardian technologies
• Fixed issue where ships hitcheck is missing when player is in an SRV
• Fixed issue where the system name would not appear correctly on the Starport welcome page.

Installations/POIs/USSs

• Fixed a rare issue causing a resource extraction site to be incorrectly positioned outside an asteroid belt
• Added missing interaction objects to Agricultural Installation
• Fixed some improperly placed Guardian pylons
• Fixed Skimmers not spawning correctly at Bova Point+

Missions

• Fixed some instances of mission targets not appearing in mission specific signal sources
• Fixed an issue with completing Source and Return missions
• Fixed mission objectives not spawning for Dark Wheel Wetwork mission
• Fixed some instances of Assassination missions not updating correctly when scanning a Nav Beacon
• Fixed missing text in some mission messages
• Fixed wing depot text incorrectly appearing in a non-wing variant
• Introduced the cargo depot mechanic to non-wing delivery missions

Powerplay

Fixed the 20% discount on Corrosion Resistant Cargo Racks not applying at an Edmund Mahon controlled station

Ships & SRV

Anaconda

Fixed the Pulse paintjob displaying incorrectly when your ship is damaged

Imperial Clipper

Improved some areas of the Military paintjob

Krait Mk. II

• Fixed antenna that could only be seen from inside the cockpit
• Fixed the order of the dashboard bobblehead slots
• Fixed missing boost and thruster audio when in vanity camera
• Fixed description inconsistencies
• Fixed outfitting camera issues whilst in VR
• Fixed missing UI audio for multi-crew members

Federal Drop Ship

Fixed incorrect name plate outfitting cameras

Stability Fixes

• Fixed a memory related crash for Xbox One
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when in an Remote Engineer Workshop
• Fixed a rare Galaxy Map crash
• Fixed Xbox One crash that could occur when disconnecting a controller
• Fixed a crash that could occur when activating data points at Penal Colony BV-2259
• Fixed a crash that could occur when swapping modules

User Interface

Fixed the landing pad number being truncated when playing the game in Brazilian Portuguese

Weapons & Modules

• Fixed Guardian Modules being listed incorrectly when playing the game in Russian
• Fixed an issue whereby the turreted version of the Flechette Launcher would not show in outfitting if unlocked before the fixed version

Server Fixes and Tweaks

• Demand for mined commodities during mining community goals should now be displayed in the commodity market’s demand column
• Fix Commander module storage limits occasionally breaking when swapping multiple modules between storage & ship
• Premium guardian synthesis recipes now use guardian materials, like the basic & standard guardian recipes
• Markets at risk of being affected by Thargoid Sensor interference should more clearly advertise their increased demand for meta alloys

Elite Dangerous is out now for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.