During the last few days of playing Elite Dangerous I’ve been going over in my head whether to take on one of the ultimate challenges in the game by making the long trip to Sagittarius A*; the black hole that sits in the center of the galaxy (it’s real too!). It’s not exactly a simple trip as the travel distance is over 20,000 light years so anyone wanting to make the trek needs to be self-reliant enough to survive any obstacles faced. It’s the game’s version of those reality shows that drop a person in the middle of nowhere with a stick, a box of matches and an “off you go”.

Those who attempted it in the early days of the game deserve a lot of credit because it was way more dangerous (!) then and the galaxy felt a whole lot larger too and if you lost your ship it was a long way back to the start. But a lot has changed since then. With a new habitable bubble in Colonia located closer to the center and an established travel route to get there with plenty of stops in between (and of course there’s The Fuel Rats) the risks have been mitigated considerably. After losing A LOT of credits to doing dumb things with my expensive ships I’ve been put off from making the attempt but my thinking is changing. I’ve spent more time lately playing the game solo and upgraded my Anaconda enough for it to get a decent jump range. If I include the Guardian FSD Booster to stretch the range out even further the number of jumps necessary to get there is much less too.

Might be a little while yet until I finish getting all the parts and supplies I need but it’s worth considering taking the plunge and making the trip as I can’t remember the last time I had a long term goal in the game. I haven’t been to Colonia either so stopping over there makes for a heck of a good round trip and a great way to accumulate a pile of exploration data to work towards that Elite rating. Plus I’d also be getting the Xbox Achievements for reaching both locations. I think I’m helping to convince myself to do it… 😉