Another post goal update! A lot of time has passed since visiting The Great Annihilator and I’ve returned to Colonia once more to cash in a pile of data at Jaques Station. The trip itself was for the most part uneventful with a single exception. One of the times I arrived in a system from hyperspace my ship decelerated too close to the edge of a binary star and parked itself right in the middle of them, soaking up a pile of damage. Important safety tip: don’t always assume your arrival point to be a safe one so be ready to move fast!

Anyway, cashing in that last bulk lot of data finally helped me achieve my first Elite ranking in the game! I hadn’t expected to reach that first in the exploration discipline over the trade and combat ones but it still feels like a bit of an accomplishment after all the years I’ve been playing it. It also unlocks access to the Jameson Memorial station which should make it much easier to buy new ships and upgrades. This’ll also be my next destination. It does mean making the long haul back but I think I have the time now and there’s plenty more to see along the way. I probably should consider doing this round trip in the future on the PC version too as my account there has not had the same attention for a long, long time and I could do with the ranking!

The return trip will have me retracing my steps (and my stops!) back home which will keep the distances between 80 and 110 jumps and give me plenty of chances to repair and refuel along the way. It might be easy to assume that after traveling so far now I should know better and could take some shortcuts but this is a tried and tested route with plenty of fuel stars. I don’t want to add any more unknowns to my trip and lose a pile of cash by wrecking my ship or be stranded on an empty tank.

I’m thinking that by the time I arrive back “home” to Lowry Ring that Fleet Carriers might just be rolling out and I’ll be curious to see how it impacts the game. There’s been a lot of negative feedback I’ve read so far from the beta in that the upkeep costs made them only for the most dedicated of players. They’re also being used by griefers to help set up blockades in key systems such as the home of engineer Felicity Farseer which is driving many away from the open play mode. The blockades have spilled out from the beta and into the current version making it difficult for everyone, including console players. However it all turns out I’ll be seeing it for myself soon enough.

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