Elite Dangerous' next big update arrives at the end of June
Adds Alliance Challenger ship, and more.
Frontier Developments has announced that space sim Elite Dangerous' next big update, known as Beyond - Chapter Two, will arrive on June 28th.
This new free update, which launches simultaneously on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, is the second instalment in Beyond, Elite Dangerous' third season. Beyond is a bit different to previous seasons in that it's less concerned with introducing massive game-changing features, and more about offering much-needed and long-overdue quality of life improvements to the core Elite experience.
Beyond - Chapter One, for instance, which released back in February, overhauled Elite's crime and punishment system, in order to make the game generally more welcoming for new players. It also made long-requested changes to Engineers, improved trading, and added the brilliant Galnet Audio feature, multi-crew Wing Missions, and more.
Chapter Two is the first of two smaller updates for the game (with a much larger fourth and final update due at the end of the year), and introduces the new Alliance Challenger ship, designed to be a frontline combat vessel in the ongoing Thargoid conflict.
It has stronger armour than its Chieftain counterpart (added to Elite in Chapter One), and is able to soak up considerably more damage. In response, Thargoids will be deploying new Scout ships which are able to buff other Scouts and increase their combat efficiency.
Elsewhere, Chapter Two expands Wing Missions with new objectives based around mining, and enables new forms of interaction with Installations, similar to those added to Megaships in the previous update. Essentially, by using different limpet controllers, you're able to hack any Installations you find, in order to command turrets and disable security measures, rip tradable data from the Comms Array, and unlock cargo bays to steal commodities and materials. Needless to say these are considered illegal activities across the galaxy.
Additionally, Tech Brokers will start issuing new blueprint requests to collect Guardian data and materials that enable players to unlock large versions of the existing Guardian tech weapons. And that might not be quite all for Chapter Two: Frontier's announcement post also features a final "Redacted" bullet point. We'll almost certainly hear more about that soon.