Elite Dangerous Gets Major New Powerplay 2.0 Update

November 1, 2024

Key Takeaways

Elite Dangerous’ Powerplay 2.0 reworking within the Ascendancy update has revamped the system based on player feedback.
New Powers, galaxy map modes, and loyalty rewards are designed to give the space sim a much-needed boost in gameplay immersion.
The new Mandalay exploration ship is also included in the Ascendancy update, joining some of the game’s best exploration vehicles.

The MMO epic Elite Dangerous has received a major update restructuring the space sim’s Powerplay system, and it’s all thanks to players’ ongoing feedback. Elite Dangerous’ Powerplay 2.0 arrived on October 31 included in the Ascendancy update, which also brought ARX early access to a new exploration ship, added care packages, and friendly competition through a weekly leaderboard.

Launched for PC in 2014 and later ported to Xbox One the following year, the 1:1 scale, open-world entry is the fourth title in the Elite video game series and a sequel to Frontier: First Encounters. Elite Dangerous received significant backlash earlier in the year over pay-to-win ships, which led to a flurry of review bombings on Steam. Luckily, the MMO’s major update seems to be winning back the community with its revamped Poweplay system, and there are significant changes for players to be excited about.

Starfield Player Builds Federal Corvette From Elite Dangerous

A Starfield player does an impressive job using the game’s ship designer to recreate the Federal Corvette starship from Frontier’s Elite Dangerous.

Thanks to the community’s input, the brand-new Powerplay 2.0 rework allows players to pledge themselves to a new Power and reap rewards through the loyalty rank system, offering the same modules albeit the rewards are given in a different order. Each Power, including the brand-new Nakato Kaine and Jerome Archer individuals, comes with exclusive perks to acknowledge loyalty, including Felicia Winters’ increase of Credits gained through salvaged payouts in controlled systems. Elite Dangerous joins the biggest open-world games with expansive maps, and care packages earned through the loyalty rank system are designed to increase Credits and Engineering Materials to add even more immersion to the sprawling game. Additionally, Powerplay 2.0 has new galaxy map modes with more in-depth detail at explorers’ fingertips, gathered in an already packed list of new features with even more for players to discover in-game.

Elite Dangerous Launches Powerplay 2.0 Within Major Ascendancy Update

Elite Dangerous’ Ascendancy update also welcomes the new Mandalay ship from Zorgon Peterson, built for long-range exploration and currently available through the Gamestore, parking alongside Elite Dangerous’ catalog of the best ships for exploration. However, the ship boasts the best fuel-efficient SCO drive ever seen in the game’s vehicle roster, flaunting six hardpoints, an additional viewport, and new Powerplay Banner ship kit pieces representing every Power and ship available.

It’s no secret that the Starfield space epic failed to impress in-game galaxy explorers or rival other games of that ilk, continuing with Bethesda’s response to Starfield: Shattered Space criticisms. However, for Elite Dangerous, the new update firmly puts the MMO back on space enthusiasts’ radars, while continuing to honor the game’s foundations with various factions on offer, including the Empire, the Alliance, and the Federation.

Elite Dangerous is the definitive massively multiplayer space epic, bringing gaming’s original open world adventure to the modern generation with a connected galaxy, evolving narrative and the entirety of the Milky Way re-created at its full galactic proportions.

Starting with only a small starship and a few credits, players do whatever it takes to earn the skill, knowledge, wealth and power to survive in a futuristic cutthroat galaxy and to stand among the ranks of the iconic Elite. In an age of galactic superpowers and interstellar war, every player’s story influences the unique connected gaming experience and handcrafted evolving narrative. Governments fall, battles are lost and won, and humanity’s frontier is reshaped, all by players’ actions.

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