It’s the second week of beta testing for the next update to Frontier Developments’s online space sim Elite Dangerous, Beyond: Chapter Four, and this week’s patch brings updates to Squadrons and mining, as well as a handful of the usual bug fixes. Testers can now create and browse squadrons from their cockpits, with a variety of playstyle tags available to allow players to find the squadron (and/or to allow squadrons to find the players) that best fit their preferences. Each squadron can also be aligned with a Superpower, a Power, and a Faction.
The update also adds three new mining processes “in addition to the standard mining laser process.” Players can now gather valuable materials from surface deposits found on asteroids, sub-surface deposits found (of course) below the surfaces of asteroids, and fissures, into which players can drop newly added seismic charges to break the asteroid apart and access the valuable “deep core materials” within. To facilitate these new mining processes, there are now four new mining tools available: the abrasion blaster (for surface mining), the sub-surface displacement missile (for sub-surface mining), and the aforementioned seismic charge launcher (for fissure mining). Asteroid miners will also be wanting to pick up the new pulse wave analyser, which is “a scanner used to pinpoint the correct asteroid [for mining] once in a ring.”
In addition to deploying the new beta patch, the devs also dropped by the Elite Dangerous subreddit to announce their event plans for Extra Life 2018. So far, the game’s community has already raised over $600 over the course of two previous streams, and four other streamers have streams scheduled throughout November. If you’re an Elite Dangerous fan who wants to help the community’s efforts to raise money for Extra Life, which donates money to children’s hospitals around the country, you can find the full event schedule and links to the appropriate donation pages on the official Reddit post.
Following a skirmish with a group of mercenaries, security forces in the Meene system have launched an operation to capture enemy agents in order to investigate the attack. Find out how you can assist the authorities here: https://t.co/q9ttaCQZwt pic.twitter.com/hE1uAlatbX
— Elite Dangerous (@EliteDangerous) November 8, 2018
Check out our forum post with instructions on how to use the new Mining tools here: https://t.co/GZvdNFy9LQ pic.twitter.com/1GICmNRyTQ
— Elite Dangerous (@EliteDangerous) November 8, 2018
A classic Elite ship is being brought back to life for a new age. Meet the Mamba! pic.twitter.com/fjZJK2msJW
— Elite Dangerous (@EliteDangerous) November 8, 2018
