Elite Dangerous fans will get their first look at the space sim’s next update when Beyond - Chapter One enters beta on Jan. 25, Frontier Developments confirmed Friday. The studio also provided a few details on the patch, confirming a new Alliance vessel is on the way and the community will see new Wing missions in 2018.
It could be another two and a half months, barring any changes to Beyond - Chapter One’s Q1 2018 launch timeline, before Elite Dangerous Season Three officially gets underway. But anyone who stuck around for Elite Dangerous Horizons, the game’s second season of content, need only wait another two weeks to get some hands-on time with the next wave of content. Some of the new content will be open to everyone, though a press release published Friday morning suggests some of the new ED content will also be exclusive to Elite Dangerous Horizons owners.
According to Frontier, Beyond - Chapter One “advances the ongoing player-driven narrative and introduces a variety of gameplay enhancements,” picking up the story shortly after the Thargoids’ recent attacks on space stations. Elite Dangerous Horizons players will get access to a new Alliance warship, the Chieftain, and Frontier will finally roll out the highly-anticipated GalNet Audio feature that should breathe some life into the in-game news feed. Most players don’t pay any attention to the game’s news ticker right now. Its contents rarely matter and reading the headlines means delaying other tasks, and that’s just not acceptable to space truckers.
Beyond - Chapter One will also roll back the beige-ification of the Milky Way, giving explorers more eye candy to enjoy while they poke around the uncharted regions of the galaxy. And we’re just scratching the surface of all the new content from Elite’s next big update. Chapter One also updates the game’s crime and punishment mechanics, dramatically expands the amount of trading info available to merchants and tweaks the existing engineer systems. There will even be some new Thargoids to fight, and new Wing missions to complete, if space war is your thing.
For a sneak peek at Elite Dangerous Beyond - Chapter One, take a minute to watch the new teaser trailer from Frontier Developments. Then head down to the comments and let us know what you’re hoping to see in Chapter One when Elite’s next add-on debuts later this year.
Elite Dangerous is currently available on PS4, Xbox One and PC. The game’s first Beyond update enters beta Jan. 25.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Elite Dangerous news in 2018 and however long Frontier supports Elite Dangerous in the years ahead.
