Elite: Dangerous Gets Its Third Free Update, Powerplay

Frontier announced today that their space sim, Elite: Dangerous, will be getting its third major free update. It’s called Powerplay, and it is available to all players, absolutely free of charge, now.

Powerplay will let players ally themselves to pone of multiple factions vying for control of the galaxy, and they can see influence the decisions that the entity makes as a whole with their own unique decisions, even as they find their own story in turn influenced by the larger story of the faction that they have joined. Joining with an equipment is heavily incentivized, too. Players are rewarded with valuable perks, reputation bonuses and unique equipment for their allegiance as they defend their territory and conquer human space.

Powerplay is just the headlining feature of this new update, however. The full list of improvements that this title is getting with the new patch includes:

• An enhanced mission system with new objectives and new ways to play.
• Three new ships: the Lakon Diamondback Scout, Lakon Diamondback Explorer and the Imperial Courier.
• Drones for cargo collection, fuel trading and prospecting.
• A new illustrated GalNet newsfeed, accessible directly in players’ ship UI.
• High and low intensity mining sites, adding risk to mining and increasing potential rewards.
• New minable commodities.
• An updated bounty system.
• Upgraded UI and animated emblems for ranking up.
• Numerous other improvements to gameplay and performance.

Elite: Dangerous is currently available on PC and Mac. A version for the Xbox One is anticipated some time later this year. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.