Elite Dangerous Docking Guide for Beginners

I haven't posted for a while, but recently I started a Youtube tutorial series for new players in Elite Dangerous. Today I share a guide to docking. Hope some of you find it useful.

Quadruple star system

Found a quadruple star system earlier this week and I know, there is nothing unusual in that. But what was a bit unusual was that three of the stars were grouped very close together. I've been in a number of systems with close binaries, but never three before so close.

Bought an Asp Explorer

I bought a new ship this week. After flying a Diamondback Explorer for the past couple of months, I realised that with the Horizons update, with lack of internal compartments, I would be struggling to properly equip the ship for a long exploration trip and allow me to take my Scarab vehicle with me.

So I have an Asp equipped with Detail Scanner, Advanced Scanner, Auto Repair Unite, Vehicle hanger, A5 FSD. Buy back value is 12 million credits.

A view from the Scarab.

I have flown "up" from the galactic plane and it is my goal to find my first undiscovered star system. I want to get my name on a star or planet.

Found a system with a space station with repair and outfitting facility right on the age of populated space. You know you are pretty far out when the station traffic record shows that your ship is the only one that has visited in 24 hours!

Hope to document anything interesting I find along the way.

How to get a Sol Permit in Elite Dangerous

One of the most commonly asked questions for new players is about how to get a Sol Permit to allow you to visit Earth and our own solar system.

I think one of the reasons for confusion is that before update 1.4, there was a different method for acquiring a Sol permit, and a lot of older posts on this subject are still flying around the internet.

Anyway a summary of my video below(which explains in more detail) is that you just simply do Federation missions to improve your Fed rank until it reaches Petty Officer. Then you will automatically get a Sol permit.

To increase Fed rank you will need to do a Federation Navy mission, but these only appear once you are close to going up a rank. And you do this by improving your reputation with minor faction allied with the Federation.
That's pretty much it. Keep doing the missions and you will eventually get your permit,

Diamondback Explorer Loadout

As I play more of Elite Dangerous, I see the advantage in having specially equipped ships for particular purposes, although there are some good general purpose ships too.

At the moment I have a Diamondback Explorer, a Cobra Mk III, and Adder, an Eagle, lots of Sidewinders(for bookmarking purposes!) and recently sold a Hauler and Viper.

My current loadout which is designed for exploration and long distance missions(also handy for Powerplay) is as follows

Some defence in case I get into trouble, but with this ship I tend to run! Burst laser on large hard point and two Multi-cannons on medium hard points. Still need to get myself A class thrusters to be better able to outrun  attackers after an inderdiction, as boost speed is not great with standard thrusters.. After the latest update 1.4.1 which makes avoiding inderdiction much harder, I tend to just submit right away and try and escape asap.

My main upgrades for this ship are the FSD with is A rated class 5. This give me a jump range of 29ly. If I ditched the shields, got rid of chaff launcher and point defence and lighter thrusters, it would take me to about 32ly jump range.

Advanced Discovery Scanner is expensive but worth it, also Detail Discovery Scanner for exploration(and yes I know I have it in a class 4 slot) - plan to swap with my Shield Generator

I have swapped out my cargo hold for a 16 capacity hold, so that I can do multiple long distance missions at once(many of these pay out handsomely - got 3.2 million credits for one mission the other day!)
If I was doing serious exploration way beyond inhabited space, I would possibly swap out the cargo rack for another fuel tank, upgrade my fuel scoop(essential for exploring)

A black hole in the Pleiades Nebula

I do regular travel and missions with my wing friend CMDR Noble Eagle and we decided to go visit our first black hole.

My base at the moment where I keep most of my ships is in the Eravate system, so we picked something relatively close by. There is a small black hole right in the middle of the Pleiades Nebula in the system of Maia. I hadn't been to the Pleiades before either so why not kill two birds with one stone.

It look quite pretty as you get closer and then once you are in the middle of it you are surrounded by gas clouds of green and red.

The black hole there is very small, but you can see a gravitational lens effect as stars appears to spin around the black hole. You do need to get pretty close to it. I got as close as 20 Mm and no ill effects. With black holes you need to watch your temp gauge, because it can increase very rapidly if you get too close, but this one is pretty tame. Good one to visit if you are a beginner with Elite.

Oh, if you are visiting a black hole take a detail scanner along with basic scanner or higher(you need both). I got about 40k Credits from scanning the black hole, and with my Advanced Scanner, I made over 250k on that trip once I cashed in my Cartographics data.

Visiting Binary Systems

Recently on a long trip I found two binary stars quite close to one another, one which was in a system with 5 stars within it.

One of the binaries is in the system Cocassetsa which is within relatively easy reach and only 167ly from Sol.
These are T-Tauri White stars, so don't hang around too long or you will melt :o)

The other one I found was in the Pleiades Sector but can no longer read the text on my screenshot because I reduced it's size(you live and learn), but near Pleiades Sector MI-8 B4-2 which is more clearly seen in the pic.

These pics were taken on a trip to a black hole right inside the Pleiades Nebula with my friend CMDR Noble Eagle. Check out the next post.