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Elite Dangerous' long-awaited The Engineers expansion goes into beta next month

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

Elite Dangerous players have been waiting for this one for a while: The Engineers expansion, aka Elite Dangerous 2.1, comes out to those with beta access during the first week of May.

The Engineers is the second major release in the Elite Dangerous: Horizons season of expansions, and follows Planetary Landings. It adds loot and crafting as well as the Engineers themselves. It also adds the ability to improve and upgrade the stats on every module of your ship, and adds rare, "experimental" effects to your weapons for some "special outcomes". Here's an example:

Here's the official blurb from Frontier chief David Braben:

Meanwhile, Frontier announced Elite Dangerous 1.6, which is available to all players, not just those with Horizons, changes the core gameplay. This includes a "completely re-vamped mission system", which should go down well with players. 1.6 goes into closed beta and at the same time as The Engineers.

r/EliteDangerous has a handy guide to everything that's new coming to the game.

And, if you like Elite Dangerous, allow me point you to our in-depth feature on the game's griefers.

Cover image for YouTube videoElite: Dangerous Horizons - my (disastrous) first hour