Ahoy Commander, yer old shipmate Long John Silver welcoming you aboard! Well you might just be starting out but ED has been on the seas for a while and there’s a bit you might want to catch up on, and I’m here to help you out, of course, my friend! Would I steer you wrong?
First off – this here guide isn’t my own work. I heard from a guy who heard from a girl… well you know how it is. In any case, lots of other folks been responsible for this and I’m just a cog in the machine as you might say. So don’t blame me for inaccurate conclusions or suppositions that you might take from this here dalliance. P.S. I can neither confirm nor deny that any of the facts in here are wholly factual and I make no promises nor guarantees!
Stuff you might want to know.
The Bubble
The area of the galaxy that is the central core of human expansion.
Factions
Factions are not to be confused with powers. Factions are the day-to-day grind of political and economic control over the bubble. Factions are often aligned with one or other power, obviously depending largely upon where the star system is situated, but some factions may be rising while others are falling within each star system.
Reputation
Your standing with a faction. You can’t be everybody’s friend.
Influence
A result of your reputation – works with factions not powers.
The Pilots Federation
Classified as an Independent Faction based in Shinrata Dezhra. You need to gain Elite rank in at least one discipline to go to the Pilots Federation Base at Jameson Memorial.
Ranking (Pilots Federation)
Your ranking towards Elite within the Pilots federation – a non-political power of which all pilots are a member.
Rank (powers)
Your official rank within a Power (See below). Try not to mix up the two.
Geopolitics you need to know...
Powers
The bubble is effectively split into 11 Powers (at time of drafting). Seven Power-players from the three Major (or Super) Powers (in alphabetical order):
Alliance – Edmund Mahon (Homeworld: Gateway)
Empire - Aisling Duval (Cubeo), Arissa Lavigny Duval (Kamadhenu), Denton Patreus (Eotienses) & Zemina Torval (Syntieni)
Federation – Felicia Winters (Rhea) & Zachary Hudson (Nanoman)
And four independent minor Powers (in alphabetical name order):
Archon Delaine (Harma)
Pranav Natal (Polevnic)
Li Yong-Rui (Lembava
Yuri Grom (Clayakarma)
These Powers, like most politicians, are engaged in a war to rule the human occupied galaxy. Some of the conflict is ideological, some of it is purely fiscal, and some of it is a mixture of both. Whether you choose to side with one of these (Muppets) is up to you – and entirely voluntary. Each Power has some different positive and negative attributes to players and the systems over which those powers control:
Alliance: The alliance is essentially the UN in space.
Empire: Ancient Rome in space – complete with slaves.
Federation: Big Pharma/ Big Oil / Big Banks / Big Corporation (or should that be ‘corruptoration’) in space.
Independent Archon Delaine: Klingons – ‘well-armed, psychotic and dangerous’.
Independent Pranav Natal: Quasi-religious hippy technocrats.
Independent Li Yong-Rui: Corporate Puppet of the Sirius Corporation.
Independent Yuri Grom: Player-derived power – Fidel Castro in space.
So that’s the political stage what else is going on?
Engineers
The engineers are a bunch of wacky inventors peppered around the place that can ‘upgrade’ your ship’s equipment modules at a cost of specific materials. I say ‘upgrade’ because essentially it’s a bit of an RNG (random number generator) bet – sort of like spinning a wheel for a prize. By and large the benefits of the ‘upgrade’ will outweigh the hindrances, but maybe not always and it might not turn out the way you want – but that’s experimentations for you! Some of these engineers will be almost immediately known to you but others may take some finding / convincing.
If you want to know who does what and where they are, go check out the fandom wiki! Be Aware – just because you know where an engineer is doesn’t mean they are going to open the door for you – some have very specific entry requirements that must be met first before an introduction.
Essentially that’s about as much as you might need to know to get started! ED is a ‘play your way’ sandbox as big as the known galaxy. How much of the above you choose to be involved in is entirely up to you, that’s the beauty of the game. However, if you want to carry on and see just how far the rabbit hole goes – read on.
Mysteries and Such
So before I start this section I say again – this is not my own work – I am simply retelling a story that a guy told a girl one time at a party that a guy I know overheard and so on. If you want to get the ‘facts’ on this lot of mighty wonders – I suggest you go have a chat with The Canonn – they are the uber-nerds of ED and they wear a lot of tinfoil hats (and drink whisky and eat biscuits apparently).
The Formidine Rift
The Formidine rift is an area in space that is presumed to be the location of a ‘secret’ that the Alliance, the Empire and the Federation have been keeping for quite some time. A former Imperial Senator (Kahina Loren), who now calls herself Salome, leads a band of followers called the Children of Raxxla, in an endeavor to uncover this supposed secret. There is some fairly significant ‘facts’ regarding the Formidine rift and its associated areas – referred to as Hawkins Gap and the Conflux. Salome is an in-game NPC who has appeared on livestream broadcasts and interacted with players to support her mission to uncover the secret of the Rift. The Children of Raxxla (CoR) have been tasked by her to guard some specific areas of the rift as part of an ongoing project, presumably to uncover what is going on in the Rift. These two CoR posts have been designated as Listening Post Alpha and Listening Post Beta:
LP Alpha: IC 1848 SECTOR IS-T D3-29
LP Beta: PHRIO PHOE MP-E D12-11
If you want to know more you can talk to (or possibly join) the CoR. The exact locations of the Formidine rift boundaries are not ‘known’ although clues as to it’s possible extent have been dropped in game, locations and potential borders have been extrapolated, and clues were also found in abandoned settlement sites which you can go visit if you want to.
Essentially, it appears that a series of beacons have been placed in space for purpose or purposes unknown.
Much more than that we don’t know for sure, but a number of players and groups are busy exploring the regions looking for ‘something’. Drew Wagar (Official Unofficial Lore keeper) has said that all that players need to know can be gleaned from in-game experiences and observations – including GalNet news articles.
+1000 rep to Cmdr. Zach who has presented a magnificent summary of everything you ever need to know about the Formidine Rift on the ED Forum. Read it if you have a spare day.
Unknown Artefacts, Unknown Probes, Thargoids and other aliens
Unknown Artefacts (UAs) are one of the oldest mysteries in the game. They are small semi-organic items that always point to the star system of Merope. They do lots of funky things such as chittering, scanning ships and communicating in garbled Morse code and pictograms. They also have a nasty habit of destroying ships systems. In an interview by David Braben he suggested that the UA’s might consume metal. ‘UA Bombing’ is a term related to offloading numerous UA’s at a Space station which ultimately crashes the Space Stations systems for a while.
It is presumed that they may be the work of non-human sentient life that may include the fabled Thargoids but this has not been proven and there are some who dispute this theory.
UAs align themselves with the Merope system and the star at the centre of that system – it is not known why. UAs can be found in an area of space called ‘The Shell’ which stretches approximately 150 light years in every direction around Merope. They can sometimes be found floating around (free floaters) or they can appear in odd convoys of ships that can be attacked to collect the UA.
Other than that – their exact business is still unknown. Be aware that UAs are contraband and if you get scanned with one on board… well you know the score.
Unknown Probes (UPs) surfaced a little after UA’s but they look to be of the same family – like slightly in-bred cousins. They do more or less the same as UA’s; however, they point specifically to Merope 5C. When ‘honked’ with a discovery scanner the UP emits a sound that contains an imbedded image. The UP contains a reference to the Col 70 sector – which is a permit locked sector so… no further news on that one.
Interestingly in the PAX East Braben interview, he spoke about the Empire, Federation and Alliance all showing a keen interest in the Pleiades (where Merope is situated) and a ‘race’ to get there.
On a side note Professor Ishmael Palin, who is also an Engineer, has some apparent ties to this mystery and has himself disappeared and reappeared on more than one occasion.
Thargoids
Thargoids are a very dangerous alien race – so sayeth the Braben. And they have been around since the Dawn of elite. But have we seen them in ED yet? That isn’t confirmed, but we have had some unknown ship encounters – yes you guessed it – in the Pleiades. Hyperdiction of player ships, left useless by the Fibonacci Flower ship, are few but they have happened? Are they Thargoids or not? Who knows? The Braben also confirmed that there are ‘other alien races’ yet to be discovered in ED – so we wait and see. Apparently, Ricardo Bentonio might know more (regular GalNet nutball conspiracy theorist (or maybe not!!)) Drew Wagar has some interesting background reading on Thargoids if you are keen.
Interestingly, the Fibonacci Flower ship has also been identified as ‘ruins’ on at least one planet. If you want to go see it go to AB-W-B2-4 in – you guessed it ‘The Pleiades’. You will also find more of them at HIP 17043 and HIP 17862.
Barnacles / Meta Alloys
Barnacles is the name given to a genetically modified (by whom?) organic alien lifeform that burrows into the surface of a planet, extracting precious materials from the crust to make ‘meta alloys’.
Guess where? Pleiades you say…
There appears to be some similarity between Barnacles and UA’s but there is no definitive evidence of a link. Barnacles appear to have a glyph or possibly pictograph on one side which may be important and Barnacles are often found near to crash sites – but it is not known if this is coincidental.
Meta alloys are an intriguing material and worth a packet – so you can imagine there is a bit of a rush on these things – perhaps that is what is interesting the Federation, the Empire and the Alliance?
Once again Prof Palin is very keen on Barnacles and meta alloys too.
Other alien life
Braben has confirmed that there is ‘other life’ out there – but so far we haven’t found much. Since planetary landings were introduced most places are essentially barren (which is what you might expect if you can only land on airless rocks) but some players have found interesting ‘trees’, 'fungus' or ‘flowers’ on planets although reports of these encounters are rare. ObsidianAnt has a video of one encounter on his YouTube channel if you are interested. Could these be some form of alien terraforming? Who knows? If anyone has any footage – please update us…
The Guardians
The Guardians, being one of the latest Seasons, is still fresh and hotly pursued. Essentially, the Guardians were an Alien race that died out a million years ago (Braben Interview). The question about why they died out and what they may have left behind is the pursuit currently on.
Canonn has a ridiculous amount of material on Guardians. It would appear that the central area of intrigue for the Guardians is around Synuefe. Engineer Ram Tah seems to have a lot to do with the matter.
If you scan the various points around the ruins – you can collect certain types of data. Canonn have been collating the data – so again – go see Canonn. If anyone can Canonn can!
Other mysteries…
Jupiter, Lave and Eravate Beacons
There are some odd beacons in Sol, Achenar and Gateway that are transmitting a map of a system – but what system?
And that my friends, my commanders, my shipmates, is a roundup of all the goings on I have for you. I am only passing on a story that a guy told a… well you know.
I don’t know if anyone cares – this is more of a roundup exercise for me only, not a rewrite of canon – so to speak. To be sure, there are others who know more than this and there is much more to this if you are intrigued. Seek and ye shall find!
I haven’t added any links to my source material, but I can if you, dear shipmates wish it so.
Rep me up if you love this post – it might even get stickied…
And see you in the dark…
First off – this here guide isn’t my own work. I heard from a guy who heard from a girl… well you know how it is. In any case, lots of other folks been responsible for this and I’m just a cog in the machine as you might say. So don’t blame me for inaccurate conclusions or suppositions that you might take from this here dalliance. P.S. I can neither confirm nor deny that any of the facts in here are wholly factual and I make no promises nor guarantees!
Stuff you might want to know.
The Bubble
The area of the galaxy that is the central core of human expansion.
Factions
Factions are not to be confused with powers. Factions are the day-to-day grind of political and economic control over the bubble. Factions are often aligned with one or other power, obviously depending largely upon where the star system is situated, but some factions may be rising while others are falling within each star system.
Reputation
Your standing with a faction. You can’t be everybody’s friend.
Influence
A result of your reputation – works with factions not powers.
The Pilots Federation
Classified as an Independent Faction based in Shinrata Dezhra. You need to gain Elite rank in at least one discipline to go to the Pilots Federation Base at Jameson Memorial.
Ranking (Pilots Federation)
Your ranking towards Elite within the Pilots federation – a non-political power of which all pilots are a member.
Rank (powers)
Your official rank within a Power (See below). Try not to mix up the two.
Geopolitics you need to know...
Powers
The bubble is effectively split into 11 Powers (at time of drafting). Seven Power-players from the three Major (or Super) Powers (in alphabetical order):
Alliance – Edmund Mahon (Homeworld: Gateway)
Empire - Aisling Duval (Cubeo), Arissa Lavigny Duval (Kamadhenu), Denton Patreus (Eotienses) & Zemina Torval (Syntieni)
Federation – Felicia Winters (Rhea) & Zachary Hudson (Nanoman)
And four independent minor Powers (in alphabetical name order):
Archon Delaine (Harma)
Pranav Natal (Polevnic)
Li Yong-Rui (Lembava
Yuri Grom (Clayakarma)
These Powers, like most politicians, are engaged in a war to rule the human occupied galaxy. Some of the conflict is ideological, some of it is purely fiscal, and some of it is a mixture of both. Whether you choose to side with one of these (Muppets) is up to you – and entirely voluntary. Each Power has some different positive and negative attributes to players and the systems over which those powers control:
Alliance: The alliance is essentially the UN in space.
Empire: Ancient Rome in space – complete with slaves.
Federation: Big Pharma/ Big Oil / Big Banks / Big Corporation (or should that be ‘corruptoration’) in space.
Independent Archon Delaine: Klingons – ‘well-armed, psychotic and dangerous’.
Independent Pranav Natal: Quasi-religious hippy technocrats.
Independent Li Yong-Rui: Corporate Puppet of the Sirius Corporation.
Independent Yuri Grom: Player-derived power – Fidel Castro in space.
So that’s the political stage what else is going on?
Engineers
The engineers are a bunch of wacky inventors peppered around the place that can ‘upgrade’ your ship’s equipment modules at a cost of specific materials. I say ‘upgrade’ because essentially it’s a bit of an RNG (random number generator) bet – sort of like spinning a wheel for a prize. By and large the benefits of the ‘upgrade’ will outweigh the hindrances, but maybe not always and it might not turn out the way you want – but that’s experimentations for you! Some of these engineers will be almost immediately known to you but others may take some finding / convincing.
If you want to know who does what and where they are, go check out the fandom wiki! Be Aware – just because you know where an engineer is doesn’t mean they are going to open the door for you – some have very specific entry requirements that must be met first before an introduction.
Essentially that’s about as much as you might need to know to get started! ED is a ‘play your way’ sandbox as big as the known galaxy. How much of the above you choose to be involved in is entirely up to you, that’s the beauty of the game. However, if you want to carry on and see just how far the rabbit hole goes – read on.
Mysteries and Such
So before I start this section I say again – this is not my own work – I am simply retelling a story that a guy told a girl one time at a party that a guy I know overheard and so on. If you want to get the ‘facts’ on this lot of mighty wonders – I suggest you go have a chat with The Canonn – they are the uber-nerds of ED and they wear a lot of tinfoil hats (and drink whisky and eat biscuits apparently).
The Formidine Rift
The Formidine rift is an area in space that is presumed to be the location of a ‘secret’ that the Alliance, the Empire and the Federation have been keeping for quite some time. A former Imperial Senator (Kahina Loren), who now calls herself Salome, leads a band of followers called the Children of Raxxla, in an endeavor to uncover this supposed secret. There is some fairly significant ‘facts’ regarding the Formidine rift and its associated areas – referred to as Hawkins Gap and the Conflux. Salome is an in-game NPC who has appeared on livestream broadcasts and interacted with players to support her mission to uncover the secret of the Rift. The Children of Raxxla (CoR) have been tasked by her to guard some specific areas of the rift as part of an ongoing project, presumably to uncover what is going on in the Rift. These two CoR posts have been designated as Listening Post Alpha and Listening Post Beta:
LP Alpha: IC 1848 SECTOR IS-T D3-29
LP Beta: PHRIO PHOE MP-E D12-11
If you want to know more you can talk to (or possibly join) the CoR. The exact locations of the Formidine rift boundaries are not ‘known’ although clues as to it’s possible extent have been dropped in game, locations and potential borders have been extrapolated, and clues were also found in abandoned settlement sites which you can go visit if you want to.
Essentially, it appears that a series of beacons have been placed in space for purpose or purposes unknown.
Much more than that we don’t know for sure, but a number of players and groups are busy exploring the regions looking for ‘something’. Drew Wagar (Official Unofficial Lore keeper) has said that all that players need to know can be gleaned from in-game experiences and observations – including GalNet news articles.
+1000 rep to Cmdr. Zach who has presented a magnificent summary of everything you ever need to know about the Formidine Rift on the ED Forum. Read it if you have a spare day.
Unknown Artefacts, Unknown Probes, Thargoids and other aliens
Unknown Artefacts (UAs) are one of the oldest mysteries in the game. They are small semi-organic items that always point to the star system of Merope. They do lots of funky things such as chittering, scanning ships and communicating in garbled Morse code and pictograms. They also have a nasty habit of destroying ships systems. In an interview by David Braben he suggested that the UA’s might consume metal. ‘UA Bombing’ is a term related to offloading numerous UA’s at a Space station which ultimately crashes the Space Stations systems for a while.
It is presumed that they may be the work of non-human sentient life that may include the fabled Thargoids but this has not been proven and there are some who dispute this theory.
UAs align themselves with the Merope system and the star at the centre of that system – it is not known why. UAs can be found in an area of space called ‘The Shell’ which stretches approximately 150 light years in every direction around Merope. They can sometimes be found floating around (free floaters) or they can appear in odd convoys of ships that can be attacked to collect the UA.
Other than that – their exact business is still unknown. Be aware that UAs are contraband and if you get scanned with one on board… well you know the score.
Unknown Probes (UPs) surfaced a little after UA’s but they look to be of the same family – like slightly in-bred cousins. They do more or less the same as UA’s; however, they point specifically to Merope 5C. When ‘honked’ with a discovery scanner the UP emits a sound that contains an imbedded image. The UP contains a reference to the Col 70 sector – which is a permit locked sector so… no further news on that one.
Interestingly in the PAX East Braben interview, he spoke about the Empire, Federation and Alliance all showing a keen interest in the Pleiades (where Merope is situated) and a ‘race’ to get there.
On a side note Professor Ishmael Palin, who is also an Engineer, has some apparent ties to this mystery and has himself disappeared and reappeared on more than one occasion.
Thargoids
Thargoids are a very dangerous alien race – so sayeth the Braben. And they have been around since the Dawn of elite. But have we seen them in ED yet? That isn’t confirmed, but we have had some unknown ship encounters – yes you guessed it – in the Pleiades. Hyperdiction of player ships, left useless by the Fibonacci Flower ship, are few but they have happened? Are they Thargoids or not? Who knows? The Braben also confirmed that there are ‘other alien races’ yet to be discovered in ED – so we wait and see. Apparently, Ricardo Bentonio might know more (regular GalNet nutball conspiracy theorist (or maybe not!!)) Drew Wagar has some interesting background reading on Thargoids if you are keen.
Interestingly, the Fibonacci Flower ship has also been identified as ‘ruins’ on at least one planet. If you want to go see it go to AB-W-B2-4 in – you guessed it ‘The Pleiades’. You will also find more of them at HIP 17043 and HIP 17862.
Barnacles / Meta Alloys
Barnacles is the name given to a genetically modified (by whom?) organic alien lifeform that burrows into the surface of a planet, extracting precious materials from the crust to make ‘meta alloys’.
Guess where? Pleiades you say…
There appears to be some similarity between Barnacles and UA’s but there is no definitive evidence of a link. Barnacles appear to have a glyph or possibly pictograph on one side which may be important and Barnacles are often found near to crash sites – but it is not known if this is coincidental.
Meta alloys are an intriguing material and worth a packet – so you can imagine there is a bit of a rush on these things – perhaps that is what is interesting the Federation, the Empire and the Alliance?
Once again Prof Palin is very keen on Barnacles and meta alloys too.
Other alien life
Braben has confirmed that there is ‘other life’ out there – but so far we haven’t found much. Since planetary landings were introduced most places are essentially barren (which is what you might expect if you can only land on airless rocks) but some players have found interesting ‘trees’, 'fungus' or ‘flowers’ on planets although reports of these encounters are rare. ObsidianAnt has a video of one encounter on his YouTube channel if you are interested. Could these be some form of alien terraforming? Who knows? If anyone has any footage – please update us…
The Guardians
The Guardians, being one of the latest Seasons, is still fresh and hotly pursued. Essentially, the Guardians were an Alien race that died out a million years ago (Braben Interview). The question about why they died out and what they may have left behind is the pursuit currently on.
Canonn has a ridiculous amount of material on Guardians. It would appear that the central area of intrigue for the Guardians is around Synuefe. Engineer Ram Tah seems to have a lot to do with the matter.
If you scan the various points around the ruins – you can collect certain types of data. Canonn have been collating the data – so again – go see Canonn. If anyone can Canonn can!
Other mysteries…
Jupiter, Lave and Eravate Beacons
There are some odd beacons in Sol, Achenar and Gateway that are transmitting a map of a system – but what system?
And that my friends, my commanders, my shipmates, is a roundup of all the goings on I have for you. I am only passing on a story that a guy told a… well you know.
I don’t know if anyone cares – this is more of a roundup exercise for me only, not a rewrite of canon – so to speak. To be sure, there are others who know more than this and there is much more to this if you are intrigued. Seek and ye shall find!
I haven’t added any links to my source material, but I can if you, dear shipmates wish it so.
Rep me up if you love this post – it might even get stickied…
And see you in the dark…
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