Guide / Tutorial Guide to Engineers in Colonia

Paul_Crowther

Community Manager
Frontier
Greetings Commanders!

Engineers have arrived in Colonia, the farthest frontier of human space exploration! These engineers allow you to upgrade your equipment without having to fly all the way back into the bubble. However, being that they are on the fringe of space and have access to limited resources compared to those in the heart of human space civilisation, they do work ever so slightly different to standard engineers.

To help you make the most of the new engineers we’ve created a quick guide!


Unlocking the Colonia Engineers

The Engineers in Colonia need to be unlocked first before you can make use of their services. To even have them entertain the notion of working with them you’ll need to make sure you’ve spoken to the right Engineers in the bubble first. Here is who you need to talk to:

Mel Brandon – Based in The Brig on planet A 1 C in the Luchtaine system – Unlocked from Elvira Martuuk and invited by the Colonia Council when friendly with the faction.

Etienne Dorn – Based in Kraken’s Retreat on planet A 2 B in the Los system – Unlock from Liz Ryder and have a trade rank of Dealer

Petra Olmanova – Based in Sanctuary on planet 1 A in the Asura system – Unlocked from Tod ‘The Blast’ McQuinn and have the combat rank of Competent

Marsha Hicks – Based in The Watchtower on planet A 2 in the Tir system – Unlocked from the The Dweller and have an explorer rank of Surveyor

Each Engineer will have their own tasks for you to fully unlock their services. Once unlocked you’ll be able to upgrade your modules as with other Engineers.


Improving the Colonia Engineers

Each Engineer will start at skill level 1 for the modules they support and can increase in levels with your help. By completing upgrades engineers earn skill points for that specific module. Skill levels are per module type so for example if you focus on modifying Beam Lasers with Mel Brandon then Mel will get better at upgrading Beam Lasers unlocking higher level upgrades.

All engineers can be levelled up to support grade 5 of the modules they support. The engineer’s level up for everyone, not just the person using the modules, so working together the Elite Dangerous community can increase the grades on offer for each Engineer! There will be a local news article in the engineer's base showing their progress to the next skill levels per module type.

If you have any questions please post them in here!

Fly safe Commanders! o7
 
Thanks.

This pretty much answers the question I had of whether or not there will be any new recipes for these engineers.
 
Paul, you say they can increase to level 5 but I thought else where I had read they were limited to level 3.

Is it definitely level 5 they can reach?
 
Under the Mel Brandon engineer info, it doesn't say anything about unlocking from Elvira Martuuk. At the moment I am in Colonia, does it mean I have to go back to visit Elvira Martuuk?

In any case (see pic) it says that in order to unlock, to claim enough bounties from the Nameless, which I am having difficulty in find them.

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Under the Mel Brandon engineer info, it doesn't say anything about unlocking from Elvira Martuuk. At the moment I am in Colonia, does it mean I have to go back to visit Elvira Martuuk?

In any case (see pic) it says that in order to unlock, to claim enough bounties from the Nameless, which I am having difficulty in find them.
You've got enough rep with Martuuk already.

You'll now need to get a mission from the Council (any station in Colonia can offer it)

The Nameless are found in the Carcosa system (but not very often at the moment because people keep shooting at them - bring an interdictor and be ready for a bit of a wait)
 
The Nameless are found in the Carcosa system (but not very often at the moment because people keep shooting at them - bring an interdictor and be ready for a bit of a wait)

I stayed about 1 hour ducking in the Nav Beacon at Carcosa to meet the goal. I was lucky enough to find some The Nameless wings while reading Galnet for a bit of a wait 😉
 
So just to make sure I understand correctly

I may be able to use these engineers to get access to blueprints I normally cannot due to a Roleplay choice of not ranking up with Federal or Imperial Navies.


At the moment I am capped at level 3 blueprints for Beams with the Dweller, as Broo who has the grade 5, is introduced by Hera, who needs an Outsider rank.

But I could head out to Colonia, get an invite from Mel and help level up his Beam to grade 5?

That sounds awesome and a cool reason to travel out to Colonia
 
Under the Mel Brandon engineer info, it doesn't say anything about unlocking from Elvira Martuuk. At the moment I am in Colonia, does it mean I have to go back to visit Elvira Martuuk?

In any case (see pic) it says that in order to unlock, to claim enough bounties from the Nameless, which I am having difficulty in find them.


I just gave him other systems bounties and he took them in lieu of those specific ones... Not sure if it is specific to certain factions like.. only colonia corps, or knights of colonial karma.. or what.

give other bounties a shot
 
also I don't know if the OP actually plays the game but no there are definitely plenty of mods you can't upgrade past lvl 1
 
Each Engineer will start at skill level 1 for the modules they support and can increase in levels with your help. By completing upgrades engineers earn skill points for that specific module. Skill levels are per module type so for example if you focus on modifying Beam Lasers with Mel Brandon then Mel will get better at upgrading Beam Lasers unlocking higher level upgrades.

also I don't know if the OP actually plays the game but no there are definitely plenty of mods you can't upgrade past lvl 1

This what you mean?
 
All engineers can be levelled up to support grade 5 of the modules they support. The engineer’s level up for everyone, not just the person using the modules, so working together the Elite Dangerous community can increase the grades on offer for each Engineer! There will be a local news article in the engineer's base showing their progress to the next skill levels per module type.

If you have any questions please post them in here!
Just a quick question about how it works - how often are the skill points checked? If we do enough to complete a level of research do we find out immediately? next day? the Thursday server restart? next time you do a client patch?

Thanks - this is a really good development for Colonia.
 
So this implies if you don't have the prerequisite Bubble Engineer at the appropriate level, you can't unlock their Colonia follow-on? If we've left the bubble without having unlocked Liz Ryder, we'd have to then return to the bubble and go back again to unlock Etienne Dorn? Could it not be possible to hear of the Colonia engineers from other Colonia engineers, so a 40,000ly round trip isn't necessary?
 
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