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Elite Dangerous

Elite Dangerous
A

I expect most people's submissions to this bounty will be measured in light years (or hyperspace jumps) and so you may not initially be very impressed when I say mine is approximately 4,600 kilometers but let me introduce you to the Planetary Circumnavigation Club.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-planetary-circumnavigation-club.390451/

This club celebrates the achievements of those commanders who've completely circumnavigated entire planets or moons in the humble SRV (you can find a complete list of all officially recorded circumnavigations in the OP of that forum thread - there are over 100!).

To date I have completed 6 circumnavigations of my own, the longest of which was around HIP 23759 9 A (subsequently named "Wormwood" by fellow planetary circumnavigator Walter Wall, aka Alvin aka Stardust Brothers). It's the yellowy brown moon in the image below.


If memory serves this was my third planetary circumnavigation and it wasn't originally intended to be a circumnavigation at all. It was just a nice planet and an intriguing little ravine, which I followed.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tU14083PaTk?feature=oembed

At the end of the ravine was more ravine, and then some beautiful landscape, and then an intriguing mountain on the horizon and then another and so on until, before I knew it (and long after most who followed my exploits knew it) I'd gone all the way around the planet and ended up back where I started.

You can read the full account of my nearly three month long journey over on the following forum thread:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/lets-see-where-this-little-ravine-takes-me.534520/

As a final piece of advice for anyone tempted to head off on a "little" journey of their own (whether it be a planetary journey like this one or a galactic journey like many others here) I will just hand over to a wise wizard who once said ..

LiquidMorkite's avatar
https://twitter.com/ntcdat/status/1874518375092936737

I am currently on a long journey called "Blades Forward Expedition" with Swords of Makhai squadron, an ally of my own squadron. We started on December 24th, have reached Colonia so far, which was my first visit to Colonia among many other cmdrs. Now we're on a carrier en route to Beagle Point.

These are some photos we took during a discovery of a very interesting system when we were on our way:

Thank you Swords of Makhai squadron and especially CMDR Largetto Evander and your carrier crew for your effort of ferrying us all the way out here! You guys rock! o7

Kethervir's avatar

My longest journey was when I wanted to go from the Sol system to Beagle Point... not only did it turn out to be more difficult than expected, but I never managed to reach the destination xD

Here's what happened...

Aboard to my Imperial Cutter and with a good Fuel Scoop, I started to go towards the destination, scanning from time to time the interesting systems I found..

One day I found a neutron star and I started to do experiments discovering that I could jump more than normal.. an experiment that evidently went very badly since I found myself badly off my course...

But it didn't matter! my spirit of exploration was even stronger and then I continued to travel for several days.

Until i discovered something unusal.. it happened that I met a ship that I had never saw before, and surprisingly wass posssible to land on it.

Deeply intrigued by the thing, I docked to the ship and took a break from the main journey exploring the systems around.

Meanwile, offgame life called me and commitments led me to not play elite dangerous for several days, so I confidently left my ship docked to that beautiful mothership that I had never seen.. I felt at home and I couldn't wait to return with the main mission.

Several days later I logged into Elite looking forward to the moment of taking back my beautiful ship, I opened the star map and........ I was very, very, indefinably VERY far from anything...

The ship had moved with me on board....

So I took off from the mothership and set the route again, but I was really too far from anything, REALLY...

My jump was no longer sufficient and incredibly I couldn't find any star within range of my jump that could load my fuel.

At that point i leave the ship in a nearby system and completely disheartened, i exit the game and go to eat...

When i return, to my extreme horror and shock, the mothership, my only point of reference in that part of the galaxy, was gone again!!! leaving me alone to my fate in the middle of nowhere.....

At least it took me months to get back to a system with a space station... as a result of that i had a lot of money for exploration to sell offcourse, but my spirit of exploration has suffered.. So since then i have remained safe in the bubble and only doing merchant activities.

One day... one day i know i'll reach there.....

St4r_Lord's avatar

My longest trip so far was to Colonia. I didn't use any highway, but rather visited various points of interest, which is probably why this trip took me a whole month. I used my favorite ship, Anaconda, and it performed great despite its size. Seeing so many stars in one place was a beautiful experience and I will definitely do it again. I'm planning to go to Beagle Point for the first time soon, which will probably take me even longer.

M

This journey for me at the time was the longest I had done up to that point and is the most memorable. I think I may have done slightly longer journeys since but they weren't that much to write about.

I decided to take the Neutron highway from the bubble to Colonia. I went there in my Anaconda which I had fitted out for exploration. I stayed in Colonia for a bit. I remember I bought a couple of ships, a Type 6 for trading and a Viper for combat and did both those activities there for a while. After that I made my way to Sagittarius A, exploring along the way as many systems with Neutron stars as I could find and I did find quite a lot that hadn't been previously explored. After Sag A I went and had a look at the Great Annihilator as it was on the way home anyway. I then took the Neutron Highway back home to the bubble.

CI

Greetings pilots

My furthest trip was on my first research ship and lasted about a month, it was a trip to the Lagoon Nebula to the Herschel 36 system, located 4500 light years away from Sol.

Why this system?

I was going to this system because it was in the middle of the Lagoon Nebula and it was supposed to have great views, which I later found out. The stars themselves in the Herschel 36 system are the brightest type of stars, and in the center of the nebula they took on some very beautiful hues.

Since my Diamondback Explorer, had a jump of at most 50 light years, and a slow fuel intake, I had a long flight there, landing on various planets along the way in search of exobiology.

https://twitter.com/CMDR_INKVI/status/1870740870603198641

Matt G's avatar

I'm a well seasoned traveller. My career so far has taken me over 8 million light years, but in my mind one of the longest journeys I undertook was my first journey to Sagittarius A*.

I was one of the first visitors to it back in early 3301. Back then, there was no engineering. There was no neutron boosting. There were no FSD injections. There were no Guardian boosters. A well equipped Asp Explorer would do around 32LY, (35LY at a push). It was over a thousand jumps out there, and even more coming home as I took a bit more of a meander to the west of the galaxy. It took me weeks but I loved every minute of it. It took a long time but I found my first Earth-like on that journey. I also found my third Earth-like which is still one of my favourite finds ever - a system with a neutron star and a ringed Earth-like, and nothing else.

These days, we have engineering, FSD boosts, Guardian boosters and neutron boosting. I can get back to Sagittarius A* in under 3 hours without trying and with stops for coffee along the way. But back then it was a feat of endurance.

LN

Little did I know in 3306 that I was going to embark on a four year journey of discovery. I had concieved the Canonn challenge which was a herculean task to scan every geological and biological variant and all the known contents of Notable Stellar Phenomena. It was quite a task finding a route that would take everything in. The first route planned was over a million light years but then we found an optimal route of a mere half million light years. Taking in nearly every region of the galaxy.

I opted to take more of a random walk visiting the next nearest specimen. As I got close to achieving my aim, Odyssey arrived and the number of varients of life massively increased by thousands. All the while new specimens were being found. Along the way I even found some regional first discoveries of my own getting my name in the codex.

After traversing the galaxy many times, travelling over 2 million light years, I finally scanned the last speciment on the 6th November 3310..

And then 12 days later someone found a new variety of Cactoida Pullulanta in the Sanguinous Rim and I was off again.

CMDR Henckes's avatar

My longest journey was in the Distant World 2 Expedition, where a bunch of people departed from the bubble to the beagle point on of the most distant system from Sol. And of curse there was the expedition to go back to the Bubble, I choose one of the longest at the time just to explore a region of the Milk way with lot of system to be first discovered by me.

The best part about this was the possibility to meet a lot of players in the meetings point and have a good time with them. The image bellow was my idea, a SRV race to the top of the hill, and I must say that I was the only one who had the SRV destroyed in the race hahaha.

But I think the end of this journey was special. I reached the Beagle Point System and did what a lot of CMDRs do, select the Sol system and the distance of 65,279 Ly, I was astonished to be able after some months to reach this distance!

obs: Now I'm seeing how bad was my HUD color at the time hahaha

MQC's avatar

My longest trip coincided fortuitously with the arrival of the StarGoid in the Bubble... humanity was experiencing a historic and horrifying event, and I was on the other side of the Milky Way...

In my previous trips into the black, I'd always done meticulous surveys beforehand, or followed the route of an ongoing expedition. This time I wanted to make a special test; to unite 2 possible playable mechanics such as exploration and mining, but not only to collect the necessary Tritium to supply my Fleet Carrier, but trying to experiment what it would be like to create a temporary mining outpost on the other side of the galaxy. For this, the system I used as a base was in the Mare Somnia region. I took my Carrier, with hardly any services beyond refueling and repair, to a more or less random system in that sector and planted it as a base of operations. Once at my destination, I began to collect different minerals from systems near that base with the only ship I had on my megan ship, a Type-9 that I had prepared for the task. I didn't care about the time, nor the minerals to collect; I didn't do all this for credits, I did it because I wanted to roleplay that aspect of the game.

I have to say that the experience was wonderful; to be mining in totally unknown and lonely systems, just for the pleasure of doing it, and knowing that there was no one remotely close, was something indescribable. It's strange, but in that immense solitude, returning to my Carrier each day after the hard work of mining everything I could find both in space and on planetary surfaces, was like coming home to the ‘safe place’.

I know that Elite Dangerous is a game that gives each of us different experiences and sensations, but it is very difficult to describe in words what those days were like, so far away, so lonely, and so personal. Sometimes I think about repeating the adventure, but I don't think it will be the same because the first time you experience something in ED, even if it is something personal, out of the ordinary and even meaningless, it is unrepeatable and inimitable.

AndyRice's avatar

My longest journey was my expedition to Sagittarius A* last year. I started playing Elite Dangerous in 2017, when I was in senior high school. The game is not very popular in my country, as it requires relatively good English proficiency and has a steep learning curve. However, I was fortunate to meet a good friend who was willing to play the game with me (let's call him Jam). We decided to visit the heart of the galaxy together. I was flying a Python, and he piloted a Diamondback Explorer. Unfortunately, we didn't succeed at the time; the farthest point we reached was Rohini (about 7,000 light-years from the Bubble).

After graduating from senior high and entering university in 2019, I almost lost contact with Jam and stopped playing Elite for about four years. In early 2023, I bought myself a Steam Deck, and out of curiosity, I installed Elite on it. I didn’t expect it to run well on the Steam Deck, considering the game’s complex keybindings. Surprisingly, it ran perfectly, which reignited my passion for the game. Feeling a strong urge to continue the journey I had abandoned five years earlier, I bought a Krait Phantom, named it "Endurance" after the ship from Interstellar, and set sail—this time, alone.

My original plan was to first visit Colonia, then Beagle Point, and finally Sagittarius A on my way back to the Bubble. However, when I reached Colonia, I realized how difficult it was to reach Beagle Point, so I altered my course and flew directly towards Sag A. Along the trip, I witnessed many spectacular sights and wrote some navigation logs—I might share them someday.

The journey took me almost an entire year to complete, as I was busy dealing with a mountain of real-life responsibilities, including applying for universities and preparing for numerous tests (Graduation Design, IELTS, TestDaF, GRE, etc.). Despite the challenges, I managed to finish the journey and accomplish all those tasks. It felt exhausting, but also deeply fulfilling.

E

To unlock the engineers that require you to travel 5000ly from your starting point my buddy and I took a trip to the Bubble Nebula about 7000ly from the bubble. On the way there we say a large sting of stars in a line in another Nebula.

We saw the Bubble Nebula getting closer and closer.

When I got there I went to every system inside the Nebula and quite a few on the outside. Someone even parked their carrier in the middle of the Nebula.

On the way back home I also swung around to that other nebula we saw on the way.

F

My longest journey was to Oevasy SG-Y d0, or as I've named it, Ishum's reach as I was the first player to reach it and return to sell the cartographic data, thus getting my Cmdr's name on the system.

It's a system in The Abyss and is one of the most remote discovered star systems in the Milky Way, at a distance of 65,647.34 LY from Sol. Oevasy SG-Y d0 is so isolated that a jump range of 82.68 LY is necessary along the route to reach it, making engineering and FSD Injections mandatory. It was unreachable until the engineering update was released. I built my Anaconda and engineered it with the best jump range at the time, which was around 52lys.

It's an amazing place to visit, as the views looking back at the core are beautiful.

USCSS's avatar

Hello Commanders

The longest trip I made was to the Oevasy SG-Y d0 system (the system furthest from the bubble). That system is further away than Beagle Point. To get to that system you have to use the “Frame Shift Drive Injection” since there is a lot of distance to get to the system.

I made that trip because I got to a point where I was bored of being in the bubble. That is why I took my ASP Explorer and made the trip.

I made that trip alone.

It does not present much of a challenge because I have taken advantage of the different Fleet Carriers that are spread throughout the galaxy to be able to repair the ship.

It is a trip that I would like to make again but when I have the Mandalay.

I share some screenshots of the Oevasy SG-Y d0 system and the farthest moon in the bubble (Oevasy SG-Y d0 B 9 F)

(Translated with Google translator)

https://twitter.com/USCSS141477/status/1867782134934503548https://twitter.com/USCSS141477/status/1867783611803656436

https://twitter.com/USCSS141477/status/1867782347904500122https://twitter.com/USCSS141477/status/1867782264429383914

https://twitter.com/USCSS141477/status/1867782313385635925https://twitter.com/USCSS141477/status/1867782393505231313

Doc's avatar

My longest journey was to Sagittarius A. It started when I was wondering about doing a visit to the Colonia system. I always did my exploration/exobiology stuff near the bubble, so I thought my usual Diamondback Explorer configuration would handle the task easily.

I plotted the route using Spansh to reduce travel time with the Neutron Star FSD boost, and everything was going pretty well until I noticed my FSD was malfunctioning. Then I became aware of FSD damage caused by the use of neutron stars.

Because I was unaware of the issue before, I didn't have an Auto Field Maintenance Unit, so at some point in the journey, when my FSD became really bad, I needed to stop using Neutron Stars and just jump without the FSD boost.

But fortunately I managed to arrive at the Colonia system and did an upgrade to my Diamondback Explorer configuration, adding an AFMU, then I hit the space again aiming for Sagittarius A. From this point, everything was ok, the AFMU did really well repairing my FSD and after arriving at Sagittarius A, I came straight back to my home station at the bubble, nice and easy, with plenty of exploration and exobiology data to sell.

It was a good trip, and I learned a lot from my own mistakes. Maybe next time I'm going to Beagle Point, crossing the whole galaxy exploring new places.

CmdrTravisRobicheaux's avatar

The longest journey I have ever taken was from CE-Bootis to Braisua JY-B c16-16 a total distance of 32,509.67 lyrs. This was a trip for our Squadron " Swords of Makhai " the trip was called The Grand Exploration. Nearly 3,000 planets scanned. over 2.5 billion is Exobiology and some pretty amazing photots. I used https://www.spansh.co.uk/plotter to set course and I jumped with my carrier for 3 days because the cool down was over an hour. Once my wing " The Javelin Wing" Arrived we stayed for nearly 2 weeks or a little less if I recall and we all traveled back once we did some heavy exploration. I plotted my carrier back and chased it with my Mandalay!


mastercesspit's avatar

my longest journey by far,...........................................

sorry, just had to adjust the way back machine to way way back.

it was on xbox, before i sampled all aspects of the game, and reset my account to experience the game with some knowledge of the game, if you can figure that one out let me know, i've been wondering myself, lol,

while trade and combat elite rank were easy to me, exploration was a bit more tedious, having travelled straight up from the bubble over 5k ly, and having first to discover and map dozens (probably 100 at least), i still wasn't progressing very fast,

i resolved to make the trek to Colonia, but i took the long road, down to witch head, traversed the bottom of the galaxy for 5k ly, then took a wandering path to Colonia,

the trip consisted of jumping the carrier to the max jump range in the general direction of where i wanted to go, while remaining in the original system in my jumpship, then plotting a route to the carrier and scanning and mapping every system and body, just the trip there would probably be near 10 000 + ly,

by the time i got to Colonia i had consumed 12k tritium in the carrier, and not achieved elite exploration rank, my carrier was nearly bone dry on tritium, and tritium had just been "balanced" in a patch by fdev (the balance was there was tritium in the bubble and none in colonia, or surrounds, ????)

now there were no stations in the "Colonia bridge" at the time, they came as a result of the outcry of the players at the tritium situation brought about by the "rebalancing".

i searched on 3rd party sites to try to buy some tritium but all the Cmdr's had packed it in because the tritium sites had gone dry overnight, i found the sites they had been mining and scraped as much as i could from them, traversed Colonia & surrounds buying 100- 200 tritium at various stations that when i started my journey were regularly at 1000-2000, it was very tedious, to say the least,

i eventually gathered 6000 tritium and although that was definitely not enough, my friend and co-founder of our xbox squad was loading his carrier with tritium to meet me wherever i ran out, the bubble having no shortage (by this time all the joy had gone out of the exercise and it definitely was a near game breaking point, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?)

i set out toward the bubble taking as direct a route as possible, all the time knowing that i was at least 5000 ly short, maybe more, as it happens there is an inhabited system 5000 ly toward Colonia, just inside 20,000 ly from Colonia, (a good point to head for as you can plot a route to Colonia in your jumpship from there) my friend was already there in his carrier so i plotted a route and started jumping the carrier, chasing in my jumpship scanning and mapping as i went,

i made it to within 50 ly of my friends carrier, who had his carrier set to squad only, and 10,000 units of some very cheap tritium in the market, i ferried a load of tritium to my carrier in my cargo cutter, made the 50 ly jump to fill my carrier and stow 5000 tritium on it,

after i had dealt with that dilemma, i had completely forgotten about exploration rank until a few days later, back at our home system adjusting the bgs, (some things are best forgotten if you're going to keep playing), and my friend asked if i had gotten elite exploration rank?, i docked at my carrier and handed in my cartographic data, and indeed i had,

since i reset my account i have never bothered or taken interest in exploration rank, or exploration, once was enough, but i still honk, and scan prospective mining rings, so i'm ranger 75%, it'll happen eventually.

this entire trip consumed 8 weeks playing 8- 10 hours a day, every day, the joys of being retired, livin' the dream, lol

have fun 07

A

The Final Frontier: An Odyssey in the Void

The navigation log marks 3305. The solitude of deep space has become my only companion while my ASP, the "Jumper", cuts through the void between stars. This expedition began as a simple search for tritium, but it has become something more... much more.

It all began in Wregae WO-X b28-3. The first jump was the hardest - leaving humanity's bubble always is. The 150 units of tritium I collected there seemed unimportant then. I didn't know how precious each of those crystals would be in the days to come.

The second stop at Flya Drye NN-H c10-0 gave me my first true discovery: an ice world with methane geysers that painted the sky cobalt blue. While collecting 250 units of tritium, I paused to contemplate how the light from the primary star created rainbows in the columns of frozen gas.

It was at Hyuedau VD-B b27-2 where things got complicated. A cooling system failure forced me to perform emergency repairs in orbit (that's what happens when I get too close to stars LOL). Floating in the void, with only my suit between me and eternity, I truly understood what it meant to be alone in deep space. The 500 units of tritium I obtained there were earned with sweat and determination.

The journey continued, each stop adding its own story to my log. The breathtaking beauty of the ice rings at Hyuedia WK-H B38-0, the dance of the binaries at Bya Theia ZV-D c12-2, the terror of navigating blindly through a radiation storm at Graei Dryou BK-P c22-8.

Pre Phroo PT-G c27-0 gave me the most impressive spectacle: a black hole. I spent three days there, simply observing and documenting, while my tanks filled with 600 more units of tritium.

But it was at Swoaks LY-H c23-0 where I found something that would change my perspective forever: signals of an ancient civilization. Crystalline structures that couldn't be natural, patterns that suggested intelligence. Of course, I followed protocol and sent the data to the Federation, but I kept the true wonder of that discovery for myself.

The journey ended at Chanuae XF-H c13-2, not by choice but by necessity. My ship had reached its limit, and so had I. The final 380 units of tritium were enough to guarantee my return home.

Now I'm heading back with my ASP. The "Jumper" remains in the FC's hangar, waiting for our next adventure. Sometimes, in the quietest nights, I can hear the void calling. And I know I'll return. Because out there, in the immensity of space, I found something more valuable than all the tritium in the galaxy: I found my true self.

End of Commander's Personal Log

Block9's avatar

the furthest I tried to go, with my Orca ship when I was still a gamer noob was to the Colonia system. I was close enough to Sol, and my ship wasn’t built for long jumps. I recall taking me 200+ jumps to even get halfway there. As I progressed further, it became difficult since there weren’t many stars along the route to refuel at. The jumps were consuming a great deal of fuel, but I didn’t quit I just pressed on.

With my last drops of fuel, I found a Fleet Carrier in a barren system with just a lone, non-scoopable star. Docking for repair and refueling was healing there was no ability to dock at a Fleet Carrier, only for friends and squadrons. I was so disappointed by that, but just kept barreling towards Colonia.

After approximately 15 additional jumps, I finally got to a stretch where there was about no scoopable stars, and by that point my fuel level was down to 5%. After that, I had no choice but to blow myself up and go back to the Bubble. I was so frustrated because I was halfway there 100 jumps were left from Colonia. And this wasn’t just a few hours of gameplay; it was a journey that took days.

I’d play for a couple of hours, then leave my ship floating in the void and turn off my PC, prepared to play the next day. But sadly, I never arrived in Colonia. With quite the disappointment, I had to turn back. After that, I abandoned hope of making it to Colonia.

If I look back, that trip ended badly for me as a new player, and I didn’t really know much about jump range, fuel management and how the mechanics worked. But now, that all changed, because I had my own Fleet Carrier, and I want to someday make the journey to Colonia. It’s definitely easier now, although I confess that I’m a touch too lazy to embark on the trip yet LOL.

*this text was translated by an AI program.

Y0EMINENCE's avatar

In Elite Dangerous, I embarked on a legendary journey from the bubble to Beagle Point, over 65,000 light-years away. The voyage through the galaxy's edge was filled with breathtaking nebulas, neutron star boosts, and encounters with alien Thargoids. Fuel scooping from stars became routine, and the solitude was broken only by the occasional message from distant explorers. After months of travel, reaching Beagle Point felt like touching the void's frontier, a testament to endurance in the vast emptiness of space.

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