Elite Dangerous adds new ships for the first time in five years

Elite DangerousFrontier Developments’ space game has had quite a few updates this year. The latest adds a new spaceship called the Lakon Type-8 to the roster, only the second to be added to the game in the past five years. I did a quick test run of it recently, and I think it could breathe new life into the venerable title. But the update isn’t without controversy.

The Lakon Type-8 looks more like a forklift than a spaceship, but those big booms up front serve several interesting purposes. First, they get the nearly 100-meter-long ship’s maneuvering thrusters further out from the ship’s center of gravity. That extra length gives you much more control over speed while maneuvering, an excellent feature considering we’re talking about a ship twice as long as an Asp Explorer.

The second big advantage of those dual booms is aesthetic. In flight, they allow you to see the lights of multiple stars play out on your ship’s hull in real time. You can’t do that if you’re sitting in a cockpit attached to the nose of your ship, like in an Asp Explorer or a Type-9. Meanwhile, while those booms do block your view a bit, the Type-8’s huge dome-shaped canopy generally provides an excellent field of view, especially when landing. You can even see your front landing gear extend and lock into place right from the cockpit.

If you step outside the ship using the in-game photo mode, you can also see a variety of other animations as it takes off, lands, and maneuvers. Cooling fins and wings extend and lock into position as you take off, while the ship’s four massive main engines extend to lock into place and even vector slightly as you turn. All in all, there’s a fair few bells and whistles packed into this ugly beast – just the thing for avid in-game videographers looking to document their travels.

The Type-8 is billed as a speedy little transporter. Its standard boost is pretty darn heavy too, giving it a significant speed boost over the Python. And even fully equipped, it still has over 100 tons more cargo space than a Python. It also has loads of hardpoints for exotic weapons, but that hefty size makes it a challenging choice for combat.

So what about exploration? I’ve spent more time in the game searching for the stars than anything else, and I haven’t given up on my beloved yet Evelynne Christinethe Asp Explorer I flew to Beagle Point in 2019. A video from an experienced Elite Dangerous YouTuber AlsWulf (embedded above) argues that the Type-8 could also fill the role of explorer. His stripped-down version with fully-engineered components and a Guardian FSD booster gets close to 60 light years per jump. While that’s not quite as far as my Asp will take me, those are some pretty long legs for a freighter.

Here’s the controversial bit: Currently, the Type-8 is only available as a pre-built ship, meaning you’ll have to pay just over $12 in real-world money to fly one in the game. But we expect it to be available for purchase with in-game currency within the next few months — just like its closest predecessor, the Python MK II, which first became available for purchase in May. In a game that originally started out as a $150 closed beta experience a decade ago, that’s a relatively small price to pay for the developers who have been at it for over a decade. You can find the Type-8 for sale in its default configuration at the Elite Dangerous storefront, which requires the PC client to play.