Player Saved From Beyond the Edge of the Galaxy in Elite: Dangerous

The longest rescue in Elite: Dangerous just concluded, setting a new record for the already famous Fuel Rats players.

Elite: Dangerous is without a doubt the game with the biggest playground. If you read a little bit about it, you learn that it spans basically across the entire Milky Way galaxy, but some of you might be skeptic about that.

The truth is that Elite: Dangerous is that size. It encompasses about 200 billion solar systems, many of which are identical with the ones with already discovered in real life. The size of each solar system is rendered accurately, meaning that planets, suns, and all other object are at the correct distance.

Since all of the ships require fuel, it stands to reason that some of the players will become stranded from time to time. If you’re careful, use a fuel scoop, and pay attention to the fuel levels, it’s not something that happens all that often.

When missions come in the way of common sense

There are some instances when people become stranded in a way that has nothing to do with being careless. One of the ads at Hutton Orbital said Far Out Mugs - Send your mug to the Beyond and Commander Persera took this mission.

Hutton Orbital is known for being really far from the host star, which in this case is Alpha Centauri A. It’s a distance of about 6,7 million light second or 0.22 light years. In gaming time it takes about 30 minutes, with the help of the superluminal engine. As you all know, waiting around for 30 minutes is unheard off for gamers, and anyone who dares to go there can take a mug.

Commander Persera’s idea was to take a bunch of mugs and dump them in space far beyond the edge of the galaxy, where no man has gone before. Even if the galaxy is a pretty big place, there are some limits. The furthest star discovered, until now at least, is Semotus Beacon.

So, the commander pushed passed it just by flying regularly, without jumping. The commander made some calculation and figured out that enough fuel would remain for another jump after two days in regular space. Persera was wrong.

The Fuel Rats to the rescue

The Elite: Dangerous community is an amazing one. It gathers both ruthless pirates and regular people that just want to help. The Fuel Rats are a group of commanders that help out people in distress. They used to be much more prominent, but changes to the gameplay allowed people to make fewer mistakes.

Soon after receiving the call, they headed out to the stranded commander, at the edge of the galaxy and, after a nerve-racking trip, they finally made it. The entire adventure was streamed live on Twitch for the whole world to watch.