Elite Dangerous’ upcoming Operations feature, launching in June, introduces cooperative, multi-stage PvE missions with both space and on-foot combat, allowing up to four players to team up in instanced scenarios for significant rewards. Accessible via stations or fleet carriers, Operations offer two modes—Mercenary and Power Play—with unique rewards including a new currency, Mercoin, and Frontier plans to expand the content and activities over time.
The highly anticipated “Operations” feature in Elite Dangerous, initially planned for late last year and delayed multiple times, is now expected to launch in June. Operations introduce high-stakes, multi-stage instanced player versus environment (PvE) content, akin to raids or dungeons in traditional MMOs. Players will team up to tackle challenging scenarios in private instances, working through objectives and battling NPC enemies, culminating in significant rewards. This new mode aims to provide a fresh, cooperative gameplay experience within the vast, 1:1 scale galaxy of Elite Dangerous.
Accessing operations requires commanders to be docked at a station, starport, or fleet carrier, where a team leader selects the operation and its mode. Two modes are available: Mercenary mode, which is consequence-free and open to all eligible players, and Power Play mode, which ties into the game’s faction system, offering merits to aligned players. For those without a pre-formed squad, a matchmaking system will help assemble teams. Once ready, players are transported to an “ops runner,” a mini fleet carrier serving as the launch and respawn point for the operation.
A significant challenge in Elite Dangerous multiplayer is the vast distances between players, often requiring long travel times to meet up. Operations aim to overcome this by allowing commanders to engage in cooperative content without needing to be physically close in the galaxy, preserving the game’s open-world scale while facilitating easier group play. While the system supports up to four commanders, it remains unclear if NPCs will fill in for missing players or if the difficulty will scale based on team size.
At launch, six operations will be available, featuring both on-foot and space combat gameplay. These include missions like “Counterattack,” where players infiltrate a mega ship, “Burning Rescue,” involving freeing station inhabitants under siege, and “Pirate Hunt,” which tasks players with taking down a pirate boss. Frontier Developments has described Operations as a content delivery platform, with plans to add more missions over time, including less combat-focused activities like mining, expanding the variety and depth of the experience.
Rewards for completing operations include engineering materials, credits, and power play merits where applicable, along with a new currency called Mercoin, exclusive to operations. Mercoin can be spent in a special store for ship modules, weapons, and engineering blueprints, with Frontier promising to expand the rewards as the system evolves. Overall, Operations represent a major new cooperative feature for Elite Dangerous, designed to enhance multiplayer engagement and offer fresh challenges and rewards for commanders across the galaxy.