Elite Dangerous Fast Supercruising Guide

Elite Dangerous Fast Supercruising Guide (Xbox) by echof0xtrot

there are 3 distinct ways to travel in E:D — normal speed (m/s), supercruise (anywhere from km/s to hundreds of times “c,” the speed of light) and hyperspace (thousands of times the speed of c).

SC is the “middle speed” of travel, and allows you to freely move inside a star system from planet to planet or between stations.

one of the more confusing elements of this game is maneuvering towards and accurately arriving at destinations in SC.

this quick guide should help any new players attune themselves to the process.

choose your destination via the navigation panel, system map, or by targeting out the front window. (your keybindings will vary).

a small circle with a reticle and a blue dot will appear to the left of your radar display. this is your orientation to your current target; a filled-in circle means it’s in your front 180 arc, a hollow circle means behind.

1) line up the solid dot in the reticle. you will now see it out the front window as well.

2) go 100% thrust until the “time to arrival” countdown on the window info hits 7 seconds

3) drop thrust to 75% (via keybindings — eyeballing it won’t work. check your control menu for options).

in the bottom left of the hud you have two orange bars with blue areas on their lefts. these are maximum distance and speed to drop out at your destination.

4) when the “speed” bar hits the blue, go back up to 100% thrust

5) when “distance” hits the blue (and you get the blue safe drop announcement in the middle of your hud) hit your jump button to drop out of SC into normal space.

6) if you miss the drop and overshoot, don’t panic. just stay at 75% thrust, circle back, and repeat step 5.

be aware: stars/planets/moons will slow you down when you’re near them. if you’ve reached step 4 but suddenly your time to arrival starts climbing, increase thrust back to 100% until you again see 7 seconds. rinse and repeat until step 5.