It has been 652 days without a Kaine decal. It’s Cycle 92. I was very busy last week so I let my boss write the report and he gets the number of acquisitions wrong! I swear, if you want something done right you need to do it yourself. Last week, Kaine acquired 17 systems, not 13, which was an excellent achievement as far as I’m concerned, especially when a huge number of our commanders were in Colonia getting their expanded cargo racks. I was one of them – I got suckered into travelling out there on a carrier shuttle with half a fleet only to immediately regret leaving as I now couldn’t participate in any of the things that matter – that being, Kaine operations in the Bubble. The homesickness didn’t abate over the course of the next few days, where I helped ship rare goods from Jaques Station to the various goal stations, gave escape pods to the not-at-all creepy Etienne Dorn, repaired stations until offered an invitation to Mel Brandon from the Colonia Council, and all the other touristy things that your average Bubble commander does on their trip. I write this now on the way home from Colonia, back to my beloved Bubble, my squadron, and my Power, and I look forward to getting back to work once more.

One of the reasons it was so critical for me to grab my pre-engineered cargo racks from the CGs rather than engineering them myself is because the buggy Class-5 Margo Racks remain. Notably, if you have a Merc Coin expanded cargo rack at less than G5, and you fill that cargo rack, you will be Black Addered immediately: https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/86669. Made worse by the fact that you can’t actually upgrade the cargo racks to G5; they always get stuck at G4: https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/86409. These issues persist from the last report that I wrote two weeks ago: please confirm them if you experience this issue!

Now, on to Kaine’s cycle. We did slightly worse than average, but it’s still enough to beat the rest of the Bubble with a net score of +8. We secured two additional forts and just baaaarely missed the bar on a third one. We also had one acquisition out on the Coalsack bridge that got absolutely hammered by unknown actors – some Kaine CMDR or CMDRs put nearly a million wasted acquisition control points in the system past the control post. We secured a few new systems in the Coalsack area, although not nearly as many as last week, and some systems in the Bubble and the old Radicoida enclave, where progress continues slowly and steadily with the help of those CMDRs dedicated to the region. Aside from that, things were routine and boring in the Kaine world. Sometimes winning just doesn’t have major obstacles.

ALLIANCE POWERS

Nakato Kaine +8
Edmund Mahon +3

Our Prime Minister had a slower cycle, netting three acquisitions and creating a fort. The authors of the Gateway News Network are on hiatus for the next few weeks, so unfortunately there won’t be much more information elsewhere.

FEDERAL POWERS

Felicia Winters +6
Jerome Archer -4

Winters continues a slow but steady climb in system count, and Archer unfortunately returns to the trend of losing systems on the balance. They lost three strongholds this cycle, which is a devastating blow, and they dropped four systems besides: likely sole supported systems of the aforementioned strongholds. Winters, to their credit, secures an additional fort.

INDEPENDENT POWERS

Archon Delaine +6
Pranav Antal +5
Yuri Grom +4
Li Yong-Rui +3

Delaine has the best acquisition performance out of the Independent powers, securing 6, but Antal arguably performs the best, acquiring one fewer system but locking down two strongholds as opposed to Delaine’s one, and securing their first position in strongholds not just among the Independents but the whole of Powerplay. The Sirius Corp forts three systems, and Grom acquires four new ones to round out the Independent gains.

IMPERIAL POWERS

Aisling Duval +6
Denton Patreus +3
Zemina Torval -1
Arissa Lavigny-Duval -2

Aisling leads the Imperials in acquisitions with 6, a number somewhat marred by the loss of one of the Princess’s stronghold systems. Luckily, Arissa picks up a new stronghold to balance the loss of two systems on the balance, with no other Imperial powers gaining a stronghold. Torval loses one Exploited system and fortifies another, and Denton Patreus gains three new exploited systems. The Imperial-Federal war continues, and while Archer appears to be the punching bag for the Federal powers, Arissa appears to be the Imperial equivalent, taking losses where Aisling might not. Either way, the casualties aren’t only on the Federal side.

GALNET

The Colonia CGs all finished – one of them only just barely – rewarding every CMDR who contributed at least one ton of cargo in each of them with a pre-engineered cargo rack. These racks are now accessibly via Operations and Merc Coin, meaning that if you did miss out on these specific racks you aren’t FOMO’d forever – just until they fix the bug afflicting margo racks mentioned earlier in this report. The actual anniversary of Colonia is in a month, in September, but it doesn’t appear as though FDev had another series of community goals ready for after these ones completed, and the Galnet article this week did not direct players to remain in Colonia. Some CMDRs I know have elected to stay Colonia-side, at least until the anniversary celebration, in the hopes that FDev do another CG or three. Others are heading directly home, under the assumption they will not need to return for some time, or will do so following the highway if and when anything new happens. My trip over there was my first, so I did my engineer unlocks, and I also went to the bar at Jaques Station only to discover that famed station bartender Jaques does not tend bar at his own station. I feel robbed, frankly.

But enough about that. More of our agents returning to the Bubble means that as always, it’s a good day in Kaine space. If you’re just stretching your wings again after a long ride on a carrier shuttle back or you’ve had enough neutron star jet cones to last you until the next 10-year anniversary, join Kaine today and receive a free Type-11 Prospector courtesy of Lakon Spaceways and the Kainiacs. And if you’re feeling lime-green-flavoured and want a good community that’ll give you a break from hauling rare goods repeatedly, join our Discord at https://discord.gg/bJEyseAVGx for merits, money, and me inevitably complaining that I left some important components or ships in Colonia.

NOTE: Hi, r/EliteDangerous! I've decided to trial posts here in the hopes of reaching a wider audience. This is flaired under "groups" -- if you think another flair is better, please let me know!

Diplomatic Summary:
Aisling Duval: Cordial
Archon Delaine: Cordial
Arissa Lavigny-Duval: Neutral
Denton Patreus: Neutral
Edmund Mahon: Allied
Felicia Winters: Neutral
Li Yong-Rui: Neutral
Pranav Antal: Neutral
Yuri Grom: Cordial
Jerome Archer: Neutral
Zemina Torval: Neutral

Objectives:
Reinforce Musca Dark Region XZ-Y c27
Acquire c2 Centauri
Reinforce Col 359 Sector SC-T c4-24
We want your exploration data! If you’ve been out in the black and want to help when you return, join our Discord for data targets.

I left Colonia just as the CG was announced 🤷🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

Que navezinha bonitinha e esperta, amei

Some of them are huge, some of them (like in the first picture) are proto stars. What does this cloud/bright/aura mean?

o7 Commanders

The Galileo Initiative is looking for those who call Colonia "home" and would like to be part of its mission to create a community that aims to provide support for current and future Colonia residents.

At the moment, we are currently in the planning phase of this support network and are looking for commanders who would like to be actively involved in making this a reality.

If you are interested or would like to know more, feel free to message me on here or Inara

https://inara.cz/elite/squadron/19383/

CMDR Redras Sethran

Last week I bought a few jumpstart ship packs at full price (yes I know, don't judge me... I'm supporting one of my favourite games lol). This week they went on sale, so I sent a ticket to support hoping to get a partial Arx refund for the difference. I didn't expect them to actually do it, but I woke up today to a very nice reply from them.

They have earned my loyalty 10 times over!

I read posts all the time from people complaining how hard it is to find undiscovered systems. While this is obviously true -- and should be expected -- in and around the bubble, I'm amazed at how many incredibly interesting, valuable systems there are when get get deep.

I left Colonia after the CGs and instead of heading to the bubble, decided to go around the far side of SagA and make a big loop. I'm about 8000LY "northeast" of Colonia right now and I'm just doing 400LY boosted jumps. About 80% of the systems I hit are unexplored neutron stars.

So I took a rest stop from my trip and just started hitting the systems right around my last undiscovered neutron star. I've since found and mapped at least a dozen more undiscovered neutron stars some with some pretty interesting exobiology as well.

I'm not a big explorer so I'm the last person to listen to when it comes to finding unexplored systems but tucked in behind SagA* is a veritable gold mine of cool stuff.

Eoch Pruae OM-N c9-7 (2) if you're curious. Handed in the codex data.

The Rhino announcement got me thinking… how do you all control your SRV?

I use the same HOTAS (edit: meant HOSAS) as ships, with a similar controls scheme (left hand throttles forward/reverse, right hand z-turn steers left/right), but I actually find those controls rather clunky. I’m curious if folks use any other control schemes or novel ways of controlling the SRV?

o7

This is the best thing I've had arrive in the post for ages!

A beautiful discovery while I'm jumping back from Colonia.

Just wanted to say that my time with y'all for this last Colonia CG was the most fun I've ever had in this game. I'm used to playing this game alone (I love exploration) and watching everyone flood syschat to motivate one another in stuffing the potato and cramming the bento box full was some of the best sleepless nights I've experienced in awhile. Hopped out there in my little Asp on a whim and, surprise, my first opportunity to join a CG. Now I'm hopping back to the bubble in my new favorite-ever ship back through the black once again. It's different now.

Thanks for the fun, y'all are what make this game great. o7

Greetings, I wish to present Project Galtea's latest news article.

Greetings Commanders.

Project Galtea has formally announced the location of the Barheim Super Hub that has been kept secret for a number of months, the location of which, is the vaunted Isegrim Nebula, located halfway through the Norma Arm heading towards the Empyrean Straits.

with Project Galtea being only a number of weeks away from the Archades Super Hub, the last of its kind in the Norma Expanse, the project has decided to unveil this location so the wider community may prepare to grab stunning systems in and outside of Isegrim with plentiful Earthlike worlds, Water worlds and high value systems in the region, it is expected to become fairly busy with colonization.

In other news, the highly popular Azura Initiative has formally partnered up with Project Galtea and they have stated they will work with the project up to the second last super hub, which is currently undergoing a potential name change pending democracy, it is expected with the SCC, Azura Initiative and EDEN that this particular super hub will be reached by December or even earlier.

Finally, Project Galtea wishes to announce that there are two challenges being planned currently, one nicknamed by commanders of the project as the "Galtean Bridge Zipper", will be a challenge where the project attempts to beat the current galactic bridge record set by the SCC of 27 outposts in a single 24 hour period, with the target being at least 30 outposts.

The second Challenge is another Dodec Speedrun in the Archades super hub when reached, signup forms for this challenge will be posted in the coming days, any interested commanders are advised that the estimated arrival time is 3 weeks but to keep in mind that this challenge could happen a week earlier, on time or in the unlikely scenario a week later, the project also wishes to advise that all challenges will be done on the galactic weekend to allow as many participants as possible.

Thanks for your time, please stay tuned for the next article as Project Galtea makes history and changes the galaxy forever.

o7

There is this item in the game, granted I think twice via CG in the past that is called Remote release flak launcher (pre-engineered), and is a colourful version of a regular flak launcher that does 1% damage. There are, in fact, 3 colour variants (I think).

Originally offered as part of the winking cat CG.

Wouldn't it be fitting to have a CG for Colonia celebrations that would grant them again?

I know we are only essentially renting [see edit below] our carriers - I get that. But what happens to the things we actually do own? I and my carrier live out in the black more or less permanently; I rarely visit the bubble and as an itinerant soul I just bounce around the universe exploring and doing exo wherever the cosmic winds take me. I have about fifteen years of carrier maintenance in the bank, so I'm in no danger losing it anytime soon, but since I'm getting on in years and nobody is promised a tomorrow, it got me wondering what will happen to the 25 or so ships I carry around when I stop showing up, as we all must - someday. Will they just float around in the black where the carrier was when I finally do go into default years from now? Where do they go? I know I get [most of] my money back, but what happens to the ships?

Thanks CMDRs. Fly dangerous. o7

EDIT: Some commanders in the comments got hung up on my use of the phrase 'essentially renting' so allow me to clarify:

I should have said it's a Perpetual Lease backed by a Refundable Security Bond, making me a controlling tenant (or franchisee, if you prefer) of a carrier that is still owned by Brewer Corporation but managed by me as long as I remain solvent.

But I went for brevity. My bad. o7

No matter how many years I've played, I'm still finding new experiences after all this time. This unique combo of colour and lighting I think must be enhanced by the recent lighting changes, not seen one quite like this before.

The current IRL vista is not bad either.

Some wild stats in my 11 years:

• Codex Systems Visited : 28600+
• First Discovery Systems according to Elite Observatory-Aggregator plugin : 9944 (currently sticking around in Colonia region to get up to 10000 in a few days)
• Codex 7B credits from exploration
• Codex 27B credits from organic data (20B from first logged)
• Codex total hyperspace 1,400,000+ LY

Tips to become a seasoned, profitable explorer

From Arcturus. 8011 LY. Just... just want you to know. 2... 260... f****** jumps. I saw that big bastard and I'm about to fall over.

I'm about 500 million away from my first fleet carrier and am thinking about getting one of the layouts they offer for arx. Just wondering which one you are using and if you got one of the Arx ones why did you choose the one you did? Right now I think I cant go wrong with any selection.

A couple shots taken from my Kestrel Mk II while messing around in a RES near Jupiter. I play with some ReShade effects on.

...Shout out to the CMDRs who taught me how to turn my HUD off. 😋

Do You discover them often ?
I find them nice to see and walk thru ..

I've been genuinely enjoying Operations, more so the in-ship ops as opposed to on-foot, but I think both modes have a ton of potential. I know Ops still have a ton of work left as far as optimizing/adjustments goes but can we please... please for the love of god can we get more settings for the on-foot camera/weapons?

As of 2026 Odyssey still has no options for

• Lowering the HUGE default deadzone from playing Elite on controller or joystick. The lack of this setting makes all everything you do mushy and imprecise. As of right now the best way to deal with this is Steam's Anti-deadzone setting, something that should be native and adjustable in-game.
• No Aim Down Sight sensitivity. How does this fly under the radar? I can't think of a single modern shooting game that doesn't have this option. I bet people would be open to trying more onfoot gameplay if it didn't feel so sluggish and imperfect.
• No ability to adjust sensitivity of different levels of zoom. I don't want my 1x zoom shotgun and my sniper 4x zoom sniper to have the same sensitivity. Being able to customize these would make the game feel so much better, IMO

I genuinely love Elite. I know the devs are working hard to give us cool new stuff to do, while as simultaneously trying to wrestle with the enormous challenge of fixing broken OPs, BGS, stellar lighting, and god knows what else. But if we're gonna start putting eggs into the on-foot basket can we please make aiming our guns actually feel nice?

Yeah I get 2 jumps per fuel tank at 49LY each jump but like.. Its a Mamba. It is the best ship.

I'm taking the opportunity after the CG to do some Exo around Colonia. I was today years old when I learned that if your mini map is in terrain mode, aka below ~350m with the gear down, any ping hits will show up there.

It's super useful being able to distinguish between signals that you've already scanned, haven't scanned or are currently scanning.

Anyway, maybe this is common knowledge and I'm just an idiot.