No better place to start then with the core of Elite Dangerous. The ships.

You will be spending all of your time in your ship so you need all the tools at your disposal to make sure you have the right one for the job. Not to mention making sure you have the right equipment for the job. Here is my favorite player guide to help you learn a thing or two about the ships and a few tools to help you test them without spending in-game credits.

To start check out A Guide to Ships by Rhys. This guide will give you some insight into every ship in the game.

Now my absolute favorite tool is the Coriolis Ship Yard.[coriolis.io]


















Alternatively you can try this as well for outfitting. Roguey[roguey.co.uk]

That covers the functional parts of your ship, but what about the way it looks inside?
The following will let you preview your own custom HUD colors. Keep in mind that since the addition of "Holo Me" and different character portraits, many color schemes will change the way the faces look. Some to the point where they become unrecognizable.
For that reason a list of HUD colors compatible with Holo Me and NPC pictures[forums.frontier.co.uk] is now available.

HUD Colour Theme Editor[arkku.com] to make a preview of your ship's HUD.























You can then enter the number combination from the colour matrix into your game file.
The folder for Elite Dangerous looks like this: SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous\Products\FORC-FDEV-D-1010
For Elite Dangerous Horizons it looks like this: SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Elite Dangerous\Products\elite-dangerous-64
You are looking for the file named "GraphicsConfiguration".
Make a back up copy of this file before you edit it in case you want to change it back to default easily. Open it with notepad and scroll down until you see the following.

<GUIColour>
<Default>
<LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
<MatrixRed> 1, 0, 0 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0, 1, 0 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 0, 0, 1 </MatrixBlue>

Here is an example from the compatible list of colors.


















Here are the numbers you need to change to make it look like the above screenshots.

<MatrixRed> 0.39, 0.47, 0.21 </MatrixRed>
<MatrixGreen> 0.08, 0.14, 1 </MatrixGreen>
<MatrixBlue> 1, -0.03, -1 </MatrixBlue>

Once you have finished save changes and right click on the file and go to "properties". From there check the box that says "read only" and click "Apply". This will prevent the game from reverting any changes you made.

Do you like to mine? I like to mine.
Do you have a smart phone? I do.
You need this app.

Elite Dangerous: Miner Tool[play.google.com]

Here are some of my favorite "tools of the trade" that I use frequently while playing ED.

Out of fuel and stranded? Who ya gonna call? THE FUEL RATS[www.fuelrats.com]

Here are a couple of older fan made trailers you might like.

Elite: Dangerous - "Horizons" - Fan-made trailer by NotOnlyHere

Elite Dangerous Event Horizons Trailer (Blue) by Spectalys

Inara Community[inara.cz]

There are a few good locations to look up info if you have a question about the game. These can be found using google but it is nice to have them here on steam where you can get to them quickly.

Elite Dangerous Wiki[elite-dangerous.wikia.com]


















Elite & Dangerous Roguey[roguey.co.uk]


























Elite Dangerous Database[eddb.io]

If you're relatively new to Elite Dangerous, you may have found that making money at the start is rough. Both trade and Combat can be difficult in the early stages of you careers as better ships make both endeavors easier. But that requires a lot of funds.

Exploration is possible at early stages, however to really make big bucks at it, you must be really lucky to find the high value bodies.

Not anymore.

Listen up both new and veteran Commanders...
There IS a way to earn big bucks and HUGE rank increases with exploration.

The Road to Riches [http://edtools.ddns.net/expl.php]:
The Road to Riches is a free online tool for Elite Dangerous.
This website allows you to locate high value celestial bodies that are close by.
It focuses specifically identifying high value planets: ELW: Earth Like Worlds, TWW: Terraformable Water World, HMC: High Metal Content Planets.

Just plug in your location, and it will list a few hundred planets that you can scan for profit.
You will need to following on your ship:

• Advanced Discovery Scanner - to scan the system
  
• Detailed Surface Scanner - detail scan the specific planetary bodies

What's more... the list of planets provided are close by so you can do with pretty much any ship with a decent jump range [20+ly jump range is prefereable, easily doable in a Cobra].

I've used this tool for the past few weeks... and have not only made approximately $ 50 million credits in roughly 4 hours in the Black, but gained a substantial Exploration rank increase doing it. On average I've done about 20-30 of the systems in the list per exploration sortie... and it's fairly consistent.

But wait...
There are some added bonuses as well!
First: The profits you make when turning in your Exploration date will dramatically increase your standing with the system you sell it to. I was able to ally two neutral systems with the exploration date I collected, instantly.

Second and More Importantly: Selling this exploration collected from planets listed will also dramitcally improve your Exploration rank. I, myself have gone from Trailblazer to Ranger [with Ranger now being almost 80% complete]. That's two whole ranks!!! My profits for the 4 hours were $52 mill. So it's theoretically possible to earn $200 Mil for 20 hours in the Black, plus a significant Exploration Rank boost for your troubles.

Best of luck, Commanders!
CDR Evil East