A while back, we wrote about how Elite: Dangerous developer Frontier were planning on awarding £10,000 (about $15,000) to the first player who reached Triple-Elite status in the game.
Well, it’s already happened.
Commander Onepercent managed to reach Elite status in all three of the space-based MMO’s three main disciplines - combat, exploration and trading - after plunging an eye-watering 1,029 hours into the game over the first 3 months. If you don’t have a calculator to hand, that averages out at 15 hours a day - leaving just enough time to poop, eat and sleep, but not much else. I don’t know whether to be impressed at his dedication, or organize an intervention.
During those three months, Commander Onepercent managed to visit over 10,000 unique star systems, racked up over 9,000 kills and traded over 800,000 tonnes of goods.
Onepercent took to the game’s official forum to describe his methodology:
“I Started with exploration first, Grantly [sic] the most hardest Elite of the 3. Took me 30 days to Get elite in Exploration, Then Trading which took me 18-19 days to get elite in (I reached a point where I was making 70 million credits per day) Then Finally Combat where I was able to do 600 kills per day right off the bat, The last 3 days I did 800 kills, 700 kills and 700+ kills respectively. (which took me 14 days).”
All that time spent playing took its toll on his HOTAS joystick, however. Onepercent posted a photo of the poor joystick, with the caption “I think I need a new HOTAS”:
Elite: Dangerous came out in December after a lengthy gestation period. It’s the fourth game in a series stretching back to 1984. The first Elite is universally regarded as a classic, and was the first game to feature an open world - achieved via procedural generation - and featuring 3D wireframe graphics. Considering the original game only occupied 16kb of memory, that was quite an accomplishment.
Brian Kale reviewed Elite: Dangerous for Continue Play, and while he wasn’t completely enamored with the game due to what he felt was a lack of meaningful content (at least at present), he nonetheless appreciated its accomplishments. “The niche audience will rightly find this game to be a 9 out of 10, with its beautiful graphics and tight flight controls during combat, while the general audience might be left wanting more once they get their fill of exploration and combat,” Brian wrote in his Elite: Dangerous Review.
“Elite: Dangerous is not a bad game in any regards, it’s often a very good game; but it’s a game that desperately needs more content, and one that only thrills once or twice every few hours.”
Despite Brian’s criticisms, there’s no disregarding Frontier’s accomplishments - and the game has managed to build and retain a sizeable hardcore following, as Commander Onepercent’s dedication is a testament to. Whatever the future holds for Elite: Dangerous, one thing is clear - never under-estimate the dedication of fans.
Dale Morgan
@spamdangled
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