Elite Plus: Missions & Galaxy 9
A guide to the missions of Elite Plus and the patch needed to guarantee a visit to the ninth galaxy.
Becoming Elite
The combat rating is independent of any missions and any progression through the ratings has no impact on the missions. When the ELITE combat rating is reached, you may find yourself having already encountered the first few missions.
Missions
There are 7 missions, special events to break up the routine of trading, piracy, mining, etc. a Commander may have fallen into. Missions are presented one at a time and one mission must be completed, refused or failed before another will be presented. There may be a considerable wait between missions, so you'll want to keep trading and making jumps within the galaxy.
If you want to visit a new galaxy, make sure you make the galactic hyperspace jump between missions and NOT during one!
Missions are presented immediately after docking at station. The system giving out the mission and system the mission takes place in are both random, and not repeated so make sure to make a note of the mission system!
Some missions can be accepted or refused, others are thrust upon you as an emergency to deal with.
Some missions may only specify a nearby system. Any system within hyperspace jump range will be a suitable system to complete the mission.
Mission 1: Tribble for sale
A 'once in a lifetime' offer to purchase the last remaining Tribble for 5000 Cr. You'll receive this mission as soon as you have sufficient funds and you can decide to take up the offer or refuse it. Just remember, buyer beware. If things get a bit overwhelming, some radiation therapy might help!
Mission 2: Refugee rescue
You've arrived at a station with the local star about to go supernova. There are those on the station requiring transport to another system, will you help or refuse? No good deed goes unpunished but there is a cash reward.
Mission 3: Retrieve a masking device
A new masking device has been developed in a nearby system. Travelling to the nearby system will result in an attack from 3 Asp MkII's each utilising a masking device. One the destroyed ships will drop a cargo canister that should be scooped up to retrieve the device.
During the attack the Asps are supported by unique ships, the Cougar and Constrictor. Once you return to the system giving out the mission you should receive your masking device as a reward.
Mission 4: Destroy a Thargoid occupied station
A nearby system has been invaded by Thargoids resulting in the local Coriolis station falling into Thargoid occupation, this requires a jump to a nearby system with a Coriolis station.
The mission requires the station to be destroyed which is possible (obviously weakened by the Thargoid attack). When jumping into the system you'll encounter multiple Thargoid attacks so get to the station sooner rather than later.
Once you return to the system giving out the mission you should receive an Anti ECM system as a reward and a new rank Archangel. Despite it being a sanctioned mission I believe this may give you a fugitive rating, so afterwards you may wish to leave the galaxy!
Mission 5: Stolen police ship
This mission takes place in a named system, so take a note of which one. This is a simple search and destroy mission of a stolen military police ship. This one has a cash reward.
Mission 6: Thargoid 'invasion ship' plans
Thargoid 'invasion ship' plans have been obtained and require transport to a research base at a named system (so make a note). The Thargoids are aware, so as you travel expect multiple Thargoid attacks. Upon delivery there's a cash reward.
Mission 7: Asteroid bombardment
A named system is suffering from an asteroid bombardment. When you arrive you'll find a higher concentration of asteroids than normal, but head to the station and deal with the asteroids there. If you've destroyed enough there should be a cash reward waiting when you dock.
Visiting Galaxy 9
There has always been a tiny chance of reaching Galaxy 9 with a galactic hyperspace jump from Galaxy 8, however it's estimated that only 300 chances in 65536 would be successful, a less than 0.5% probability. Thousands of galactic hyperspace jumps may be needed to reach Galaxy 9 normally. The following patch applies a change to make a visit to Galaxy 9 a certainty.
Elite Plus version
Given the age of the game there are probably a few versions of Elite Plus that can be found. This patch is compatible with the 'official' (or official'ish) Elite Plus version which can be found at Ian Bells, The Elite Home Page in PC Elites.
Backups
It is recommended to take a backup of the game executable (elite.exe) and any saved commanders you wish to continue using (*.cdr). Both can be found in the game installation folder.
Patching
The patch is an xdelta patch containing the changes to apply to the game executable.
It was created using the utility DeltaPatcher v3.1.6. From the creator, Marco Calautti:
Delta Patcher is a GUI software that is able to create and apply xdelta patches as the ones supported by the xdelta tool developed by Joshua McDonald.
It is available from the DeltaPatcher GitHub repository in Releases. To apply the patch:
Download and extract DeltaPatcher and the ElitePlus-Galaxy9.zip patch below.
Run the DelatPatcher and select the original file/game executable (elite.exe) and the xdelta patch (ElitePlus-Galaxy9.xdelta).
Click Apply patch.
Preparing to patch. Patch applied.
Making the jump
To make the jump you'll need to be in Galaxy 8 with a ship equipped with a Galactic Hyperdrive. SImply leave the station and make a galactic hyperspace jump to reach Galaxy 9!.
Finally...
Credit and thanks goes to:
Nothoria Infama for the Elite Plus thread on the Frontier Forums.
darrenc for the 9th Galaxy research.
Marco Calautti for DeltaPatcher.
Good hunting!
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