NVIR // Guides
Field Guides
From your first launch to your next engineered ship — find your bearings and chart your course.
Getting Started
Your first hours in the galaxy — the cockpit, credits, career paths, and everything to know before leaving the starter district.
Commander's Handbook
Training, the tools worth bookmarking, the rules that keep a ship, and how to keep it fuelled — before you undock.
Open →Your First Steps
The cockpit, pips, docking, and your first missions — everything you learn without leaving the starter district.
Open →Making Credits
You can fly and dock. Now make some credits — buy a better hull, fit it properly, and build a rebuy before leaving the starter system.
Open →Find Your Path
Last step before heading out into the galaxy. Leave the district on purpose, pick a role, and spend on the fit — modules first, engineering when the hull is a keeper.
Open →Activities
Pick a career and fly it well — the loop, the fit, and where the credits and ranks actually come from.
Combat
Bounty hunting, Resource Extraction Sites, and Conflict Zones — earn credits while you learn to fight.
Open →Exploration & Exobiology
Honk, scan, and map your way across the black — then land and sample alien life for the biggest solo payouts a commander can bank.
Open →Passenger Transport
Fit cabins instead of cargo racks and fly people where they want to go — transport runs, VIP contracts, and sightseeing tours.
Open →Ships & Outfittings
Find the right hull, see what it can do, learn how to fit it, and know when it's time to move on.
Ships
Every ship in Elite Dangerous, from humble starters to the largest vessels in the galaxy.
Open →Ship Matrix
Compare every ship across combat, trading, mining, exploration, and more to find the right hull for the job.
Open →Recommended Ships
Our picks for the best ships and builds, curated for the way commanders actually play.
Open →Materials
Learn the material system, understand the grades, and turn what you have into what you need.
Material Codex
Learn the three material inventories and the Guardian and Thargoid piles beside them, their grade ladders, and how to turn what you have into what your engineering needs.
Open →Material Gathering
Where to find every material category, with the fastest routes to stock up and trade down.
Material Trading
Every material category has its own trader. Learn what can be exchanged, what you can get back, and what can't be traded.
Open →Engineering
Unlock engineers, gather the right materials, and turn good ships into great ones.
Overview
Unlocking engineers, what a grade costs, experimental effects, pinning, and the order to modify a ship in.
Open →Engineers
Find every engineer, unlock their services, and see what each one can do for your ship.
Blueprints
Explore ship modifications, their material costs, and the blueprints behind our recommended builds.
Open →Tech Brokers
What the Human and Guardian tech brokers unlock, with sizes, mounts, and what to gather.
Ranks
The Pilots Federation ladders and major-faction navies — what each rank unlocks and where the climb leads.
Pilot Ranks
Combat, Trade, Exploration, and Exobiology — the four Pilots Federation ladders, and the Elite that opens Founders World.
Open →Faction Ranks
Climb the ranks of the Federation and Empire to unlock permits, ships, and other rewards across the Bubble.
Open →Powerplay
Rise through the ranks of Powerplay, support your chosen leader, and unlock powerful modules along the way.
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