It’s been some time since Elite: Dangerous studio Frontier Developments has sat in front of a camera to reveal its next updates for the sci-fi sandbox, but yesterday did indeed have the first such video of 2026 come online, and in it we got a taste of what’s cooking through the entire year.
First off is the next patch scheduled for Tuesday, February 24th, which is headlined by the release of the next ship, the Kestrel Mk II. This nimble fighter ship is noted as being highly maneuverable thanks to vertical thrusters on its wings, as well as fielding a special Mark 2 plasma cannon that uses ship fuel to fire its slugs.
On the subject of ships, the roadmap outlined the release of a total of six vessels over the course of the year, with another set for April, two releasing in summer, one in autumn, and one in winter. The word “vessel” is noteworthy since last year’s roadmap noted the release of ships specifically, leading to the presumption that there may be more than just internet spaceships coming down the pike.
The next major piece of information is related to operations, the group-based activity that was first given a release window of early this year. The roadmap now plans this content to arrive with the April update, promising several such delves that either focus on on-foot gameplay, ship combat, or a combination of both. Players can either launch these “raid-like” instances with friends or search for a lobby to match up with random players from any location that has a star port, with the insistence that players form a group that has different roles or loadouts among its members.
While more granular specifics weren’t provided about operations, and the footage shown was from a raid within a megaship, the devs did outline a few extra pieces of info, including word of rewards that include a currency that can be used to purchase things like unique modules or engineering blueprints, confirmation of varying sizes and difficulties of operations (though all of them are tuned for groups), and also variants of operations that tie into powerplay, with additional rewards like merits for an aligned faction and undermining impact against a rival faction.
Lastly, there was some vague word about a “feature reboot” for the autumn update. Details were extremely sparse here, but the devs said the existing feature in question is being closely looked at by FDev and hint that it’s “deeply situated within the core of Elite.” More information is promised later in the year.
The video further talked about how the last year of colonization in-game has gone, with stats on created colonies and buildings, and hinted at a larger narrative with a “bigger punch” that will weave through all of 2026. The roadmap can be seen below, as can the full video.
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