Checking Out the Mandalay in Elite: Dangerous

The second ship released for Elite Dangerous: Odyssey’ new “early access” scheme is the Mandalay, which honestly I mistook for a new fighter when I first saw screenshots. The first ship was the Python Mk II, and the idea is that people can buy the ship using the premium currency of ARX (earnable in-game as well as with real money) to get to play with the ship before it’s later released for everyone to buy the same way any other ship can be.

The Mandalay launched as part of the Ascendancy update, which brought in PowerPlay 2.0. I won’t go into too much detail, but the basics are you do jobs for one of the galaxy’s powers to earn goodies. Where the Mandalay excels in helping you do this is with its large jump range to get you into your chosen power’s territory easily from wherever you are. Get some Engineered parts in there, and you’re zipping across the bubble like nobody’s business!

There are two small hardpoints, four medium hardpoints, and four utility mounts ready for your preferred loadouts. However, it can only hold a Class 5 power plant, so don’t think that you can put whatever you like on board, it’s only a medium-sized ship!

Two versions of the Mandalay are available: Standard and Stellar. The differences are that Standard comes with two 1F Pulse Lasers and some cargo racks, whereas the Stellar has two 2F Pulse Lasers and a full kit out for planetary exploration. Also, the core internals are better ranked in the Stellar, making it capable of jumping about 9ly further.

As far as flying the Mandalay goes, it’s pretty much the same as any other medium ship. I’ve tried a bit of everything, and it doesn’t seem to do any one task better, apart from its jump range. My old, unengineered ship was jumping almost 25 light years unladen, but out of the factory the Mandalay can do over 30ly, which does make a difference when you’re in a hurry. At time of writing, commanders are evacuating the Sol system, and the Mandalay cut my total transit time down drastically.

The main advantage that the Mandalay, and other ships which will be available in the ARX store first, has is that you won’t have to pay to rebuy it. Well, not the ship itself, anyway, as you’ll still have to pay to replace anything you’ve changed or added, such as weapons. But fly 30 of them into a crater if you like, you won’t be out millions in rebuy fees!

So, if you want a ship with a big jump range out of the box, then definitely check this out. If you don’t have the ARX, just wait for it to be available for in-game credits.