The Frontier universe is a vast and varied one - dangerous for the inexperienced. If you're having hell getting into Frontier or just need a few extra tips this is the section for you. There are no real cheats in Elite 2 but some of the many bugs can be taken advantage of. This means that cheats are often specific to particular Frontier versions. As no version message is displayed the only way to tell which version you have is by seeing which bugs are available. One of the best tips is to save regularly and always keep more than one saved game - even the best can't win without this one!
Tip: The single safest way to make money is to buy Robots and Computers at Barnards Star and sell them at Sol. Buy Luxury goods at Sol and sell them at Barnards star and repeat the process until you are rich. Pirates almost never attack at Sol and Barnards Star.
Tip: Once you have a permit to enter Van Maanens Star [1,0], trading Luxury Goods between Sol or Tau Ceti and Van Maanens Star is very profitable. (Lux Goods are Illegal in Van Maanens Star and you never get nicked so profits are 200% at least).
Tip: Trading in Robots from Luyten 205-128 [-1,-2] to Cemiess [-2,-2] is very profitable. Robots cost 500C at Luyten and can be sold for 925C at Cemiess. This is a very good profit margin for a legal run!
Tip: Trading Animal skins from Ross 154 to Barnards Star, and Robots back again is more profitable than the usual Sol - Barnards Star trip. Skins are Illegal and Robots are worth more on Ross 154 than Sol.
Tip: Good trade routes usually involve buying something where it is a major export and selling where it is an inport. The largest profits can be had by trading in illegal goods. Once your ship is large enough you can afford to pay the fine - they don't confiscate the illegal goods.
Early PC and Amiga: Buy some Passenger Cabins and people to go in them. Try to part exchange your ship for another one with a lower value than yours and it will tell you that you cannot because you have passengers on board but it still gives you the cash!
Early PC, ST and Amiga: Go to the Cemiess System [-2,-3] and the Illegal Goods Exchanges will pay you about 3000C per tonne of Precious Metals you buy.
| Rating | Kills |
|---|---|
| Harmless | 0 |
| Mostly Harmless | 4 |
| Poor | 8 |
| Below Average | 16 |
| Average | 32 |
| Above Average | 64 |
| Competent | 128 |
| Dangerous | 1000 |
| Deadly | 3000 |
| ELITE | 6000 |
All versions: When you leave a space station stop, turn around and fire your lasers. As the police come out trash them! You only have to pay the small (600C) fine for unlawful discharge and it increases your rank quickly.
All versions: Go to phobos (one of mars' moons) and fire at it with a mining laser. Each hit counts as a kill. While doing this hold down Shift-F3 to time-accelerate. You will soon be ELITE. This completely removes the pleasure and pride of being a high Elite rating and it is a cheat only the worthless use. (It also crashes my Atari Version :)
Tip: Trade routes involving an anarchy usually attract lots of pirates to you. If you are confident at fighting then this is a great way to earn ELITE rating.
Tip: You may notice the Elite rating chart goes from 128 kills at competent to 1000 at dangerous. This is the reason why your rank seems to stay at competent for so long. Just stick at it! You'll get past eventually.
All versions: Just after firing a missile turn the time control up to speed 3 and the missile will hit, always.
Tip: In a BIG ship there is little point trying to manoeuvre the craft to fire against a small, agile craft. Just fly forward until he's behind you and apply reverse thrust. He splatters on your shields.
Tip: Always attack with engines off mode. This enables you to thrust at him and then float past firing like a turret.
Tip: When doing a head on attack, remember how much momentum your ship has - avoiding a collision at the end of a head on attack can be almost impossible. (Although this could be handy for a BIG ship).
Tip: 1MW pulse lasers are too small for any serious fighting - get at least a 5MW pulse or 1MW beam laser.
| Federal | Imperial | Points |
|---|---|---|
| None | Outsider | 0 |
| Private | Serf | 1 |
| Corporal | Master | 16 |
| Sergeant | Sir | 81 |
| Sgt-Major | Squire | 256 |
| Major | Lord | 625 |
| Colonel | Baron | 1294 |
| Lieutnant | Viscount | 2401 |
| Lt. Commander | Count | 4096 |
| Captain | Earl | 6561 |
| Commodore | Marquis | 10000 |
| Rear Admiral | Duke | 14641 |
| Admiral | Prince | 20736 |
Note: Delivery missions are worth 2 points, assassinations 14, photos 16, bombings 18 and excellent photos 20.
Tip: To gain ranks the cheap, unskilled and cheating way, go to Facece [-4,0] and there will be lots of imperial missions. Take the missions to either Sohoa or Vequess depending on which one has the most. You can normally get about 6 missions a run this way and you will quickly progress to the more interesting missions.
Tip: To get a good picture in a recon mission, fly to the planet. When the planet almost fills the screen set the speed to about 50000km/h (faster if you are confident) and look for a small, star like object on the planet. With Identification text On the spot should be unidentified. Lock on to the object and fly towards it. When you are at about 4000 km away reduce speed to 10000Km/h and fly at low level (200m or so) towards it. This means the attacking fighters will crash as they launch. When you are 20Km away get a photo and hyperspace out. This procedure works with bombing missions too.
All versions: You can take off and land on planets with atmosphere without atmospheric shielding by time accelerating to max as soon as landing clearance is given. To take off lift off and point the nose up, put on full power and hit time accelerate. You get a wee bit kicked so only use this if your atmospheric shielding is damaged.
All versions:To change the fixed drives of the Imperial Courier and Trader, when your ship has not been serviced for almost a year fly to a reasonable distance from the station and stop. Time accelerate at maximum until your drive breaks down. Fly to the station and you will now be able to change drive.
All versions except new PC versions: You can jump 655.35l.y and any multiples of 655.35 with any ship. This is a bug caused by the use of 16-bit numbers in the calculation of distances.
Amiga version: Get 1 tonne of Rubbish, leave the station and go to the cargo jettison panel. Click just below the jettison button for the Rubbish and your cargo space increases by 1 (and the rubbish stays). Keep on clicking for a massive ship!
If you know any other cheats and tip or wish to
correct me, email me @
'tom' at the domain 'moretom' dot 'org'.