Elite Dangerous: Odyssey gets another massive bug-fixing update

A pilot and a starship on an icy word, under billions of stars

(Image credit: Frontier Developments)

Like a beleaguered Starfleet engineer, Frontier has once again found itself neck-deep in Elite Dangerous: Odyssey's maintenance shafts in an attempt to patch up the ailing ship.

Elite's latest expansion landed in something of a sorry state a few weeks back, so riddled with bugs and issues that Frontier boss David Braben felt compelled to apologise "wholeheartedly" for Odyssey's state at launch. Since then, the studio has been working hard to patch up the expansion, releasing a hefty 5GB update full of bug fixes last week.

Now, Odyssey is receiving a second maintenance patch, this time coming in at a slightly smaller 3.5GB. The game's patch notes show a laundry list of corrections, from fixes to AI at planetary outposts, broad rebalancing of the game's audio, and a host of changes to lighting, UI, cosmetics and more.

One particularly painful issue that stopped explorers from plotting routes containing Neutron stars (super-charging your ship off these stars lets you make a jump far further than your normal range) has also been fixed. Would've been a nice fix before I decided to wrap up a 20K light-year trip across the galaxy but thanks, I guess.

These updates go a step further towards getting Odyssey back into ship-shape. But it doesn't fix more fundamental issues that have been visible since the expansion’s alpha—namely, that much of the on-foot missions, activities and FPS arenas are just flat-out naff.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.