Elite pilot travels 6 hours after falling for ‘free ship’ prank

Oh expensive. A pilot in Elite Dangerous has fallen for a cheeky prank. Commander SpeedyBebop undertook a six-hour journey to Hutton orbital (a distant house station orbiting 0.22 lightyears from its dad or mum star) after listening to that a free Anaconda awaited anybody who travelled there. This is among the house sim’s most costly and highly effective ships. But when he arrived, he found the entire thing was a ruse. There was no Anaconda. And it seems he’s not the primary one to fall for this prank – it has grow to be a operating joke amongst Elite’s pilots.

The journey to Hutton usually takes simply over an hour. Unfortunately for this commander, web issues meant his journey saved being interrupted. It took him a complete of six hours of on-and-off flying earlier than he eventually docked his Type-6 spacetruck. When he did, he observed that the station doesn’t also have a shipyard, not to mention a free vessel.

This “free ship” is a longstanding joke amongst pilots, it transpires. It’s talked about on Reddit way back to a year ago. Sometimes pilots brusquely right each other, saying that the particular ship at Hutton really prices 1000 credit (nonetheless a pleasant low cost on its ordinary worth of 146 million). The origins of the hearsay aren’t clear however at the very least one other person fell for a similar trick final month.

“I first heard about it as a remark… on a post talking about free ship skins,” SpeedyBebop advised me, “and I assumed that if there were free ship skins, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to say maybe Frontier was giving away an Anaconda for 1000 credits in the game for Thanksgiving.”

Despite the prolonged voyage, he isn’t upset with the sport’s roguish commanders. On the opposite, it has earned him some fame locally. Somebody even made fan art of the incident.

“I’m not really annoyed (other than the time that I wasted) but the feedback I’ve gotten about sharing my story of falling for such a joke has been awesome, it has made me feel less of an idiot then when I first realized it was a joke.”

So take this cautionary story as a pleasant reminder, house buddies. There’s no such factor as a free launch.