After a Run-In with The Fuel Rats

So there I was, flying around space and headed for a populated sector. My fuel would be enough to hit that, and then I could refuel at the local space station -- or even planet-based station! Except, as I check my navigation console, I find no station in the system. But, surely that cannot be… Surely that unknown object about 1,000Ls away from the local star is a station…! Fuel running low, I was unable to make the next jump. I tried, only to be confirmed -- not enough fuel. I checked my console for a closer system, but the only other ones within the capabilities of my jump drive were barren systems! I had two options: I could run out of power for life support, suffocate and die, or; activate the self destruct. However, thanks to the community, there was a third option...

If you’ve played Elite: Dangerous, then you’ll have experienced what I went through. It’s inevitable that, even with all of the forewarning and preparation -- you run out of fuel. In the first six months of the game launching (and the alpha/beta phases beforehand) people were hopeless. Even if you equip your ship with a fuel scoop, poor planning can put you in a system with low fuel and a star which is unsuitable for the scoop.

So what happened, and why am I writing about it? Well, one of the selling points for E:D is the fact that you can do anything you want, within the limits of the game. Become a smuggler, avoiding the authorities, become a pirate stealing people’s cargo, do a lot of heavy shipping as a space trucker… There is a group of players who decided that they had had enough of running out of fuel. When Frontier brought out fuel limpets -- which allowed you to refuel someone else -- they took the idea and ran with it.

What was probably envisioned as a way to help Wings (groups of four players who travel together), was taken by the Fuel Rats to be a way to help people in need. They have fuel, you don’t... any questions?

Well, you probably do have questions, but that is actually their motto. When you find yourself without any fuel, and no way to get more. You can contact them for a rescue -- simple as that. Whether it’s due to poor planning, or your ship was pulled out of supercruise just shy of a station, you can nip over to their IRC channel.

Let me walk through what happened to me, and the steps I’ve taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I was flying to a specific star system, as I was looking to upgrade from my Eagle to a Cobra MKIV -- which was an exclusive ship for those who pre-ordered the Horizons season pass. I’d been saving up and happened to be quite a distance from the right type of system (it has to have a certain type of economy and population, otherwise they simply don’t sell ships). I didn’t have a fuel scoop, which is used to gather fuel from specific star types, so had planned stops along the way at space stations to refuel.

The way that systems are named, you can guess which ones have something worth your time. If the name begins with Arietis, it’s going to either be just a star on its own, or it might have an uninhabited planet you can only find after flying towards it for 10 full minutes. So I jumped from one such Arietis system to one with a name. As I arrived, the story at the beginning of this article occurred. No sign of a station, and not enough fuel to jump to another system.

I dropped out of supercruise and stopped my engines, then went into my module list and disabled everything. With current fuel consumption, I would be safe for an hour or two before I ran out of fuel, so I wasn’t worried. Even with zero fuel I would have ten minutes of emergency oxygen, and I had done some research on the Fuel Rats back when they were celebrating 2,000 rescues back in October.

I went to their site and logged into the IRC channel. I let them know my commander name, my location, and whether I was desperate or not. The operator let the team know that I was in need, and the ‘bidding’ began. Everyone currently on duty said how many jumps away from me they were, and the operator nominated the Rat. In my instance, it was Commander Tom X.

I was told to send a friend request to Tom, and did so. Then I was to send him a Wing request, which would allow him to home in on my signal more easily. As I was one thousand light seconds away from the star, I relayed that information, and Tom kept sending through updates on how many jumps, then how much distance he was covering.

When he arrived, he engaged his fuel limpets and my computer let me know that I was receiving fuel. He sent over a few, then contacted me in-game to ask how much more I required, and let dispatch know that the rescue was successful. It was all very professional, and the whole time the IRC channel was getting little codes from the Fuel Rats Lexicon, such as +FR when I sent the friend request.

My fuel tank was over 80% full, and my destination was a mere two jumps away, which wouldn’t even be half of that, so I assured my savior that I was fine with what he had given me. As there is no way to transfer credits, and I had no cargo to offer him, I didn’t want him to be any more out of pocket than he already was. Tom then asked me to stick around for a chat -- which I was more than happy to do.

He went through some basic safety tips that everyone should become familiar with -- and funnily enough I already was, having done my research on the Rats those months ago. When planning a sojourn through space, there are settings on the galaxy map which you should be aware of. You should always switch it from Fastest Route to Economical Route, unless you actually are in a hurry. It will choose a route which will save fuel.

It can also show you populated systems, which is one way to check if there will be a station to refuel at. Should you have a fuel scoop, you can choose to only show certain types of star -- which is a great idea, to avoid finding yourself in a system without a scoopable star. There’s a great aid to memory, to help remember which stars you can scoop: KGB FOAM. There are also a few mnemonics, but I’ve found that one which sticks with me.

I bid goodbye to Tom X, and headed for my destination (after making sure he didn’t mind me mentioning him by name -- yes, that’s not a pseudonym). When I arrived, I was upset to find that it would cost me almost my entire amassed wealth to get a Cobra MK IV, which meant that any death would result in me being unable to afford a new one, even though the insurance would be only a part of the cost. However, I could afford a Cobra MK III, which was by all accounts better than the successor.

Saving money on it, also allowed me to upgrade it a few times, before having to take some missions to earn money. One of the best purchases I made was down to this necessary encounter with the Fuel Rats: a fuel scoop. Because if I can keep topping up my fuel tank at every scoopable star, then I’ll never need to bother them again. As I mentioned, they’re unpaid and probably wouldn’t take cargo as payment even if you offered it. Though they do accept donations on their site, and offer merch such as mugs and t-shirts… But when you’re in trouble (because it’s probably not “if”), just remember: http://www.fuelrats.com/