Multicrew Risk Low Reward Medium Time Investment Medium Suggested Ships Any ship with 2 or more pilot seats Suggested Upgrades Fighter Hangar

Turreted Weapons Turreted Weapons

Multicrew is a feature in Elite Dangerous that allows players to serve as crew members on each others' ships, instantly transferring them to a secondary bridge position via drop-in, drop-out matchmaking. It is accessible via an option under the Social tab in the Comms panel of the HUD, and automatically activates voice-chat when in use.

Only ships with 2 or 3 pilot seats are Multicrew-compatible. Players can control either the Helm (Piloting), Gunner (turreted weapons), or Fighter con (two ship launched fighters). NPC Fighter Pilots can be hired to perform roles that enhance a ship's ability.

Multicrew was introduced in the Elite Dangerous: Horizons The Commanders v2.3 update.[1]

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Fundamentals

Lead Designer Sandro Sammarco explains: "Fundamentally, Multicrew is about having fun with friends, so we want to make sure there are as few barriers to enjoying this feature as possible, starting with the crew formation process. We want to make it as easy as possible to start having fun on a multicrew ship."[2]

As long as their ship has enough seats (different ships have different multicrew capabilities) a Commander can directly invite players or can set their vessel to allow multicrew access. Commanders looking to play as crew members either accept direct invites or activate a new “looking for ship” feature, which will automatically place them as crew on a suitable vessel with multicrew access allowed, making the process quick and painless.

When joining a crew, a Commander will exit their current vessel and transfer to the multicrew vessel, regardless of distance. They can also leave at any time (or be evicted by the ship’s owner) at which point they can return to their previous ship and location, making the whole affair a very friendly, drop in – drop out procedure.

Roles

The current multicrew roles available are Helm, Gunner, and Fighter Con.

Helm

The ship's owner always takes the role of helm, piloting the vessel and operating fixed and gimballed weaponry. They also control NPC Fighter Pilots. There can be up to two additional crewmembers, depending on the vessel, who can perform roles to enhance the ability of the ship. Players can also simply come along for the ride, either for fun or to learn from more experienced players. The helm also retains control over distribution of power, navigation, and synthesis.

Gunner

The gunner role allows a crewmember to take control of all turreted weapons on the ship. They do not need to jump between turret views though. Using a third person interface, they control a reticule that all turrets within their arc will automatically follow; giving them an improved spatial awareness and easy control of all turreted weapons. They also have access to two “quick slot” fire buttons, in addition to normal fire groups, that they can customize with modules, allowing them more options for activating weapons and scanners.

Furthermore, the gunner has access to advanced sensor systems, allowing them three hundred and sixty degree tracking arcs. This lets them activate advanced scanners (such as the kill warrant scanner) and missile launchers in any direction.

Fighter Con

The fighter con role lets a crewmember launch and control a fighter, even if the helm has already launched a fighter using the NPC crew. This allows multicrew ships to have two fighters active at a time. In addition, if the ship has enough fighters, both crew members can take on the fighter con role, meaning three human-controlled ships can be flying at the same time.

Crew members can switch roles dynamically as they see fit. The ship owner is always the helmsman.

Additional Multicrew Benefits and Rules

Every crewmember also has access to a power distributor pip that they can assign dynamically. This is in addition to the standard pips that the helm controls. This extra power distribution allows the ship to operate more effectively, increasing its capabilities in combat.

Ship re-buy premiums are also reduced for each crewmember. Again, the purpose of this is to lower the bar to access and ease of use, especially when dealing with vessels that can cost a lot of credits.

All bounties and vouchers that the helmsman (ship owner) receives are duplicated for each crewmember, making multicrew a great way to have fun with friends without missing out on money-making opportunities.

However, as they share the benefits, so too do they share the punishments. Any crime that the ship suffers is applied to all crewmembers equally. But when a Commander leaves or ends a session, the crew will have the option of avoiding taking the crimes with them, but in doing so, will lose all credits earned. It will be their choice.

Mapping with Friends

In Multi-crew, anyone in the crew will have access to the Full System Scanner and the Detailed Surface Scanner (only the gunner is able to use this module). Whilst exploring in a wing, as long as you are in the same system as the wing, you will share the data you have discovered.[3]

Technology

Pilots use telepresence to appear in other people's ships as Holo-Me holograms.[4]

Ship Cockpit Seats

These are the available cockpit seats per ship. Multicrew requires ships with 2 or more seats.

Notes

If your NPC crew member is piloting your mothership and you order an 'attack target' command on a wing mate then they will use a heal beam if it is equipped.

Regeneration Sequence is an engineering experimental effect that you can apply to beams that will transfer their energy into regenerating a wing mate's shields. There's also Concordant Sequence that increases the regeneration rate of the target's shields.

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