A quick guide for some of the terms & acronyms of Elite Dangerous.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| 84 | 1984 - year when original Elite was released; also “Class of 84” - players of the original game) |
| AI | Artificial Intelligence - could be referring to a NPC |
| AFM | Automatic Field Maintenance |
| BBC or Beeb | Refers to the BBC Micro computer that the original 1980's Elite ran on |
| Breadbin | 1990s/2000s nickname given to David Braben by Elite/Frontier fans |
| c | The speed of light; used in super cruise speed read outs (e.g. 0.11c, 25.6c) |
| CC | Command Capital - unit of resource used in Power play meta-game |
| CMDR | Commander |
| CQC | Close Quarter Championship - also Close Quarter Combat |
| DB | David Braben (also DBOBE - David Braben - Order of the British Empire) |
| DSS | Detailed Surface Scanner - used during exploration |
| ED | Elite Dangerous |
| Elite 4 | Speculated/pre-announcement name for Elite Dangerous since late 1990s |
| FA | Flight Assist |
| FD or FDEV | Frontier Developments |
| FE2 | Frontier Elite 2, predecessor to FFE |
| FFE | Frontier First Encounters, predecessor to Elite Dangerous |
| Freeagle | The Free Eagle that Mercenary Edition owners receive in-game |
| FSD | Frame Shift Drive |
| GPP | Game Preview Program (for XBox One) |
| HOTAS | Hands On Throttle And Stick - joystick & throttle controls |
| HUD | Heads-Up Display |
| Interdict | Intercept/stop - used to describe when another ship pulls you out of super cruise |
| KM or K/M | Keyboard & mouse controls, or kilometer (1,000m) |
| LY | Light Year - the distance light can travel in one year (9.4605284 × 1012km) |
| Ls | Light Second - the distance light can travel in one second (299,792.458km) |
| m | Metres - smallest unit of measurement in Elite Dangerous displayed when very close to targets |
| Mm | Megameteres - 1,000,000 metres |
| Nerf | Used to describe something being made less effective for game balance - e.g. 'Trade has been nerfed' |
| NPC | A non-player commander/character; an AI-controlled player. |
| PC | A player/human commander/character. |
| Pip | A unit of power to distribute to your systems |
| PvP | Player vs Player activities, e.g. combat |
| RES | Resource Extraction Site |
| SC | Super cruise (or Star Citizen, a similar game to Elite Dangerous) |
| SRV | Surface Recon Vehicle |
| USS | Unidentified Signal Source |