Every acronym a pilot hits in the first thousand hours, decoded in one line
From FSD to FA-off, HazRES to o7 — this is the site's single source of truth for what the words mean, and each term is wired to the guide that goes deep. Definitions are verified against the community glossaries and Frontier's own guides cited at the foot of the page; where a term describes content that has since changed or retired, it is flagged in place. Terms are grouped by domain and run alphabetically inside each group; community slang is labelled as such — it is not official Frontier nomenclature.
One line, one link
A plain-English definition, then the single deepest guide on the topic. No over-linking.
Era-flagged
Retired war-state and Trailblazers-era terms are marked, not silently presented as live.
Slang labelled
Community jargon is separated from official terms so new pilots know which is which.
01
Core Concepts & the Game Loop
Foundations
The words that frame the whole game — who you are, where you fly, and what you are chasing.
Term
Meaning
CMDR / Commander
Your player character. Every pilot is a Commander; the friendly salute between them is o7.
The Bubble
The human-inhabited core of the galaxy around Sol — the original starting region and where the Background Simulation runs hottest.
Colonia
The player-built second hub, ~22,000 ly from Sol, anchored by Jaques Station. See system colonisation.
Credits (CR)
The galactic currency. Large sums abbreviate as kCr (thousand), MCr (million), GCr (billion).
FDev
Frontier Developments — the studio that makes Elite Dangerous.
Galnet
The in-game news network that drives the live-story narrative and signposts community events.
Loop / Game loop
A repeatable money or progression cycle — a trade loop, a bounty loop, a mat-farm loop.
Meta
The community-agreed optimal build or tactic for a given task at the current patch.
NPC
Non-Player Character — any AI ship, station contact or on-foot actor.
PvE
Player vs Environment: fighting and interacting with the game's NPCs and world.
PvP
Player vs Player: direct interaction or combat between two commanders.
Rebuy
The insurance cost to recover a destroyed ship — 5% of the ship + modules value. You cannot fly until it is covered, so never carry less than your rebuy in liquid credits.
Sol
Earth's system and Federation capital — permit-locked, not freely accessible.
Squadron
An in-game player organisation (up to 500 members) with shared comms, ranks and a faction allegiance.
Wing
A group of up to 4 ships flying together with shared comms and objectives — the basic co-op unit.
02
Game Modes & Multiplayer
Modes
The same galaxy, three ways to play it — and the crime layer that follows you across all three.
Term
Meaning
Open / Open Play
Shared instances with any other commander present; PvP is possible anywhere.
Solo
A private session with no other players — but your actions still move the shared BGS.
Private Group (PG)
An invite-only session. The large PvE-only group Mobius is the classic example.
Block
Preventing a specific player from instancing with you again.
Instance
The local server slice you currently share with nearby players and NPCs.
Legacy / Legacy Mode
The frozen v3.8 (Horizons-era) build — the only version on console (PS4/Xbox) and a separate launch option on PC. No new content since Update 14 (2022): no Odyssey, Powerplay 2.0, Colonisation, or any ship added since. The frozen counterpart to Live.
Live / Live Mode
The current v4.0 (Odyssey) build — every new ship, Powerplay 2.0 and Colonisation land here. PC-only, and what this manual targets. Its frozen counterpart is Legacy.
C&P / Crime & Punishment
The crime system: offences generate bounties, fines and Notoriety. Tied into the BGS.
Notoriety
A 0–10 heat level earned by committing crimes. High values summon ATR and block paying bounties via Interstellar Factors until it decays.
Gank / Ganker
Community term for a player killed — or the killer — while not seeking PvP, typically near a busy hub.
Combat Logging / Clogging
Disconnecting to escape a fight. Menu-logging is tolerated; task-killing the process to dodge damage is against the rules.
PMF
Player Minor Faction — a minor faction created and run by a player group inside the BGS.
03
Flight & Navigation
Flight
Getting from A to B without bouncing off a star. Distances, drives and the supercruise dance.
Term
Meaning
Boost
Dumping ENG distributor energy for a short burst of speed past your normal top.
c
The speed of light. Supercruise speed is quoted in multiples of c.
Clicks
Slang for kilometres — "5 clicks" = 5 km.
Drop
Leaving supercruise into normal space.
FA / Flight Assist
The flight-assist system that auto-dampens momentum, holding your ship to your throttle and stick.
FA-Off
Flying with Flight Assist off — full Newtonian manual control, used for the tightest combat manoeuvres. See the combat playbook.
FSD / Frame Shift Drive
The drive that powers both supercruise and hyperspace jumps. The single most engineered module in the game.
Fuel Scoop
A module that skims hydrogen from a star's corona to refuel for free — mandatory kit for exploration.
High Wake
The wake left when a ship hyperspaces to another system. Trackable, but it leaves the instance.
Honk
The Discovery Scanner's system-wide ping on arrival, mapping the body count. Core of the explorer loop.
Hyperspace
FSD travel between star systems — the "witchspace" tunnel.
Interdiction / Interdict
Forcibly pulling a ship out of supercruise into normal space. Win the tug-of-war to evade, or submit to recharge faster. See combat.
Jet Cone / Neutron Boost
Charging through a star's jet cone to supercharge FSD range — ~4× at a neutron star, a smaller, riskier boost at a white dwarf — at the cost of FSD damage. An exploration staple.
Loop of Shame
The long supercruise turn-around after overshooting your target — the price of too much speed on approach.
Low Wake
The wake left when a ship drops into supercruise within the same system.
Ls (light-second)
The in-system distance unit; 1 Ls ≈ 300,000 km. Stations are quoted at "N Ls from arrival".
Ly (light-year)
The inter-system distance and jump-range unit.
Mass Lock
Being held out of FSD charge by a nearby large body or ship — kill the lock to jump.
Pip
One of the distributor's power allocations split across SYS / ENG / WEP — max 4 to a system, 6 total to spend.
SCA / Supercruise Assist
A module that auto-throttles in supercruise and drops you at a chosen target.
SCO / Supercruise Overcharge
A recent FSD mode (Update 18) for sustained high-speed in-system supercruise. Era-sensitive — recent live mechanic; not yet covered in depth elsewhere on the site.
Supercruise (SC)
Faster-than-light travel within a system, up to multiples of c.
The 7-second rule
Community shorthand for a clean supercruise approach: be under ~30 km/s with the timer reading ~7 seconds to target for a smooth drop.
Throttle Blue Zone
The optimal-speed band on the throttle that gives the tightest supercruise turns.
Wake Scanner
A utility that reads a high wake to learn where a ship jumped. Catalogued under modules.
04
Combat
Combat
The vocabulary of ship-to-ship fighting — pips, tanks and the kit that keeps you alive. Deep dive: the combat playbook.
Term
Meaning
ATR / Advanced Tactical Response
Elite security units deployed against high-Notoriety criminals — heavy, engineered, and lethal.
Cancelling forward thrust during a boost to orbit a target while keeping speed.
Broken / Shield Down
A ship whose shields have collapsed — hull is now exposed to damage.
Chaff
A utility that spoofs enemy gimballed and turreted weapon lock for a few seconds.
ECM / Electronic Countermeasures
A utility that detonates incoming missiles and mines in a radius.
Gimballed / Fixed / Turreted
The three hardpoint aiming types: track-on-lock, manual-aim, and auto-aim respectively.
Heatsink
A consumable utility that dumps ship heat — also breaks heat-seeking locks and enables silent-running tricks.
Hull Tank
A build that absorbs damage in reinforced hull rather than shields.
Hybrid Tank
A build that tanks in both shields and hull.
KWS / Kill Warrant Scanner
A utility that reveals a target's bounties in other jurisdictions for a larger payout. See combat.
Peel
Drawing an attacker off a wingmate to relieve pressure.
Plasma Ram
Landing plasma-accelerator hits then ramming for burst kill damage.
Reboot/Repair
An emergency shutdown that restores malfunctioning modules to working order by redistributing integrity — a last-ditch recovery that briefly drops everything offline.
SCB / Shield Cell Bank
A module that injects a shield recharge on demand.
Silent Running
Closing the heat vents to hide from sensors — at the cost of overheating fast.
Tanking
Deliberately absorbing damage — shield-tank or hull-tank — rather than evading it.
Wanted
A pilot carrying an active bounty — a lawful target for any bounty hunter.
The Second Thargoid War ended 18 Dec 3310 with the destruction of the last Titan, Cocijo, in Sol. Maelstroms and living Titans are no longer accessible live content — the war-state terms below are kept as lore and historical reference.
Term
Meaning
AX / Anti-Xeno
Combat against Thargoids, which requires specialist AX weapons (Guardian, Gauss, AX multicannon and the like).
AXI / Anti-Xeno Initiative
The major player group that coordinates AX combat doctrine and builds.
Basi (Basilisk)
An interceptor variant — the fastest type, third in the toughness ladder.
Caustic
A Thargoid damage-over-time effect that eats hull; cleared with a caustic sink or decontamination limpet.
Clops (Cyclops)
The most common and weakest interceptor variant.
Cold Orbit
A low-heat orbiting technique to stay off an interceptor's targeting and dodge fire.
Dusa (Medusa)
The second-toughest interceptor variant.
EMP
A Thargoid pulse that shuts down human ship systems — countered by the SFN.
Exert / Heart
A Thargoid heart becomes exertable (vulnerable) after enough hull damage; destroying the hearts kills an interceptor.
Goid
Slang for a Thargoid.
Hydra
The largest, toughest interceptor — eight hearts to kill.
Interceptor
The class of large Thargoid combat ships, scaling Cyclops → Basilisk → Medusa → Hydra.
Maelstrom
A Thargoid Titan's corrosive storm zone — a war-state feature, retired with the end of the Second War.
NHSS / Non-Human Signal Source
A signal source that spawns Thargoid contacts. Catalogued among PvE combat venues.
Scout
Small, aggressive Thargoid drones that swarm in groups — soft targets compared to interceptors.
SFN / Shutdown Field Neutraliser
A module that protects against the Thargoid EMP shutdown.
Spire Site
A Thargoid surface structure — a source of high-value materials, a war-era feature.
Titan
One of the eight massive Thargoid motherships of the Second War — all destroyed by 3310.
Xeno
Generic prefix for Thargoid-related — anti-xeno, xeno scanner, and so on.
06
Trading & Economy
Trade
Moving goods for profit, and the simulation that sets the prices. Deep dive: the trading playbook.
Term
Meaning
BGS / Background Simulation
The galaxy-wide economy and politics engine behind markets, states and factions. Full manual: BGS.
Commodity
Any tradeable good with a buy and sell price at a market.
CG / Community Goal
A time-limited, galaxy-wide objective with tiered rewards. Full manual: community goals.
Demand / Supply
Market quantities that set price and cap how much you can sell or buy in one place.
Gold Rush
Any temporary high-profit money-making method — a lucrative mining or trade boom before it is patched or saturated.
Hauling
Bulk cargo transport between markets.
Loop / Trade Loop
A two-port or multi-hop route, bought low / sold high, run repeatedly. See trading.
Rare Goods
Limited-supply local commodities that gain value the further they are carried from source.
Smuggling
Carrying stolen or illegal cargo past station scans to a black market.
WMM / Wing Mining Mission
A money method: stack wing mining missions, then buy the commodities elsewhere to deliver against them.
A nav beacon overrun by pirates — a combat and scan site. See PvE venues.
CZ / Conflict Zone
An active battle site between two factions; pick a side for combat bonds. See combat zones.
HazRES
Hazardous Resource Extraction Site — best bounties, no system-security backup. See PvE venues.
HighRES
A high-intensity RES with system-security support on hand. See PvE venues.
Hotspot
A ring overlay marking concentrated mineable material (Painite, LTD and the like). See mining.
Mailslot
The letterbox entrance to an enclosed starport. See docking.
Nav Beacon
An in-system POI at the main star that downloads system data on scan.
Outpost
A small orbital port — medium pad maximum, no large ships. See docking.
POI
Point of Interest — a surface or space location worth investigating.
RES / Resource Extraction Site
An asteroid-belt zone for mining and bounty hunting. See PvE venues.
Starport
A large orbital station accepting any ship size (Coriolis, Orbis, Ocellus). See docking.
Toastrack
The exterior framework around a starport's mailslot — the bit you scrape on a bad approach.
USS / Unidentified Signal Source
A transient supercruise contact — cargo, combat, materials or Thargoids until resolved.
System Colonisation
Trailblazers-era system claiming: pick an unpopulated system within 15 ly, deploy a Colonisation Beacon within 24 h to become System Architect. See colonisation.
Exclusivity Period
The anti-sniping window on a new colonisation build site: yours alone for ~30 min, then your squadron for ~24 h, then open to all. Solo builders should form a one-person squadron. See colonisation.
E:D Black Box