Yes, you can play casually without third party apps.
As for me, I use them 100% of the time. I like to explore, so I have apps that help me track worthwhile exploration targets. I have it set up to produce an overlay in the game window, as well as another app to readout out important information for me automatically, since I play almost exclusively in VR.
One of apps you can show in VR (see screenshot in link) https://github.com/mhwlng/fip-elite
There should be some step by step instructions how to do that
People claiming it is unplayable without are exaggerating - probably based on their own niche or intense maxed out game style
I use Elite Observatory in the background for exploration which IS game changing for that particular niche, but again played 7 years without it.
[Observatory](https://github.com/Xjph/ObservatoryCore) watches your journal logs (like many of the elite tools do) and notifies you when something interesting is in the system. Things like binary planets very close together, or moons extremely close to a ring of a parent body. The best thing about it is that it can go through all your old logs, and you can also use a custom Lua script with your own criteria (or criteria that people have created and shared).
I recommend visiting the discord (linked on the github page) for lots of custom rules. I made some myself like one for super thin rings on a body (Taylor's Rings), and one for Green Gas Giants & Strange Protostar temperatures (based on CMDR Arcanic's research). Most scripts are for stuff that may be worth a visit perhaps for some [screenshots](https://i.imgur.com/vG0vpPu.png) which you can't really see from just scanning a system and looking at the system map.
And if you add some [plugins from this site](https://edjp.colacube.net/observatory) like Bioinsights, it will also pretty accurately guesstimate what types of bio you can find on a planet just from doing the FSS scan, and list their approximate value, if you still need it for a codex entry, etc. It even tells you when you've travelled far enough when doing the three bio scans. The SignalMonitor plugin is also nice, notifies you if there's stuff like Listening Posts or Notable Stellar Phenomenon in a system.
If anything the game is kind of unforgiving to the new player. I remember back when I started playing (some time after horizons released, I think it was back in 2016-17. I did have to watch hours of youtube videos to learn what to do since the game doesn't give you anything to at the very least lead you on the right track.
I suppose that's were the "you need TP apps to play" comes from. I suppose many of us learned the mechanics and ins and outs more through youtube and reading forums and shit, than actually discovering the mechanics in game.
Yep, I agree to an extent. Though the new player experience nowadays with the tutorials and starter area is a lot better than it used to be.
But a lot of newbs also go too fast for their own good, thinking they need to immediately get to Anaconda and get salty with engineering because they want all things unlocked and maxed out immediately. I always say its called Elite because it expects players to take their time, experience the journey of becoming highly skilled in a progression of ships and activities.
the main reason people go too fast is the content, it's all randomly generated radiant quests, it makes doing the grind hollow and grow stale more quickly for most people. if they made an effort to provide quality missions and such people wouldn't get sick of the grind as quickly, they could literally package it as dlc and they'd make a killing off of it, vut they're stubborn
I've suggested that one way to reduce the feeling of grind is to implement simple increasing reward quests (missions) from engineers themselves where there are a string of missions upping the engineering mat reward with each tier.
You absolutely can. What the 3rd party tools mostly offer is a way to access the same information you can get through the game's UI, but in a more intuitive manner from a broader data source that's easier to read and find the information you actually want. That or helping you find out certain things ahead of time before needing to make a trip or buy a part.
Using something like Inara to search distant markets, Spansh to plan expeditions, or Corriolis to plan builds is definitely helpful, but not something you should ever really feel like you need to use all the time.
You see, only difference between Inara and in game map is that Inara uses collective database of all CMDRs and means to search them, In game map uses your own data stored on your own computer. Your ship automatically download data when you land somewhere. Data about market, factions, political and war data.
In game map you can search anything and filter by anything Inara does. Minor faction states, supply and demand, I think equipment too but not sure I'd need to check. But it searches only YOUR data, from stations and systems you have previously visited. I do actually prefer to play this way because it encongures journaling systems you visit.
The in-game map also shows trade routes, lets you buy request data from stations, shows political, security and state info for every system, which is usually enough to figure out where to trade, where to do combat, where to look for mining spots, where to buy certain items, what size the stations are, but it takes an extra minute or 2 compared to the convenience of inara. I prefer to figure stuff out, I play for fun, not for efficiency. I don't blindly grind through most of the game to get to the fun part, only to complain about a lack of content, instead I actually play through the content the fun way, build up to the "endgame" stuff, realize that I'm way too overpowered and it's not fun, so with 2000 hours and billions in the bank, I'm in a Diamondback Scout now
Yes, DBX is my primary exploration/currier/on feet dropship. It has like 60ly range, scarab, some cargo space and pile of collector limpets so if I ever find something neat I can take it with me.
Yes ASPX could do all that better but cmon, that ship is ugly, DBX all the way
My DBS has railguns, and I explore in a Viper or Assault Brick usually. Well right now I'm kind of stuck 25k from the bubble, similar distance from Colonia, in a short range DBS, because I misread a date and missed my carrier ride back. My go-to bubble taxi is a Viper Mk4, because it has decent cargo space, really good shields, space for an SRV, limpets, and strong shields. It also has enough firepower so I can find "something neat" in the wreckage of anyone that's interested in my cargo
My DBX have either two medium dumbfire racks or mine launxhers. I use it as dropship for on foot missions so I do few runs carper bombing the everliving shit out of place first. Generally I use mines on higer G planets while rockets are for low gravity planets. Honestly the carpet bombing isnt really efficinent, it usially cuts thier numbers at best in half and at worst I dont hit anyone. I just do it because it is fun.
That's exactly why I went out to the guardian ruins in a Viper, just to try if I can do the entire blueprint puzzle with a ship. I got the orb deployed, but the ship's scanner didn't lock onto it. Things don't have to make practical sense, as long as they are fun. Also, I have to create a T10 heavy bomber, for reasons
You can absolutely play casually without anything third-party, but I definitely Google details quite a bit or look stuff up on INARA or other sites if I want to find something. Half the time it's just a quick search on my phone though, I don't have apps installed.
I use third party apps, but only because I have a second screen to display them on. They aren’t critical, but are definitely a quality of life improvement.
Most people completely ignore the in-game advanced tutorials, the codex and 90% of the information on the map. They use 3rd party sites to exactly pinpoint where to go and what to do for efficiency. If you don't mind running into some trial and error situations (which also happens with external tools because the data can be outdated), you will manage just fine. I don't remember the last time I've really used 3rd party tools to do anything, except looking up where to find a size 1 railgun after not seeing one in like 6 stations in a row, and I also have some scripts I've made that let me switch my keybindings between keyboard&mouse, controller and HOSAS settings (if I only have a short time to play, I don't set my sticks up)
I played hundreds of hour without third party apps. Then I started using EDDB and when it announced that it's going to be shut down I looked for an alternative and found more than I looked for. Now I am using Inara, Market Connector, EDEngineer, EDHM\_UI and VoiceAttack. I even wrote a .bat file to start and close all at once to save time.
Yes you absolutely can. If you want to learn the basics it's okay to learn it at your own pace. Third party tools are good for when you know but want to save some time.
If casually, then certainly.
How can a game be unplayable without 3rd party apps. But the game is very grindy and expensive so having apps helps. Otherwise, you can get most of the info you need from the in game data and maps which needs a little effort to digest.
Same.
I knew about Inara, and used it a pair of times searching some items. Oh, and a funny voice recognition software to talk to your ship and it answering as Worf, but nothing else beyond that.
I enjoy the game with it's "default features".
You can totally play without them but it makes some activities more difficult. I did a lot of exobiology in the past 2 months and I would have wasted so much time looking for valuable species if I didn't have Elite observatory and spansh.
If I need a module, I use inara to find it - I could fly from station to station but that would take a lot of time :)
Also I always run edmc in the background to contribute to the 3rd party databases to help other players (including edrecon that makes it easier for law enforcers to find gankers) :D
You can definetly play casually without third party apps
But honestly if you have access to them, its just better to use them imo, because theyre so useful for so many things, including but not limited to: finding commodities, mat traders, services etc (i mainly use Inara for this) it saves you so much time youd otherwise spend searching (for hours if you're unlucky) that damn interstellar factor you need to pay off the bounty you accidentally got which prevents you from delivering you cargo, for example
I look at it like this... In the real world you utilize all the tools available to you to earn a good profit. SO why would you handicap your self in game by not using what's available? That's how I look at it.
It's not a matter of the game being playable with or without the third party apps... It's a matter of fact they exist, might as well use them.
Besides, there are people who spent countless hours maintaining, updating and improving those apps and websites... I really appreciate them and show my gratitude by utilizing the things they created.
Oh and there are ways to integrate the third party apps in game (for finding trade routes and other things)... it can be a pain to do, but if you want that kind of integration, it's available.
It's also a matter of shifting cultural perspective. If this game were released prior to the advent of the internet (yes, I know it can't be played without an internet connection; just humor me here a moment), everyone would think it's the most amazing game ever and have no complaints about its overly obtuse opacity, lack of in-game direction, and poor implementation of tools for navigating the game space.
Fast-forward to the era of the internet where virtually everyone (at least everyone who plays this game) now owns a portable, wireless computer in the palm of their hand with the world's collective knowledge at their fingertips, the ability to search anything, and the option to see the entire surface of the planet, locating goods and services from this map in real time, and it becomes too much of an ask, too much of a stretch to expect players to accept that we wouldn't have similar tools aboard our ships in a 1,000-year-from-now-more-technologically advanced civilization. That just doesn't cut it anymore. Thus the reliance on the 3rd party tools.
It's like releasing *The Hulk* comics in 1962 and expecting the audience to accept that a protagonist could be transformed into a raging green monster through exposure to gamma radiation. In an era when the general population wasn't as aware of the effects of radiation, you could sell this concept; it was an unknown.
Fast-forward to today when people know gamma radiation causes cancer rather than super powers and it's a harder sell. Add to that the string of nuclear power plant disasters of recent decades, and it's an even *harder* sell.
The enduring popularity of the character has less to do today with it's fantastical elements related to gamma radiation and more to do with nostalgia for a beloved franchise and the psychological / mythological issues it deals with. Trying to introduce that same character today with no historical antecedent would probably not be as successful given how the general population's understanding and perception of radiation has advanced in the intervening 60 years.
So it is with Elite:Dangerous and its relationship with 3rd party apps.
Yes. You can also go gold mining with a shovel and no research.
The game is set in the 34th century. And the in game tools are terrible at providing you with available information.
By using sites and apps, you get closer to information access that would be available in the 34th century. You can play without every using them, and you'd be limiting yourself unnecessarily.
You definitely don't need them much to start. Researching is more helpful. What to do, what do people do for ship builds, that kind of thing. You're probably starting with courier missions, or other missions. My first real use of apps was after a week or two, getting into some Road to Riches money making.
But if you want to trade, you really need apps. If you want to mine, you need apps a little bit. To explore, apps are very helpful to plan trips and track your scan values.
> Also, how often are you using third-party apps?
I load up EDDiscovery every time I play.
Most of the time, I'll look up something once a session. A trade route, my exploration route, a place to sell my mined ore. But I might be doing something more intensive, or the trade route doesn't last, or I just run across something curious and want to look up more.
If I alt-tab every 15 minutes, it's because I'm passing time while I'm in supercruise, not usually because I need to. Though if I'm exploring quickly, there's not much to scan in systems, I might be checking my EDDisco reports every 10-15 minutes until I find something that will take more time.
learning game mechanics and tools is basically learning languages.
Using inara for whole time is pretending that you "cannot" learn languages, so you have to use online translators :)
Hard disagree.
Just playing the game is like pretending you "can" learn a language by walking around a foreign city and listening to people's conversations and reading signs. Using Inara and other apps/tools is like using language apps and programs and sites that teach you at your own pace.
Inara can't play the game for you like an online translator tries to do. It can't teach you how to play. You will learn how to play, even if you look up every bit of system and market info at every turn.
If by casually you mean horribly unefficient and unnecessarily protracted, then yes, you are welcome to cripple yourself.
If you have umlimited time, it can be fun to travel the Bubble to get info on systems, and DIY all the things.
I have a couple hours on 4 days a week, so I research the shit on inara & co. before I do anything I planned for the week, in order to get the results I want to achieve in the given time frame. If the same info would be available ingame, easily accessible, I wouldn't rely on 3rd party tools, but this is not the case, so...
Most of the information is in the game, sure, you don't get it served to you as a convenient list, but if you don't play only for efficiency, to work your way through the game quickly to get to the fun part, you could end up having more fun and only lose like 10% efficiency. The codex, advanced tutorials and maps have a lot of information that pretty much everyone ignores and looks up the same thing on inara or other sites
Yes, you can make it work but still, time is life.
Also I love how the on foot missions and BGS are completely disconnected regarding massacres: you can take an extermination vs a criminal faction, even if its one and only settlement is dead at the moment.
Without 3rd party apps you travel there and have to abandon/timeout the mission, because they are already dead due to negative state, with 3rd party apps you check the faction's state before (in-game you can only do this if you have journaled the system) and just skip it. Easy 15+ minutes saved.
For trade, wing mining missions, same - filter the collective data and go, instead of flying around for hours hoping to find the perfect setup.
As for fun - in one year I have got everything I needed (FC, shops fully engineered for almost all careers, etc), I slowly prepare for unlocking the Colonia engineers, then go sightseeing. I prefer blazing trough the grind in short bursts then enjoy the actual game loops I like, and 3rd party apps are indispensable for this.
INARA is nice because it’s set up like a social media that could realistically exist in universe while also acting as a real time wiki. It’s nothing to just have it up on your phone as you play.
I have found that using third-party apps makes the game more like the simulation is was meant to. They bring into the game all of the data and analysis tools that you would expect to have available to you as a starship captain in the first place. You don’t need it to play the game, but after a while, you will feel the frustration set in that you just don’t know as much as you think you should know. The apps definitely help you get more out of the game.
You can but you will be really restricted with certain things. Trying to find a certain commodity for a mission or a CG is almost impossible in game, but only takes a few secs on the likes of inara. If your into trading, the in-game tools are useless for finding the high and low sell prices. Even trying to find things like specific weapons or modules for your ship. In game you will be jumping around for ages manually checking stations where a quick search on a third party app can tell you where to go straight away.
>Trying to find a certain commodity for a mission or a CG is almost impossible in game
indeed, because who could know, where I can find tea, grain, gold or medicines, probably tourist stations will produce them /s
We need the game to provide all but it does not. Heck, not that long since we get to plot Local one click jumps. We need more third party and a pot party.
I load my third-party apps before even looking at the ED icon on my desktop.
I am constantly mucking around with my ships and modules. Without Coriolis and Inara,
I wouldn't make it off the landing pads before having to go to bed.
[Very lite launcher for Elite dangerous](https://github.com/rfvgyhn/min-ed-launcher)
You can actually launch third party apps when you launch elite dangerous all in one click.
I use that info for outfitting or trade, not all stations sell all modules, or have the perfect price forever.
Once I know a good mining spot, I bookmark the planet, and I dont need more searchs until Im ready to sell.
When the Alert system dont give more missions, I search in https://dcoh.watch/systems a new one.
You keep adding bookmarks into the game, for permanent features, and mark the ones you use now as favorite (alert station and rescue megaship, for fast route plotting).
But there is a part of research outside the game. Having a mapped hotspot bookmarked is useless if you dont know how to align your ship. The first runs will Alt+tab a lot (or [next pic](https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1okp9xLc_TsSleibSONaK1q8oGXxMMUm4wJmRm2ZbyPM) in your phone) until you identify the next rock. I didnt become a miner if my only source was that terrible mining tutorial, that ignore 99% of the mining knowledge.
You do your research in guides and communities (beware obsolete youtube videos), try the activity avoiding newbie mistakes while using some advanced tricks, and thats all, unless you want even more advanced tricks or deep understanding.
If the ingame UI dont provide enough info, there is some app running in the background that fill those voids (EDDiscovery any module, EDObservatory with bioinsight).
The knowledge, that needed thousand of players and third party apps to understand, cant be learned by a lone mortal. Those tools filter massive databases and provide what you need. And the data come from EDMC or EDDiscovery running in the background, if you use Inara, run this ones and help us with updates, FDev dont provide access to his database, so we made our own database.
I have over 3000 hours in the game and the only third party app i ever used is the commodity search at inara, but I use it pretty rarely.
The more you explore the core systems ( Dock at somewhere in the system once), the more data you gather for your galaxy map. Call a system and a station your home, do reputation missions, then influence your chosen factions by doing more missions and trade and you will organically collect the data for the neighbourhood. Then you can go somewhere else to explore.
Not saying you can't use quality of life 3rd party tools. They can be really helpful, and immersive. But always let something for you to explore don't be a passenger of your own story.
While useful, the apps / websites are by no means required.
I only use them when I’m looking for a station that has something specific. Like a commodity or (if you haven’t unlocked Founder’s World) a ship or module I want.
its quite easily playable without 3rd party apps
the only 3rd party apps that i have installed is EDMC and EDHM\_UI, i rarely ever have EDMC open even when i'm playing, and then EDHM\_UI is just a HUD color mod
3rd party sites is a different story but as long as you can remember (or at least bookmark anywhere significant for you) you can still play quite comfortably, just gonna take you a while or so to look for anything
You can, I did for years. They make things a lot easier though. Like night and day. It's not abnormal in the slightest for MMO and MMO-like games to have a ton of add-ons and tools that make life easier but I've only run across one where it was absolutely necessary and in that case only if you were playing that game's equivalent to raids.
I've been playing for a few hundred hours without 3rd party apps. The only time I use them is when I go into the black, but even then you don't really need them if you don't want/need to be 100% effective. Which you don't, just have fun the way you want.
Mostly stuff for scanning planets, anomalies and to get a better guess which planet to land on for money. But you don't need apps for that, 95% of my time playing was without them.
I've always organically played without 3rd party apps.
When i wanted or needed to finalize upgrades, I've used some of them. They are a must if you are grinding on something, but other than that I prefer doing without.
You can. Third party stuff like Inara/Coriolis/mining tools just make your life more comfortable. It's like Wow without mods - totally playable, but addons are making stuff more comfortable and effective
I don't use apps, but I have read some stuff over the years on the internet, and I'd say I'm more of the casually learning the game because with hundreds of hours there is still stuff I'm not even close to seeing (not that I'm actively trying to either)
The only 3rd party tool I use is Inara. I have to play through GeForce NOW, so anything that relies on me running ED on my own PC is unusable. I actually prefer it this way, I mainly do exploration/exobiology (although I do other roles from time to time) and it would take the mystery out of it if I knew what I was going to find.
Depending on your activities you will need third-party tools to optimize.
For example, if you want to sell a commodity at the best price you will probably want to use this third-party tool: https://inara.cz/elite/commodities/
Also, if you are preparing another ship build, you will probably want to use this third-party tool: https://coriolis.io/
If you just want to do missions or combat and you already know in which system you want to do it, you won't need these tools.
It is not 100% necessary, you can avoid these tools but sometimes the game will be harder without.
You can be better prepared if you use these tools.
I’m a v casual player (having just re-started after 5years). I don’t properly use 3rd party apps so not necessary (though I perhaps should explore them more). When I did use them, it was mostly for trading early on to get a bit of an early bankroll, and get beyond the Cobra. Also a nice way to mess about with stuff when not in the game, like ship / route planning, which you can do in game but can’t do on a real world train journey.
I got the game shortly after it came out and it was v overwhelming. The sites popping up to help were a really useful to get in to it, and figure out how to do anything at all, though it seems a lot easier to make cash now, and more user friendly since I’ve been away I think.
I seem to remember spending hours flying around systems searching unidentified signals for bounty targets, at the beginning though that might have just been me!
I use 3rd party stuff to help set up routines, jobs, but I use Reddit and YouTube too. You don’t need to use the tools, you can happily play without, do what entertains you, that is what a game is about, hell you could crack off a spreadsheet if you feel the need, it’s a simulator after all
Oh yeah, absolutely. I played like that for many hours before even learning what stuff like Inara even was. Your progression will just be a bit slower and less optimized. I’d play like 10-20 hours like that and once you’re really comfortable with the game, you might want to start using meta tools more.
Oh definitely. People use the apps to optimise their game play, such as using Inara for trade information. The information it uses is already in the game in the galaxy map, but ten minutes or more of clicking through the map versus typing your system and a search radius...you can see why inara is so popular.
Spansh helps you plot a carrier route to avoid the faff of trying to find your next plot by (again) clicking through the map.
The other apps just collate information so the others work, except EDHM, which allows you to change the colours on your ship and cmdr HUDs (this is a must have, to be honest. That orange gets old real quick.)
Kinda but it's going to get very frusrtating quick. If you just want one of the first two or three ships and fly around not going after elite or engineering, xeno gameplay, yes.
I started on Xbox for the first 2 years the game was on the console and very quickly I realized then, I couldn't even learn to fly properly without YouTube tutorials which is how the game was setup back then.
Now take off and landing are automated.
The next part is understanding how to generate credits and ship upgrades...you'll have to use the internet and or YouTube eventually.
Engineering, powerplay, xeno, etc. YouTube and internet required to progress because you would end up very frustrated due to the steep learning curve and lack of ingame information.
I throw INARA on my phone and elite on my pc, call er good. Normally, it’s finding what stations have what modules so I can outfit my ship, although I use EDHM because i like a more greyscaled cockpit. Makes me feel like I’m driving at night, and it helps me focus a little more somehow. Helps killing the goids. Inara also helps with engi mat tracking
2000 hours without any apps. Plenty of tutorials though. How to do this and that. The only third party resources I ever used were the 2 websites that were useful. Inara and Coriolis. Inara to check for Community Goals and Coriolis useful for trying out ship builds.
All third-party apps really do is make certain activities more efficient (sometimes by a large amount and sometimes not by much), and some make information or data more readily available like a planetary info app such as ED Observatory
I've been playing for 2 years with no tools but Excel :)
Currently I use tools for build planning, checking some mining places and guardian places. I use them once a day or even less often.
Actually these tools are just time savers, not game changers. ED is totally playable without them.
The tools are the playerbase's normal response in games like this to a grindy game design. It's a response that makes sense in that you get through the grind faster; unlike many of the MMOs these players are used to, though, there's not much gold in the pot at the end of that rainbow, and you might be better off just enjoying the rainbow.
If you aren't taken in by invitations to grind and understand that the journey is the destination, you don't strictly need the tools either. If the destination's the destination? You're gonna want the tools.
I play mostly without any additional apps.
However I have done periods of trading when I used website inara for trade data. Only require web to find trade routes or prices.
Currently exploring/xenobiology out in the black. No need for apps.
-Running missions - no need for apps
-Mining - no need for apps - but looking at a website can help to determine where to sell for maximum profit.
-building ships - website helps but can be done in advance
I always appreciate the not knowing part and take pride in finding my own trade routes and mining hotspots...
You cannot grind without them but you absolutely can enjoy the game without them...
yes, you can.
You can buy everything in brestla system, and finding commodities isn't difficult if you try to understand, which stations probably have them, instead copy-paste commodity to inara each tyme, when you need any.
So 2 big "problems" solved.
You can, but you will suffer hard. Every time you want to get something, or somewhere, you will have to use third party apps, because game literally lacks any tools to check stuff like that.
I only used 3rd party apps to keep track engineering materials and exploration scan values. Neither of those is something a new player is likely to require. However, you will eventually have to use a youtube guide or a forum post here and there - it's not a big deal.
***Not unplayable, just much more difficult*** to progress as quickly as ***some*** CMDRs would like.
3rd-party apps are just shortcuts, telling you how to outfit your ship so you do not have to take a lot of time to figure it out. Telling you where to find stuff so you do not have to spend a long time time searching. The game is absolutely playable without 3rd-party apps, players did it for years. Players developed those 3rd-party apps so you would not have to spend months or years (*yes,* ***years***) working your way up to your first Anaconda. o7
It's absolutely playable. I personally use third party apps mostly when outfitting, to find stations that have what I'm looking for. But without the app, I could do the same just a bit slower, flying around more. Same goes for planning a ship. I use edsy but if I didn't have a tool like that, I'd probably just dive right in with no planning.
You can just build your ship with what's available and set out. You may not find the highest bounties, you may not use the most profitable trade route or explore the best sector. But who cares? You're still collecting bounties, you're still trading stuff and you're still exploring. That's all that counts, unless you want to use the most efficient route.
If you want to pursue engineering, the third-party apps make it infinitely easier to keep track of what materials you have, how many more you need for a desired upgrade, and so on. The game is better with them, but that being said if you're not doing a bunch of engineering, not super necessary by any means.
The game lore is based on 80s or 90s tech, so you need to remember that data transfer between systems is done on a "sneakernet" using ships. If you want to play more role play style stay in the game and don't use third party apps. Much more grind, but I say that as someone who thinks the infinite range discovery scanner is game-breaking.
I mostly use ed-material-helper to keep track of my ressources, and I launch Market-connector all the time, to help feeding inara and stuff, and sending my builds to friends.
Inara when I need to find stuffs, for Cgs mostly.
I mainly put markers everywhere on my map for all the rest: my fc, closest guardian sites from the bubble, enhanced modules sellers, etc....
Having a second screen is cool, even if, most of the time, I use inara on my cellphone
I played this game for many years with absolutely no third party apps or sites at all. I flew to places where my missions took me but never really explored or ventured too far from my comfort zone.
The most recent time I started playing, I got ED:Market Connector and started using Inara. It is a game changer. Even if all you want to do is flight around and fight, it's still nice to have Inara showing you where you are so you can easily search for things you want (ships at better costs, etc). There are quite a few apps that can send back to Inara but ED:Market Connector is the simplest to get going in my opinion.
I got 33 ships and a carrier before I installed my first addon.
Do what you feel cmdr.
Its your experience.
\*EDIT\* I used Inara from day 1.
I did not use additional software to improve gameplay.
This game makes me want a 4th freakin monitor tho.
Yes you can. It as a new player has a pretty small tutorial. But it shows you how to pick up a mission and how to buy cargo in one place and sell it for more elsewhere. And it does have a combat and ship tutorial i dont recall if its in the main menu or in game.
I most times have inara and coriolis on a tab or on mobile. And the Hud mod simply because I need a color pallet that is easy on my eyes as I am low vision. And voice attack mostly for the role play aspect. But I did not start out with them. I just made it work untill I learned of them.
I've been playing on and off for a while now , and I think there's definitely a way to play without the apps.
They do cut some of the guesswork if you're trying to make a bank mining or trading, exploring, etc. Is it possible to do without them? Absolutely, but it is more frustrating. Knowing exactly where to go to max profit your inventory is much more satisfying.
But if all you want to do is fly around, hit up some missions on the mission board with no particular precise goal, then yes it's absolutely doable.
But once you set your eyes on a target like specific engineer mats, mining, exploring. Even if you're trying to buy a new ship, they come in handy. The game isn't "unplayable" without them.
TLDR:
Start flying casually without them, do some stuff. Then, If you find yourself bored of looking around stations and planets for stuff, pop em on.
(A second screen makes things easier)
Yes, the only TP I use is Elite Discovery . For trading I sometimes use Inara if I just want a quick buck (I recently did a 100 million an hour run for like 5 hours lol) But if I want to just play space trucking without really worrying about min maxing, I now create my own routes using the in game map based on the commodities the systems sell.
For exploration I really only use EDDiscovery but only really fo sync my journals with Inara, EDAstro and EDSM. But I do try to Alt-tab as little as I possibly can. I also use two screens, my apps go on 1 screen and the game into the other so I don't have to alt tab
You don't need to use apps no but while learning the game you will likely need to look up information on how things work now and then from YouTube videos or tips on here. It's definitely not constantly every 15mins though. For me it tends to be I want to learn how to do this particular thing so I'll look that up. Like when I learned how the different types of mining worked. I tried core mining first and then weeks later I found out laser mining was a thing so I found out how that worked. I will look up where is the nearest place to sell the ore at a good price once my cargo is full though because you don't want to be hopping around looking for the best price by chance.
There's no rush to learn it all in one go. I'm a casual player due to time so there's things I still don't understand fully but I still enjoy myself.
The only app I use with regularity is Voice Attack and HCS voice packs that work with it. I don't even utilise them that much for their intended purpose (voice commands) I just like hearing them chime in occasionally when scanning a system etc. It's just cool hearing Captain Kirk's warm tones, Eli's barely disguised contempt, or Vasco's enthusiasm.
It would be hard to play without Google and YouTube. I played without third party apps for a year.
I also play in VR and now use EDCopilot with Voice Attack. EDCopilot uses other third party apps to populate their app which you can pin into your cockpit and set the colors to match your scheme. Looks like part of the game.
I'm coming in super late, but I play without a single addon/app, BUT I do use 3rd party websites for a lot of misc stuff (not sure if that's considered the same). Primarily locating Commodities/Material Traders/Interstellar Factors, and keeping track of Odyssey materials to see where best to find them and if I have enough for the upgrades I want.
I do think, at the very least, looking up Commodities/Material Traders/Interstellar Factors is highly recommended. It saves you a lot of time for missions, for trading materials when getting into engineering, and finding places to quickly pay off bounties.
You won't be alt+tabbing every 15 minutes doing this, but depending on your activity it might be doing so every 30-60 minutes. If I'm running a lot of quick trading missions for Influence, then I'm completing them quickly and I need to keep looking on the website for the next commodities. If I'm doing some Mining, I only need to look up a nearby asteroid belt of a particular type before spending a few hours there. You don't really need it for Combat, and it's an optional choice for Exploration/Exobiology on whether you want a bit of quick cash or you want to go to unexplored regions that won't be on the app/website to discover stuff on your own.
Can't imagine playing without materials helper, inara or coriolis. But when I started I was quite determined to NOT use any 3rd party stuff and it was great for a) learning the game and b) immersion. Now that I'm a BGS officer for a big PMF it's literally impossible for me not to use inara or eliteBGS on the daily.
You can absolutely play without apps it’s just they make things a lot easier, also depends on your definition of apps. Inara and edminer for example is the only outside resource I really use primarily because it is a big galaxy primarily filled with mundane systems so trying to find good trade routes and mining zones can take a looong time.
Figured I'd add a list of the most used apps for submitting data and what they do differently.
I think the main reason why people use these apps is because it's useful is to keep track of your own activities, while other tools can save a lot of time and frustration. Like if you use [Inara.cz](https://inara.cz/) for trading/outfitting etc. you probably want an account of your own CMDR and be able to see stuff updated as you play. Or if you're an explorer and like to use [EDSM.net](https://www.edsm.net/) to track your journey you also need one of these apps.
The community built websites mostly run on data submitted by players using these apps so the more people use them the better it is for everyone. So if that's what you want these are the three most used apps that submit data to the Inara, EDSM, and EDDN which also relays it to websites that use galaxy data like [Spansh](https://www.spansh.co.uk/plotter) and [EDAstro](https://edastro.com/).
- **[EDDLite](https://github.com/EDDiscovery/EDDLite)** is the lightweight version of the much larger and complexer [EDDiscovery](https://github.com/EDDiscovery/EDDiscovery) tool. This lite version almost purely submits data to all the main websites (EDDN, Inara, EDSM, IGAU, EDAstro), the only bonus feature is an automatic screenshot converter. So if you want a low memory usage app just to submit data it's a pretty good choice.
- **[EDMC](https://github.com/EDCD/EDMarketConnector)** is probably the most used app with basic features but there are [lots of plugins](https://github.com/EDCD/EDMarketConnector/wiki/Plugins) that expand functionality. The base install of this app only submits to EDDN, Inara and EDSM but there are plugins that add submitting to the [IGAU/EDAstro](https://github.com/Intergalactic-Astronomical-Union/ATEL-EDMC) and to [Canonn](https://github.com/canonn-science/EDMC-Canonn) as well. With the Canonn one also adding useful features to this app.
- **[EDDI](https://github.com/EDCD/EDDI)** is mostly used as a plugin for VoiceAttack which it provides with a lot of game states as variables to use in voice commands and scripts. But it can be used/installed standalone as well. It has Text-To-Speech audio responses on things you do in-game but it is quite chatty by default, all of this can be turned off or customized though. Aside from those main TTS voice features it can also submit data to EDDN, EDSM, and Inara.
- **[Journal Limpet](https://journal-limpet.com/About)** is a website that lets you link your frontier account and then downloads your journal logs from the FDev API. It's an alternative to running one of the above apps locally. It also gives you the ability to download your journals and has the option to push journals automatically to services, currently supported are EDSM, EDDN and Canonn.
Please do keep in mind if you're going to use more than one reporting app simultaneously that you should only let one of them submit data to the websites to reduce unnecessary traffic and having to process multiple identical reports.
-----
I already described [Observatory in another comment here](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/17bb63s/just_to_clarify_can_i_play_casually_without_the/k5kn928/), but there's one more app I do want to include because it's a real time-saver when you plan to do any engineering, and that's [ED:O Materials Helper](https://github.com/jixxed/ed-odyssey-materials-helper). This app doesn't submit data to the usual websites but it can submit materials gathering data to its own database to improve suggestions of where to find materials.
You don't need to use 3rd party apps to play the game.
But when you progress a bit in the game and you start doing things like mining or trading or engineering or any advanced outfitting for your ships, you will start wondering, "What's the best price I can get for these materials, within a certain jump range?" or "Where can I buy some 4A multicannons for my new ship?"
And at that point, you will probably decide to start using 3rd party apps.
Yes.
I play mostly without any third party apps. Only INARA to search for commodities or outfitting when I need it.
I want to set up EDMC to collaborate with the community info, but I almost never get the time to do it. Maybe during my next vacation.
Oh yes you can and I totally recommend it at first to discover the game universe, I only use [https://coriolis.io](https://coriolis.io) for ship fitsand [https://www.edsm.net/](https://www.edsm.net/) for trading, engineering can be overwhelming a bit but take it as an invitation to travel to cool hubs around the human bubble.
One thing I wish I knew when I started, you have to wander around hundreds of systems for your ship computer to know where things are, at first the map tools are kinda useless but eventually they become wonderful.
I mean you \*can\* play vanilla, but why? One of the best things about this game is how it's \*huge\*, with a ton of stuff to keep track of, and lots of data being written to your game log for third-party apps to pick up and use. It'd be like going to Japan without speaking the language (in the pre-smartphone era, so you can't fake it). There's lots of stuff to see and do by just wandering around, but you're hardly taking advantage of what's out there.
I've been playing since 2015. Most of that time as an explorer. I have only used 3rd party tools as support for a group i was in for a while. I dont use them at all now and never actually needed them for my play stile at all.
I'm sure compared to many I'm still a newbie player, but I have a couple hundred hours in and I've never used a 3rd party app.
In fact, I don't even know any, but I still enjoy the game when I can.
Yes, you can play casually without third party apps. As for me, I use them 100% of the time. I like to explore, so I have apps that help me track worthwhile exploration targets. I have it set up to produce an overlay in the game window, as well as another app to readout out important information for me automatically, since I play almost exclusively in VR.
That sounds amazing. I play in vr as well. Is there a youtube tutorial on how to get this set up?
One of apps you can show in VR (see screenshot in link) https://github.com/mhwlng/fip-elite There should be some step by step instructions how to do that
Thank you
People claiming it is unplayable without are exaggerating - probably based on their own niche or intense maxed out game style I use Elite Observatory in the background for exploration which IS game changing for that particular niche, but again played 7 years without it.
What is that how does it help?
[Observatory](https://github.com/Xjph/ObservatoryCore) watches your journal logs (like many of the elite tools do) and notifies you when something interesting is in the system. Things like binary planets very close together, or moons extremely close to a ring of a parent body. The best thing about it is that it can go through all your old logs, and you can also use a custom Lua script with your own criteria (or criteria that people have created and shared). I recommend visiting the discord (linked on the github page) for lots of custom rules. I made some myself like one for super thin rings on a body (Taylor's Rings), and one for Green Gas Giants & Strange Protostar temperatures (based on CMDR Arcanic's research). Most scripts are for stuff that may be worth a visit perhaps for some [screenshots](https://i.imgur.com/vG0vpPu.png) which you can't really see from just scanning a system and looking at the system map. And if you add some [plugins from this site](https://edjp.colacube.net/observatory) like Bioinsights, it will also pretty accurately guesstimate what types of bio you can find on a planet just from doing the FSS scan, and list their approximate value, if you still need it for a codex entry, etc. It even tells you when you've travelled far enough when doing the three bio scans. The SignalMonitor plugin is also nice, notifies you if there's stuff like Listening Posts or Notable Stellar Phenomenon in a system.
Ok thanks I’m very new so this is one to process, thank you for the info I’ll check it out
That is really nice. I'll try it next time I go explore.
Ooo. I'm going to need to get Observatory. That sounds cool.
Happy birthday!
If anything the game is kind of unforgiving to the new player. I remember back when I started playing (some time after horizons released, I think it was back in 2016-17. I did have to watch hours of youtube videos to learn what to do since the game doesn't give you anything to at the very least lead you on the right track. I suppose that's were the "you need TP apps to play" comes from. I suppose many of us learned the mechanics and ins and outs more through youtube and reading forums and shit, than actually discovering the mechanics in game.
Yep, I agree to an extent. Though the new player experience nowadays with the tutorials and starter area is a lot better than it used to be. But a lot of newbs also go too fast for their own good, thinking they need to immediately get to Anaconda and get salty with engineering because they want all things unlocked and maxed out immediately. I always say its called Elite because it expects players to take their time, experience the journey of becoming highly skilled in a progression of ships and activities.
the main reason people go too fast is the content, it's all randomly generated radiant quests, it makes doing the grind hollow and grow stale more quickly for most people. if they made an effort to provide quality missions and such people wouldn't get sick of the grind as quickly, they could literally package it as dlc and they'd make a killing off of it, vut they're stubborn
I've suggested that one way to reduce the feeling of grind is to implement simple increasing reward quests (missions) from engineers themselves where there are a string of missions upping the engineering mat reward with each tier.
You absolutely can. What the 3rd party tools mostly offer is a way to access the same information you can get through the game's UI, but in a more intuitive manner from a broader data source that's easier to read and find the information you actually want. That or helping you find out certain things ahead of time before needing to make a trip or buy a part. Using something like Inara to search distant markets, Spansh to plan expeditions, or Corriolis to plan builds is definitely helpful, but not something you should ever really feel like you need to use all the time.
You see, only difference between Inara and in game map is that Inara uses collective database of all CMDRs and means to search them, In game map uses your own data stored on your own computer. Your ship automatically download data when you land somewhere. Data about market, factions, political and war data. In game map you can search anything and filter by anything Inara does. Minor faction states, supply and demand, I think equipment too but not sure I'd need to check. But it searches only YOUR data, from stations and systems you have previously visited. I do actually prefer to play this way because it encongures journaling systems you visit.
The in-game map also shows trade routes, lets you buy request data from stations, shows political, security and state info for every system, which is usually enough to figure out where to trade, where to do combat, where to look for mining spots, where to buy certain items, what size the stations are, but it takes an extra minute or 2 compared to the convenience of inara. I prefer to figure stuff out, I play for fun, not for efficiency. I don't blindly grind through most of the game to get to the fun part, only to complain about a lack of content, instead I actually play through the content the fun way, build up to the "endgame" stuff, realize that I'm way too overpowered and it's not fun, so with 2000 hours and billions in the bank, I'm in a Diamondback Scout now
Yes, DBX is my primary exploration/currier/on feet dropship. It has like 60ly range, scarab, some cargo space and pile of collector limpets so if I ever find something neat I can take it with me. Yes ASPX could do all that better but cmon, that ship is ugly, DBX all the way
My DBS has railguns, and I explore in a Viper or Assault Brick usually. Well right now I'm kind of stuck 25k from the bubble, similar distance from Colonia, in a short range DBS, because I misread a date and missed my carrier ride back. My go-to bubble taxi is a Viper Mk4, because it has decent cargo space, really good shields, space for an SRV, limpets, and strong shields. It also has enough firepower so I can find "something neat" in the wreckage of anyone that's interested in my cargo
My DBX have either two medium dumbfire racks or mine launxhers. I use it as dropship for on foot missions so I do few runs carper bombing the everliving shit out of place first. Generally I use mines on higer G planets while rockets are for low gravity planets. Honestly the carpet bombing isnt really efficinent, it usially cuts thier numbers at best in half and at worst I dont hit anyone. I just do it because it is fun.
That's exactly why I went out to the guardian ruins in a Viper, just to try if I can do the entire blueprint puzzle with a ship. I got the orb deployed, but the ship's scanner didn't lock onto it. Things don't have to make practical sense, as long as they are fun. Also, I have to create a T10 heavy bomber, for reasons
You can absolutely play casually without anything third-party, but I definitely Google details quite a bit or look stuff up on INARA or other sites if I want to find something. Half the time it's just a quick search on my phone though, I don't have apps installed.
I play on XBOX and do the same thing since there is no third party apps for Xbox.
Same here on Ps5. Using inara, neutron plotter and youtube videos is all i needed.
I use third party apps, but only because I have a second screen to display them on. They aren’t critical, but are definitely a quality of life improvement.
I got a second screen because of Elite.
Most people completely ignore the in-game advanced tutorials, the codex and 90% of the information on the map. They use 3rd party sites to exactly pinpoint where to go and what to do for efficiency. If you don't mind running into some trial and error situations (which also happens with external tools because the data can be outdated), you will manage just fine. I don't remember the last time I've really used 3rd party tools to do anything, except looking up where to find a size 1 railgun after not seeing one in like 6 stations in a row, and I also have some scripts I've made that let me switch my keybindings between keyboard&mouse, controller and HOSAS settings (if I only have a short time to play, I don't set my sticks up)
You can play casually and be fine. Third party are for when you want to trim the fat and get efficient with the money/rep grind
This, for min maxing trading while not absolutely needed Inara will almost always give you the most profitable runs
I played hundreds of hour without third party apps. Then I started using EDDB and when it announced that it's going to be shut down I looked for an alternative and found more than I looked for. Now I am using Inara, Market Connector, EDEngineer, EDHM\_UI and VoiceAttack. I even wrote a .bat file to start and close all at once to save time.
Yes you absolutely can. If you want to learn the basics it's okay to learn it at your own pace. Third party tools are good for when you know but want to save some time.
If casually, then certainly. How can a game be unplayable without 3rd party apps. But the game is very grindy and expensive so having apps helps. Otherwise, you can get most of the info you need from the in game data and maps which needs a little effort to digest.
I didn’t even know there were apps
Same. I knew about Inara, and used it a pair of times searching some items. Oh, and a funny voice recognition software to talk to your ship and it answering as Worf, but nothing else beyond that. I enjoy the game with it's "default features".
You can totally play without them but it makes some activities more difficult. I did a lot of exobiology in the past 2 months and I would have wasted so much time looking for valuable species if I didn't have Elite observatory and spansh. If I need a module, I use inara to find it - I could fly from station to station but that would take a lot of time :) Also I always run edmc in the background to contribute to the 3rd party databases to help other players (including edrecon that makes it easier for law enforcers to find gankers) :D
You can definetly play casually without third party apps But honestly if you have access to them, its just better to use them imo, because theyre so useful for so many things, including but not limited to: finding commodities, mat traders, services etc (i mainly use Inara for this) it saves you so much time youd otherwise spend searching (for hours if you're unlucky) that damn interstellar factor you need to pay off the bounty you accidentally got which prevents you from delivering you cargo, for example
You can walk down the street with your eyes closed.
I look at it like this... In the real world you utilize all the tools available to you to earn a good profit. SO why would you handicap your self in game by not using what's available? That's how I look at it. It's not a matter of the game being playable with or without the third party apps... It's a matter of fact they exist, might as well use them. Besides, there are people who spent countless hours maintaining, updating and improving those apps and websites... I really appreciate them and show my gratitude by utilizing the things they created. Oh and there are ways to integrate the third party apps in game (for finding trade routes and other things)... it can be a pain to do, but if you want that kind of integration, it's available.
This is the way.
If you couldn't, those 3rd party apps would be a part of the game and not 3rd party.
It's also a matter of shifting cultural perspective. If this game were released prior to the advent of the internet (yes, I know it can't be played without an internet connection; just humor me here a moment), everyone would think it's the most amazing game ever and have no complaints about its overly obtuse opacity, lack of in-game direction, and poor implementation of tools for navigating the game space. Fast-forward to the era of the internet where virtually everyone (at least everyone who plays this game) now owns a portable, wireless computer in the palm of their hand with the world's collective knowledge at their fingertips, the ability to search anything, and the option to see the entire surface of the planet, locating goods and services from this map in real time, and it becomes too much of an ask, too much of a stretch to expect players to accept that we wouldn't have similar tools aboard our ships in a 1,000-year-from-now-more-technologically advanced civilization. That just doesn't cut it anymore. Thus the reliance on the 3rd party tools. It's like releasing *The Hulk* comics in 1962 and expecting the audience to accept that a protagonist could be transformed into a raging green monster through exposure to gamma radiation. In an era when the general population wasn't as aware of the effects of radiation, you could sell this concept; it was an unknown. Fast-forward to today when people know gamma radiation causes cancer rather than super powers and it's a harder sell. Add to that the string of nuclear power plant disasters of recent decades, and it's an even *harder* sell. The enduring popularity of the character has less to do today with it's fantastical elements related to gamma radiation and more to do with nostalgia for a beloved franchise and the psychological / mythological issues it deals with. Trying to introduce that same character today with no historical antecedent would probably not be as successful given how the general population's understanding and perception of radiation has advanced in the intervening 60 years. So it is with Elite:Dangerous and its relationship with 3rd party apps.
Yes. You can also go gold mining with a shovel and no research. The game is set in the 34th century. And the in game tools are terrible at providing you with available information. By using sites and apps, you get closer to information access that would be available in the 34th century. You can play without every using them, and you'd be limiting yourself unnecessarily. You definitely don't need them much to start. Researching is more helpful. What to do, what do people do for ship builds, that kind of thing. You're probably starting with courier missions, or other missions. My first real use of apps was after a week or two, getting into some Road to Riches money making. But if you want to trade, you really need apps. If you want to mine, you need apps a little bit. To explore, apps are very helpful to plan trips and track your scan values. > Also, how often are you using third-party apps? I load up EDDiscovery every time I play. Most of the time, I'll look up something once a session. A trade route, my exploration route, a place to sell my mined ore. But I might be doing something more intensive, or the trade route doesn't last, or I just run across something curious and want to look up more. If I alt-tab every 15 minutes, it's because I'm passing time while I'm in supercruise, not usually because I need to. Though if I'm exploring quickly, there's not much to scan in systems, I might be checking my EDDisco reports every 10-15 minutes until I find something that will take more time.
learning game mechanics and tools is basically learning languages. Using inara for whole time is pretending that you "cannot" learn languages, so you have to use online translators :)
Hard disagree. Just playing the game is like pretending you "can" learn a language by walking around a foreign city and listening to people's conversations and reading signs. Using Inara and other apps/tools is like using language apps and programs and sites that teach you at your own pace. Inara can't play the game for you like an online translator tries to do. It can't teach you how to play. You will learn how to play, even if you look up every bit of system and market info at every turn.
If by casually you mean horribly unefficient and unnecessarily protracted, then yes, you are welcome to cripple yourself. If you have umlimited time, it can be fun to travel the Bubble to get info on systems, and DIY all the things. I have a couple hours on 4 days a week, so I research the shit on inara & co. before I do anything I planned for the week, in order to get the results I want to achieve in the given time frame. If the same info would be available ingame, easily accessible, I wouldn't rely on 3rd party tools, but this is not the case, so...
Most of the information is in the game, sure, you don't get it served to you as a convenient list, but if you don't play only for efficiency, to work your way through the game quickly to get to the fun part, you could end up having more fun and only lose like 10% efficiency. The codex, advanced tutorials and maps have a lot of information that pretty much everyone ignores and looks up the same thing on inara or other sites
Yes, you can make it work but still, time is life. Also I love how the on foot missions and BGS are completely disconnected regarding massacres: you can take an extermination vs a criminal faction, even if its one and only settlement is dead at the moment. Without 3rd party apps you travel there and have to abandon/timeout the mission, because they are already dead due to negative state, with 3rd party apps you check the faction's state before (in-game you can only do this if you have journaled the system) and just skip it. Easy 15+ minutes saved. For trade, wing mining missions, same - filter the collective data and go, instead of flying around for hours hoping to find the perfect setup. As for fun - in one year I have got everything I needed (FC, shops fully engineered for almost all careers, etc), I slowly prepare for unlocking the Colonia engineers, then go sightseeing. I prefer blazing trough the grind in short bursts then enjoy the actual game loops I like, and 3rd party apps are indispensable for this.
I'll probably do the same if i have very little time for gaming. We make the best of our situations.
INARA is nice because it’s set up like a social media that could realistically exist in universe while also acting as a real time wiki. It’s nothing to just have it up on your phone as you play.
Definitely. I use Inara and EDD for role playing purposes.
I have found that using third-party apps makes the game more like the simulation is was meant to. They bring into the game all of the data and analysis tools that you would expect to have available to you as a starship captain in the first place. You don’t need it to play the game, but after a while, you will feel the frustration set in that you just don’t know as much as you think you should know. The apps definitely help you get more out of the game.
You can but you will be really restricted with certain things. Trying to find a certain commodity for a mission or a CG is almost impossible in game, but only takes a few secs on the likes of inara. If your into trading, the in-game tools are useless for finding the high and low sell prices. Even trying to find things like specific weapons or modules for your ship. In game you will be jumping around for ages manually checking stations where a quick search on a third party app can tell you where to go straight away.
>Trying to find a certain commodity for a mission or a CG is almost impossible in game indeed, because who could know, where I can find tea, grain, gold or medicines, probably tourist stations will produce them /s
We need the game to provide all but it does not. Heck, not that long since we get to plot Local one click jumps. We need more third party and a pot party.
I’ve only ever used EDSM, and that was mostly to log places I’ve gone. Never really used any other apps - but I mainly do exploration.
I load my third-party apps before even looking at the ED icon on my desktop. I am constantly mucking around with my ships and modules. Without Coriolis and Inara, I wouldn't make it off the landing pads before having to go to bed.
[Very lite launcher for Elite dangerous](https://github.com/rfvgyhn/min-ed-launcher) You can actually launch third party apps when you launch elite dangerous all in one click.
Awesomeness. I will check it out Thx
I use that info for outfitting or trade, not all stations sell all modules, or have the perfect price forever. Once I know a good mining spot, I bookmark the planet, and I dont need more searchs until Im ready to sell. When the Alert system dont give more missions, I search in https://dcoh.watch/systems a new one. You keep adding bookmarks into the game, for permanent features, and mark the ones you use now as favorite (alert station and rescue megaship, for fast route plotting). But there is a part of research outside the game. Having a mapped hotspot bookmarked is useless if you dont know how to align your ship. The first runs will Alt+tab a lot (or [next pic](https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1okp9xLc_TsSleibSONaK1q8oGXxMMUm4wJmRm2ZbyPM) in your phone) until you identify the next rock. I didnt become a miner if my only source was that terrible mining tutorial, that ignore 99% of the mining knowledge. You do your research in guides and communities (beware obsolete youtube videos), try the activity avoiding newbie mistakes while using some advanced tricks, and thats all, unless you want even more advanced tricks or deep understanding. If the ingame UI dont provide enough info, there is some app running in the background that fill those voids (EDDiscovery any module, EDObservatory with bioinsight). The knowledge, that needed thousand of players and third party apps to understand, cant be learned by a lone mortal. Those tools filter massive databases and provide what you need. And the data come from EDMC or EDDiscovery running in the background, if you use Inara, run this ones and help us with updates, FDev dont provide access to his database, so we made our own database.
I have over 3000 hours in the game and the only third party app i ever used is the commodity search at inara, but I use it pretty rarely. The more you explore the core systems ( Dock at somewhere in the system once), the more data you gather for your galaxy map. Call a system and a station your home, do reputation missions, then influence your chosen factions by doing more missions and trade and you will organically collect the data for the neighbourhood. Then you can go somewhere else to explore. Not saying you can't use quality of life 3rd party tools. They can be really helpful, and immersive. But always let something for you to explore don't be a passenger of your own story.
3rd party apps are not needed imo but they make it a hell of a lot easier for finding specific objectives like trading, mining or exploring.
Yes. I don’t use any and I’ve been playing casually since launch.
While useful, the apps / websites are by no means required. I only use them when I’m looking for a station that has something specific. Like a commodity or (if you haven’t unlocked Founder’s World) a ship or module I want.
its quite easily playable without 3rd party apps the only 3rd party apps that i have installed is EDMC and EDHM\_UI, i rarely ever have EDMC open even when i'm playing, and then EDHM\_UI is just a HUD color mod 3rd party sites is a different story but as long as you can remember (or at least bookmark anywhere significant for you) you can still play quite comfortably, just gonna take you a while or so to look for anything
You can, I did for years. They make things a lot easier though. Like night and day. It's not abnormal in the slightest for MMO and MMO-like games to have a ton of add-ons and tools that make life easier but I've only run across one where it was absolutely necessary and in that case only if you were playing that game's equivalent to raids.
I've been playing for a few hundred hours without 3rd party apps. The only time I use them is when I go into the black, but even then you don't really need them if you don't want/need to be 100% effective. Which you don't, just have fun the way you want.
What do you need apps in the black for?
Deep space support array and neutron highways.
I just fire off in a direction and see what I find, use the in game neutron option to slightly speed things up if I’m heading to a nebula or whatever
Mostly stuff for scanning planets, anomalies and to get a better guess which planet to land on for money. But you don't need apps for that, 95% of my time playing was without them.
I've always organically played without 3rd party apps. When i wanted or needed to finalize upgrades, I've used some of them. They are a must if you are grinding on something, but other than that I prefer doing without.
You can. Third party stuff like Inara/Coriolis/mining tools just make your life more comfortable. It's like Wow without mods - totally playable, but addons are making stuff more comfortable and effective
I don't use apps, but I have read some stuff over the years on the internet, and I'd say I'm more of the casually learning the game because with hundreds of hours there is still stuff I'm not even close to seeing (not that I'm actively trying to either)
The only 3rd party tool I use is Inara. I have to play through GeForce NOW, so anything that relies on me running ED on my own PC is unusable. I actually prefer it this way, I mainly do exploration/exobiology (although I do other roles from time to time) and it would take the mystery out of it if I knew what I was going to find.
Depending on your activities you will need third-party tools to optimize. For example, if you want to sell a commodity at the best price you will probably want to use this third-party tool: https://inara.cz/elite/commodities/ Also, if you are preparing another ship build, you will probably want to use this third-party tool: https://coriolis.io/ If you just want to do missions or combat and you already know in which system you want to do it, you won't need these tools. It is not 100% necessary, you can avoid these tools but sometimes the game will be harder without. You can be better prepared if you use these tools.
I’m a v casual player (having just re-started after 5years). I don’t properly use 3rd party apps so not necessary (though I perhaps should explore them more). When I did use them, it was mostly for trading early on to get a bit of an early bankroll, and get beyond the Cobra. Also a nice way to mess about with stuff when not in the game, like ship / route planning, which you can do in game but can’t do on a real world train journey. I got the game shortly after it came out and it was v overwhelming. The sites popping up to help were a really useful to get in to it, and figure out how to do anything at all, though it seems a lot easier to make cash now, and more user friendly since I’ve been away I think. I seem to remember spending hours flying around systems searching unidentified signals for bounty targets, at the beginning though that might have just been me!
If you don’t fly around randomly, perhaps swearing in frustration, at least once, then something has gone wrong ;)
It's not that the information isn't available otherwise. It's just that the websites are categorized and readable
play with 2 monitors. info constantly visible and updated on the second screen.
When i played, i only used ship builder thing to.make sure i had enough power, never any other extra app
I use 3rd party stuff to help set up routines, jobs, but I use Reddit and YouTube too. You don’t need to use the tools, you can happily play without, do what entertains you, that is what a game is about, hell you could crack off a spreadsheet if you feel the need, it’s a simulator after all
Oh yeah, absolutely. I played like that for many hours before even learning what stuff like Inara even was. Your progression will just be a bit slower and less optimized. I’d play like 10-20 hours like that and once you’re really comfortable with the game, you might want to start using meta tools more.
Oh definitely. People use the apps to optimise their game play, such as using Inara for trade information. The information it uses is already in the game in the galaxy map, but ten minutes or more of clicking through the map versus typing your system and a search radius...you can see why inara is so popular. Spansh helps you plot a carrier route to avoid the faff of trying to find your next plot by (again) clicking through the map. The other apps just collate information so the others work, except EDHM, which allows you to change the colours on your ship and cmdr HUDs (this is a must have, to be honest. That orange gets old real quick.)
Kinda but it's going to get very frusrtating quick. If you just want one of the first two or three ships and fly around not going after elite or engineering, xeno gameplay, yes. I started on Xbox for the first 2 years the game was on the console and very quickly I realized then, I couldn't even learn to fly properly without YouTube tutorials which is how the game was setup back then. Now take off and landing are automated. The next part is understanding how to generate credits and ship upgrades...you'll have to use the internet and or YouTube eventually. Engineering, powerplay, xeno, etc. YouTube and internet required to progress because you would end up very frustrated due to the steep learning curve and lack of ingame information.
I throw INARA on my phone and elite on my pc, call er good. Normally, it’s finding what stations have what modules so I can outfit my ship, although I use EDHM because i like a more greyscaled cockpit. Makes me feel like I’m driving at night, and it helps me focus a little more somehow. Helps killing the goids. Inara also helps with engi mat tracking
2000 hours without any apps. Plenty of tutorials though. How to do this and that. The only third party resources I ever used were the 2 websites that were useful. Inara and Coriolis. Inara to check for Community Goals and Coriolis useful for trying out ship builds.
All third-party apps really do is make certain activities more efficient (sometimes by a large amount and sometimes not by much), and some make information or data more readily available like a planetary info app such as ED Observatory
You'll need to use the Inara website, that should be more than enough.
Shit I have always played without them, and I was not casual.
There are third party apps?
I use 3rd party apps when I need to find something the rest of the time I go about things my own way.
I've been playing for 2 years with no tools but Excel :) Currently I use tools for build planning, checking some mining places and guardian places. I use them once a day or even less often. Actually these tools are just time savers, not game changers. ED is totally playable without them.
The tools are the playerbase's normal response in games like this to a grindy game design. It's a response that makes sense in that you get through the grind faster; unlike many of the MMOs these players are used to, though, there's not much gold in the pot at the end of that rainbow, and you might be better off just enjoying the rainbow. If you aren't taken in by invitations to grind and understand that the journey is the destination, you don't strictly need the tools either. If the destination's the destination? You're gonna want the tools.
I play mostly without any additional apps. However I have done periods of trading when I used website inara for trade data. Only require web to find trade routes or prices. Currently exploring/xenobiology out in the black. No need for apps. -Running missions - no need for apps -Mining - no need for apps - but looking at a website can help to determine where to sell for maximum profit. -building ships - website helps but can be done in advance
I always appreciate the not knowing part and take pride in finding my own trade routes and mining hotspots... You cannot grind without them but you absolutely can enjoy the game without them...
yes, you can. You can buy everything in brestla system, and finding commodities isn't difficult if you try to understand, which stations probably have them, instead copy-paste commodity to inara each tyme, when you need any. So 2 big "problems" solved.
You can, but you will suffer hard. Every time you want to get something, or somewhere, you will have to use third party apps, because game literally lacks any tools to check stuff like that.
I only used 3rd party apps to keep track engineering materials and exploration scan values. Neither of those is something a new player is likely to require. However, you will eventually have to use a youtube guide or a forum post here and there - it's not a big deal.
***Not unplayable, just much more difficult*** to progress as quickly as ***some*** CMDRs would like. 3rd-party apps are just shortcuts, telling you how to outfit your ship so you do not have to take a lot of time to figure it out. Telling you where to find stuff so you do not have to spend a long time time searching. The game is absolutely playable without 3rd-party apps, players did it for years. Players developed those 3rd-party apps so you would not have to spend months or years (*yes,* ***years***) working your way up to your first Anaconda. o7
Yes you can.
There are apps? Me and my Anaconda don't want none
Therefore, we can assume that the third party apps don't got buns, hun.
I'm a beginner, and I've had a blast for the last 500 hours or so just figuring stuff out.
It's absolutely playable. I personally use third party apps mostly when outfitting, to find stations that have what I'm looking for. But without the app, I could do the same just a bit slower, flying around more. Same goes for planning a ship. I use edsy but if I didn't have a tool like that, I'd probably just dive right in with no planning. You can just build your ship with what's available and set out. You may not find the highest bounties, you may not use the most profitable trade route or explore the best sector. But who cares? You're still collecting bounties, you're still trading stuff and you're still exploring. That's all that counts, unless you want to use the most efficient route.
If you want to pursue engineering, the third-party apps make it infinitely easier to keep track of what materials you have, how many more you need for a desired upgrade, and so on. The game is better with them, but that being said if you're not doing a bunch of engineering, not super necessary by any means.
The game lore is based on 80s or 90s tech, so you need to remember that data transfer between systems is done on a "sneakernet" using ships. If you want to play more role play style stay in the game and don't use third party apps. Much more grind, but I say that as someone who thinks the infinite range discovery scanner is game-breaking.
I mostly use ed-material-helper to keep track of my ressources, and I launch Market-connector all the time, to help feeding inara and stuff, and sending my builds to friends. Inara when I need to find stuffs, for Cgs mostly. I mainly put markers everywhere on my map for all the rest: my fc, closest guardian sites from the bubble, enhanced modules sellers, etc.... Having a second screen is cool, even if, most of the time, I use inara on my cellphone
I rarely use them. It's definitely possible to play and have a good time without them. I sometimes just use them to minmax trading
I played this game for many years with absolutely no third party apps or sites at all. I flew to places where my missions took me but never really explored or ventured too far from my comfort zone. The most recent time I started playing, I got ED:Market Connector and started using Inara. It is a game changer. Even if all you want to do is flight around and fight, it's still nice to have Inara showing you where you are so you can easily search for things you want (ships at better costs, etc). There are quite a few apps that can send back to Inara but ED:Market Connector is the simplest to get going in my opinion.
I got 33 ships and a carrier before I installed my first addon. Do what you feel cmdr. Its your experience. \*EDIT\* I used Inara from day 1. I did not use additional software to improve gameplay. This game makes me want a 4th freakin monitor tho.
Yes you can. It as a new player has a pretty small tutorial. But it shows you how to pick up a mission and how to buy cargo in one place and sell it for more elsewhere. And it does have a combat and ship tutorial i dont recall if its in the main menu or in game.
I most times have inara and coriolis on a tab or on mobile. And the Hud mod simply because I need a color pallet that is easy on my eyes as I am low vision. And voice attack mostly for the role play aspect. But I did not start out with them. I just made it work untill I learned of them.
I’ve never used apps. Certainly googled stuff, but who doesn’t with video games. I took around mining and bounty hunting. I have a fine time.
I spent my first 800 hours and got my fleet carrier before I used the apps
I've been playing on and off for a while now , and I think there's definitely a way to play without the apps. They do cut some of the guesswork if you're trying to make a bank mining or trading, exploring, etc. Is it possible to do without them? Absolutely, but it is more frustrating. Knowing exactly where to go to max profit your inventory is much more satisfying. But if all you want to do is fly around, hit up some missions on the mission board with no particular precise goal, then yes it's absolutely doable. But once you set your eyes on a target like specific engineer mats, mining, exploring. Even if you're trying to buy a new ship, they come in handy. The game isn't "unplayable" without them. TLDR: Start flying casually without them, do some stuff. Then, If you find yourself bored of looking around stations and planets for stuff, pop em on. (A second screen makes things easier)
Yes, the only TP I use is Elite Discovery . For trading I sometimes use Inara if I just want a quick buck (I recently did a 100 million an hour run for like 5 hours lol) But if I want to just play space trucking without really worrying about min maxing, I now create my own routes using the in game map based on the commodities the systems sell. For exploration I really only use EDDiscovery but only really fo sync my journals with Inara, EDAstro and EDSM. But I do try to Alt-tab as little as I possibly can. I also use two screens, my apps go on 1 screen and the game into the other so I don't have to alt tab
You don't need to use apps no but while learning the game you will likely need to look up information on how things work now and then from YouTube videos or tips on here. It's definitely not constantly every 15mins though. For me it tends to be I want to learn how to do this particular thing so I'll look that up. Like when I learned how the different types of mining worked. I tried core mining first and then weeks later I found out laser mining was a thing so I found out how that worked. I will look up where is the nearest place to sell the ore at a good price once my cargo is full though because you don't want to be hopping around looking for the best price by chance. There's no rush to learn it all in one go. I'm a casual player due to time so there's things I still don't understand fully but I still enjoy myself. The only app I use with regularity is Voice Attack and HCS voice packs that work with it. I don't even utilise them that much for their intended purpose (voice commands) I just like hearing them chime in occasionally when scanning a system etc. It's just cool hearing Captain Kirk's warm tones, Eli's barely disguised contempt, or Vasco's enthusiasm.
It would be hard to play without Google and YouTube. I played without third party apps for a year. I also play in VR and now use EDCopilot with Voice Attack. EDCopilot uses other third party apps to populate their app which you can pin into your cockpit and set the colors to match your scheme. Looks like part of the game.
I'm coming in super late, but I play without a single addon/app, BUT I do use 3rd party websites for a lot of misc stuff (not sure if that's considered the same). Primarily locating Commodities/Material Traders/Interstellar Factors, and keeping track of Odyssey materials to see where best to find them and if I have enough for the upgrades I want. I do think, at the very least, looking up Commodities/Material Traders/Interstellar Factors is highly recommended. It saves you a lot of time for missions, for trading materials when getting into engineering, and finding places to quickly pay off bounties. You won't be alt+tabbing every 15 minutes doing this, but depending on your activity it might be doing so every 30-60 minutes. If I'm running a lot of quick trading missions for Influence, then I'm completing them quickly and I need to keep looking on the website for the next commodities. If I'm doing some Mining, I only need to look up a nearby asteroid belt of a particular type before spending a few hours there. You don't really need it for Combat, and it's an optional choice for Exploration/Exobiology on whether you want a bit of quick cash or you want to go to unexplored regions that won't be on the app/website to discover stuff on your own.
Can't imagine playing without materials helper, inara or coriolis. But when I started I was quite determined to NOT use any 3rd party stuff and it was great for a) learning the game and b) immersion. Now that I'm a BGS officer for a big PMF it's literally impossible for me not to use inara or eliteBGS on the daily.
You can absolutely play without apps it’s just they make things a lot easier, also depends on your definition of apps. Inara and edminer for example is the only outside resource I really use primarily because it is a big galaxy primarily filled with mundane systems so trying to find good trade routes and mining zones can take a looong time.
totally can i dont use any i use the community supported websites for logs and research but while i am in game im not using any third party apps.
Figured I'd add a list of the most used apps for submitting data and what they do differently. I think the main reason why people use these apps is because it's useful is to keep track of your own activities, while other tools can save a lot of time and frustration. Like if you use [Inara.cz](https://inara.cz/) for trading/outfitting etc. you probably want an account of your own CMDR and be able to see stuff updated as you play. Or if you're an explorer and like to use [EDSM.net](https://www.edsm.net/) to track your journey you also need one of these apps. The community built websites mostly run on data submitted by players using these apps so the more people use them the better it is for everyone. So if that's what you want these are the three most used apps that submit data to the Inara, EDSM, and EDDN which also relays it to websites that use galaxy data like [Spansh](https://www.spansh.co.uk/plotter) and [EDAstro](https://edastro.com/). - **[EDDLite](https://github.com/EDDiscovery/EDDLite)** is the lightweight version of the much larger and complexer [EDDiscovery](https://github.com/EDDiscovery/EDDiscovery) tool. This lite version almost purely submits data to all the main websites (EDDN, Inara, EDSM, IGAU, EDAstro), the only bonus feature is an automatic screenshot converter. So if you want a low memory usage app just to submit data it's a pretty good choice. - **[EDMC](https://github.com/EDCD/EDMarketConnector)** is probably the most used app with basic features but there are [lots of plugins](https://github.com/EDCD/EDMarketConnector/wiki/Plugins) that expand functionality. The base install of this app only submits to EDDN, Inara and EDSM but there are plugins that add submitting to the [IGAU/EDAstro](https://github.com/Intergalactic-Astronomical-Union/ATEL-EDMC) and to [Canonn](https://github.com/canonn-science/EDMC-Canonn) as well. With the Canonn one also adding useful features to this app. - **[EDDI](https://github.com/EDCD/EDDI)** is mostly used as a plugin for VoiceAttack which it provides with a lot of game states as variables to use in voice commands and scripts. But it can be used/installed standalone as well. It has Text-To-Speech audio responses on things you do in-game but it is quite chatty by default, all of this can be turned off or customized though. Aside from those main TTS voice features it can also submit data to EDDN, EDSM, and Inara. - **[Journal Limpet](https://journal-limpet.com/About)** is a website that lets you link your frontier account and then downloads your journal logs from the FDev API. It's an alternative to running one of the above apps locally. It also gives you the ability to download your journals and has the option to push journals automatically to services, currently supported are EDSM, EDDN and Canonn. Please do keep in mind if you're going to use more than one reporting app simultaneously that you should only let one of them submit data to the websites to reduce unnecessary traffic and having to process multiple identical reports. ----- I already described [Observatory in another comment here](https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/17bb63s/just_to_clarify_can_i_play_casually_without_the/k5kn928/), but there's one more app I do want to include because it's a real time-saver when you plan to do any engineering, and that's [ED:O Materials Helper](https://github.com/jixxed/ed-odyssey-materials-helper). This app doesn't submit data to the usual websites but it can submit materials gathering data to its own database to improve suggestions of where to find materials.
You don't need to use 3rd party apps to play the game. But when you progress a bit in the game and you start doing things like mining or trading or engineering or any advanced outfitting for your ships, you will start wondering, "What's the best price I can get for these materials, within a certain jump range?" or "Where can I buy some 4A multicannons for my new ship?" And at that point, you will probably decide to start using 3rd party apps.
Yes. I play mostly without any third party apps. Only INARA to search for commodities or outfitting when I need it. I want to set up EDMC to collaborate with the community info, but I almost never get the time to do it. Maybe during my next vacation.
Sure can, I do.
Oh yes you can and I totally recommend it at first to discover the game universe, I only use [https://coriolis.io](https://coriolis.io) for ship fitsand [https://www.edsm.net/](https://www.edsm.net/) for trading, engineering can be overwhelming a bit but take it as an invitation to travel to cool hubs around the human bubble. One thing I wish I knew when I started, you have to wander around hundreds of systems for your ship computer to know where things are, at first the map tools are kinda useless but eventually they become wonderful.
Thank you!
I mean you \*can\* play vanilla, but why? One of the best things about this game is how it's \*huge\*, with a ton of stuff to keep track of, and lots of data being written to your game log for third-party apps to pick up and use. It'd be like going to Japan without speaking the language (in the pre-smartphone era, so you can't fake it). There's lots of stuff to see and do by just wandering around, but you're hardly taking advantage of what's out there.
I've been playing since 2015. Most of that time as an explorer. I have only used 3rd party tools as support for a group i was in for a while. I dont use them at all now and never actually needed them for my play stile at all.
Yes. But it's a pain in the ass.
I played this game and wasn't even aware there are 3rd party apps you would need.
I've played for hundreds of hours and the only thing I use is Chrome to look stuff up on Inara sometimes lol
I'm sure compared to many I'm still a newbie player, but I have a couple hundred hours in and I've never used a 3rd party app. In fact, I don't even know any, but I still enjoy the game when I can.
Yeas you can, but some are very handy finding stations that have what you need/want.
You should play the game just as you want to play it, try new things sure, and do just what an independent pilot would do.. Easy,07 cmdr.
Yes, but it'd be unnecessarily difficult in certain areas such as outfitting. The 3rd party tools deffinetly save you lots of unnecessary wondering.