Introduction

This guide will give you everything you need to know to participate in PowerPlay. "PowerPlay", I hear you ask. "Is that a sex thing?" Yes, but that's not what I'm referring to. I'll let the wiki describe it:

Powerplay is an ongoing battle for interstellar conquest and control in the galaxy. Powers are leaders of factions who want to control the Core Systems and beyond. You can ally with a Power to support their strategic objectives and advance their territorial expansion. Earn valuable perks, reputation bonuses and credits for your allegiance. Your choices and actions have a visible impact on the balance of galactic power.

— Elite Dangerous Wiki

Since 3301 (2015), players working for the twelve powers have been fighting for control of the galaxy (well, ten, Grom and Kaine came later). There are three ways this occurs. One is that we attempt to acquire uncontrolled systems that have not yet pledged themselves to a power. Another is that we attempt to undermine the control exerted over systems by hostile powers. The last is that we reinforce the systems that we control to fight those that would undermine them. This is primarily done through means you have likely already undertaken- delivering cargo for profit, bounty hunting, turning in exploration and exobiological data, that sort of thing. When pledged to a power these things all affect PowerPlay. That means that, once you've fulfilled some basic requirements, you don't need to put any extra effort into your gameplay than you have before, but you reap the rewards and so does your power.

The Powers

To get started, you need to pick a power that you'd like to support. The powers are each headed by a particular character, and you pledge yourself to one of these. Some do this for interesting roleplay, others because it matches their real-world political leanings, and others because they like the characters. Click on each character to link to their Wiki page.

Aisling Duval Archon Delaine Arissa Lavigny-Duval Denton Patreus Edmund Mahon Felicia Winters Li Yong-Rui Nakato Kaine Pranav Antal Yuri Grom Jerome Archer Zemina Torval

Pros Of Pledging

Every week, you will receive rewards from a tiered list. As you earn merits while advancing your power, your Loyalty Rank increases and you will receive new rewards, plus "care packages", like as follows.

You will also receive, in differing order depending on power, special modules that you can use to be more effective. Each has a trade-off but an advantage as well. Below are the modules.

Prismatic Shield Generator Pack-Hound Missile Rack Cytoscrambler Imperial Hammer Pacifier Frag-Cannon Retributor Pulse Disruptor Advanced Plasma Accelerator Concord Cannon (no link) Mining Lance Containment Missile Enforcer Cannon

The rewards for each power are below.

Zemina Torval

Felicia Winters

Archon Delaine

Nakato Kaine

Jerome Archer

Denton Patreus

Pranav Antal

Yuri Grom

A. Lavingny-Duval

Aisling Duval

Edmund Mahon

Li Yong-Rui

Cons Of Pledging

When you pledge, you start having an impact on the systems you work in. The locals in systems belonging to hostile powers will take notice- you will find ships coming after you, both players and NPCs. This only happens in hostile systems however, so it's worth judging how able you are to fend them off and how often you're in hostile systems.

What To Do After Pledging

I highly recommend making a PowerPlay community your first port of call. They can provide help, they can simplify the complex decisions on what to do in the game, and they can back you up when you need it. Also, often players work to advance particular factions, and if that's you, it's worth considering the power they are pledged to and they will be able to help guide you in this. Below are the contacts for the main power groups.

Federal United Command (Winters and Archer) EliteKaine Alliance of Independent Systems (Mahon) EliteAntal The Kumo Crew Arissa Lavigny-Duval Elite Torval ElitePatreus Aisling Duval Comms SiriusGov (Li Yong-Rui) The Eyes Of Leshak (Grom)

System Control Levels

Systems controlled by a Power can be in one of three states: Exploited, Fortified and Stronghold. The in-game manual describes these levels as follows.

Reinforcement

The first level of control Exploited indicates that the Power has a foothold in the system. Critically this level of control is particularly weak, Exploited systems only remain under a Power's control at the end of the cycle if they are within range of a friendly Fortified or Stronghold system.

A Power can solidify their control within a system by completing Reinforcement activities. If sufficient reinforcement activities are performed the state will move from Exploited to Fortified. Further Reinforcement will establish the system as a Stronghold.

Strongholds are candidates for harbouring special fleet carrier groups, exclusively accessible by Agents of the controlling Power. These offer access to improved outfitting and shipyard inventories when compared to most ports.

There is a cap to how much a system can be reinforced in a single cycle meaning that only one reinforcement level can be achieved per weekly PowerPlay cycle.

Reinforcement systems are any of your power's systems that are not the capital.

Undermining

Systems controlled by a Power - including your own - can be Undermined by rival agents.

Undermining activities work counter to reinforcing activities and can reduce a Power's control by up to one level per weekly cycle.

Controlled systems are harder to undermine depending on how developed the system is and how far behind the controlling Power's front line it is situated.

Reinforcing and Undermining activities can cancel each other out creating a tug-of-war between Powers vying for a system. The Power that applies the most effort will move the level of control in their direction.

Undermining systems are any system belonging to a hostile power that is not the capital.

Uncontrolled States and Acquisition

Exploited systems that are fully Undermined will become Uncontrolled.

Undermining Fortified or Stronghold systems can cause knock-on consequences if they are the only systems supporting Exploited systems with the associated Exploited systems collapsing and becoming Uncontrolled.

Uncontrolled systems are prime targets for Acquisition, providing they reside within the control range of one of your Power's Fortified or Stronghold systems.

Agents performing appropriate activities in a suitable Uncontrolled system add weight to a race for control. To take control a Power must react a control score threshold and be ahead in the control race at the end of the cycle. If no Power completes Acquisition in a cycle the race continues in the next cycle.

Multiple Powers actively seeking to expand into an Uncontrolled system will enter into conflict with each other if the Conflict Threashold is reached by at least two Powers.

Acquisition systems are unoccupied systems within a certain distance of your power's Fortified or Stronghold systems; once acquired they become Exploited. They are filterable as "expansion". You can see a progress bar on these indicating that your power is expanding to it.

Activities

Each activity you undertake will serve to either Acquire, Reinforce or Undermine a particular system. Powers have preferred activities, but these only affect the rewards you get, not the merits you earn. These are the activities you can undertake while playing.

Reinforcement

Acquisition

Undermining

Stronghold Carrier Attacks

Stronghold Carriers are an effective way of undermining a hostile power, but there are a few things to consider before taking one on.

• You should be in a wing of engineered combat ships, as they have several megaships with turrets as well as fighters and power security ships.
• You may wish to bring collector limpets and hatch breaker limpets. When damaged, they send out escape pods and the cargo hatches can be broken with hatch breakers.
• You should avoid having notoriety. That includes avoiding a local non-power bounty, as it will spawn bounty hunters, which will give you notoriety when fired upon. The notoriety spawns Advanced Tactical Response ships, who can destroy your shield generator with a hit, similar to station weapons.
• It is best to limit the number of players in an instance, because if you get ATR it can be hard to know who's spawning them. In addition, you realistically don't need more than a full wing of ships, unless there are hostile players.

When attacking a stronghold carrier, your objectives are:

• Destroy power capacitors for merits
• Destroy turrets for merits
• Pick up escape pods and turn them in at your power's reinforcement systems for merits
• Break cargo hatches and steal cargo. It will be marked as stolen but you can earn merits for selling it to a black market in an undermining system
• Destroy ships pledged to the power you're undermining, for merits. Do NOT destroy ships not pledged to that power, or you'll receive notoriety and will not receive merits, even if they're another hostile power.