The top of this month sawElite Dangerous take the wraps off ofa new vehicle known as the Rhino, a six-wheeled mining buggy that would also be bringing some new surface mining gameplay to the multiplayer sandbox, but that was about all we had to go on. A little more information has been shared by Frontier Developments, including a few more details about the Rhino, the new mining activity, and a bit about a new operation that will go live as well.
When players buy the Rhino from the cash shop, they’ll not only be granted the vehicle but also the ship hangar mounting that it deploys from, a planetary mineral scanner, and a decal that marks players as part of the Rhino Owners Club if they so choose to display it. The hangar that hauls this dump truck can be fitted on to a variety of similarly chonky spaceships, such as the Type-9 Heavy, Crusader, or the Clipper Mk II.
As for its primary job of mining, that’s where surface mining comes in: The Rhino can fit the new planetary mineral scanner, which lights up surfaces that have resources to crunch on much like asteroid scanning works in-game now. In terms of how resources are extricated, that’s not elaborated on, though we expect magical lasers will be at play. Fans are being aimed in the direction of the sandbox’s content creator partners who will have previews of the Rhino and surface mining in action on Friday, August 28th.
Finally, the post closes with a sneak peek at a new dungeon-like operation that will be arriving alongside the Rhino’s cash shop release, which is called Under Siege. Players will be called to a planetary outpost to answer a distress call, where they’ll have to clear aerial threats, then land on the surface for some FPS combat to regain control. Once they’re done, though, they’ll have to look out for “a larger threat” that will arrive. The Rhino, surface mining, and the new operation are all slated to land on Tuesday, September 2nd.
