Supercruise

Supercruise is a method of faster-than-light (FTL) travel within solar systems. A ship that is in supercruise is able to use its Frame Shift Drive to travel at speeds between 30 kilometers-per-second to superluminal (faster-than-light) speeds, allowing a ship to cross entire solar systems in relatively short amounts of time.

Supercruise uses the ship's Frame Shift Drive to compress space in front of a ship and expand it behind a ship, essentially moving space around that ship. This negates any time dilation, as the ship is always travelling less than the speed of light relative to its "frame" of compressed space.

In supercruise, speeds are typically measured in multiples of the speed of light, represented as C or in megameters, represented as Mm (1C = 300Mm/s). A ship that is traveling at 1c is therefore traveling at the speed of light. Speeds in supercruise are highly dependent on distances from large bodies of mass, and the highest speed is only possible at great distances from massive objects.

It should be noted that in Elite Dangerous, FTL travel is not subject to relativity; a ship's frame of time is always the same as to the surrounding universe.

Entering Supercruise

Elite Dangerous Tutorial Fast Supercruise Travel

1. Select target that is in-system through the Navigation Panel
2. Use the Supercruise button (default is J) - Supercruise will be engaged
3. Once the FSD is charged, throttle up to engage Supercruise
4. Use flight controls to navigate as usual
5. Keep an eye on where your Target Information is displayed - Try to get the vertical orange lines within the blue sections at the same time
6. Press the Supercruise button again to disengage Supercruise mode

Exiting Supercruise

There are a number of circumstances under which Supercruise may be exited, but they all fall under two general categories: Safe Disengage and Emergency Drop.

Safe Disengage

The following circumstances end Supercruise in a Safe Disengage. In all cases, the Frame Shift Drive has a safety cooldown of 10 seconds before it may be charged again and the act of ending Supercruise does not damage any part of the ship.

1. Pressing the Supercruise button while traveling slower than 1 Mm/s. Without a Destination Lock (see below), the ship simply drops to normal flight wherever the Supercruise button was pressed.
2. Destination Lock: if the ship has a targeted destination, that destination is within a cone ahead of the ship, the destination is less than 1 Mm away, and the ship is moving slower than 1 Mm/s, then pressing the Supercruise button will drop the ship to normal flight somewhere within several kilometers of the destination.
3. Submitting to Interdiction: Going to zero throttle during Supercruise while simultaneously being the target of an FSD Interdiction. Note that this is also a Safe Disengage for whoever is committing the interdiction.
4. Crossing an "IMPACT" surface while traveling slower than 1 Mm/s. All planetary, stellar, and singular objects are surrounded by a spherical impact surface. Planetary rings are also surrounded by impact surfaces, but these surfaces are not spherical.

Approaching a Starport in Supercruise

1. Manage your approach speeds.

   

   SUPER CRUISE TO STARPORTS LIKE A PRO - Flight Tutorial-0

2. Maintain a correct approach vector in relation to the station's orbit.
3. Align to the station's airlock face before dropping out.
4. View this tutorial for further detail and information.

Emergency Drop

The following circumstances end Supercruise in an Emergency Drop. In all cases, the ship's hull and all modules take 1% to 2% damage (without exception) and the Frame Shift Drive has a safety cooldown of 40 seconds (unless otherwise noted).

1. Pressing the Supercruise button twice in rapid succession while traveling faster than 1 Mm/s. Pressing once only gives a warning that a Safe Disengage is not possible.
2. Successful Interdiction: If the target of an FSD Interdiction fails to evade or submit, then both the interdictor and the target suffer an Emergency Drop.
3. Failed Interdiction: If the target of an FSD Interdiction successfully evades interdiction, then the interdictor (but not the target) suffers an Emergency Drop.
4. Crossing an "IMPACT" surface while traveling faster than 1 Mm/s. This case invokes a 10-second cooldown instead of a 40-second cooldown.
5. Disabling your thrusters or FSD will also result in an Emergency Drop.

Notes

• Use Hyperspace when traveling to other systems.
• Maximum Supercruise speed is determined by the proximity to stellar bodies and the direction the ship is heading relative to the stellar body.
  • Heading towards a stellar body will decrease maximum speed while heading away will increase maximum speed.
• Supercruise cannot be engaged if the ship is Mass Locked (i.e. too close to a large body of mass such as stations or planets) or if it has anything deployed (such as Landing Gear, Cargo Scoop, or Hardpoints).
• The blue lines in Supercruise are indicators of a planet - As the circles spread outwards from the center your ship is getting closer.
• The orange lines in Supercruise are indicators of stellar body orbits.
• You can not use Supercruise to travel between systems. Attempting to do so just takes your ship to a dummy marker (floating in empty space) for that solar system. You can neither see, nor interact with, any of the objects in that other solar system until you commit a proper hyperspace jump.

Other info

• Maximum Supercruise speed (when not affected by stellar bodies) is 2,001c and takes 57 min to reach.

  

  Supercruised to another system.

  • It would take 4h 22m 51s to travel 1 light year at maximum Supercruise speed.
• Using Supercruise to attempt to travel between systems will just result in you traveling a very long distance, as you will not actually switch which system you are in, as you currently cannot change systems using Supercruise.
• QUICKER SUPERCRUISE:  To get to your destination as fast as possible you need to manage the countdown timer (under the icon) versus your throttle instead of watching the bars on the left.
  • Keep your throttle at 100% until the timer reaches 7 seconds, then throttle back to 75% (marked by the blue sector on your throttle gauge). If you're flying next to a celestial body on your way to your destination you might get a "Slow Down" warning, but if the timer hasn't hit the 7-second mark yet you can safely ignore it.
    • Optionally, when you're about 30 Mm (0.1 Ls) from your destination manage your throttle so your speed roughly equals the square root of the distance (e.g. if you're 25 Mm away, you want to be moving at 5 Mm/s, 16 Mm - 4 Mm/s, etc.). Once you reach that threshold, throttle down completely and you should hit the safe disengage speed and distance at the same time. Note that this doesn't leave you much time to press the disengage button.
  • Leverage planets' gravity wells to your advantage: flying next to a planet will slow you down considerably. The closer you are to the planet, the greater the effect. Keeping your throttle at 100% reduces the effectiveness of the maneuver but also reduces the risk of getting stuck in a planet's sphere of influence.
  • Navlocking onto your wingmate's wake negates the need to slow down or disengage your FSD manually.