Elite Dangerous adding a sleek new race car-looking ship to the roster

The Mamba is a new ship launching into the Elite Dangerous universe very soon. It's currently being put through the paces in the game's Beyond – Chapter Four open beta on PC. Cut from the same cloth as its heavy fighter big brother, the Fer-de-Lance, the Mamba relies on speed combined with power; it's made to hit hard and fast, getting away before an enemy can properly react. The Mamba, like most Elite ships, is named after a venomous snake, but has race-car styling that's rarely seen in the Elite universe. If you're feeling saucy, you can name your ship after Lou Bega's monster hit from 1999, "Mambo No. 5," or you can fondly recall that line from Kill Bill: Vol. 1 where Vivica A. Fox lays it down and tells Uma Thurman, "I shoulda been [expletive deleted] Black Mamba."

We're getting through fall, which is usually the time I like to pull up a chair, pull out my HOTAS, and get back into the black. Elite's reconstruction of the 400 billion star systems in the Milky Way is at its most beautiful during the cold winter months. It's great to see Elite Dangerous still going strong as it approaches its 4th anniversary in December. Not to mention that these new ships all come at the handy low price of just the season pass.

Below are some screenshots of the sleek new Mamba, plus the upcoming Krait Phantom, the lighter, faster sister ship to the Krait Mk II. You can see these two new ships in action on Frontier Developments' Twitch channel tonight, November 8, though I have to warn you that their streams are often dry and unrehearsed.

Elite Dangerous is out on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. To access the Mamba and Krait Phantom (which aren't free; you'll have to buy them in-game), you'll need the base game plus the Horizons season pass.

Based on an unreleased racing prototype, the Mamba brings blistering speed combined with huge firepower to Elite Dangerous as part of the Beyond – Chapter Four update. Sporting one huge and two large hardpoints, the Mamba’s emphasis on power speed allows players to hit hard and vanish before a target has had time to react.

Mamba Stats

1 Huge, 2 Large and 2 Small Hardpoints
5 Internal Optional slots
Top speed of 316m/s and a boost speed of 387m/s
6.37LY laden FSD range
Approximately 55,000,000 credits

Joining the Mamba in Beyond – Chapter Four is the Krait Phantom. Following on from its sister ship the Krait Mk II, the Phantom is a lighter, faster ship that features a spacious cargo hold and relatively generous quantity of hardpoints. Though it may not boast the same firepower as the Mk II, the Phantom can still hold its own against larger targets and has enough straight-line speed to outpace smaller ships.

Krait Phantom Stats

2 Large and 2 Medium Hardpoints
8 Internal Optional slots
Top speed of 256m/s and a boost speed of 358m/s
8.23LY laden FSD range
Approximately 37,000,000 credits

Players can get a closer look at how the Mamba and Krait Phantom play in our first-look livestream, on the Frontier Twitch channel tonight at 7pm GMT.