Elite: Dangerous has been steadily putting out content since it breezed through its Kickstarter goal in 2014 and launched December 16 of the same year. Already in season 2 with Horizons content, Frontier Developments has revealed the first major update The Engineers (aka 2.1) will go into beta at the end of the week of May 8.

"The Engineers are individuals that are mavericks in some way," said Frontier's David Braben in a note to players on the official site. "Each has some sort of expertise from their pasts that they have made into a business – tuning all sorts of aspects of your ship to improve them. They do this using exotic and often hard-to-find components. Most Engineers are very secretive, working behind the scenes for the military or other shady organisations, and so you need an introduction, and need to find out how to find them. Missions can lead to introductions to Engineers, and some Engineers will introduce you to others, providing a more directed path for those that want that sort of approach. There is progression with each Engineer too, as you build up your relationship with them by doing missions and earning their trust."

The update will include loot and crafting and numerous new gameplay elements. Through the new engineers, players can upgrade the stats on every ship module, and add experimental effects to the ship's weapons. This image was included as a tease:

The Engineers will be available only to players who have purchased Horizons content.

In addition to the beta release of The Engineers, Frontier also revealed that Update 1.6 for season one will go into beta at the same time, and be available to all players. This update is expected to totally rework the mission system. Frontier promises more details in its weekly newsletters over the next three weeks.

If you are looking to try the game, reddit has a handy guide for new commanders.