Redeployment

A Vulture experiencing a canopy breach

Redeployment of a commander occurs after that commander suffers the loss of their ship, or a critical injury while On Foot. When such catastrophes occur, the commander is quickly recovered by the Pilots Federation Rescue Rangers, allowing them to resume their careers in short order. Before a commander may redeploy, they must review an Incident Report compiled by the Rescue Rangers and choose whether to pay any redeployment costs.

Overview

When a pilot is critically injured due to weapons fire or suffocation while On Foot, or their ship is irreparably damaged due to weapons fire, a collision, or overheating, exhausting Life Support, or manual activation of the Self Destruct sequence, the Pilots Federation Rescue Rangers are dispatched to their location. If a commander is critically injured, their body is retrieved and given all necessary medical assistance. If a commander is aboard their ship when it is lost, they are automatically ensconced in an escape pod and jettisoned to a safe distance before their ship explodes, and the Rescue Rangers recover the pod. Once recovered, the commander undergoes the process of Redeployment.

Incident Report

Before a pilot can be redeployed, they must review an Incident Report containing information about their status at the time they were injured or lost their ship, and an accounting of any cargo, unredeemed exploration data, vouchers, or other items and crew that they lost. Any active missions that the pilot had accepted are considered failed and immediately terminated. Pilots retain all of their credits, stored ships and modules, materials, and ranks.

Redeployment Costs

The Pilots Federation insures at least 95% of the full value of a pilot's ship. The pilot can choose to rebuy their lost ship in its entirety, deselect certain modules to reduce the cost, or forego recovering that specific ship loadout and instead choose a free Sidewinder MkI loaned by the Pilots Federation. Criminal pilots may be forced to repay the costs of their accumulated fines and bounties. If a pilot has insufficient credits, they can take out a limited loan from the Bank of Zaonce, but if they still cannot afford the rebuy, they will be forced to choose the Sidewinder and lose their previous loadout.

Redeployment costs are affected by the notoriety of the victim and the attacker; the victim having a high notoriety will increase the cost of the rebuy, but the attacker having a high notoriety will reduce it. Note that refusing or being unable to rebuy a lost ship will not award any credits in compensation for its value as with traditional insurance.

If a pilot is critically injured while On Foot, they do not incur any redeployment costs or insurance fees.

Financial Support

A loan is available to help pay for the redeployment costs of repurchasing a destroyed ship and loadout if a pilot lacks sufficient funds to cover it. The loan amount cap is tied to the pilot's highest Pilots Federation rank in any category; this maximum includes previously issued, unpaid loans. Loans are repaid automatically by deducting 10% of the pilot's profits from any money that is earned.

Any unpaid loans count towards the maximum of a pilot's next loan. For example, if a pilot qualifies for a 1,000,000 credit loan and uses 250,000 in addition to existing funds to rebuy their ship, then the next time they take out a loan they will only have 750,000 to draw from unless they have paid back some or all of their existing loan, or their rank has increased in the meantime. If a pilot cannot afford to rebuy their ship with their on-hand funds and the loan they qualify for, they may select a ship they have in storage, otherwise they are declared bankrupt and forced to accept a loaned Sidewinder MkI.

Pilots Federation rank	Loan maximum (Cr)
Harmless Penniless Aimless Defenceless Directionless	100,000
Mostly Harmless Mostly Penniless Mostly Aimless Mostly Defenceless Mostly Directionless	200,000
Novice Peddler Scout Rookie Compiler	500,000
Competent Dealer Surveyor Soldier Collector	750,000
Expert Merchant Trailblazer Gunslinger Cataloguer	1,000,000
Master Broker Pathfinder Warrior Taxonomist	2,500,000
Dangerous Entrepreneur Ranger Gladiator Ecologist	5,000,000
Deadly Tycoon Pioneer Deadeye Geneticist	7,500,000
Elite	10,000,000

Crew Recovery

Any crew members that have been hired can also be recovered by paying a flat fee that is determined by the crew member's Combat rank.

NPC Combat Rank	Hiring Cost (CR)	Insurance Cost (CR)
Harmless	15,000	20,000
Mostly Harmless	30,000	40,000
Novice	55,000	70,000
Competent	90,000	120,000
Expert	150,000	200,000
Master	N/A	325,000
Dangerous	N/A	650,000
Deadly	N/A	1,250,000
Elite	N/A	2,250,000

Redeployment Location

Pilots who lost their ship will redeploy at the last Station, Surface Port, or Fleet Carrier that they docked at; if the last station they docked at had no shipyard function, they will redeploy at the closest station with a shipyard to the location where they had lost their ship. Criminal pilots will redeploy at the nearest Detention Centre in the jurisdiction where they were apprehended.

If a pilot chooses to redeploy in a new Sidewinder MkI and forego their original ship, they will redeploy in the system where they started their career, with one exception: pilots who started in Dromi in the permit-locked Pilots' Federation District and no longer possess the district permit will instead redeploy in the AY Indi system.

In the event a pilot is critically injured while On Foot, where they redeploy is determined by their location and whether or not they own a ship. Pilots who do not own a ship will redeploy at the nearest Concourse. Pilots who own a ship and used it to travel to the planet where they died may choose to redeploy aboard that ship, which will be automatically relocated to a safe orbit above the planet, or the nearest Concourse. Pilots who own a ship but left it at a port will redeploy aboard that ship at that port.

Notes

• Players who are controlling a SLF or SRV that is destroyed will resume controlling their ship without going through Redeployment.
• Elite Dangerous: Odyssey revamped the Redeployment process and improved its immersiveness. Prior to this, the process was only known informally as "respawning" or "the rebuy screen", and was limited to interacting with the Galactic Insurance Company to decide whether to pay insurance costs for a replica of the destroyed ship or forfeit it and accept a new Sidewinder.
• Before Elite Dangerous: Beyond Chapter One (3.0), players always redeployed at the station where they last docked.
• Alpha and Beta backers of Elite Dangerous respectively pay 25% or 50% less on any insurance costs than all subsequent players.
• Prior to update 1.3, all players had a loan cap of 600,000 credits. Frontier Developments increased the cap and made it scale with Pilots Federation rank after that initial amount was found by players to be inadequate, especially for larger ships that can have rebuy costs in the millions.
• All ships come with Cockpit Voice-Activated System technology installed by default by the Pilots Federation. A COVAS is mandatory by statute B7249 of the Interstellar Transit Charter for insurance purposes.
• Redeployment can be safely exploited to quickly return to the Core Systems from elsewhere in the galaxy by redeploying in the free Sidewinder MkI. Players who wish to keep their current ship before attempting this must go to the nearest facility or Fleet Carrier where they can buy a Sidewinder or other low-cost ship, and store their current ship in the local shipyard. Next, take the new Sidewinder and self-destruct or destroy it by any other available means, and once in the Incident Report menu, choose the option to redeploy in the free Sidewinder. After redeploying, the player can pay to transfer their stored ship to a shipyard at their preferred port in the Core Systems. Note that ship transfers from especially remote locations may be very expensive and take days to complete.

Videos

Elite Dangerous Ship Destroyed, Bad Thargy !