Second Elite: Dangerous beta coming at month's end

A second beta for Elite: Dangerous has been dated, and it contains a "major gameplay upgrade" along with expanded combat ratings.

According Frontier Developments, Beta 2 participants can go from a Harmless rating all the way up to Elite status, can scan new systems and sell the data, explore an additional 500 star systems to explore, try out Lakon Asp Explorer ships.

There is also greater variety of upgradable Life Support modules, Engines, Hyperdrives, Power Distributors, Sensors, Shield Generators and Cargo Racks - for all ships - and every vessel flown is now subject to wear and tear.

New weapons including lethal and non-lethal options, there are new outposts in remote locations, the ability to see other ships in supercruise, and all backers names from the appropriate crowd-funding reward tiers have been added to the NPC naming database.

There's more to the tester obviously, so you should read over the latest newsletter for more information.

Elite: Dangerous Beta 2 goes live on September 30.