What is SCO?

SCO is Super Cruise Overcharge. It's a new development of the Frame Shift Drive.
New SCO equipped drives are available in Outfitting.


What does SCO do?

SCO allows you to boost during Super Cruise. The ride is unpredictable and wild, fuel usage is extreme, and it can leave you stranded if you run out.
Temperature also rises very quickly and can cause the ship to explode.


SCO is most useful when:

• travelling in systems with faraway secondary stars or planets
  
• a pirate or player wants to interdict you
  
• departing a planet and climbing up into orbit (SCO is a great time saver!)

(Type 8 Transporter climbing from a surface starport to low orbit using a quick boost)

(Engaging SCO to leave the gravity well in a flash!)

SCO is of limited use then?

The newest ships are optimized to use SCO. They can handle the heat and don't swerwe wildly, and use fuel more slowly than non-optimized ships.


SCO-optimized ships are:

• Phython MkII - 68 Million Cr
  
• Type 8 Transporter - 38 Million Cr
  
• Mandalay Explorer - 18 Million Cr
  
• Cobra MkV - 2 Million Cr
  
• Imperial Corsair - 80 Million Cr
  ... plus new ships coming to Elite Dangerous in 2025 & 2026.

How do i use SCO?

Outfit your ship with a Frame Shift Drive (SCO). These new FSDs are similar to the old ones but slightly better, and able to boost during Super Cruise.

Even if you don't intend to use SCO often, you should still upgrade to this new drive type because of the higher jump range.
(i also recommend that you install a heatsink, even if you normally don't bother with those things)

During flight, enter Super Cruise and hit Boost. Watch your fuel and temperature!! And hold onto your reproductive organs.
Hit Boost again to disengage.

(A planet in the way? No problem, just give the drive a quick Overcharge boost and the destination will not be obscured anymore)


Is there a reason not to use SCO?

Not to use an SCO Frame Shift Drive? No, as long as you can afford and power it, you should use an FSD (SCO). It is simply better, except...

As M200chan pointed out in the comments below, it is not possible to undersize SCO Frame Shift Drives. If you want to install a smaller FSD, you will have to use a classic one.
Be aware that undersizing a Drive severely limits the jump range. Most of the time you want the biggest drive but a smaller one may be worth considering when optimizing a combat build.


While it is still superior 99% of the time, there are reasons not to use SCO during flight even when you have it:

• If your fuel is low, be super careful. And if your destination is not far away, you will probably overshoot it and be forced to do the loop of shame.
  
  
• If you are taking off from a planet, you can use SCO to scream out of its orbit in a blink of an eye. But if you want to land on the same planet again, better just ascend to orbit in normal Super Cruise or you'll end up millions of miles away.

That's it, there's not too much to say about SCO. It's easy to use. But if you want some extra knowledge, read on.

To get the most out of SCO, engage it and wait until the heat begins to build up and then deploy a heatsink. This gets the maximum use out of the heatsink and prolongs the boost.

A heatsink has a limited duration. Deploying it early cools the ship before SCO starts dumping extra heat into the ship.

If you have the fuel and can control the ship, you can keep deploying heatsinks while maintaining SCO operation.
This is the ideal way to use SCO, because each time you engage it, you have to spend fuel for a couple of seconds during which you get no acceleration and actually lose speed.

(Fully loaded Type 9 Transporter hits 3,400c barrelling towards a planet ~94,000 Ls away)


If your destination is only a few thousand Ls away, you don't need to deploy heatsinks or do anything special. Just build up speed and watch out you don't overshoot your target.

But if the destination is 20,000 or 50,000 Ls away, you will get more value out of your fuel by deploying a heatsink in non-SCO optimized ships.

SCO-optimized ships don't usualy produce enough heat to warrant a heatsink unless you're boosting towards something 200,000Ls or further away.


If you're in danger of running out of fuel, think about adding extra fuel tanks to your ship. They cost you valuable internal slots and add mass to the ship.

Fuel tanks are only useful on non-optimized ships trying to boost towards destinations 400,000 Ls or further away.
Anything less, you should just be patient. Use SCO to accelerate as much as you can, then coast to your destination.

When you engage SCO, a few things happen in order.

• The first thing that happens is the FSD shifts from normal Super Cruise fuel usage to SCO fuel usage. This happens immediately!

(all ships use more fuel when boosting, but non-SCO optimized ships use extreme amounts)

• The second thing that happens is your ship actually slows down. This is because the FSD stops operating normaly as it charges up SCO operation. This takes a couple of seconds.

• Lastly the FSD begins accelerating the ship beyond ludicrous speeds. At the same time, heat buildup increases and temperature rises, sometimes reaching critical temps within seconds.

(once temperature exceedes 100% the ship begins taking damage and eventually explodes unless you disengage SCO, or deploy a heatsink)

A heatsink is always recommended but for some ships it is almost mandatory!

Type 9 is a huge, heavy, s.l.o.w. non-optimized ship.
It doesn't get much out of SCO because of its fuel use but benefits greatly from just a single heatsink!

With 3 heatsink charges a Type 9 can reach destinations 125,000 Ls away without engineering (after making one max range jump, fully loaded).
With skill, it might go even further but that is risky and depends on how well you control the ship.

(Asp Explorer entering SC, before accelerating away in seconds using SCO)


On the other hand, an Asp Explorer or other exploration ships would be better off using heatsinks sparingly or not at all.
Unless you enjoy synthesizing heatsinks, or are comfortable carrying a lot of launchers but those will eat away some of your range.

Turn being low on fuel to your advantage!

This tip is not going to be useful very often but you can use SCO to deliberately burn off fuel.

Why?

During exploration you may find yourself in an area very sparsely populated by stars. It's not uncommon for distances between stars to exceed 100 Ly.

As long as you have a Fuel Scoop and SCO, you can burn off fuel to make the ship lightweight and increase your potential range.
With Fuel Injections or Neutron star boosting, a ship's jump range becomes very sensitive to mass, and fuel is mass.

Practise makes perfect.

Colonization efforts will probably require you to do a LOT of hauling, sometimes to distant destinations.

Best choices are Type 8 and Type 9 unless you have ranks with Feds or Empire.

(Orbital facility construction site)


The problem is the Type 8 is not quite twice as fast as a Type 9, but a Type 9 is a horrible ship to pilot without A rated thrusters that cost more than 50 Cobras, and is far too heavy to engage SCO carelessly.
An A rated power plant is also recommended, to help control the heat.


Having been forced to make lots of round trips in a Type 9, i have become proficient at controling it and have learned how to use SCO better.
I even started to like the ship. Yeah, it is slow but pretty smooth. Not too difficult to land on a pad.
It flies no better than before but i got better. I've learned how to get the most out of it.
The crazy thing to say is that a Type 9 is actually a damn fast ship, even without engineering.
With engineered FSD, thrusters and power plant, it is almost amazing.

But the E rated rubbish you will buy for 76,000,000 Cr will not be very nice at all.
Outfitting helps, and engineering really fixes the problems but i hope this SCO guide will also help all pilots, particularly Type 8 and 9 haulers.