Wreck Salvaging

The purpose of this document is to cover salvaging combat wrecks.

Wrecks that can be salvaged are not game generated resources. Each is the remains of a player-won combat with an enemy ship, including A.I. ships and Alien ships. Alien salvage will be only briefly discussed.

Equipping for Salvaging

Salvaging requires skill in a weapon type, Scan Tech, and Device Tech.

The tutorial “What do I Need to Salvage Wrecks?” has a complete list of salvage weapons and scanners, and is an invaluable reference.

Ship Wreck Salvage requires a Class A salvage Weapon. These are available as both Energy and Kinetic weapons, and are available in their early forms at the Lock-N-Load store. The captain should pick based on the weapon skill the captain has chosen. The Kinetic Salvage Drills and Energy Salvage Lasers are equivalent in effect, though like other Kinetic weapons, Drills require slightly less energy and skill points.

Class B weapons are used for salvaging destroyed pirate RAID bases, and Class C weapons (Energy and Plasma only) are used to salvage Alien Hulks. Plasma weapon based Class A wreck lasers are only used on alien ships. These are outside the scope of this tutorial, and the captain need not acquire such equipment at this time.

The “damage” of the salvage weapon determines how much tonnage of the wreck is destroyed / retrieved in each weapon firing, and that tonnage may or may not be converted to resources. As with mining, having a second salvage weapon is of no particular benefit, unless the captain wishes to switch to a smaller weapon at the final end of the wreck.

There are two other kinds of devices that can be put in the second weapon slot. The first is the Scan Limit Expander. One of these devices expands the Scan Limit of the captain’s Agro Salvage Scanner array, allowing extra wrecks to appear on the sensor sweep result. (It does not affect Time Frame.) These require Device Tech, and are also purchased from Lock-N-Load.

Note that the Scan Limit Expander only works in weapon slot 2.

The second device is salvage related, but used in combat. These are the personal and guild locks. These are fired in combat like a weapon. If they hit, they do not damage the target. The purpose is to “claim” wrecks. A wreck tagged with a personal lock can only be seen by the captain that locked it. A wreck tagged with a guild lock can only be seen by a captain in the same guild using a Guild Salvage System (discussed below).

The captain will also require one or more Agro Salvage Scanners. The Agro scanners are chain fit (see the article “Explaining Single Fit, Multi Fit, and Chain Fit Equipment”), which means the captain can equip one of a specific model, but up to three if they are different models. Agro scanners give a value on both Scan Limit (number of possible scan hits to pick from) and Time Frame (number of hours the scan can go back to reveal old wrecks). These values are additive, so it is important to remember that the captain should chain multiple scanners for the best scan. At least one Agro Salvage Scanner is required to initiate a scan. Scan Tech skill is required for these, and are purchased from Sonar Solutions.

At higher levels, the captain can also use a Wide Spectrum Scanner T1 or T2. Only one Wide Spectrum Scanner can be used. Normally, the captain can only see their own wrecks at the specific location / settlement their ship is orbiting. With the T1 scanner, the captain can see their own wrecks anywhere in the entire system. The T2 scanner masks the captains own wrecks, but shows all non-tagged wrecks throughout the entire system. This lets the captain salvage the wrecks of other captains’ combats. The Guild Salvage System is a sort of intermediary. With the Guild unit, the captain will see all wrecks in the system that have been tagged with a guild target lock by someone in their own guild. These systems use Device Tech skill, and are purchased from Sonar Solutions.

While not an official requirement, the captain will obviously need to meet the energy requirements of all the equipment. Further, a large cargo expander is highly recommended, so the captain need not travel to a settlement to drop off materials. (As with mining, a Minos Galactic Transporter POD from the CES Store is very useful for this.)

The Wreck Extender is a special device that is equipped in the Ship Specials loadout. The Wreck Extender S1 model can be equipped by a captain at level 25, while the S7 is equipped at level 85. The Wreck Extender is a single fit device (though there are rumored to be mini-versions from special events that are multi fit). The S1 increases the captain’s Time Frame by +12 hours, incrementing in 12-hour intervals to +84 hours with the S7 model. This allows higher level captains to salvage wrecks that are days old, and are good for cleaning out systems with abundant or valuable wrecks. The Wreck Extender does work with Alien salvage tech. The Wreck Extender can be player made through crafting schematics purchased through Arc-Lights Projects, Arnos Schematic Supply, and Cyber Systems. Models S1 through S6 can also be purchased through the CES store, which helps financially support Core Exiles.

Searching for Wrecks

When in space and not orbiting a Jump Gate Nexus, in the row of small icons in the upper right corner of the space view, click the rightmost icon of a silver gear. For VI players, on a refreshed screen, it is eleven tabs, with the text tag “Wreck Salvage”, after “Homing Beacon”. Or, search for navigation, close the search window, and tab six times.

The captain will then go to the Wreck Salvage Scan Deck. Here are shown the the items equipped in weapon slot 2 and the three scanner slots. To the right are indicated if the captain can do local scan, system scan, guild scan, or wide spectrum scans, each with a green check or red x. Above this is shown the captain’s total Scan Limit (maximum number of wreck results that can be returned on a scan) and Time Frame (how many hours old, in real time, wrecks can be and be visible to the captain). Below this is a line indicating if a Wreck Extender special is in use, and a few lines of information on scanning for salvage wrecks.

There is also a line of text above this display, “EVER WONDERED HOW MANY WRECKS WERE OUT THERE RIGHT NOW? – CLICK HERE TO SEE”. Clicking the “click here” link will open a new browser tab that is a column-sortable display of all wrecks in the game that are less than five days old, the maximum age of combat wrecks. This page can be bookmarked and is useful to players that salvage frequently.

To the right of the equipment display is a button with a (searchable/readable) text field “Activate Scan”. Click this button to initiate a scan for wrecks, which uses one fuel. (Fuel loss appears when leaving the scan window or connecting to a wreck.)

The next window is the scan result window. It is a list of all salvageable wrecks in the location or system available to the captain, up to the captain’s Scan Limit. If there are no wrecks available, the captain will get a window starting with “At this time our scanners are not detecting any wrecks in this area.” Otherwise, the top of the display will show wrecks from the last 24 hours. Below that is the captains Time Frame for finding wrecks, and if the scan is system/local and self/other wrecks.

Available wrecks are then listed. The ship type, class, and affiliation are listed, followed by the wreck’s location in the system. Following that is the name of the captain that destroyed the ship, if the ship is locked, and the wreck’s classification (Size), followed by the “Salvage” button.

Note that the affiliation “A.I Vessel” (sic) indicates an A.I. ship. These can present additional A.I. resources during salvaging, and usually produce fewer empty salvage shots, generating more resources. “Alien” affiliation ships can only be salvaged with alien equipment, and generate completely different resources.

If wrecks are listed, pick one to salvage. The wreck selected should not be too much larger than the captain’s available cargo space, as filling the ship’s cargo ends the salvage operation. Pick the “Salvage” (searchable/readable text) next to the desired ship to begin salvaging.

Wreck Salvaging

The first window is where the captain selects the section of the ship to salvage. The function of this is to determine from which list the resources will generate. Each section has its own list of resources that can be produced, though there is much overlap. The captain picks one, and the entire ship is salvaged from that resource list.

Further, for every unit of resources gathered (they must be taken on to the captain’s ship), the captain gets one skill point to that section, eventually raising that section’s level. New levels unlock new resources that can be harvested from that section.

When the section is chosen, the captain goes to the actual salvage window. There are two sections to this display, with some information text below. On the left is the captain’s two weapon slots with the captain’s salvage weapon. Click on that to “fire” the salvage weapon. For players using a screen reader, it should be the first tab and the text tag is “Click Me”.

If resource are found, they appears in the windows on the right, below that is the resource name and number of units. Below that is the “Salvage” button, which brings that resource into the captain’s hold. If the mining weapon is fired again, the resource shown is lost.

Each shot of the salvage weapon will decrease the wreck by a number of units. If resources are produced, the units gathered will equal the tonnage reduced. You can choose to retrive these ising the Salvage buttons or hit the Salvage Laser again and any remaining units will be discarded.

When the wreck reaches zero, the captain gets a message that “the wreck appears to have been salvaged as much as possible at this time”. The captain will then click on the button “Exit wreck salvage” and return to space.

Every firing of the salvage weapon burns two fuel, though the “Salvage” button does not drain fuel

Resources Gained

Each section of the ship will produce from a different resource list, though there is much overlap. All sections will produce certain QMG goods, including QMG Biologicals. Some resources are primarily found through salvaging, such as “Galactic News” and “Secure Mail”. At higher levels, the Engine Room section will produce some of the same dark matter resources harvested by Nebula Harvesters.

The A.I. class ships will produce A.I. resources in addition to the standard ship resources in all ship sections. The A.I. resources found through salvaging wrecks include NB Ores, AI-UN Ores, and A.I. ship salvage parts. While each section produces A.I. resources, not all A.I. resources are found in each section. A.I. ships also produce fewer empty salvage weapon shots, leading to more loot for the wreck tonnage.

Alien Salvage

Briefly, salvaging alien ships requires a plasma wreck laser and an alien salvage scanner. This equipment also requires alien tech certifications to equip, which restricts access from lower level players. The Wreck Extender ship special is still compatible. Alien ships use a completely different salvage table.

Changes to Wreck Salvage (Sep 2023)

Wreck Salvage was given a major overhaul in September 2023. We increased the loot box’s from One to Four, we increased the size of wrecks, allowing you to get more per relative tonnage of a vessel than ever before.

Prior to this change, when you exited a Wreck, it self-destructed and count not be revisited. This is no longer true, and you can revisit the same wreck until it’s completely dead, or you choose to leave and allow it to be cleaned up by the system after seven days.

Rather than using numerical values for how big a Wreck is (in tons) it is now depicted in a word scale, from Minuscule up to Massive. Scale of 13 levels.
When Salvaging, the ‘status’ of the wreck is displayed and will change from Currently Stable to Structure Failing and finally Imminent Implosion just before it implodes. This is based on the remaining loot left in it.

XP has now added. Based on amount of the Salvage. You still get Rapport XP and Faction mining XP.

As wrecks are not removed from the wreck list until they are destroyed completely, several captains can affectively salvage the same wreck at the same time. As soon as the wreck is depleted, it will disappear for all captains salvaging it.