Salvaging

What is Salvaging ?

Salvaging is finding useful items from wrecks. After a ship is destroyed (NPC or Player), a wreck is left behind. This wreck may contain loot and salvage. Salvaging is an important part of most PvE combat. NPC wrecks can drop valuable modules or items, and the salvage from wrecks is used to manufacture rigs.

Why Should you Become the Space Janitor ?

While missioning you have already done the hard part of killing rats and have earned bounties and rewards. Why not earn some more isk with salvaging and best part is that (normally) you are not being shot at. Usually in a Level 4 (also some Level 3) missions, the value of salvage and loot is on par and may surpass the amount of bounties and mission rewards.

Lower level characters can become part-time salvagers for level 4 locust fleets and individuals and gain higher profits than doing their own relative mission levels. As salvaging does not need high skills, expensive ships/modules and is relatively safe, and suitable for young characters (alts).

Inside the Salvager's Toolbox ( Tools of the Trade )

Fortunately salvaging is a very easy trade to get into, and doesn't need high SP. The modules are very cheap and easy to access and it can be done in virtually any ship. In this section we discuss the Modules, Ships and Skills needed for salvaging.

Modules

Salvager I : This is your main weapon for attacking the wrecks and finding the valuable salvage material inside, keep a couple in your hold all the time (they are dirt cheap too). There is also a Tech 2 version Salvager II which is more expensive (needs more SP too).

Small Tractor Beam I : You can live without it, but these things make your life a lot easier. They tractor the wrecks (and some containers) to your ship so you don't have to fly to every one of them. They are a little more expensive (under a million isk), but they speed up your salvage which means more isk/hour. Note that although you can salvage yellow wrecks (wrecks not belonging to your fleet), you cannot tractor them. (look at Ninja Salvaging section).

Expanded Cargohold I : Also not needed, but it may help you the trips to the station on some larger L3-L4 missions. Expanded Cargohold II is also easy to train and not that expensive.

There are some other modules that are useful, like a MicroWarp Drive when you want to fly to wrecks out of your tractor beam

Ships

Virtually every ship is capable of being used, but you want something with a lot of high-slots to fit tractor beams and salvagers and some low slots for expanded cargoholds, also it should be a fast ship because it is not reasonable to slowboat between wrecks.

Your Good Ole' Destroyer

Yes, that small ship that you used to do level 1 missions with, is a very good choice for a starter salvager. They have 8 high slots for tractor beams and salvagers. Also they are fast and very reasonably priced. So, don't throw out your Dessie.It can double up as your salvaging ship until you can afford a Noctis.

Noctis

The Mecca of Salvaging and a salvagers dream. This ship with the nail in its neck was made for salvaging. Has 8 high slots, but more importantly, has a bonus to tractor beam range and speed. With a high level in ORE Industrial skill you can sit still and tractor wrecks from over 70kms away. Salvaging with a Noctis becomes very pleasant and fast. The only down side is the price tag similar to your starter Battleship.

Salvage On The Go

Some ships have the ability to do missions without guns. Droneboats are a very good example of these ships. You can warp into a mission with salvagers and tractor beams on your high slots and start salvaging while your drones kill NPCs. The Gallente are known for their drone skills and have an impressive array of droneboats capable of this function. Vexor/Arbitrator (Surprisingly Amarr) (cruiser), Myrmidon (Battlecruiser) and Dominix (Battleship) come to mind.

Marauders are a special class of T2 battleships designed for mission running. They all have a 100% bonus to tractor beam velocity and range (up to 40km from 20km) and have utility high slots to equip salvagers and tractor beams.A 100% bonus to weapon damage and around twice the cargo hold of normal battleships (around 1150 m3) to store loot and salvage. Unfortunately their price tag is very high.

Skills

To use Salvager I you need Electronics I, Survey III, Mechanic III, Salvaging I.
For the tech 2 version which is Salvager II, you need Salvaging V.

Expanded Cargohold I needs Hull Upgrades I on top of Mechanic I (which you have already trained for Salvager I).
For Expanded Cargohold II , you will have to train Hull Upgrades II.

Small Tractor Beam I requires Science III.

To fly a Noctis, ORE industrial skill must be trained to I at least, which needs Spaceship Command III. Also Science I. The tertiary skill required ins Salvaging I which you should have already trained to use Salvager I. Training more levels of ORE Industrial is also encouraged as each level increases the tractor beam speed by 300 m/s, it's range by 12km and each salvage cycle half a second faster.

Creating a Salvager Alt

Creating a basic salvager alt that can fly a noctis with tractor beam and salvager will take a little more than 2 days without any remaps. With ORE Industrial skill at level III this alt will have a 56km tractor beam range in a noctis and with Salvager III it can salvage almost all normal high-sec missions, to salvage more advanced wrecks you can add rigs. If you want more range on your tractor beams you can train ORE Industrial to levels IV or V.

Mechanic I (8 minutes, 20 seconds)
Mechanic II (38 minutes, 50 seconds)
Mechanic III (3 hours, 39 minutes, 30 seconds)
Electronics I (8 minutes, 20 seconds)
Survey I (8 minutes, 20 seconds)
Survey II (38 minutes, 50 seconds)
Survey III (3 hours, 39 minutes, 30 seconds)
Salvaging I (25 minutes)
Salvaging II (1 hour, 56 minutes, 26 seconds)
Salvaging III (10 hours, 58 minutes, 34 seconds)
Science I (8 minutes, 20 seconds)
Science II (38 minutes, 50 seconds)
Science III (3 hours, 39 minutes, 30 seconds)
Spaceship Command I (8 minutes, 20 seconds)
Spaceship Command II (38 minutes, 50 seconds)
Spaceship Command III (3 hours, 39 minutes, 30 seconds)
ORE Industrial I (33 minutes, 20 seconds)
ORE Industrial II (2 hours, 35 minutes, 14 seconds)
ORE Industrial III (14 hours, 38 minutes, 6 seconds)
Total time: 2 days, 1 hour, 1 minute, 40 seconds

Using two remaps you can decrease this time to 1 day and 15 hours.

Remap 1 : Intelligence 27 / Memory 21 / Perception, Willpower and Charisma 17

Mechanic I (6 minutes, 40 seconds)
Mechanic II (31 minutes, 4 seconds)
Mechanic III (2 hours, 55 minutes, 36 seconds)
Electronics I (6 minutes, 40 seconds)
Survey I (6 minutes, 40 seconds)
Survey II (31 minutes, 4 seconds)
Survey III (2 hours, 55 minutes, 36 seconds)
Salvaging I (20 minutes)
Salvaging II (1 hour, 33 minutes, 8 seconds)
Salvaging III (8 hours, 46 minutes, 51 seconds)
Science I (6 minutes, 40 seconds)
Science II (31 minutes, 4 seconds)
Science III (2 hours, 55 minutes, 36 seconds)

Remap 2: Perception 27 / Willpower 21 / Intelligence, Charisma and Memory 17

Spaceship Command I (6 minutes, 40 seconds)
Spaceship Command II (31 minutes, 4 seconds)
Spaceship Command III (2 hours, 55 minutes, 36 seconds)
ORE Industrial I (26 minutes, 40 seconds)
ORE Industrial II (2 hours, 4 minutes, 11 seconds)
ORE Industrial III (11 hours, 42 minutes, 28 seconds)
Total time: 1 day, 15 hours, 13 minutes, 20 seconds

How Can you Clean up the Universe ? ( How to Salvage )

Every time a ship is killed, a wreck is left behind. If you have enabled wrecks in your overview you should be able to see a downward triangle with the name of the wreck. If this triangle is full it means the wreck has loot and if the triangle is empty the wreck has nothing. If it is grey, it means you accessed the wreck and opened it and took a look inside. You can loot every wreck if your distance to it is under 2500 meters

Approach the target or lock it and tractor it to your location using the tractor beam. When it is under 2500m (because you want to loot it too). Disable the tractor beam and fire up the salvager. Salvager I has a range of 5000m while Salvager II extends this to 6000m (in my opinion these are not very useful because if it has loot, you have to be under 2500m to loot it). After each cycle of Salvager, you can get any of the 3 messages :

1. Salvage is successful and you found something of value, look into your cargo hold. The wreck disappears.
2. Salvage is successful but you didn't find anything of value. Better like next time. The wreck disappears.
3. Salvage was unsuccessful. The salvager will start another cycle and continues until you get message 1 or 2.

Don't worry if you have not looted the wreck yet, when a wreck disappears after salvaging, its loot will appear in a storage container in space where the wreck was. You can then open each container and pick up what's inside. Salvaging will not destroy the loot.

The loot and salvage in each wreck are calculated at the time of destruction, so a higher salvaging skill and rigs will not guaranty you higher salvage. Other than enabling you to salvage higher level wrecks, salvage tackle rigs and salvage skill only make salvaging faster.

Each type of rats ans ships give certain types of salvage, for a list of T1 salvages you can see this table.

Salvaging for yourself

Nothing complicated here. You may want to salvage on the go or bookmark each mission pocket and then come in later with your salvage ship. Bookmarking is better because you can do a batch of missions and then start salvaging with your Noctis. Also, after you hand in the mission, the acceleration gates will disappear and you can warp directly to each bookmark. Remember that wrecks disappear after 2 hours so time your salvage and mission time accordingly.

Salvaging For Others

You may want to Salvage for other people. Remember to talk with the fleet or individual beforehand about your share. Usually in E-Uni fleets, salvagers are entitled to an equal share of the loot/salvage profits and bounties if you decide to warp in during the killing (almost no one will object because after all it's your ship that is at risk). Also salvager is usually responsible for hauling and selling the spoils of war to a trade hub and distributing the profits.

This is especially profitable during wartime when E-Uni is in Relaxed SOP when people are allowed to do missions in pvp fitted fleets of at least 3 E-Uni members but cannot salvage. They can and will use an out of corp salvager. If you dropped from the Uni for war or have a salvager alt, this is prime time.

Salvager usually warps into each mission pocket after all NPCs are dead (or sometime while the killing is going on for a share in bounties) and starts salvaging and collecting loot and continues to the next pocket (if any). If you warp in during the mission please be advised that sometimes new waves can target you and be prepared to warp out as soon as you see some red boxes flashing, you are an industrial not a fighting ship. Sometimes salvager is contracted mission bookmarks in a station after they are done.

Remember that others in the fleet can see what you looted/salvaged in loot history window of fleet, so if you keep stealing and report lower numbers they will eventually catch you and it is also against E-Uni rules to steal.

How to Make Profit from Salvaging

You did all the above and now have a load of salvaging materials.

Directly Selling Salvage Materials ( Running a Junkyard )

Simply load up all the salvage material and travel to your favorite trade hub and start selling. Fortunately, their volume is usually low which eases transportation. It is easy to forget how valuable they are and haul too much and get suicide ganked. The big money makers are Alloyed Tritanium Bar, Armor Plates, Tripped Power Circuit, Burned Logic Circuit, Melted Capacitor Console and Ward Console.

Manufacturing Rigs ( I Can Haz Rigz ? )

Salvage materials are used to manufacture rigs. You can start manufacturing them if your industry skills are high enough and you have access to the blueprints. Be advised that without high industry skills, your wastage factor will prevent you profiting from producing rigs as you will be competing with near-perfect industrialists with researched blueprints, so it may be more profitable to sell the materials directly. When in doubt you can always make spreadsheets.

Salvaging Science

( info about the percentages and the numbers behind salvaging - Boring Stuff that only a few nerds will read ]
As with every other thing in EVE, there are numbers involved.

All wrecks have a base access percentage - the likelihood that you will successfully salvage the wreck.

• Small basic wrecks (Frigates and Destroyers) have a base access of 30%
• Medium basic wrecks (Cruisers and Battlecruisers) have a base access of 20%
• Large basic wrecks (Battleships) have a base access of 10%
• Small advanced wrecks (Wormhole NPCs, Faction or officer NPCs, or T2 player ships) have a base access of 0%
• A Sleeper Large Advanced Wreck has an Access Difficulty Base of -20.
  

Base access can be modified by salvaging skill level, and using rigs, implants and tech II salvaging modules.

Each salvaging skill level with a Salvager I module raises base access by 5% per level. Note that a higher salvaging skill does not give you better salvage. It just makes it more likely for you to succeed.

Salvaging V unlocks the Salvager II module, which raises base access by 7% per level, and also extends salvaging range to 6,000 meters.

Salvage Tackle I rigs raise base access by 10% each. Salvage Tackle II rigs raise base access by 15% each, but they are hideously expensive and usually not worth the additional investment unless you plan to do a LOT of salvaging.

The Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPY-1 implant raises base access by 5% - it fits into slot 9. The Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPZ-1 implant reduces cycle time of salvage, hacking and archaeology modules by 5% - it fits into slot 10.

[ Taken from Salvaging 101 Class because I thought it is already concise and good, please say if I need to para-phrase or write my own].

The Dark Side of Salvaging ( Ninja Salvaging )

NOTE : Ninja Salvaging is against E-Uni rules. If you do it, you will be punished. I haven't done any Ninja Salvaging so I don't know much about it. This section is here to help you when you encounter Ninja Salvagers. If you dropped out during war and want to be back, don't do it.

Ninja Salvaging is scanning down and warping into other people's missions and salvaging their wrecks without their permission. Remember that salvaging another players wreck (yellow wreck) is not a CONCORD offence. If you don't loot then you will not be flashy to them. Also, as the wrecks will be yellow, you can't tractor them so you will have to fly to each wreck and salvage it.

When encountering a Ninja Salvager use the tactics for CanFlippers. Don't fire upon them, usually they are griefers in PvP fit ships, trying to provoke and gank you. In hi-sec, if they attack you directly they will be killed by CONCORD unless you aggress them first. Report the name, ship and location of the ninja salvager in Alliance channel. You can also try warping out, so rats target him while he is busy salvaging and pop him. Another way is to target and destroy your wrecks but be careful when doing this as you may accidentally attack the Ninja Salvager. In my opinion abandoning wrecks is not a good option because he will follow you. The best strategy is to ignore and make life harder for them until they are bored and go away.

Salvaging 102 ( Higher Level Salvaging, e.g. Wormholes )

[I don't have much information about this part so any help is very useful]

Sleepers (Wormhole NPCs) don't have bounties, so the main income for WH site runners comes from Salvage and Loot. Sometimes a Salvager also doubles up as an extra scout during the actual fighting, cloaked in a safe spot and spamming D-Scan. Beware that you are the treasure ship and a prime target for gank with a stealth bomber or another ship, so be ready to warp out to your safe spot and cloak up (or inside the POS shields if it is your home WH system). If you are new to salvaging wormholes, don't take your Noctis, instead fly a cheap destroyer with a prototype cloak in a blank jump clone.

Tips and Tricks

[Again any help is very useful here]

• Some people use 4 tractor beams and 4 salvagers, depending on your preference and fit, this could be 5/3 or 3/5.
  

• Using modules that decrease your align time and increase max speed will help you get to the bookmarks and hence your salvage faster.
  

• When making a bookmark in a mission to warp in with your salvaging ship, zoom out and choose a wreck to bookmark in the middle of wrecks so almost every one of them is in your tractor beam range. if you have the tank, it may be better to kill enemies closer to you so all the wrecks are concentrated in one spot.

• If you can, fit a MicroWarp Drive on your salvage ship, to fly to each wreck out of your tractor beam range quickly. Remember that it also makes you easier to find using combat probes and easier to hit.

Have fun and Happy Salvaging