Should I salvage?

Gah'Matar of the Brutor Tribe [ Moderator ] Mar 5, 2010

In general, early in the game it makes sense to salvage for all missions since income is low.

Making an extra 250k ISKs per mission is great if you can only run level 1 missions.

Later in the game, it's generally not worth the trouble to salvage mission/rat wrecks smaller then battleships since they drop far less salvage. A good battleship wreck might yield 8-16 piece of salvage, which can be as much as the value of the bounty.

Some factions provide salvage that is higher quality like the Angel rats. Those might be worth salvaging more wrecks.

If you're using a dedicated salvage ship (destroyer or battlecruisers due to the number of high slots) with multiple salvagers, salvage tackle rigs and multiple tractor beams, it is time effective to salvage clusters of lesser wrecks but not worth traveling to them.

NN comments

megathordin [ Moderator ] Mar 2, 2010

In general - YES. The profits can be quite high. Sometimes the salvage/loot is better than the mission reward / bounty itself.

On lower level missions, you can just fit a salvager to your mission ship. On lvl 3's and lvl 4's you might want to have a dedicated salvage ship. A destroyer is often used as a salvage ship, due to all the high slots - and low cost of the ship itself.

I use a catalyst with 2x tractor beams + 6x salvagers (more salvagers, quicker salvage and you can faster move on to next ship to salvage). Normally salvage 2 wrecks at once, meaning 3x salvagers on each wreck.

/MegaThordin

NN comments

It depends a bit on what you’re salvaging, though. Serpentis salvage tends to be terrible, while Angels are much better on average.

Mar 6, 2010

Gorble Gibbernof [ Moderator ] Mar 3, 2010

For a pure salvaging ship make sure you fit the proper salvaging rigs, with the right skills 1 salvager per wreck is more than enough.

When doing missions i fit 1 tractor beam to my mission ship and drag all the wrecks together. Afterwards i bookmark the spot and return with my salvager to get them all at once. Ends up being more efficient then sacrificing high slots on my mission ship to salvagers and tractor beams.

Also destroyers do make the best salvagers because of their ample high slots and low slots (use the lows for cargo expanders). Also their speed isn't half bad. On a support salvager (EG when im salvaging for a fleet) i like to run 4 and 4 so that i can keep moving the whole time and salvage the wrecks im dragging.

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Mara Abraham Mar 4, 2010

Greetings:

Using ships fitted "just" for salvage typically make the most sense; be sure to bookmark one wreck per room (pocket) if you turn in your mission first.

Early on, destroyers can make great salvage ships for level 1 through most level 3 missions (some may require multiple trips due to lack of cargo space).

Salvage rigs can make a world of difference as does tech 2 (T2) salvage modules if you can use them.

What I've found works best is a 50 / 50% mix of tractors and salvage modules though I'm leaning towards exchanging one salvage module for yet another tractor beam (some missions, one ends up moving around a lot let alone using the tractor beam more than the salvage module).

When you get to level 4 missions, a battle cruiser as a dedicated salvage ship tends to work out the best in my experience; salvage-based Hurricane's are common.

Thank you.

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David Jul 27, 2010

I could never leave a wreck un-salvaged. Salvage is a great source of ISK and for industrial types the opportunity to reprocess low-level, low-value stuff for minerals should never be turned down.

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camon bear [ Editor ] Jul 27, 2010

I personally find that in the time it takes to salvage a mission I could've have made more money by just running another mission. However, where salvaging really starts to pay for itself is in hoarding the salvage, and manufacturing your own rigs.

I saved 2 million isk on 6 small rigs (based on the market value of the salvage I used) and that included buying the BPO's.

If you're looting as well, it's worth thinking about whether or not it is worth picking up all the rat drops, or just cherry picking the decent stuff, i.e. meta 3 and 4. This will save on trips back to the station to unload, without compromising the potential profit too much.

There's my 2 pence to mull over :-)

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Matt [ Editor ] Jul 28, 2010

I personally run a Hurricane to salvage when my friends and I run Missions/signitures.

If we are Hi-sec missioning and my friend runs a Golem then it's 8 highs with salvagers in.

If in 0.0 or low-sec or the Golem isn't being used, then I switch to 3 tractors and 4 Salvagers and a Prototype cloak to keep you safe should someone decide to crash your parade, or so you can keep invisible while your friend gets agro from the Rats.

We salvage everything, I reackon conservetively we probably make 30% total income again in terms of salvage which we wouldn't of gotten otherwise.

Reason for the Battlecruiser rather than a destroyer as recommended above (although there is absolutley nothing wrong with a comorant or thrasher as a salavager)

If you fit 2 Medium Cargo Optimiser rigs, and a full low rack of Expanded cargohold II's The hurricane gets over 2,000 m3 of cargo hold... which will easily be filled for large missions, but small ones is comfortable with one trip.

I would also fit one salvage tackle rig. A MWD (preferably a tech 2 however the YT-8 is good also)/if you are going into deadspace make it an Afterburner, A medium Cap booster when you don't have the luxury of the Golem, and you are going to have to run around to get to 20km of the wrecks, and a Small shield tank (probably best to go with 2 Large shield extender II's). I've also tried fitting Sensor Boosters to counteract the cloaking device, and even tried to dual propulsion the thing (sadly no joy on the last one) I feel the best trade off is the above, it gets the job done quick, and saves loosing the ISK.

However I do understand the argument that we are wasting our time salvaging everything, but I am of the old school opinion of look after the penny's and the pounds look after themselves. And at the end of the day with the Hurricane, even on an insane salvage mission like the collision of worlds, I am still only 5-10 mins later finishing then the runners themselves, although we have an agreement that they won't engage anything greater than 50KM away when possible for this to work.

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Romain [ Editor ] Jul 28, 2010

Salvage is great, but it's time consuming and boring (at least I think).

Also keep in mind it doesn't reward you with standing / loyalty points.

If you are into first levels, you might want to rush things up and only do missions to get to level 3 and 4 as fast as possible.

Also keep in mind that saying "OMG I salvage 4 millions isk worth stuff salvage is so great" doesn't mean anything. you need to factor it down to how long it takes to actually salvage. Also keep in mind that you will need some investments in skillpoints to be a good salvager (otherwise it takes forever).

run missions for one hour and see how much you earned : LP + isk + SS run missions and salvage and see how much you earned.

Profitability is about ISK per hour !!!

NN comments

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