Salvage Specialist

Cargo Department

Salvage Specialist

Access: Salvage, Cargo, External, Maintenance

Difficulty: Medium

Duties: Mine asteroids, reclaim scrap from wrecks, go on planetside expeditions, ~~round remove yourself on a regular basis~~

Supervisors: Quartermaster

Subordinates: None

Guides: This is the guide! See also: Space Navigation, Shuttle Construction

So. Techie isn't cutting it anymore? You need to satiate your kleptomania legally? You wanna play sugar daddy for the rest of the station, while almost never setting foot on it? You ever dream of being more armed than all of Security combined? ~~You like dying in embarassing ways to never be recovered?~~ You wanna heed the call... of ADVENTURE? Then Salvage Specialist might just be the right job for you.

You'll be responsible for mining ores from asteroids, salvaging anything useful from station wrecks, fighting alien hostiles, hoarding RIDICULOUS amounts of contraband just because you found it, and building camaraderie that'll last 'til the server shuts down.

You answer to ~~nobody~~ the Quartermaster. Develop a good rapport with them and they might actually come recover you if your team gets wiped on the VGroid. Similarly, your departmental partners, the Cargo Technicians should be kept up to date on your adventures over radio as they are responible for placating the angry mobs waiting for you to actually return with materials, and to coordinate the fulfillment of salvage bounties.

The Salvage Bay and Round Start

The first fifteen or so minutes of a salvager's shift is all about preparations for the rest of the round, more so than any other job in the game. Your first goal is to prepare yourself and your team's mining shuttle to be able to perform and support your duties, respectively.

For starters, open up one of the salvage lockers that you should snap awake in the rough vicinity of. In it, you'll have a laundry list of equipment essential to your duties as a salvager. Don't forget to look around the salvager bay, as you'll have not only a Salvage Vendor with some essentials not provided in your locker, but also some other useful gadgets spread around.

Common salvage equipment
Sprite(s)	Name	Description
	Spationaut Hardsuit	Your golden(-ish) armor that makes your job possible. Compared to the basic hardsuit, it makes you almost fully radiation immune at the cost of no explosive protection and a little bit less walking speed. One in each locker.
	Oxygen/Nitrogen Tank	You're still gonna need to breathe in space. Goes in your suit storage slot, all the way to the right. Take the nitrogen instead of oxygen if you are a slimeperson or vox. One of each type in each locker.
	Ore Bag	Where all the minerals go. Will automatically pick mined minerals up off the ground if it's equipped in your belt slot. One in each locker, and four spares in the vendor.
	Utility Belt	Comes pre-filled with a crowbar, wrench, screwdriver, pair of wirecutters, welding tool, and network configurator. Indispensable on salvage runs to wrecked facilities, and expeditions. One in each locker, but there's also two crowbars in the vendor if you lose yours.
	Engineering Goggles	So you can, y'know, actually use your welder without blinding yourself. Technically contraband! One in each locker.
	Survival Knife	Your last resort. Fits in your pocket, It's generally used for butchering the things you kill. Also technically contraband! One in each locker.
	Explorer Gas Mask	Not actually that necessary since you'll be in a hardsuit all the time, but it gives you some small resistances for essentially free. One in each locker, and some stations have them sitting around in the open.
	Magboots	Stay stuck to whatever the hell you're hacking away at. When they're active, you won't float around or slip, but you'll also be slower. One in each locker.
	Global Positioning System	Tells you your coordinates in space when you hold it in your hand. You PDA also starts with this functionality built in, so you can easily cut the GPS to save space. One in each locker, as well as two spares in the vendor.
	Handheld Radio	Keep in touch with your salv buddies (and anyone else that happens to pick one up and turn it on) even while regular comms are down, or you're on an expedition. Aside from the one in your locker, these are found in EVERY emergency toolbox, so don't sweat it if you lose yours or you need to save space right away.
	Emergency Flare	Ignite it to light up a large area. Will eventually burn out. Each locker contains two and the vendor contains four, on top of the one the comes in every survival box.
	Seismic Charge	Goes boom, for when you need to enter (or exit) quickly and the structural integrity of your surroundings are irrelevant. Don't activate it on accident. Each locker contains two and the vendor has another two.
	Pickaxe	The most basic mining tool. Deals 30 structural damage when wielded, and always breaks rock walls regardless. Makes for a pretty weak weapon, though. There's four in the salvage vendor, but most stations will have plenty of extras sitting around in the salvage bay. Alternatively, if the silo has wood, they can be crafted in the autolathe.
	Proto-Kinetic Accelerator	A salvager's best friend. An all-in-one mining tool, precision breaching device, and infinite-ammo ranged weapon. Like all two-hand ranged weapons, wield for better accuracy. There's four of them in the Salvage Vendor, but they can also be crafted at a protolathe once Science researches the tier 1 Arsenal tech "Salvage Weapons"
	Flashlight	Actually useless, since the headlight built in to your suit is brighter and not battery dependent. Usually just stripped as a source of fresh batteries while on a mission. There's two in the salvage vendor and every emergency toolbox contains one, as well as many stations having them spread about the salvage bay.
	Floodlight	A portable battery powered radial light that illuminates a large area. Only a 2x2, and fits in your hand. Great for not getting lost, and looking at this. Two in the vendor.
	Fire Extinguisher	The poor man's jetpack. Remove the safety and pull the trigger in the opposite direction you want to go. Also pretty good at their intended purpose, for when you go on lava expeditions. Can be refilled with water. Or any other reagent, if you feel funny or evil. The salvage bay often has some sitting on racks, but you can always pilfer them from fire-safety closets.
	Grappling Gun	The COOL man's jetpack. Gives you the ability to control your movement as if you were close enough to a grid while you're hooked into an object on said grid. Only unhooks if the object you hooked is destroyed, or you manually reload. You can also right-click to pull yourself in and shorten the rope. Fits in a pocket. You can find four in the vendor.
	Fultons and Fulton Beacon	Ever played Metal Gear Solid V? Place the beacon down, Alt+Click it to unfold it, and click the stack of fultons on the beacon to link them. Then slap those puppies on anything not bolted to the ground, and 45 seconds later it'll be warped to the beacon. Used most effectively on closets or crates full of goodies. Make sure not to unfold the beacon, as that will unlink all fultons. There's one beacon and two stacks of ten fultons in the vendor. Fultons can also be crafted at an autolathe for five rolls of cloth and two sheets of steel.
	Mining Drill	An upgrade to the pickaxe that attacks significantly faster and fits into a 1x2 inventory space. It does do less damage per hit, but it has higher DPS than the pickaxe. Can be constructed at a protolathe after Science researches the tier 1 Industrial tech "Salvage Equipment". Can alternatively be found on wrecks of all sorts, and the VGroid.
	Plasma Cutter	A gun that deals large amounts of structural damage, pierces solid objects, and increases yields from broken ore. Artifact fragment ore doesn't count for some reason. Does negligent heat damage to mobs. Uses solid plasma as ammunition. Can be constructed at a protolathe after Science researches the tier 1 Industrial tech "Salvage Equipment".
	Mineral Scanner	Reveals ore in the area when turned on. Requires a battery to function. Can be constructed at a protolathe after Science researches the tier 1 Industrial tech "Salvage Equipment". Can alternatively be found on wrecks of all sorts, and the VGroid.
	Handheld Mass Scanner	A mass scanner console, in the palm of your hand. When combined with a GPS or flight system of some sort, you will never get lost again. Can be constructed at a protolathe after Science researches the tier 1 Industrial tech "Space Scanning". Can alternatively be found in the "salvage equipment" crates that appear on wrecks, and the VGroid.
	Diamond-Tipped Mining Drill	Identical to the regular mining drill, except with the increased yield of the plasma cutter. Can be constructed at a protolathe after Science researches the tier 2 Industrial tech "Mass Excavation".
	Advanced Mineral Scanner	Identical to the regular mineral scanner, but with increased range. Can be constructed at a protolathe after Science researches the tier 2 Industrial tech "Mass Excavation". Can alternatively be found on the VGroid.
	Clarke	An extremely fast and robust mech. Can be installed with PKA and mining drill modules, unlocked through research at the same time as the personnel-sized versions. The Clarke takes a lengthy and expensive construction process, often best left to the Roboticist. Pamper them to obtain one. Can only be made after Science researches the tier 2 Industrial tech "Clarke".
	Mining Hardsuit	A hardsuit that is slower but much more protective than the Spationaut Hardsuit. Can alternatively be found in the "salvage equipment" crates that appear on wrecks, and the VGroid.
	Crusher & Crusher Glaive	An alternative mining and combat tool. When wielded, your right-click shoots a non-damaging projectile that boosts the damage of your next hit against that target. Also provides an okay radial light. As ginormous items, they can only be carried in your hand. The glaive functions identically to the regular crusher. Found on wrecks and the VGroid.
	Crusher Dagger	Unlike the other crushers, the dagger functions much closer to a normal knife. Has better damage than your starting survival knife, swings faster, and has the same built-in radial light as the other crushers while still able to fit in your pocket. Found on wrecks and the VGroid.
	Salvage Rig	Identical to a common utility belt, but without any restricions on what you can put into them. Can alternatively be found in the "salvage equipment" crates that appear on wrecks, and the VGroid.

There's a handful of other equipment available to salvagers, but I'll leave some surprises for the reader.

You also have a lot of machines at your disposal. The ore processor is what the rest of the station needs you for, as it's what lets you convert raw ores into usable materials. Consider asking Science for an upgraded industrial ore processor, as that makes ore refining more efficient and the scientists and ESPECIALLY roboticists will appreciate the increased material income.

As for getting things to collect, you have the salvage magnet and the salvage expeditions computer. These will each be covered in more detail in their own respective sections, but these are your main helpers (besides your shuttle) for getting you stuff to collect. Sometimes you'll also have your own recycler to process scrap you might find, although you can always used the recycler in disposals, or find one as part of your work.

If you are familiar with Cargo Technician you may be noticing a suspicious absence from the roster of machines. You lack a remote console for the mining shuttle. And starts adrift out on space, like the cargo shuttle. Which means it'll have to be picked up.

Mining Shuttle

Since you're gonna need cargotech time anyways to play salvager, you should already be familiar with flying a shuttle. For a refresher if you need one, go check out the section about it on the cargotech page.

There are three main differences between the cargo shuttle and the mining shuttle, after the aforementioned lack of remote console.

The first is the fact that the mining shuttle is a clunker compared to the cargo shuttle. The cargo shuttle has lower mass and an extra set of thrusters. If you aren't a fan of this, ask your Quartermaster if you can appropriate the extra set of thrusters from the cargo shuttle and put them on the mining shuttle. If you get permission (and do get permission for this) make sure you take the thrusters in an even pattern. If you did it right, your shuttle should feel a lot more responsive and the cargo shuttle should feel about the same. If you get denied, you can bother the eggheads about it once they get shuttlecraft researched, find thrusters on wrecks and expeditions, or just straight up buy them with your proceeds from treasure hunting.

Second is that you're not going to be able to dock as much. Not every station has an accessible dock for salvage, and hauling stuff out through the blast doors are likely to be more efficient anyways. You'll only really need to dock to the ATS on the odd occasion you decide to visit it.

Third, you will need to be a much more careful about not hitting the ground you're trying to put boots on. Cargotechs don't have to worry about this because the station and ATS both have station anchors that prevent them from moving. You aren't gonna get that on the asteroids and wrecks. Do not, under ANY circumstances, bump the shuttle into an object that lacks a station anchor. That will render it practically lost, unless the object has a outwards facing dock and you're an ace pilot.

After the mining shuttle is successfully wrangled (the two shuttles DO NOT like being docked to each other), let's start loading all our fun equipment on to the shuttle.

The shuttle by default has a shuttle console, a cargo request computer, a personal AI, and a cyborg salvaging module.

You may want to add:

Any of the aforementioned equipment or machines (you should probably leave the salvage magnet on station, though)
Your gas tank dispenser (if the salvage bay on your station has one)
a spare oxygen/nitrogen canister to refill your internals
extra food and drink in case your survival box doesn't last you the whole shift
water and fuel tanks for your fire extinguishers and welding tools respectively
some topical medicine so you don't bleed out on your voyages
some wires for repair, if you have IPC salvagers
anything else you can think of that you might need

What You Collect

Raw Ores

Ore is found in rock walls in various places. You can mine the ore by attacking it with a pickaxe, PKA, drill, crusher, or anything else that does structural damage. Mining ores is traditionally the best way to gather materials, but some materials are harder or impossible to get through mining alone, most notably plastic.

Types of ore
Sprite(s)	Name	Description
	Artifact Fragment	Fragment of an artifact. Doesn't go in to the ore processor. You can craft a small alien artifact with four of these.
	Bananium	Used in advanced clowning applications, such as the H.O.N.K. mech. Somewhat rare.
	Bluespace Crystal	Used primarily in high-level storage and transport devices. Only found naturally on the VGroid. Can alternatively be crafted at a protolathe for 5glass, 5plasma, and 1diamond.
	Coal	One of the ingredients for steel, which is used for literally almost everything.
	Diamond	A rare mineral, used primarily to make bluespace crystals and some mech parts. Only found on the VGroid and expeditions.
	Gold	Used in several higher-level applications, most notably in circuits for upgraded machines.
	Iron	One of the ingredients for steel, which is used for literally almost everything.
	Plasma	Used in a variety of crafting applications, as fuel for the anomaly generator and certain other tools, and as a component of superior building materials, such as plasteel and plasma glass.
	Quartz	Used to make glass, which is used often in crafting.
	Salt	Doesn't go in the ore processor. Used as an alternative source of table salt and iodine for chemistry. Often ignored.
	Silver	Used in higher-tier crafting, most notably in robotics.
	Uranium	Radioactive! Handle with care. Used for a number of advanced applications, and SUPERPACMAN fuel. Notorious for irreparably killing mail carriers before Central Command decided to add radiation shielding to their envelopes.

Scrap and Treasure

If you're in any wrecked or abandoned faculties, you're liable to see a lot of scrap and treasure items. Scrap can be thrown into a recycler to extract usable materials from it. Treasure is the items that will get you a lot of money of you sell them. Some items, such as coins, can be reasonably identified as both scrap and treasure.

Scrap recycling has worse material yield than than mining, especially for rarer materials like silver and gold, but can make up for it in money and immediately useful equipment and machines. It's important to note that scrap has a ~40% chance to yield two times as many materials when recycled, and ~7% to yield three times as much.

Scrap and treasure
Name	Base Material Yield	Sell Value	Size	Additional Notes
Airlock Door	15	0	Large (5x5)	Requires both hands to carry. Has two sprite variants.
Airlock Light	2 5	0	Medium (1x4)
Blasted Steel Pile	30	0	Large (5x5)	Requires both hands to carry. Has three sprite variants.
Blueprint	N/A	1000	Medium (5x5)	There are three blueprint variants: double emergency tank, fulton, and seismic charge. Can be inserted into an autolathe to add its respective item's recipe to its list. Fultons are already craftable at an autolathe by default, so you can just sell those blueprints.
Broken Camera	5 1	0	Medium (2x2)
Broken Gas Canister	5	0	Too big to carry
Busted Bucket	3	0	Medium (2x2)
Busted Jetpack	15 2	0	Huge (4x4)
Canister Handle	3	0	Medium (2x2)
Canister Valve	2	0	Small (1x2)
CD Drive	N/A	300	Small (2x2)
Coin, Iron	3	75	Tiny (1x1)
Coin, Silver	1 2	135	Tiny (1x1)
Coin, Gold	1 2	175	Tiny (1x1)
Coin, Adamantine	4	250	Tiny (1x1)	Fun fact! Technically contains a small amount of diamond, but not enough to give any drops.
Coin, Diamond	3	500	Tiny (1x1)	Also provides one refined diamond on a 3x yield.
Closet Door	15	0	Huge (3x6)	Requires both hands to carry.
Destroyed S.U.P.E.R.P.A.C.M.A.N. Generator	40 5 10	0	Too big to carry	Cannot be fultoned due to an oversight. Emits 0.4 rads.
Encrypted Datadisk	N/A	500	Small (1x2)
Fax Machine	2 10	0	Huge (4x4)
Firelock Door	20	0	Large (5x5)	Requires both hands to carry. Interestingly, the sprite variants are unique items internally, because they have different flavor text.
Firelock Frame	7	0	Large (2x4)
Floppy Disk Drive	N/A	350	Small (1x2)
Fuel Tank	2 5	0	Medium (2x2)
Generator Frame	15	0	Too big to carry	Cannot be fultoned due to an oversight.
Gilded Personal AI Device	4 1	0	Small (1x2)
Golden Cup	N/A	150	Small (1x2)	Can hold up 20u of a reagent.
Golden Honker	N/A	1000	Tiny (1x1)	The clowning jewel. Can be used to pray to the Honkmother.
Golden Mask	N/A	5000	Small (1x2)	Be sure not to put it on by accident. Alternatively, put on the mask on purpose if you like causing problems and admin warnings.
Gold Ring	2	300	Tiny (1x1)
Gold Ring, Diamond	2	1500	Tiny (1x1)
Gold Ring, Gem	2	2100	Tiny (1x1)
Gold Watch	N/A	500	Small (1x2)	Tells you the time. Real world time, not shift time.
Half A Mop Bucket	15	0	Huge (4x4)
Hard Disk Drive	N/A	275	Small (1x2)
Intercom Scrap	4 3	0	Medium (2x2)	Has three sprite variants.
Lamp	N/A	1500	Medium (2x2)	Actually usable as a lamp. Contains a reserve of 25u of welding fuel, which slowly regenerates infinitely. Can also be used to "rub" the lamp and make a wish, which is identical to praying, except it says "LAMP" instead of "PRAYER" to the admins.
Leaking S.U.P.E.R.P.A.C.M.A.N. Generator	40 5 25	0	Too big to carry	Cannot be fultoned due to an oversight. Emits 0.9 rads.
Leaking P.A.C.M.A.N. Generator	40 5 25	0	Too big to carry	Cannot be fultoned due to an oversight.
Old P.A.C.M.A.N. Generator	40 5 10	0	Too big to carry	Cannot be fultoned due to an oversight.
Personal AI Device	3 2	0	Small (1x2)
Sample Tube	N/A	120	Small (1x2)
Sample Tube, Shattered	5 1	0	Small (1x2)
Scrap Circuitry	5 15	0	Large (3x3)	Has five sprite variants.
Silver Ring	2	275	Tiny (1x1)
Silver Ring, Diamond	2	1400	Tiny (1x1)
Silver Ring, Gem	2	2000	Tiny (1x1)
Snapped Medkit	5	0	Large (2x4)
Split Fire Extinguisher	6	0	Medium (2x2)
Supercharged CPU	N/A	750	Tiny (1x1)

This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything worth selling, or everything worth scrapping. Try chucking useless things into the recycler and carrying an appraisal tool from your cargo brethren to check sell values.

Space Creature Products

If you kill one of the many alien hostiles, you can butcher it's corpse in order to take its meat, organs, and anything else that the creatures may have of use. Usually it's the Chef that appreciates them the most, but certain monster organs might be useful to you in your salvage work if implanted with surgery. For example, "space animal lungs", which are available from normal space carps, can remove your need to breathe, meaning gases don't affect you, and you don't need internals to go into space. (You still need a suit for the pressure protection, though.)

Hostile aliens
Name	Health	Damage	Description
Space Carp	40	5 blunt, 2 slash	The mascot. Not actually that dangerous, unless there's a lot of them. Found virtually everywhere. Cargo at large will need you to kill these for several bounties, make sure you keep up to date on those.
Space Tick	15	2 brute, inject 1u toxin	Extremely fast and able to deal damage quickly thanks to its toxin. Dies to just about anything if you manage to tag it, and it loses most of its dangerousness after it runs out of toxin. Notable for being the only mob that acts as a source of xeno meat outside of expeditions.
Sharkminnow	150	10 slash, 5 bloodloss	Very tanky, and quite fast and deadly for its bulk. Drops its hide upon being butchered. Also needed for bounties. Found in most places that carps are found.
Space Bear	100	5 blunt, 10 slash	The notorious Detroit graytide slayer. Will rip you to shreds if you aren't ready for it. Appears on magnet wrecks. There's also an inaccessible one the ATS, for fun. Has cryoxadone for blood.
Space Adder	100	5 pierce, inject 1u toxin	Appears on wrecks, but is also mapped in on some stations. As much a hazard to salvagers as it is a reason for the rest of the crew to yell at the zookeeper. Has cryoxadone for blood.
Space Cobra	100	6 pierce, 4 poison, inject 6u norepinepheric acid	Snake that makes you blind for a day. Also goes invisible. The reason to remember to stock up on toxin meds before you leave port. Replace your heart with a space cobra gland to gain its invisibility. Also has cryoxadone for blood.
Space Spider	90	6 pierce, inject 4u chloral hydrate	Did you remember antitoxin meds? No? Well, off to dream land you go. A stray bite of one is likely the number one reason you'll die on a wreck. Has cryoxadone for blood.
Space Carp	40	9 blunt, 2 slash	Like a space bear, but distinctly Australian in character. Appears primarily on magnet wrecks. Has cryoxadone for blood.
Goliath	250	10 slash, 10 pierce	The death sentence for the unrobust salvager. Very slow, but it can extend tentacles below the feet of its target, slipping and stunning them. Will wipe your team if you aren't careful. Found exclusively on the VGroid. Can be butchered for its hide and heart, the latter of which will give you the goliath's tentacle attack for yourself when you replace your own heart with it. ~~Are those eyes in its mouth?~~
Hivelord	75	N/A	A miserable little pile of spaghetti. Doesn't attack you directly, instead it runs away and chucks its broods at you. Once killed, can be butchered for hivelord remains, which offers regenerative effects while still fresh. Found on the VGroid.
Hivelord Brood	5	7 slash	Have you ever wondered what it would be like to not have ANY blood? Wonder no more. They die to literally anything, but they exist to take hits for the hivelord that spawned them. They also move faster than you and they have an EXTREMELY hard to target animated sprite.
Drone	100	6 brute	Essentially a tankier and slightly smarter but weaker carp. Only found on expeditions with the "Hostiles: Xenos" condition.
Burrower	100	6 brute	Just about identical to the drone, except for the strange fact that they're technically doing two of each brute type internally, despite the end result being the same in practice. Only found on expeditions with the "Hostiles: Xenos" condition.
Ravager	100	10 brute	Similar to the drone, but with an additional 4 brute stacked on top. ~~Shit yourself when it vaults a table to kill you.~~ Only found on expeditions with the "Hostiles: Xenos" condition.
Praetorian	100	10 brute	Did you say, "reskin of the last one"? ~~It's almost like this stuff was only ever half finished upstream, or something...~~ Only found on expeditions with the "Hostiles: Xenos" condition.
Runner	50	5 brute	Very fast, and therefore, the most dangerous xeno up to this point. Only found on expeditions with the "Hostiles: Xenos" condition.
Rouny	50	5 brute	Also a reskin, but on purpose this time. Very rare. ~~Usually busy running his own fork.~~ Only found on expeditions with the "Hostiles: Xenos" condition.
Spitter	50	6 brute (melee), 5 caustic (spit)	The only xeno that doesn't fight you face to face. Scarily accurate with it's spit. Only found on expeditions with the "Hostiles: Xenos" condition.
Queen	300	12 brute	The strongest xeno, yet still somehow easier to fight than a goliath. Only found on expeditions with the "Hostiles: Xenos" condition.

Anything Else Useful

You may find other things of use, such as rare advanced equipment, raw materials, contraband items, and just anything else that seems like it'd be useful or profitable.

Where You Collect It

Your station only has a finite amount of most resources, so naturally you'll be exploring elsewhere to get the resources you need in order to keep the station going. Salvage has a lot of options for places they can go with their shuttle.

Space Junk

When flying around in space, you may see unmarked masses on your console colored red or blue. There are asteroid and wreck space junk, respectively. Compared to other venues for mining, asteroid space junk tends to have a balanced variety of ore types, but modest yields overall. Wreck junk will have a bunch of random crates on it. It's a pretty good source of medical supplies, as first aid kits are easily found here. You'll also find rarer salvage equipment on them, such as mining hardsuits and salvage rigs. Wreck junk will also sometimes contain sapce ticks, space carps and sharkminnows, so don't go in totally unarmed.

Salvage Magnet

The only method that doesn't require the shuttle to effectively strip, the salvage magnet can be used to "pull in" pieces of salvageable debris. Every two minutes, you'll be offered a selection of five pieces of debris. Upon selecting which debris you want to pull in, You'll have 360 seconds (six minutes) to gather everything you can off of the debris before it's lost.

If the salvage magnet doesn't offer anything, try taking a wrench and reanchoring it. If that doesn't work, try moving it to the shuttle or the edge of the station. If that doesn't work, ahelp it.

The magnet offers three types of pulls: generic space debris, asteroids, and wrecks.

The "space debris" pulls are ruined pieces of wrecked facilities. They contain scrap, treasure, random maints closets, scattered equipment, and hostiles. You can think of them as beefier versions of the space junk wrecks. They tend to have a balanced output of materials, equipment, and sellables.

The asteroid pulls contain ores for mining. The exact composition and yields are shown by the magnet when picking out a piece of debris. A "moderate" ore yield asteroid can supply the station with that material for the rest of the shift if you fully mine the asteroid out. There's also four different asteroid formations you can get: "Clump", "Cluster", "Fragments", and "Spiral". The only thing this does is determine the size, shape, and number of asteroids.

The wreck pulls, like the debris pulls, are wrecked parts of stations. However, they tend to be much larger, and are based on a department, theme, or gimmick. The wrecks come in three sizes: Small, Medium, and Large. These are mostly useful for bounty fulfillment, equipment reclaiming, and moneymaking. However, due to their specialized nature, these are often considered a gamble.

Larger Wrecks

On your mass scanner or shuttle console, you should be able to see two unnamed objects. These are wrecks, but they tend to be larger and more valuable than space junk or asteroid pulls. These also tend to be remnants of shuttles or full stations, so you're likelier to find stuff to upgrade your own shuttle. Be warned, however, as these are also often full of hostiles.

While the possible prefabs are not listed here to keep some things hidden for new players, those experienced will be able to identify these derelict structures by their shapes, and they're able to assess their value for the station's current needs before even setting foot in one.

If you happen to run into a ruined station that doesn't show up on any mass scanners, DO NOT SALVAGE IT! This is the Oldstation, and there are ghost roles that spawn here that rely on the station being intact.

The VGroid

Your shuttle console should have a space object with a label attached to it that says something like "Ascaris-55-T" or "Taenia-75-V". This is the VGroid, a giant asteroid with research facilites embedded in it. This is the most dangerous locale on the map, and consequently, the most rewarding.

The research facilities contain lots of scrap, treasure, and advanced equipment while the asteroid itself is the only place on the regular map where you can find diamonds and bluespace crystals. However, the entire asteroid is teeming with goliaths and hivelords, which are significantly more dangerous than anything you can find on wrecks up to this point.

Expeditions

Expeditions are time limited, off-map excursions that take you to a planet's surface with a lootable dungeon near your landing zone.

The salvage expeditions computer will offer you three expedition missions to claim. The offered missions will have a number of variables:

All missions currently display as "Difficulty: Moderate", "Recommended salvagers: 2", and "Duration: 00:11:00". You can ignore these.
The "Hostiles" field determines which hostiles you'll encounter in the dungeon. There are two possible options, Carps and Xenos.
The "Biome" field determines which planet map you'll get sent to. There's four different biomes: Grasslands, Caves, Lava, and Snow.
The "Modifiers" field determines the environmental factors of the planet map. The first modifier is atmospheric composition, the second is ambient temperature, the third is the time of day.

When you claim one of the missions, a coordinates disk will be printed. You need to insert this disk into the shuttle console on your salvage shuttle in order to FTL to the planet. You will also have to get close enough in relative space to FTL.

As soon as you arrive at the landing zone your eleven minute time begins and you'll see a chat message telling you which cardinal direction the dungeon is in.

Once time runs out, the salvage shuttle automatically FTL's away, leaving the planet. Everything on the planet will disappear, including any salvagers left behind. This will hard round remove you, so, uh... don't get lost. Or die. You can bypass this by fultoning a closet or crate and hopping inside before the 45 second mark.

Unlike the salvage magnet, you won't be able to accept another expedition until the "next offer" timer winds down.

I Leave For Fifteen God Damn Minutes...

As you spend a considerable time away from the station, you tend to be away from the station when everything goes south. Combine that with the fact that you are far and away the best armed crewmembers after security, and your ability to do coordinated manuevers from space, and it's easy to see why the salvage team tends to be an important aspect of station defense.

You can easily make life nightmarish for a blob by opening up their enclosing walls, or you can end up discovering a nukie ship before they want to be discovered, or you can be instrumental getting crewmembers to safety in the event of a DAGD sinugloose.

It's important that you don't abandon the station in it's time of need, unless shit is irreparably fucked. You're still a Nanotrasen employee, even if you do everything to not act like it.

Antagonist Salvager: Now you're playing with power

But let's imagine... for a moment that your aren't a Nanotrasen employee. And you're an agent for one of the other big dogs. Now, if you can get over the triple sevens and dollars signs in your eyes, there are some weaknesses to an antag salvager. If you rolled Thief, you may have some difficulty, as combat is an integral part of salvage gameplay, and well... you won't be able to do that. If your squadmates are intent on butchering up some xenos, try to negotiate taking up mining responsibilities from the station. However, you will no doubt be at least a little suspicious if you hang around the station too much as a salvager.

But... It's hard to deny that salvager is a pretty goddamn good roll for any antagonist, if not the best outright.

You are someone who can explain long absences and radio silence, you're expected to have illegal contraband as part of your job, your squadmates are the least likely people to tell on you if they catch you red-handed, you can easily dispose of evidence as need be, you can stand toe-to-toe with security in team antagonist games, you can find completely free bodies to hollow as a changeling, the list goes on and on and on...

One note, don't try to start off-station as a Blob player. You will just gib yourself.