A guide to SalvagePart 1: Salvage
1.1: Salvage basics
1.2: Equipment
1.3: What is salvageable?
1.4: Salvage by race
1.5: Rigs by race
1.6: Resources
1.7: FAQ
1.8: Credits & Version
This is my first
guide for Eve Online, and really for any game, though I have a few that I haven’t published yet for other games. The point of this is please bare with me as I work to improve this guide via additional information and helpful suggestions from others.
This guide is intended to help those who want to get into Salvaging as both a way of income, and as a means to produce rigs also will be of a lot of help for those who don't want to
buy isk. It’s written for those who are new to the game, but not too new that they don’t have any idea what they’re doing. This guide assumes you are familiar with the basics on playing the game, and you know what the Overview is, how to target etc. If you need to know more information on those topics, then I suggest you look for some of the very excellent guides out there on those subjects. You can see more resources in my Other Resources section.
This guide is based on the Revelations (Kali I) release of Eve.
1.1 Salvage BasicsIt’s not hard for a character to get into salvage as a career, or as something different to do. There can be decent money in it, and once the prices on the market settle down, there will be solid money in both the salvage materials and the rigs. Many players choose to do it as a side profession, as the skills required aren’t hard to acquire. Salvage doesn’t take a great deal of specialization and time to train like a career in mining would require, thus it is often referred to as a mini-profession.
To start, you’ll need to get the Salvage skill which has two requirements; Mechanic and Survey. Both are rank 1 skills. Mechanic is a basic core skill so it should be obtained by every character at some point in their life. Survey is generally more useful to those wishing to pursue scanning and exploring. In any case both skills need to be at level 3 in order to learn the Salvage skill.
The Salvage skill itself is a rank 3 skill, and it gives you a 5% chance to obtain salvage per cycle. The second thing you need to start salvaging is a Salvage Tackle I module. It’s fitted in a high slot.
Once you know the skill and have a ship equipped with a Salvage Tackle I module, you are ready to go.
In order to salvage you need a wreck to salvage from. Wrecks are nothing more than the remains of a ship that has been destroyed – either an NPC or player ship. When the ship is destroyed, it leaves behind one of two things – either a loot can (which is not salvageable) or a wreck.
There are two important rules to salvage which can’t be ignored;
1: You must have the wreck targeted.
2: You must be within 5,000 meters in order to activate your Salvage Tackle on the targeted wreck.
Once you find a suitable wreck to salvage, you’ve locked it and you’re within range – toggle your Salvage Tackle on to start the salvage process. Do not worry if you’re skill is low and it takes awhile, because the module will continue to work until it is successful. Therefore, the higher your skill, the faster salvaging will become. There are three possible messages that will display while salvaging – two success messages, and one failure message.
The two success messages are:
“Your Salvage attempt was successful.” You got something, check you’re cargo hold!
“Your salvage attempt was successful; unfortunately there was nothing to salvage.” You didn’t get anything. (note: This message is possibly obsolete because as of the Revelations 1.4 patch, a wreck will only spawn if there is salvage to be had, otherwise a standard loot can will appear.)
In either case, your module will shut off and the wreck will disappear from the overview and the field.
If you get the message “Your salvage attempt is unsuccessful.” Then you’re module failed to find anything during its cycle, however the module stays active and tries again. There is no need for you to re-activate it. You’ll notice that the wreck is also still viewable. If you no longer wish to salvage from the wreck at this point you can either shut of your module manually, un-target the wreck, or move out of range of the Salvage Tackle.
Something that might not be obvious to some is that you don’t have to be the one to create the wreck (by destroying the ship/object) in order to salvage from it. In other words, if someone else killed an NPC pirate then you can salvage from that wreck. As of Revelations 1.4, you no longer have to take the loot from a wreck first before salvaging. Salvaging a wreck flagged to another player is not considered stealing, so therefore you will not suffer any negative consequences from doing so.
Salvaging a wreck that contains loot will not destroy the loot. Instead, a can will appear in the wrecks' place with the loot inside, which means you don't have to loot first and get salvage later.
You can tell if a wreck is empty by it’s symbol both in the overview and the field. All wrecks have a symbol that looks like an upside-down triangle with a line running along the top of it. Think this |> but pointing down and more uniform. Wrecks that contain loot have a solid or ‘filled’ triangle, while wrecks that are empty have just an outline. Also, unless you’ve changed your overview settings, wrecks you have not ‘opened’ (meaning you have hit the open button to see what’s inside the wreck) will also appear as a white icon, while wrecks you have ‘opened’ will be grayed out. Objects only grey out once you de-select them (not the same as un-targeting them). In either case, they will still appear either full or empty depending on if they have loot or not. Thus, if you open a wreck within range but don’t take the loot it will then appear as a grayed out full triangle in your overview and field once you de-select it.
So where to find wrecks to salvage? The answers are many and varied.
1.
EVE Online Ratting – You can simply go ratting then loot the wrecks afterwards. It should be noted that this can be dangerous in a low sec system, because salvaging takes time – time that a potential player pirate can use to scan you down and find which asteroid field you’re in. People often times leave their wrecks behind, so you could also go from field to field looking for wrecks. This is an even better option now that you no longer have to loot wrecks first. You can just hop from belt to belt salvaging wrecks that ratters leave behind. It still might be good to be polite though, as some ratters may want to come back and salvage later. Another option is to trail behind a buddy and salvage the wrecks he leaves for you.
2.
EVE Online Missions – Combat missions can be a great source of salvage, especially if you are facing off against any of the NPC Pirate factions such as Sansha, Serpentis etc. Probably the easiest way is to join up with a friend or Corp. mate and salvage all the wrecks he leaves behind while ratting or mission running. Your friend can bookmark a wreck, complete the mission and then pass the bookmark to you. Then you can fly to the bookmarked location and salvage everything there. You can do the same after you’ve completed a mission, though I highly suggest having a dedicated salvage ship available for you to switch into once your mission is complete. Also, you’ll want to make sure and bookmark the wreck before completing the mission. Once you turn the mission in, the mission bookmark will disappear and you’ll only have your manually created bookmark to go on. Level 3 missions and above are where salvage really starts to pay off. If you have a good loot/salvage ship, you can clear a large level 3 mission of all it’s wrecks in just a few minutes. Some missions have so many ship wrecks afterwards though that it might take you a long time – this is why you really want a ship dedicated to looting and salvaging these missions.
If you are good at using scan probes to locate safe spots etc, then you could use them to locate the wrecks that mission runners leave behind. In any given system you are very likely to find wrecks that many mission runners simply don’t bother to loot when they are done with their missions. In the system I run around in, a simple glance at the scanner often reveals hundreds of wrecks left unclaimed – prime salvaging potential, and a good reason to learn how to scan these locations down.
3.
EVE Online Complexes – Not much to say here, but if you have access or can get access to a complex, then these would also be a salvager’s wet dream. There are a few nuances to complexes that are beyond the scope of this guide, but the biggest one is that you will probably want to be with a group that is doing all the combat, while you stay far behind and salvage, and try not to agro anything.
4.
EVE Online Exploring – I don’t have much info here yet, but there are ‘profession’ sites that can only be found by exploring. Some of these are salvage oriented, and essentially offer no-risk salvage opportunities provide you can find them. I will update once I get more information on what they contain.
1.2 Equipment
The most important piece of equipment you’ll need is a Salvage Tackle I module. Without it, you can’t salvage anything at all. It fits in a high slot and must be activated on a wreck in order to start the salvage process.
Ships
If you are going to be a dedicated Salvager, then you’ll probably want to get a ship that is dedicated for that purpose. You can use any ship to salvage in, but to do it quickly and efficiently you’ll want to have one that has a large number of high slots available to fit, a reasonable amount of low slots, and is fairly fast and agile. On that note, I make special mention of Destroyers because they are becoming very popular for use as salvage ships because of their 8 high slots, mobility and decent cargo holds. Destroyers are very cheep so it doesn’t take much money at all to get one plus they are fast. Because of their popularity, I think it won’t be long before CCP makes a t2 version that has extra bonuses for salvaging (That is just my opinion and not reflective of any hard evidence) – but until then T1 Destroyers are extremely efficient at mass salvaging and looting.
To fly Destroyers, you only have to know the Destroyer skill. There is not a race specific skill for each races destroyer like there is for Frigates, Cruisers, and Battleships.
Other good ships are Battlecruisers and Battleships because of their numerous high-slots – but these ships are much slower. Destroyers are you’re best option money wise.
The following stats are the base stats for each ship.
Caldari Destroyer
Name: Cormorant
Fitting: 8 highs, 4 mids, 1 low, 3 rig slots
Calibration: 400
Cargo: 450
Speed: 210
Cpu: 215
Powergrid: 55
Gallente Destroyer
Catalyst
Fitting: 8 highs, 2 mids, 3 lows, 3 rig slots
Calibration: 400
Cargo: 400 m3’s
Speed: 225 m/s
Cpu: 170
Powergrid: 60
Minmitar Destroyer
Name: Thrasher
Fitting: 8 highs, 3 mids, 2 lows, 3 rig slots
Calibration: 400
Cargo: 400 m3
Speed: 240 m/s
Cpu: 170
Powergrid: 70
Amarr Destroyer
Name: Coercer
Fitting: 8 highs, 1 mid, 4 lows, 3 rig slots
Calibration: 400
Cargo: 300 m3
Speed: 220 m/s
Cpu: 160
Powergrid: 75
Analysis: Looking at it from the viewpoint that you want low slots to fit cargo expanders, and at least 1 mid slot to fit a cap re-charger, the Gallente destroyer Catalyst is the ship of choice for looting/salvaging. The Amarr destroyer has more low slots, but only 1 mid – so you’re stuck deciding if you want extra speed by fitting either a mwd or ab for a speed boost, or a cap re-charger. Also, it has the lowest cargo hold of all the destroyers at 300. Cargo expanders work on a percentage, so the more initial cargo you have, the bigger boost you’ll get from an expander – thus the Catalyst wins with 2 mids and 3 lows.
The Thrasher comes in second place due to its decent mids, but it only has 2 lows. I’d avoid the Caldari destroyer for use as a looter/salvager – but it does have the largest cargo hold of all the destroyers, a point made rather moot because of its 1 low slot. Another advantage it has is 4 mids, so you can easily fit an AB or MWD and still have room for cap re-chargers.
All the destroyers have a high number of calibration points, and the standard 3 slots – so you should be able to fit just about any rig you want on there. Again, the Catalyst destroyer wins here because you can fill your rig slots with salvager rig rather than cargo or capacitor rigs.
Other EquipmentAnother piece of equipment that is valuable for salvaging is the Tractor Beam. These modules aren’t too expensive, but they might be for new players as they run over 1 million isk per module. They also take a fair bit of training to use (Science 4), but they are completely worth the time it takes to use them. With it, you can lock on to a wreck and pull it towards your salvage ship at 500 m/s as long as the wreck is within 20 km’s from your current location. They are especially useful if you prefer using slow battlecruiser and battleships to salvage in. Even if the wreck doesn’t contain loot, you’ll still want it within range of your Salvage Tackle. Tractor Beams really go hand in hand with Salvaging, and you shouldn’t leave home without one.
Another piece of equipment that bares mentioning is a Capacitor re-charger. With Tractors and Salvage Tackle’s running constantly, the cap on a Destroyer is going to drain fairly quickly – so boosting the ships natural recharge rate will keep you moving.
Once you’re able to either make one or buy one, a Salvage rig will improve you’re chances of gaining salvage during a cycle of the Tackle by 10% – so it’s worth investing in these for you’re dedicated Salvage ship. With a maxed out Salvage skill and three Salvage rigs, you’ll have a 55% chance of getting salvage per cycle. That will substantially speed things up for you.
Cargo Expanders: When looting large missions, your cargo hold is likely to fill up fast, especially if you are also getting a lot of salvage. Like most modules, these come in various kinds (Cargo Expander I, Cargo Expander II etc.) and which ones you want to get are up to you.
1.3 What is Salvageable?
If a ship is salvageable, it leaves behind a wreck. Otherwise, it leaves behind a jettisoned container that contains loot if it dropped any (or nothing at all if it didn’t drop any loot and doesn’t contain salvage).
You can also use your scanner to see if there are any wrecks that others left behind. Set the distance so that it covers a large area and then look at what the scanner picked up. It will show something like “Sansha Medium Wreck” or “Serpentis small wreck” etc.
For convenience sake though, I’m listing the various npc pirate factions you can salvage from and what race they are usually associated with, so you know where to hunt to get specific salvage gear to make rigs. More on this below in the ‘salvage materials by race’ section. One interesting thing is that Amarr have two pirate factions; Sansha and Blood Raiders. You may wonder why, and this is most likely due to the reason that Amarr is separated into ruling provinces (Emperor family, Tash-Murkon, etc). So even though the two pirate factions use the same weapons, they both follow a different ideology and favor one technology over the other. That is a little more speculation that is usually found in guides, but it’s just my opinion. All that really matters to you is that you can find them both in Amarr space.
Blood Raiders – Amarr
Sansha – Amarr
Serpentis – Gallente
Gurista/Gisti - Caldari
Angel Cartel – Minmitar
Rogue Drones – not associated with a race.
All PC ships! (Yes, you can salvage a PC wreck! Standard rules apply though.)
Most other ships might be salvageable, but the salvage is minimum at best. The above are by far the best sources of salvage.
Whether a salvageable ship is going to actually drop salvage appears to be fairly random, however you can correctly assume that the bigger the wreck, the more salvage you’re going to get from it when it does drop it. I don’t have hard numbers on these, this is just based on observations and talking with various players.
Frigates/Destroyers –1-4 parts
Cruisers – 2-8 parts
Battleship – 3-16 parts.
Capital Ships – no idea. However, since the majority of these ships are operated by PC’s, you should be able to obtain salvage from them. If you have salvaged a Dreadnought or capital ship, please eve-mail me and let me know what you got from it.
(note: Future patches are going to have missions pitting players against npc carriers, dreadnaughts etc, so those ships will of course most likely drop salvage.)
1.4 Salvage Materials by RaceIf you’re hunting for a specific piece of salvage, there are ships that have a much greater chance to drop a particular item over others. As you’re going to see, the salvage used in rigs co-insides with the specialty for that race – thus Caldari are shield and missile specialists, so it follows that you’ll have better luck finding salvage for shield and missile rigs from the pirate faction that prowls in Caldari space – The Gurista. This will also have an effect on the market as well, as these components are more likely to be cheaper where they are more plentiful. From a trading aspect, one could probably make a decent amount of money buying shield components and selling them where they are less common, however that is pure speculation on my part.
That being said, it is important to note that ALL BASIC (I.E. Broken components) salvage materials can drop from anything regardless of race. If you’re looking for something specific, then it’s still best to hunt the right npc’s though.
Most salvage items have a ‘broken’ component and a ‘whole’ component. You can tell a difference between the two not only by their name (Charred Micro Circuit as apposed to Micro Circuit), but also because the broken ones have an orangish explosion background in their graphic icon, while the whole ones have a bluish background. The broken components are primarily used in T1 rigs, while the perfect ones are used in T2 rig manufacturing. I have no hard data on where to consistently get the tech 2 rig components, as salvage is still fairly new, but there are some sources. Tech 2 components are more likely to be found by salvaging from tech 2 ships. They are also found from special faction rats that show up every now and then in belts and sometimes in missions. You’ll know them when you see them because instead of a Sansha overlord, they will be titled True Sansha Overlord or something like that.
I’ve made notes on certain categories if they were needed. Also, in parenthesis I’ve listed the most common source of the rig component. This doesn’t mean that component is exclusive to that npc, just that you’re more likely to find it from them.
Amarr Salvage Materials
Broken
Contaminated Nanite Compound (Sansha)
Defective Current Pump (Sansha 1st, Blood Raider 2nd)
Melted Capacitor Console – (Blood Raider)
Whole
Nanite Compound
Current Pump
Capacitor Console
Caldari Salvage Materials
Broken
Malfunctioning Shield Emitter (Gurista)
Scorched Telemetry Processor (Gurista)
Ward Console (Gurista)
Whole
Intact Shield Emitter
Telemetry Processor
Enhanced War Console
Gallente Salvage Materials
Broken
Damaged Artificial Neural Network (Serpentis 1st, Gurista’s 2nd)
Broken Drone Transceiver (Rogue Drones 1st, Serpentis 2nd)
Conductive Polymer (Serpentis)
Contaminated Lorentz Fluid (Serpentis)
Whole
Artificial Neural Network
Drone Transeiver
Lorentz Fluid
Minmitar Salvage Materials
Broken
Alloyed Tritanium Bar (Angel Cartel)
Smashed Trigger Unit (Angel Cartel)
Thruster Console (Angel Cartel)
Whole
Trigger Unit
Universal Salvage Materials
All circuits can be dropped by any wreck and in decent quantities.
Rogue Drones drop a lot of circuits for all races, as well as lots of Broken Drone Transceivers.
Broken
Burned Logic Circuit
Charred Micro Circuit
Fried Interface Circuit
Tangled Power Circuit
Tripped Power Circuit
Whole
Logic Circuit
Micro Circuit
Interface Circuit
Power Circuit
Unused Salvage Materials
As far as the data goes, the following salvage materials are currently unused by any of the rigs during manufacturing. Some of these parts might be used in T2 rig manufacturing, however I have no hard data on this at the moment since there are very few t2 rigs out there. Some of them aren’t even dropped by NPC faction wrecks, so if there is nothing behind it in parenthesis, I have no data on how to get them as of yet.
Metal Scraps (Guristas)
Armor Plates (Sansha)
Intact Armor Plates
Conductive Thermoplastic
Impetus Console
Power Conduit
Single-Crystal Super alloy I-Beam
1.5 Rigs by Race
As you may or may not know, each race has a specific specialty they are particularly good at. Gallente specialize in drones and hybrid weapons, Amarr in armor and energy weapons, Caldari at shield and missiles, and the Minmitar are good at Astronautic technology (modules dealing with cargo and speed boosting) and Projectile weaponry. Thus, it follows that rigs that fall under these specialties should fall under that race. If you don’t believe me, when you go to buy the blue prints for the rigs, you’ll notice that Drone and Hybrid are sold by CreoDrone – which is a Gallente research corporation. Astronautic and Projectile rig blueprints? Sold by Core Complexion which is a Minmitar research corporation.
Each rig category has three pieces of information. The first is parts needed. All rigs use three components to make the rig. Rather than list each specific rig and their requirements to build (which can change depending on your manufacturing skills and the amount of research done on the rigs), I’ve instead listed the components used in that category. Even though there may be 4 components listed, each rig will only ever need 3 of those components. Secondly, there is the Role the rig plays in improving your ship, and finally the drawback for using the rig, such as reduced speed.
Electronic and Electronic Superiority rigs are in a special section of their own because they are not attributed to any race. They need a lot of circuits, so you’d want to hunt Angel Cartel pirates, but you also need to find Minmitar Navy and Gallente wrecks to get the Damaged Artificial Neural Network parts.
*Amarr Rigs*
Armor
Parts Needed:
Charred Micro Circuit
Contaminated Nanite Compound
Fried Interface Circuit
Role: Armor Improvements, Salvaging improvements
Drawback: Reduced Speed
Energy Weapon
Parts Needed:
Charred Micro Circuit
Defective Current Pump
Fried Interface Circuit
Role: Improvements to Energy Weapons
Drawback: Energy Weapons need more powergrid to fit
Energy Grid
Parts Needed:
Burned Logic Circuit
Tangled Power Conduit
Tripped Power Circuit
Melted Capacitor Console
Fried Interface Circuit
Role: Improvements to Capacitor, Powergrid
Drawback: None
*Caldari Rigs*
Missile Launcher
Parts Needed:
Burned Logic Circuit
Tripped Power Circuit
Scorched Telemetry Processor
Role: Improvements to missiles and launchers
Drawback: Launchers need more CPU to fit
Shield
Parts Needed:
Charred Micro Circuit
Fried Interface Circuit
Burned Logic Circuit
Tripped Power Circuit
Ward Console
Malfunctioning Shield Emitter
Role: Improvements to Shields
Drawback: Increased Signature Radius
*Gallente Rigs*
Drone
Parts Needed:
Burned Logic Circuit
Charred Micro Circuit
Tripped Power Circuit
Broken Drone Transceiver
Role: Upgrades for all Drones
Drawback: Reduces ships available CPU
Hybrid Weapon
Parts Needed:
Charred Micro Circuit
Fried Interface Circuit
Contaminated Lorentz Fluid
Role: Improvements to Hybrid Weapons
Drawback: Hyrbid Weapons need more Powergrid to fit
*Minmitar Rigs*
Astronautic
Parts Needed:
Burned Logic Circuit
Charred Micro Circuit
Fried Interface Circuit
Tripped Power Circuit
Thruster Console
Alloyed Tritanium Bar
Role: Improved speed and agility, improvements to AB and MWD use, Cargo capacity increase
Drawback: Lowers Armor Hit Points
Projectile Weapon
Parts Needed:
Charred Micro Circuit
Fried Interface Circuit
Smashed Trigger Unit
Role: Improvements to Projectile Weapons
Drawback: Projectile Weapons need more Powergrid to fit
*Electronic Rigs*
Notes: The parts needed can be mostly found with Serpentis and Gurista (Gallenti and Caldari race respectively) rats.
Parts Needed:
Tripped Power Circuit
Fried Interface Circuit
Charred Micro Circuit
Conductive polymer
Damaged Artificial Neural Network
Role: Improvements to hacking, archaeology, & scanning. Reduction of CPU and Capacitor requirements for Electronic Modules and ECM
Drawback: None
*Electronic Superiority Rigs*
Notes: The parts needed can be mostly found with Serpentis and Gurista (Gallenti and Caldari race respectively) rats.
Parts Needed:
Fried Interface Circuit
Tripped Power Circuit
Charred Micro Circuit
Burned Logic Circuit
Damaged Artificial Neural Network
Role: Improvements to ECM Modules. Improvements to ships sensors, targeting, & tracking
Drawback: Lowers Shield Hit Points
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