What this is about
Crew salvage wins where solo salvage waits: sorting cargo, finding the next target, repositioning the ship. Two heads on the same wreck gain less than two people with separate jobs.
Preparation
- Assign roles before launch, not at the wreck.
- Check comms.
- Hold empty, heads and modules fitted.
- Agree the drop-off point and the stop criterion: when is it over?
Tasks and roles
- Salvage. Operates the heads, focus and beam spacing. Stays at the station.
- Cargo. Sorts, stows, reports the fill level. Calls when it is over.
- Pilot/scout. Keeps the ship steady, repositions, finds the next wreck while work continues.
- Security. From three people on: watches. Wrecks are meeting points.
Equipment
On a ship with several salvage stations the heads can be fitted differently. What exists and what the blueprints say is in salvage components; the ships’ slots are in Reclaimer.
The salvage heads can be addressed individually or together – left, right, all. The division of labour on board hangs on exactly that.
| Game action | Default keyboard/mouse | Default joystick | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toggle Fire Focused | Mouse left | Button 1 | toggle |
| Toggle Fire Left | Right Alt + A | not bound by default | toggle |
| Toggle Fire Right | Right Alt + D | not bound by default | toggle |
| Toggle Fire Fracture | Right Alt + W | not bound by default | toggle |
| Toggle Fire Disintegrate | Right Alt + S | not bound by default | toggle |
| Salvage Mode Gimbal (Toggle) | G | not bound by default | toggle |
| Relative Beam Spacing | Mouse wheel (axis) | not bound by default | axis |
| Salvage Beam Axis (Toggle) | Left Alt + Mouse right | not bound by default | axis |
| Cycle Focused Salvage Modifiers | Mouse right | not bound by default | single press |
| Focus all salvage heads | Left Alt + S | not bound by default | single press |
| Focus left salvage head | Left Alt + A | not bound by default | single press |
| Focus right salvage head | Left Alt + D | not bound by default | single press |
| Tractor Beam Vehicle- Increase Distance | Mouse wheel up | not bound by default | single press |
| Tractor Beam Vehicle - Decrease Distance | Mouse wheel down | not bound by default | single press |
| Toggle Scanning Operator Mode | V | not bound by default | toggle |
| Activate Scanning | Mouse left | not bound by default | hold |
Game default binding, game version 4.10.0-hotfix (55227). If you rebound it yourself, your binding applies.
HOTAS/HOSAS: the joystick column is the default binding of ONE stick. On two sticks you assign pitch, yaw, roll and lateral strafe yourself – which axis a manoeuvre needs is listed in the HOTAS / HOSAS section.
Sequence
- Fly out together.
- Pilot positions, salvage starts.
- Cargo sorts from the first container on – not at the end.
- Scout reports the next target while scraping continues.
- Call the fill level. Cargo says when it is over – not salvage.
- Back together.
- Goal
- Work a wreck as a pair without one of you waiting.
- Preparation
- A multi-crew salvage ship, two players, a wreck larger than the hold.
- Task
- Work the same wreck twice: once with both doing the same thing, once with separate jobs (one scrapes, one sorts cargo and finds the next target). Time both runs.
- Success criterion
- The second run is measurably shorter than the first – and you can say why.
- Partner
- required
- Functions needed
- Toggle Fire Focused
- Toggle Fire Left
- Toggle Fire Right
- Toggle Fire Fracture
- Toggle Fire Disintegrate
- Salvage Mode Gimbal (Toggle)
Risk and reward
A large salvage ship is slow, conspicuous and stationary for long. That makes it the most worthwhile target in the field. Anyone working without security should at least have agreed an abort point.
The return grows with the number of people only as long as the jobs are separate – four people on two heads are two spectators.
Typical mistakes
- Both scraping. The classic mistake; the head is rarely the bottleneck.
- Cargo without calls. If nobody reports the fill level, salvage scrapes into a full hold.
- No security at known wreck fields. You meet more than wrecks there.
- No stop criterion. “One more wreck” is why runs get lost.
Next step
Working with several ships needs fixed group roles. For large wrecks large wrecks applies in addition.