What this is about
As with mining this guide calculates nothing but says what to calculate. In salvage the items are: time, hold space, price and standing still. The difference from mining: your hold is almost always the bottleneck, not the material.
Preparation
Three questions before launch:
- How far to the drop-off? With a full hold the return trip is the most expensive part of the run.
- How long will you be stationary? Salvage means standing still – and standing still is the real risk.
- Does the target fit the ship? A wreck yielding ten times your hold is not a better target, it is ten trips.
Tasks and roles
With your own cargo ship the calculation changes fundamentally: salvage no longer has to interrupt. With security you can work areas that are out of the question solo. Both belong in the planning, not in hope.
Equipment
What comes out of a wreck and what it is called in the game data is in material recovery. How it is transported and sold is in transport and sale.
When a salvage run goes wrong what counts is whether you get away. Salvage ships are slow – breaking off needs practice.
| Game action | Default keyboard/mouse | Default joystick | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cycle Master Mode (Long Press) | B | not bound by default | single press |
| Boost | Left Shift | Button 8 | hold |
| Cycle Lock - Attackers - Forward | 4 | not bound by default | single press |
| Decoy - Launch Burst (tap), Set and Launch Burst (hold) | H | Button 3 | hold |
| Toggle Scanning Operator Mode | V | not bound by default | toggle |
Game default binding, game version 4.10.0 (11644). 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
- Estimate first. Duration, fill level, return.
- Fly the run.
- Compare afterwards.
- Change one thing – target, route or line-up.
- Repeat. Three to five runs and you have your own basis.
- Goal
- Assess a salvage run before launch and compare it with the result afterwards.
- Preparation
- A planned run, a way to take notes, prices from the OMC trade hub with their date.
- Task
- Note before launch: expected duration, expected hold fill, return at the trade hub price with its date. Afterwards the same three as actuals. Repeat three times.
- Success criterion
- You have documented three runs with plan and actual and know where your estimate is regularly off.
- Partner
- required
- Functions needed
- Cycle Master Mode (Long Press)
- Boost
- Cycle Lock - Attackers - Forward
- Decoy - Launch Burst (tap), Set and Launch Burst (hold)
- Toggle Scanning Operator Mode
Risk and reward
The three most common ways to lose a salvage run:
- Too long at the same wreck. Standing still is visibility.
- Full and slow on the way back. A full salvage ship outruns nobody.
- No abort criterion. “The hold is nearly full” is the sentence before the loss.
Salvage ships are not warships. Breaking off is not failure but a planned part of the run – and it needs practice because it is slow.
Typical mistakes
- Calculating per wreck. Calculate per hour, including the return trip.
- Not pricing in standing still. It is the core of the risk.
- Guessing prices. Look them up, with a date.
- Never practising the abort. A slow ship that only leaves in an emergency leaves too late.
Next step
That completes the salvage path. The trading side is under cargo, the ready-made operation preparation under salvage run.