What this is about
Solo salvage is a cycle like solo mining – with one difference: the hold is usually full before the wreck is empty. Optimising therefore mainly means choosing the right wrecks and stopping in time.
Preparation
- Set salvage heads and modules before launch (see salvage components).
- Hold empty – a half-full ship halves the cycle.
- Fix the drop-off point before you leave.
- Know what your ship carries: the slots are in Vulture and Reclaimer.
Tasks and roles
Solo you do everything in sequence: search, position, scrape, sort the cargo. Cargo is the item most people underestimate – sorting it only at the end costs time and sometimes space (see cargo handling).
Equipment
The values of salvage heads, scraper modules and tractor beams are in tables from the game data in salvage components. Solo, a fit that gets through a whole run without changes pays off – refitting en route costs more than the difference gains.
Solo you operate scanner, salvage heads and tractor beam alone. Focus and beam spacing are the two controls that decide your speed.
| Game action | Default keyboard/mouse | Default joystick | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toggle Scanning Operator Mode | V | not bound by default | toggle |
| Activate Scanning | Mouse left | not bound by default | hold |
| 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 |
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
- Transit. Straight into the field.
- Find a target. Scan instead of searching; the nearest wreck is rarely the best.
- Position. Hold still, distance matching the beam.
- Scrape. Use focus and beam spacing instead of just holding the trigger (see hull scraping).
- Stop when full. Do not finish the wreck – the hold decides.
- Back and hand in. In one go.
- Straight back out.
- Goal
- Fly a complete solo salvage run without idle time and know your own cycle time.
- Preparation
- A salvage ship, a known wreck field, a drop-off point within range. Run a clock.
- Task
- Fly three complete cycles: out, find the target, scrape until the hold is full, back, hand in. Time each cycle and note where the time goes – transit, search, scraping or return. In the next cycle improve only the biggest item.
- Success criterion
- You know your cycle time and which of the four sections is the longest for you.
- Partner
- required
- Functions needed
- Toggle Scanning Operator Mode
- Activate Scanning
- Toggle Fire Focused
- Toggle Fire Left
- Toggle Fire Right
- Toggle Fire Fracture
Risk and reward
A stationary salvage ship is an easy target, and a full one is slow. Wrecks often lie where something happened before – that is not a coincidence but a hint.
On the return: what the material brings is decided by the market. Prices with a measurement date are in the OMC trade hub; this guide deliberately contains no aUEC figure.
Typical mistakes
- Trying to finish the wreck. Your hold is the limit, not the wreck.
- Taking the nearest wreck. A bigger one two kilometres away is usually the better cycle.
- Sorting cargo only at the end. Costs space and time.
- Drifting while scraping. A drifting ship scrapes worse and longer.
Next step
More throughput than solo only works with crew salvage. Whether a run pays off is in risk and reward.