Salvage

Salvaging a Field

Salvage field after a battle

Salvaging is the art of turning one men's trash into another men's treasure: "Sun Tzu probably"

Salvaging is a core activity in Vanguard Galaxy. Salvage fields which occur naturally, through random events, missions, through Salvage Claims, or can be player-generated after every battle. They contain contain ship wrecks, which can be salvaged for scrap.

Scrap can be sold for profit, refined in the Refinery in order to produce refined materials for further use, or in case of already-usable salvaged materials - used directly for crafting in the Forge. In addition to salvaging scrap and materials, player can salvage entire modules, such as turrets or ship parts, which can be used directly.

While any ship can salvage, dedicated salvage ships grant significant bonuses. For more info on ship roles, see Ships.

Surface and Structural Salvaging

Available salvage listed

Wrecks contain scrap in three layers: Items, Surface and Structural.

Unlike Mining, all scrap within a wreck is visible at a glance, with the exception of Items. Only those items with a positive (0%+) chance of being salvaged will be shown.

While all wrecks contain surface and structural salvage, only some contain lootable items. Those that do will glow faintly in the color of the highest rarity of the items contained. Thus, a wreck containing a Legendary module, for example, will glow orange.

Surface Salvage

Surface Salvage will salvage surface scrap. This is usually less rewarding but easier, as surface scrap is normally more common and worth less money.

In order to salvage surface scrap, a ship needs to have Salvage Laser or Salvage Drones.

Sample salvage laser:

Salvage laser drone:

Structural Salvage

Structural salvaging will salvage scrap contained in the structural section of a wreck. This activity is usually more difficult, but grants more rewarding scrap.

In order to structural scrap, a ship needs to have either a Salvage Grinder or Salvage Harpoon Drones.

Sample salvage laser:

Salvage harpoon drones:

Random Scrap

Of particular note is the ability for salvaging to generate random items not listed in the wreck scrap list. One can randomly generate Hull Beams, Graphite Wafers, Titanium Plates, Skeleton Frames and so on. Items generated this way can be processed in the Refinery for refined materials only if they themselves are not craftable in the Forge. Thus, a Titanium Plate will not be smeltable, but a Hull Beam will.

Salvaging skills such as No Need to Refine can generate already-refined canisters of raw materials, for direct use in the Forge.

This is the reason why salvaging (as opposed to mining) can be faster if one needs raw materials to craft own gear.

Salvage Fields and Salvage Claims

Salvage Field

Salvage Fields/Wrecks can spawn naturally, when defeating Enemies or accepting Salvage Missions. The chance of a wreckage spawning after a player battle can be boosted with the Skill Combat Salvager.

Salvage Fields can be found in most Systems. While regular Salvage Fields will replenish after 1 Hour when not visited in between, Salvage POIs unlocked trough Claims won't - once a Salvage Claim is drained of scrap it will stay that way until the player uses another Salvage Claim to receive a fresh field.

Claims can be either bought from Salvage Shops or from Salvage Scouts in a Bar.

Salvage Claim and an example of a Claim POI

Graveyard Systems

Graveyard system on a map

Graveyards have a much higher number of salvage fields (usually 3, in contrast to regular 0-1) which are also more profitable. They are also higher level than the surrounding systems, which translates to higher-value scrap.

In order to unlock a regular Graveyard system, one needs to buy a Gate Key from a Steel Vultures station within the same subsector. Within Conquest zone, no keys are required.

Graveyard systems occur randomly in the Frontier zone of the map. Within Conquest zone of the map, they also spawn - look for non-conquest Steel Vultures stations. See Navigation for more information.

Exmaple of a Graveyard system:

Salvage Yield

Disclaimer: This Picture is Ai generated

Yield determines the chance to spawn scrap when damaging a Wreck, while Salvage Power affects how much damage is dealt. As damage accumulates, reaching thresholds triggers scrap spawns based on Salvage Power. Higher Yield increases spawn chances and can be boosted by skills, crew, or equipment. With Yield Values over 100% there is a chance to create a second "drop" and so on, which does not apply to salvaging Items - only surface and structural scrap.

The extraction chance for Items is determined by the Salvage Yield - higher the yield, more items will be available for potential extraction.

Each time an item is extracted successfully, chance to extract remaining items is penalized.

Normally, the level of the Wreck is based on the level of the enemy, and the level of the items salvaged is based on the level of the wreck - if the enemy is below or equal to the player maximum level.

Note: A level 100 enemy will not leave a level 100 wreck. Level of the wreck/items generated is unclear, and depends on player maximum level - only level 105+ enemies leave lvl75 items, and it's unknown what is required for lvl 76 items.

Different salvage tools may have different yield values.

Tool	Yield
Salvage Laser	60%
Salvage Laser Drone	60%
Salvage Grinder	60%
Salvage Harpoon Drone	60% (assumed)

Salvage Drops and enhancements trough Skills

Salvaging a field

Different salvage skill allow for more valuable scrap and items to be generated in addition to normal scrap. This means when a piece of scrap is retrieved, there is a chance to spawn one or more of additional items.

Skills that greatly enhance the Drops from salvaging Wrecks

		Byproduct from "Clean Retrival" skill: Circuit board Conduit Cell Durable Alloy Universal Catalyst Substable Wiring
		Byproduct from 'No Need to Refine" skill: All Canister of Refined materials

Environmental Hazards

Hazard Protection Booster can be bought at most Salvage Shops

Akin to Asteroid fields, the Salvage Fields may contain a Hazard - such as Cold, Mines, Radiation, Corrosion etc. These are naturally occurring and are generated from the Ancient Wrecks themselves - wrecks resulting from player combat or claims will normally not generate additional hazards. Once a wreck has been scrapped the hazard around it will vanish.

Boosters granting protection from hazards can be purchased or crafted. One can equip multiple Protection Boosters but each will reduce half of hazard exposure left, so full immunity is not possible to achieve. In the long term, investing in better shielding or repair nanites for armor is recommended.

Salvage Lists

Surface and Structural Salvage drop different Scraps, with fragments being the least valuable and containing least refinable resources:

• Scrap: Fragment -> Shard -> Scrap -> Chunk -> Slab -> Core Chunk
• Structural: Titanium Plate, Tungsten Carbide, Graphite Wafers, Oxide Canister, Skeleton Frame, Hull Beams, Bulkhead, Computing Unit
• Items: Any Module or Turret, Blueprints

Scrap spawn levels

Minimum salvage scrap level (salvage POI or wreck level) at which each scrap tier can first appear.

Scrap	Fragment	Shard	Scrap	Chunk	Slab	Core Chunk	Found in
Titanium	1	1	11	41	71	101	Surface
Oxide	1	1	11	41	71	101	Surface
Tungsten	1	1	11	41	71	101	Surface
Silicon	1	1	11	41	71	101	Surface
Carbon	1	1	11	41	71	101	Surface
Platinum	1	1	11	41	71	101	Structural
Iridium	1	1	11	41	71	101	Structural
Astatine	1	1	11	41	71	101	Structural