Shipbreaking guide

Overview

A somewhat comprehensive guide to breaking apart and salvaging all ship types present in the game as of 0.4 version

Main concepts

Without wasting time, let’s get into the main concepts in the art of shipbreaking.

First and most impotant objective for you as a salvager is to stay alive.
When you see a pipe leaking fuel or coolant, a reactor going critical, a power supply throwing lighting around or just a metal panel spinning wildly in your direction – find a way out and put some distance between you and the source of danger. Death means wasted money (resurrection fee), wasted time (resurrection and time for positioning) and on higher difficulties it means loss of life.

Second objective is to salvage as much stuff as you can.
That means:

• Making as little cutting with the splitsaw as possible because it doesn’t just separate things, it removes a fairly reasonable chunk of material which costs money
• Focusing on making cuts,burning things and disassembing in this exact order: Disconnect by grappler – cut points – cut beams – burn connecting beams.
• Preserving objects and materials based on their depositing point:
  1. Barge
  2. Processor
  3. Furnace
• Focusing on doing as little damage to “damageable” things as possible – you can see the health of the object shown as yellow/red boxes near it.
  

• Recover any and all data drives. Data drives can produce recoverable data in your hab which will generate 100LT per recovery. It is important to salvage every type of ship as some data only spawn on certain classes and types (ie Gecko Salvage Runner, Mackerels, etc) Also look behind your hab for a one time drive taped to it for a free 100LT
• And last – salvage even damaged things, if a panel, computer, sensor tower got damaged too much – it still can be salvaged in the Furnace. This will double as keeping your workspace clean. Nothing is worse than trying to chuck something into the barge only to ricochet off a destroyed computer terminal destroying or sending it off into the void

We have 3 end destinations for salvage:

• Barge which is at the bottom of the bay which gives us highest amount of money per salvage – to the barge go pretty much all items in the ship: furniture, reactor, engines, nacelles (boosters), computers, switches, cargo – almost everything small and complex
• Processor which is located both on the left and right sides in the front of the bay – this thing salvages the more hefty stuff like the outer shell/casing of the ship, “armor”, structural beams, doors and pipes.
• Furnace which is located on the left and right sides behind the processor – it takes in everything broken (you damaged a computer too much – in the furnace it goes), glass and aluminium panels which make the interior of the ship.

Both of the present ships can be broken into 3 main sections: Bow or nose of the ship – middle section – Stern or the back side.

Tools and Tricks

Grapple
Grapple is our biggest friend, it’s used for both moving yourself and stuff around in space, I’m not going to repeat after the tutorial only mention some important findings:
– Holding onto big stuff and pulling yourself closer is a great way to travel and saved my ass several times, it’s basically your last resort to pull yourself out of furnace or processor as their gravitational pull is too strong to escape using only your jetpack
– The strength with which you can move things around depends not only how far you try to move it by changing your aim direction but also on how far you are from the object, it’s way easier to manipulate big things from a distance than from up close
– Charged push you unlock later in the game is has been greatly improved as of version 0.40, it can get the small portion of Mackerel hulls into the processor quicker.

Cutter
Again, I am only going to say smaller important notes.
Stinger is way more precise and it’s way harder to get yourself blown up or frozen with it. It doesn’t push you around as the splitsaw does. With that said, the Stinger is a precise tool, it’s good for young cutters getting their bearings in unfamiliar places, but as cutters get more experience they will gravitate towards the workhorse of the cutter.

As a cutter gets experienced they will lean towards the Splitsaw for the vast majority of their cutting needs. Even at its initial level it has a range of 5m meaning it can easily hit 2+ cut points with each fire. This range get larger with each range upgrade going to a max of 20m. At this range it will greatly reduce the time it takes to deshell both Mackerels and Geckos. The down side, as stated above, that an inattentive, inexperienced, or reckless cutter can inadvertently cut through volatile items causing detonations, salvage destructions, or loss of Lynx-owned human assets.

Demo Charges
A small expensive charge designed to cut through all material and cut points. They can be use to cut chunks of nanocarbon and titanium if the needs arise! There is an upgrade called “Auto Deploy” that allows thrown charges to stick to surfaces for 4250LT. DO NOT GET THIS UPGRADE! Thrown charges spin in transit meaning that it is highly likely that the orientation of the charge will deviate and potentially require you to disarm to rectify. For 4250LT at rank 22, you can get more useful, cheaper equipment upgrades like O2 Capacity III (Rank 20 3400LT), O2 Recharge III (Rank 21 2500LT), Splitsaw Range IV (Rank 22 2450LT), Tether Count III (Rank 18 3250LT), etc.

Hands!
These two appendages most humans have come especially useful in space. And weird thing is our character is very strong for someone who’s apparently a space worker. By holding Z or X you can extend left or right hand respectively and grab onto things, now where is this useful?

• manipulating large objects at a distance more easily while staying in place by holding on to something heavy
• Saving yourself from plunging face first into stuff by grabbing onto something
• Crawling around the ship if you have no fuel in your jetpack (never happened to me but yeah (pls bump up the fuel burn rate))
• Holding onto walls while decompressing parts of the ship to avoid being hit in the face by a cargo pellet and getting thrown across the room

Important to note that you can only hold onto parts of the ship, the jax (the huge yellow thingies floating around) and your habitat. You can’t hold onto parts of the station and pull yourself out of furnace (for now you have to use grapple for that) (pls fix).

And the last thing to note is actually pulling things apart
You already know about using tethers and grapple from the tutorial but you should also think about using your jetpack, it’s actually the second strongest way to move stuff in space (after several tethers of course). So if you don’t know if you’ve cut the thing free or not – just push into it and see if it budges or not.

There are several ways to make your tool do more work for you then you realize. These methods can either allow you to ferry multiple objects, make you go faster, or salvage materials faster.

Sling Shooting
In the early game, your thrusters will not have a lot of speed. To circumvent this, use you grappler on either the jack or an immensely heavy object and press the reel button. This will allow you to gain speed towards the object going faster than your thruster can take you. This is useful when you are in a crisis situation or wish to move about quickly. NOTE: Keep an eye on your speed, when the numbers are red it means that if you hit an object your suit will take damage. This starts at speeds greater than 10m/s. Braking just under this threshold and hitting a heavy or immovable object is a good way to make a quick stop.

Daisy Chaining
The first trick is called Daisy Chaining. This involves using tethers to tether multiple items together so that you only need to grab and push one item to ferry the rest to its final location. On of the advantages to this method is that outside of the daisy chained item you are directly interfacing with, the other tethered items will not move at fast speed. This is useful when dealing with fragile items like small fuel or coolant tanks. To daisy chain items start with two items, if they are items that first need to dislodge from a bulkhead, DO NOT tether other items to it. For reason I do not understand items that are in flux i.e items that are actively having the cut points destroyed or being dislodge will not be connected by that tether. This will result in the second tether attached to empty space and will act as an immovable attachment. Once the items are free floating you can tether a third object or another active daisy chain. Once you have connected all you want, tether or force push one of the items to its final destination.

Swing and Sling
Another grappler method one can use is what I call the Swing and Sling, usually when I have open and clear space to a destination. This method is good if you do not want to use too many tethers or have a few items you need to send to a destination quickly. Generally when you dislodge an object from the bulkhead, you then turn and maneuver so you force push an object to a its destination. While you are grabbing an object to dislodge, orient yourself so the object is out of sight, but the grappler is pointed to the final destination. Now listen the sound that indicates that the item is dislodged, as shortly afterwards it will race to be directly in front of the grappler. You will then need to time it that, as soon as it enters vision to let go so it keeps its maintains its current vector to the destination you are facing.

Additional notes.
Q:Do you get penalised for not getting to the hab before the time limit
A:No, you just get thrown into it by the end of time.

Q:Do you need to cut the doors free?/Is it worth to cut the doors free?
A:Absolutely yes. The panel holding the door is worth a meek 500$ while the door itself is worth 24k$ but cutting the door out can become a hassle and time consuming.

Q:Is it worth bothering with disassembling the lights?
A:Only if you’re a completionist. A light is worth only about 400$ – not worth the time in my opinion especially considering the amount of time it takes to pull them out and send them to the barge.

Now that we’re done with some basics let’s get to dissecting our first ship!

Mackerel – Overview

I am going to cover both types/professions of the Mackerel together because differences between them are very very minor.

Important note – the early mackerels you get won’t get some of the features I will cover, although the overall disassembly process is very similar.

Mackerel is a small nimble ship which functioned as an interstational transport for people or cargo. Generally it should only take one shift to get to salvage quota 3 on any Mackerel. The Mackerel has four types: light cargo, heavy cargo, transport, and exolab. The differences are as followed:

Transports (Station Hopper) – Transports cargo bay section is narrow and will be filled with seats, computer terminals, and food/drink debris. Main hazards: electrical from terminals
Light cargo – narrow cargo bay that is filled with various items ranging from fuel tanks, coolant tanks, electrical salvage, and non-volatile salvage. Main Hazards: (Varies heavily on ship’s cargo) Electrical, fire, or coolant

Heavy cargo – This type is the variant to the light cargo. Instead of a narrow cargo area, it is expanded to reach from nanocarbon bulkhead to nanocarbon bulkhead. This variant will have far less aluminum salvage compared to the other three types. Expect the interior to be densely populated with cargo, if not packed.

Exolab – This is a Mackerel specifical designed for science expeditions. The exterior will have large items that must be cut free from the inside before salvaging, remote arms or other equipment that can be pulled off with the grappler or tethers. The interior is densely packed with computer terminals that are separated into three compartments, each with a door between them. Extreme care is needed as to not cut into salvageable equipment. Within the compartments between the aluminum and nanocarbon bulkheads, will be electrical wires that must be removed before the nanocarbon section can be separated. Out of all the Mackerel classes, this can easily net upwards to $5M per ship. Main Hazards: Electrical from terminals (Extreme), Coolants

front view of a standard Mackerel

Side view

Back view

The two blue blips in the bottom are cooling containers. The red lines on the sides are fuel lines (and the reason why I argue against cutting from inside of the mackerel cargo bay into the “shell” of the middle section). Aside from those two it contains a simple engine and a reactor. Note, on occasion the reactor may be located between the aluminum and nanacarbon bulkheads. Should the reactor not appear in the far back on the ceiling look for it in the in-between spaces.

Mackerel – Beginning of dissection

Important variations that can be present are:

Reactor can be connected by a fuel pipe to the engine and you’d have to flush the fuel before disconnecting the two. Sometimes you’d have to find the keys – an tiny but important with which the object scanner can help. I always suggest trying to flush without finding the keys tho – sometimes our character just has them. If you do still need them – they’re usually floating around in the cockpit, in one of the side “shells” (the portions between the cargo/passenger bay and the outer panels of the ship to the left and right sides of the ship) or just in the cargo bay.

The small pink line in the middle is the keys.

They don’t look so important now but trust me when we get to Gecko they’ll make or break the ship.

My overall suggestion on the order of dissecting a Mackerel is this

• remove everything you can reach from the outside of the ship without getting inside – antennas, the “armor” panels and beams, sometimes you can remove the boosters. Although do not touch the engine panel or the glass in front.
• Enter the ship through the hatch and decompress the ship (you do not need to open the door to the cockpit (it opens automatically) or the door in the cargo bay (due to the hole under it))
• Open the hatch to the space through which you entered – this way you won’t forget about a pressurised airlock if there is one.
• Flush the fuel from the reactor pipe if needed and if you don’t need to get the keys which are in a side compartiment (if you need to – then find them after separating nose of the ship from the rest of the body and only then flush the engine)
• Start cutting almost all the cut points you see. And don’t be lazy – cut them with the stinger, not the splitsaw because the internal walls of the Mackerel are made from aluminium which you can cut accidentially which would at best result in you losing some of the material.
• Do not cut the points in the last section of the ship – the 8 you see in this picture – if you haven’t found the keys yet. Do so only after you’ve found them and disconnected the fuel line

An example of the cut point

After you’ve done with cutting the internal cut points you’d have at least 2 separate “big” parts (aside from the bunch of small panels you should’ve sent flying to their destination) – the nose and the middle. Sometimes the back side would come free too but it’s not the rule – the fuel containers can hold it in place. Let’s proceed with dissecting each part separately

Mackerel – Front dissection

First of all – give the freed front section a push with your jetpack or just pull it away with a tether.

Now that you have your meal cut for you it’s time to lighten it up.

Cut the cut points on the sides (with a stinger due to presence of coolant barrels) and pull the shells to processor.

Now we can get to clearing out the cockpit. First incinerate the 4 brown-gray beams you see going around the door. This will partly free the door assembly. To free it completely get into the cockpit and pull away the cargo containers – don’t pull them out just yet, just disconnect them. Once done with that the door part will come free and you can either throw it into furnace or burn the sides of it to free the door and send it into processor.

Cutting out the door free and sending it to processor nets you 24k while just sending the whole panel into the furnace nets you a meek 500 dollaridoos. CUT ALL THE DOORS FREE

After you’ve cleared out the entrance to the cockpit you can pull everything out of it.

A good trick is disconnecting stuff and then tethering the main assembly away – making it float away and letting you to float above the freely floating stuff and easily send it in the direction of the barge.

Cut out the glass with the splitsaw. (Trust me – it costs plenty)
Now to disconnect the aluminium panels from the outer shell.
Now look closely – you need to evaporate the 8 beams (highlighted in purple – in game they look cyan) which are connecting the internal aluminium assembly together and hold it to the beams of the outer shell.

You can access them from outside.

Now you can pull out the aluminium panels and send them into the furnace while sending the leftovers into processor

Mackerel – Middle section dissection

Now to dissecting the middle part of Mackerel

Basically there are 2 parts to mackerel’s middle section :

• The inner one made from aluminium which houses electronics, fuel canisters, cargo pellets, various pickups and reactor
• the outer ones which houses fuel canisters, fuel pipes, power cell and holds up boosters

We will begin with outer sections as most likely you’ve already cut the cut points for inner flooors and ceilings.

First things first – you want to drain the pipes so it’s less of a tense situation. After that you can cut the cut points, here you can actually easily use the splitsaw.

After that you can cut the cut points and send the shells into the processor. Strip down the power cell once done with that, I advise doing that after removing the shells as the power cell likes to spike the surrounding stuff and can easily zap you.

Depending on the construction you may need to cut away the boosters at their cut points and pipes if there are such, and the last section might be attached to the back side of the ship by the fuel canister – disconnect it and send it to the barge. After that – do the same on the other side.

Now to more weird stuff – what to do with the hatch.

Fry away the thin white lines on the sides of the hatch to free the door

Here it is.

After you cut out the cut point you need to position yourself inside the hatch just peeking inside – like shown at the picture. After that you can rotate around and make cuts separating the hatch from the rest of the ship, this is better than cutting from outside because it’s way easier to see if your cut actually disconnected stuff or not.

To cut away the bottom part just make a cut just across the panel holding them together.

Once done with outer sides you can move to the inner part. Just position yourself above the remains of the ship and send stuff flying directly down to the barge.

Do not forget to cut out the inner door.

Once done with that you’re going to have a nice clean skeleton of the ship that preserves as much aluminium as possible which you can send flying into the furnace.

Mackerel – back side dissection

This part is actually the easiest.

Just cut the cut points on the engine cap (again with a stinger – you can slice through the cap), and pull out the engine.

If the engine doesn’t pull out – then go the other side and disconnect it. (It’s mechanical and doesn’t need any power.)

After that just send the last part to Processor and you’re done. Mackerel dissected

Javelin

The Javelin will be the second ship class you will encounter during the story mode. The Javelin typically takes two or three shifts to salvage quota three, though it is sometimes possible to get the small variant done in one shift. Both the Javelin and the demo-charges were introduced during the “Business is Booming” update. This is highlighted with how a few methods to salvage it requires the demo-charges, as well as, at higher hazard levels the exterior cut points will upgrade to the point that demo-charges will be the only that can cut them. We will discuss those methods later, first let’s get familiar with the Javelin types. Currently the Javelin comes in two types, but can vary in length depending on the hazard level selected.

Refueling – The refueling class of the Javelin is a ship that will have two small independent habitable spaces on either side of the Javelin. The namesake comes from the middle section where various large external fuel tanks will be present on the outside or inside of the framework structure. This type regardless of size tends to not be complicated and with practice and finesse can be torn down with ease. Hazards – Fire (Moderate – extreme depending on number of tanks), Reactor II (First introduced canonically in this class)

Heavy Cargo – The second class of the Javelin that carries two small independent habitable spaces or even one large multi-tiered section and one smaller reactor section. The main difference with this type is the introduction of large cargo crates bolted on the side of the ship. This type can quickly become a tether hog, especially with a fully loaded cargo Javelin. Cutters with lower qualification may require two or more tethers to get a container into the barge due to tether time outs. Hazards – Explosive decompression (When coupled with the larger habitable areas, will have multiple sections that can’t be depressurized safely and sections that must be breached. This can result in damage through fast debris or damaged electronics/heat sinks), Fire (Fuel tanks inside the middle structure)

Javelin Refueler Forward Section Tips

The forward section will consist of the main living quarters, electrical components, and primary ion ring of the Javelin. First we will start with the ion ring, if present.
Depending on the hazard rating, the ion ring will be held by one of two types of cut points. One you that can be cut by your splitsaw/stinger or must be cut with a demo-charge. The process is the same regardless. Now one would be tempted to cut all cut points on the ion ring and deposit all pieces in the barge. While this is a legitimate way of doing this, it is actually easier to cut all cut points connecting the ion ring to the Javelin and cutting one cut point on the connecting all of the upper ion ring pieces.

Cutting all cut points will require you to utilize 6, maybe 7, tethers to get all pieces into the barge. While using the above method will utilize 3, maybe 4, tethers. With the top most section connected to a side will allow the top piece to roll off the Javelin and into the barge without having to maneuver it or the Javelin to salvage. Also it saves a tether by using only one for two pieces. Much like using one or two the deposit the bottom ion ring.
The next step we will discuss the Javelin cockpit. As you may have noticed it differs greatly from a Mackerel in that it is independent of the Javelin. My first suggestion is to not cut the two exterior cut points on top of the cockpit first. These cut points are what is keeping the structure in place and if the airlock is opened and pressurized you will cause an explosive decompression event and potentially jettison the cockpit.
Once we are inside there will be four cut points on the inside of the cockpit. There will be two in the front holding the window, one on the ceiling, and one on the back wall. Cutting all four will dissemble the cockpit into three separate pieces. My suggestion is getting inside the cockpit, depressurize, and cut the forward most cut points as this will disconnect the window assembly entirely which the whole thing can be sent into the furnace.
With the window removed, you can choose to remove everything through the newely opened area, or you can cut the remaining two cut points, remove the side wall, and empty the cockpit. Once emptied cut the remaining two cut point on the exterior and process.

Once all exterior items are removed, the next best step is to move inside and depressurize the compartment between interior and exterior bulkheads. Unfortunately, if it is not already unpressurized you will need to depressurize the living quarters and open a hatch, as there will be no pressure regulator in this space. Once down its best to the cut points right before the airlock hatches as the forward most hull can be disconnected as one piece and tethered into the processor. Note, make sure to disconnect any heat sinks or other vital items before it hits the processor.

Medium to large container Javelins will have extended living quarters. The biggest problem is that it will be interconnected to the outer bulkheads meaning extended work will be required to salvage.

Javelin Heavy Cargo Forward Section Tips

This section will discuss the three methods to salvage the inner and outer portions of the living quarters. This portion took me the longest to figure out due to the nature of the circular outer hull and that it only connected to the living quarters. Which method you use will depend on your preference and whether you have demo-charges. Regardless of method we are going to need to depressurize the in-between space. And cut all cutpoints connecting the hull to the living quarters. The best and quickest method I have found is to cause an explosive decompression event by opening all pressurized doors then cutting free one of the panels that held a cargo container. But as all ships are different in various ways, you may face more resistance because some compartments may not have been pressurized.

Method 1: Onion Rings
This will be your first option if you do not own demo-charges. I find this to be the most difficult and time consuming method of the three, as it requires you to tether the hull rings straight out from around the living quarters to clear it and then tether it to the processor. This will leave you with just the living quarters which you can process as you wish.

Method 2: Slide Out
This is going to be your second non-demo-charge method where we will cut one end of the living quarters, empty it, clean cut somewhere in the middle, pull it out, and repeat. Without demo-charges this is my go to method. After you depressurize the inside you’ll want to come in from one side, if you clear out the middle section, coming from that would be the best way as it will give you the most space. Remove that airlock section completely and connecting bulkheads. Removing the bulkhead will require burning away the long aluminum connectors with the stinger. If the airlock bulkhead will not break away, make sure there are no storage bins, aluminum panels, or other objects that are connected to it or other bulkheads. Make sure to remove all interior cut points as they will impede your progress.
With the bulkhead gone, clear out all items that do not need to go into the furnace until you reach the hatch at a minimum. Just on the other side of the hatch we will make several cuts on all four bulkheads and the aluminum connectors so that it completely separates. Once separated use a tether to slide out the living quarters until it clears the hull pieces. Send that piece into the furnace. If the section you cut out contains the power generator, make sure you remove all three fuses (two in the forward portion of the section and one in aft portion) before grappling the power generator to be sent into the barge. Once cleared, tether hull pieces until they reach the section you cleared and then repeat the process.
Method 3: Rib Breaker
With demo-charges this is my main method of salvaging the living quarters as it will remove all of the hull pieces out early and quickly. Much like the first two methods the prep work is the same, depressurize and cut cut points. Once prepped, we will begin using our scanner to find the structural ribs from the outside.
I place charges on the outside and towards the middle in part of the distance the demo-charges cut into, this tends to keep most of the interior salvage safe from destruction. We will place one demo charge on each rib on both the bottommost and topmost hull, it should look similar to this.
At this point you can final prep by tethering either side to opposite processors. If you choose this, ensure both sides are tether and you give it time to finish adjusting, otherwise the hull will be shifted out of position offsetting what the charge will cut on the interior. Detonate and you should be left a fully exposed living quarters. If a hull section does not separate, check to make sure a cut point or rib was missed.

Javelin Middle Section Tips

The middle section of the Javelin comes in three phases: primary fuel removal, cage/support removal, and internal fuel removal.

We will lead with the primary fuel removal as this is the low hanging fruit of this section. These items will usually come in two configurations: lone fuel brackets or a line of three large fuel tanks, each attached to a bracket, with a grey fuel disk connected on either with a fuel tank. Using a grappler or tether, you can separate the grey disk from the fuel tank. This information will become vital when removing internal fuel tanks.
These fuel tanks are physically attached to the cage of the Javelin via the fuel bracket. Cutting all three yellow cut points will allow you to remove the fuel for salvage. To do so, it is best to leave all three tanks attached and then tether the middle large fuel tank to the interior edge of the barge. Doing so allows enough horizontal pull to slide the bracket out of the cage and begins its journey to the barge.
Next we will talk about cage removal. Depending on the equipment you have and the material of the cage itself will determine whether you completely salvage one end or other or if you can jump into this process. If you have demo-charges or the cage is made of materials you can cut with your cutter, you can go right into removal. Note: if you are at a sufficiently high hazard level and qualification, exterior cut points will be upgraded to a higher level requiring demo-charges. At this point only the second method will become your main to process the cage

Method 1: Sliding the Cage
This method should only be used if you intend to salvage the cage to meet quota, but have yet to unlock demo-charges and the material is made of nanocarbon/titanium. This process will require you one end of the Javelin to either be processed or removed in a way that you can slide the cage off. To start we will cut the inner frame as close as we can on both sides, as well as all inner cut points. Process the end that you intend to slide through. You will know if the frame is free when the frame is highlighted blue when pulled by the grappler. Tether the frame to the far bulkhead to clear the cage and then tether to the furnace. The frame may have fuel in it, at which case cut it free after the frame has been fully pulled, but before it is sent to the furnace. You should then be able to tether the cage and send it to the processor. If the cage will not pull free, use your cutter to cut the black panels on the ends. Sometimes they are mated together.

Method 2: Cracking the Cage
Once you acquire the demo-charges, this method should be your go to for handling the cages. This method can be enacted much sooner and is much quicker. Though depending on the configuration of the cage, you may need to ensure the engine compartment or the compartment between the living quarters and the outer hull are depressurized as the demo blasts may bleed into those areas.
To start, place demo-charges on each of the angled struts and then on the struts directly opposite. This will allow the cage to break in a way that you will not be forced to tether around the frame. Before you detonate the charges ensure that you place charges in pairs on the inner cut points. If you place the first one on the upper aft cut point the next one will be the upper forward cut point. This is because demo-charges detonate in the order you place them. If you have a lot of ship left, the demo-charge should not exert enough force to move the ship, but if you have a small amount left improper placement could send it in an unpredictable manner. Also ensure the charges are on the inner or outer side of the cut point. Personally I center the charge on the hexagon of the cut points to remain consistent.

Demo-Charge placement (C=cut point D=Demo-charge)
CD DC or DC CD

It should look very similar to the below image. Pre-detonation
Post-detonation you can easily tether the lower cutted cage section to one processor, while you send the other piece to the opposite processor.

The last step in the middle section is salvaging the internal tanks, if applicable. There will usually be at least one large fuel tank and either one or more gray connectors. First, grapple the grey tanks to fully disconnect it from any attached fuel tanks. Next, carefully cut away the aluminum strut with either your stinger or splitsaw. This is because the tank is too wide to fit between the aluminium struts or the through the cage. With no struts or cages in the way just tether it to the barge. On container Javelin the only difference is cutting the fuel pipe connecting the tank to the fuel splitter with the splitsaw.

Javelin End Section

In this section we will discuss ways to salvage the engine compartment of the Javelin. The Javelin can have either a class 1 or class 2 reactor. We will not talk about the class 1 reactor because by this point class 1 should be a routine job and the main method to separate the hull will be the same as salvaging a class 2 reactor. Now a class 2 reactor has four main components: fuel which is fed by engines, coolant fed by an environmental control unit (ECU), shielding with reactor plates, and the reactor itself. The reactor will remain stable as long as it is directly connected to a reactor plate that has an active fuel or coolant line. Once the reactor loses access to both lines are either severed or shut off, the reactor will start melting down. One can choose to forcefully remove the reactor before shutting off the lines, but doing so will automatically reduce its durability as well as cause the reactor to spark much earlier.

First off we need to depressurize the engine compartment if it isn’t already. If both the ECU room and the area the reactor is in are pressurized, depressurize the ECU room and then open the door between the two as there is no pressure regulator in the reactor compartment. Next like the forward compartment we will want to first cut the cut points on the hull just before you get to the reactor. Doing so will allow us to slide the back portion to the wall giving us space to work on the reactor. Now leave that compartment and go to the thruster plate in the rear and then remove. We want to ensure that the thruster plate is not connected to the class 2 thruster, otherwise the rear portion will not slide off.
If this or something similar happens, just use the grappler on the thruster and it should dislodge. With the thruster plate removed, attach 2-4 tethers connecting the rear most bit of the hull to the back wall.
Now the hull moves close enough to the wall it should expose the reactor and the thruster. I find it best to remove the thruster and fuel first, because if the thruster flames out, the shielding will help protect the reactor incase something funny happens. To do so, there will be a handle on the piece that connects the fuel pipe to the thruster. Activate it and tether or grapple the thruster to the barge. Now that we reach this point, use the grappler and remove the shielding from the reactor and throw them into the processor. Removing all the shielding will also disconnect the top reactor plate, throw it into the barge. Now the last step is deactivating the ECU. Using the grappler, remove the aluminum panel to reveal three coolant bottles. Remove all three with your grappler to start the countdown. Note: the coolant bottles are treated similarly to consumables, ensure you do not accidentally force push the bottle otherwise it will rupture and damage you and objects around you.
Now go back outside and grapple/tether the reactor into the barge, so that we may move on to salvaging the ECU. The simplest way I found is cutting away the four long connecting bars using the stinger. This will dislodge the entire panel allowing you to use it to pull the whole unit out.
Once out, cut away the connecting coolant pipe and tether the ECU into the barge. The panel it is connected to is not fully aluminum to be sure to send it to the processor and not the furnace.
Now for that rear section we tethered to the wall, we can salvage it all in one piece. Due to its size and its current location we will need to place tethers in a few key locations on the processor wall. Typically you will want sections closest to your desired processor to be tethered just inside the processors hazard lines. Next tether the portion furthest from the desired processor to connect a decent distance outside of the hazard line. This should ease the hull in a wall that it doesn’t accidentally get pulled into the furnace, wasting it. With that, salvage the rest of the rear compartment as you will.

On a side note, on container Javelins there will be a second cockpit located back here. It is different to the forward cockpit in that its connection to the Javelin is by a piece called the aerobridge as seen below.
Salvaging is as simple as using the splitsaw and cutting as close to both edges as you can and sending it to the furnace. Just remember to pull out all door handles and lights before processing. Fun fact about the rear cockpit is that there is usually a credit chit in a space located under the seat. Removing the window will reveal the hidden compartment area that you can easily access. In my personal experience, it is never valued more than $9K.

Gecko – Overview

Where Mackerel was more like its namesake – a fish, thus – had a more or less clear front, bottom and middle parts, Gecko is nothing like an actual gecko. It’s more like an onion.

Front

Side

Behind
It is way more big and complex than the small Mackerel and its professions/types vary vastly. As its smaller companion Gecko has 2 very similar types:
– Transport – basically a passenger vessel. It has a very clear difference between inner shell and outer shell and is the most difficult ship to dissect in my opinion. Although it does have the highest value in game.
– Industrial – a cargo freighter full of containers and with at least a pair of huge cargo doors. Its inner shell is more like a suggestion and it’s way less defined.

Top view of a transport gecko. Note the sensor array and two entrances on the front of the ship.

Gecko has three fully developed systems – power, fuel and cooling. Key to disassembiling them is that you have to disassemble power only after you’re done powering down the fuel system as if you do it before that the terminal for flushing the pipes will go dark.

Gecko – First approach and preparation for dissection

First thing you should do when spawning in to work on a gecko is to identify if it has sensor tower(s).

If it does – you need to grab on to the platform of your habitat and carefully pull the tower up and then move it very slowly towards you – once it moved past the ship just tether it to the barge. Reason we want to do this this way is that it’s a very heavy piece of machinery and it’s insanely sensitive – more than the reactor or power supply. You don’t want to try to fly around with this thing and you don’t want it to move too quickly.

After that we can finally approach the ship.

If your ship is the industrial type – remove the antennas and fry/cut away the panels sticking out by cutting the beams holding them. Do the latter using the stinger, not the splitsaw (if you want to use the splitsaw – crawl under the panel and cut away from the ship)

The panel underneath them is cuttable and you can easily cut into it which would result in you turning it into scrap and losing money in the best case (in the worst you’ll have an explosive decompression).

After all this you can finally enter the ship – the entrance(s) to transport variant is located on the front while industrial variant has them on the back. Important note – if your ship has 2 airlocks then your job is a little easier, if not – then you’ll have to deal with some additional mounted components.(I’ll show working on 1 airlock variant because dealing with the second airlock is exactly the same as dealing with the first.)

Now you need to decompress the whole ship – start by decompressing the main room after the airlock (cargo bay or passenger room depending on the type) and cycling the airlocks.

Do make sure you have both doors in airlocks opened to the space.

After this – walk around the ship opening all doors. In the passenger variant you’d need to also access the outer layer by finding the hatch located in the room shown in the picture.

A handy (pun intended) way to avoid getting thrown around by the air escaping from the room is to hold on to the nearby wall with a hand.(If you time it right – you can even crawl into the room as it vents out.)

After you decompressed the whole ship you need to first try to vent the fuel without the keys, if the system still needs them – find them (if you can’t – then pray to god as the whole disassemby goes to hell – I will write a separate section on how to try to salvage the ship in this situation but I’ll write it assuming you already know how to disassemble the whole ship – so I suggest you go to that section only if you already know disassembing the ship with fuel flushed – if you don’t know so and this is your first full disassembly – abandon ship and reroll until you can flush the fuel).

Now that we powered down fuel system – the last part of preparation for breaking apart the Gecko is separating the cabin from the outer shell of the ship.

To do this head to cabin and remove the furthest storage bins from the wall – you can send them deeper into the ship so they are easier to work around.

Dissapointingly there’s no elegant way to separate the cabin from the outer shell as we could do so with Mackerel, we need to make cuts to preserve as much aluminium as we can.

Use the scanning function to find the best positions for cuts – be very careful when cutting – there are coolant tanks around usually. Start cutting with the walls as they’re the most difficult ones, cutting floor and ceiling is just connecting the cuts in the walls.

To find the proper position align yourself so you’re just below the outer plate of the ship with the horisontal line of your cutter staying a little bit below the plate.

Cut across the wall

Continue the cut down. Then do the same thing to the other wall.

Cut the floor and the ceiling connecting the cuts

Don’t forget to cut the beams but be very careful to not hit anything other than the beams, that is especially relevant after you’ve upgraded your splitsaw distance. (if you can’t find a way to cut without cutting other stuff – just melt the beam or cut it from the outside of the cockpit)

After that I suggest separating all the stuff still connected to the shell – the driver seat and the computers.

I do not suggest wasting time on cutting out the thin line of glass as it’s more likely you’ll waste time on it and end up burning it down completely than you get to salvage anything.

And now we can finally start breaking apart the ship.

Gecko – Removing the outer shell.

Now you want to head into the front of the outer shell of the Gecko. It’s very easy to do so in the industrial variant, in the transport variant you can get there through the hatch mentioned in the previous section of the guide.

There you want to start cutting all the points at the bottom of the front section. It will break the front into 3 heavy pieces. After we’re done with that we want to start cutting the inner pieces. With industrial variant it doesn’t matter where you head – to the top side or the bottom. Cut the cut points with either the splitsaw or the stinger although I still suggest the latter (Lower chance of accidentially cutting something else like the inner mounted components or cutting through the aluminium panels that are sometimes composing the outer shell.)

Important Cut the cut points up to the last section highlighted in the pic above – you want to keep that assembly together. (if you break it free – it’ll start floating around and it is located dangerously close to the furnace (as of 0.1) – it’s best to keep it in one piece until we clear the path for it forward into processor)

But in the transport variant I suggest first heading to the front bottom side – then to the top – then to the back bottom side. (You want to do so because in the transport variant there’s no way to go fully through the bottom)

In the industrial variant when cutting the bottom cutting points you also need to grapple the cargo containers mounted on the shell – just leave them floating around.

Another part when cutting the industrial variant – you need to cut away the points holding the cargo bay doors.

And cut the cut points for railings.

While cutting railing cut points – look out for hoist cut points – cut them free too.

Once all the cut points (except the ones in the back) are cut – you can head out of the ship and start pulling the pieces away. Start with the 3 frontal sections. Do keep an eye on the cockpit section to make sure it has broken away completely and don’t forget to send the free floating computers and a seat down to the barge.

Once the front section is clear you can start pulling away the smaller top and bottom middle sections.

Keep an eye for aluminium panels connected to the shell parts on the sides – cut them away with the splitsaw. If the panel is held together by 3 surrounding beams – I suggest cutting from the inside out.

If your ship has the waste disposal unit

cut the cut point keeping together the fume chute

pull it out by pulling out the panel on top of it and send to barge

send the panel to the furnace and the rest of the assembly to the Processor

If your ship has nacelles – cut them free

Do not forget to cut free the sensor arrays on the industrial version of Gecko and send them to the barge.

Sensor arrays have 4 cut points instead of 2.

In the industrial variant – pull the cargo containers down to the barge as they come free from the ship – it’ll make less of a mess.

Now to the constant headache point – what to do with the airlock?

First you want to cut the door free as we did with the Mackerel – by frying the white portions on the side of the door which will get it free.

Here’s the freed door.

Then we want to step just a little bit inside the airlock and make cuts with the splitsaw rotating around as shown in the pic.

Once that is done the door assembly should come free and you can send it to the processor (after your removed the entrance mechanism ofc)(if it doesn’t – then proceed with the guide and cut the small part connecting the shell to airlock, or redo your cuts). Sometimes a panel will come free – send it to furnace

But here’s an issue – the shell part still doesn’t want to come free – wat do?

We want to head down to the tiny beam connected to the section of the airlock and make a small cut setting it free like shown in the picture. The industrial variant will require 2 cuts or a single wide cut across the length

After all that is done you’re supposed to have an almost “free” inner portion of the ship.

This is what you should have in the transport variant.

And this is what you should have in the industrial variant.

Gecko – Removing the mounted elements and Power system

Now we’re going to deal with the stuff mounted on the inner assembly of the ship.

We have 2 types of mounted elements:

Heat sinks

Waste disposal units
(you’ll have WDUs only if you don’t have a second airlock)

Disconnecting the main “block” of the heat sink is quite easy and you can send it to the barge yourself.

After you’re done with that you want to fry away the aluminium panel holding the heat spreader panel (the system will shoult at you but it’s better than risking damaging it by cutting it off with a splitsaw). Once done with that – send the heat spreader into the processor.

Dealing with WDUs is even easier – just find the cut points shown in the pic above and fry them away with a stinger (you don’t want to damage the WDU or the piping). This will set the WDU free which you can send into processor (don’t forget the small leftover beams).

Now – what to do with the Power system and moreover – what do I do with those blinking red lights?

First you want to find the 3 fuse mounts and disconnect the fuses.

To do the latter you need to activate the levers only when there’s no lights.(seriously – for this info I had to go look on the dev streams, the ingame tooltip is absolutely useless.) If you mistime – you’ll get zapped for the half of your health – if this happened – don’t risk it and come to power system on the next shift. Interesting note – if you hold to the fuze mount with your hand – you’ll hear the beeps which may help with getting down the timing

Once the fuse is removed – collect it by hand and send the small black mount box to the barge

After all 3 fuses are removed you can disconnect the power generator without damaging it. Carefully pull it away and send to the barge by a tether.

Gecko – Dealing with the back part

Now that we’ve freed up some space we can finally deal with the back side.

First cut free the nacelles/boosters by cutting the cut points and sending the nacelles to the barge with tethers.

Make the cuts separating the 3 back pieces

Be careful – the smallest piece of the keel likes to fly off and can throw the engine around a bit.

Now to more complex part.

You want to tether the big side piece as shown in the pic – the flat frontal side to the farthest point of processor.

While the giant part is floating you have enough time to remove the fuel tanks sending them to the barge and pull away the engine tethering it down to the barge. But do keep an eye on the big part as it clears the furnace. You do not need to cut out the engine cap – it’ll get processed together with the piece alright.

Do the same on the other side

Now you can move the piece in the middle to processor it’s a bit lighter but you’ll have enough time to pull out the fuel tanks and afterwards send the last engine to the barge

Gecko – Transport var. – 2 last systems

Let’s start by removing the pipe assembly.

Fry the 2 pieces connecting the pipes to the reactor casing.

Now one of the pipes is connected to the wall – position yourself like this and fry it away

Disconnect the coolant pipe by frying it away and the whole pipe assembly should come free.

Now to the centerpiece of the ship – the reactor.

First you want to remove the inner shell of the reactor – just get close to it and disconnect each panel one by one and just leave them floating around (we do so before removing the outer shell because when you try to do it later – the panels start to wobble around and throw the reactor around which makes the whole thing more difficult.)

That will free the upper cap which you can send to the barge

Now to freeing the outermost shell of the reactor – do so by frying the outlined beams, blocks and pieces of the wall in the pic.Do not fry the red beam – it’ll blow up for some reason. It will preserve the whole assembly together which you can easily send to the furnace. (Important note about the aluminium structure – it’s supposed to go to the barge but the barge won’t accept it, in fact none of the ending locations accepts it – so just throw it into the furnace with the rest of the assembly and don’t care.)

Now tether the bottom cap to the barge too – do not touch the reactor – you’ll essentially send it together with its casing preserving as much of the reactor as possible and making you a lot of money.

Now let’s get to removing the Cooling system – the ECU.

(shown in the pic) (ECU is the box-computer looking thingie holding the cooling canisters) and disconnect the 3 canisters inside – you can grab them with your hands afterwards. Switch to splitsaw/stinger – that way you won’t bash them away with a grapple and break them.

First we want to cut free the panel next to the ECU – we do so by frying the 4 beams (shown in pic) holding it to the main assembly. DO NOT TRY TO FRY FREE THE PANEL RIGHT BEHIND THE ECU – IT WILL BLOW UP IN YOUR FACE Once the wall is free – send it to furnace.

Then we need to get inside of the ship and fry away the piece of the pipe connecting ECU to the wall

Then insanely carefully pull out the ECU (I never had a reactor unintenionally blow up in my face, but that happened to ECU several times) – and send it down to the barge.

Gecko – Transport variant – Salvaging insides

Now for the final stretch – disassembling the harmless insides of the ship.

Get in to the reactor control room and pull on the table in the middle setting the back wall free and letting you salvage it. After that disconnect everything in reactor control room and send stuff to their destinations.

Fry free the small hatch to the cargo room, empty it out. Fry free the ECU room door and the reactor control room door. Now you have 3 completely empty rooms we can send to furnace.

Fry them free from the main passenger room by frying the connecting beams around as shown in the pic, and after that send the 3 freed rooms to furnace.

Now for the tedious part – get into the passenger room and disconnect everything from their mounts – don’t send them down to the barge, there’s an easier way to do so instead of pulling it out and down.

Now separate the room from the rest of the ship by frying the connecting beams shown in the pictures.

And fry the leftover room into 2 big pieces – wall and floor / wall and ceiling by frying points shown in the pictures.

Move upper part to the furnace like shown in the picture.

Move the lower part as shown in the picture.

If done correctly now you’ll have a swarm of freely floating stuff. Now you can fly above the freely floating stuff and send it directly down to the barge

Clear out the airlock(s) by removing control panels, ladders and frying free the door(s).

If you have a waste room – fry out the door, disconnect everything there and salvage stuff. Afterwards get into the what I’m assuming is 1st class passenger section and fry free the door into it

Disconnect everything there and fry free the doors to computer room – leave stuff flying around. Get into the small cargo room and disconnect everything there too – send stuff flying into the 1st class room.

Separate cargo room + airlock/waste room from the rest of the ship by frying the beams and blocks shown in the pic

Salvage the 2 rooms, make sure to pull on the farthest part with the tether – it’ll make sure it doesn’t pull on the stuff in 1st class room.

Free the cockpit room by frying out the 4 beams we met in Mackerel connecting it to the rest of the “ship” then let it fly away from the main assembly a bit

Fry free the door. Salvage everything inside the cockpit and then salvage the cockpit itself. Afterwards send everything inside the computer/control room down to the barge

Send the leftover 3 rooms out to furnace

Throw everything left floating around into the barge

Congratulations, you’ve salvaged your transport Gecko

Gecko – Industrial variant – 2 last systems and the insides

Begin by removing the piping

Fry away the coolant pipe from the ECU wall

Fry it away from the reactor

And fry it away from the structure housing the reactor

Then fry away the fuel pipe from the engine

and fry it away from the wall too

Peel away the panels containing the reactor

Remove the reactor console

Gently pull the reactor out by holding onto the reactor casing and send both to the barge – again, together.

Send the leftover casing to the barge while sending the flying panels to the processor, clear out the airlocks – remove panels. doors, ladders

Now you can get to getting out the ECU

Cut out the wall holding next to it by frying these 4 beams DO NOT TRY TO FRY FREE THE PANEL RIGHT BEHIND THE ECU – IT WILL BLOW UP IN YOUR FACE AT BEST FREEZING SURROUNDING ROOM AT WORST BREAKING ECU Afterwards send the wall on its merry way, remove the ECU and send it down to the barge

Cut the bridge close to the leftover ship and send the airlocks and the piece of the bridge into the furnace

Cut the cabin free by frying the 4 familiar gray beams

Cut free the cabin door, clear out the cabin

Clear out the cabin and send the empty cabin into Furnace

Empty out the crew quarters, fry free the doors and empty out the 2 leftover rooms

Send the last piece of the ship into furnace

And congratulations – you’re done with industrial Gecko

Gecko – Removing the reactor (Only if you can’t flush the fuel)

Go through this section ONLY IF YOU CAN’T FIND THE KEYS

So, we can’t find the darn keys but we still want to pull out the reactor and continue salvaging the ship. This is a very difficult part because we’ll have to pull out a reactor at half health by hand and attempt to salvage as many engines as we can all while engine is throwing lightning and engines are ready to blow up.

Proceed with disassembly as usual up to the point of pulling off the back part – cut it apart and gently separate it by pushing into the pieces with your jetpack – be very careful, you don’t want for parts to fall into furnaces and you want the back plates to pull over the small engine holes passing them over.

We want to do this “manually” because engines are still locked to the pipes, we can’t disconnect them yet. If we pull on the parts with tethers without peeling them away first we risk shells catching on to the engines and pulling the whole ship over.

Then continue as usual – pull away the last 3 big shells and remove the fuel tanks. (You again do not need to cut out the engine caps.)

After all that – remove the ECU and carefully fry off the coolant pipes, do not touch the fuel pipes. Once the coolant parts are removed we can deal with the reactor.

Peel away the inner “white” aluminium shell. The top cap in transport version will come off which you can salvage.

And now the differences begin, I’ll first explain the transport version.

Fry off free the outer shell of the reactor and let it fly off a bit. After that pull out the reactor and send it to the barge with a tether.

Now you have to work very quickly – cut off the engines with a splitsaw – aim well and aim to leave a part of the pipe on it. I suggest cutting far from the engines themselves so you have a long distance of pipe to the engine which will act as a buffer for the explosion then send the engines down to the barge and continue salvaging as normal. As for now you can just fry the engines off by frying the pipes – there will be no explosion.

With the industrial version it’s a bit more difficult – back cap is deep in and is hard to pull out so we’re going to pull out everything out of the top.
First fry off the unsalvageable aluminium assembly by frying the highlighted beams and then clean up the area for the reactor. Pull out the reactor itself and cut off the engines finally salvaging them.

And after that salvage what’s left of the ship.

Ghost Ships

Ghost Ships are a variant of all classes that was added in October 2020. Salvaging a ghost is no different to a normal salvage except for a few key differences.

• First of there will be no loose cargo or storage containers present.
• Second, all data drives will be replaced with helmets that will contain recoverable data for The Machine God lore. Ghost ships will be the only type of ships that produces this lore, thus if you want the LT for recovering this data you will have to salvage ghost ships.
• Lastly, the key component of these ships: AI cores. These cores will be attached to bulkheads, reactors, fuel tanks, or other vital components. Items that have an AI core attached to it will either need the core lanced off by your cutter or the item itself sent to the furnace AI core and all. Until the AI core is destroy, you can not salvage these items by any other means. Rip out a reactor and shove into the barge, if there is an AI core attach it will continue to meltdown as the barge WILL NOT ACCEPT IT until the AI cores are gone. AI cores start off deactivated, but as you destroy more of the them they will proceed to open/close doors, airlocks, and even turn on pressure regulators. So before you start destroying AI cores, it is best you remove pressure regulators or even disconnect the power generator to kill all power to prevent inconveniences.