L4 looting worth?

L4 missions, if you kill everything, what is the worth this days taking bookmarks and coming back in different ship to loot and salvage?

I heard while back it wasn’t worth the effort?

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Highly depends on how fast you can run the missions. If you blitz them just running the next one is more ISK.

If you don’t blitz dropping a MTU and salvaging multiple mission sites later on is worth the time as long as long as noone goes for your MTUs. If you are a slow mission runner that can do 2-3 level missions a hour in a meta4 raven even coming back in a Noctis would be a good idea.

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A lot of the standard advice predates Upwell structures and module tiercide. It used to be that salvage was cheap and any loot other than meta 4 modules was basically worthless - simply reprocess it.

Now salvage is more valuable because structure rigs use a lot of it. With refineries entering the game later this year I expect demand for salvage to increase significantly.

With tiercide, a lot of meta modules are now quite useful and deserve a better fate than the reprocessing hopper.

Note - you don’t need to loot and salvage yourself. Contract a bookmark to http://pro-synergy.net/ They will loot and salvage the mission for you. The split is 45/45/10 (missioner/salvager/admin fees)

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basically worthless. The time you take to salvage nets less SO value than the time you take to complete next mission nets bounties.
Sometimes even less than the sole reward of the mission.

HOWEVER some missions have specific drops that are worth it, in that case you should consider looting and BM an mtu and come back after the mission is finished to salvage the room.

I generally don’t care about the drops, but some specific missions drop lots of items.

Salvaging takes no time for me. I use a Cerberus and use salvage drones while shooting at things.

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The sentiment of worthless as expressed by guigui lechat can be true for some. And yet as noted by Do Little loot and salvage can be very valuable for others.

If all you care about is your ISK per hour then blitz missions and leave the stuff laying around in space.

If you want to help feed a small scale manufacturing process then that loot / salvage is a valuable source for minerals needed. As an example I use faction cruise missiles on one of my ships, I loot / salvage, reprocess for minerals. Use those minerals to manufacture T1 cruise missiles. I then use the LP gained from the missions to have the T1 ammo converted to faction and then shoot that in missions. Doing this I have not had to purchase ammo for that character in more than 5 years.

Since I started this character in 2010 the loot / salvage from an average mission has been equal to or slightly higher than the pay, bonuses and bounties received. Conversion of LP to ISK by buying and selling items from the LP stores can make is more profitable to leave the salvage laying about in space since that process does not increase LP gains.

Personally I find the whole process of loot / salvage then reprocess or haul to sell relaxing and enjoyable after a high stress day at work. And yet there are days when I am lazy and simply fly away and leave it laying about in space.

So in the end OP we get to this. You are the ONLY one that can decide if loot / salvage is worth the time and effort required to collect it because only you know what you want / need in game at the moment and you are the only one that can determine if you are having fun.

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I agree. As a new Eve player, I’m finally to the point of using an MTU on L3 and L4 missions. I’m not completely about the ISK (yet), so it’s still fun for me to salvage and run the stuff through my rudimentary processing/industrial skills to make ammo for my ships.
It’s relaxing, and emotionally (if not financially) rewarding for me. That’s why I play the game.
It’s fun. YMMV.

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I wouldn’t, Even on the big bs heavy missions it feel like the loot value is disappointing, seems like half the wrecks are empty and of the wrecks with loot half only have a metal scrap. of the remaining wrecks with loot a ton of it is ammo, or worthless meta mods. I used to build battleships out of lv4 loot.

And all the t1 salvage values are :poop: Sure citadels use a ton of salvage and are propping salvage prices up, but like historically they are still awful. I used to get 500k isk for an armor plate, now they are like 16k.

These days almost all the money is in the LP.

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It also depends on the missions, some races have better loot and salvage. I remember EOM being one of the better loot droppers and Sansha being the best for salvage.

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Since I like to full clear a mission using a Marauder and MTU, I can say that some missions are far more valuable than others . Example : Dread Pirate,Going Berzerk, Angel Extravaganza. I have cleared over 15 million easy with salvage alone; depending on the swing in component costs, even over 20m isk. It changes and,yes, you probably could blitz your way through with a Mach and just harvest bounties and LPs for a higher rate of return (perhaps). I feel, however, that when I start hurrying through missions as fast as I can just to make the highest isk/hour, I enjoy the game less. I could drop a $20 for a plex and have instant isk, but EVE is here to make me relax (so to speak) and enjoy the scenery. Others feel different and that’s fine; everyone enjoys EVE the way they want .

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I clear my missions completely even when timewise it isn’t profitable. I just like having piles of junk which contain some usefull things every once in a while. The rest can be converted into a mineral pile to manufacture or whatever. Then again, I don’t play to maximize income, I do what I think is fun at the time.

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Being an old school Eve player, I use to salvage and loot all wrecks. However over the years CCP has definitely nerfed those tables to the ground.

If there’s just a small amount of wrecks, I’ll launch Salvage Drones and by the time I’m done checking / cherry picking through the loot, the Salvage Drones are usually done completing their task on all the wrecks. Now if it’s a big site with a lot of wrecks, I’ll just bookmark the area and switch into my Noctis for total clean up.

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As has been said…worthwhile depends largely on your personal playstile. For some EVE only is fun when you play as effectivly as possible ISK/hour wise. For others its more about the fun.

I follow a kind of in beetween approach when it comes to loot. I throw out a MTU at each site and bookmark it. After about 5 sites I switch my combat ship to a Noctis and loot and pick up the MTU’s. That (for me) is the best way to get some additional ISK without spending too much time with the “looting”.

I like the concept of “loot-contracting” @Do_Little mentioned. That is a nice way for the “no looting” people to get some ISK just for making a bookmark and contracting it. That should be a nice additional income even for thos “only effectivness counts” players out there. :+1: for the idea.

Do keep in mind MTU can be scanned down fairly easily.

i loot them sometimes just because i like using my noctis and use the salvage an modules for industry
but no its not really worth it
i just like doing it
i wanna train up my noctis really good

I loot them becasue I like to make stats. Then I look at stats and feel ashamed to have lost time for them.

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Looting and salvaging wrecks in level 4 missions is an added bonus for getting materials used to produce Rigs.

Looks pretty legit, anyone with experience using them?

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It can also depend on what you use the loot for… I had an alt I used to run L4 missions for Sisters of EVE. I would loot and salvage the field. Any loot not worth over 500k isk, I would reprocess. Using those minerals, I could make ships from BPCs I bought in the LP store. I would not have made as much had I bought the minerals directly. And I could loot and salvage fairly quickly.

Plus, some of the newer meta modules and junk had decent prices (drone A.I. and meta warp bubble generators).

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this is a perfect example of failing to understand opportunity cost. If you did not stop to loot and salvage you would have the LP to buy even more ship BPCs giving you a higher net income after buying the minerals.