Hi, I was considering to add salvaging to my activities but I’m not fully convinced, as I’m an Alpha, thus with limitations on skills.
Actually I already reached the limit for science (4 on 5) and salvaging (3 on 5), so I could’t buy a Noctis and could only use salvager I modules.
So I’d like to understand if, in front of a substantial investment, it will really produce good incomings or I’d find myself to spend lot of time salvaging wrecks without getting anything or almost anything at the end. Of course I can also add one or two takle rigs, but their price is huge (at least for me) and I’m not sure that even with them my % to find something will be good enough.
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First of all, don’t bother with the Noctis, it’s much cheaper to get a (gun) destroyer of your race and fill the high slots with 4 Salvager modules and 3-4 Tractor Beam modules. Mid slots with a propulsion module (afterburner or microwarp drive) so you can move around faster, and low slots with basic armor defense (damage control, small armor repairer, maybe expanded cargohold).
The reason why it’s deemed profitable for an Alpha is because if you get a friend who does level 4 missions, to let you salvage (maybe even loot the junk from) the wrecks, you can get several million ISK per hour, with almost no effort, depending on how fast the friend is chaining his missions. Or if you’re going to probe out mission runners and crash their party without permission, you can still get the wrecks, and they’re unlikely to risk their ship by shooting at a lowly destroyer with T1 cheapo modules fitted.
In any case, T1 salvagers should give you decent hits on the basic (non-boss) NPC pirate wrecks, so it’s not too bad and they work. Higher skills make the T1 salvaging faster, and also allow T2 salvagers for the boss wrecks (T2 ship wrecks).
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Thank you Memphis. Unfortunately I don’t have any friend who do lvl 4 missions, so I can only salvage on mine, lvl 2 missions, it could still be profitable?
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Could be, sure. The combat missions set you up against squads of ships, and the wrecks will match what’s killed, but the salvage that’s extracted comes somewhat randomly.
L1 missions - frigate pirates, destroyer bosses
L2 missions - frigate and destroyer pirates, cruiser bosses
L3 missions - frigate, destroyer, cruiser pirates, battlecruiser bosses
L4 missions - up to battlecruiser pirates, battleship bosses
But you don’t need a BFF to salvage, just head over to one of the Mission Hubs and ask in local if anyone’s willing to fleet up with you to let you salvage, as you’re an Alpha. Out of a dozen or so mission-runners, you should get someone who’s willing to help out a newbie.
Right-click on a wreck at each location and “save location”. This will give you a bookmark that you can warp to later, even if the mission runner completes the mission. When a mission is completed, the geography and stations and links to the mission disappear, but the wrecks remain. But you need a bookmark to find the wrecks.
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Hoping that someone will not responds only to attack me 
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You’re protected by Concord, they’ll come within 30 seconds to kill their ship. Most mission runners have Navy Issue ships that cost in the hundred million ISK range, why would they risk that to kill your 2 million ISK destroyer.
You’ll make the cost of that destroyer within the first salvage session, so after that, it’s worth “the risk” of losing one every now and then. Basically, you may lose 2 million ISK but will gain 10-20 per day. It’s a PVP game, get into the mind-set of calculating ship losses into your profit scenario. It’s just pixels, ultimately.
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It’s also gaming time that everyone spends to reach a goal, to make ISKs and buy ships and fittings, if not real money (as an Alpha I don’t pay any Subscription, but often I buy Plex and skills injectors). So ultimately loose a ship is also loosing real-life time and often also real life money.
Anyway you’re right and I’ll take the risk to ask in mission hubs. 
Thank you as always.
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To have an idea of a typical alpha salvager, have a look at the Salvage Catalyst fit from EvE Uni. I like the position of the salvagers in the F1-F4 block and the tractor beams in the F5-F8 block, that helps microing a lot.
They work fine, but of course it’s some microing. But it can be very satisfying, like puzzling or minesweeper
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I frequently salvage, sometimes ninja sometimes my own stuff. If using a T1 destroyer (like the Catalyst) you’re usually better off having 6 salvagers and 2 tractor beams instead of the 4-4 eve uni recommends. If you’re salvaging your own stuff the ship you did the fighting with should have dropped a MTU at the beginning of the fight so when you come back to salvage most, if not all, of the wrecks are sitting right next to the MTU without needing to be tractored. However if you’re ninja salvaging you can’t target yellow wrecks anyway so the tractor’s don’t do you any good anyways. The reason to have 6 salvagers is because as an alpha that’s the max you can target in a T1 destroyer. The only reason I equip even the 2 tractors is because I might as well fill the slots and they do occasionally come in handy.
Admittedly if you’re following a friend/corpmate who is mission running then things are different and a 4-4 salvage build will be more efficient then a 6-2 salavage build in that particular instance.
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I do bother with Noctis since the very first time I tasted it. You WILL feel the difference, trust me. It is not only 5 salvage drones, I am sure salvagers also work faster in Noctis, despite no official bonuses to the hull
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Alphas can’t fly a Noctis.
OP: Salvaging other players’ level 4s is Ok, but honestly, I’d just blitz the missions to work up to level 4s if mission running is your thing, and not worry about salvaging your own missions. Loot and salvage from level 2s isn’t usually very good. You can drop a MTU when you first land at your mission to hoover up what you can, and then scoop up your MTU and loot when the mission is over, rinse and repeat.
Oh, and decline missions against Empire factions. You don’t want to go below -2.0 standings with them, because then you can’t do anything higher than level 1s for them.
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probably not, check the estimated value after looting/salvaging a mission and compare it to the bounties + reward, even if it comes close it’s probably more profitable to move on to the next mission rather than go back to loot+salvage. I can’t say with any authority, maybe loot/salvage is more valuable than the bonties/rewards on lv2s, but I can say that for lv3s and lv4s which typically have more valuable wrecks, but also more valuable bounties and rewards.
If you really want to salvage try moving to nullsec as some of the newbie friendly 0.0 corps let new players salvage the abandonded wrecks in anomilies. That will probably be your best access to wrecks. Asking around in lv4 hubs might get you some wrecks but I’d guess it would be far more inconstant.
I’d say it’s better to learn the combat mechanics in lv2s. Things like controlling aggro as you don’t want to trigger new spawns too early, but you also don’t always want to wait on some spawns, managing position to be able to get good damage, and paying attention to mission completion triggers. Blitzing for Loyalty Points (LP) is more profitable in lv3s/4s than full clears with loot and salvage. you can use this page to figure out what’s profitable to buy LP Store - Return on ISK Make sure you check the volume with the buy and sell prices as a few hardly used modules trade for a lot of isk on sell orders, but rarely sell.
Just looking at the first store Aliastra the item with the highest conversion is a federation navy medium plasma smartbomb with sell orders at 440 million, but the buy price is 20million indicating this probably isn’t a good item to trade in Also the 5% volume is 1 indicating it doesn’t trade often Many items look like this as the supply is small so the prices can skyrocket for no good reason.
Scrolling down a little we come to the Federation Navy Stasis Webifier Blueprint the sell is 66mil and the buy is 61 mil, also the volume is 11 on sell and 29 on buy, so this trades much more often. the isk/lp is in the 2100-2500 range which is very good. I typically use 2000 as a base line for most stores. The best items are often the 5 run blueprint copies for commonly used faction items.
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Where you earn tens of millions easily is by going into FW space and loot wrecks while salvaging the T2 wrecks. Sometimes you get nothing, sometimes you can get 100 mil in a few hours.
Plus youre only risking a cheap Magnate with 3 salvagers, salvage rig tackles, MWD, AB, and 4 stabs.
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If you wanna turn a solid profit salvaging, join any NS alliance and just follow carriers from site to site in a noctis. Most regions you can expect 10-20M per site in salvage and most carrier pilots won’t mind as they are turning more ISK solo or dual carrier ratting to waste their time on wrecks.
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Salvaging is good isk for an alpha… its even better if you start making rig modules with them.
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salvage is a good way to make money … i did that but dont ever just sell it to buy orders in tradehubs … if you have a good stack bring it to a tradehub … check the price on http://evepraisal.com/ and make a contract … if you have a good stack you will sell it … my last stack was over a bill and it was T1 salvage only … most structures has T1 rigs only and the need huge numbers of salvage … i do missionruns and i usually dont do collect salvage anymore sometimes with a 2nd char but its takes time … more missions … more LP … there are allways some guys arround in destroyers or cruisers asking for salvage … i allways fleet with them … tell them “ok room 2 is clear i go on to room 3 … you can jump into room 2 now” why not? i guess not all are alphas or newbies but its a way to make money … so if you see me in a mission hub feel free to ask for a fleet … have fun … enjoy the game …
JuuR
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I love my dedicated salvage ships. I fly a 6 salvager 2 tractor been setup on my Catalyst if I can drop a MTU on blue or my own wrecks.
[Catalyst, Salvage Catalyst Alpha]
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner
Small Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Small Tractor Beam I
125mm Carbide Railgun I, Iridium Charge S
Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I
If I’m working clean up on a site that’s not mine, I use a fast salvaging Atron that I can zip to all the wrecks and not take all day.
[Atron, Fast Salvage Atron Alpha]
Overdrive Injector System I
Damage Control I
Type-D Restrained Overdrive Injector
Small Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extender
5MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Small Compact Pb-Acid Cap Battery
Salvager I
Salvager I
Salvager I
Light Ion Blaster I, Iridium Charge S
Small Salvage Tackle I
Small Salvage Tackle I
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For Omegas, I recommend an Imicus with salvaging drones: Its decent cargo hold and drone bay in addition to its Frig speed and agility make salvaging yellows quite smooth.
yea…
[ …can’t find that beautifull killmail… ]
I started to salvage near Gila in Osmon.
angry he killed my imicus… concord killed him…
i got noob ship and looted his wreck with blue $$$$$$$ modules 
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my question is not how to salvage but where do I find wrecks to salvage?