Updated for Star Citizen Alpha 4.10.0.
Star Citizen Salvage Material Finder
What every wreck in Star Citizen is worth in salvage, and which ship can take it. The RMC column is the Recycled Material Composite a full hull scrape returns; the yield column is the raw construction material a full munch returns, which is Construction Rubble, Construction Pieces or Construction Salvage depending on the salvage ship. Only five hulls can run structural salvage, and each has a hard size ceiling, so pick one to see every ship it can break down.
What you can farm off a wreck
1 · Hull scraping → RMC
Strip the outer skin off the hull with a salvage head. It packs straight into SCU crates as Recycled Material Composite and sells with no refining. Any ship with a salvage head can do it — the RMC column is the whole-hull maximum.
2 · Structural salvage → raw CM
Fracture the bare frame, then disintegrate the pieces. Light ships return Construction Rubble, medium Construction Pieces, heavy Construction Salvage — all three refine into Construction Materials at a station. Only the five hulls below can do this, and each holds the raw output in a salvage depot that is separate from its cargo grid: the depot fills as you munch, the grid carries the boxed crates afterwards.
3 · Components and cargo
Before either beam, tractor out the wreck’s guns, power plants, shields and whatever cargo is still aboard. Locked components have to be released from the derelict’s own cockpit first. Not modelled here — it is per-wreck loot, not a hull constant.
The five ships that can run structural salvage
| Salvage ship | Size ceiling | Ships in reach | Raw output | Salvage depot | Cargo grid | Field bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salvation | 23.4 m radius | 136 of 198 | Construction Rubble | 6 SCU | 6 SCU | x5 speed, x1.3 yield |
| Vulture | 40.5 m radius | 164 of 198 | Construction Rubble | 13 SCU | 12 SCU | x3 speed, x1.4 yield |
| Fortune | 45 m radius | 168 of 198 | Construction Rubble | 13 SCU | 16 SCU | x1 speed, x1.6 yield |
| MOTH | 60.75 m radius | 185 of 198 | Construction Pieces | 64 SCU | 224 SCU | x2 speed, x1.5 yield |
| Reclaimer | 255 m radius | 197 of 198 | Construction Salvage | 240 SCU | 420 SCU | x7 speed, x1 yield |
Salvation salvage: fractures anything up to a 23.4 m across, which is 136 of 198 ships in the game, the largest being the Shiv. Structural salvage returns Construction Rubble, held in a 6 SCU onboard salvage depot, with a separate 6 SCU cargo grid for the boxed crates.
Vulture salvage: fractures anything up to a 40.5 m across, which is 164 of 198 ships in the game, the largest being the Mercury Star Runner. Structural salvage returns Construction Rubble, held in a 13 SCU onboard salvage depot, with a separate 12 SCU cargo grid for the boxed crates.
Fortune salvage: fractures anything up to a 45 m across, which is 168 of 198 ships in the game, the largest being the Apollo Medivac. Structural salvage returns Construction Rubble, held in a 13 SCU onboard salvage depot, with a separate 16 SCU cargo grid for the boxed crates.
MOTH salvage: fractures anything up to a 60.75 m across, which is 185 of 198 ships in the game, the largest being the A2 Hercules Starlifter. Structural salvage returns Construction Pieces, held in a 64 SCU onboard salvage depot, with a separate 224 SCU cargo grid for the boxed crates.
Reclaimer salvage: fractures anything up to a 255 m across, which is 197 of 198 ships in the game, the largest being the Aegis Javelin. Structural salvage returns Construction Salvage, held in a 240 SCU onboard salvage depot, with a separate 420 SCU cargo grid for the boxed crates.
Select_Salvager
Salvage calculator: every hull, and what it pays
Before you fly out
The size limit is the ship
Each salvage ship has a fixed size limit, along with its own field speed and yield. No salvage head, scraper module or upgrade shifts any of it, so a Vulture cannot be kitted out to munch something a Vulture cannot munch. Bring a bigger ship or leave the wreck.
How wreck size is judged
A wreck counts as the size of the smallest ball it fits inside, so a long thin ship can rate bigger than you would guess from looking at it. If a wreck sits close to a ship’s limit, treat it as borderline.
Checked against real salvage runs
Three wrecks were munched in game with a stock Vulture and the hauls weighed: a Vanguard Sentinel, an Argo RAFT and a C1 Spirit, all three very different shapes. Every one came in at or above the figure shown here, by between 3 and 29 percent, with the gap being how well the field was held on the day. A Gladius was also scraped bare to set the RMC scale. The numbers here are built to be a floor you can count on rather than a best case you rarely hit.
Planning a run
Cycle times scale with how big the wreck is, and a large derelict takes several passes to work through, so treat them as the cost of one pass rather than a whole teardown. Holding the field on the sweet spot speeds it up, by up to the bonus listed on each ship.
Treat yields as a good estimate
Yields are close estimates, not a promise. They track the size of the wreck, so a boxy freighter is more predictable than a spindly fighter, and good field alignment can add up to the bonus each ship lists. Drag hull fill down if you want a more conservative figure for an airframe that is mostly empty space.
Scrape it before you munch it
RMC comes off the outer skin, so it tracks how much hull there is to cover and is the same figure whichever ship you bring. Expect real runs to land within about a fifth either side of the number here, and expect the order to hold: if one wreck is listed above another, it pays more.
Salvage questions
Which ships can structurally salvage in Star Citizen?
Five: the RSI Salvation, Drake Vulture, MISC Fortune, Argo MOTH and Aegis Reclaimer. Every other salvage-capable ship is limited to hull scraping for RMC. Structural salvage is built into those five hulls, so it is not something you can add to another ship with gear.
What is the difference between RMC and construction materials?
RMC, or Recycled Material Composite, comes from hull scraping, the outer skin of a wreck. It packs straight into SCU crates and sells with no refining. Construction materials come from structural salvage, breaking the bare frame apart, and they come out raw as Construction Rubble, Construction Pieces or Construction Salvage, which refine into construction materials at a station before they are worth selling.
Which salvage ship gives Rubble, Pieces or Salvage?
The salvage ship decides it, not the wreck. The Salvation, Vulture and Fortune all return Construction Rubble. The Argo MOTH returns Construction Pieces. The Aegis Reclaimer returns Construction Salvage, the highest grade, which refines into the most material per unit.
How much RMC does a ship hull give?
It scales with how much outer hull the beam has to cover, so a full strip runs about 1.5 SCU on a Gladius, 6 on a Cutlass Black, 9 on a Constellation and 20 on a Caterpillar. A Vulture’s hold takes roughly two medium ships. The RMC column gives the figure for all 198 hulls, and it is the same number whichever ship is scraping.
What is the biggest ship a Vulture can munch?
The Vulture handles wrecks up to 40.5 m across, which covers most of the fleet. A Constellation fits, a Retaliator does not, and a Caterpillar is well past it. The Reclaimer has by far the widest reach and can take on effectively anything you will find.
Is there a Star Citizen salvage calculator for yields?
This page is one. Pick your salvage ship and it works out, for all 198 hulls in the game, what a full strip returns in RMC, what a full munch returns in construction material, and how many depot loads that comes to. The figures were checked against real salvage runs rather than estimated.
Why does the same wreck pay different amounts?
How well you hold the field on the wreck changes the yield, and the swing is large. The main figure is the floor, what you get with no alignment at all; the smaller figure underneath is what holding it properly pays, worth up to half as much again on some ships. It is the single biggest thing under your control on a salvage run, ahead of which ship you brought.
Where do you sell RMC and construction materials?
RMC sells as it comes, at commodity kiosks in landing zones and rest stops, and stations in Pyro tend to want it. Construction materials have to be refined first: unload the raw output through a freight elevator into the station inventory, then start a refining job and pick the method, which trades yield against time and cost.