Salvage Economy in Ostranauts

Salvage in Ostranauts is a legal and economic minigame wrapped around a wrench. Ayotimiwa Ship Breaking Co. controls formal deconstruction at OKLG, but the boneyard secondary market — scavengers picking low-priority derelicts — is where most captains learn profit. Money arrives through kiosk barter, condition-sensitive pricing, and time bought with Salvage Permits. Money leaves through shift mortgages, docking costs, consumables, fines, and the death pay escrow when you hire crew.

This page explains the loop; step-by-step EVA workflows live in How to Salvage with the salvage tools checklist.

The OKLG permit system

Legal salvage in OKLG local space requires an unexpired Salvage Permit scanned against your ship transponder. Permits are sold at the OKLG Licensed Supply Kiosk in Port Azikiwe — the same Ayotimiwa-operated counter that buys high-value intact hauls when you hold valid licensing.

Baseline pricing familiar to new captains:

• 24-hour permit — about $5,000 for a single day of legal boneyard access.
• Longer licenses — multi-day and extended permits scale up to large sums (community references cite tiers reaching $1,000,000 for roughly 300-day coverage aimed at veteran operators).

Permits unlock two privileges: docking derelicts without Nnamdi Azikiwe Security Services (NASS) interference, and access to the kiosk Barter Screen where undamaged components sell at proper rates. Operating without a permit is possible in practice — Ayotimiwa publicly condemns scavenging while quietly benefiting from the traffic — but NASS can issue docking requests and fines if you clamp to wrecks illegally.

Because permits link to transponders, switching hulls or flying “dark” without powered IFF gear invites penalties unrelated to salvage skill.

Kiosks, barter, and condition pricing

Not every vendor pays the same price for the same part.

Licensed Supply Kiosk — Requires active salvage licensing. Best destination for intact, undamaged modules — nav consoles, pumps, batteries, rare avionics. This is your primary “repair-to-sell” endpoint.

Scrap kiosk — Buys without a permit at sharply worse rates, often dealing in damaged goods and junk suitable only for quick cash when you are desperate. Useful when you need lunch money and cannot wait for license renewal, not when optimizing profit.

Other station traders exist across the system as you expand outbound — Venus and Ceres economies carry their own faction discounts and contraband angles. OKLG rules still define the tutorial pacing most captains feel first.

Repair-to-sell is mandatory literacy: damaged CO2 scrubbers, air pumps, and nav stations sell like trash until restored with scrap steel, motherboards, heat sinks, and mechanical parts salvaged from the same wrecks you are stripping. Time spent repairing at a bench is often cheaper than hunting a pristine duplicate in a deeper derelict stack.

The debt loop and shift clock

Character creation often ends with a financed hull — mortgage payments deduct each six-hour shift whether you are salvaging or drinking at the port. Late payments stack fees; long-term insolvency ends campaigns softer than hypoxia but just as final for a captain chasing independence.

The core solvency loop looks like this:

1. Buy or renew a permit before undocking to the boneyard.
2. Survey derelicts for high-value targets — batteries, avionics, intact life support, fusion-related parts later in the campaign.
3. Uninstall or dismantle carefully; reckless SCRA orders destroy resale value.
4. Haul within power, fuel, and atmosphere limits — see Life Support Parts.
5. Repair damaged stock before barter.
6. Sell at the Licensed Kiosk barter screen.
7. Pay mortgage, docking, and restock O2, RCS, and food before the next shift bite.

Compare ship mortgage options and starter careers if the loop feels tight — some backgrounds start with lower debt at the cost of worse hulls or skills.

Black market rumors (handle carefully)

Station chatter references informal buyers who pay cash without scanning permits — a black market whispered to operate somewhere inside OKLG’s sprawl. Treat rumors as narrative color and risk, not an endorsed strategy:

• Unlicensed sales bypass barter screens but expose you to sting operations, reputation hits, and inconsistent pricing in ways patch notes can change.
• Laundering stolen or flagged goods can waste inventory slots when licensed repair-and-sell would have paid more after one bench session.

This wiki documents the licensed loop because it is teachable, repeatable, and aligned with NASS mechanics. Captains chasing outlaw fantasy should still master permits first — fines erase profit faster than haggling gains.

Operational costs that eat margin

Salvage profit is net profit:

• Docking fees at OKLG and outbound stations — sloppy approaches cost time; some berths charge credits.
• PASS / taxi charges when you strand without power or RCS — see Rescue When Stranded.
• Consumables — scrubber cartridges, EVA charges, ammo, food, water.
• Crew death pay — hiring cheap labor shifts risk into upfront escrow; read Hire Crew.
• Permit expiry mid-run — clamping to a second derelict after expiration invites fines that wipe a good haul.

Track permit timers on the PDA the same way you track O2 — both expire quietly.

Scaling beyond OKLG

Fire in the Hold and the 1.0 launch added Venus economies, Ceres gigs, and combat salvage where faction standing gates weapon sales at BCRS (Ring Station) and BCER (Ceres Resource Extraction). The permit mindset — legal access, barter screen, repair condition — repeats, but the map changes which buyer pays premium for which module.

Plan routes on Stations and Travel before you haul OKLG-priced pumps to a Venus aerostat that wanted contaminant scrubbers instead.

Related pages

• How to Salvage — EVA, uninstall orders, haul routing
• Life Support Parts — keeping runs long enough to matter
• OKLG & Boneyard — where wrecks and kiosks sit
• Crew AI — labor costs versus solo salvage
• Builds hub — hull upgrades that expand haul capacity