Safe locations to jettison?

[Manshonyagger]

Newbie here - I just learned the hard way that you shouldn't stash your illegal goods (and ID) on a destroyed station while you look for a buyer

Came back a couple of systems later and it was all gone.

Are there safe off-ship places to store things? (yes, I've heard of smuggler's cargo holds)

[Song]

The culprit is a salvager nomad....the big round brown things crawling around looting everything in sight..any system with one of those, you can't leave stuff lying around. Some systems (Eg. Rigel, St. Katherines) never/almost never have them though. Best bet is to find a system that definitely doesn't have any, or alter circumstances so that there are no longer any living ones (note: By default they have a turbolaser with an omni mount. THey also have reasonably heavy Level 2 armor....so they can take a beating, and dish it out as well. They will replace that gun with anything better that they find, but it'll lose the omni [it's a bug, but eh, it's convenient]. Don't fight them on a bad setup or a stock ship.). On death, they will/may lose some of their kit.....but you can usually salvage most of what you had stolen.

You can also glitch their AI into sitting still so you can kill them with ease (or get an enemy to do it) but that's a bit unsporting.


If you absolutely DO have to leave stuff where salvagers hang out, and killing them all isn't an option, find a radioactive wreck. Salvagers are no radiation-immune and will never dock with them. Of course, if you aren't radiation-immune (or don't have at least two barrels of decon gel OR easy access to decon services) this does create something of a problem.

[Manshonyagger]

Aha.

Thanks

[PM]

Salvagers do not appear in Eridani, Rigel, St. K's, and all systems beyond Sanctuary. In those systems, depositing loot in destroyed stations is completely safe.

Salvagers do not respawn, and you can make a system infested with Salvagers safe if you get them all. You can force them to come to you by dropping a crate of something, a gift-drop. They are very slow, and it is not easy to confirm if you got them all or missed one.

Also, beware! Salvagers can install weapons if they loot an upgrade. One time, I had laser-proof defenses, attacked a Salvager, and almost died from a dual particle beam weapon it fired at me!

Salvagers are public enemy #1. I exterminate them where found with extreme prejudice and no remorse. They are enemies in all but color.


Related are Gaian Processors late in the game. They do not loot, but will search and destroy shipwrecks. They too are aggravating because they destroy loot, but not much as Salvagers because they cannot touch stations.

[CMircea]

I believe other ships will loot and scuttle wrecks and containers. I've seen quite a few random friendly ships do this, including to the cargo I jettisoned in St. K's!

[JohnBWatson]

Newbie here - I just learned the hard way that you shouldn't stash your illegal goods (and ID) on a destroyed station while you look for a buyer

Came back a couple of systems later and it was all gone.

Are there safe off-ship places to store things? (yes, I've heard of smuggler's cargo holds)

Elysium has no salvager, and, indeed, no other ships whatsoever. It's easy to access if you've got a jumpdrive.

[catfighter]

I believe other ships will loot and scuttle wrecks and containers. I've seen quite a few random friendly ships do this, including to the cargo I jettisoned in St. K's!

I don't think they loot items (haven't found any stolen goods when I torch the pests) and they only destroy things if the container/wreck is reasonably near a friendly station or trade route. I have never seen them do this in deep space and (most) civilian ships stay well clear of enemy bases. I have also never seen this happen to big wrecks (charon frigates or bigger, it seems).

I don't know if it carried over into 1.5, but Nomads used to dump all of their salvaged goods in a small wreck somewhere in deep space whenever they came within a certain range of it or filled up their cargo holds. It was very profitable of me to follow them back to these containers and they won't loot their own storages, so these wrecks should be a safe place to store stuff. As a bonus, your stockpile will slowly grow as the Nomads add to it for you.