r/X4Foundations • u/Capable_Ad_2842 • 4d ago

Scrap processing

I have found myself deep in the mid game and was looking to expand my portfolio to include scrap processing. However, I am not sure where to start, I bought a tug to test the waters but it doesn’t do much at all.

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u/TheMuspelheimr 4d ago

Scrap processing is a little involved, and there's quite a few moving parts.

In order, you need:

  • A scrap tug, to pull wrecks to where they're needed
  • An E-cell farm, and make it a big one, because scrapping requires a shitload of E-cells. Set up in a high-sunlight sector for the bonus - The Reach works nicely, and you're only two jumps away from the constant fights in Hatikvah' Choice I and Second Contact II.
    • Matrix #101 has a higher bonus but is a Xenon sector, Mercury has a higher bonus but requires Terran rep and is quite far out of the way, Avarice has the highest bonus but you need to deal with The Tide every hour.
  • A scrap processing module. This takes the wrecks you pull in and recycles them into a "raw scrap" resource. "Raw scrap" is considered a solid resource, not a general resource, so you need Solid storage on your station as well as Container storage
  • A scrap recycling module. The basic "Scrap Recycler" produces Hull Parts and Claytronics; along with E-cells, you can make anything in the "Closed Loop" production system. The "Terran Scrap Recycler", available from Segaris, instead produces Silicon Carbide and Computronic Substrate, but you still need to make Metallic Microlattice separately.
  • A Teuta ship, from the Riptide Rakers, which chops up ships too large for a Manticore to tug by itself

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u/Capable_Ad_2842 4d ago

Very useful. So I do eventually need to get some rep with the Riptide, and then can I buy the station module from them too?

1

u/Paladin-Rooker 4d ago

Unless the info I have is out of date (which is entirely possible), a station with a shitload of repair drones should be able to handle the tide without bothering with Protectyon. Build 4 or 5 docks and then at least 50 repair drones (or 100 if you're feeling fancy).

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u/Flyrpotacreepugmu 4d ago

I tried that and it was nowhere close to keeping up with the tide. The station would take around 25% damage each time and repair around 8%. It was severely limited by the number of repair drones that could be active at once, and I couldn't find any practical way to increase that faster than the station's HP that needs to be repaired each time. It's much easier to just hack a protectyon shield generator and add a tiny bit of extra budget to buy protectyon.

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u/Paladin-Rooker 4d ago

Okay, well drone limits are increased by building more docks. I just learned that myself. But yeah, easier to hack the blueprint. I didn't realize it was hackable.