Salvage
“Some items you'll find will be salvageable. Use a salvage kit to break them down into crafting materials.
— Salvaging
Salvaging is the process of breaking down items into crafting materials or upgrade components by using salvage kits. As a lot of rewards in the game are provided in the form of various items, often as individual equipment pieces or Unidentified Gear, salvaging is used to convert these rewards into standardized crafting materials.
Salvaging components[edit]
To salvage an item, double-click on a salvage kit, then click on the item to be salvaged. If the item stacks, such as salvage items, you can repeatedly salvage items from the stack. Alternatively, right-clicking the salvage kit allows it to automatically salvage items of Fine rarity or lower, Masterwork rarity or lower, or Rare rarity, starting at the top of your inventory. Higher quality kits have a greater chance to receive a higher-tier crafting material than normal. Items can also be salvaged for their upgrade component. Higher quality kits also give a greater chance to recover the component while salvaging an item. Players will always receive a common crafting material.
What can be salvaged[edit]
Four types of items can be salvaged:
- Equipment: weapons, armor (including aquatic headgear), back items, and trinkets
- Salvage items
- Dyes
- Runes, Sigils and Relics
- Exceptions
These items cannot be salvaged:
- Some starting equipment
- Items soulbound to another character
- Equipment bought with:
- Karma
- Coin (except cultural armor)
- Equipment received from level rewards or a Level-80 Equipment Package
- Some equipment from story rewards, such as the masterwork weapons in Order weapon containers.
Equipment bought with Badges of Honor can be salvaged, but only return a random and lesser amount of badges. (Globs of Ectoplasm and crafting materials cannot be obtained.)
Salvage types[edit]
- See also: Salvage kit
Each item may have one and, sometimes, several salvage types, displayed in the item's description in its tooltip. There are four salvage types, and each produces a different selection of materials. The required salvaging tools for each type are:
- Standard
- Can be salvaged with standard kits of different tiers (such as
Basic Salvage Kit or 
Master's Salvage Kit). This is the most common salvage type, found on most equipment items of exotic and lower rarity. Produces crafting materials depending on the item's required level and rarity.
- Ascended
- Can be salvaged with
Ascended Salvage Tool (or the 
5 use and 
20 use kit versions). Only found on items of ascended rarity, particularly ascended equipment. Produces an assortment of some of the ascended crafting materials.
- Compost
- Can be salvaged with
Portable Composter. Can only be used on food and feast consumable items that were crafted by the Chef discipline. Produces Extracts of Nourishment of different rarity depending on an item, which are used in crafting of the ascended feasts, the highest tier of food items.
- Research
- Can be salvaged with a
Research Kit or automatically upon crafting. The latter method is enabled within the crafting interface by selecting the checkbox "Automatically salvage output with a research kit". Produces 
Research Notes currency and can only be used on items that were crafted. This is a special type of salvaging as it can be used as an alternative to other salvage types.
- None
- The item can't be salvaged.
Salvaging results[edit]
The level or tier of the crafting material received from salvaging depends on the level of the item. Salvage items will give crafting material appropriate for the level of the item. The exact results of any salvaging attempt vary, and the salvage kit used will affect the random result. Some individual items may produce additional materials or currencies, unique to them.
- By item type
- Light armor produces cloth scraps
- Medium armor produces leather scraps
- Heavy armor produces ore (but not Silver or Gold)
- Weapons can produce either ore (but not Silver or Gold) or logs, depending on weapon type:
- Trinkets produce ore (but not Iron)
- Runes produce Lucent Motes and a small chance of charms
- Sigils produce Lucent Motes and a small chance of symbols
- By item quality
- Fine or better items can produce Essences of Luck
- Rare or better items can produce Globs of Ectoplasm, at level 68 or higher.
- Exotic or better items can produce Globs of Ectoplasm and Globs of Dark Matter, at level 68 or higher. Exotic weapons and armor with non-craftable prefixes also have a chance to produce an inscription or insignia for that prefix.
- Ascended items can produce Balls of Dark Energy, Stabilizing Matrices, and other items unique to the equipment type.
- Salvage rate research
Ascended equipment[edit]
Ascended equipment does not salvage into materials (such as Ectoplasm or cloth scraps) as described above, instead rarely salvaging into crafting components. For instance, an Elonian Shoulderguard Panel (rather than an Elonian Leather Square) could be received from a Zojja's Shoulderguard.
Ascended equipment can be salvaged for Balls of Dark Energy, Stabilizing Matrices, and other items used in crafting.
Salvage kits[edit]
Ascended equipment can only be salvaged with either of the following salvage kits:
General[edit]
Each type of gear offers a different set of possible drops when salvaged.
Lesser Vision Crystal (most armor) or 
Vision Crystal (body-slot armor & weapons); always drops
Ascended Insignia (Crafted armor only) or 
Ascended Inscription (Crafted weapons only); rare drop
Salvaged Greatness (Armor) or 
Salvaged Puissance (Weapons); very rare chance- Crafted components, such as Elonian Shoulderguard Panel; very rare chance
Stabilizing Matrix; more if Infused and/or Attuned (see below for details)
+1 Agony Infusion (very rare chance)
Salvaged Grandeur (astronomically low chance)
- Ascended trinkets excluding rings
- Stabilizing Matrix (0-20; 0-3 is typical)
- +1 Agony Infusion (5-9)
Salvaged Dignity (Backpacks only; astronomically low chance)
Salvaged Excellence (Amulets only; astronomically low chance)
Salvaged Brilliance (Accessories only; astronomically low chance)
Drops specific to gear type or source[edit]
Each type of ascended gear can additionally drop various materials when salvaged:
- Every ring drops one stack of 2-5, 10 or 20 Stabilizing Matrices, with lower quantities being more common. The average is around 4.
- Attuned rings drop an additional stack of 1-2 Stabilizing Matrices, usually just 1.
- Infused rings drop an additional stack of 1-5, 10 or 20 Stabilizing Matrices, with lower quantities being more common. The average is around 3.
- If it is both Attuned and Infused, it drops three stacks altogether, for an average total around 8.
- The averages are estimated based on player reports. See Ball of Dark Energy/Salvage Rate for details.
- Ball of Dark Energy (see above)
- except for Rings (which drop the matrices, as above).
- Items bought with Unbound Magic
- These are guaranteed to drop 500 Unbound Magic, in addition to the drops above. Similarly, Siren's Landing backpacks bought with Karma and Orrian Pearls (these are one of the few karma-bought items that can be salvaged).
- Raid-specific gear
- These are guaranteed to drop 60 Magnetite Shards. This is in addition to any drops noted above.
- For example:
- Assaulter's Sparking Vanquisher dropped in Wing 1 will salvage into 60 Magnetite Shards, 1 Vision Crystal and 1 Ball of Dark Energy.
- Narella's Malicious Bauble dropped in Wing 2 will salvage into 60 Magnetite Shards and a random amount of Stabilizing Matrices.
Salvage rates[edit]
Notes[edit]
- Salvage types have been added to item tooltips with the October 4, 2022 game update.
