Recycler & Scrap Conversion
The recycler is your emergency supply. It does not replace trade or ordinary production. When you choose not to buy on the market but still need material, you mine a field on your map and turn the scrap into goods at home.
What you need
- A recycler station at the location. It starts the run and takes the scrap when the ship returns.
- A recycler ship from the shipyard, near that station. The game picks the nearest suitable ship. You do not choose the fleet.
- A conversion plant at the same place if you want real goods out of the scrap.
Each station runs one job. A second station on the same map can fly its own run at the same time.
Mining
- Open Recycler at the station.
- You see the nearest field that still has something left. You can pick another field in range. Remaining amount and travel time are shown.
- Start mining. The ship flies out, holds at a safe distance, and digs until the hold is full or the field is empty.
- It comes home by itself. The scrap is yours only after it unloads at the station.
- You start the next run yourself. It does not fly on to the next field alone.
Cancel is possible until the hold is full. After that it heads home. Empty fields stay empty. This is not an endless farm.
If the ship is destroyed on the way, the cargo is lost.
Conversion
- Open the conversion plant once scrap is in this map's warehouse.
- Choose the good you want. You do not type an amount.
- Start. The plant keeps working like a factory: scrap in, the chosen good out, as long as you have power.
- Stop when you have enough, or when the scrap runs out. With no scrap it idles on its own.
Mining and conversion do not block each other. The ship can be out while the plant at home is already converting.
Use this path when you are cut off or bridging a short crisis. The freeport is usually faster and safer.