Introduction
From the beginning of Mediterranean exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries, all the way to the time transitioning on into the start of World War I, Altis has always had a steady presence of ships and other watercraft roaming its’ blue coasts. The waters have attracted many not only due to their warm temperatures or unreal scenery but because of what lays on the sea bed. Ships have long carried goods and trinkets to and from Altis, some of which carried precious treasures. Unfortunately for some of these ship captains, pirates or the force of nature were not always on their side. Ultimately, the waters consumed their ships. Now, 21st-century salvagers with modern diving equipment can take the treasures just waiting to be picked, along with other items. What is loot and trash is subjective; one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Salvage consists of diving at different shipwreck sites around the map and "excavating" additional items, usually treasure and other existing items such as glass, lockpicks, and even rum. Being a legal run, this run will not get you into any trouble with the Altis police and is eligible for profit bonuses when doing this run with a Worker's Protection License (WPL).
Starting the Run
Before starting this run, you must check that you have all the necessary gear needed. Besides the usual Food, Water, and Redgull, salvagers will need their dedicated set of "Excavation Tools" and diving gear (scuba suit, rebreather oxygen device, scuba goggles). Most of these items are found at the dedicated Dive Shops; however, backpacks are located in the clothing store. It is recommended that this run be done with a bergen backpack (largest backpack) and with either an SDV Submarine (safest) or a Speedboat (fastest and holds more than a SDV).
Gathering Salvage
To begin collecting Salvage, go to any marked purple shipwreck site (shown below) and dive below the surface. Pressing “Y” to open the inventory while touching the downed ship and clicking “use” on the excavation tools will begin the automated collection. Salvage collection will continue until the player’s virtual inventory is full. Once max capacity is reached, it is recommended that as much salvage is placed inside the chosen vehicle’s inventory (make sure to press the Windows key on the vehicle and click “Mark Vehicle” to prevent the vehicle from despawning). Repeat the process until all capacities are full.
Selling
Depending on which vehicle was chosen at the beginning and which dive site was chosen, this process can vary slightly but is fundamentally the same. Leaving the salvage site, players can either head straight to the coast closest to the Salvage Connoisseur to sell or to the nearest garage to pull a vehicle and then head to the Salvage Connoisseur. It is recommended that players go to the nearest ATM and deposit their freshly earned cash before returning to their water craft to continue selling the rest of the salvage stored in the selected vehicle with the same process. Note: some items gathered at shipwreck sites are not all sellable at the Salvage Connoisseur, refer to the virtual items page to see the prices of these items.
This map shows the different locations of salvage-related locations. The spots marked in red are the locations of shipwrecks where players can collect salvage. The spots marked in green are locations of Salvage Connoisseurs, where players can sell salvage goods.
Payout
- Using a bergen backpack, RHIB water craft with fully upgraded storage as the “middle ground” option, only collecting Salvage goods and dumping the rest (glass, lockpicks, Rum) at the Kavala shipwreck site, this run takes approximately 34:01 minutes to complete.
- The average payout with the setup mentioned above pays approximately $161,068. This can be increased to an average of $193,282 with a WPL. A very docile payout for a very docile run.
- Choosing what to keep or dump can affect the net profit from these runs, especially in selling Rum, but greatly affects the average time required. Choosing to sell glass and rum requires traveling across the map (also selling rum at the moonshine distributor is not legal).