Salvaging

Salvaging is a mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. In order to salvage, Rex uses a cylinder to dive into the Cloud Sea at Salvage Points in search of treasures. After some time passes, he comes back with any treasure he found, such as collectibles, treasure troves, or enemies. In-universe, salvaging is also a line of work which Rex is a part of, practiced mainly in Nopon Trade Guilds such as the Argentum Trade Guild and Mor Ardain. Salvaging is first done as a tutorial during the Main Story Quest Big Job Preparations, and is then fully unlocked after completing the quest.

Gameplay[edit]

In order to salvage, the player must find a Salvage Point, typically placed at the edges of landmasses featuring a good launching point into the Cloud Sea below, and interact with it. They must then select a cylinder to use for salvaging, which can be bought at salvaging shops, given away from NPC interactions, crafted, or obtained through quests. Without a cylinder, no salvaging can be done.

Upon choosing a cylinder, a series of three "button challenges" will be given for the player to hit, similar to Specials button challenges. The button challenges differ depending on the Salvage Point, both in which buttons to press and how fast the challenge runs. Completing these challenges (whether they be "successful" or "perfect") will affect the amount of items and treasure troves salvaged by Rex, while failing to do so will make the chance of monsters appearing higher. Failing the final challenge will cause Rex to stumble and flop instead of doing a proper dive, which nullifies the previous successes, so it is the most important to get right.

Upon completing all three button challenges, Rex leaps into the Cloud Sea and returns some time later. The items he salvages consist of collectibles, usually fish or mechanical parts, and treasure troves. These appear on the ground nearby, with any monsters Rex brought along appearing right behind them. The loose collectibles can be collected easily, but the enemies will have to be defeated before the treasure troves can be opened. Failing to defeat the enemies, whether by running away or by being wiped out, will cause the treasure to be lost.

Rex does not have to be in the active party in order to salvage. Upon surfacing, his pose and voiceline offer a vague barometer of how successful his run was.

Rewards[edit]

Salvaging will yield some collectibles along with treasure troves. Up to three treasure troves can be salvaged at a time, with their rarities varying from a wooden treasure trove, to the rarer red treasure trove and the much rarer white treasure trove. Many things can affect the amount of collectibles and the number and rarity of treasure troves brought up while salvaging.

The cylinder used, with a higher quality cylinder yielding better results. As an example, a Golden Cylinder will always yield red treasure troves or better while a Premium one will always yield white treasure troves.
The Salvaging Mastery Field Skill.
Whether the button challenges were successfully hit or not.

Treasure troves brought up while salvaging contain some amount of gold along with treasure collectibles, which can in turn be traded at item trading shops for more gold and Boosters.

Additionally, some key items needed to complete quests must be salvaged and some enemies only encountered through salvaging can drop special items, such as the Gluttonous Marrin dropping the Lucky Core Crystal.

Any rewards found by salvaging, including treasure troves, will be lost upon Skip Traveling to a landmark or being defeated.

Mechanics[edit]

Many factors go into the rewards and enemies from salvaging. First, a Salvage Table is determined from the specific combination of Salvage Point and cylinder used. This Salvage Table has:

A base rate for treasure troves and enemies.
Three sets of loose collectibles, with associated probabilities.
Three sets of treasure items, with associated probabilities.
Three sets of enemies, with associated probabilities.

The given base rates are used in the calculation of how many treasure troves and enemies will be pulled up (see below). Moreover, a number of collections of loose collectibles is also randomly determined (from 1 to 3).

Each time the player salvages, the game chooses one set of loose collectibles for each collection pulled up, one set of treasure items for each treasure trove, and one set of enemies for each enemy pulled up. In each case, which set will be chosen from the three given in the Salvage Table is random in accordance with the associated probabilities.

Each collectible and treasure set has a certain list of items which are guaranteed to appear, a list of randomly-appearing items with associated probabilities, and a given number (or number range) of random items to spawn. Treasure trove item sets also have a range of possible gold values the trove can contain. Enemy sets likewise have a list of possible enemies and their level modifiers, one of which will be randomly chosen per enemy set.

In summary, the Salvage Point and cylinder determine a list of lists of possible items and enemies, each with associated probabilities.

Treasure trove calculation[edit]

The calculation for the number of treasure troves pulled up is as follows:

Probability of treasure trove t pulled = 5% * SalvagingMasteryLevel + (TreasureBaseRate + 10% * goodButtonChallengeCount + 20% * perfectButtonChallengeCount) * (0.25)^(t-1)

where:

SalvagingMasteryLevel is the cumulative number of levels of Salvaging Mastery that activated in this salvaging session;
TreasureBaseRate is given by the Salvage Table (i.e. uniquely determined by the Salvage Point and cylinder; it is usually 20% for Normal Cylinders, 40% for Silver Cylinders, 60% for Golden Cylinders, and 100% for Premium Cylinders);
goodButtonChallengeCount is the number of button challenges which were successful but not perfect (if the last challenge failed, this is set to 0);
perfectButtonChallengeCount is the number of button challenges which were perfectly executed (if the last challenge failed, this is set to 0).

A maximum of three treasure troves can be pulled. That is, t takes values between 1 and 3 inclusive. A probability "greater than 100%" is equivalent to one of 100% — guaranteed.

Two aspects of this are of note. The second term decays quickly as t increases; in absence of Salvaging Mastery, the chance of the 2nd treasure trove is 1/4 of that of the first, and the chance of the 3rd is 1/4 that of the second. Even with the highest TreasureBaseRate of 100% and three perfect button challenges, this means that while the first treasure trove is guaranteed with a 160% probability, the second only has a 40% probability, and the third only a 10% probability. This means that while perfect button challenges and Premium Cylinders aid the chance of getting more treasure troves, they by no means guarantee three treasure troves alone. (Premium Cylinders are still very useful because their Salvage Tables generally feature better item sets.)

The other aspect is that the Salvaging Mastery level term is a flat additive onto the probability of 5% per level, with no decay for later treasure troves. At 20 levels of Salvaging Mastery, this additive term becomes 100% — which means that 20 levels of Salvaging Mastery guarantees each of the three treasure troves to spawn, regardless of base rate and successful or failed button challenges.

Enemy calculation[edit]

The calculation for the number of enemies pulled up is similar:

Probability of enemy i pulled = -2% * SalvagingMasteryLevel + (EnemyBaseRate - 3% * goodButtonChallengeCount - 6% * perfectButtonChallengeCount) * (0.5)^(i-1)

where EnemyBaseRate is provided in the Salvage Table (i.e. uniquely determined by the Salvage Point and cylinder), and the other variables are the same as above. The maximum number of enemies that can be pulled is also given in the Salvage Table; it is either 1 or 3, with the exception of Messet Point during School is in Session, in which it is 0.

Due to the smaller coefficients, it is impossible to guarantee that salvaging will not pull up enemies unless EnemyBaseRate is low. This rate is generally 100% for Normal Cylinders, 80% for Silver Cylinders, 60% for Golden Cylinders, and 30% for Premium Cylinders. 3 perfect button challenges subtracts 18% from this, and each level of Salvaging Mastery subtracts 2%. Unlike for treasure troves, the "decay rate" in absence of Salvaging Mastery is 1/2 rather than 1/4, so the second enemy (if there can be a second enemy) has half the chance of spawning of the first, and the third has half the chance of the second.

Loose collectible calculation[edit]

Loose collectibles, like Treasure Troves, come in sets. A maximum of 3 sets are pulled up when salvaging; the calculation is as follows:

Probability of collectible set i pulled = 5% * SalvagingMasteryLevel + (100% + 8% * goodButtonChallengeCount + 16% * perfectButtonChallengeCount) * (0.3)^(i-1)

Therefore, the first collectible set is guaranteed, while the second and third are not; however, like treasure troves, they can be made to be guaranteed by having at least 20 levels of Salvaging Mastery.

List of salvageable enemies[edit]

A list of enemies encountered through salvaging.

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Lore[edit]

People who salvage are called salvagers, with most of them practicing the activity as a job. Some, like King Eulogimenos in his younger days, salvage as a hobby. Salvaging plays a key role in Alrest's economy, with many of its manufactured products being made from salvaged parts. As such, trade hubs such as the Nopon trade guilds dabble heavily in the trade, while the very industrialized Empire of Mor Ardain uses many salvaged items, both for its own development and as its main exports.^[1]The town of Chilsain is where most of the salvaging takes place within Mor Ardain.^[2]

Known salvagers[edit]

A list of all known salvagers in Alrest, with their salvager rank if theirs is known.

This page or section is incomplete.
In other words, yes we know it's unfinished; we just didn't want to leave it blank in the meantime. You can help complete it.