Work off your debt one salvage job at a time in HARDSPACE: SHIPBREAKER

By Nat Clayton

My first workplace accident was a doozy. I’d cut my teeth on enough Mackerel-class ships to know ’em like the back of my hand. But confidence breeds overconfidence, and in forgetting to decompress the engine room before removing the thruster, I took a thruster cap to the forehead at 50mph. Shipbreaking’s good, honest work – but remember that in space, nobody can hear workplace safety violations.

Two years ago, Blackbird Interactive (developer of Homeworld Remastered Collection and Deserts of Kharak) took a step away from warring empires and operatic battles to focus on a more mundane look at the distant future – aworld where thosevibrant, Chris Fossinspired spaceships are just piles of scrap ready to be turned into paycheques.

It feel s like work, sure, but in the most satisfying way possible

CUTTING EDGE

Hardspace: Shipbreaker has come a long way since entering Early Access, but the core shipbreaking has been consistently satisfying since day one. Here’s the deal: every morning you begin a shift, picking a new ship to crack or continuing one from the day prior. Each ship is built like, well, a ship – airlocks, engines, reactors, and crew compartments layered inside a structural frame and layers of hull panelling to protect them from the elements.

Your first ships are simple enough. Everything can be sorted into three piles – the processor for stuff your employer Lynx wants recycled (usually hull panels), a barge for stuff it wants reused (computers, engines, furniture), and a furnace for scraps it wants rid of. Each piece properly scrapped adds progress towards your work orders, with higher rewards the more efficiently you dispose of a ship. Destroying or misallocating too much salvage will incur penalties and negligence can even lock you out of the more lucrative rewards.