Gecko

The Gecko is a large and sturdy class of interplanetary vessel. It was one of two ship classes in the original Early Access release of Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and currently the third ship class the player can salvage, after the Mackerel and Javelin.

Station Hopper


The Station Hopper is the first Gecko variant the player will encounter, unlocked at Certification Rank 14. It will start to appear from Ship Grade 10 and onwards. Much like its smaller cousin, the Station Hopper is configured to transport passengers and light cargo, featuring a large aluminium cabin with many Seats and Wall Terminals. This makes it time-consuming but highly profitable to salvage.

Heavy Cargo


The Heavy Cargo Gecko is the second Gecko variant the player will encounter, from Certification Rank 15 and upwards. As its name suggests, it is an industrial cargo ship, with its midsection given over to a large cargo bay for transporting Shipping Crates. Its cabin space is divided between the front and rear of the vessel, connected with a titanium walkway, which also carries a coolant pipe to the Class II Reactor at the rear.

Stargazer


The Stargazer is the third Gecko variant the player will gain access to, at Certification Rank 17/Ship Grade 12 and upwards. It is smaller than the other Geckos due to the solar batteries attached to the side of the hull.

Salvage Runner


The fourth and final Gecko variant, the Salvage Runner is configured for salvaging other ships with its external arms. These ships often arrive in the Salvage Bay in poor condition with no working Atmosphere Regulators, and so are considered among the most challenging ships to safely salvage.

Depressurizing
There is an airlock or two on the top of the ship to provide safe entry. Once inside, the main room can be depressurized and adjoining rooms can be opened via the door consoles to cause minimally damaging decompression. If the ship does not have working electrical systems, the same effect can be caused by destroying the doors with the Stinger mode of the cutter (using the SplitSaw may cause the wall to explode).

Coolant tanks
Coolant tanks are located at the front of the ship in the crawl spaces adjacent to the cockpit. See the nanocarbon panels section for details on removing the outer hull, which will make removing the coolant easier.

ECU
Note: disconnecting the ECU may cause the reactor to enter meltdown, so it should be left until the reactor is either removed or ready to be removed.

The ECU is located in its own room starboard of the reactor room. On the front is an aluminum panel that can be pulled off with the grapple, revealing a small foggy area with 3 coolant canisters inside. These canisters can be pulled free with the grapple and then picked up. Behind the ECU is a thin pipe connecting it to the wall. Cutting this pipe will allow the ECU to be moved freely.

Nanocarbon panels
Note: several of the outer panels, namely those that seem to have gray structure visible on the outside them, are aluminum rather than nanocarbon and should be cut free and sent to the furnace rather than the processor for maximum profit.

The crawl space can be entered either through a room port of the reactor room that has a door on the ceiling or by cutting through any of the interior aluminum panels. Most of the exterior panels are divided into top and bottom sections and must have cut points on those respective sides cut to free them. The bottom and top panels can be freed by cutting the cut points on both sides of the keel attached to them. It is generally easier to start panel extraction by starting with a bottom or top piece around the middle of the ship.

The back section of the ship is divided into 3 sections, left, right, and middle, each of which spans top to bottom of the ship. Due to the size of these sections, they require several tethers to be moved effectively and can be difficult to maneuver into the processing area without getting pulled into the nearby furnaces. The use of the jax as tether points is helpful here. It is also helpful to remove the thrusters and nanocarbon panels on the rest of the ship before attempting to move these pieces to avoid them snagging.

Power generator
The power generator is located in the crawl space in the center of the ship, adjacent to one or both airlocks. If the outer panel is aluminum, it can be cut through to get to it easily, and the keel will need to be moved by breaking its cut points. The generator can then be detached by pulling it with the grapple and maneuvered around the ship into the barge. Note that removing the generator will render nearly all electronics on the ship offline, including thruster terminals, door consoles, and atmosphere regulators.

Reactor
The reactor is located around the center rear of the ship. It is tall and surrounded by various frames and panels. This whole device is not actually the reactor though: the frames can be cut away and the panels pulled off to reveal the smaller actual reactor inside.

There are two main ways of removing the reactor: pulling the whole thing out from the bottom, or disassembling it from the side and pulling the core out. Both optimally require the large sections of nanocarbon panel in this area to be freed (see the nanocarbon panels section above).

Pulling it out the bottom
The floor below the reactor area needs to be removed. The easiest way to get it out of the way if the back section has not been fully processed yet is to tether it to the back wall of the salvage bay to pull it out of the way. To prevent explosions, the fuel pipes should be flushed either by taking a utility key to the console in the reactor room or detaching the thrusters. The fuel pipes below the reactor can be removed by breaking the fuel junction box in the center and cutting away the pipe that remains. Cut away the octagonal aluminum structure to make extraction easier. Then safely disable the ECU (see the ECU section above) and cut away the coolant pipe. The entire reactor container should now be able to be pulled straight down to the barge by attaching a tether to the bottom reactor plate.

Pulling it out the side
This approach comes at the reactor from the side opposite the ECU, as it will have the fewest obstacles in the way. The nanocarbon paneling for this section should be moved out of the way, the easiest way would be to pull it to the back wall or just throw it in the furnace. Then cut the wall around the reactor away by using the stinger to destroy the aluminum structure holding it in place, and throw that wall into the furnace. The panels on the reactor casing can be pulled off with the grapple and thrown into the processor, revealing the reactor core which can then be pulled out and thrown into the barge below.

Thruster class II
In the reactor room is a panel that can flush the fuel from thrusters and pipes by consuming a utility key. If a key can not be found, one can be purchased from the master jack for $50000. Safely removing the thrusters without performing this step is possible, but risky.

The crawl space of the ship grants access to the thruster room. Attached to each thruster is a lever that must be pulled to release it. If the fuel was not safely flushed, this will cause fuel to begin venting jets of purple flame from the end of the pipe. If these jets happen to be pointed at the nearby fuel tanks or the thrusters, they can cause them to explode. This venting may also cause the reactor to enter meltdown, so it is recommended to be ready to extract the reactor at this step. Moving back outside, each thruster is covered with a thruster cap which can be removed by cutting its 2 cut points and throwing it into the processor. The thrusters can then be pulled out of the hole.