Gecko

**Reactor Class:** | Class II

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.

## Variants

### 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. Configured for scientific research in deep space, it has a longer and thinner profile than other Geckos with only two Thruster units. Additional power is provided by Solar Batteries attached to the side of the hull. The Stargazer's Reactor is set in the middle of the ship instead of at the rear.

### Salvage Runner

The fourth and final Gecko variant, the Salvage Runner is configured for salvaging other ships with its external Utility Arms. The player will start to encounter Salvage Runners from Certification Rank 18/Ship Grade 13 and onwards. These ships often arrive in the Salvage Bay in poor condition, with few (if any) working Atmosphere Regulators. Combined with their tendency to be loaded with free-floating and volatile salvage, they are considered among the most challenging ships to safely salvage.

## Depressurizing

### With Regulators

Depending on the model, all Geckos will feature either one or two Airlocks on the top of the ship to provide safe entry. Once inside, an Atmosphere Regulator should be found to safely decompress one part of the ship. The number and layout of the Regulators will vary depending on the model, but Geckos will always include a working Regulator in the ship's cockpit, even at very high Hazard Levels. With the first room depressurized, the player can work their way back through other rooms and spaces, opening their doors via the Door Consoles to equalize their pressures via minimally damaging decompression. With the notable exception of Salvage Runners, most Geckos have little in the way of free-floating salvage, with the most dangerous items being loose Crates in Station Hopper Geckos.

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 Modular Laser Cutter. The use of the Splitsaw here may result in more violent decompression events, and so is not recommended.

### Salvage Runners

Salvage Runner Geckos are are by far the most difficult ship in the game to safely decompress. This stems from their large amount of free-floating and volatile salvage in their Cargo Bays, the connections of these bays to the rest of the ship and their typical lack of functioning Atmosphere Regulators. The Cargo Bays are the only rooms in the ship not to have dividing doors, and are treated as being connected to the entire external crawl space for the purposes of pressure equalization. As an additional hazard, the coolant pipe from the ECU to the Class II Reactor runs above the corridor adjoining the cargo bays, which can be easily ruptured by flying salvage. The Reactor itself is housed at the end of the cargo area, and is in places only protected by glass windows. The culmination of these factors is that a rapid decompression, accidental or deliberate, can easily cause extensive damage and loss of salvage, up to and including immediate destruction of the ship's reactor core.

To decompress a Salvage Runner with a single working Regulator in the cockpit, the following steps should be carried out:

1. First, identify and move all volatile cargo out of the Cargo Bays and into the ship's Airlock. Depending on the ship, this might include multiple Fuel and Coolant Tanks, O2 Canisters, Thruster Fuel, Power Cells, Batteries, other electrical equipment such as Computer Terminals, Hydroponics Cabinets and/or Class I Thrusters. If there is not sufficient room in the Airlock, move the salvage out of the ship entirely and send it safely to the Barge.
2. Once complete, enter the front of the ship and depressurize the Airlock behind you to seal its doors.
3. Shut off the ECU by removing all three Coolant Canisters in the standard manner. This avoids the possibility of rupturing a live coolant line if the decompression goes badly.
4. Proceed to the ship's cockpit, closing all internal doors behind you as you go, and decompress it using the Regulator there.
5. Open the doors to the navigation room, ECU room, crew cabins and forward storage to vent their air and decompress those.
6. Finally, cut into the crawl space, either through the aluminium cabin or from the outside with Demo Charges. This will explosively decompress the rest of the ship, flinging around any aluminum/nanocarbon salvage still present in the cargo bays. As long as any volatile salvage has been removed beforehand, the risk of major damage at this point will be minimised.

The method described here is a time-consuming exercise, and may require a whole shift to complete. Hence, the player might instead choose to salvage one of the three less hazardous Gecko variants; these offer similar rewards in a shorter time frame and will likely be available elsewhere in the Ship Catalog.

## Notable Salvage

### Station Hopper

#### 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, but note that removing them will disable the ECU and starts the reactor meltdown. 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 near the center of the ship, adjacent to one or both airlocks or near the front of the ship. The generator must be first be rendered safe for removal by removing the 3 fuses located around the ship's aluminum paneling, these fuses can only be safely removed by pulling each of their release levers when their three red lights are all off, otherwise they will discharge a nasty shock to you. Once the three fuses are removed, the generator can then be detached by pulling it with the grapple and maneuvering it around the ship into the barge. Note that removing the generator will render nearly all electronics on the ship offline, including door consoles, lights 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 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

The crawl space of the ship grants access to the thruster chamber which may contain up to 3 thrusters. Attached to each thruster is a lever that must be pulled to release it. 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.

## Trivia

* Despite appearing to contain electrical wiring, the Rail Guides found in Heavy Cargo and Salvage Runner Geckos do not count towards the Zapped sticker.
* Prior to Version 0.5, the Gecko Salvage Runner was the only ship not to feature in the Weekly R.A.C.E.. Older Salvage Runners also had their ECU rooms connected to the external crawl space for the purposes of pressure equalisation.
* The Gecko was previously called the Salamander early in the game's development.
* Two Geckos are featured in the opening cinematic. One is shown taking off from Earth for Morrigan Station, presumably transporting the player there to begin their new life as a Shipbreaker, while the second is shown in the Salvage Bay being dismantled by another Shipbreaker.

## Known Issues

* Geckos can spawn with non-functioning airlock controls; the airlock will appear to cycle with the usual visual and audio cues, but the external doors never open to allow the player access.
* Geckos can occasionally spontaneously decompress themselves on spawn, which can damage loose salvage.
* Heat Sinks and ECU coolant pipes can spawn clipping into one another on some Geckos, which will cause the Heat Sink to be destroyed if removed. Flushing the pipe and then vapourising the offending segments with the Stinger will allow it to be salvaged safely.
* Using the atmosphere regulator in the Salvage Runner Gecko's cargo bay will (as of update 0.7.0) cause the game to immediately freeze and crash to desktop.

## Gallery

* A Gecko Stargazer in the Salvage Bay.
* The main cabin of a Gecko Station Hopper.