Chapter 04 · ScrapperFM 93-07

Scrapper

You hauled dead appliances and busted furniture to the scrapyard for a living. You could tell at a glance which pieces were worth pulling and which were going in the crusher.

A dusk scrapyard of appliances, cans, and a wheelbarrow of metal. — Plate III-D. — Cans and washers. Volume is the trait.

Spec	Issued
Creation cost	−4 (Engineer / Mechanic tier)
Effective start	Salvage 3 · Maintenance 1 · Dumpster Diver
Granted trait	Dumpster Diver (purchasable 3) — Salvage XP. No bonus-component roll. That roll is Resourceful, and Resourceful is the recycler.
XP source	Salvage crafting only. Same tree as the recycler. You spawn at the same Salvage depth.

Who this is for

You work alone or in a small house and still want the salvage tree without spending Sysop money. You are just as deep on Salvage as the E-Waste Recycler. You are not as good at the rare guts, and Electrical teardowns will not compound for you. Maintenance 1 is the quiet gift: walls, weapons, and the long game of not replacing everything you own.

// FROM THE FILES — ROUTE 33 YARDS

The yards along 33 never closed so much as they ran out of living customers. You still know which pile is copper. Volume is the trait. The Sysop can wait in line behind the cans.

How to play it

Cans, then nails. Crush aluminum (ungated). Flatten tin at 1. Reclaim nails at 2 — you start at 3, so the settlement’s fastener problem is already your job. A bag of nails is how you pay rent in a claim you did not found.
Appliances are a route, not a museum. Harvest Appliance Parts at 2. Walk suburban kitchens, not downtown. The loot is heavy; a car or a wheelbarrow is more occupation than a second melee.
Paper is a second crop. Roll logs (ungated), pulp at 2, press sheets at 3. Charters, vendor kits, ledgers, sheet music — other people’s recipes drink paper. You can mint it.
Do not pretend you have Resourceful. Pull the same teardowns. Keep the timing circuits when they drop; they just drop less often. Your volume is the trait. Sit at the tab. Dumpster Diver only helps if you actually craft.
Be the cheap infrastructure. Join a town that has a chemist or a sysop and no recycler. You are the bulk metal and nail pipe. Let them keep the optics. Charge anyway.

Operator’s note — solo loop Scrapper is the salvage start that still works if nobody else logs in. Crush, flatten, nails, paper, a small stash, a vehicle. You do not need a BBS or a press to be complete. You need a driveway and a reason not to die in it. Found later, not on day one — see Territory.

What not to do

Do not compete with an E-Waste Recycler for the same TV pile unless the town is huge. You will lose the garnish war.
Do not skip the crafting tab because “the XP will come.” It will not.
Do not take Resourceful on top — the twin logic is for the recycler’s granted trait. You may buy Resourceful as a Scrapper (it is not your twin). That is a 6-point decision that turns you into a discount recycler. It is legal. It is also most of why people paid −6.

Read the same ladder on the E-Waste page; it is the same recipes. Your difference is trait, Electricity, and how you spend the two points you did not pay.