Being behind on quota creates a specific pressure: the urge to gamble. That urge is what turns a recoverable cycle into a lost one.
What you actually control
Three levers, and only three.
What you sell. Everything in ship storage can be sold. Gear you bought and are not using can go back. That is immediate progress on the quota that costs no risk at all.
Where you fly. A cheap moon you clear beats an expensive moon you abandon. The travel cost on a failed paid run is pure loss.
How you run it. Light loads, early turnaround, full group. None of these cost credits and all of them raise the odds of coming back with a haul.
What not to do
Do not fly to the expensive moon. This is the mistake that ends cycles. Titan and Artifice have the worst survival odds in the game and charge you for the flight. A crew behind on quota is exactly the crew that cannot afford a failed attempt.
Do not split up to cover more ground. Every entity that matters punishes isolation. Splitting up on a recovery run means two chances to lose someone and no extra guarantee of scrap.
Do not stay late for one more room. The haul you already have is the recovery. Losing it to a night crossing is how a bad run becomes a lost cycle.
Do not buy gear to fix a discipline problem. A shovel does not stop a crew from getting lost, and a Zap Gun does not stop a crew from being late.
The recovery run, step by step
Sell first. Empty storage before you fly. Credits on the quota are worth more than items in a bin.
Pick the cheapest moon that can still pay. On the free moons, a full clear is worth more than a partial clear on a paid one, because you paid nothing to get there.
Go light. One light each, one weapon for the group. Recovery runs are about volume and survival, not about the best single item.
Set the turnaround earlier than usual. A recovery run that ends in the dark is not a recovery run.
Bring everything back. Every item that stays on the moon is a wasted trip. Clear near rooms properly before going deep.
The item maths that matters
Behind on quota is exactly when credits-per-pound decides the run.
A toilet paper roll has the best value-to-weight ratio in the scrap table. A yield sign has the worst ratio in the data at 0.64, and it is 42 pounds of load.
A kitchen knife weighs nothing, is worth 35 credits, and doubles as a melee weapon. On a recovery run that combination is close to free money.
Fill your capacity with the best ratio you can find. Do not fill it with whatever is nearest the door.
If the quota is unreachable
It happens. The correct response is to take the best haul you can safely get and keep the crew alive for the next cycle, rather than gambling everyone on a moon you cannot survive.
A crew that loses three people chasing an unreachable quota starts the next cycle worse than a crew that accepted the miss.
Related guides
- Best value scrap early — the ratio ranking this page relies on.
- Quota guide — how the quota actually scales.
- How to carry heavy scrap — why light loads recover cycles.