Star Citizen has a concept called Reclaiming. Our community frequently calls it Melting. These are one and the same, and here's how it works!
When a pledge is reclaimed onto your account, it is converted into Store Credit. The value of the pledge, gift, or gift card is converted into a dollar amount. If you used a discount or made a pledge during a sale, the pledge value will be the same as what you initially paid. Any taxes that were paid when the pledge was purchased are not included in the pledge value.
NOTE: After pledging with credits or cash, there is a 24 hour "cooldown" before you can reclaim it. RSI Player Relations cannot reclaim this for you or reduce that time limit.
What happens to the reclaimed pledge?
When you reclaim a pledge, the following happens:
- The entire pledge is removed from your Hangar.
- A dollar amount for the pledge value is attributed to your account as Store Credit.
- The reclaim is intended to be permanent. Depending on the pledge type, you may be able to buy it back!
- Any upgrades are removed from the pledge. If you upgraded the ship before reclaiming, those upgrades were stripped away. When you buy it back, When you buy it back, you will receive the base pledge as it was when you first acquired it.
Important notices about Pledge Reclaims
Reclaims are intended to be permanent. Not all reclaimed pledges can be bought back using the Pledge Buy Back tool.
As a policy, RSI Player Relations will not assist with reversing reclaimed pledges. You can use the Buy Back tab or pledge for items through the store. Safeguards are in place to warn of permanent changes when reclaiming a pledge. Rare, limited availability, and Kickstarter pledges have strict regulations for buy back to ensure the rarity of the ships and store options.
If you reclaim a pledge containing a copy of Star Citizen, you could be removing your game access. You will not be able to launch the game without a game package. If your Launcher has no buttons, you have reclaimed your only game package.
Reclaim a pledge
Make sure you truly want to reclaim the pledge with the possibility of not getting it back. Not all pledges are guaranteed to list in the Buy Back Pledges page!
- Visit our site and login to Account.
- In your account, click the My Hangar tab.
- Look through your pledges and expand the arrow icon next to a pledge you want to reclaim.
- Click Exchange for store credits.
- Review the notes and warnings about the reclaim.
Important: Check the name of the pledge being reclaimed! If you see standalone ship as the description, you are just reclaiming a standalone ship. If you see the name of a Package, you could be reclaiming your entire game package, ship, and any extras for that pledge!
This screen ensures you acknowledge that the pledge will be removed from your account and that the action is permanent. You must also check the appropriate boxes to acknowledge your understanding that limited items and discounts will be lost. - Enter your password and click Reclaim.
The store credit will be attributed to your account. You can use the credit towards new orders through the store. For more information, see Using Store Credit.
Not everything can be Reclaimed...
Certain pledges cannot be reclaimed, which is by design and is not something that can be bypassed. The following pledges are unable to be reclaimed:
- Pledges that have been locked by CIG Support Staff.
- Community, promotion, and event special rewards.
- Any pledge with a base value of $0.
- This remains the case if any sort of upgrade is applied.
- Concierge rewards.
- Referral rewards.
- UEC purchases (Chits and old Voyager Direct purchases)
Other pledges fall into the very subjective category of "probably shouldn't be reclaimed" but ultimately that category is decided upon by the owner of said pledge. Some examples of these pledges we advise against reclaiming are very rare pledges that are not generally available on the Pledge Store and anything that includes a physical item as such pledges cannot be bought back.
I am receiving an error when attempting to reclaim a pledge.
For security reasons and to protect our players, we require that an account has Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) active in order to reclaim any pledges. Attempting to reclaim a pledge without this active will return an error. You can check to see your account's MFA status by going to your account's security settings.
Additionally, pledges that have a starting value of $0 cannot be reclaimed, as noted above. This remains true if that value changes later for some reason, such as upgrading a ship.
Claiming a Gift Card
If a friend sends you a gift card from the pledge store, you can use it by going through the reclaim process listed above. Gift cards will remain fairly useless until their value has been added to your account using that method.
I reclaimed a pledge by accident - help!
The reclaim process presents you with the name of the pledge and requires an RSI account password to complete in order to prevent accidental loss of your pledges. You have a few options if you reclaimed a pledge:
- Check your Buy Back Pledges tab. You can buy it back with cash or a credit buy-back token (These are attributed to accounts once every Quarter. They do not stack, so your account will only ever hold one token).
- Check the store for the ship or game package. You can pledge for a new one through the store using store credit and/or cash.
If the ship or package is no longer available in the Store or your Buy Back Pledges tab, it may be limited or unavailable to pledge for again.
Important! As a policy, RSI Player Relations will not assist with reversing reclaimed pledges.
My pledge was discounted. How will this affect the buy-back process if I want it back?
Head to our Pledge Buy Back Tool page for full details on the buy back options available, but some quick important points are listed below.
- Pledges acquired with a subscriber discount coupon will need to be bought back at the full, undiscounted price.
- Pledges that were acquired at a discount through various promotions, events, or sales must also be bought back at their undiscounted price.
At the time of reclaiming a pledge, you must confirm that you are aware that your discount will be lost before completing the reclamation process.
Buy Back a Reclaimed Pledge with Store Credit
As mentioned above, store credit can be used to buy back a reclaimed pledge, but only if your account is in possession of a credit buy back token. Tokens are attributed to a backer account every 3 months (90 days), and do not stack. This means that if a token is not used, another will not be attributed to the account.
Tokens are made available to backer accounts early in the following months:
- January
- April
- July
- October