So you wanna be a harvester, or found you need to be

[lyrah68]

***Credits---this is NOT all MY original findings, I got this info from other guides, from friendly other players in a number WAY to high to list here, but if you helped me, you are JUST as much an author of this as I am and THANK YOU***

*****edited to add new found info, like clues for Matis and Zorai*****

Well so you want to be a range fighter and found you need to make your own ammo(it gets pricey I hear) and you are having trouble finding resource nodes, and are not happy with the stats/qualities of the materials that are dropped.

Ok, in game, find the window with the actions, game and window box, and click on GAME tab
Now find the Game configuration tab and click it.
Find the graphics in the list and click it, now find the Ground clutter.

Now you need to think of which race you are.
Ok, click the game tab, then game configuration, then landscape, then find the "micro vegitation" if the box is NOT checked, check it. Turn the slider to 10%.
Now hit apply and OK.

Now then, My advice is to start out at your "birth town" the town you selected to start in. Get a pad of paper and a pencil(or two), and walk in a spiral around town, looking for a "disturbance" in the flat level same colored ground. In Tykerlands this looks like a Jellyfish sorta, and you have to LOOK HARD for it.(Tyker's shows up better at night with light OFF, it is a glowing goldish melted gummi bear blob) In Fyros land it is almost TOO obvious, a darker brown "scrubbly" pebbley looking spot(for some choice nodes, it was best to stand ON the spot, and aim in a specific direction, for others, you aim AT the spot). For Matis, in the fall and winter it is a RED ELM leaf. I have also heard it is like dead bug husks or sticks. I have heard rumors it is different for various types. But I did find just about every type of material in the red leaf clue.
For Zorai it is a silver, smaller rounder leaf, almost like the inside of some sea shells. I have also heard it might be a mushroom, very very tiny. I tested this out, and got a few nodes I couldn't prospect yet (fine or choice grade) and a few basic, and a few nodes I must have just missed due to WEAK narrow angle and short range.

Also look for ANYTHING odd, a hill out in the middle of NO where with trees on it. In Tykerlands, look for windwills too close to the edge of the water. And try along the cliff faces in ANY civilization. And near any roads on mainlands.

Basically look around the bases of trees, on hills, near lakes, near agro mobs (yep I got about 20 levels in fighter JUST defending myself, not even trying. so keep your dagger nearby while you harvest, or bring a fighter friend), in valleys. And if you see a near geometric arrangement of plants...LOOK around it.

(Note: just because you didn't find anything, that does NOT mean that that area does NOT spawn a node, it just means that the nodes it MIGHT spawn are depleted or destroyed. Check back in about five minutes and scrounge around that area while you wait.)


Ok now you know WHERE and what to look for. Here is the how. If you didn't buy the two harvest action pack on creation...stick to town until at LEAST level three, and pick up the PREspawned nodes. Then go get the prospection action.

The nodes that are spawned look like glowing green stones. Equip your pick, and find your basic extraction button on the hot button bar (it is called the HANDS bar in manual because of the two HANDS on it). Target the node and click the extraction button.

Now you CAN find a node, here is how to look. First remember that basic prospecting is "near sighted", you are looking in a VERY narrow area with basic. Chances are it is almost at your feet and right in front of you. SO if you are in an area and you just SAW someone find a node (in other words you KNOW nodes spawn there), turn to your right or left about ten degrees and try again. If you have tracking it stops you ONTOP of the node, step back about three steps and prospect.

Now as to MY PERSONAL preferrence on what to get.

Wider angle prospecting (looking in a wider arc than basic)
longer distance
higher focus
higher focus regen
faster prospect (unless you LIKE taking forever to find a node)

Higher quality extraction (this is for the Q number)
higher grade prospection (fine, Choice The newb areas are capped at CHOICE, so save your SP for the Excellent and Superb and higher until you are on the mainland)

SOME get the tracking skill, I find it ALMOST useless, and VERY frustrating, for the points you spend, it SHOULD pop up all the nodes locations on your compass, but instead you wander around playing hotter colder until you are right on top of it...AND the tracker counts DEAD or Depleted nodes. So you can run around for five minutes, all the while watching your precious focus dwindling, only to get there, have to regen focus and find NOTHING.


About this point I hit the magic number, level ten, and nodes began to be mean, gas me, blow up, and other FUN stuff.

Hint one, do NOT harvest on TOP of a node, but rather about two steps back from it, gas won't always hurt you this way. on a hill or in a valley, this won't help...BUT on a mostly flat spot, it will save your neck.
AND after about 20, go out and hunt enough to get AT LEAST 300 hps and the regen and self heal one or two at least (all of these paid for with your fighter SP NOT harvest and SURELY not crafting), this way a BIG blow up won't be a free ticket to respawn spot.

Ok now you are a novice, and probably have a particular TYPE of material you need to craft something. This is where the paper and pencil come in.

I made a chart with Direction from city (using cardinal points and mid points, of North south east and west and NE SE NW SW), grade and type of material found, and Landmarks. This game as yet, does NOT have a /location system, so it is impossible to put the in game equivelent of a GPS number (global possitioning satelite for those that don't know).


SO you will have to make up for it, with the fact that landscape does not change...or hasn't yet.

I started DUE north of the trainer huts, and far enough out to NOT get the "newbie node" crap that is EXACTLY the same from town to town (it is what the welcomer asks for in the harvester part of his/her mission, and that quest is EXACTLY the same from town to town, and I THINK from race to race). Then I went east (clockwise) in a spiral around town. I gave directions first from town, then from node to node. I also noted the time of day and season and whether or NOT it was raining (I have heard rumors that it affects what spawns at a site, and I have YET to get shells ANYWHERE when it was raining, and after about 40 levels of harvesting...I doubt that is just bad luck). (this rumor has proven true in mainland areas).

Look for landmarks that are unusually and use them (for instance, looking for the mission Amber in Fyros newb area, go to the FAR SE town, go to the cliff south of town, follow the wall and look for FOUR trees in a near perfect square and prospect around and IN the square.)

Once you FIND a node, beCAREFUL not to destroy it. Look at the box you get when you prospect a node, the HEARTline tells you the "life" of the node, when it is all gone, the area around that node is "destroyed" for about five minutes. Now if you are just leveling up, no big deal, but if you found a CHOICE node of a material you NEED, it is heartbreaking to see that heartline vanish.

So how do you avoid destroying a node, First hit k and find your SIT command and remap it to the Q key(nothing on it and just how many times do you hit the Q key when chatting?) Now when that heartline gets TOO low OR when you get a full unit of Q20 hit the Q key. Now you do not have to run around to forage at all, but can spend up to 25 minutes at ONE node or grouping of nodes.

Ok we all want to know what we need to get TWO units from one node. Ok I know what it takes, but I WILL warn you, you are VERY likely to destroy any node. I would NOT try to pull two units from ANY node mode BUT a mode ONE. Anything else and you had better have the HP and regen to take two or THREE blow ups or gas or BOTH.

Ok here is what you need to get TWO units.
400 hps is suggested(to LIVE to take the two units)
the regen of the same level as 400 hps
Harmfull extraction2 (gentle extraction 2 will work with higher aggressive speed and rate)
Source time 35 (prospecting)

I suggest getting gentle quality and mixing it with the aggressive speed and finding what works best with what Node mode.

I have found that twos I almost can't GET a THING from, they die FAST and are apt to blow up gas AND destroy before I can get a thing.

Threes are ALMOST as bad as twos. But I can enjoy a mode One for the FULL ammount of the number of units that are stated on the blue "potion" looking line(the number given was 25 I got 25 units before it went mode two and blew up in mid extraction, and destroyed on me).

I have found that being willing to share or at least trade node info with other harvesters has earned me about six on my friends list and four open tell boxes with info FLYING between us.

There are those that LOVE to hide or hoard their info, sorry folks, but you are the ones that are likely going to end up with higher prices on your goods than standard market value, because you are making it HARD on the crafters to get the materials they need to make your stuff.

[lorgerol]

Excellent guide, almost every little tip and trick is included that I could have thought of, even advice on Source Modes!

Let me add two little tips of my own:
To break the extraction, instead of sitting down, you can use the "cancel current action" key, by default CTRL+S. I personally have remapped this to Backspace, since I have to cancel my action mid-casting often enough in a hurry. (Not just when harvesting).

The other thing I would suggest is that if you had cancelled your action, do NOT take the material you extracted until the source time actually runs out, otherwise you won't get XP. To speed things up, whilst you are waiting for the source time to run out, you can already start prospecting for your next node, even with the Extracting... window up.
(Just make sure you don't start extracting from the second node before the first has run out, otherwise you loose the mat... happened to me often enough )

[ente33]

Excellent quick list. I had heard something about breaking off the extraction before the source runs out, but have not tried it. I will have to give it a whirl when I get home. Just to get some clarification, if you would, do you just re-prospect in the same spot? Do you turn a few degrees to the side? Does it matter at all? hehe

I'm wondering, though, if this is intended? If you can just re-prospect over and over, then why have the source-spots deplete at all? It comes across as a penalty to new people, who don't know the "trick."

[moriant]

Stopping an extraction is a good way to prevent the exhaustion of a source or to prevent that next explosion that'll have you respawning.

It will also allow you to re-prospect a spot over and over again for several more pulls. I have noticed though, that even if I never let a source die while harvesting that eventually it will become depleted. So even with this 'trick' you won't be staying in the same spot forever.

[wheatear]

Hello all and thanks for the great harvesting and prospecting tips but I still have one or two newb questions:

1. I got the 30 second prospection stanza (or brick as they seem to be known) but when I tried to use it by adding it to my prospecting action, the time on the sources I found didn't seem to be any different. My question is, should prospecting with the 30s brick give me more time on all sources or is the time fixed for each source and the 30s skill only allows me to find the sources with longer extraction times?

2. I've seen several bricks that seem to be for extracting better quality materials and have got the 25 quality harmful extraction one myself. My question here is - does the "Harmful" or "Gentle" nature of these bricks apply to the heart line of the source or the explosion line of the source or both?

Thanks!

[moriant]

1 - Prospecting Source Time basically lengthens the amount of time the source is available to harvest. The longer times allow you to (eventually) pull more than 1 mat at a time.

2 - Harmful/Gentle - refers to both explosion/life basically. I decided at least early on that I would only use Harmful mainly to save having to spend SP on the gentle bricks. As long as I'm careful about not killing the source (see above: sitting/stopping) I can use harmful and not worry to much for now. (At least with up to choice mats)

[lyrah68]

To Answer a few questions I have had here and in game.

If you look at the box you get once you prospect, you will see several things. The top line is the TIME you have, once this is gone, THAT turn at extracting is over, what you have is what you get.

The blue potion looking bottle is the NUMBER of UNITS that node has (bear in mind ONE "area" could have FOUR or five or more nodes, destroy ONE node, you blew them ALL for FIVE minutes, so the stop action/sit technique is KEY).

The Heartline is the "life" of the node, if that drops to nothing you destroy the node. Remember twos and threes are SO touchy, I am not level 40 Forager and I STILL destroy twos if I lag even a little bit. If you group and you both have the resource preservation and resource stability (node heals is what I call them) you can swap out who gets the resource and who heals and you can BOTH get xp off each node. I have seen a pair sit at the same spot for what seemed FOREVER (It may have only been 30 minutes, but it seemed like hours and HOURS).

The star looking icon line is the stability of the resource node, in other words, when that vanishes, BOOM or HIIIIISSSSSS or both, this line can vanish and reappear two or three times (or more if you are going for TWO units).

The BOTTOM line is Kami tollerance, and this is OFF in newbie areas(not sure if it is still off on mainland and could use that info before I move on to mainland), BUT I have heard stories of the times during beta when this line was turned on, Kami were popping up ALL over and zapping people DEAD. While it was funny to hear it, I also was NOT the one getting zapped. But I can imagine it would get VERY frustrating to try and ballance gentle quality and aggressive rate and speed to try and get stuff from a touchy node with a touchy kami tollerance. I would imagine there MIGHT be nodes I wouldn't even BOTHER with with the Kami thing turned on.

[lyrah68]

Ok on the gentle harmful thing, I have found ONLY the quality bricks to be helpful, and mostly ONLY with the tricky twos and threes (modes are stated in the system info box in white, Ones are an ALL night picnic, bring your lunch and enjoy. Twos are ALMOST forget it, gonna blow and destroy, and I have had times...even at lvl 40 forager where I got NOTHING out of a two. Threes are just a tiny bit better than twos, when I get anything out of them, they blew up AND gased me, and the Q of the material was under my max.)

I found that for MY uses, I enjoyed the agressive speed, aggressive rate, and gentle quality. (I put it down as FAG25 fast aggressive gentle and the quality number, because I have projects I don't NEED q20 for, I sometimes DO pull a q10, so I have the gentle and harmful q10 and q25 up on my bar).

I found with my "FAG25" I can pull AT LEAST one unit of Q20 off a mode 2, if I have the HP and am not on TOP of the node extracting it, without having to sit, and the next node mode MIGHT be better. And I can get every last unit of the blue line on a node mode ONE(I see that number and almost DANCE), I have seen as many as 25 units, but then I haven't paid TOO much attention to that number, yet.

I am going to do further research on the gentles and harmfuls mixed this week, I will report ALL successes and failures and ANY noted xp differences. At this point, level 40 harvester, in newbie Fyros zone, I am LUCKY to gain anything more than 650 xp a harvest. SO...progress is slowed (but I am not leaving newb area until I get my fighter and magic levels over 35, and magic is at level ONE no spells...so...I will be there a while.)


Also, I noted that in Tyker lands, you might need to fiddle with the ground clutter setting until you can see the jellyfish, I had mine up to about 50 and saw an amber glow to them that I hadn't seen at 10%, it made them easier to find, but at 70% the grass and debris was too thick to find them. SO...tink with that setting until your system is comfortable for your race/location.

I have also noted, that while you GET prespawned nodes in Tykerland, MANY are IN the water, and some so far into the water that you swim, if you swim, you can NOT extract it. If you see NO nodes, shout and ask nicely for another harvester to prospect for you until either you hit level three (which does NOT take long, no more than seven nodes would be my guess), or more nodes spawn.

ALSO...if you don't have prospect yet, scroll OUT your compass to 50 or 100m and look for GREEN dots, those are nodes, if you don't see a BLUE dot near a green dot, it is YOUR node now. In Tyker lands, I heard three people claiming to get to level 16 WITHOUT prospecting, and while I wouldn't suggest it, I would believe it is possible. And I can FULLY understand your frustration in Tykerlands, finding undestroyed nodes near town CAN be tedious and time consuming. Nodes in Tykerland are not as prevelent nor as obvious as Fyros areas.

BUT remember PART of your xp IS for the prospect, and part is for the extract, so you REALLY NEED both after level 20, if not much sooner.

I have heard SOME people, mostly crafters, expressing frustration and boredom while harvesting, and recently I have begun to feel the same way, well mostly because I am HOOKED on the leveling graphics. But if you have a goal, know which material (grade, kind, and NAME of material, for instance Choice<grade>Q20<quality> Desert Moon Resin <moon resin ONLY available in desert regions, like Fyros newbland>) then it is more rewarding. And I don't ALWAYS go back to town to craft.

If I have ALL my mats and am in a safe area, I will just pull out the tool and crank out a few units. Of course eventually you DO have to sell, either to a player, if it is good enough, OR to the vendor, if a Yubo wouldn't use it LOL.

[lyrah68]

Ok on further research...
Matis don't SEEM to have a visual clue, and the sound clue turned out to be a false hope. Matis it would seem have a genuine NEED of either a GOOD map, OR might even need the tracking skill (I just HATE spending THAT many points for a skill that is little more than an over glorified hot cold game, and that counted destroyed or "dead" nodes as well).

I have tested my harmful/gentle theory out a bit.

Agressive speed
Agressive rate
gentle quality
Gained me FEWER explosions and fewer destroyed nodes

Agressive speed
gentle rate
aggressive quality
gained me a free trip home from FOUR explosions when only trying ONE unit, so...I don't advise this one to ANYone for ANY reason.

If you have info on the others, that being
Gentle speed
aggressive rate
aggressive quality

and
Gentle speed
Gentle rate
Gentle quality

I am interested what your experiences with those "action" strategies were.

[algenon]

Great info - thanks for posting it.