Revision as of 2010-02-08 00:14:39
  Older version (diff) | current version (diff) | Newer version (diff)

A Harvester's Guide  

A Harvester's Guide:

How to Harvest, Where to Go, What You'll Find

Harvesting is the means by which Artisans acquire the raw materials for crafting everything except Adornments. Artisans who do not buy all their materials on the broker must venture out into the world and risk life and limb to acquire the necessary materials for their craft. Adventurers can pick up some extra coin harvesting and marketing the resources to Artisans.

Contents [hide]

The Basics

An animal den resource node
As you're running around the world you'll notice various logs, roots, rocks, fishes, and clumps of dirt and sticks. These are commonly called "nodes".

Passing your cursor over these nodes makes them glow and your cursor will turn into a little hand, which is your clue that you can do something with the node. Right clicking the node and examining it will tell you the trivial harvesting skill and tell you if your skill is high enough to harvest the node. You can harvest by a) double-clicking the node; b) right clicking and selecting Harvest form the menu, or c) pressing F while your cursor is on the node. (The skills are found in your Knowledge Book but there's no need to make special hot keys or use those buttons, as the game will automatically apply the right skill.)

Each node has enough resources for three successful harvesting attempts (commonly called "pulls"). It's possible to fail a pull until your harvesting skill is at the trivial point for that node; don't worry about it, just try again. There are several possible results per successful pull:

  • one common resource
  • three of the same common resource
  • five of the same common resource
  • one imbuing material
  • one rare resource
  • 10 common resources plus one rare resource

You do have to level up these skills; each Tier of harvesting (which relates roughly to the adventure level of the zone and the level of recipes using the resources) has a trivial level. Skilling up your harvesting skills is done by harvesting your way up the tiers. Your harvesting skill cap is determined by the higher of your Adventure or Crafting levels.

Once a node has been harvested a total of three times it despawns and after a certain amount of time it respawns in a different location in the area; In the original game zones all the non-fishing nodes share a spawn, so they'll respawn as a different type.

What that means is this. Say that a given area has five of each type of resource node, animal den, ore, roots, shrub, stone and wood. If you were to harvest all five of the stone nodes, each node may respawn as something different, perhaps as two wood, a shrub, an ore and an animal den. Leaving that area with no stone nodes for harvesting.

Excessive harvesting of one or two types of node only will result in an area eventually being filled with one or two node types; usually these are shrub and root nodes.

Untouched nodes will eventually despawn and respawn once again, as a random type, but this time is much longer than it is for respawning from being harvested three times.

Harvesting Tools

Woodworker-Crafted Harvesting Tools

Once you level to 20 you can start using the woodworker-made harvesting tools.

  • Ash tools - require adventure or crafting level of 20 or higher.
    • Ash Pick -- Reduces harvest time for mining by 0.5 seconds
    • Ash Shovel -- Reduces harvest time for gathering by 0.5 seconds
    • Ash Fishing Pole -- Reduces harvest time for fishing by 0.5 seconds
    • Ash Trap -- Reduces harvest time for trapping by 0.5 seconds
    • Ash Saw -- Reduces harvest time for foresting by 0.5 seconds

  • Briarwood tools - require adventure or crafting level of 30 or higher.

  • Teak tools - require adventure or crafting level of 40 or higher.
    • Teak Pick -- Reduces harvest time for mining by 1.5 seconds
    • Teak Shovel -- Reduces harvest time for gathering by 1.5 seconds
    • Teak Fishing Pole -- Reduces harvest time for fishing by 1.5 seconds
    • Teak Trap -- Reduces harvest time for trapping by 1.5 seconds
    • Teak Saw -- Reduces harvest time for foresting by 1.5 seconds

  • Redwood tools - require adventure or crafting level of 70 or higher.

Tinker-Crafted Harvesting Tools

If you level your crafting, there are also tinker-made harvesting tools. Note that these tools increase your harvesting skills, and therefore give you a slightly better chance of getting a rare when harvesting zones whose max skill is below your skill level.

  • Miscalibrated tools - require crafting level of 30 or higher.

  • Calibrated tools - require crafting level of 46 or higher.
    • Calibrated Automated Pickaxe - Reduces the harvest time for mining by 1.5 seconds. Increases Mining skill of caster by 15.0
    • Calibrated Automated Shears - Reduces the harvest time for gathering and foresting by 1.5 seconds. Increases Gathering skill and Foresting skill of caster by 7.0
    • Calibrated Automated Watersafe Net - Reduces the harvest time for fishing and trapping by 1.5 seconds. Increases Fishing skill and Trapping skill of caster by 7.0

  • Overclocked tools - require crafting level of 66 or higher.

Harvesting Quests

If you're planning on harvesting Thundering Steppes, Nektulos Forest, The Enchanted Lands, Zek, Everfrost, The Feerrott, or The Sinking Sands, and do not need foodstuffs, it's highly recommended that you speak to Duggin Brandywine in The Thundering Steppes for a nice little harvesting quest. The rewards for these quests are all house items for your table, such as plates, cutlery, glasses & steins, etc.

A Note On Rares

Rares are the Treasured harvestables used to make Mastercrafted items. Rares are highly desirable for the creation of Mastercrafted gear, Adept 3 spells, and high status reduction furniture. Imbuing materials are used for crafted Imbued equipment and Hex Dolls.

Rares are, as you might imagine, rare. On the Outpost and Colony (starter islands) you'll find them very common, but as you level up they become scarcer. Having a skill well over the trivial level for the node will give you a slight advantage in acquiring rares. Remember, rares and all harvesting results are at the whim of the RNG, which can be streaky. It can be very frustrating to really need a particular rare resource and not get it, but they are not supposed to be common or easy to acquire. Persistence pays off. For a long time imbuing materials were considered "rares" by the game; this was changed.

The Technical Bit

Domino posted this on the official forums:

For each node in each zone, when you harvest it, there are different result tables set up that tell the game what to give you when you harvest. Your skill level determines which table you use.

For example, using entirely invented numbers, let's imagine that there is a root node in a level 30-40 zone and you go and harvest it with a gathering skill of 190.

The game sees that the root node points to two result tables. Let's call them:

  • T4_roots_base_result - required skill 140
  • T4_roots_bonus_result - required skill 189

  • The "base" table might tell you that you have a 70% chance of getting 1 root, a 20% chance of getting 3 roots, an 8% chance of getting 5 roots, a 1% chance of getting an imbue, a 0.7% chance of getting a rare root, and a 0.3% chance of getting a rare root + 10 common ones.
  • The "bonus" table might tell you that you have a 60% chance of getting 1 root, a 25% chance of getting 3 roots, an 10% chance of getting 5 roots, a 0.5% chance of getting an imbue, a 0.8% chance of getting a rare root, and a 0.7% chance of getting a rare root + 10 common ones. (Yes, the numbers probably don't add up to 100%, I just invented them on the spot.)

Now we know that if your skill is under 140, you can't harvest the node at all. And we know your skill is 190. So the RNG rolls a number between 140 and 190. If it gets 140-188, you use the "base" result table. If it gets 189+, you use the "bonus" result table. Clearly, as your gathering skill increases, your chance of using the "bonus" result table gets better. (This is where +harvesting skill items affect your results, they increase your chance of using the bonus table.)

As of GU37, you get to start using the "bonus" table at level _8 (so, 8, 18, 28, 38, etc.) You're still not guaranteed to use it, but you have a CHANCE to use it. Previous to GU37, the level at which you could start getting the bonus was much higher, so that you didn't even have a chance to get the bonus table until you had entirely outlevelled the tier. In T6 and T7 prior to GU37 we still couldn't even start using the bonus level at level 70 with 350 skill, so we've been harvesting off the "base" table all this time. Now we will begin to have a chance to use the "bonus" level, so yes, we'll get slightly better harvesting results in T6 and T7 than we were before, but it's actually about the same results as we would eventually have got as the level cap raised and we continued to level up.

The Resource Guide

Tier 1

Tier 1 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Densdeer meat, turtle meat, rawhide leather peltdreadberry, waxed leather peltnone

shimmering primordial fragment
Fishfrog leg, sunfishnone
Orestin cluster, leaded loambronze cluster, solidified loam
Rootsrootyarrow
Shrubsblack coffee bean, raw white tea leaf, jumjum, Baubbleshire cabbagedreadberry
Stoneslead cluster, rough malachitecopper cluster, rough lapis lazuli
Woodssevered elmsevered alder
NotesThe Graveyard and The Sprawl have no fishing nodes.

Tier 2

Tier 2 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Densvulrich meat, elephant meat, tanned leather peltcured leather peltglowing material

glowing primordial fragment
Fishfreewater grouper, crab meatnone
Oresiron cluster, salty loamblackened iron cluster, alkaline loam
Rootstuber strandsisal root
ShrubsAntonican coffee bean, black tea leaf, murdunk orange, raw carrotfire melon
Stoneselectrum cluster, rough turquoisesilver cluster, rough coral
Woodssevered maplesevered bone

Tier 3

Tier 3 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Denslion meat, pig meat, boiled leather peltcuirboilli leather peltsparkling material

sparkling primordial fragment
Fishseafury mackerel, thicket crayfishnone
Orescarbonite cluster, pliant loamsteel cluster, malleable loam
Rootsbelladonna rootdandelion fiber
Shrubssteppes mountain bean, oolong tea leaf, fayberry, sweet onion, acornhalcyon plum
Stonesgold cluster, rough agatepalladium cluster, rough jasper
Woodssevered ashsevered fir
Notesacorn is used for a quested Provisioner recipe and is an uncommon harvest.

Tier 4

Tier 4 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Densbear meat, griffon meat, etched leather peltengraved leather peltglimmering material

glimmering primordial fragment
Fishmurkwater carp, shark finnone
Oresfeyiron cluster, supple loamfeysteel cluster, ductile loam
Rootstussah rootoak root
ShrubsEverfrost ice bean, green tea leaf, wild apple, cucumberrockbud fruit
Stonesvelium cluster, rough opalineruthenium cluster, rough opal
Woodssevered briarwoodsevered oak

Tier 5

Tier 5 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Densowlbear meat, manticore meat, wyrm meat, strengthened leather peltaugmented leather peltluminous material

luminous primordial fragment
Fishcauldron blowfish, nerius troutnone
Oresfulginate cluster, bonded loamebon cluster, fused loam
Rootsashen rootfigwart root
ShrubsLavastorm robusta bean, pu-erh tea leaf, white peach, browncap mushroomelixia pepper
Stonesdiamondine cluster, rough bloodstonerhodium cluster, rough ruby
Woodssevered teaksevered cedar

Tier 6

Tier 6 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Denssabertooth meat, caiman meat, stonehide leather peltscaled leather peltlambent material

lambent primordial fragment
Fishconger eel, tiger shrimpnone
Oresindium cluster, soluble loamcobalt cluster, alkali loam
Rootssucculent rootsaguaro root
ShrubsMaj'Dul coffee bean, darjeeling tea leaf, prickly pearireheart radish
Stonesberyllium cluster, rough nacrevanadium cluster, rough pearl
Woodssevered sandalwoodsevered ironwood

Tier 7

Tier 7 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Densravasect meat, aviak meat, horned leather peltdragonhide leather peltscintillating material

scintillating primordial fragment
Fishflying fishnone
Oresadamantine cluster, porous loamxegonite cluster, spongy loam
Rootshanging rootnimbus root
Shrubssoaring coffee bean, sweet chai tea leaf, xegonberry, squashbrittleskin gourd
Stonesazurite cluster, rough topazacrylia cluster, rough moonstone
Woodsrough lumbered rosewoodrough lumbered ebony
Note: The best zone to harvest for Tier 7 is, without a doubt, Tenebrous Tangle. See the zone page for a list of what resources can be found where in large quantities.

Tier 8

Tier 8 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Densbristled pelt (There are no harvested meats in tier 8)hidebound peltsmoldering material

smoldering primordial fragment
Fishbarracuda, king prawn, magma rock fishnone
Oresferrite cluster, mineral salt loamincarnadine cluster, silicate loam
Rootslichenclover rootmantrap root
Shrubscabilis cocoa bean, torsis tea leaf, raw cranberry, raw succulent petalblood orange
Stonesdeklium cluster, rough kunzitetynnonium cluster, rough fire emerald
Woodsredwood lumbermahogany lumber
Notesmagma rock fish are only available in the Skyfire Mountains region of Jarsath Wastes and require a tinkered Collapsible Fishing Pole to catch. They can be used, by a Provisioner, to make Fiery Magma Infusion and Magma Fish Reduction.

Tier 9

Tier 9 Resources
Resource Node Common Rare Imbuing Material
Primordial Fragment
Animal Densmottled pelt (There are no harvested meats in tier 9)spotted peltethereal material

ethereal primodial fragment
Fishseahorse roe, giant octopus meatnone
Orestitanium ore (There are no loams in tier 9)brellium ore
Rootsbamboo shoottoxnettle root
Shrubslapsang tea leaf, Marr cherry, caynar nut, kejekan palmfruitgreenroot tuber
Stonesquicksilver cluster, amberkaborite cluster, ulteran diamond
Woodssumac lumbereucalyptus lumber

Frostfell

Frostfell is an annual event which takes place around Christmas (or winter solstice, if you prefer). The last few years Frostfell has featured special craftable items. These items are only craftable using resources harvested in the Frostfell Wonderland Village and special crafting stations which are also only available in the Frostfell Wonderland Village.

Note: With GU 48 all old Frostfell recipes were removed from recipe books. Domino says that there will be new recipes (and some old ones) this Frostfell, and most of the old Frostfell harvests should still be useful.

See: Seasonal Resource Nodes

Other Holidays

Other holiday world events also have special recipes, but the unique items for these recipes are dropped during that world event instead of harvested.

Parts of this page were originally a guide, located here, written by Calthine.
EverQuest II
Wikibase™
Guides

This page last modified 2010-02-08 00:14:39.