Ryzom Harvesting Guide

Ryzom Harvesting Guide by lyrah68

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.