Gathering and crafting, where the points go

How it works

Every node (ore, gems, wood, herbs, ingredients and Odyle) levels the same proficiency. It goes from Novice 1–50 to Professional 51–100, with a promotion quest in between.

As you level up you earn two kinds of points, which don’t mix:

Common: for the three skills in the circle, which work on any node.
Specialty: for each resource’s branches.

Common points

The three skills are Proficient Handling (the success bar rises more), Delicate Touch (the failure bar rises less) and Lady Luck (a chance of a big push to the success bar).

Levels	Cost	Rank
1 to 5	1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 points (15 in total)	Novice
6 to 10	5 points each (25 in total)	Professional

A full skill is 40 points and all three, 120. Up to proficiency 100 you earn 95: 45 as Novice and 50 as Professional.

Phase	What I do
Novice	All three to level 5. That’s exactly 45 points; there’s nothing to save
Professional	Proficient Handling and Delicate Touch to 10. Lady Luck stays at 5

Specialty points

Every resource has the same chain, 7 points in total:

Skill	Points	What it does	Requirement
Seeker	1	Shows that resource on the minimap	None
Plentiful Harvest	3	10, 20 and 30% chance to get double	Seeker at 1; Professional from level 2
Appraiser	3	10, 20 and 30% chance to reroll the quality	Plentiful Harvest at 1; Professional from level 2

Up to proficiency 100 you earn 14 points: 6 as Novice and 8 as Professional. That’s enough for two full branches.

My plan: Odyle and gems

Phase	Odyle	Gems
Novice	Seeker, Plentiful Harvest and Appraiser at 1	The same
Professional	Plentiful Harvest and Appraiser at 3	The same

Odyle because it turns into other materials and works for any craft.
Gems because they sell well and the promotion item comes from rubies.
What I leave out is seeing ore on the map. You can mine it by eye.

The promotion to Professional

When you reach Novice 50, proficiency stops rising until you turn in the quest “[Upgrade] Essence Extraction Specialty Skill”, which is accepted automatically. It has two steps:

Talk to Korius, the Artisan Essence Extractor, in Verteron.
Gather from Ruby nodes until the Splendent Ruby (Bound) drops.

It has to be ruby. Sapphires and diamonds don’t count.
It isn’t the “Radiant Ruby Gemstone”, which is a jewelry material with a similar name.
Rubies in Verteron, according to the quest data: Kraka Footpath (right next to Verteron, to the east), Ellun River Midstream (to the west), Verteron Fortress Ruins and Destroyed Abyss Gate.
Turning it in makes you Professional on the spot.

Once Professional, in the Odyle branch I first take Plentiful Harvest to 3 and then Appraiser: each level of the first is 10% more of everything, and the second only rerolls the quality.

Odds and ends

Odyle floats: they’re green orbs in the air and you have to fly to them.
Canceling an extraction halfway uses up the node without giving anything.
The panel has a “Skill Reset” button. It costs Kina; an English guide mentions 50,000 per reset, and the exact cost shows up in the confirmation.
Materials come in three qualities: common, fine and pure. The last two are the ones that pay.
Fish and seafood are cooking ingredients.

Crafts

Five: weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, accessory crafting, alchemy and cooking. Each one has its own proficiency, with the same ranks as gathering, and they don’t share points with it.

No recipe costs Kina, only materials.
To start, cooking: it’s cheap and levels fast.
For the Gladiator, weaponsmithing, for the greatsword.
There’s a “great success”: according to the guides, 25% on almost all gear and 30% in cooking.
Crafted gear matches dungeon gear in level, but amplifies less.
All five crafts can be leveled on the same character. What holds you back is materials.

The crafted gear ladder

According to metabot, gear is crafted in tiers: Orichalcum at proficiency 3, Expert’s at 15 and Artisan’s at 30. Each piece can come out normal or, with a great success, “Splendent”, which is better. On top of that, each tier needs the Splendent piece of the previous one as an ingredient. The Artisan’s Splendent piece is Unique, item level 44. From proficiency 51 you craft with Balaur materials, and Dragon Lord gear needs 55.

On 9 October, on my Market, Artisan’s Splendent pieces were between 12 and 49 million Kina. Wisdom pieces, level 36, were under 2 million.

Quality is what pays

Lowest asking price on my Market, on the night of 9 October:

Material	Common	Fine	Pure	Radiant
Odyle	1,485	2,400	36,900	395,000
Yggdrasil Log	1,999	6,554	64,666	288,000
Sapphire	1,999	1,798	46,650	190,000
Ruby	1,173	2,399	33,211	100,000
Diamond	1,299	4,999	26,499	90,000
Orichalcum Ore	1,086	610	18,999	78,000

One radiant Odyle is worth as much as 266 common ones: it’s the radiant Od you need to open the sealed wings. I sold two at 389,000 each. That’s why the Odyle branch with Appraiser, which rerolls the quality, is the one that makes the most money. The crafting materials I had stored in my warehouse also sold well: with them and the Odyle I went from 300,000 to over 2 million Kina in two days.

What I’ve seen myself and what I haven’t

Seen on my screen: the Novice caps (common at 5, each specialty skill at 1), the 45 common points and 6 specialty points at Novice 50, and the reset button.

Also seen: the promotion quest and the move to Professional. And at Professional 15, Plentiful Harvest at level 3 with its 30%, and the common skills above 5; it’s in this notebook entry.

At Professional 39 I had Proficient Handling at 10 and the full Odyle branch, and the point counts still matched the tables: 84 common and 10 specialty points earned.

Checked on 11 October: the cap is Professional 50 (proficiency 100). I got there with Odyle and gems complete, Proficient Handling and Delicate Touch at 10 and Lady Luck with whatever was left: exactly the 95 common points and 14 specialty points from the tables.

Not checked yet: the reset cost and the crafts.