How to Gather

Whenever you draw near an object that you can gather, you will see a prompt that allows you to interact with it.
Press the hotkey for interaction (R) to collect materials from it.
 
If you do not see the interaction interface, it means that another Adventurer gathered it just recently. No need to fret! These are renewable resources, which means that you can start gathering materials in the same area again after a certain period of time has elapsed.

Keep in mind that all characters have basic gathering tools equipped by default, so you do not have to worry about purchasing or crafting the correct tools.

Depending on the gathering tool you use, the type of materials you obtain will differ, even when gathering from the same object.
From trees, you can collect items like logs or timber with a lumbering axe, or collect sap with a fluid collector. In the same way, there are gathering tools that can be used in more than one type of gatherable object. For example, the fluid collector you use on trees can also be used to gather the blood of animals you hunt.

In the case of butchering an animal, you can gather its materials via the Gathering prompt (hotkey: R) after looting all the items dropped (if any) from the animal you have killed or hunted.

As seen above, this way you will obtain gathering items. In this case, weasel meat from gathering a dead weasel with a butcher knife.

You can gather herbs and wild herbs with your bare hands. However, using a hoe will reward you with much better results.

Unlike other resources, water and desert sand are not gathered from a specific object, but from the environment. This means that you can keep gathering them from the appropriate terrain (water source such as a river or the sea, desert sand) without interruption.

Additionally, gathered resources are the ingredients for a variety of items you can craft as mentioned earlier. If you want to know the types of items you can craft with the gathered resources you have obtained, please refer to the Crafting Notes feature.
You can open the Crafting Notes via the main menu (hotkey: Esc) → Information → Crafting Notes, or by pressing the Crafting Notes button on the top right of this Adventurer's Guide (hotkey: F1) or Adventurer's Board (hotkey: F2).

 Check out the various items you can craft in the Crafting Notes!

◈ An Unexpected Gathering Resource Appeared!

When you gather, you sometimes may come across items that you did not expect to get. These include fairy powder that you can get from all gathering activities, traces useful for alchemists, and items usually sought after by Adventurers who want to accumulate wealth, such as Caphras stones and sharp black crystal shards.
What should you do if you do get these items?

Unless you need it for one of its few uses, you can just sell the fairy powder at an NPC shop without a second thought.
Traces are rare and much sought-after ingredients for alchemy. We recommend storing them until you need to delve into synthetizing elixirs and other alchemical products yourself. Alternatively, if you are sure you will never use them, you can sell them in the Central Market for a good amount of silver.

You can achieve a great profit by selling Caphras stones and sharp black crystal shards in the Central Market. However, there is a good reason for their high price. These items are materials needed by all Adventurers who own combat equipment of a certain level or higher, and are needed to improve this equipment, so there might come a time when you have to use these items yourself. As such, you need to put in some thought as to whether you will sell it on the Central Market, or perhaps keep them and build up a supply in preparation for later.

Life skill activities generally have 11 categories, including gathering, processing, cooking, training, alchemy, fishing, hunting, trading, farming, sailing, and bartering. All of these have levels of their own, and the higher the level, the more bonuses you can get when performing them.
 
You can check the levels of your life skills, which differ by character, via your character profile (hotkey: P).

Press the Learn More button at the bottom for more details regarding the bonuses you receive at your current level with each life skill.

Upon reaching a higher level, the chance for you to gather without consuming energy increases, you can obtain better and rarer items, and your mastery level goes up. This will be explained more in detail, as the mastery level is very important for gathering activities.

In order to reach a higher level in gathering, you need to earn gathering EXP through actual gathering activities. You can level up quicker if you use/consume an item that increases your gathering EXP, such as a scroll, an elixir, or a dish.

◈ Gathering Ability

Your gathering ability affects your gathering speed. You can reach up to Lv. 5 for gathering ability, and can check your current ability level from your character profile (hotkey: P).

One good way to increase your gathering ability is by eating a dish with that effect, such as a seafood cron meal. This method is efficient because it increases your gathering ability level and other stats for 2 hours at a relatively low price.

Wearing silver embroidered gatherer's clothes can also help. Your gathering ability level increases along with the amount of gathering EXP you can obtain, depending on the enhancement level of the clothes. The effect is permanent, and equipping these clothes after enhancing them to +2 will make them quite efficient.

If after this your gathering ability level is still low, you can increase it through elixirs, like a verdure draught, or through guild skills provided by your guild.

If you really are thinking about seriously diving into gathering, it is a good idea to have a method to consistently reach gathering ability Lv. 5 through these methods.
However, it goes without saying that there is no point in consistently having gathering ability Lv. 5 if you are taking a silver loss by doing so. It might be more profitable to spend silver on this once your gathering level is higher and allows you to more easily net a profit.

◈ Gathering Mastery

The higher your gathering mastery is, it plays an important role in gathering efficiency and thereby increases your profits.

You can check your gathering mastery level, as well as those for other life skills, at your character's profile (hotkey: P).

The results of gathering, or the gathering resources you obtain, can be divided into basic, special, and rare gathering resources. You can make a higher profit the more frequently you can obtain special and rare gathering resources.

As your gathering mastery level goes up, the amount of basic gathering resources obtained increases, along with the chance of obtaining special and rare gathering resources.

Remember that, the higher your mastery level, the higher the chance you have at obtaining a rare item from gathering, such as the Caphras stone seen above.

There are various ways to increase your mastery level. The most basic way is increasing your gathering level. Your gathering mastery level goes up every time your gathering level goes up.

Another way is by equipping, or consuming, items that increase your mastery level. There are many items, such as equipment (gear), elixirs, and dishes, that can be obtained for this; from those you can purchase or craft at a reasonable price, to those that you have to pay a large sum of silver for, depending on their effects. Regarding this, it is recommended to carefully make these purchases after coming up with a plan, keeping your financial status in mind.

It is said that "the higher the mastery level, the better", but if you are an Adventurer just starting to get used to gathering, it is more important to first experience it fully even if you have simpler equipment, than to go all-out in obtaining the best possible items for it from the start.

Check the following section to see more details on gathering equipment and useful items.

If you want to be a bit more serious about preparing before you start Gathering, it’s important to choose the Gathering Equipment that best suits your Current situation and budget.

For example, if you’re a beginner at Gathering, it’s best to focus on Equipment that boosts Life EXP so you can raise your Gathering Level quickly. If you’re already a high-Level Adventurer, you’ll want to prioritize Gathering Mastery instead, increasing both the chance of Obtaining Rare Resources and the amount you can gather.

 

List of Equipment for Gathering Efficiency 

Item Name	Type	Details
Seafood Cron Meal	Food	Gathering Ability, Mastery, Obtainable EXP, and Max Weight Limit increase for 2 hours.
Sute Tea /  Healthy Sute Tea	Food	Life EXP +
Verdure Draught	Elixir	Gathering, Obtainable EXP, and Max Weight Limit increase for 15 min.
Alchemy Stone of Life / Spirit Stone	Alchemy Stone	Equip it in the Alchemy Stone slot and use it to increase Gathering Ability and All Gathering Item Drop Rate.
Turning Gates	Villa Buff	Energy Recovery +, Life EXP +
Magic Gathering Tool	Gathering Tool	Gathering Time -11 sec, Gathering Item Drop Rate +80%, However, when equipped, the Item Drop Rate bonus from Gathering Mastery does not apply.
* Demihar Gathering Tool	Gathering Tool	Gathering Time -11 sec, Gathering Item Drop Rate +80%, Gathering EXP +50%
* Leight's Gathering Tool	Gathering Tool	Gathering Item Drop Rate, Gathering Mastery, Increased Gathering EXP
Loggia Equipment	Armor / Accessories	Affordable gear that boosts Gathering Mastery and EXP gain.
Geranoa Equipment	Armor / Accessories	Gathering Mastery and EXP-boosting equipment available at a medium price.
Manos Equipment	Gathering Tool / Armor / Accessories	High-priced equipment that boosts Gathering Mastery and Obtainable EXP
Preonne’s Equipment	Accessories	Top-tier equipment that boosts Gathering Mastery and EXP gains, obtainable by exchanging a Manos Accessory of a specific Enhanced Lv. When a Preonne accessory is equipped, you can socket a “Dawn Crystal - Life EXP” to increase Life EXP +.
Carta Gatherer's Clothes	Robe	Armor focused on increasing Gathering Mastery.
Pets (Hedgehogs, Ferrets, Stoneback Crabs, etc.)	Pet	Increases Life and Gathering EXP gains, detects resources, etc.

* Demihar Gathering Tool: Once you reach Gathering Apprentice, you can collect one of the Gathering Tools through Challenge (Y). A 14-day validity period is applied immediately upon collection.
* Leight Family Gathering Tool: You can request a rental from Norma Leight, <Northern Wheat Plantation Owner>, for 50 Contribution Points.

※ When purchasing equipment items, be sure to check the equip requirements first.

 

During your journey you will acquire better Life Skill tools, in order to equip these tools, first click the following icon in your Equipment interface. Then right click the tools to store them in the Life Skill tool interface.

To remove the tools from your Life Skill tools interface, just right click the items to send them back to your inventory.

 

 

 

 

You can equip the following tools via the Family Tool window for Gathering & Fishing. (Keep in mind that the tools stored in this interface will be shared within all your characters in your account)

 

Equippable Tools via the Family Tool Window

Lumbering Axe Fluid Collector Hoe Butchering Knife Tanning Knife Pickaxe Fishing Rod Float Harpoon

 

You will see that for gathering resources that allow for more than one option, such as trees and animals, the different possibilities will appear in a wheel. Choose the one you prefer by pressing F5 and it will be saved for future use.

 

 

Gathering Quests

In the world of Black Desert, you can take on Gathering-related quests from a variety of NPCs.

To get started, we recommend picking up Gathering quests in Velia first. Completing Gathering quests takes a bit of time and effort, but the rewards can include Contribution Points, Gathering EXP, and valuable items such as Sharp Black Crystal Shards.

If you want to raise your Gathering Level more quickly, we also recommend trying Promotion Quests.

These quests let you earn a large amount of Gathering EXP at once. Promotion Quests become available starting at Beginner Lv. 10, and you can use the Black Spirit's Guide menu to be directed more easily to the NPCs who offer them.

 

Liana Quests

You can accept Gathering daily and weekly quests from the NPC Liana, who can be found in each major city.

From these daily and weekly quests, you can obtain Gathering EXP and Floramos Petals. Using Simple Alchemy, Floramos Petals can be crafted into the Secret Book of Florin, which grants Life Skill Mastery +100 and Life EXP +20% for 1 hour.

Liana Gathering Weekly Quest

Quest	Quest Objective	Reward
[Weekly] [Gathering] Fairy Powder	Get 100 Fairy Powder	500 Contribution EXP ▼ Select Reward Floramos Petal x3 or Gold Bar 10G x2

Liana Gathering Daily Quest

- The [Daily][Gathering] quests below cannot be accepted more than once, and you may only undertake one per day.

Quest	Quest Objective	Reward
[Daily] [Gathering] Researching Mystical Gathering I (Gathering Level: Apprentice or below)	Get Fairy's Breath	Gathering EXP
[Daily] [Gathering] Researching Mystical Gathering II (Gathering Level Skilled 1 or higher, up to Skilled 10)	Get Fairy's Breath x2	Gathering EXP
[Daily] [Gathering] Researching Mystical Gathering III (Gathering Professional 1 or higher, up to Professional 10)	Get Fairy's Breath x3	Gathering EXP
[Daily] [Gathering] Researching Mystical Gathering IV (Available to Gathering Artisans from Lv. 1 to Artisan 10)	Get Fairy's Breath x4	Gathering EXP
[Daily] [Gathering] Researching Mystical Gathering V (Requires Master 1 or higher in Gathering)	Get Fairy's Breath x5	Complete Gathering EXP and Trace of Nature x5

Gathering quests can be completed by speaking to Ludowig, who is located near each Gathering Area.

You can find Liana and Ludowig in the following regions.

Liana	Ludowig
Velia Heidel Capheon City Altinova Valencia City Grána O'draxxia Duvencrune Eilton	Toscani Farm Florin Behr Kusha Kasula Farm Acher Guard Post Lake Flondor Narcion	Pilgrim's Haven Ancado Inner Harbor Arehaza Gayak Altar Khimut Lumber Camp Windy Peak Wind Nol's Perch Mountain Top Guard Post

Fairy's Breath / Buried Trace

Fairy's Breath

While performing Lumbering, Tanning, Fluid Collecting, Hoe, Mining, or Water Scooping Activities, you can also obtain the "Fairy's Breath" item.

Fairy's Breath can be exchanged for the following items through Dalishain, the <Wandering Alchemist> NPC found in each Town.

Required Fairy's Breath	Exchange Item	Quantity
10	Wild Grass	30
	Log	20
	Rough Stone	12
	Fruit of Nature	1
	Trace of Nature	1
	Contribution EXP + Gathering EXP	Contribution EXP: 900  Gathering EXP: 30

◈ Hoe Gathering

Dig up all the roots to gather the herb! 

- Move across the grid using W, A, S, D and press SPACE to use your hoe. 

- Dig the same spot three times to cover it with soil and restore it. 

◈ Butchering

Time it right and win the minigame 3 times in a row! 

- Press SPACE to stop the gauge on the meat icon. 

- If you fail, your success count resets to zero. 

◈ Tanning

Tailor the hide within the dotted lines! 

- Press SPACE to adjust the position of the falling icon. 

- Reach the target point without leaving the dotted lines. 

◈ Mining

Smash the weak point to succeed in mining! 

- Move your pickaxe using W, A, S, D and press SPACE to strike. 

- Once you find the rock's weak point, keep striking until it breaks. 

◈ Lumbering

Time it right and win the minigame 5 times! 

- Chop with your axe when the moving gauge hits the target area. 

- Keep chopping without missing the target area, which shrinks with each success. 

◈ Fluid Collecting

Fill the syringe with fluid! 

- Hold SPACE to fill the gauge, then release it within the target area. 
- Landing on the green area fills the syringe faster than the blue area. 

◈ Millennial Wild Ginseng

Millennial wild ginseng is an incredible item that can be obtained at a low probability through the gathering mini-games.