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Aion 2 gathering guide: Essence Extraction skills, nodes and what to gather
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TL;DR
- Gathering is called Essence Extraction. You gather Ore, Gems, Logs, Herbs, Cooking Ingredients and Odyle in the open world.
- Each material comes in four grades: base, Fine, Pure and Radiant. Higher-grade materials are what the top crafts need.
- Essence Extraction runs from Novice level 1 to 50. At 50 you take an upgrade quest in town to become Professional and continue to 100.
- Specialty points are scarce: 14 in total by level 100, and a full skill line for one material costs 7. Pick one or two materials.
- Aragon gathers gems with Gem Seeker, Plentiful Harvest and Gem Appraiser, because Handicrafters buy them.
What you can gather
The six kinds of material feed weapons, armor and consumables. The gathering directory lists every node and what it can give.
Most nodes can produce any of four grades. A gem node, for example, can give a Diamond Gemstone, Fine, Pure or Radiant one. Aragon notes that a lucky node gives a higher-grade material that sells for far more than the common one.
Materials creators gather
Sapphire GemstoneHandicrafting rings; the Radiant grade goes into Dragon Lord rings
Ruby GemstoneHandicrafting necklaces
Diamond GemstoneHandicrafting earrings
Orichalcum OreBlacksmithing and Armorsmithing
OdyleUsed in most gear recipes and in Substance Morph
Radiant OdyleNeeded by every Dragon Lord recipe
Odyle is the material every profession uses. Aragon also gets it from clearing dungeons. In Substance Morph you can turn Odyle into a bound gathered material of the same grade, for example Radiant Odyle into a Radiant Sapphire Gemstone, once your profession mastery allows it.
How a node works
You interact with a node and wait for each attempt to succeed or fail. Aragon gets three attempts per node, and each success earns gathering EXP. Kanon found that a successful attempt gives one or two materials, even at the highest gathering level.
Kanon recorded this on the Korean version before the global launch:
Creator tip
Orichalcum ore right here, you can gather this in the world as many times as you want, unlimited. The only issue is that in order for you to get enough of these mats to realistically craft these items, it is going to take you a long time.
Novice and Professional
| Tier | Levels | How you get there |
|---|---|---|
| Novice | 1 to 50 | Successful gathering earns Essence Extraction EXP |
| Professional | 51 to 100 | At 50, an upgrade quest in town from your regional quests. Aragon's asked him to gather a Sapphire |
Creator tip
As soon as you get your novice to level 50, you can check your regional quests and you should have one which tells you how exactly to go and upgrade it to professional.
Essence Extraction skills
Levels give two kinds of points, and you can reset your skills to get them back:
| Points | Where they come from | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Almost every level | 95 |
| Specialty | Every ten levels | 6 by level 50, 14 by level 100 |
Each material has its own three-skill line, bought with specialty points:
| Skill | What it does | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Seeker (Ore Seeker, Gem Seeker and so on) | Shows that material's nodes on your minimap | 1 point |
| Plentiful Harvest | A chance to get double materials on a successful extraction | 1 point per level, 3 levels |
| Appraiser | A chance to reselect the material's grade, unless a higher grade was already found | 1 point per level, 3 levels |
Each skill needs the one before it, and the second and third levels need Professional. A full line costs 7 points, so even at level 100 you can max two lines. The Cooking Ingredient Appraiser rerolls quantity instead of grade.
Three common skills apply to all gathering and are bought with common points:
| Skill | Effect | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Proficient Handling | Success Gauge fills more, +5 per level | +50 at level 10 |
| Delicate Touch | Failure Gauge fills less, -8 per level | -80 |
| Lady Luck | Chance to multiply a Success Gauge gain by 2.5 | 2.5 or 4 at Professional levels |
The first five levels of each cost 1 to 5 points and the last five cost 5 each, 40 points per skill. With 95 points you cannot max all three.
Creator tip
Since we want to gather gems, we will want to go for Gem Seeker, Plentiful Harvest, and Gem Appraiser.
Take the Seeker point early. Once nodes show on the minimap, you can filter them and route between them.
What to gather
Aragon gathers gems because Handicrafters level up by spamming low-level crafts, which keeps gem prices high. He checks Sapphire, Ruby and Diamond prices in the Market's Handicrafting materials section and notes that they often rise later in the day. Prices are set per server, so check yours.
He also gathers toward his own crafted accessories. The crafting guide shows which gems go into which slot.
Do not leave a character gathering unattended. Aragon gets bot-check prompts while farming nodes, and failing them can get the account in trouble.
Next steps
- Crafting guide: what the materials make.
- How to make Kina: gathering as income next to dungeons and alts.
- Marketplace and trading: selling what you gather.
Explore the encyclopedia
Sources
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