Gathering progression is a fame race, and you win it by hitting a lot of cheap nodes fast instead of a few rare ones slowly. Most players who feel stuck at T6 spend their evenings riding between T7 nodes. Gather the plentiful lower tiers in the matching gear and the unlocks come much sooner.
Pick one resource
Five lines exist: wood, ore, fiber, hide and stone. Each levels on its own, and gathering gear only boosts its own resource. Splitting your time early means levelling two lines at half speed.
| Resource | Tool | Gear set |
|---|---|---|
| Ore | Pickaxe | Miner |
| Wood | Axe | Lumberjack |
| Fiber | Sickle | Harvester |
| Hide | Skinning Knife | Skinner |
| Stone | Stone Hammer | Quarrier |
Choose by where you play and what sells:
- The common resource of the biome around your city levels fastest because you find more of it.
- Hide means killing resource mobs. Since Dragonfire those mobs are less aggressive and fewer pull from range, which makes solo skinning smoother than it was.
- Check this week's prices in the Market Explorer if you also want the silver.
The route, tier by tier
- T2 to T3: unlock the line on starter-zone nodes. One evening.
- T4: buy the T4 tool and, as soon as it unlocks, the full T4 set: cap, garb, workboots and backpack, such as the
Adept's Miner Cap and 
Adept's Miner Garb. Gather T4 nodes wherever they are thick on the ground. - T5: keep gathering T4 and T5 in the upgraded set. Do not chase T5 only.
- T6: gather T4 to T6. Visit Dynamic Resource Hotspots when one is near your route.
- T7 to T8: keep working plentiful T5 and T6 nodes for fame, and take T7 and T8 when they are on your path. T7 resources spawn in T7 red zones since Horizons; T8 is Outlands and Roads territory.
The gear set raises yield for its resource and grows with its tier. Of every upgrade in this guide, buy the gear first. Gathering caps also carry Emergency Shield, which clears lingering damage-over-time so your Invisibility Potion or mount-up does not get interrupted. Gathering tools can no longer be swapped in combat (Abyssal Depths Patch 2), so equip the right one before you start a node near other players.
Spec works per tier
Each tier of a resource has its own Destiny Board node. The first level unlocks the tool and gear of that tier; further levels raise gathering speed and yield for that tier only. Your T6 ore spec does nothing for T5 ore. When you unlock a new tier, keep gathering the old one for a while: it still levels you, and the new tier's spec starts at zero.
Learning Points pay off well here, because gathering unlocks are slow. Turn on Quick Learn for the node you are levelling. Fame on that node then counts five times, with LP spent as the fame comes in. A common habit is to Quick Learn the first level of each new tier so you get the better tool and gear early. The Destiny Board guide explains Quick Learn, and the Dragonfire update merged specialization nodes with the same parent into one node with badges, so look inside the combined node for your per-tier levels.
What adds yield and fame
Yield is a chance at extra resources per hit. The sources stack:
- Gathering gear for that resource.
- Specialization on the Destiny Board for that resource and tier.
- Premium.
- Gathering Potions, from the
Minor Gathering Potion up to the 
Major Gathering Potion. Drink them on enchanted nodes and hotspots, where each extra resource is worth more. - Enchanted nodes and hotspots.
For fame, 
Drake Egg Biscuits from Dragonfire raise combat and gathering fame for 25 hours and stack with your normal food. In the Outlands, gathering fame also rises with region quality toward the centre (Horizons update).
Hotspots, Resource Mists and Guardians
- Dynamic Resource Hotspots pack many nodes into one area for a limited time and move daily. Medium Resource Hotspots (Rogue Frontier) appear in T5 to T8 regions, hold one resource type and last a whole day.
- Inside a hotspot, a Verdant Will o' Wisp can open a Resource Mist: T6 to T8, a solo or a small multiplayer version, closing after a short time. Legendary Resource Mists are always T8.
- Resource Guardians such as Old White moved again in Dragonfire. They now spawn in T6+ Outlands regions whose biome has their resource, with no announcement and no map marker. You find them by riding through the right biome.
Journals
Bring empty gathering journals for your resource, such as the 
Adept Prospector's Journal. They fill as you gather, and full ones sell to players who run laborers. Check the journal tooltip for which resource tiers fill it.
When to gather for profit
Once one line reaches T8, switch from fame to silver:
- Roam T6 to T8 zones and prioritise enchanted nodes.
- Carry tools for every line you have levelled.
- Refine in the city with your resource's return bonus, or sell raw there. The Refining calculator tells you which pays.
- Gather in the Outlands only in a set you can lose. The Black Zone gathering guide covers the risk.
Common mistakes
- Levelling two lines at once.
- Skipping the gear because the tool feels like enough.
- Waiting at empty T7 and T8 nodes for respawns.
- Spending Learning Points on combat nodes while complaining that gathering is slow.
- Taking a full bag through a red zone to sell it a few silver higher.
Game balance changes between patches. Check requirements, yields and costs in game.
