

GATHERING
Gathering Basics
Gathering is how you gain the resources required for crafting items, no matter what they are. You gain 3 Gathering Points (GPs) per day.
Note: The only exception is the Peaceful Trait, which gives you 4 per day.
You can store up to 12 GPs per day, just like Encounter Energy. By spending one GP on a Gathering Node, you can get a random material from that node's type - for example, metals from a rock, herbs from a patch of grass, and so on.
Gathering Nodes
Gathering Nodes are always by an Encounter Zone. However, their specific locations are randomized after each server restart - you'll always find them by Encounter Zones but they might not be in the same location, or even by the same Zone. They are made obvious by glowing green sparks visible above them, like in these pictures:
When you've found a Gathering Nodes, you can Harvest Resources for one GP. This will roll a flat check against item rarities, and grant you a reward based on that roll.
Whilst you may harvest from the same node multiple times, doing so will roll that flat check with disadvantage - which means it'll be rolled twice, and you will take the lower result. This incentivizes but does not enforce you to explore the map and find more nodes.



Other Gathering Methods
Creatures from Encounter Zone battles can drop ingredients and reagents, usable in Cooking and Alchemy crafting.
You can also find Herbs at Herb Nodes - these are scattered around the map, and are NOT found in Encounter Zones. They are one time use only nodes, but they respawn frequently.
Exchanging Materials
After gathering an item, you can either use it in crafting which is explained in its respective section in this article, or if you've acquired a higher tier of rarity than you need, you can exchange it for two of a lower rarity at the Trident Exchange in Anvil.
There, you are able to pay a small commission fee to downgrade a material of a higher rarity into two of a lower rarity. They have to be of the same 'type', e.g. wood goes into wood, and cannot become metal.