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I'm only lvl 29 in Forage, but already it seems to take very long to get levels. I'm harvesting choice mats of ql30 and I 918xp per node (I pop 2 at a time and if I'm quick I can get them both). It takes hours to get a level.

Could someone please offer some tips on improving the xp gain? Currently I use gentle extraction 30, but I have access to harmful quality as well as harmful rate and speed (and gentle rate and speed). I've tried using harmful, but the node dies or blows up too quickly, and even if I try to use careplans while doing harmful I can't keep up.

Some people on the server have suggested to find someone to careplan for me while I do harmful, but it seems like I'm the only digger in the Tryker lands. But in any case, I don't think anyone would want to sit there and careplan my nodes when they could be getting more xp solo, so I don't think that would work.

Any tips appreciated :)

Increasing xp gain in forage:

It gets easier as you go, so persevere. It's never fast, but it does get easier.

Dig good stuff: You get more XP for Choice and Excellent mats than you do for Fine, and even that is better than Basic. There are excellent mats in *all* areas, even the q50 ones, and choice mats are "easy". :)

Dig with your best stanzas: The more mats you dig per node, the more xp you get. Again, this means that at the beginning you get very little at the beginning, but it gets better.

Always dig materials that are 10 levels above your current level, i.e. from level 20>29, dig q30. As soon as you hit level 30, dig q40, etc. You get more xp for higher difference between mat q and your level, so the first few levels of each ten go faster than the last one. Digging higher than the rounded down +10 leads to degradation and may actually reduce your xp. (I.e. digging q40 at level 29 will cause degradation in amount and quality on a random, and irritating, basis.)

Careplan: XP for digging is maximized if you run out the timer (white bar) rather than source life ("heart" bar), and is additionally knocked down if the source explodes or gasses you. Having someone careplan for you works, but you can also careplan for yourself.

Use catalysts: If you are on the free trial, experience catalysts are your friend. Back in the old days digging was one of the primary skills that catalysts were used for (crafting was the other). We would even save them for the last two levels of each ten-level stretch to make those levels less stressful.

So -- some quick tips.

Now .. keep in mind digging is a slow activity, not meant to be grinded unless you want to burn out quickly. I tend to dig while also doing something else, i.e. reading the news on the other monitor, etc; chatting will also work. Alternative dig days with hunt days (or trek, why not), it's healty in the long run for one's sanity.

If you don't need the mats to craft: ask to careplan for someone else. If anything, they will love not having the nodes gassing or dying, so you should find work easily. At best, the digger will be able to use more aggressive stanzas and then stare the extra mats with you. Experience is at most 1511 / node, or double that if you're subscribed or using cats. Caveat: if you're CPing in a high level region, you also need an expensive pick.

For solo .. As far as I'm aware, grades basic-choice are all grouped within a deposit, excellents being in a separate place (above ground; Prime Roots is a different story altogether). As Bittty says, dig choice if you can. I wouldn't bother with excellents, as they're season/weather/time of day restricted, so unless you happen to stumble at the right place and at the right moment, you'll just waste your time.

Get the max prospect angle you can, same with distance. So far, using a gentle spd / aggressive rate / gentle q has proved to be the most stable in the long run for me; still need to careplan once or twice until the node dies.

Overdigging is a bit of a lottery, but nothing stops you from trying it. As you noticed, you get the stanza for aggressive quality X at level X-15. You got agg. q40 at 25, for instance. Overdigging means that, once the mats in your node reached q30, you switch to an action to extract q40. Sometimes the final quality will be degraded, so beware. The health/explosion bars could also go down quicker. As said, hit and miss.

If you're on Silan, note that the highest level material is q45. You might want to come over to the mainland, then.

And as Bitty mentioned before: Until lvl 70-90 I went digging out of need for mats, then it started to interest me because suddenly I had enough stanzas to search for specific materials to find what I need. Also the search itself become more feasible with range 3, angle 3 stanzas to widen up the area of prospecting in one trial.

Above level 100 it's more and more interesting: It is only now that I actually look for excellent mats because I can dig 9-11 mats per source and that's fast enough to dig 50 or more excellent mats during a brief streak of having the correct weather.

I do all my dig leveling on choice mats - but actually the xp difference is not that much to fine or basic.It pays off to combine leveling digging and crafting: Once you've found a few places for each material, think about what crafting action you'd like to level and dig matching mats. Makes more fun, gives you a goal to strive for. So while my Jungle digging is at 140, my lakelands is at 90. When I want to level some crafting in the 90s area I go to lakelands, and only dig basic and fine material: lakelands choice and higher cannot be used when crafting plans of nations other than Trykoth.

As Bitty stated: Time is on your side. I can speak only up to lvl150 for now, but the higher your dig level, the more fun it becomes.

And contrary to what Mjollren feels, I'm happy with just digging. I tried to multitask other activities, but then two things happen: First the digging becomes the lower priority activity and things start to go wrong (nodes blowing up, aggro coming by (far gingos suddenly being close, a named Jinbai wandering by, etc - often any of this results in death). Secondly, as a result of the above, the digging becomes purely, stupidly repetitive.

I actively work against that now: I try to enjoy digging even more by finding things to concentrate on: Do your own experiments of stanza combinations. Add/Change/Remove time bonus on prospecting nodes to find a good combination of how many nodes you should pop to maximize mats and xp for one pop. Actively watch your surroundings to become more able to dig closer to aggro without getting a heartattack or being eaten. Find other material places. If you only have a place for Silverweed Sap, try to find Dante. While digging mats, compare stats of the materials and make notes what one could use to craft specific things. Etc.

Before I had my first dig skill at level ~70 it all felt dull to me. Now it's a full new part of the game :-)

Are you claiming sanity Mj? :-p

Some good tips here, nice job guys. Have to agree on the alternation; dig, dig, dig is not a good way to spend your time ;o)

as has been said, and i'd like to say again, that at a very low level increasing dig exp is harder, you don't have access to much focus or great stanzas yet, so prospecting wont have as much angle or range you'll dig less sources per prospect etc. (as an example, when you can pop 2 nodes, you can dig 1/2, then 2/3 (with a bit of time stanza) and then 3/5 (with kill digging) and eventually 7/10 perhaps even 8/10 (with kill digging) at higher levels but this is at much much higher level when it becomes much much easier to dig-- hang on you'll make it.


(also disclaimer, i am also not trying to butt heads with neela or bittty or MJ their advice is sound advice this is my personal experience as an almost master in all dig lands but there are many here who will reply who are all masters too, and for many more years than myself, their advice will be just as valid and you could endeavor to try as many as possible techniques to decide on your own)

1) most exp comes from the Quality you get, in most cases you can do your level + 10,
example, at level 30, Quality 40, at 50, Q60,

overdigging is basically if you have one dig level higher than the rest, say you have level 90 desert and level 50 lakes, you can now in theory dig Q100 in lakes but it will not work so well, +20 or +30 is possible but as MJ said it is a mixed blessing, i don't recommend it because it will fill up your bag with degraded mats and take up lot's of slots in small stacks so crafting will be really annoying

2) next most exp comes from grade (exe > choice fine >)
its about 12-15% more per higher grade i have a spreadsheet somewhere for more exact numbers:P
but! if you spend too much time trying to find mats you lose exp (per time)

example, if you dig up to choice mats you will dig some choice some fine maybe some basic, and this will be okay because at least you will be constantly digging (again this is my opinion, many will tell you to use only choice etc because it is more exp that way-- you will develop your own method and preferences, try as much as you can)

on that note, you can do only choice but there are some snags, you would need to identify more than one spot to dig at in a short distance for when you deplete one
example: on the "left side" there is beng amber, you dig a batch of choice till it says depleted, you run over to the "right side" of the hill you are on some few meters away and same beng amber pops. there are usually 2 spots of one mat that are reliably close together to do this with, if you can find them

3) explosions bad -- not really because you lose 10% exp per explode, but more because they might kill you and then you lose time that way, respawning or getting a res, and sitting to regen focus (use big self heal focus after dying don't worry about the 2hp you'll live ;))


so here are a few ways:

1) the really easy way, prospect up to choice, dig your max Q with just gentle, probably run out of focus before the white timer bar ends, this is safe and easy and at higher levels i estimate about 17 mats per minute for the average digger

pros- very safe, easy, you can use fine and basic mats in any land for dapper missions
cons- exp per time probably the slowest

2) same as 1 except use only choice, prospect between two known-spots of the mat you want, alternating between them when one is depleted

pros- bit more exp from first method
cons- cant use choice mats in all land plans for dapper missions

3) two step dig involving digging low Q for a time and then switching to a second action for the higher Q that you can dig (example Q10 for 5 mats then switching to Q40) i do not have the exact specifications as it is not my preferred method but it does work, i have used it, the low Q makes the white-bar timer run down faster so you do not use the entire 1 minute to dig the node

pros- faster exp than 1 and 2, saves your focus so that you will not run out before timer

cons
- a little complicated, you have to tailor your dig and spend some time optimising it, maybe you want to dig 8 mats at Q10 first then switch to Q200 then Q250, some people use more than 2 steps etc),
-also if the source content is low, for example 8 or 10 mats in the node this method does not work so well, you have to manually look at source content to find the ones with higher mats)

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the following is my method and more advanced/annoying it is for max exp and is pretty engaging, chatting while doing this way is even more likely to kill you than normal use at own risk ;)

4) kill-digging-- at level 29 probably not much use to you yet but, this is my knowledge anyway. in disagreement partially with Bittty, waiting for the white bar to go to zero is not the fastest way to get exp per time in my studies (perhaps at lower levels it does not matter much though) for higher levels (i say partial disagreement because i know Bittty uses kill-dig at his higher level, i would guess that his statement of white bar better than red life bar, is meant to be for lower levels and i would have to agree of course)

if you dig in such a way as to reaching the max Quality that you can (level+10~ safely) then use harmful to kill the node (the pink heart life bar thing) to zero, the dig will end. normally dig timer is 1 minute (white bar) at lower Q dig, the time is less, though. (adding more time is bad, also, for exp per time)

im my extensive studies it is my professional opinion that node-killing is the fastest way to get exp-- i have timed it, mats per time, exp per time, done the calculations. but it is a bit of a hassle not for everyone.

disclaimer- no- node killing does not nerf kami tolerance this is simply untrue i have dug like that 10 hours without stopping depleting and killing very quickly between the "left and right" side of my "hill" it does not hurt other diggers in any noticeable way by depleting area if you prospect up to choice and dig 2 mats at a time for instance-- can disagree with me if they want but i am confident

the bad thing with some kill diggers is they dont care plan the explosions, (sorry but i must say, after observation that many french players explode alot more than the average atys citizen, i would guess just from experience and watching their nodes while they dig too, that care plan less and thus explode more which is probably the aspect of kill-dig that lowers kami tolerance (im not exactly sure i did not find anything conclusive in the game code yet to support it, just my experiences)

the basic idea of this method is gentle rate gentle speed gentle Q, terrain spec, mat spec, dig to max Q or nearly max Q for your level, then care-plan explosion bar,

then switch to second action, harmful rate harmful speed, gentle Q (i believe harmful Q is really harsh and causes degrades more often i have not extensively checked, though, just a strong hunch) no terrain spec, no mat spec.

(you can make a few macros to make this faster and safer but i'll leave that up to personal preference)

cons- complicated, hazardous to own safety ;) higher level method (But not useless either at lower)

pros- imo fastest exp per time, fastest mats per time, ignores the problem with nodes of low content as you will be digging smaller amounts of mats per node but more nodes per prospect (10 10 10 10 12 8 8 13 for example, out of 10 nodes, instead of 15 15 17 23)

this method also allows you to quickly grab a few of a mat in high danger area (esp. pr) where if you are holding mats in temporary inventory and die before clicking "take all" you lose the mats.

so, if you combine all the pros, i think this is my favorite way, i can't say it is the "best" way but it is best for me and the way i am. you lose 10% exp for killing the node, but the time saved and speedy escape provided as well as ignoring small node-content, enhances exp, mats, and keeps you a little more awake :)

OK...to take the question out of it.... here's the mathematical XP formula for harvesting

Variables/Symbols Employed:
XP: experience gained for a harvesting action.
T: type of mat harvested; if basic T=1, Fine T=2, Choice T=3, Excellent T=4, Supreme T=5.
Q: quality of mat harvested; if you are pulling q100 mats then Q=100.
L: your foraging level; if you are digging in the desert and desert forage is 51, then L=51.
M: the number of mats harvested; if you get twelve mats in a pull then M=12.
E: the number of explosions/gas clouds or source deaths; if you get a poison cloud followed by a premature source exhaustion, then E=2, if you do a pull without any disasters then E=0
X: denotes multiplication

The Equation:

XP = (710 + 44.5T + 36.75(Q - L) + (64.5 + 3T)M) x (1 - 0.0982E)

To expand on what Eruv said, there is no "best" method of digging. What method you choose depends on what you do, what you have done and how you play. For example:

1. If you have done the Time Bonus rite, this changes things.
2. If you are wearing boosted gear (165 focus, boosted pick, buff rites) this changes things.
3. If you are focused and attentive or of you are a chatterbox or you tab out to read web pages or forums, this changes things.

I will note in contrast that "back in the day" when team digging was the norm, we definitely would note that KT dropped faster when we were going all out not worrying about killing red and yellow bars. In Dyron, peeps wud step over ya dead bod if you were either digging in area way above ya level or repeatedly blowing up.

Dunno if still true as rarely more than 2 peeps digging anywhere. One thing I still see tho, is that if I let my red / orange bars die often for long time in a single area, the nodes seem to deplete faster & the smaller the no. of mats in each node.

oops forgot one.....

4. Whether you have mastered another region or if its first region

I use various methods depending on mood and situation .....If digging sups or in aggro area, I always kill the sourec (KTS) and am on my way. If Im grinding, I am chatting tabbing out or involved in other distractions, and I kill myself as often as the source when KTS'ing.

When paying attention, I do KTS on short nodes (10-15) and 2 step on the big ones. Back on Ari, I'd get 5 x 17-20 mats per prospect when 2 stepping .... only get 5 x 16-19 (no focus rite buffs) here tho its been a long time since I actually paid attention. When I KTS, I typically get 7 x 9-13. Could probably do better if I paid more attention but in addition to CRS, I have ADD (Atysian Distarcted Disorder).... I had a feeling I wasn't getting to my 5th source last week and kept trying to count nodes I hit.....kept forgetting what number I wa sup to :) ..... whaddya expect, Im like 213 years old in Atys Years