Wilderness & gathering¶

Tracking, taming, herding, fishing, camping - the outdoor skills - plus the three gathering professions: Mining, Lumberjacking, and Skinning. Gathering no longer runs on skills at all: like crafting, it runs on profession levels earned by doing the work, entirely outside your skill cap. The outdoor skills below still run on classic skill checks; the one Lyonspyre reworked hard is Animal Taming.

Summary¶

Skill	What it does	Useful at	Lyonspyre changes
Tracking	Find nearby creatures/players by category & direction	Hunters, scouts, 60+	None
Animal Lore	Inspect pet stats; gate for pet res; gate for high-skill taming	Tamers, 100	None
Animal Taming	Tame wild creatures into permanent pets	Dedicated tamers, 100 (150 cap)	Initial target range 2 → 6 tiles; hard floor at MinTameSkill (no chance below); Beastcall dungeon-talent chance bonus
Veterinary	(cross-listed from Healing) Heal pets via bandage	Tamers, 100	None
Camping	Set a campfire for safe logout (instant logout, regen bonus)	All outdoor builds, 50+	None
Fishing	Cast a fishing pole for fish, junk, occasionally treasure	Casual / SoS chasers, 80-100	`[fishing` auto-cast mode; poles have charges + can't be repaired; pole tier gates the catch (see Harvest tools)
Herding	Move a tame/wild animal where you want it	Quest skill, mostly	None

Mining and Lumberjacking are no longer on this table because they are no longer skills. They are professions now, described below, alongside the new Skinning profession (which replaces the old Forensic Evaluation route to hides). Fishing stays a skill, deliberately: it has no material tier ladder, so it keeps its classic skill progression.

The gathering professions¶

Mining, Lumberjacking, and Skinning join the five crafting professions as levels 1 to 7, raised by profession XP earned in the field. None of them spends skill points or counts against your 700 skill cap. The three old skills - Mining, Lumberjacking, and Forensic Evaluation - are fully retired: no gain, no training, hidden from every skill list, and not offered at character creation. Forensic Evaluation's old detective use (reading who killed a corpse) is gone with it.

Your levels and XP progress show on the Profile panel alongside your crafting professions, and the XP ladder is the same one crafting uses: 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 / 3,500 / 5,500 / 8,000 XP to reach levels 2 through 7.

Your level sets your tier bracket¶

Material tier T unlocks at profession level T+1, exactly like the crafting brackets:

Level	Highest tier you can gather
1	Iron ore / ordinary wood / regular hide (tier 0)
2	Moor (Moorite ore / Moorwood / Moorhide)
3	Sable
4	Verm
5	Sun
6	Wyrm
7	Lyonspire (Lyonspireite ore / Lyonspirewood / Lyonspire hide)

Your working ceiling is the lower of your profession bracket and your tool's tier: an iron tool caps at tier 3 regardless of level, and a Lyonspireite tool in level 1 hands still gathers tier 0.

Every swing rolls the tier table¶

There is no skill check on gathering anymore. Every mining swing and every tree chop rolls once across the full tier ladder:

Tier	Chance per swing
Tier 0 (Iron / ordinary wood)	49.6%
Tier 1 (Moor)	13.9%
Tier 2 (Sable)	12.1%
Tier 3 (Verm)	10.4%
Tier 4 (Sun)	8.7%
Tier 5 (Wyrm)	3.5%
Tier 6 (Lyonspire)	1.8%

A roll above your unlocked bracket (or above your tool's tier cap) does not fail: it lands at your highest workable tier instead. A swing always yields; leveling up simply stops the rich rolls from being converted down. The top tier stays rare for everyone by weight, not by failed checks: even at level 7 with a Lyonspireite tool, Lyonspire-tier material is roughly 1 swing in 55.

Skinning: the hide comes from the creature¶

Skinning does not roll the table above. Instead, each creature family has a base hide tier: common beasts carry regular hide, and tougher families carry higher tiers, up to the Lyonspire-tier hides on the deadliest creatures. Every carve has a flat 15% chance of one tier higher than the creature's base, and the result is then capped by your Skinning level bracket and your knife's tier. A creature above your bracket still yields: the hide clamps down to the best tier you can work.

Every creature except vendors can be skinned, so a skinning knife in your pack turns any hunt into a steady leather supply. To climb the hide tiers, hunt tougher creatures.

Gathering XP¶

Profession XP is paid per yield, based on where the rolled tier sits against your bracket:

Rolled tier	XP earned
At your bracket	Full XP
One tier below	Half XP
Two or more below	None

Base XP is 10 per mining or chopping yield and 25 per skinning carve (kills are slower than swings). The message is the same as crafting: to level, work the best material you can reach. On top of the field XP, Harvest commissions on the Crown Ledger and the starter gathering quests both push your levels along.

Level 1 to 2 takes minutes; level 6 to 7 is a long, deliberate climb, because at-bracket top-tier rolls are rare by design.

Learning the trades¶

Everyone starts at level 1 in all three gathering professions - there is nothing to buy and no trainer required. For a head start, the starter quest NPCs in Lyonspyre town each teach one lesson, free, one time: Hilda brings a newcomer to Lumberjacking level 2, Ysabet to Skinning level 2, and Brennen to Blacksmithing level 2. Their intro quests award profession XP and level floors rather than skill points.

Refining is the crafter's half¶

Gatherers gather; crafters refine. Turning raw materials into usable ones is gated by the crafting professions, not the gathering ones:

Smelting ore of tier T needs Blacksmithing level T+1.
Cutting logs into boards of tier T needs Carpentry level T+1.
Cutting hides into leather of tier T needs Tailoring level T+1.

So a pure gatherer can sell raw ore, logs, and hides to the crafter who can work them, and a crafter's bracket covers both refining and crafting at the same tiers. The chain itself (2 raws make 1 refined, higher tiers also take one refined of the tier below) is unchanged; see Refining.

One more gate moved with this change: the stonecraft mining lessons (the books that teach mining stone from mountains) now require Mining profession level 5.

Harvest tools wear out¶

Every harvesting tool - hatchet (Lumberjacking), pickaxe (Mining), skinning knife (Skinning), and fishing pole (Fishing) - carries a limited number of charges and breaks when it runs dry. A starter tool no longer harvests forever; budget for replacements, or carry a spare.

How many charges you get depends on the tool:

Base 50 charges.
+16 per material tier the tool is made from - a higher-tier tool lasts noticeably longer.
Doubled if the tool is Exceptional - quality pays off in lifespan as well as in what it makes.

Harvest tools cannot be repaired - once it's spent, it's spent. (There's no smith trick that brings a worn pickaxe back.)

The tool's material gates which resources it can work¶

A harvest tool can be crafted from any material tier - a plain iron hatchet up through a Lyonspireite one - and the tool's tier decides how far up the resource ladder it can reach. The ladder runs six colored tiers: Moor, Sable, Verm, Sun, Wyrm, Lyonspire. A tool of material tier N works every resource up to tier N; a basic iron tool (the bottom band) covers everything through tier 3 (Vermwood / Vermite / Vermhide).

So to reach the upper tiers you need a matching tool as well as the profession level:

An iron hatchet/pickaxe/pole/knife works the bottom band - up to Vermwood / Vermite / Vermhide (tier 3).
A Sunite-grade tool is the floor for Sunwood / Sunite (tier 4).
A Lyonspireite tool is required for the top tier - Lyonspirewood (tier 6).

Your real ceiling when gathering is always the lower of your tool's tier and your profession bracket. A rich roll above either simply lands at that ceiling instead - you're never told a swing failed, but crafting a higher-tier tool (and leveling into the bracket) is what unlocks the upper tiers as themselves.

Higher-tier and Exceptional tools are also the ones that last: the charge count above (50 + 16 per material tier, doubled if Exceptional) means a Lyonspireite tool both reaches further and survives far longer than a starter iron one.

Auto-gather on the tool¶

The old Gathering Focus panel (the per-discipline tier ceiling) is retired. With the per-swing tier roll, low tiers always drop on their own, so there is no ceiling left to manage - what you can work is simply your bracket and your tool.

Automatic gathering is now toggled straight from the tool: left-click a charged pickaxe, shovel, hatchet, polearm, or skinning knife and its menu shows Auto-Harvest: ON or Auto-Harvest: OFF. Clicking OFF starts the discipline that tool works; clicking ON stops whichever discipline is running. The command-line path does the same job: [gather mining, [gather lumberjacking, [gather skinning, and [gather off.

The opening lessons from Hilda, Brennen, and Ysabet teach this hands-on. The screen dims, your backpack opens, and the guide points first to the loaner tool and then to its Auto-Harvest: OFF row. Mining and Lumberjacking also open your paper doll and wait for you to equip the pickaxe or hatchet by double-clicking it or dragging it onto your character. Skinning leaves the knife in your backpack, where automatic skinning can use it.

Auto Harvest¶

Mining and Lumberjacking are switched on per discipline. Each uses the matching tool you have, targets you, and checks every reachable tile around you through the normal gathering rules. Walk to another patch and the next pass checks the new area. Only one of the two runs at a time.
Skinning is hands-free after you switch it on. Keep a charged skinning knife in your pack or hands and Auto Harvest skins the corpses you kill nearby for you. It always skips anything you cannot safely reach, loot, or carve, and never skins a corpse that would make you criminal. Switch it off with the knife's Auto-Harvest: ON row or [gather off if you would rather leave corpses whole. It pauses while you are fishing or running Mining or Lumberjacking automation.
A missing tool, a full pack, or no resource in reach is reported instead of silently repeating.

Gathering periodically pauses for a quick attention check in its own small window. A sample shape is shown, and you click the one in the 3 by 3 grid that matches it to continue. The server chooses and verifies the answer, and no Mining, Lumberjacking, or Fishing resources can be gathered until it is answered correctly. Closing the window, changing disciplines, toggling the mode, or relogging does not remove a pending check; the window simply returns on your next gathering attempt. Skinning is exempt: corpses only appear when you kill something, so carving never pauses for a check, even while one is waiting for another discipline.

Auto Harvest follows your live tool tier, profession bracket, range, line of sight, resource availability, and tool charges. It is a convenience loop, not a separate source of materials, and it earns the same profession XP as gathering by hand. Mining and Lumberjacking automation turns off when you leave the realm.

Tracking¶

Use the skill, pick a category (Animals / Monsters / Humans / Sea), and arrows point at every match in range. Range scales with skill - roughly 10 tiles to start, further once you hit grandmaster. The arrow tracks the target as long as it stays in range.

Useful at: 60+ on hunters. At 100 you spot nearby reds before they spot you - pure anti-PvP scouting.

Lyonspyre changes: None to the skill. Lyonspyre's Quest Tracker is a separate UI that borrows the same arrow rendering but is mechanically unrelated.

Animal Lore¶

Two main uses:

Inspect a pet - see exact str/dex/int, skills, current/max HP, control slots, bonded status
Gate for advanced pet operations - pet resurrect requires Vet AND Lore at 80+; high-skill taming requires Lore as a prerequisite

It also feeds the "what's that creature" inspection some quest NPCs lean on.

Useful at: 100 for any serious tamer.

Lyonspyre changes: None to the skill itself. Lyonspyre layers on pet stat rolls, levels 0-50, bonding at L1, and skill-gap mechanics (pets foundation) - but those live in the pet tree, not Animal Lore.

Animal Taming¶

The big one. Target a wild creature and work it through a 30-second cycle of skill checks. Land the tame and the creature is yours: it follows commands, and you can name, release, or transfer it.

Base formula:

chance = (yourTaming - creatureMinTame) / range

with a 25-point window below MinTame where you can attempt at long odds.

Lyonspyre changes:

Initial target range bumped 2 → 6 tiles. A 2-tile reach was maddening against creatures sitting 3-4 tiles out; 6 matches the in-tame distance check.
Hard MinTameSkill gate. You must be ≥ the creature's MinTameSkill to even attempt. That 25-point sub-window technically existed, but it handed you under 0.5% chance - wasted time. Drop below MinTame now and you get "You have no chance of taming this creature" up front.
Beastcall dungeon-talent bonus. Inside a dungeon zone with the Beastcall talent unlocked, the skill check picks up a per-rank bonus to taming chance. Dungeon-scoped only.
150 skill cap via Mote of Mastery (the base cap is 100). Tames past 100 need the cap raise; the formula extends linearly.

Useful at: 100 base, 150 capped, for any tamer. Below 100 you're shut out of mid-tier tames - mares, dragons - entirely.

Veterinary (cross-reference)¶

See Healing → Veterinary. Same mechanics as Healing, applied to pets.

Camping¶

Light a campfire (kindling, or some wood plus a fire-starter tool). While you're at the fire:

Instant logout - no 5-minute timer; a lifesaver out in the wild with no inn nearby
Slight regen bonus - you heal a touch faster near the flames

Useful at: 50+ for the instant wilderness logout. Skip it in town, where inns and houses do the same job.

Lyonspyre changes: None.

Fishing¶

Equip the pole, target a water tile, wait. Where you stand decides what can bite:

From shore you catch plain fish, and only plain fish - cut them into raw fish steaks with a knife and cook them. Shore casting is the safe way to train the skill; no treasure ever washes up at your feet.

You never need a macro assistant to fish. Type [fishing (or press the FISHING button on the ship's helm pad - it shows ON or OFF) and fishing mode takes over: as long as you have a pole in hand or in your pack and open water within reach, it re-casts for you every time the line comes free. Targeting yourself with a pole works too - one cast at the nearest water. You can even fish from the saddle. The mode turns itself off when your last pole breaks or you leave the water behind, and [fishing again stops it any time. A fight pauses the line: while you are actively in combat the mode quietly holds its casts (one short notice, no spam) and resumes on its own a few breaths after the fighting stops.

The circles bite back. Inside a school, roughly one cast in twenty wakes a wild sea serpent under your line - and the guardians of a bottle mark (and those ambushers) can haul themselves onto your deck mid-fight, where your crew meet them with steel. Sea monsters go for your crew first and maul them hard - a serpent's bite lands at triple damage on crew (players take normal hits), so a deck fight burns through hirelings fast. In the water, the crew answer with thrown spears and your cannons hit sea monsters for triple damage.

Your ship fishes with you. Every hull rolls its own FISHING stat (shown on the boat menu next to SPEED and HULL HP), and Lookout crew, Trawlnet Rigging, the Grinning Anglerfish figurehead, and Baitwell Tanks all raise it - the total multiplies every special-catch chance for everyone fishing from that deck. Three ship abilities push further: Chum Slick (x1.5 for 60s), Trawling Nets (x1.75 for 90s, and your catches do not tire out schools), and Siren's Bounty (x2 for 60s, and every bottle comes up a level richer). Windows do not stack - the strongest one running wins. See Ship Upgrades and Boat Abilities.

From a boat over open sea the real catch table opens up: big fish, the odd magic fish, the classic soggy boots - and barnacled bottles, levels 1 to 5, with 5 the rarest and richest. Bottles only bite in living waters - inside a school-of-fish circle or over a wreck ring - so the map tells you exactly where to drop anchor. Your Fishing skill scales every special-catch chance smoothly (and keeps scaling all the way to the eventual 150 cap - nothing is gated, better hands just catch more).

The Angler's Circuit. Active deep-water schools also hold weekly trophy fish, but both your ship and cast must be inside the school. Land one and you have up to 15 minutes of real time to choose your own route to any Dockmaster; the weekly close can shorten a late catch's clock. Magic travel cannot carry the catch, and only the account that hooked it can weigh it. Your heaviest valid fish sets your place for the week. See the full Angler's Circuit guide.

The bottle chase. Double-click a bottle to decipher it: a teal X appears on your world map and pulses like a sonar beacon for ten seconds so you can pan and zoom to it. The distance scales with the bottle's level - a level 1 is a short sail, a level 5 crosses the sea (re-read the bottle any time to pulse the X again; the bottle keeps its name either way). Sail there (the autopilot makes it one click) and fish at the mark: the guardians rise, and they carry the whole prize - doubloons and crew, upgrade, and ability deeds are on the monsters, so the fight is the treasure. They are brutally tough for their kind - these are crew battles: your deck crew joins in on its own, hurling spears at anything hostile in the water, and cannon fire hits sea monsters for triple damage, so a broadside is a real answer. The guardians never swim off when hurt, and while they live they batter your hull - hull damage springs leaks and someone has to bail water on deck or in the captain's quarters mid-fight. Higher levels wake bigger, meaner packs; a level 5 brings krakens.

Schools of fish. A few sea-green circles roam the ocean on everyone's world map - and they are where the treasure is: bottles only ever bite inside a school circle or over a wreck. Step inside one and a buff icon appears so you know the better bite is live. Inside the circle the fish never stop biting (no "fish don't seem to be biting" mid-circle) - instead, every catch tires the school itself: fish it hard enough and it is fished out, vanishing from everyone's map until a new one forms a few minutes later somewhere else. Everyone can see them; the ocean is lawless. Fish the school, or hunt the people fishing it.

Wreck sites. Every ship that sinks - player or fleet - leaves a rust-red wreck ring on the map for a couple of hours. Fishing inside it gives the best bottle odds on the water AND a chance to pull crew, upgrade, or ability deeds straight out of the debris. A wreck holds a limited number of pulls, then it's picked clean and the ring disappears.

Useful at: any level from a boat - the special chances start around 55 skill and never stop growing. Shore fishing to ~100 is the training lane.

Lyonspyre changes: the whole special-catch pipeline above (shore/deep split, levelled bottles with world-map marks, schools, wreck fishing, guardians at recovery), the [fishing auto-cast mode, and the ship-side FISHING stat + fishing abilities. The Ocean talent tree has a Fishing column that boosts all of it. Your pole still has charges and can't be repaired, and its material tier still gates waters like a pickaxe gates ore - and the Adventurer's Coffer now stocks poles on its Boating tab (it also banks your pristine Exceptional poles by tier, like spyglasses). Fishing is the one gathering trade that is still a skill: it has no tier ladder, so it keeps classic skill progression.

Mining¶

Equip the pickaxe, target a mountain or cave-wall tile, swing. Every swing rolls the tier table and pays ore at or below your working ceiling. Hammer the same tile too long and the anti-macro cooldown kicks in; rotate between tiles to keep the yield coming.

More of the landscape is mineable. The big, pale gray-mountain faces - the "grauberg" cliff statics - used to be dead rock that returned nothing when you swung at them. They're live mining tiles like any other mountain wall, so far more of the world pays ore.

A mining swing is slightly slower than a wood chop. Each swing at a vein takes 1.8 seconds; chopping a tree takes 1.6. So between the two harvest loops, mining is the slower one. (During the playtest the per-vein yield is generous and will be tuned down before launch.)

Gems in the ore. Roughly one swing in twenty turns up a rough gemstone alongside the ore, and richer veins give better gems, from amber and citrine in the low rungs up to diamonds at the top tier. Vendors buy them. Artificery Gem Cutting is currently shelved, so the stones are trade goods while that recipe line is held for possible future use. See Professions.

Smelting your ore. Ore isn't usable until you smelt it into ingots at a forge, and smelting is the smith's job now: ore of tier T needs Blacksmithing level T+1 (iron at level 1, Moorite at level 2, up the ladder). The chain itself is unchanged - 2 ore make 1 ingot, higher tiers also take 1 ingot of the tier below, nothing ever burns, and one smelt converts the whole stack as far as your materials allow. Every smelt also pays 1 Blacksmithing profession XP - a trickle, not a leveling path. Single-click the ore stack within 2 tiles of a forge to smelt it (or double-click and target the forge). Full refining details live on the Professions page.

The pickaxe is also a Mace Fighting weapon when swung in a fight.

Herding¶

Move a tame or wild animal to a spot by herding it (target the animal, then target the tile). Old "shepherd" quest content leaned on it heavily. Most players never train it.

Useful at: Quest-gated only. Skippable.

Lyonspyre changes: None.