No such best location per skill, since all nodes are evenly distributed over planets. So, whatever gathering skill you have there is a similar chance of getting to the node (excluding over population and fighting with others for resources).

Not sure what would guide tell you except pick up your gathering skills (Archaeology, Bioanalysis and Scavenging) and go from planet to planet to pick up resources.

Note that gathering will yield green mats only. White ones have to be purchased from vendor or gained from missions. Blue and purple can only be gained from missions. Additionally, all mats can be bought on GTN.

Like the type of gathering you can do yourself without missions? I have never really done it and I'm wondering if there's any guide to the best locations per skill etc.

As the other answer said, there isn't a best location per skill.

But:

* Each planet except the starter worlds has its own set of gatherable resources. A particular planet will have one grade of resources (1-10), and the further you are in the total story, the higher the grade. See below.

* Each planet that has resources has all four gatherable types (Scav, Bio, Arch, and Slicing) at the same grade. They might have different distributions within the planet, but they're all there. See below.

* If you want lower or higher graded resources than a planet offers, you must go to a different planet.

So, which planets have which grades? Coruscant, Dromund Kaas, Imperial Balmorra, and Republic Taris all have Grade 1. Zakuul and Darvannis have grade 9. Iokath has grade 10. Yavin has grade 8. And so on. I don't have a complete list immediately to hand, sorry.

And why are the distributions different? Well, the best example is Zakuul. All the Bio resources are in the Endless Swamp, along with a bunch of Arch resources. Breaktown has Scav and Slicing. But there are similar unevennesses on, say, Yavin: around the first temple building in the middle of the map, there are many Arch nodes, but around the two initial camps (on the right on the map), you'll find mostly Bio and Scav and not much Arch, if any.

And don't forget to slaughter heavy (sliver, gold, and champion) droids (Scav) and beasts (Bio) for extra nodes. On Yavin, heavy Massassi count as beasts.

As the other answer said, there isn't a best location per skill.

 

But:

* Each planet except the starter worlds has its own set of gatherable resources. A particular planet will have one grade of resources (1-10), and the further you are in the total story, the higher the grade. See below.

* Each planet that has resources has all four gatherable types (Scav, Bio, Arch, and Slicing) at the same grade. They might have different distributions within the planet, but they're all there. See below.

* If you want lower or higher graded resources than a planet offers, you must go to a different planet.

 

So, which planets have which grades? Coruscant, Dromund Kaas, Imperial Balmorra, and Republic Taris all have Grade 1. Zakuul and Darvannis have grade 9. Iokath has grade 10. Yavin has grade 8. And so on. I don't have a complete list immediately to hand, sorry.

 

And why are the distributions different? Well, the best example is Zakuul. All the Bio resources are in the Endless Swamp, along with a bunch of Arch resources. Breaktown has Scav and Slicing. But there are similar unevennesses on, say, Yavin: around the first temple building in the middle of the map, there are many Arch nodes, but around the two initial camps (on the right on the map), you'll find mostly Bio and Scav and not much Arch, if any.

 

And don't forget to slaughter heavy (sliver, gold, and champion) droids (Scav) and beasts (Bio) for extra nodes. On Yavin, heavy Massassi count as beasts.

Yeah a list of planet grades is basically what I was looking for but I'm guessing it will basically go up as planet levels rise?

And what do you mean kill beasts for extra nodes? Do they just appear more frequently if you kill stuff?

Great tips otherwise thanks for the reply

Edit: Also, not sure what you mean by the distributions are different? Do you only find each type of mat in certain areas of each map? The way you said all Bio resources are in the Endless Swamp on Zakuul etc? Cos if that was the case I will have to try find a map that will tell me the general area of the resources on each map.

And what do you mean kill beasts for extra nodes? Do they just appear more frequently if you kill stuff?

It means that dead animals count as bio samples, and droids count as scavenged metal., if they're silver or up.

I'd also add that on certain planets you can find two grades. Lots of one grade, and some rare instances of the next grade. It's usually not worth the time looking around, though.

It means that dead animals count as bio samples, and droids count as scavenged metal., if they're silver or up.

 

I'd also add that on certain planets you can find two grades. Lots of one grade, and some rare instances of the next grade. It's usually not worth the time looking around, though.

Not sure I understand? I've killed lots of animals and droids and never got any mats from them :/ I feel like im misunderstanding something bigly here xD

It works the same way regular gathering nodes work. If you're on a character with the scavenging skill, and kill and loot a silver droid, you can see a resource node appear next to you on the minimap. Collect as usual.

Ah ok I think I get it now thanks.

Oh, Almar's guides are now offline.

1) You still have this, covers vanilla game with 1-6 mats (some are obsolete, the nodes still exist but yield a simplified resource)

The advantage now is you can harvest the highest mat as a beginner. So as soon as you get your ship or a heroic transport you could teleport to Zakuul and farm grade 10 mats...

There are some great areas in the game, such as the Sundari Flatland plains on Balmorra for grade 2 or 4 mats (depending if imperial or Pub version of planet) or Rishi for grade 8 mats.

2) Also be aware that some stronghold decorations yield mats.

You don't need crew skills to harvest these. Check the link above. They're called utility decos, crafting subtype. Example : bronzium wreckage, perfect upari crystal, noxious fern. They range from grade 1 to grade 8 for scavenging and archaeology, and 1-7 for bioanalysis. You can harvest 3-8 mats of both type (ie fragments + power crystals) at once, takes 15 seconds (I'd LOVE for this to be reduced to 3 seconds) and sometimes you get to harvest several times in a row. Example you harvest a Desh Junk Pile and you obtain 4 desh and 5 silica. Luckily you get to harvest it again and this time you get 6 desh and 3 silica, but get the debuff, no more harvesting for that toon for 4 hours. If meanwhile you want another toon to harvest the same deco again you need to either load another instance or remove the deco and put it back to reset it, or wait 4-5 minutes (this is the node's own cooldown, separate from your toon's node harvesting cooldown).

This also replicates slicing nodes, which yield small but handy amounts of money (have been nerfed to death) and sometimes some skill missions. example Electronic brain, encrypted terminal.

With a permission (silver key or gold) you can harvest these either from your guild stronghold or from a friend's if you don't have them yourself. Once you get the "finished harvesting" debuff you need to wait 4 hours of real time until you harvest decorations again.

At level 15 you can take the stronghold quest on fleet or in the market of your capital planet, as soon as you set foot in your personal stronghold (and actually walk 2 paces) you'll get a lot of basic decos including 4 of starter level for each type : Desh junk pile, Rubat crystal, Dielectric Tendril, Electronic Safe. Plus a load of XP !

The advantage now is you can harvest the highest mat as a beginner. So as soon as you get your ship or a heroic transport you could teleport to Zakuul and farm grade 10 mats...

You can't, actually, because the grade 10 nodes aren't on Zakuul. :rak_03:

You can't, actually, because the grade 10 nodes aren't on Zakuul. :rak_03:

Damn, I stand corrected, I didn't know 5.2 removed them

(just checked)

Not sure I understand? I've killed lots of animals and droids and never got any mats from them :/ I feel like im misunderstanding something bigly here xD

Note that you need 3 things to harvest them :

- need the relevant crew skill = scavenging for droids, bioanalysis for creatures

- they need to be Strongs and above. Regulars don't yield mats

- they need to have been looted by all. So if you're in a flashpoint and the others haven't bothered looting, you can't harvest. Not that they would leave you time to do it anyway... also, they'll vanish fairly quickly once they have been looted. Sometimes you start harvesting and the body goes poof before you're done (a wizard did it!)

Edit: Also, not sure what you mean by the distributions are different? Do you only find each type of mat in certain areas of each map? The way you said all Bio resources are in the Endless Swamp on Zakuul etc? Cos if that was the case I will have to try find a map that will tell me the general area of the resources on each map.

That's pretty much exactly what I meant. There's usually a sort of sense in the distributions. Let's look at Zakuul, then at Yavin.

Zakuul:

On Zakuul, there are three "open" maps, that is, maps where you can run around without being in an instance. They are The Endless Swamp, The Undercity / Old World, and Breaktown.

The Endless Swamp is a mix of Bio and Arch nodes because, well, because there's no *obvious* location on Zakuul for Arch nodes, so they are kind of everywhere, while it doesn't make much sense to find spare computers (slicing) or piles of scrap metal (Scav) in a swamp. Animal parts and weird plants(1), however, seem like a good fit, so the swamp is full of Bio nodes as well as the Arch nodes.

The Undercity and Breaktown are both urban and a bit scruffy. Well, OK, Breaktown's a *lot* scruffy. Either way, both are reasonable places to find scrap metal and junked computers, so Scav and Slicing rule. And because it's urban, neither of them is suitable for weird plants, so no Bio nodes, while all the weird crystals and strange carved tablets were dug up or buried centuries ago, so no Arch nodes.

Yavin

On Yavin, it's kind of similar, sort of. There are five maps; the Coalition Camp, the first Republic Camp, the first Imperial Camp, the Revanite training temple, and the Massassi temple.

The Coalition camp has no nodes at all.

The two "first" camps are both in the jungle, but the jungle has Bio and Scav nodes (instead of Bio/Arch) because Arch is obviously going to be found elsewhere, and Slicing is, too, while Scav lacks an obvious location, and is found a bit everywhere.

The Revanite training temple area is an archaeologists wet-dream, so has loads of Arch nodes, and there are also some Slicing nodes.

The Massassi temple area has walking Bio nodes called things like "Massassi Crusher", and a few conventional heavy animals (Alpha Lurkers, Krakawhatsits), and also a few Deformed Fungus Bio nodes. There's also a scattering of other types, but I guess the Massassi have wrecked a lot of it.

One last planet, just by way of comparison: Nar Shaddaa.

On Nar Shaddaa, there are *no* obvious locations for anything, so all maps have a rather random mix of all node types. Bio nodes are in large planters, while there are piles of scrap metal, junked computers, and weird crystals on the ground more or less anywhere.

On Nar Shaddaa, there are *no* obvious locations for anything, so all maps have a rather random mix of all node types. Bio nodes are in large planters, while there are piles of scrap metal, junked computers, and weird crystals on the ground more or less anywhere.

Nar Shaddaa also has mixed levels, dating from back when you had an advanced level bonus series there in some areas of the game (Republic research division, network security, can't remember the third one, maximum security or something), these are grade 4 instead of grade 2. All planets have a few nodes of a more advanced level in their last zones anyway.

I need to check if the corrupted zones which used to be level 53 yield mats, but I believe they don't.

All great tips thanks, I think I get it now completely. Hopefully I'll be gathering like a pro in no time

Many thanks for clicking my referral last month! Depending on where you play I could help you (I have active toons on half the servers)

Many thanks for clicking my referral last month! Depending on where you play I could help you (I have active toons on half the servers)

I did...? Well more like thanks to you for the 7 days free to finish Umbara xD Got hooked again tho and had to sub haha.... Your like a drug dealer dude xD One hit for free.... I guess your forum post or reply must be the first on google when you type "swtor referral links" xD Always typing that when a new expansion comes round

I'm on TRE, haven't started gathering really yet but wanted to get acquainted with it you know, more been doing Strongholds for my first time and trying to complete the Shroud/Seeker missions and then I wanna try get HK-51... Basically lately I've just decided to do all the stuff I've put off for years because it wasn't main story which I usually play exclusively xD

I did...? Well more like thanks to you for the 7 days free to finish Umbara xD Got hooked again tho and had to sub haha.... Your like a drug dealer dude xD One hit for free.... I guess your forum post or reply must be the first on google when you type "swtor referral links" xD Always typing that when a new expansion comes round

 

I'm on TRE, haven't started gathering really yet but wanted to get acquainted with it you know, more been doing Strongholds for my first time and trying to complete the Shroud/Seeker missions and then I wanna try get HK-51... Basically lately I've just decided to do all the stuff I've put off for years because it wasn't main story which I usually play exclusively xD

No way lool

Damn I don't have a full legacy on TRE. Might have a thing or two though. What class do you play mainly?

No way lool

 

Damn I don't have a full legacy on TRE. Might have a thing or two though. What class do you play mainly?

At the minute I've been rolling a Sorcerer. But of course I have 70's of every class if I needed them.

Oh well, there are some spots on some planets, where gathering is superior for their levels...

e.q. first 4 Levels IMP side:

Lvl 1: Dromund Kaas

- kill droids in bridge area between Kaas City and "Friends of old" heroic area (scavenging)

- kill mobs in "Shadow Spawn" heroic area and gather plant samples (bioanalysis)

- scav, bioanalysis & archeology nodes in "Friends of old" heroic area

Lvl 2: Balmorra (IMP)

- scav, bioanalysis & archeology nodes in the combat zone between Sundari Flatlands and planet's final Arms Factory

Lvl 3: no real "hot spot", nodes spreaded over Tatooine & Alderaan

Lvl 4: Taris: make a roundtrip through south west of the starting area, outside the brell camp, all gathering nodes

Lvl 5: Belsavis Section X: hunt creatures for bio, scav + arch nodes everywhere

Lvl 6: Scav on Corellia/Blackhole, Arch on Ilum, Bio: Zoo on Corellia or strong creatures on Ilum

Lvl 7: spreaded over Makeb

Lvl 8: Yavin IV: Temple ruins and Training grounds (rich spot!)

Lvl 9: Zakuul

Scav/Slic in the Under City (name in english?), reachable by trainstation

Bio/Arch in the Swamp, reachable by ferry

Lvl 10: Iokath

Oh well, there are some spots on some planets, where gathering is superior for their levels...

 

e.q. first 4 Levels IMP side:

Lvl 1: Dromund Kaas

- kill droids in bridge area between Kaas City and "Friends of old" heroic area (scavenging)

- kill mobs in "Shadow Spawn" heroic area and gather plant samples (bioanalysis)

- scav, bioanalysis & archeology nodes in "Friends of old" heroic area

 

Lvl 2: Balmorra (IMP)

- scav, bioanalysis & archeology nodes in the combat zone between Sundari Flatlands and planet's final Arms Factory

 

Lvl 3: no real "hot spot", nodes spreaded over Tatooine & Alderaan

 

Lvl 4: Taris: make a roundtrip through south west of the starting area, outside the brell camp, all gathering nodes

 

Lvl 5: Belsavis Section X: hunt creatures for bio, scav + arch nodes everywhere

 

Lvl 6: Scav on Corellia/Blackhole, Arch on Ilum, Bio: Zoo on Corellia or strong creatures on Ilum

 

Lvl 7: spreaded over Makeb

 

Lvl 8: Yavin IV: Temple ruins and Training grounds (rich spot!)

 

Lvl 9: Zakuul

Scav/Slic in the Under City (name in english?), reachable by trainstation

Bio/Arch in the Swamp, reachable by ferry

 

Lvl 10: Iokath

Good one, wunderbar

REP Side:

Lvl 1:

Jedis can have Scav on Tython in the heroics cave slaughtering droids

Non-force-users can bioanalysis by slaughtering Savrips on Ord Mantell at the heroic island

Coruscant is spreaded on nodes

Lvl 2:

Taris: south of the brell lake, all nodes

For Bio, just slaughter strong Rakghouls, they're everywhere, especially in heroics area for Knight Fall/Mutations or doing heroic Rakghoul Release

Lvl 3: spreaded all over Tatooine and Alderaan

Lvl 4: Balmorra REP, same location as on IMP side

Lvl 5+: same locations as on IMP side

And yeah, if someone is searching for a list which planet yields which node levels, here it is:

1: Hutta, Korriban, Ord Mantell, Tython, Dromund Kaas, Coruscant

2: Taris(REP),Balmorra(IMP), Nar Shaddaa

3: Tattoonie, Alderaan

4: Balmorra(REP), Taris(IMP), Quesh, Hoth

5: Belsavis, Voss, Corellia

6: Blackhole, Ilum

7: few on Ilum, Makeb, CZ-198, Oricon

8: Rishi, Yavin IV, Ziost

9: Zakuul, Darvannis (also LVL10 Nodes)

10: Iokath

Please note, that Slicing is a little bit different. I didn't created a list yet, but it seems the list for it looks like that:

3: Tattoonie, Alderaan, Balmorra(REP), Taris(IMP)

4: Quest, Hoth, Belsavis

5: Voss, Corellia