Crafting within Aion goes well beyond what can be found in a typical MMORPG; both in the aspects of gathering and crafting. That being the case, it would take a book to explain it all at once. For this article, I’ll go over the methods of gathering materials and how the related skill ranks work. First, a basic understanding of how skill ranks function.

There are two gathering skills in Aion. Players begin the game with just the general gathering skill ranked 1 of 99. Upon completion of the ascension quest, the player receives the aerial gathering skill. This allows the player to gather any node with a required skill rank of 1, while the maximum achievable rank before obtaining further training is 99. When a skill reaches maximum rank players may purchase additional training in the skill. This system applies to both gathering and crafting. So then lets answer that nagging question, how does a player rank-up skills?

The simplest answer is to level a skill by using it, though there is a little more to it. The most basic aspect to understand, is how general gathering from resource nodes works. Whenever a node is activated the player receives a pop-up box that displays the current skill rank, the item received upon success, and two bars representing success or failure.

As the gathering process begins, a series of successes and failures are represented via progression of the two bars. The extent to which a success or failure progresses either bar is determined by your skill rank in relation to the required rank for that node. If the player’s skill rank is the same as that required to gather a given node, then there is about a 33% chance to fail the entire process.

The greater the player’s skill rank becomes in relation to the required rank, the lower the chance of an overall failure. Once the player’s skill rank surpasses the required rank by more then 20, it becomes impossible to fail. Success provides experience to the character and skill until the player’s rank surpasses the required rank by 40. At this point the skill can no longer gain rank.

What to gather – 1-100 skill points

Having discussed the basics of skill ranks, I’ll move on to the types of nodes and methods of gathering materials within the world of Atreia. There are what I categorize as four basic types of nodes; plants, minerals, gems, and woods. Plants are by far the most abundant type of resource. They appear everywhere on the planet’s surface but do not appear within the Abyss.

Minerals and Gems are found both on the planet’s surface as well as in the Abyss. Minerals come in two forms. The first is minable with each new training level, while the other has node specific rank requirements and a different appearance. Gems are the rarest of the nodes found on the ground throughout Atreia and generally appear where several can be found in relative proximity.

 Lastly are the woods which contain the least variety and are found scattered throughout Atreia. At this point, its fair to mention, that for most nodes there are two types of material that can be found. The regular version received 95% of the time and a rare version, often of the same material. The exception to this, from what I’ve seen, is woods.

That takes us to the aerial gathering skill and gathering from odes. Yes its odes, not nodes, in order to represent the difference between aerial and ground gathering. Odes differ from regular ground gathering in that there is only one available every 25 skill ranks. Additionally, they can only be found in zones where free flight is available.

The last manner of obtaining materials for crafting is the traditional method of killing mobs throughout the game. Mobs throughout the world drop several materials, although there are a couple key ones that will be found continually across all levels. The two important enough to mention are the leathers and the crystal balls. Leathers drop off of most mobs that you would expect them to, so anything with a hide. Crystal balls drop off everything and appear in three colors; red, blue, and white.

In closing it should be noted that most of the general materials also have different rarities. Two simple examples are gems and crystal balls. For gems, the node may produce a regular version of the material that is any quality. The rare version, when one is available, will always be of a quality a step above the regular version produced. The exception being that there are no unigue quality materials at this time. In the case of crystal balls each ball occurs in different rarities and any color crystal ball may drop in any rarity.

I hope this provides everyone a little insight into the way gathering in Aion works and gets you excited for the upcoming article on what to do with those newly gathered materials!