Resource

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Resources are used in the crafting of weapons, armor, charms, ornaments, and remedies. Ingredients sources are either items dropped by monsters, or gathering points that respawn on a timer. The Resource Spawns that the player Digs are often named differently to the resources that are gathered. Resources respawn on a ten minute timer.

Resources used to require a pickaxe in inventory to gather; they still require the character be a certain level. E.g., Level 50 characters cannot gather level 4 resources.

You cannot cast spells while you are digging resource spawns, although you can set a location to run to afterwards. You cannot use potions or feed your mount, but again, these will take effect immediately afterwards.

Random numbers of resources are gathered (either two or three Apothecary ingredients, or one or two of the other items), with the results usually being high for established practioners of a Craft relevant to that resource, and heavily weighted to low numbers for non-craftspeople. So gather with your crafter player character if possible.

There is not as much competition for resource spawns as there is for Rare Venomancer Pets, so they can be gathered on a "circuit" of multiple resource spawns that, from experience, the player knows will be ready to gather again on the next circuit. One such run is the Shattered Jade Shore run, along the shoreline and back down south through the Tombstone and Hexweb Master enemies, which garners all the harvestable level 2 resource types. All mineral and wood spawns respawn every 10 minutes.

Drops from monsters are trickier because gathering the lower level materials requires a dedicated character to remain at the character level just above the level of the monsters. Too low, and the code does not credit the player with the "right" to get good drops. Too high, and again, the game considers the kills too easy, so it will not reward the player for them. Somewhere around the level that the monsters first display green to the character should be ideal.

Because of this, the very highest level materials are in the most abundant supply. Most of the characters in the game are level 100-105, so they will never advance past the "sweet spot" of the best drop rate of, for example, level 98 Ironite Demons and their Vega String drops. Any player can "farm" them, and so sellers have to be willing to accept a lower price, should another player undercut them

Resource classes[]

Harvested

Herbs (multiple spawn types, number varying with each Apothecary skill tier)

The rest are used in the Blacksmith, Craftsman and Tailor skills

Wood
Metal
Coal
Stone

Dropped

Pelt
Thread
Glue
Oil

Availability[]

None of the harvestable resources (Metal, Coal, Rock, or Wood) are very scarce. They can be gathered without combat, and the only thing random about gathering them is whether the character gets one or two from the spawn. Drops from monsters, on the other hand, are a random chance, a low chance, affected by character level and monster level.

Metal is the most in demand for recipes of the harvestable materials. It is the first ingredient of Heavy Armor Tailoring recipes, as well as part of the Blacksmith material, it has a little extra demand, but nothing to drive up the price.

The least in demand of the harder to get monster drops is Thread. It is used as a first ingredient in Blacksmith Magic Weapon recipes as well as the Tailor material. Thread is actually rarer than other drops, but as it is used only as one of three armor types in Tailoring, and only Magic weapons in Blacksmithing (and only a few of those), supplies rarely run low. It is dropped from humanoids in general, and a few less easily categorized creatures.

Glue is very expensive; it is part of the Blacksmith AND Tailor materials, and a monster drop. No recipes use it as a first ingredient, though.

Oil is used in all three crafts, and is the second hardest ingredient to obtain in sufficient quantities, at least until item level 9, to level all three craft types; it drops from what can be unscientifically described as 'Bugs', or more accurately, Arthropods: Spiders and Scorpions (not insects otherwise we could say 'Insects'), Bee/Wasp types, and the bugs of inscrutable genus Centipex, with centipede legs and a carnivore's jaws.

The most in demand of all is Pelts. Furs (low level Leather) are the most in demand and the scarcest in relation to their demand until item level 9; like Oils they are not only used in crafts but also in the creation of Metal. They are monster drops, and rarer than you might think, as they do not drop from many monsters that look like animals. They are used as a first ingredient in nearly two-thirds of all Craftsman recipes. They are used as a first ingredient in one third of Tailor recipes. They are used in huge amounts to craft Bows for Archers, and finally, they are used in every single Blacksmith recipe, as part of its primary material.

From item level 9 (crafting level 5; player level 80), ingredients become cheaper to obtain relative to player income, and much more balanced, with Leather and Oil being more common. This is due not so much to increased drops as to the higher rate and therefore higher number of XP runs that the player community completes at higher levels, as well as an increased number of players at those higher levels, in a game that is now years old and has fewer low level players.

If the mark of a valuable resource is its ubiquity in recipes, and high level ones, but that is itself low level, and thus easy to gather, then Tier 3 mats are that. They can be gathered at the border of Plume City (that is to say, the path to where they can be gathered is the lowest level of all; the gathering place itself is level 60 or so), and they are needed in very large quantities to make [ Ultimate Substance], which is needed for entry into Twilight Temple, and many of the recipes for armor and weapons from that dungeon. Ultimate Substance can also be made from Perfect Token of Luck, so in that one sense at least, the price of mats is tied to that of PToLs.

Other characters to attend to, no time to run around? Slower but less time-consuming is to camp spawns.

Two accounts

Dig, do other account for 10 minutes, Dig.

Find two or more spawns within a short distance of each other and Dig Run Dig

One account

Log On and Dig, Log Off

Find two or more spawns within a short distance of each other and Log On, Dig Run Dig Log Off

Metal[]

(mostly, the resources below are in the same areas as the metal)

Pig Iron (Iron Ore locations)
High-Carbon Steel (Black Iron Ore locations)
Refined Steel (Manganese Iron Ore locations)
Steel Alloy (Hsuan Iron Ore locations) Two spawns within a short distance of each other at north shore of Fragrant Hills, south of Nameless Isle, east of Archosaur
High Alloy Steel (Meteorite Iron Ore in Lothranis and Momaganon (x and 20, respectively))

Wood[]

Logs (Withered Tree Root locations)
Rough Lumber (Old Tree Root locations)
Fine Lumber (Willow Stake locations) Rolling hills and an unnecessary number of Taurox Enthusiasts guard three closeby spawns at 511 337 , 521 346 , and 525 329
High-Grade Lumber (Peartree Stake) Two spawns within a short distance of each other, one directly on the east edge of Sirry Wine Camp, the other east of that on the top of a small ridge
Lumber Essence (Dragonwood Stake in Lothranis (x) and Momaganon (19))

Coal[]

Coal Dust (Rough Coal Stack locations)
Coal (Coal Stack locations)
Anthracite (Fine Coal Stack locations) Two spawns within a short distance of each other, 594 394 and 593 398. Also 603 457 and 607 461 - Swamp of the Wraiths
Charcoal (Volcanic Coal Stack) Two spawns near each other north and south side of the rib cage of a dead giant beast, southeast of the Peartree Stake spawns above, also southeast of Sirry Wine Camp
Extruded Charcoal (Lava Coal Stack in Lothranis (x) and Momaganon (19))

Stone[]

Sandstone (Sandstone Rock locations)
Gravel (Gravel Pile locations)
Rubstone Powder (Rubstone Rock locations)
Corundum Powder (Corundum Rock). Two spawns within fifty feet of each other at 195 838
Granite (Granite Rock in Lothranis and Momaganon (x and 19, respectively))

Sample Runs[]

High Grade[]

Sample High-grade Run[]

Ten minute loop. The first location below is West side of Sirry Wine Camp, but of course it can be begun anywhere on the loop. Without a 11m/sec Mount, some spawns will have to be left out:

8x High Alloy Steel
6x High-Grade Lumber
6x Charcoal
5x Corundum Powder

3 @ 224 778 , 4 @ 219 772 , 1 @ 210 779 , 3 @ 210 770 , 1 @ 203 768 , 4 @ 198 762 (fight) , 2 @ 194 762 , 2 @ 203 751 , 1 @ 201 749 , 3 @ 209 754 , 1 @ 219 762 , 3 @ 210 770, 4 @ 231 758 , 1 @ 240 753 wraith fury chief, 4 @ 240 761 , 3 @ 250 759 , 1 @ 259 744 , 4 @ 260 751 , 3 @ 269 750 , 3 @ 268 756 , 2 @ 278 755 , 1 @ 281 762 , 1 @ 255 763 , 2 @ 254 770 , 2 @ 247 774 , 2 @ 226 766

Resource gathering seems to have become competitive of late, if it was not already. So in a way I am loathe to give up this secret. But I do believe there is enough for everyone, eventually, and it does not aid one for others to run shoddy runs; they just have to get in your way for longer. Besides, there are more, and arguably better, spawns up north of Sirry.

High Grade, North of Sirry[]

216 807 3 - 227 806 4 - 214 823 3 - 209 818 2 - 200 823 1 - 197 838 4 - 193 837 4 - 205 834 2 -

258 827 1 - 251 822 3 -

252 855 3 - 248 850 2 xroads - 241 844 1 field edge - 233 848 4 village -

175 879 3 -

Medium Grade[]

Probably best location, barring insufficient evasion or fighting skills, is Fragrant Hills. The bunnies in particular are very aggressive in their roaming, and all the enemies do ranged magic attacks which are harsh on heavy armor and are harder to avoid. The area is rich in the other materials, but metal is a little scarce. The trees make flying difficult; the speed of ground mounts make them preferable in any case.

Medium Grade, Hill of the Old King[]

Low level enemies, otherwise time consuming for the rewards: Starting out south of Arrowhead Manor, move to the west and south. South along the border between the King's Feast plateau and Bamboo Village bamboo forest, until on the slope with the Cloud Iron digs. Reverse and go up the hill, the only place it is possible to ascend to the King's Feast plateau. There are very few digs on the plateau, but it is an excellent place to find medium Herbs. Jump off the plateau in the east, and find the few digs in the valley that runs north south between the plateau and the Swamp of the Wraiths ridge. Repeat.

Herbs[]

Unlike other resource spawns, the gathered product of herbs is always what the spawn object is called.
Gathering of herb ingredients in general is, compared with other crafts, very labor-intensive at lower levels. At high levels, the benefit of a temporary enhancement, albeit one that is always of the same value, compares somewhat unfavorably with armor and weapons that enhance the player constantly, albeit the crafter must create many items before an exceptional one is created. Compare gathering 25 spawns of herbs for tier 1 Apothecary recipes with as little as 4 items for tier 1 Forging recipes, 2 of which can be bought from Merchants. However, at later levels the Apothecary requires 45 items and some Blacksmith recipes, 100 items or more. Also many Apothecary items are extremely powerful additions to a character's performance.

Information from PW Database indicates that gathering each higher level of herbs than 1 requires +20 to character level, ie character level 60 is required to gather level 4 herbs. This would mean that although a player can craft level 4 Apothecary recipes at level 50, the player would have to buy the herbs from other players at the Auction House etc to do so.

Herb names have been changed as much or more than other aspects of Perfect World. Both the old and new names are listed. If possible, the correlations are shown. Previous patch info from PW Database.

Tier 1 Herbs[]

Gatherable at player level 1, no craft skill level required

Ageratum
Nectar
Salvia Root (previously Nervine Grass)
Golden Herb (previously Euphorbiae)

Tier 2 Herbs[]

Crane Herb
Elderwood (536,724 ; 541,725 ; 520,712)
Elecampane
Palo Herb
Realgar
Tranquilla Herb
Tuckahoe

Previous names

Erberry
Agrimony Grass
Cardioactive Grass
Arsenic sulphide
Horse Chestnut
Saw-Wort Root
Lotus Tuber

Tier 3 Herbs[]

Black Henbane (previously Hen Bane)
Fleece-flower Root
Green Berry (previously Green Calyx Plum)
Ligamuloes Wood (previously Aloeswood)
Ox Bezoar (previously Bezoar)
Serpentine Herb (previously Serpent Root Grass)
Valdia Root

Other previous names

Knotweed Root
Violet Salvia Miltiorrhiza

Tier 4 Herbs[]

Butterfly Herb (513,446 ; 522,411 ; 550,310)
Perfumedew Herb
Red Berry
Tiger-ear Herb
Tulip (previously Tulips)
Worm Sprouts