Originally posted by quweeze This is a really noob question but can someone explain harvesting or give me a link to a guide that explains it?
In FFXI there's a number of ways to collect resources from the surrounding environment; harvesting is one of them. It's closely related to logging, mining and excavating (which are sometimes referred to in a group as HELM). Basically, in certain areas, there are places that become available to collect resources from. You don't see anything, but if you tab through the possible targets or run your mouse cursor over it, you will discover a "Harvesting Point" (or a Mining Point, or a Logging Point, or an Excavation Point).
If you have the proper tool in your inventory (you don't actually equip HELM tools), you can use it on the Point to try and collect resources. You use Sickles on Harvesting Points, Pickaxes on Mining and Excavation Points, and Hatchets on Logging Points. You may not get anything, or you successfully gather something (generally, speaking, plants from Harvesting Points, ores from Mining Points, logs of various kinds of wood from Logging Points. I'm not familiar enough with Excavation Points to say what you get from them).
What you might get depends on the area; generally, HELM points in more dangerous areas yield more valuable resources. A HELM point only lasts so long before it disappears; then you have to find a new one (or wait from the one you're in front of to respawn). Also, the gathering tools randomly break (are destroyed) during use, so you want to carry multiples (Pickaxes in particular break like matchsticks; people generally take a couple of stacks when going mining).
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In FFXI there's a number of ways to collect resources from the surrounding environment; harvesting is one of them. It's closely related to logging, mining and excavating (which are sometimes referred to in a group as HELM). Basically, in certain areas, there are places that become available to collect resources from. You don't see anything, but if you tab through the possible targets or run your mouse cursor over it, you will discover a "Harvesting Point" (or a Mining Point, or a Logging Point, or an Excavation Point).
If you have the proper tool in your inventory (you don't actually equip HELM tools), you can use it on the Point to try and collect resources. You use Sickles on Harvesting Points, Pickaxes on Mining and Excavation Points, and Hatchets on Logging Points. You may not get anything, or you successfully gather something (generally, speaking, plants from Harvesting Points, ores from Mining Points, logs of various kinds of wood from Logging Points. I'm not familiar enough with Excavation Points to say what you get from them).
What you might get depends on the area; generally, HELM points in more dangerous areas yield more valuable resources. A HELM point only lasts so long before it disappears; then you have to find a new one (or wait from the one you're in front of to respawn). Also, the gathering tools randomly break (are destroyed) during use, so you want to carry multiples (Pickaxes in particular break like matchsticks; people generally take a couple of stacks when going mining).
Chris Mattern