Foraging

[Lenora Rose]

So forage spawns overnight AND there's a hard limit on the amount of forage before the Saturday night/Sunday morning reset.

So if you're, eg, trying to get morels for recipes and not trying to boost quality for sale, is there any use whatever to buffing foraging skill?

And even if you do want extra quality... I was looking at my tropical curry and thinking there's no actual *point* to its existence if I get botanist. Am I missing something?

Personally I think buffing should give you increased chance of finding more forage, not just better forage.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

I mean yeah, there isn't a hard limit but there is a practical limit to how much can spawn and it's usually luck dependant (not ig).

 

[Elenna101]

I mean yeah, there isn't a hard limit but there is a practical limit to how much can spawn and it's usually luck dependant (not ig).

No, there is actually a hard limit, you can't have more than 6 spawns in an area (with some exceptions - I think the backwoods is limited to 4, the right side of the beach doesn't count afaik, and also there's no limit on the forest farm).

And no, I personally haven't found much use to +foraging foods.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

As far as your foraging skill, there's a few reasons to grind it. There's some useful recipes. Specifically, level 6 is where you unlock the lightning rods to minimize the damage lightning bolts can do, and level 7 is where the Tree Fertilizer is unlocked. But as far as your level 5/10 benefits, there's some things you may wish to be aware of.

As far as Gatherer/Botanist, the big thing about Botanist is that everything you forage is guaranteed to be Iridium Quality, including truffles from your pigs. Which means they all stack in one inventory slot instead of taking up four different slots for four different quality types. Second is if you use foraging as part of your income, since everything is guaranteed iridium quality it means never having to worry about making them into something to sell if you don't want to. In combination with pigs, you can see six or seven figures a season (except winter) in additional money produced with Botanist, plus the convenience of never needing to worry about what quality you're going to be getting.

However, if you aren't planning on selling the fruits of your labors, you can try Gatherer/Tracker which gives you little arrows on the edges of the screen to tell you where forage items and artifact dig spots are on the screen which lets you find them easier. You'll still want Gatherer because the 20% chance of a second drop is going to be even more important if you are turning your foraged goods into finished products.

Virtually everyone sells their foraged goods and doesn't bother producing things with them, so Botanist is a no-brainer being an effective 100% increase in sale price, making it even better than Artisan! But if you are more interested in turning your foraged goods into finished products instead, you can consider Tracker as a way of increasing efficiency of your harvesting by knowing precisely where the forage items are located on the screen so you don't miss any and don't waste time canvassing the entire region.

 

[Elenna101]

As far as your foraging skill, there's a few reasons to grind it. There's some useful recipes. Specifically, level 6 is where you unlock the lightning rods to minimize the damage lightning bolts can do, and level 7 is where the Tree Fertilizer is unlocked. But as far as your level 5/10 benefits, there's some things you may wish to be aware of.

Oh, yeah, there's several good reasons to level up forage. I was interpreting the question to be specifically about forage *buffs* from food, which obviously don't give recipes or professions.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Oh, yeah, there's several good reasons to level up forage. I was interpreting the question to be specifically about forage *buffs* from food, which obviously don't give recipes or professions.

You get extra berries from salmonberry and blackberry bushes with higher levels of foraging. I think if you hit level 12, (level 10 Foraging + some means of getting at least a +2 Forage) you get 4 berries per bush. Given that you can also get the thing from the bear to increase price and that Botanist works on berry bush forage, you can end up with 132g/ea for blackberries, meaning over five hundred gold per bush shaken just in sold berries alone.

That's about the only reason to buff Foraging that I can think of once you've capped it. I've never really felt forage buffs were relevant outside of your initial spring's salmonberry season if you haven't hit foraging 4 yet and want to double your salmonberries for mine diving food.

 

[Lenora Rose]

Oh, yeah, there's several good reasons to level up forage. I was interpreting the question to be specifically about forage *buffs* from food, which obviously don't give recipes or professions.

This. I'm maxed out on skill levels. Though no harm done since others may want to know the levelling benefits.

 

[Lenora Rose]

You get extra berries from salmonberry and blackberry bushes with higher levels of foraging. I think if you hit level 12, (level 10 Foraging + some means of getting at least a +2 Forage) you get 4 berries per bush. Given that you can also get the thing from the bear to increase price and that Botanist works on berry bush forage, you can end up with 132g/ea for blackberries, meaning over five hundred gold per bush shaken just in sold berries alone.

That's about the only reason to buff Foraging that I can think of once you've capped it. I've never really felt forage buffs were relevant outside of your initial spring's salmonberry season if you haven't hit foraging 4 yet and want to double your salmonberries for mine diving food.

So basically the food buffs only matter in salmonberry and blackberry season, and maaaaybe when chopping a few trees.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

No, there is actually a hard limit, you can't have more than 6 spawns in an area (with some exceptions - I think the backwoods is limited to 4, the right side of the beach doesn't count afaik, and also there's no limit on the forest farm).

And no, I personally haven't found much use to +foraging foods.

Yeah, I know, it was more in a practical sense, there will never be that many forage spawns per day in any average sense, you'd have to wait days and then the simple solution is just do harvest every day or every other.

 

[Elenna101]

You get extra berries from salmonberry and blackberry bushes with higher levels of foraging. I think if you hit level 12, (level 10 Foraging + some means of getting at least a +2 Forage) you get 4 berries per bush. Given that you can also get the thing from the bear to increase price and that Botanist works on berry bush forage, you can end up with 132g/ea for blackberries, meaning over five hundred gold per bush shaken just in sold berries alone.

That's about the only reason to buff Foraging that I can think of once you've capped it. I've never really felt forage buffs were relevant outside of your initial spring's salmonberry season if you haven't hit foraging 4 yet and want to double your salmonberries for mine diving food.

Right, yeah, I forgot that I do use +foraging food for more berries. Whoops!

 

[Potatoes]

Botanist is that everything you forage is guaranteed to be Iridium Quality, including truffles from your pigs. Which means they all stack in one inventory slot instead of taking up four different slots for four different quality types.

This is the main reason I always want to level up my foraging to Lv10 as soon as possible.

I do like the idea though of the increased amount of spawns through higher forage levels (or even other methods)

 

[nicodeux]

For more info about foraging buffs and berries in bushes and also day reload to maximise spawns, I highly recommend this thread.

 

[Lenora Rose]

For more info about foraging buffs and berries in bushes and also day reload to maximise spawns, I highly recommend this thread.

That thread is pretty darn useful. Also, I think I react like Lew to some of it... while I admire their dedication I don't think I'm up to emulating it to that extent.

 

[RubberGu]

I personally like to get the higher quality buff, and then get pigs, as iridium quality truffles are very valuable.