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Scavenging Mechanics

Scavenging is the heartbeat of day-to-day survival: you enter tile mode, read the ground around you, and work what the local terrain will give. The Gather action pulls from nearby resource targets (plants, trees, rocks, and salvage points), and when no target is available in valid biomes, it can shift into bait-digging instead of wasting the move.

Gathering Basics

Requirements

  • You must be in tile mode
  • Standard gathering works next to a local target (tree, rock, plant, cache, or marked salvage)
  • If no target is nearby, valid biomes can pivot into bait-digging instead of a normal gather
  • You cannot gather on lake world tiles or while standing in a water sub-tile
  • Standard gather spends 0.25 fatigue and advances time by 1 hour

Gathering Skill

Your gathering skill (0-100) significantly affects success rates:

  • Bait digging: 35% + (gathering/150) + (digging/10) base success (before cap)
  • Forage amount: 2-3 items at high skill (75+)
  • Berry chance: 8%-40% (scales with skill)
  • Mushroom chance: 10%-45% (scales with skill)
  • Herb chances: Various resources scale with skill
  • Enhanced by tool bonuses

Experience Gain

Gathering actions award gathering XP on execution, and successful bait-digging also grants gathering XP.

Gathering Types

1. Plant Gathering (Bushes)

When gathering from bushes/plants, you can find:

Common Resources:
  • Forage: 2-3 pieces (skill-dependent)
  • Cordage: 15% chance
  • Berries: 8%-40% chance (100+ species based on biome)
  • Wild herbs (flavoring): 10%-36% chance
  • Medicinal herbs: 6%-28% chance (27+ species)
Biome-Specific Resources:
  • Mushrooms: 10%-45% (forest, swamp, mountain)
  • Wild onions: 12%-36% (plain, shore)
  • Root tubers: 14%-40% (plain, swamp)
  • Wild grain: 16%-44% (plain only)
  • Bird eggs: 5%-16% (forest, plain)
  • River weed: 14%-38% (shore near water)

2. Tree Gathering

Tree gathering is steady survival labor: chop for core wood, then watch for high-value side pulls that can change a run.

Wood Yields:
  • Forest: 1-3 wood
  • Plain: 1-2 wood
  • Mountain: 1 wood
  • Other biomes: 1-2 wood
Tree Bonuses:
  • Pine resin: 15% (forest/mountain)
  • Hardwood: 15% (forest/plain)
  • Oak bark: 10% (forest/swamp)
  • Wild honey: 4% (all tree biomes)
  • Bee swarm: 2% when finding honey
  • Pine nuts: 14% (1-2 pieces, seasonal)
  • Sticks: 25% (1-2 pieces)
  • Maple sap: 12% (forest only, seasonal)
  • Driftwood: 16% (shore only)

3. Rock Gathering

Rock gathering is your hard-material pipeline: dependable stone first, then biome-driven mineral upside when terrain and skill line up.

Base Yield: 1-3 stones per gather (with additional scaling in some biomes/build states) Biome-Specific Minerals: Shore:
  • Salt: 20% (1-2 pieces)
  • Sand: 12%
Mountain:
  • Mountain stone yield scales with mining progression and can spike with higher mining tiers
  • Core mountain rolls target coal, iron ore, mountain clay, silver ore, and obsidian
  • Rare crystal-side gains are possible at higher progression bands
  • Exact outcomes are gated by skill thresholds and run-time modifiers, so treat mountain mining as a progression-sensitive lane, not a flat static table
River:
  • River stones: 18% (1-2 pieces)
  • River clay: 14%
Swamp:
  • Bog iron: 16%
  • Swamp clay: 22%
  • Peat: 18%
  • Marsh gas: 5% (rare)
Plain:
  • Flint: 16%
  • Clay: 14%
Ruins:
  • Concrete chunks: 18%
  • Bricks: 16%
Veyr:
  • Shares ruins-like rock output behavior for gather-side stone/material rolls

4. Cache Salvaging and Ruins Stashes

Cache salvage is split into two lanes:

  • General cache salvage (non-ruins gather targets):
  • Canned food: 68% chance (1-2 cans baseline)
  • Cordage: 30%
  • Tinder: 35%
  • Insulation foam: 25%
  • Ruins-specific salvage:

In ruins tiles, gathering pulls from nearby marked ruins scavenge objects with district-based salvage results.

Read it like field discipline: when you step into ruins, treat marked stashes as intentional objectives, not random background loot.

5. Digging for Bait

When not near any resource target, you can dig for bait in certain biomes:

Valid Biomes: Forest, Swamp, Plain, Shore, River

Cost: 4 fatigue and 0.4h

Success Rate: 35% + (gathering / 150) + (digging / 10) (before cap)

Bait Types by Biome:
  • Plain: 40% crickets, 60% worms
  • Forest: 25% grubs, 75% worms
  • Swamp: 45% frogs, 55% worms
  • Shore: 30% minnows, 70% worms
  • River: 100% worms

Think of bait-digging as a fallback survival action: when the tile has no immediate gather target, you still convert time and stamina into fishing fuel.

Detailed Biome Loot Tables

Use these as field expectations, not guarantees.

Forest

  • Acorns: 18% (1-2)
  • Birch bark: 12%
  • Tree fungus: 15%
  • Moss: 20% (1-2)
  • Ferns: 14%
  • Hickory nuts: 16%
  • Wild peppers: 8%

Mountain

  • Mountain outputs are progression-sensitive (mining gates + modifiers can shift real yields).
  • Crystal shards: 8% baseline lane (with progression scaling)
  • Mountain herbs: 12% baseline lane
  • Lichen: 22% baseline lane
  • Alpine flowers: 10% baseline lane
  • Quartz: 14% baseline lane

Swamp

  • Cattail roots: 20% (1-2)
  • Swamp clay: 16%
  • Peat: 14%
  • Willow bark: 12%
  • Swamp mushrooms: 18%
  • Water lily: 15%
  • Reed stalks: 16%

Shore/Lake

  • Shells: 22% (1-2)
  • River glass: 10%
  • River weed: 18%
  • Crayfish: 14%
  • Freshwater mussels: 16%
  • River clams: 14%
  • Water chestnuts: 10%

River

  • Crayfish: 16%
  • Freshwater snails: 14%
  • River pearls: 4% (rare!)
  • Water chestnuts: 16%
  • River reeds: 18%
  • River gems: 6% (rare!)
  • River moss: 12%

Plain

  • Wild flowers: 20%
  • Sunflower seeds: 16%
  • Wild wheat: 18%
  • Meadow mushrooms: 14%
  • Dandelion: 12%
  • Prairie grass: 14%
  • Thistle: 12%
  • Wild peppers: 10%
  • Farm crops/seeds: 5% (random)

Ruins

  • Old books: 12%
  • Broken glass: 14%
  • Ceramic shards: 10%
  • Old nails: 16%

Veyr

  • Mirrors ruins-like foraging behavior for this gather lane
  • Expect similar salvage-flavored pulls with lower consistency than forest/plain loops

Road

  • Rubber: 14%
  • Reflectors: 12%
  • Paint chips: 10%

Bonuses and Modifiers

Companion Bonus

A capable companion turns scavenging from a solo scrape into a stronger extraction run: many gather yields are multiplied when companion support is active.

Strength Attribute Bonus

Raw strength can push extra physical yield on core material pulls:

  • 15% chance per point above 3 to gain +1 stone or wood

Seasonal Event Bonuses

  • Berry bloom: Raises berry-output potential during active event windows
  • Mushroom season: Raises mushroom-output potential during active event windows

Tool Bonuses

  • Knife: Gather actions consume knife durability when equipped
  • Gathering-relevant tools/perks: Skill and specialization effects can shift yield quality, quantity, and rare-roll consistency

Difficulty Modifiers

Difficulty settings can scale parts of resource output, so identical routes can feel richer or harsher depending on run setup.

Tips

  • High-value biomes: Forest and Swamp are your most reliable forage engines when you need stable returns
  • Rare resources: River pearls and river gems stay true long-shot finds; mountain rares are real but progression-gated
  • Skill investment: Gathering skill directly widens your success bands, variety rolls, and consistency
  • Companion synergy: A good companion turns routine gather loops into stronger extraction runs
  • Depletion reality: Tile resources are exhaustible; recovery is tied to long-cycle tile repopulation, not steady hourly refill
  • Seasonal timing: Plan routes around berry bloom and mushroom season when those windows are active
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