The Drunken Lizard Pub

Hi there,

just wondering a little bit, I am in a late game stage now (area east of Picaroon Island) and want to prepare with some Mana or Healing Potions. But it seems to be impossible to get Ambergris or Willowbark anywhere. I have a foraging skill of 10 and switch to two foraging rings before building the tent, which makes a skill of 14. I get a lot of Ectoplasm and Auricflax but no "low level" ingredients like Ambergris or Willow Bark. I have the feeling that the chances to get them are higher if I don't wear the rings.

I also visited all merchants on Picaroon Island and even travelled back to Port Kuudad and the smaller villages, but not merchant sells Ambergris (sometimes they have Willow Bark). So what I did now is to buy mana potions and healing elexirs (I have a lot of gold since I am done with Hammerlorne Mine, and I can sell Ectoplasm and Auricflax for good money), but I get the feeling that it was a little useless to train foraging and alchemy that much as I did.

So the question is, is there any way to control what I get with foraging? Is there an influence by the region/area where I sleep, or is it completly random? Or do I have to skill foraging to a higher level?

Cheers,
Esgo

The items, and number of items you get while foraging is determined only by your Foraging skill and the amount of time you've spent camping. What area you're in doesn't affect it at all. It's true that at higher levels of Foraging, you're more likely to get the more expensive reagents, so if you want to acquire the lower-level ones, it might be worth keeping your rings off.

You might be able to further encourage that by only camping for short periods of time, though I seem to think that the amount-of-time primarily affects how many items you get, and your Foraging skill determines what kind they are. It's possible I'm mistaken, though.

Personally I find that it's still quite useful to train Foraging+Alchemy up as much as possible, if only because of Imbuing your armor and weapons. Without spending any actual skill points, you'll be able to at least give all your armor a +2 boost, and Foraging would ensure that you've got the rare ingredients necessary to do so. My characters don't tend to use potions too much, so that's more a secondary concern for me. Also, pumping your Foraging skill up does impact how quickly your Hunger and Thirst bars go down, so Foraging's very much worth it from that angle as well, IMO.

The alternative is to keep checking the shops every 7 days when they restock for desired ingredients and sell off the ones you don't need from foraging.

I am done now with book 2 and startet with book 3 already. I turned around and went back to finalize the Secrets of Fathamurk first of all. I had the feeling that I found more Willow Bark and Ambergris there, but if you say the location doesn't matter it was maybe just luck. But what definately makes a difference is the foraging skill. I didn't use the foraging rings anymore, and I found much more useful things this way.

So I was actually a fighter with some skills in Alchemy and Foraging, harden armor was a nice benefit for example (but one for which you need Ambergris as well). At the end I would say Foraging Skill 5-9 is absolutly enough for a Fighter in book 2, you shouldn't have more.

After I finished The Secrets of Fathamurk I had 1-2 additonal Level-Ups and found a lot of usefull loot there, so the Tauraxs at the official ending werent' a big problem anymore.

Thanks!