Idlescape - Basic Gathering Guide (Mining, Foraging and Fishing)

Gathering Guide for New Players

The three basic gathering skills in Idlescape are Mining, Foraging, and Fishing, all of which produce various resources used in the other different skills in the game. You can click on the (i) icon on any of the zones to see what kind of resources they provide as well as yield and any specific requirements.

In order to access the later zones in each skill, you’ll need to increase your base level in each skill. There are two types of levels for each skill; Your base level, which is increased by doing actions and earning experience, and your effective level, which is your base level plus any bonuses from gear and tools. Your time per action in each zone can be reduced by increasing your effective level and Enchantments.

Tools and Gear

Each gathering skill has tools, which are Pickaxes for Mining, Axes for Foraging, and Tackle Boxes for Fishing which can be Augmented to further increase your effective level. Each gathering skill also has a gear set they can benefit from that come pre-enchanted and increase your effective level when Augmented. Each skill has a Legendary end game tool, such as the Dwarven RockSmasher for Mining.

Mining Equipment:

Bronze Pickaxe: Adds 10 to your effective mining level when determining speed.
Iron Pickaxe: Adds 20 to your mining level when determining speed.
Mithril Pickaxe: Adds 30 to your mining level when determining speed.
Adamantite Pickaxe: Adds 40 to your mining level when determining speed.
Runite Pickaxe: Adds 50 to your mining level when determining speed.
Stygian Pickaxe: Adds 60 to your mining level when determining speed.
Dwarven Rocksmasher: A legendary mining tool using lost dwarven technology.
Bronze Hatchet: Adds 10 to your effective foraging level when determining speed.
Iron Hatchet: Adds 20 to your foraging level when determining speed.
Mithril Hatchet: Adds 30 to your foraging level when determining speed.
Adamantite Hatchet: Adds 40 to your foraging level when determining speed.
Runite Hatchet: Adds 50 to your foraging level when determining speed.
Stygian Hatchet: Adds 60 to your foraging level when determining speed.

Foraging Equipment:

Bronze Hatchet: Adds 10 to your effective foraging level when determining speed.
Iron Hatchet: Adds 20 to your foraging level when determining speed.
Mithril Hatchet: Adds 30 to your foraging level when determining speed.
Adamantite Hatchet: Adds 40 to your foraging level when determining speed.
Runite Hatchet: Adds 50 to your foraging level when determining speed.
Stygian Hatchet: Adds 60 to your foraging level when determining speed.
The Grovekeeper: A legendary foraging tool. It appears to actually be alive.

Fishing Equipment:

Fishing Net: A rough net assembled from branches. Used as part of tackleboxes and other fishing gear.
Fly Fishing Rod: String on a stick. Used as part of tackleboxes and other fishing gear.
Cage: An iron cage. Used as part of tackleboxes and other fishing gear.
Harpoon: A barbed spear. Used as part of tackleboxes and other fishing gear.
Feather: Feather, from a chicken most likely. Useful for making ranged ammunition.
Fish Oil: Ew, slimy. Should make logs burn longer or make cooking faster, though!
Novice Tacklebox: A beginner’s novice tacklebox designed to be used by children. Not much good to catch anything large.
Basic Tacklebox: A basic fishing tacklebox aimed for use by hobbyists and amateurs for basic fishing adventures to the local river or pond.
Advanced Tacklebox: An advanced fishing tacklebox for those who’ve gotten more than their toes wet in fishing.
Pro Tacklebox: The pro fishing tacklebox has nearly everything you could possibly need to catch fish.
Supreme Tacklebox: A supreme fishing tacklebox rife with all the bits and bobs a master fisherman would need to fish up just about anything.
Ocean’s Embrace: The origin of this mythical equipment is lost to history but there is no doubt regarding its power. Enhances ancient fishing.
Earthworm Bait: A tiny lil’ earthworm.
Fat Nightcrawler Bait: A big ol’ nightcrawler.
Glowbug Bait: A small glowbug.
Shrimp Tail Bait: The tail of a shrimp.
Fish Guts Bait: Some fish guts. Ew.
Smelly Meat Bait: Some smelly, probably not rotten, meat.
Hardened Hook Bait: A hook designed to make reeling in big catches easier.
Alluring Lure Bait: A shiny lure designed to entice even the most wary catches.
Writhing Tentacle Bait: An ancient writhing tentacle that reacts when you poke it. Enhances ancient fishing.
Mysterious Bait: Who knows what effects using this bait would have? Each and every one of them is unique! Each bait has between +50 and +200 to a random fishing stat.
Fisherman’s Smock: A smock for fishing! You can already feel it making your tools stronger.
Fisherman’s Bucket Hat: A hat for fishing! You can already feel it making your reflexes sharper.
Fisherman’s Waders: Waders for fishing! You can already feel it making your ability to bait fish stronger.

Skilling Shards

Every five(5) minutes you spend gathering, no matter the zone, will give you a skilling shard for the corresponding skill. These shards can be used to craft gear for their respective gathering skill, as well as used in Augmenting of the gear. Additionally, they can be used to craft parts for each Skill’s Legendary Tool.

Treasure

Each of the gathering skills has a chance per action to drop an openable treasure box, which are Geodes for Mining, Bird Nest’s for Foraging, and Sunken Treasures for Fishing. These also have a chance to be a Greater/Ancient variant as well, which hold better rewards and parts for each ones respective Legendary Tool. The chance to obtain these can be increase with the Enchantment “Naturalist”.

Dangerous Encounters

The last zone in each gathering skill has a chance per action to give you a Dangerous Encounter. When this happens you’ll receive a delay to your next action as you fight a monster that differs per zone. Upon a successful encounter, you will receive loot from the monster and a reduced delay, however upon failure, you’ll receive no loot and an increased delay. Your success chance can be raised based on your current gear and its augment levels.

Foraging and Fishing Nodes

Unlike Mining, Foraging and Fishing work off of a node system. What this means is that your first action in each skill will “search for a node” before it starts gathering actions. Once that node is found, you’ll have a number of actions on that node before it is used up and it will look for a new node. Some Foraging nodes and items are hidden behind Enchantments (Like Nature), while some Fishing nodes and items are hidden behind Rarity, which can be increased with Tackle Boxes and Bait.

What Сan You Сatch?

Shrimp: An ingredient for cooking and bait.
Anchovy: An ingredient for cooking and bait. In what scape would these look like blue shrimp?
Trout: An ingredient for cooking and bait. The fisherman’s participation award.
Salmon: An ingredient for cooking and bait. Not going up any rivers anymore.
Lobster: An ingredient for cooking. Raw Lobster!
Tuna: An ingredient for cooking. Tuna Tuna Tuna
Shark: An ingredient for cooking. A big toothy fish. It’s a fish, right?
Megalodon: An ingredient for cooking. A monstrously large shark with incredibly tough meat.
Ancient Lobster: An ingredient for cooking. A mean looking and monstrously heavy lobster. It’s definitely a lot older than you are.
Tentacle Meat: An ingredient for cooking and bait. A massive chunk of ancient rubbery meat torn from some sort of tentacled monster.
Huge Tuna: An ingredient for cooking. A huge tuna!
Seaweed: An ingredient for cooking. Smells real bad.
Magnetic Minnow: An ingredient for cooking. It didn’t even bite the hook, it just got stuck to it.
Tigerfish: An ingredient for cooking. Mean looking and strong to boot!
Slippery Eel: An ingredient for cooking. Slippery and oily!
Great White Shark: An ingredient for cooking. A deadly creature to be sure.
Hammerhead Shark: An ingredient for cooking. Probably can’t actually be used as a hammer.
Crab: An ingredient for cooking. In some places it’s considered less desirable than lobster, but not here.
Jellyfish: How would it taste on a sandwich, you wonder.
Water Essence: Water Essence can be gathered by fishing.