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Gathering

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Gathering in Illyriad

There are several different types of gathering in Illyriad. This guide covers all gathering methods, from basic caravan harvesting to specialist gathering.

1) Caravan Harvesting (aka basic gathering)

Caravans can be used to gather goods outside of your city walls.

Minimum researches required: Haggling

Buildings required: Marketplace

Units required: Caravans (created in Marketplace)

Items that can be gathered this way:

  • Food
  • Gold
  • Wood
  • Clay
  • Iron
  • Stone

Carrying capacity: The carrying capacity of your caravans is determined by your depth of research in the Improved Loading line of research. Can harvest up to 3000 each after research and upgrades.

Gathering speed: The gathering speed of your caravans is determined by your depth of research in the Chain Gang line of research

Limits: The number of caravans you can have in your town is determined by the level of your marketplace and the depth of your research in the Trading line of research

2) Cotter Harvesting (aka advanced gathering)

Cotters are used to collect certain special items outside of your city.

Minimum researches required: Haggling, Cotters, Foraging, Grape Picking

Buildings required: Marketplace, Cottage

Units required: Cotters (created in Marketplace)

Items that can be gathered this way:

  • Grapes (requires Grape Picking research){ width="px"}
  • Herbs (requires Foraging research){ width="px"}
  • Hides (requires Foraging research){ width="px"}
  • Minerals (requires Foraging research){ width="px"}
  • skyfallen.png Skyfallen stones (give skysplinters skysplinters.png and sometimes rarer and valuable resources)
  • lost equipment (requires Scavenging research){ width="px"}

Carrying capacity: Each cotter can carry 100 items

Gathering speed:

  • Each cotter will harvest at a rate of 5 per hour (7 per hour for humans)
  • Will gather until their inventory is full, or they have exhausted the resource
  • Harvest time can be up to 24 hours (skysplinters can take 4 days)

Limits: The number of cotters you can have is determined by the number of cottages you have in your town. One cotter can be created per cottage and you can have multiple cottages in your town. If cottages are destroyed, homeless cotters will desert your city at their next opportunity.

3) Specialist Harvesting (aka skinning, herbalism, mining)

Specialist gatherers collect rare resources from throughout the world. All specialist gathering requires Guilds as a prerequisite research, plus two additional researches: one for the building and one for the unit.

Research 1 and building Research 2 Unit Resources Harvest time
Skinner's Guilds Butchery Skinners Animal parts and elemental salts 2 hours
Miner's Guild Geology Miners Rare minerals Varies
Herbalist's Guilds Herbalism Herbalists Rare herbs Varies

Carrying capacity: Each specialist gatherer can carry 1 rare item

Gathering speed: Time it takes for the herbalist/miner/skinner to gather the items is dependent on the rarity of the item and will vary

Limits: The number of herbalists/miners/skinners you can have is determined by the level of their associated guild building, of which you can have multiples in your town

Step by Step Guide to Gathering

  1. Create the type of gatherer unit you'd like to use in your city
  2. Explore the world map for icons that display resources available on those squares (it may be helpful to turn off the map terrain feature to see them better)
  3. Click on the square on the map with a resource icon visible
  4. Choose "harvest resources" and send the appropriate unit to gather the type of resource available
  5. The gatherer unit will then travel to the location and begin harvesting (movement speed to and from gathering squares can be sped up using prestige)
  6. Once they have landed on the square and begun harvesting, you will be able to see precisely which type of item your specialist gatherers (herbalists, miners and skinners) are harvesting on the Trade Movements page and in Notifications
  7. View their progress in harvesting on the Trade Movements page
  8. When they are finished, they will return home
  9. Check your notifications screen for important gathering-related information

Important Gathering Information

Resource Behavior

  • Herbs, rare herbs and grapes are living items - once depleted from a square, they will not return but will spawn elsewhere
  • Minerals and rare minerals live at fixed locations - if depleted, they will respawn at the same square
  • Hides and animal parts appear on squares where animals have been killed and will disappear once depleted. They also expire after 7 days.

Gathering Mechanics

  • Only one set of gatherers (of the same type) can be on a single square at a time
  • Gatherers can be "bumped" off a square by incoming gatherers that arrive after them
  • Gatherers harvest in parallel - sending multiple gatherers to the same square will increase the total harvest rate
  • Interrupted cotters will bring home what items they've completed gathering (rounded down to the last hour)
  • Interrupted specialists (miners/skinners/herbalists) will not bring home any items as they can only carry 1 item at a time
  • Gatherer units can be attacked and killed by hostile armies but can be protected by NAP-ed armies on the same square
  • Send diplomats on squares with resource icons to learn more about the precise type and quantity of resources present

Safety Notes

  • If there are live animals on a square, they will kill incoming cotters or other harvesters
  • Once a harvester is safely on a square, it will not be killed by incoming animals
  • Always check your notification screen for important information about gatherer units including:
  • Interruptions
  • Death notifications
  • Items gathered
  • Information about remaining resources on the square