General

Don’t forget to make sure your Particle Level of Detail (Options -> Display -> Particle Effects) is set to maximum and that you have a copy of Ripchi’s Collection Tracking Sheet to hand. If your tradeskill level is 44 or higher, you may also wish to invest in the tinkered Gnomish Divining Rods which can be used to track the shinies within range of you if you get really stuck.

The level of the collection in your journal is not always consistent with the level needed to collect the items, so collection tiers here are defined by the tier of the zone in which they are found. Thus, although both the butterflies in the Qeynos newbie zones and the Antonican Ficus Leaf collection in Antonica are both marked as level 15 collections, I have sorted them by zone and I discuss butterflies in Tier One Collections and Antonican Ficus Leaves here in Tier Two Collections.

Tier Two Collections

• Chipped and Scuffed Shards
• Cracked Bone Fragments
• Grubs
• Forest Beetles
• Erudin Coins
• Antonican Ficus Leaves
• Halas Coins
• Commonlands Shrub Leaves
• Beetles: Plain, spotted, striped
• Gnoll Ears andTails

Collection Locations

The most difficult quest to complete is cracked bones. The bones tend to be in specific areas, with cracked orc bones only available in Wailing Caves and cracked gnoll bones only available in Blackburrow. This is a bugger of a collection and quite honestly is probably not worth the time. Initial cracked bone fragments should go into racial bone collections as they are more valuable to complete.

Forest Beetles and Grubs are found all over Greater Faydark. A comfortable place to collect these is around the Spire Shadow Outpost just before the Steamfont zone, ranging down to the spires where you’ll need to watch for the level ten skeletons. Higher levels may wish to hunt in the area randing from Emerald Lake to New Tunaria which has two or three shinies to harvest but the mobs are level 21. Keep an eye out for the Goliath Beetle and the Fat Grub which are used in the Faydwer Expert collection and thus you will need twice. These are also the best selling from this zone for obvious reasons.

Antonican Ficus Leaves and Erudin Coins are both found in Antonica, along with scuffed and chipped shards and cracked bone fragments. The leaves and coins are said to be more predominant in the area around the two towers ranging from the farm fields outside of North Qeynos gate up to the mender’s hut. The Ficus leaf collection is difficult to complete because of the sparsity of the question marks and the amount of different collection items on the same node. However, the Ficus leaves now also spawn in Blackburrow as an uncommon collection. As there are two to three ?’s in the top level of Blackburrow, this is probably the easier place to complete this collection.

Halas Coins are found in Blackburrow dungeon in the north of Antonica. You can collect the set fairly quickly at the top level just by running around the initial outdoor grassy area – just watch those tree stumps which are not always what they seem (I fell for that gnollish trick in the original Everquest, too). Antonican Ficus and Gnoll bones of all types are also available here.

Commonland Shrub Leaves is comparatively trivial leaf collection as there is a safe spawn point around the druid ring which routinely awards them. It is a safe area for all as long as you do not wander too far from the standing stones.

Plain, spotted and striped beetles can be found in the Wailing Caves, a dungeon in the northeast of the Commonlands. The mobs start at level 14 and you can collect the sets at the top level. If the mobs are grey to you, it may be quicker to drop down to the very bottom. See the separate post covering Collections in the Wailing Caves.

Gnoll Ears and Gnoll Tails are collections from the Splitpaw Saga. There are three question marks in the Splitpaw Upper Tunnels leading down to the den of the Splitpaw gnolls. In addition, most instances will generally have a shiney or two inside. None of these respawn, so to complete these collections, you will need to keep changing instances to find more. The good news is that because they are instanced, you can reduce the level of the zone (down as low as 20) by mentoring a low level character and zoning into the instance to set the mob levels to your mentored level. Then unmentor and you will find you can explore the area in relative peace.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

One of the latest additions has been red shinies: collections that are only visible to Master tradeskillers wearing the Earring of the Solstice, part of the tradeskill epic reward. There are eleven collections, all of which are accessible at low adventure level, although collecting the items is much much easier if you don’t have to dodge the mobs. Each collection rewards a one-of-a-kind furniture item.

The red shinies are simply ?’s to be gathered, like the standard collections seen in adventure zones, except you must be wearing your Earring of the Solstice in order to see them and the shiny / glowy color around them is red.

Before you start, make sure that your Particle Level of Detail is set to max (Particle Effects can be found under Options → Display) so that you can see the ?’s from as far away as possible.

The collection pieces are lore so you can’t stock up on them. However, you don’t have to take collection items you don’t need – if you choose not to loot the item, the ? will fade in two minutes and a new one will appear in a separate location. However, if you are actively hunting for shinies it is faster to clear them.

You can use Gnomish Divining Rods (made by tinkers) to lead you to the location of a shiny near you although you can’t tell if the node is a standard one or a red tradeskill shiny; the tracking display simply shows a ?. However, as you need to have your Earring of the Solstice equipped for the red shinies to show up on the tracking window, you can check the ?’s that show up by unequipping the earring and seeing which ?’s disappear.

You will find these collections in your journal alphabetically under “Tradeskill:”, below the various Tome collections.

Locations

There is one collection per zone, in the following zones: Down Below and Thieves Way, Enchanted Lands, Barren Sky, Fens of Nathsar, Loping Plains, Steamfont, and Maj’Dul.

There are two collections in Greater Faydark, one in the nursery area and the other in Tunare’s Glade.

There are two collections with no-trade harvests: one in Zek and the other in Lavastorm. Both of these reward functional crafting stations.

Under the City

The Tradeskill: Slime Samples collection can be found in the dark and manky sewers underneath Freeport and Qeynos: Down Below and the Thieves Way. All the city zones and villages have manhole covers that lead to these under-city zones. Both zones have the same collection pieces. As there are no other collections in these zones, the Gnomish Divining Rods are particularly useful for tracking them down. The red question marks appear to be distributed fairly evenly around the zones but if you are under level 10 in adventure levels, you may have difficulty.

Beware of alligators, too. It seems Qeynosians flush baby ones down their toilets!

Once you have collected all six pieces, hand in for a choice of housepets that some might describe as square.

Enchanted Lands

The Tradeskill: Wooden Salvage collection can be done quite safely along the shore on either side of the docks after you zone in from Nektulos Forest. Unfortunately, this appears to be the only place in Enchanted Lands where the question marks spawn. That means that although there appear to be two or three nodes at a time, if there is more than one person collecting, it can get ugly, fast. If you can’t collect these outside of peak hours, you may wish to wait a few weeks until they are less popular.

There seems to be a fairly consistent node within a short range of Garby Gingham Gigglegibber, the goblin “profit” of Bristlebane at 74,-1,23 so that could be a good spot to park yourself for semi-afk foraging while you watch a film or (shhhhh) log in from work.

The reward is not quite “simply a piece of furniture” – but I wouldn’t recommend trying to look inside. Who knows what you might find?

Barren Sky

The Tradeskill: Piano Keys collection is found up high in the Kingdom of Sky. This is the most difficult area for those tradeskillers who are low in adventure levels. You can not see the map until you’ve traveled around but I would recommend the following route:

Go to Thundering Steppes (or Nektulos Forest) and use the spires to port up to Barren Sky directly. You’ll arrive on Whisperwind Isle where you can find red shinies along the edges of the island near the ridgestone guardians on either side. Watch their pathing and you should be able to collect them without going too close.

The Isle of Awakening has the occasional ? on the edges near the clouds and more commonly on the path leading to the Bonemire Teleport. If you can get to the teleporter, you can collect the shinies by standing around the teleporter and picking up the ?’s which spawn in the local area. The good news is that this collection only has five pieces so is relatively quick to complete compared to the others.

The reward is a most appropriate musical box, offering you the classics of Norrath.

Fens of Nathsar

The Tradeskill: Chart Fragments collection is in one of the highest level zones but also probably the safest for the pure crafter to collect – especially since travel to the Fens should be easy, after completing the tradeskill epic. There are 10 chart fragments in total which can be found all around the outside Bathezid’s Watch and on the path leading up to it. This area is completely safe to all who have Bathezid’s Watch faction. The only shinies here are the red ones so gnomish divining rods are particularly useful. Bear in mind it’s a large area – if it comes up blank you may want to run around with the tracking window open until you get into range of one.

You can also follow along the path north of Sathir’s Span and you’ll see them, both on the path and below it. This seems to be a higher concentration of nodes but is also more dangerous as you have to keep an eye out for roaming mobs.

I know a woman who does jigsaw puzzles and then frames them once she’s finished. The reward for the Chart Fragment collections made me think of her.

Loping Plains

The Tradeskill: Bar Glasses collection requires seven pieces. Loping Plains can be quite frightening to explore. The most important thing to remember is not to run off in a panic. Always stick to the path and head back to the village if you can.

You’ll find the red shinies all along the paths here – there seems to be a large concentration alongside the path leading from Greater Faydark to Somborne Village. You can find them more rarely on the the westward path that exits out of the north side of Somborn, so if you are finding it difficult to avoid aggro, you could park yourself there and wait – although this is already proving to be a popular spot.

A place to put your glass is the reward for collecting the set.

Steamfont

The Tradeskill: Fae Fireflies collection only has five items to collect.

Red shinies are scattered around Steamfont along the paths and on wall and crater edges. Mobs are fairly well spaced apart: use the Earring of the Solstice to get your run speed up and dash along the paths looking for the ?’s. There are a good concentration at the area leading to the drakes in the south east of the zone. The Gnomish Divining Rod is very useful here – remember to swap out the earring in order to check which ?’s are the red ones.

The reward is reminiscent of the glass jars we used to put fireflies in when I was a child. Just make sure there are air-holes at the top.

Greater Faydark

The Tradeskill: Faydwer Flowers collection is a set of six flowers which can be found around the nursery in Greater Faydark. This is the newbie area for Kelethin in the far north of the zone. Standard collection glowies do exist here but are not that common, so it can be beneficial to use a Gnomish Divining Rod. There appear to be two red shinies up at any given time and they can range from the entrance to the nursery area to the beach. There are low level aggro mobs around the pond and the edges of the zone, so tradeskillers without adventure levels should take care.

The reward is a house item that will light up your home in the most enchanting way.

The Tradeskill: Tunare’s Glade Leaves is fairly self-explanatory for a change. You’ll be collecting six leaves in Tunare’s Glade, a small area on the south side of Greater Faydark – almost a direct vertical line down from the nursery. Finding sparklies here can be frustrating because of the curvature of the leaves and the vines covering the ground. Standard collection glowies are common here, making the Gnomish Divining Rod less useful unless you happen to be looking for the tier 2 grub and forest beetle collections as well. Mobs in this area are non-aggro so there is no danger to tradeskillers roaming the area as long as they remain within the glade.

The reward is a house item which makes artistic use of the leaves which you have collected.

Maj’Dul

The Tradeskill: Peacock Club Relics collection can be found scattered around the jewel of the desert, Maj’Dul. There are six pieces in the collection. The pieces are tradeable but lore. If you attempt to gather a ? and you already have the item on you, you can leave it to fade away which takes a few minutes. However, it is quicker to destroy the item in your inventory and gather the ? so that a new one will spawn as soon as possible.

There are no other ?’s in the zone so the Gnomish Divining Rod (tinker-made item which shows all harvests in the zone) is very useful for tracking them down.

Maj’Dul is a Tier 6 city zone which can can be reached via the carpet at the Sinking Sands dock. You’ll find a carpet to take you to Sinking Sands at the docks at Qeynos Harbor, East Freeport, Neriak, Gorowyn and Butcherblock as well as at the Wanderlust Camp in Darklight Woods and in Kelethin at the platform at the ramp.

The reward is a house item which could be useful in a ticklish situation.

Zek

The Tradeskill: Deathfist Forge Scraps collection can be found in Zek, the Orcish Wastes. This is a tier four adventure zone which is reached via a bell on the Thundering Steppes dock. You will have to venture out of the docks area and into the Orc Encampment to find the shinies. This is a dangerous area but if you are patient and you stick to the paths, you can succesfully complete this quest on a character with a low adventure level. If you run through the wooden doors to the protected area, you should find the guards will help you with any overly friendly orcs you may have encountered in your travels. I was able to complete the quest on a low-level character in under an hour with only three deaths.

If you are happy traveling further north in the zone, you will find more red shinies scattered about the area up to approximately the middle of the zone. There do not appear to be red shinies in the northern half of Zek.

The collection requires six items to complete and the reward is a fully functional Blood Iron Forge which can be used to create the items from Deathfist Citadel recipes.

Lavastorm

The Tradeskill: Sootfoot Forge Scraps collection is based in Lavastorm.

This is a tier five adventure zone which is reached via a bell on the Nektulos Docks. In order to reach the initial area which contains red shinies, you will need to follow the docks to the beach and head north-east to go through the tunnel to the goblin area. DO NOT TURN LEFT AS YOU COME OFF THE BRIDGE – there are high level aggressive monsters there and no red question marks for harvesting. The route through the tunnel is safe but once you reach Najena’s Valley on the other side, you will have to beware of aggressive goblin workers. You can find the shinies scattered around this valley and in the Dagger Spire’s Pass area to the east. You can use the horse route between Najena and the Goblet of Ro to scout out the area looking for red shinies as you are safe as long as you stay on the mount. I did not see any red shinies north of Dagger Spire’s Pass.

The collection requires six items to complete and the reward is a fully functional Sootfoot Forge which can be used to create the Sootfoot Magma items from the recipe book quested in Lavastorm.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It takes some time to complete low-level collections but there are some clear hotspots that can help you on your way and you’ll get lots of extras that you can sell on for a profit … or hand to your alts, collections being the best power-levelling system in the game.

Keeping track of collections is easy with Ripchi’s Collection Tracking Sheet – I have a print-out for each of my characters and simply tick things off as I find them. It also includes all the tome collections, with waypoints where appropriate.

Before you start, make sure that your Particle Level of Detail is set to max (Particle Effects can be found under Options -> Display) so that you can see the ?’s from as far away as possible.

You don’t have to take collection items you don’t need – if you choose not to loot the item, the ? will fade in two minutes and a new one will appear in a separate location. However, if you are actively hunting for shineys it is faster to clear them.

Tier 1 collections

These are the collections that you would find in tier one zones. The levels associated with collections are not always logical (Butterflies are in the newbie zones but marked as level 15 the same as the Antonican collections) so the actual collection level will not necessarily match the tier listing.

• Shells
• Feathers
• Chipped Shards
• Scuffed Shards
• Moths
• Butterflies

Shells and Feathers were initially only found on the newbie islands but can now also be found in specific adventure yards. You can find feathers in The Sprawl and Oakmyst Forest and shells in Sunken City and Forest Ruins.

The global Tier 1 collections are chipped and scuffed shards and shattered bones: these are found in every newbie zone with the exception of the Kelethin Nursery. Greater Faydark starts with tier two collections, there are no tier one collectons there.

Moths and Butterflies are a total of four collections each. You need four different colors of each type (plain, spotted, striped) and then each collection can be used for a further final collection Moths are found in evil areas: the adventure yards of Freeport, Darklight Wood and Timomous Deep. Butterflies are for the good-for-nothing-aligned characters and can be found in Qeynos adventure yards. If the zones are gray, the Caves is probably my second favorite of the Qeynos zones – if you are low-level then Forest Ruins is easier to manage.

Oakmyst Forest is a great zone for shards and butterflies but if there are more than a few people collecting the question marks you may wish to move on. It can get crowded fast.

Timorous Deep is my favorite zone for shards and moths. The beach around the Prophet of the Tribunal at -289,-2,-154 is a great spot because it has two to three spawns at a time and it’s completely safe. I left Paxmar parked there while I watched a film, I simply cleared the shineys every 10 minutes and by the end of it she had quite the moth collection going. Darklight Woods also seems to have abundant nodes so I think I’d go there over the Freeport adventure yards where spawns seem a bit sparser.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.