Quality

Item quality is a property that represents how much better an item is compared to the base version of that item. Higher quality items have better stats in various ways. For example, in the case of armor, a higher quality gives you a higher % mitigation, higher flat mitigation, and lower weight. All items that can be crafted can be made with higher quality resources.

## Quality Resources

Quality resource nodes will always spawn at the same spot, at the same max quality, and they usually spawn in groups. When you look at a quality resource node, you will see a number at the top of your screen, such as 11/34+. The first number is the current quality of the node, and the second number is the max quality. Over time, the current quality will slowly increase until the max quality is reached (Regrowth rate is 10 mins per 1 quality till max). You will only be able to see the quality up to your character level, and if the resource quality is higher than your level you will see a + after the number.

The maximum quality a node can grow to is believed to be 250 but there is no way to see this in game currently due to the level 60 player cap. (Meaning you will always see at most Q 60/60+ on a given node)

## Gathering

With base tools, you will only be able to gather up to quality 1 resources, regardless of the current quality of the node. Once you craft quality 1 tools, the maximum quality you will be able to gather will be affected by both your tool's tier and your tool's quality. Every tool tier will increase the quality cap by 20, and the average between the tool tier and the tool quality will be taken to determine your quality cap. For example, if you have a Q60 woodcutter's hatchet, you will be able to gather Q40 wood, because the average between 20 (T1) and 60 is 40. Furthermore, the quality of the resource you actually gather is based on the average of your tool's quality and the node's current quality. Current quality is capped to 100.

It is possible to identify quality resources from a distance by using the Rangefinder.

## Crafting

As with gathering, the way the quality of crafted items is determined is by averaging. For items crafted without a station, you take the average quality of each different resource being used and average them together. When crafting with a station, the station's quality is also factored into the average.

## Getting Started

1. Gather Q1 wood, stone, fiber, and rupu vine with base tools. (Or just wood and fiber for the alternative route because finding quality rupu vine is dumb: use wood and fiber to make Q1 beat stick > use Q1 beat stick on driftwood to get higher quality wood > average up the Q0 rupu vine with the higher quality wood to make a quality woodworking station > profit)
2. Create a Q1 woodworking station (Q1 wood, Q1 fiber, Q1 rupu vine).
3. Create Q1 wood shafts in the woodworking station.
4. Create a Q1 hatchet and sickle.
5. Create a Q1 fiberworking station.
6. Create Q1 fiber weave.
7. Create Q1 pickaxe.
8. With your quality tools go gather higher quality resources. You will be able to gather Q20 wood/bone, Q20 stone, Q40 fiber/rupu vine/cattail.
9. Keep increasing the average levels of your tools and crafting stations until you can't get any higher.
10. Storing all qualities of resources will be a storage nightmare. Instead, store categories of quality (Q10, Q20, Q30, etc.) and merge resources together into those categories.
11. You can repair high quality items with base items. Craft high quality items once and then drag base items into them to keep them topped up.