Editing Herb Gathering Guide

:For other gathering guides, see [[Gathering Guides]].
:For other guides, see Guides.

==Introduction==
Potion Making is a very important skill for Milletians: Restoration potions are useful but expensive, and only sold up to 30s; It's a necessity for those looking to use an Ego as it can be used to craft Ego Repair Potions and Spirit Digestive Elixirs; It can be used to make Tendering potions to allow for easier skill training; and is useful for various other purposes.  However, one sticking point for newer players are where each type of herb can be located.  This guide will held nudge newer players into the best means of herb gathering to suit their needs.

==Herbalism==
=== How to Obtain ===
Anyone looking to get into Potion Making will quickly realize that herb picking is a very annoying, time consuming endeavor due to the low success rates of picking even the most basic of herbs.  Herbalism is a big aid as not only will it make it easier to gather these herbs, it will also allow you to pick them faster.

Acquiring Herbalism is a simple task for anyone: Simply complete 10 or more Healer House Part Time Jobs, with the 10th-or-later PTJ being at either Dilys in Tir Chonail or Manus in Dunbarton.  Upon completing the part time job, they will send you a quest requesting you to gather one base herb and bring it to them.  With this in mind, it's recommended to do the first 9 part time jobs at Heulfryn in Qilla Base Camp in Iria: He always asks for wool making it consistently easy to complete the part time job, and he will reward players with Holy Water of Lymilark which are incredibly useful for blessing items or for use with the Enchant skill

=== Training Herbalism ===
Thankfully Herbalism is pretty easy to rank up provided you're also ranking up Potion Making.  One thing of note is that Golden Herbs are consistently a requirement from Rank D onwards, making them extremely useful to have in your Homestead.  Something else that might help in the early ranks or for lower level Milletians are Herb Pigs: These pets that can be obtained in Coco's Boutique can give green, red, blue, yellow, gold, and white herbs.

==Types of Herbs and Where to Find Them==
=== Base Herb ===
Used in many recipes, Base Herbs are thankfully extremely common.  You can find them in dungeons, but once you have Herbalism at Rank F, you can find them out in the overworld.  The easiest/best grinding spots for Base Herbs can be found just outside of Chisai Village's entrance in Tir Chonail, or along the southern treeline of Dunbarton.

=== Bloody Herbs, Mana Herbs, Sunlight, and Golden Herbs ===
Each of these herbs are quite commonly found in dungeons and are most commonly used to make HP, MP, Stamina, and Wound potions respectively.

=== White Herbs ===
White Herbs are very useful for Ego related activities and are primarily used for making Spirit Liqueurs or Spirit Weapon Repair Potions.  White Herbs are commonly found in Peaca, but also spawn in Coill Basic, which is a far easier dungeon for newer players(Albeit still difficult).  If Coill Basic is too difficult, then you could always fall back on the Herb Pig!

=== Antidote Herbs ===
Antidote Herbs are useful for making, well, Antidotes.  They sometimes spawn in higher difficulty dungeons, but also spawn in the hallways of Coill Basic and the Imp Forest dungeon in Iria.

=== Poison Herbs ===
Despite Poison Potions not yet being implemented in Aura, Poison Herbs are incredibly useful for making high quality Tendering Potions and Spirit Digestive Elixirs.  You can usually find these in high-difficulty dungeons OR on the third floor of Ciar Anniversary Intermediate or Advance(Which you can obtain dungeon passes for by killing Ancient monsters) where they and Mandrakes are the only potential patches of herbs that can spawn.

=== Mandrakes ===
Last but not least, Mandrakes are a quick and easy way of making all kinds of potions, including: HP/Stamina restoration, Tendering Potions, Spirit Digestive Elixirs, and Skill Production Boost Potions!  Just like Poison Herbs, these can often be found in high-difficulty dungeons or on the third floor of Ciar Anniversary Intermediate or Advance.

==Alternative Means of Obtaining Herbs==
While those are the basic means, there are other ways of obtaining herbs.

=== Homesteads ===
Homesteads are one of the best means for consistent herb gathering and potion making, allowing the player to set up a herb patch for 30 herbs of a specific type along with a certain amount of Homestead Stones: 5 for Basic, 7 for Bloody and Sunlight, and 10 for Mana and Golden.  Setting up herb patches early on in your Homestead can be a very good use of your early Herbalism ranks(and beyond for Golds!) and allow for an easy way of crafting potions on demand.  It's highly recommended to at least set a portion of your Homestead aside for this purpose, even if you only want to make restorative potions.

=== Herb Pig ===
As stated before, Herb Pigs are incredibly useful little guys, especially for newer players: Turning their MP into herbs when they are gathered from, although their Max MP gets lower as they get older.  If you want to gather a lot of herbs with a Herb Pig, it's recommended to spend some time leveling them up so that they'll have a good MP pool even when they get older.  Alternatively, you can use the Mana Tunnel in Iria, which will automatically refill the MP of anyone standing in it very quickly.

=== Fighting ===
While this isn't recommended, it should be noted for completeness that some enemies(Namely ones in Iria) drop herbs.


==Getting the Most Out of Your Gathers.==
When you gather from a herb patch, you get 5 successes before the herb patch dries out and is inaccessible.  However, there are some means of getting more herbs from each patch.

=== Raining ===
First and most simply: When it rains, most gathering spots provide extra success-rolls.  While this doesn't mean much in most dungeons, you can get more successes from gathering Base Herbs in the overworld when it's raining, as well as from Fiodh and Coill dungeons.  It can technically rain in Homesteads too, but there's unfortunately no way of knowing when it is.  There's also the Rain Casting Alchemy Skill, but that is currently unimplemented.

=== Luck ===
Lucky Gathers are an inconsistent -albeit useful- means of getting more herbs, especially later on when you have more resources to expend.  Consider getting a set of gear that raises Luck and using it when needed.

=== Partners ===
The most consistent and useful, yet expensive means of stretching those herb patches out is to get a partner.  Within the Servants Office of the 2nd Floor of Tara Castle, you can purchase a Partner card for 50,000 Pons.  By gifting a Partner gifts(generally food) and paying them on Saturdays, you can increase your favor with them, and at 120 Favor they'll start doubling the resource gathered on a success: 2 Herbs for the price of 1!  At 247 favor, they'll have a chance of tripling it instead.