Life Skills

If I were only to include the Combat Skills document, life in Project Terra would be very boring. Thus, I’ve added in a whole host of skills under the blanket term of Life Skills! There are quite a few of them, and each one is intricate enough to take a great deal of time to truly master. I don’t expect any one player to earn S Rank in every skill that exists. Heck, that would take actual years! 

The three major categories of Life Skills are Gathering, Refining, and Crafting. More may be added on in the future, but this is what we’ve got so far. Gathering pertains to acquiring raw materials, whether it be from animals or minerals in and on the ground. Refining is the skill associated with transforming those raw materials into items that can be used in Crafting. And, as you might expect, Crafting is the skill of turning refined items into usable pieces of equipment or food.

Super simple, right? No? Well, don’t you worry, you’ll pick it up in no time! I’ll explain the various skills in more detail below, just so everything’s perfectly clear.

Gathering Skills!

Gathering, or collecting metal, wood, plants, etc, earns you a certain amount of EXP per tick. A “tick” occurs each time you successfully complete a Skill-boosting activity. For Gathering, you can earn EXP by either Fishing, Hunting, Farming, Mining, or Lumbering. Each of these skills has its own Rank system, from E Rank to S Rank.

To learn all the animals of Project Terra and see what items can be harvested from them, check out the Animals (Wild & Otherwise) document. To see a complete list of all the herbs and their uses, read Herbs & Alchemy.

How much EXP you earn via Gathering is entirely dependent upon the quality of the material you gain.

• Common - 1 EXP

• Uncommon - 2 EXP

• Rare - 3 EXP

• Mythic - 5 EXP

• Legendary - 8 EXP

As you increase your relative Gathering Skill Rank, you will gain more items per hour, thus increasing the amount of EXP you gain.

• E & D Rank gathers 1 item per hour

• C Rank gathers 2 items per hour

• B Rank gathers 3 items per hour

• A Rank gathers 4 items per hour

• S Rank gathers 5 items per hour

That’s pretty much it for the Gathering Skills! I promise you, it’s a lot more time-consuming and rewarding than it might seem on paper. Take the plunge, and see for yourself! Go down into the mines, or swing an axe at a tree! Just see how much fun it is to gather materials!

Up next is - you guessed it - Refining! 

Refining Skills!

Refining an item refers to the process of using two lower-grade items to create 1 higher-grade, usable item. For example, you could refine 2 [Wood] into 1 [Plank], or smelt 2 [Iron Ore] into 1 [Iron Ingot]. The Refining skills are Smelting, Purifying, Weaving, Carpentry, and Paper Production.

As with Crafting, each of the relative Refining skills gains you EXP for the appropriate skill, which will govern how many items you can refine per hour.

• E Rank can create 1 refined item per hour

• D Rank can create 2 refined items per hour

• C Rank can create 3 refined items per hour

• B Rank can create 4 refined items per hour

• A Rank can create 5 refined items per hour

• S Rank can create 5 refined items per hour

  • S Rank can also refine 1 item into 1 item, thereby eliminating waste.

Each time you refine an item, there is a slight chance that the finished product may be upgraded to a higher quality. The odds of each tier increase are listed below:

• Common to Uncommon - 25%

• Uncommon to Rare - 25% chance

• Rare to Mythic - 5% chance

• Mythic to Legendary - 1% chance

The EXP you gain is determined by item quality, yet again.

• Common - 2 EXP

• Uncommon - 3 EXP

• Rare - 5 EXP

• Mythic - 8 EXP

• Legendary - 13 EXP

Nearly every item you create by Refining is used in Crafting to create a finished item or piece of equipment. The only exception is refined Wood, which is detailed further below in the document.

Crafting Skills!

Crafting is the slowest of the 2 skills, comparatively speaking. Whereas Gathering earns 1 raw material per hour, and Refining creates 1 item out of 2 raw materials per hour, Crafting takes all those materials and produces 1 item per hour (at base). Thus, the Crafting skills earn extra experience, which can be achieved via Blacksmithing, Woodworking, Herbology (Spice Production, Distilling, and Alchemy), Cooking, and Spellcrafting (Rune Smithing, Spell Page Crafting, and Enchanting)!

Each Crafting rank allows you to create a certain number of items per hour, as well as potentially create extra items or even dismantle created items back into refined materials!

• E Rank crafts 1 item per hour

• D Rank crafts 1 item per hour

  • 5% chance to create an extra item

• C Rank crafts 1 item per hour

  • 10% chance to create an extra item

• B Rank crafts 1 item per hour

  • 20% chance to create an extra item

  • Dismantling an item returns 50% of used materials

• A Rank crafts 2 items per hour

  • 50% chance to create an extra item

• S Rank crafts 2 items per hour

  • 80% chance to create an extra item

  • Dismantling an item returns 100% of used materials

  • Each item crafted that increases in quality has a 5% chance to increase in quality again.

Whenever you finish Crafting an item, there is a slight chance that the item's quality will increase from the refined materials you put into it. The chances for each tier are listed below:

• Common to Uncommon - 20% chance

• Uncommon to Rare - 10% chance

• Rare to Mythic - 2% chance

• Mythic to Legendary - 1% chance

The EXP you gain after you finish Crafting an item is determined by its quality (of course).

• Common - 5 EXP

• Uncommon - 8 EXP

• Rare - 13 EXP

• Mythic - 21 EXP

• Legendary - 34 EXP

Miscellaneous Skills!

That’s right! Because I didn’t feel that there was enough for you to do already, there are also skills not directly related to Gathering, Refining, or Crafting! For now, there are only two (Construction and Trade), but I may add more in future updates. For now, let’s just get into what these skills entail.

Construction

Construction is a bit of a… vague skill. It’s definitely a skill that needs to be added for the sake of continuity, but I struggled for some time to define it clearly enough that it is both logical and practical.

For a start, the Construction skill has no ranks. The difficulty of a construction project is based on the uniqueness of its design. So, at the start, every player will have one blueprint (Small House) and will unlock further blueprints either by learning or finding them.

Trade

Trade is a miscellaneous skill I’m introducing into the system as a reward for those who choose to embrace commerce and trade in their lives while playing Project Terra. Earning Trade EXP and increasing your Trade Rank give several rewards for traders and merchants, or even those who craft their base materials!

1 EXP is gained per Yemon in profit (Sale Value - Cost of Acquisition)

• E Rank (0 EXP Required)

• D Rank (1,000 EXP Required)

  • 10% discount on items purchased from Terrians

  • 5% increase in Base Item Value

• C Rank (10,000 EXP Required)

  • 15% discount on items purchased from Terrians

  • 10% increase in Base Item Value

• B Rank (100,000 EXP required)

  • 20% discount on items purchased from Terrians

  • 15% increase in Base Item Value

• A Rank (500,000 EXP Required)

  • 25% discount on items purchased from Terrians

  • 20% increase in Base Item Value

• S Rank (1,000,000 EXP Required)

  • 30% discount on items purchased from Terrians

  • 25% increase in Base Item Value

You’ll notice that I’ve mentioned Base Item Value a few times. Well, it’s very simple. Because I know that some players will attempt to powerlevel or cheat their Trade Skill to S Rank, each item has a set base value. Regardless of what you sell items for, you will never achieve more profit than what the Base Item Value allows.