You might have noticed that each map in the game comes with its own special unique resource gathering spots you can collect materials that provide Research Points from. These locations contain a variety of common to rare materials, and can provide new ingredients for your canteen upon first collection of the rare ones. This is a small list/guide/checklist for you to follow in order to ensure you have acquired all of the ingredients in a given area.

You'll know when you've discovered a rare or special material as your character will suddenly look shocked, then begin digging rapidly, upon which finding the material holding it up into the air where it will flash and make an audio cue. You'll also receive a notification for first time gathers of new items.

So called "Ultra Rare" gathers only spawn when the location you are in has the bonus "Flourishing X" currently active - for example, to collect "Moonlit Mushroom" from a Unique Mushroom colony you'd have to start an Investigation or Expedition to the Ancient Forest while the effect "Flourishing: Mushrooms" was active. It also doesn't appear inside regular unique resource deposits, instead generates a new resource deposit somewhere hidden on the map that will always be guaranteed to contain the special sample.

So, each unique forage resource have their own tier list for determining the value and rarity of the items you can forage out of them. This is the case for most things as well - including bone piles and mining sites. For the unique forages though, they have four tiers:

• COMMON: The most common reward, usually you'll find lots of these, in both Low Rank and High Rank. They're sometimes part of a quest to collect several at once to unlock an ingredient but never provide an ingredient unlock themselves just for collecting.
  
  
• UNCOMMON: Typically pretty common itself, you won't have to hunt long to find one in a forage spot. Always comes with an ingredient unlock. Can be found in Low Rank and High Rank.
  
  
• RARE: These can only be found in High Rank, never Low Rank, and have an associated special animation and audio cue when discovered - finding these for the first time will always unlock an ingredient for the canteen.
  
  
• SPECIAL: These are only found during specific "Locale Events" as explained below, and also always have a canteen ingredient associated with them that unlocks upon discovering them for the first time. These can be found in Low Rank or High Rank, but cannot be foraged from the regular unique forages, but rather an extra unique forage spot will spawn in zones with the required event active, and if found and searched, will provide their specific ingredients/forages.

Each unique resource has its own special resource that only appears under specific conditions, which are event based on the current instance of the zone you are in, and change frequently between trips.

This is known as "Locale Info" for the most part. The easiest way to check what effect is currently underway is to open your map, enter the World Map section and hover over the individual areas, and check what is listed under "Locale Info".

For example:

You can see in that screenshot, there's currently an "Upsurge: Pearl Oysters" effect going on, printed as such under "Locale Info". This means that if I was to fast travel there, the effect would be happening - and the unique forage point for the Pearl Oyster would be visible.

This is the ONLY way to find the one special and final unique forage (and unlock the ingredient) because they cannot be found otherwise - only one spawns, usually in a hidden away area, and foraging from it usually guarantees finding the special unique item from it.

It can be pretty tiring resetting the "Locale Info" over and over again by fast travelling back and forth. There is a better way - Investigations.

Investigations also have a printed "Locale Info" effect in place, and is stored permanently no matter what - at least until that investigation runs out of uses, anyway. See here:

Printed right at the bottom of the Investigation card is the "Locale Info" and you can see it has the effect "Flourishing: Flower Beds" which is required for finding the special Flower Bed in the Ancient Forest region.

So instead of travelling back and forth, consider saving a few Investigations if you see that they have Flourishing/Upsurge effects, for later use. Can save a lot of time and frustration! As long as you select "Return From Quest" you will keep the special forages you collected, so there's no need to complete the Investigation if it's an annoying one I.E a 15 minutes, 1 faint, Elder Dragon hunt or something.

The Ancient Forest has the "Unique Mushroom Colony" and a "Flower Bed" for its unique resource.

UNIQUE MUSHROOM COLONY:

• Common - Gourmet Shroomcap (10 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Exquisite Shroomcap (25 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Exquisite Shroomcap" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Spirit Shroomcap (150 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Spirit Shroomcap" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Flourishing Mushrooms - Moonlit Mushroom (88 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Moonlit Mushroom" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 11, very close to two Nitroshroom spawn points. Start at Northeast Camp 11 and head down, under a crawlspace.

FLOWER BED:

• Common - Sunbloom (12 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Shinebloom (27 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Shinebloom" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Goldbloom (140 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Goldbloom" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Flourishing Flowerbeds - Sunkissed Grass (100 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Sunkissed Grass" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 17, most Northwestern point possible, under a hidden crawspace and inside a Rathian nest across an ivy rope swing.

The Wildspire Wastes has the "Tough-Skinned Fruit" and "Round Cactus" unique resources.

TOUGH SKINNED FRUIT:

• Common - Hardfruit (12 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Rockfruit (24 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Rockfruit" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Wildfruit (145 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Wildfruit" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Flourishing Fruit - Divineapple (90 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Divineapple" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 15 from the Northern most camp right near Diablos' lair, found next to the Grimalkynes, tucked away in a gap at their campsite.

ROUND CACTUS:

• Common - Bauble Cactus (14 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Jewel Cactus (28 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Jewel Cactus" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Kingly Cactus (160 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Kingly Cactus" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Flourishing Cacti - Dragonbloom (84 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Dragonbloom" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 5, at the top of the rock pillar, past the other cacti and ivy resources. Climb to the highest point, right next to the bee hive.

The Coral Highlands has "Conch Shell" and "Pearl Oyster" deposits to gather from.

CONCH SHELL:

• Common - Super Abalone (8 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Choice Abalone (16 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Choice Abalone" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Precious Abalone (105 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Precious Abalone" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Upsurge Conch Shells - Violet Abalone (95 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Violet Abalone" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 9, tucked away near the Mining Deposit/Blastnut resource on your map, under a crawlspace inhabitated by Wrigglers. Tricky to find.

PEARL OYSTER:

• Common - Light Pearl (18 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Deep Pearl (38 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Fortress Crab" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Innocent Pearl (180 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Queen Shrimp" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Upsurge Pearl Oysters - Platinum Pearl (90 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Hot Heart" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 14, found in the very hidden cave, found by climbing the vines just beyond the open area where Legiana likes to land, left of Northest Camp. Climb to the top of the vines and jump!

The Rotten Vale contains the "Ancient Fossil" and "Crimson Fruit" unique resources.

ANCIENT FOSSIL:

• Common - Forgotten Fossil (15 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Legendary Fossil (35 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Emerald Durian" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Mystical Fossil (200 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Large-Horned Turban" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Upsurge Ancient Fossils - Wicked Fossil (110 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Big Bite Burger" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 1, start from the Southeast Camp and work your way right, keeping to the left. Down the slope just before the drop is your prize.

CRIMSON FRUIT:

• Common - Underground Fruit (14 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Tainted Fruit (34 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Tainted Fruit" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Elysian Fruit (190 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Elysian Fruit" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Flourishing Crimson Fruit - Heavenberry (90 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Heavenberry" Ingredient]
  
  
  
  
  + Located in Zone 10 near the shortcut and crawlspace, up a vine climbing point, close to Area 15.

The two unique gathering points in the Elders Recess are "Amber Deposits" and "Beryl Deposits".

AMBER:

• Common - Gaia Amber (30 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - Dragonvein Amber (50 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Wild Chicken" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Ancient Amber (250 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Giga Steak" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Upsurge Amber Deposit - Twilight Stone (190 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Wyvern Filet" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 16, right near the camp, reached by walking through Nergigante's arena. You may have to defeat Nergigante to reach this one, or at least trigger the cutscene before the fight, in order to unblock access to this area.

You must befriend the local Gajalaka tribe before you can access the area the Twilight Stone is located in, so I hope you've been diligent with those tracks!

BERYL:

• Common - Blue Beryl (32 RP)
  
  
• Uncommon - True Beryl (54 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Grand Foie Gras" Ingredient]
  
  
• Rare - Abyssal Beryl (260 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Kaiser Turkey" Ingredient]
  
  
• Special: Upsurge Beryl Deposit - Noahstone (210 RP)
  - [Unlocks "Fiery Seabream" Ingredient]

+ Located in Zone 8, far West side near all the Grimalkyne shortcuts and crystal bridge. Drop down, the Beryl is neatly tucked against the wall, you'll miss it if you didn't know to look back.

MEATS:

• Hot Heart
  
• Big Bite Burger
  
• Wild Chicken
  
• Giga Steak
  
• Wyvern Filet
  
• Grand Foie Gras
  
• Kaiser Turkey

FISH:

• Choice Abalone
  
• Precious Abalone
  
• Violet Abalone
  
• Fortress Crab
  
• Queen Shrimp
  
• Large-Horned Turban
  
• Fiery Seabream

VEGETABLES AND FRUITS:

• Exquisite Shroomcap
  
• Spirit Shroomcap
  
• Moonlit Shroomcap
  
• Shinebloom
  
• Goldbloom
  
• Sunkissed Grass
  
• Rockfruit
  
• Wildfruit
  
• Divineapple
  
• Jewel Cactus
  
• Kingly Cactus
  
• Dragonbloom
  
• Emerald Durian
  
• Tainted Fruit
  
• Elysian Fruit
  
• Heavenberry

That concludes that. If you noticed you had ingredients missing and couldn't figure out what, it's probably one of these - there's a lot of them, 30 across all five zones.

I hope the pictures are alright.

Let me know if there's any way you think I can improve the guide. At the time of making it I didn't know you could disable the HUD for clearer screenshots. I might have to go back and improve them.

Note: I'm not planning on upgrading this for Iceborne, mostly because there's already a billion videos and guides on how to get them already due to the extremely useful Safeguard and Zoomaster skills attached to them. Sorry!