I've heard many complain about lack of tutorial. I run through this (in game chat) with every new player that I bring into guild - Not all guilds work the same - so if I state something there that does not agree with YOUR guild, I apologize....


Also, please bear with my 1st grade level (or lower) art skills....I am NO good with artsy stuff (as you will see).

There are 2 ways to gather. First, in the 'wild' (outside village), you will get items that are 2 lvls above or below the lvl of the 'node' (gather spot).


The downside to gathering in the wild is vim waste...Because you will get items 2 lvls above or below, you can end up with a lot of stuff that you DON'T want while trying to get what you DO want... (We call this vim waste.) If you don't know where to find a particular item, please see the link in post #7 at https://forum.villagersandheroes.com/showthread.php?10204-Steam-Guides. Benefit to gathering in wild is that you get a chance at special gathers, which can give you special powers for a short time. There are 2 special gathers for each type of gathering (Plant, Mine, Bug, Fish). These are very powerful and very rare - you can't just go out with the intention of getting them. Best to gather your needed items and let them fall when they do.

Then, there is village gathering. Village gathering has a few advantages - 1. Less vim waste (YAY YAY!!) 2. Cornucopias (FREE vim!!!)

For village gathering, you will first need to get your 'nats' (items gathered in wild). If the node in the village has been filled before, it will take 20 nats to fill the node. There are 2 types of nodes in the village - fruit, shroom, bug - which will allow you to gather EXACTLY what you want at any time - each item has its own node - and then fish, ore, wood - which group types of items together. Our village keeps the fruit, shrooms, bugs full (no harm in it!! and it helps other villagers)...But we keep fish, ore, wood empty - to avoid vim waste. For example - you need Stout Pine... you go to the tree and see that someone has put Seasoned Pine in there. Well, if you put your Stout in there, you can get both stout AND seasoned....if you are only wanting the stout, you're wasting vim on the seasoned....And, well...if you want to waste vim, you can gather in the wild... So, best to leave wood, fish, ore empty - fill and empty as you need it. <Insert time for questions> (since you're reading on forums, you can PM me if you DO have questions - I'll be happy to answer any that you have!)

As you gather in the village, you will get cornucopias...They will drop like gems do. DO NOT THROW THESE AWAY!!!! They are VERY valuable - they give you 15 vim for free!!! Doesn't sound like a lot - but you will come to love these little fellas....

This is a good time to mention lucky cards. If you have not found these gems yet, you are in luck - you'll have a stack waiting for you!! You get 1 lucky card for every day that you log in. If you don't turn them in, don't worry - they stack until you are ready... Click on the crown next to map (Item Shop) and on the left side is a button that says 'Lucky Card'. Click on that - it will open a mini game interface. It's basically a game of luck, but there are no losers. You can get travel runes, Instant Rezzies, HP and Spirit pots, Vim... There's even some powerful lucky cards that will give items X10!!!

You also have charters - these are like 'mini quests' that you can do as many times as you like. Gathering or making the items needed will take the normal vim to do, and you'll get the normal xp. But, once you're done making or gathering those items, you turn into the charter person (you will lose the item) and you'll get xp in THAT gather/craft skill. Turning in the charters takes no vim - so it's kind of like free xp..

Don't forget to look for the Daily crafting/gathering quests. These are like charters that can be done once per day and give LOTS of xp for that particular skill - VERY handy indeed. Charters and the daily quests will give charter tokens that you can use to purchase more vim(or save them up and get the gathering crown - a VERY VERY VERY useful tool!!) and other items. To see what is available, check with the token vendor - he stands next to the king in Ardent Castle.

Also, you can craft bling that will increase your vim regeneration rate and can increase your max vim. The bling is available at every level ending in 0 (10, 20, 30, etc)... You have to have a crafting skill at that level to be able to make it and your toon must have that lvl combat to use it...<for example - if your crafting lvl is 20, you can only make the lvl 10 or 20...If your combat lvl is 15, you can only use the lvl 10.> It is VERY difficult to make - but at higher lvls, it is VERY much worth it!!! There is also bling that will lower the gold cost of crafting.

As you level up your skills, you will get vim given back to you. If you lvl up your highest skill, you'll get additional vim as well. If it's one of the other skills, you'll get a partial refill on your vim... If you notice that you are going to level up, you may want to move on to something else, to get the most of the vim you have (if your vim goes over full because of the 'refill' from levelling, the 'extra' will disappear). It kind of becomes a game to see how you can beat the vim system. There is strategy involved...

Also - there is an 'auto-gather' option. If you turn it on, it will automatically put anything that you gather into your inventory bag, so you don't have to click all over the ground trying to collect stuff. It will only work on gathers and when harvesting your animals in your ranch. It will NOT work for loot when fighting monsters, due to other party members... To turn on Auto Gather, go to menu, settings, then click on the 'options' button...Scroll down to the bottom and put a check mark on the box for Auto Gather.