Gathering tool Effects (add (Ore) etc.)

[Naberius]

Gathering tools can have additional effect. One of them is "add Ore" or "Add (General Goods") which apparently "affixes the (X) Category" But that doesn't seem very clear to me.

What does that do ? The item created with those doesn't seem to count as an "ore" (I can't use my Wood cutter's axe as an Ore material to craft something)

It doesn't seem to add "Ore" to the logs I cut with it either...

What does it do?!

[Honorable_D]

Even tools can be used as items in the alchemy system. So things like add ore let you make that tool count as an ore item if you're going to use it to craft something.

As far as making the best tools to gather stuff you ONLY need the gather rate up and the gathering quality up. Remember, you can use the essence to turn the rate up and quality u p into the next level (like L to XL version). Everything else about the tool, even its quality rating doesn't matter when it comes to gathering good things.

[Bobucles]

The tool effects don't change harvesting. They let the tool become a useful ingredient for other things.
In Ryza1 it was a very useful way to transfer unusual traits across ingredient types. In Ryza 2 it's much easier to transfer traits around.

[Bill]

This game is a little different from the previous one with the new essence system. You can only use 2 of the normal elemental essences per item craft.

So what this means is that for the the gathering tools you first want to make them for gathering, so you max out the gathering quality/trait level first then the quantity second. Overall quality doesn't matter since these aren't battle equipment. If you make a second set of gathering equipment just for use as an alchemy ingredient you instead want to skip the trait levels and add the ore, etc.

For creating metal bars/cloths for making weapons/armor always use the essences to create the max level stat increase (ATK+7, etc). Then later you could create some with the others to use as a general ingredient.

I haven't played into the late/post game yet as I am waiting on the rest of the DLC to land but basically in this game you will need to craft 2 or more versions of most of the high level ingredient items like philosophers stone where you maintain and duplicate 2 versions. One with stuff like add magic and another where you added something else like ore or element or effect spread or whatever. FYI on philosophers stone using the essences you can get element value of 9 which might be max and effect spread of 4 (lol) which probably breaks the game. But there is some higher level philosophers stone you can craft later that might be even better.

If you keep up with crafting high quality items before you even reach the final ruins leading to the final boss it should be easy to craft anything as level 999 if you start from the lowest level recipe. So the most useful light essence is the last one that lets you add more ingredients IF you start from a lower level recipe. You would need to make 8 of them at a minimum to make the end-game weapons/armor to add the most amount of metals/clothes into the recipes. However due to the ease with which you can get to quality 999 the other light essences aren't as useful in the second half of the game unless you are lazy and skip the lower level recipe.

Note you can craft the highest level armor before reaching the final area, but you have to wait till the final area to craft the highest weapons (which you don't need to kick the butt of the easy final boss even on hard difficulty). However you will probably get something like supped up philosophers stones post-final boss so you might be able to go back and make a stronger post game armor that would help help against the later DLC bosses.

Also note that you basically need to get to the final area to increase the blacksmiths level and also there will be DLC traits that we can't get yet so you have to wait till post-game/dlc to craft the best equipment. (just like the last game)

[Naberius]

Thanks !