Master Gatherer / Gold Pan

[Pesky]

It appears I need a Master Gatherer to use the Gold Pan. I can't seem to get a villager past the 75% mark on gathering, despite having them gather 9 of every resource available. The skill meter just isn't increasing. The Lava necklace doesn't have a 'Master Gatherer' skill. What do I do.

[Eimper]

The same thing happens to me, they die before filling up, the collection does not go up

[Pesky]

I had the same question. After some experiements I found that the skill meter is increasing, it just does it so slowly that you can gather 25 items (one gather of every resource on the map) and the meter doesn't increase even one pixel. By starting with a 20 year old villager and working hard I did eventually get them up to 'Master' status at the age of 70 or so. Alternatively you can find the villager who died while you were working on them, reincarnate them by paying lavastones, then continue to increase their skill.

However, it was pointless, because for a step very soon after that, I needed a chief. And that would take so much work I just paid lavastones for a necklace and spun until I got the 'good at everything' skill. And that makes them a master gatherer, so you get both requirements for one.

[Nett118]

I have a 33 year old with master gatherer You have to keep gathering Everything including the apples, fireflies, strawberries, blueberries, rhubarb, everything... I don't know how many times I went around the map. But catching the air is the tricky part and you can make the fire throw the spark sometimes by adding wood from the pile. The fireflies make it easy, don't use the kids to collect them! I hope this helps.
I recently got a gather as a child. once I realized this she was already 9. Since kids can't gather anything but vines and apples that count anyway. I had her start gathering the apples, since I had already gathered the vines with an adult I'm trying to lvl. She is now 11 and I have gotten her gathering from the A of GATHERING to the end of R. Just on apples alone.