SWTOR Gathering Guide - How & Where to Gather Crafting Materials
by CelynTheRaven

FJ: I am so pleased to welcome @celyntheraven to the FJ blog! She has put together an awesome SWTOR Gathering Crew Skills Guide. So whether you are a beginner to SWTOR, or need a refresher, I hope you enjoy it! I’ll hand over to Celyn now!
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If your memory is as unreliable as mine, gathering crafting materials in SWTOR can become time consuming and even a bit tedious. So let’s try and make our galactic lives easier, shall we?

As a note, while I will not be mention it in this guide, you can, of course, purchase all crafting materials on the Galactic Trade Network. Though this depends on availability and your funds.

What Are Gathering Crew Skills and How Do I Learn Them?

There are four Gathering Crew Skills in SWTOR:

1. Archaeology
2. Bioanalysis
3. Scavenging
4. and Slicing

You unlock access to Crew Skills as soon as your character reaches their faction’s Fleet. You can learn up to three Gathering Crew Skills, depending on your subscriber status((FJ: F2P/Free-to-Play accounts have one crew skill per character. Preferred accounts have two and subscribers have three. Crew Skills can be unlocked in the Cartel Market, by subscribing for one month. I think, using a referral code from an existing subscriber unlocks one too.)).

Where are the Gathering Crew Skills Trainers?

Crew Skills trainers can be found in the “Stronghold & Crew Skills” wing of the Fleet. Gathering Crew Skills trainers are all located in a room identified by this sign:

Basic training is free and only requires you to interact with the trainer once. Advanced training is available once you reach Crew Skill level 600 and costs an extra 250,000 credits per skill.

Gathering Crew Skills Trainers across the Galaxy

Gathering Crew Skill trainers can also be found on:

• Coruscant: Senate Plaza, Republic only.
• Dromund Kaas: Kaas City, Empire only.
• Ilum: on the Orbital Station.
• Rishi: in Raider’s Cove Trade Port.
• Onderon: Iziz, Republic only.
• Onderon: Royal Hunting Lodges, Empire only.
• Zakuul: Tram Market

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Before We Get Started

Update 6.0 (Onslaught) introduced a new grade of crafting materials which works differently than the others. So I will make a distinction between grades 1 to 10 and grade 11 materials.

There are three quality levels of materials:

• Premium (green)
• Prototype (blue)
• and Artifact (purple)

What Different Gathering Skills Yield

Archaeology, Bioanalysis and Scavenging mostly yield Premium quality materials. Slicing mostly yields Prototype and Artifact materials or credit lockboxes.

While Crafting Supplements do not necessarily fall under the Gathering Skills umbrella they are essential to crafting. I will succinctly cover before we get into the thick of it!
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Acquiring Crafting Supplements

Crafting Supplements are used to craft assembly components, bonded attachments and cell grafts. These are then used to craft more advanced items like pieces of armor, weapons, dyes or war supplies. They have their own category in the Crafting Materials Inventory.

There are three ways you can obtain them:

1. Crew Skill Missions: there is one Crew Skill mission per grade that yields Crafting Supplements upon success.
2. Purchasing them from a Crew Skill Trade Vendor. You can find these on the Fleets and on most planets.
3. Buying them from an Advanced Field Repair Droid. You must unlock this Legacy Character Perk at level 3 for Crafting Supplements to be available for purchase.

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Crafting Materials and Where to Find Them

Satchels of Crafting Materials

Those satchels are a potential loot drop in flashpoints and operations and they have to be rolled for when playing as a group.

You can also find them in various chests located all over the galaxy. But these are often guarded by enemy NPCs. They usually contain grade 11 materials but can sometimes hold lower-grade materials.

Jawa Peddlers

The Jawa Peddlers are three Jawa vendors named Hadiir, Mnek and Izzak who sell crafting materials for Jawa Scraps. You can also purchase gifts to improve companion influence from them.

You can find the Jawas in the Cartel Bazaar area of the Fleets. You may also buy them as decoration vendors for your stronghold.

• Hadiir sells crafting materials of Premium (green) quality
• Mnek sells Prototype (blue) materials
• and Izzar sells Artifact (purple) ones

A fourth Peddler named Fuleesh can be found in the Cartel Bazaar of the Fleets. He can upgrade your Jawa Scraps to a higher quality – at a price.

How to Acquire Jawa Scrap

There are several ways you can obtain Jawa Scraps. The easiest and most efficient way is by deconstructing pieces of equipment.

Jawa Prices of Crafting Materials

The exchange rate for materials with the Jawa Peddlers is related to the materials grade. The price of one piece of material equals its grade except for grade 11 materials;

• 1 piece of Grade 1 material costs 1 Jawa Scrap of the same quality
• 1 piece of Grade 6 material costs 6 Jawa Scraps of the same quality
• But 1 piece of Grade 11 material will cost 200 Jawa Scraps of the same quality.

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Gathering Crew Skill Missions

Crew Skills Missions are missions you can send your companions to during their, and even your, idle time.

They cost a certain amount of credits. The higher the mission grade, the more expensive they are. Missions take a certain amount of time which varies depending on the influence you have with the companion you send.

It is worth noting that the timer does not stop until the mission is completed (or cancelled). So, you can send your companions on various gathering errands while you play another character or don’t play at all.

How Many Companions Can I Send?

The number of companions you can send on crew skill missions depends on your level. The maximum number you can send on missions at the same time is eight. The companions you send become completely unavailable for the time required for the mission. So keep that in mind if you send them on errands while adventuring!

How to Send Your Companions off Gathering

You can access the missions list by opening the Crew Skill window from the drop down menu. Alternatively, press “B” then click on the appropriate skill.

Up to grade 10, Archaeology, Bioanalysis and Scavenging missions yield Premium (green) quality materials only. Slicing yields Prototype (blue) quality materials as well as Artifact (purple) ones on a “critical success”.

Every grade 11 mission for all four skills will yield Premium materials. “Abundant Yield” missions will also earn Prototype materials. “Rich Yield” ones will bring in both Prototype and Artifact materials to your payload.

For each mission grade, there is one mission that yields Crafting Supplements instead of Materials.

What is “Critical Success”?

A mission “critical success” is when your companion performed particularly well during the mission. For Archaeology, Bioanalysis and Scavenging, it means you received a higher than usual amount of materials. For Slicing, it means you receive some Artifact (purple) quality materials along with the usual Prototype (blue) ones. The higher your influence with the companion you send, the higher the chances of a critical success.

It is also possible for your companion to fail their mission and come back empty-handed or with a small amount of Jawa Scraps if the mission you sent them to was a grade 11 one.

Unlocking Higher-Grade Gathering Missions

Crew Skill missions become available as soon as you train in the skill. The more you progress in the skill the more missions, and the higher grade materials, are added to the list:

1. Grade 1 mission unlock at level 1, or as soon as the skill is trained
2. Grade 2 missions unlock at level 80
3. Grade 3 missions unlock at level 160
4. Grade 4 missions unlock at level 240
5. Grade 5 missions unlock at level 300
6. Grade 6 missions unlock at level 350
7. Grade 7 missions unlock at level 400
8. Grade 8 missions unlock at level 450
9. Grade 9 missions unlock at level 500
10. Grade 10 missions unlock at level 550
11. Grade 11 missions unlock at level 600, advanced training is required.

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Planetary Exploration

While you’re out adventuring around the galaxy, you will stumble upon gathering nodes. If you are trained in the appropriate crew skill, you can gather materials from these nodes by scanning them. Both your planetary map and your minimap will show if a node is nearby with a little asterisk indicator.

Bonus Gathering for Bioanalysis and Scavenging

If you are trained in Bioanalysis, you can also gather materials from scanning dead animals and creatures of strong difficulty and higher. The same goes for dead droids if you are trained in Scavenging.

How Much Material You Can Get From a Node

With the exception of grade 11 (level 600 required) nodes, your level in the crew skill only influences the amount of materials you gather from the node. The closer you are to the required level, the more materials you collect. If you scan a grade 11 node while below level 600 in the skill, you will collect a small amount of Jawa Scraps instead.

What Do Gathering Nodes Yield?

Archaeology, Bioanalysis and Scavenging nodes yield crafting materials of Premium (green) quality. Grade 11 nodes for those will always yield materials of Premium. Oftentimes these yield Prototype (blue) and Artifact (purple) quality too.

Slicing nodes yield credit lockboxes and occasionally a crafting schematic or a one-off crew skill mission. Grade 11 Slicing nodes will either yield credit lockboxes or materials, in a similar way to other gathering nodes.

Where Can I Find Grade (X) Gathering Nodes?

Gathering nodes are spread across the galaxy as follows. Please keep in mind that there might be some overlap between planets.

By Grade of Materials

1. Grade 1: Coruscant (Republic) and Dromund Kaas.
2. Grade 2: Nar Shaddaa, Taris (Republic) and Balmorra (Empire).
3. Grade 3: Tatooine and Alderaan.
4. Grade 4: Quesh, Hoth, Balmorra (Republic) and Taris (Empire).
5. Grade 5: Belsavis, Voss.
6. Grade 6: Voss, Corellia, Ilum, Dantooine, Black Hole (Corellia) and Section X (Belsavis).
7. Grade 7: Makeb, Oricon and CZ-198.
8. Grade 8: Rishi and Yavin 4.
9. Grade 9: Zakuul and Darvannis.
10. Grade 10: Iokath, Ossus and Dantooine during the Pirate Incursion event.
11. Grade 11: Onderon, Mek-Sha and Dantooine.

By Planet (Alphabetical Order)
This is list is epic! If you want to ‘unfold’ it, just tap below.

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Gathering from Stronghold Decorations

You can earn crafting decorations for your stronghold by meeting your weekly Personal Conquest goal. Once one of your characters has earned 50,000 Conquest points, they will receive several rewards including a Gathering Lockbox containing three random crafting decorations.

You also receive crafting decorations for grade 1 materials after completing the “Introduction to Strongholds” mission (available at level 15).

There are currently no crafting decorations for grade 9, 10 and 11 materials.

These gathering decorations are basically potted gathering nodes. You can use them in the exact same way as nodes “in the wild”.

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Character-Limited Gathering Attempts

All your characters can gather materials from those decorations regardless of whether they are trained in the skill or not. One character can only scan a certain amount of decorations at a time but that number is completely random. Once your character has scanned their allocated amount of decorations, they will not be allowed to scan them again for the next 4 hours.

Finding the Gathering Decorations

You can find the decorations under the “Utility” category (subcategory, “Crafting”). All gathering decos fit on the smallest decoration hooks.

The different decorations are broken down as follows:

Archaeology Decorations

• Grade 1: Rubat Crystal Formation, Lost Archaeological Find, Eralam Crystal Formation, Amorphous Blue/Green/Red Crystal Formation
• Grade 2: Nextor Crystal Formation, Sacred Archaeological Find, Prehistoric Archaeological Find, Igneous Blue/Green/Red Crystal Formation
• Grade 3: Opila Crystal Formation, Ancient Archaeological Find, Opaque Blue/Green/Red Crystal Formation
• Grade 4: Firkrann Crystal Formation, Galactic Archaeological Find, Solid Blue/Green/Red Crystal Formation
• Grade 5: Damind Crystal Formation, Hypertech Archaeological Find, Phond Crystal Formation, Lucent Blue/Green/Red Crystal Formation
• Grade 6: Upari Crystal Formation, Primeval Archaeological Find, Alien Archaeological Find, Polychromic Blue/Green/Red Crystal Formation
• Grade 7: Carbonic Crystal Formation, Primordial Device, Blue/Green/Red Diaphanous Crystal Formation
• Grade 8: Perfect Upari Crystal Formation

Bioanalysis Decorations

• Grade 1: Dielectric Tendril, green Deciduous Stem, Bacterial Colony, Luminescent (or Biennial) Bud
• Grade 2: Toxic Phosphorescent Stem, Genetic Symbiotic Growth, Microscopic Symbiote Colony (or Mutagenic Seeds), Hallucinogenic (or Photophilic) Seeds
• Grade 3: Blue Nutrient Bud, Unknown Microorganism, Bio Energy Fiber, Medicinal Fungus
• Grade 4: Alien Contagion Fiber, Inert Growth, Fossilized Tendril, Nerve-Damaging Fungus
• Grade 5: Nutrient Fiber, Parasitic Stem, Psychoactive Fungus, Quick-Growth Colony
• Grade 6: Mutagenic Growth, Red-Vascular Tendril, Immunity (or Cytocidal) Seeds, Neurochemical Bud
• Grade 7: Noxious Fern, Bioengineered Fungus

Scavenging Decorations

• Grade 1: Desh Junk Pile, Aluminium Salvaged Heap
• Grade 2: Bronzium Wreckage, Chanlon Vehicle Debris
• Grade 3: Phobium Barrel
• Grade 4: Bondite Jetsam, Diatium Cargo
• Grade 5: Electrum Cache, Neutronium Speeder Parts
• Grade 6: Durasteel Shipwreck
• Grade 7: Multi-Alloy Debris
• Grade 8: Enriched Durasteel Cache

Slicing Decorations

• Grade 1: Data Station, Electronic Safe
• Grade 2: Coded Safe Box, Security Footlocker
• Grade 3: Biometric Footlocker, Computer Terminal, Security Mainframe
• Grade 4: Holographic Microcomputer
• Grade 5: Biometric Safe Box, Cybernetic Supercomputer
• Grade 6: Durasteel Footlocker, Electronic Brain
• Grade 7: Encrypted Terminal

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Let’s Get to Work with SWTOR Gathering!

Whether you want to gather materials so you can craft your own equipment, help your guild open new flagship rooms or simply earn some credits on the GTN, I hope this little gathering guide((FJ: ha ha, this guide is fab and detailed Celyn, not “little”. Thank you so much!)) will help you out.

May the Force be with you.

@CelynTheRaven

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