Elder Scrolls Online - Crafting Guide - Finding Materials and Using Surveys

This is part of our Elder Scrolls Online Crafting Guide for New Players.

You can of course beg for materials to help with a shortfall, but this is a terrible strategy -- If you are short today, you'll likely be short tomorrow as well unless you actually deal with the problem and have a strategy for building a surplus.
If you're going to set aside time farming for materials of all types, a useful thing to do for a new toon is literally walk from zone to zone. And in each zone, reach all the wayshrines. That way you will unlock useful quick travel later when you want to use Surveys or Treasure Maps.

Alchemy
Writs and Hirelings

• When you are just starting out, especially if you start out right away with a full crew of eight or more Crafters, Daily Writs for Alchemy can require a lot of grinding to gather all the materials. You may just want to hold the Writ until you can do it instead of grinding, if you value your time.
• It is nevertheless important to get things started because Daily Writs will give you materials, sometimes the very materials you were asked to provide. The more Alchemy writs you do, the more materials you will accumulate. Not all of them will be the ones you need to complete a Writ, but over time it is a good source of materials.

Gathering

• Hollow City, Coldharbour
• One of the best places for Herbs. Competition tends to be low, there are no hostiles you need to dodge, and you don't have to Steal anything. Other resources, such as for Provisioning, are also quite plentiful. Generally players are there to shop the Guild Stores and do their Daily Writs when they have a bounty (because there are no Guards in Coldharbour), so they don't roam around to gather herbs.
• Auridon and Summerset - Lots of Herbs in the grassy areas, even just south near Vuhkel Guard.
• Bangkorai - Coast around Halcyon late has a good density of Mudcrabs for Mudcrab Chitin. Also good for Runes closer to the ruins.
• Starter zones. However competition can sometimes be high though they tend to go for Wood and Ores.
• Bleakrock Isle
• Bal Foyen
• Betnikh - but has a somewhat higher enemy density
• Khenarthi's Roost - West coast wreckage and east coast beach are good for water skins which contain solvents; mudcrabs which frequently occur in groups of two; as well as treasure chests. Mudcrabs drop mostly leather compared to Mudcrab Chitin.
• Stros M'Kai
• Summerset, Vvardenfell - Go off-road into the wilderness
• Mudcrab Chitin - If you just want mudcrabs and don't want to move around too much, the Alik'r shores northwest of Sentinel has them respawning in pairs quite quickly. If you want to mix your farming with some gathering and looking for treasure chests, Khenarthi's Roost coastal areas, especially those with shipwrecks, are a good place.

Surveys:

• In the early game, Alchemical Surveys can give you a burst of materials to help you complete your Writs.
• Surveys are always Herbs, but some Alchemy Ranks require non-Herb materials as part of your Daily Writ requirement.
• Water Hyacinth and Nirnroot are near water only; they do not appear on "land" Herb nodes and do not show up on Surveys.
• If you are desperate for a particular Herb, you can "reroll" the six nodes on the Survey:
• Don't touch any nodes.
• Walk away a good distance, then come back. If it is dangerous to do so, Preview any house you do not own then exit it -- you'll be brought back to the same location and the nodes should have refreshed.
• Once you have a reserve of Herbs it is better to save them until you can harvest them with a character that has the Plentiful Harvest perk.

Blacksmithing, Clothing, Jewelry Crafting, Woodworking

Writs and Hirelings

• At Rank I, you immediately get back more resources than you use for your Daily Writs (unless you get a Survey) so once you have a small stock you should be able to sustain Daily Writs at Rank I indefinitely.
• Gold rewards from Daily Writs are only based on character level, so if your intent is to get gold income and not have to worry about material shortage, then you can just leave the Supporting Crafter at Rank I.
• At Rank II, the materials awarded from Daily Writs can be slightly less than break-even, so deconstructing Intricate gear pieces that you get, and supplementing materials from incidental gathering and the daily Hireling delivery should be enough to save you from having to grind. You will still want to have a reserve in case you get several Surveys instead of materials.
• At Rank III+ the materials deficit from Daily Writs starts to increase so be cautious about advancing all your Crafters too quickly.
• You can have characters at lower Ranks, helping to make up the shortfall with their Daily Writs, as the rewards will include materials for the next Rank up.
• Once you have surveys stockpiled you can use them to make up the shortfall and replenish your stocks. Tou can have a number of crafters at top Rank and a number at a sustainable lower Rank farming Surveys.
• We recommend half your crafters stay at Rank I and just farm Surveys to support the other half that rank up to X, where you can farm Master Writs (Sealed Writs)
• Your main adventuring character, who can be expected to come across gathering nodes most frequently, should if possible have their Rank match their level so that all nodes give the material they need for their Daily Writs in these crafts.
• About half the Gathering nodes you encounter will be based on the level of the gathering character. Therefore if your character is level 20, they fall into the Steel Armor and Weapons bracket of level 16-24 and about half the Blacksmithing nodes they encounter will be High Iron Ore.
• The other half of the Gathering nodes you encounter will be based on your Crafting Skill. So if that same level 20 character has Metalworking VIII, about half the Blacksmithing nodes they encounter will be Quicksilver Ore.
• Therefore if your level matches your skill, for example a CP 160+ character with Rank X Blacksmithing, all the Blacksmithing nodes will yield Rubedite Ore.
• This applies to Surveys as well, so potentially half the Survey could be wasted on materials you weren't looking for.

Gathering: The starter zones tend to be good for these, EXCEPT Vvardenfell and Summerset.

• Bleakrock Isle
• Bal Foyen
• Betnikh - coastal areas tend to be good for wood; high density of wolves good for getting leather
• Khenarthi's Roost
• Stros M'Kai

Surveys:

• Try to save your surveys for Daily Writs at the highest rank, which consume a lot more resources than are awarded to you.
• Use them with a character that has the Plentiful Harvest perk, which does work on Survey nodes.

Enchanting
Writs and Hirelings

• Like Alchemy, when you are just starting out, especially if you start out right away with a full crew of eight or more Crafters, Daily Writs for Enchanting can require a lot of grinding until you are lucky enough to get the rune you need. You may just want to hold the Writ until you can do it instead of grinding, if you value your time.
• The Enchanter NPCs sell some runes, so definitely compare Guild Store prices before buying from a Guild Store. The Potency runes you need for your Writs can be purchased from NPCs so mostly you will be missing Essence runes.
• Getting Hirelings started as soon as possible will help a lot, as will deconstructing the runes you get from completing a Daily Writ.

Gathering: Rivenspire and Auridon. Your level and Potency Improvement rank will affect Potency runestones that are harvested, but since these can be purchased from NPC vendors typically at a cost less than what a Daily Writ will pay out in gold, it's not too important to match up the gatherer's level and skill rank when gathering.

Surveys: In the early game, Enchanting Surveys can help you find a rune you need as you get a lot of chances for the rune to drop. Otherwise try to save them until you can harvest them with a character that has the Plentiful Harvest perk.

Provisioning
Writs and Hirelings

• Writs and Hirelings are important because they are one of the main ways to get recipes and purple Provisioning materials. The purple materials cannot be gathered and only come from Hirelings or Daily Writ rewards.
• Gold Provisioning materials must typically be harvested and are extremely hard to get. For Perfect Roe, which comes from filleting fish (approximately a 0.5% chance), you might want to instead sell the fish in Guild Stores and use the money to buy the Perfect Roe from Guild Stores.
• Fishing in Summerset and Artaeum can get you sacks that have a chance of dropping rare materials like Clam Gall.

Gathering:

• Pretty much everywhere you can find containers that have Provisioning materials. Get in the habit of looting everything and you will steadily have a stupidly high surplus of materials.
• The trick is finding exactly the item you want, so pay attention when a location places a fixed type of Provisioning material. For example, the New Life Festival Tent south of Windhelm (Eastmarch) always has cheese, grapes, and poultry. And at the benches of the Jester's Festival tent sites there is a crate of tomatoes.
• Finding a location with a mix of containers and no NPCs to give you a Bounty for Stealing is also a great way to get Provisioning materials.
• They will be marked "Stolen" and cannot be traded or put into the Crafting Bag, but when you are looting containers you will typically find treasures that you can sell. This will fund your ability to Fence those Provisioning materials.
• Both selling stolen goods and fencing them improve your Legerdemain.
• Stolen Provisioning materials that you don't need for recipes can also be instead sold for a small sum, whereas they typically have no value when sold if they are not marked as Stolen.