The fastest way to level up harvesting skills in New World is quite confusing. This is because there are many different plants with the same gathering skills needed to harvest them.
The harvesting menu from your character screen sure does not help. This New World harvesting guide will aim to get your harvesting skill up as fast as possible while explaining all the different mechanics involved in leveling trade skills.
So, if you’re wondering how to level up harvesting in New World, continue reading.
How to Harvest Plants
First things first, you will need to craft your Harvesting Sickle to start harvesting plants. It is required for harvesting resources other than picking bushes.
You need 12 Iron Ingots (or other Tier 2 metals), 3 Timber, and Coarse Leather to get an Iron Harvesting Sickle, which is Tier II and better than a regular Flint Harvesting Sickle, and can still be equipped at low levels.
If you have no mats for it, you can opt for the Flint Harvesting Sickle and just upgrade later.
Before we get to the harvesting farming routes, it is worth noting that you still gain harvesting skills no matter what level your skills are. You will still earn skill points if you are at harvesting skill level 80 and still harvesting Hemps.
Now, it is different if you want to be highly efficient with leveling harvesting in New World. Here is the table you need to look at for all the herbs, which may seem confusing at first.
Resource | Gathering Level | Tracking Level |
Farm Plants | 0 | 20 |
Hemp | 0 | 25 |
Fungi | 0 | N/A |
Magical Creatures | 0 | 175 |
Magical Plants | 30 | 45 |
Silkweed | 100 | 125 |
Wirefiber | 175 | 200 |
The structure for this is confusing but, it is simpler than you might think. There are different kinds of plants and magical plants but, they all have the same purpose when you are using them for crafting.
In short, you do not have to worry about which plant you are getting; it just depends on their tier level, which will be indicated by their gathering level.
For example, harvesting Herbs will get you Hyssop and Thyme, while harvesting Rivercress will give you Rivercress Stems. Both of them are different tiers, with Rivercress being a tier higher.
However, if you also get Lifeblooms or Blightroots, they are the same tier as Rivercress, and they will also be used for crafting general potions.
So when it comes to leveling harvesting in New World fast, you will need to rush to gathering level 30 and grind Magical Plants until 100 to unlock Silkweed. Now for the harvesting routes.
Harvesting Level 1 to 30 Farming Route
To get things started, you will need your own harvesting sickle. Assuming you never had a sickle before you got to the settlement, you will have a few resources at your disposal before even harvesting plants.
You can immediately create the Iron Harvesting Sickle with your mined resources so you can have a boost when you start leveling up your harvesting skill.
The first 30 harvesting skill levels will be farmed through the starting area. This is just past the shipwrecks from the tutorial and the cutscene against Captain Thorpe.
Follow the route on top, and you should be able to reach 1-15 in one rotation. I have tested some of the resources, and they spawn around 10 minutes after being harvested.
This route is short, so you will have some downtime while waiting for them to respawn. On the bright side, you will level your harvesting skill extremely fast because these are the early levels.
If you are tired of waiting for the respawn, there are Fronded Petalcaps just below the settlement in Windsward. It is just above the route indicated in the picture above.
You literally just have to run this route twice/thrice to level up harvesting to 30. This heavily depends on the population of the server as most of the players loot everything that they come across.
Harvesting Level 30 – 100 Farming Route
The next farming route will be way below Windsward and just beside the Eldergate where you farm the Woodland Does. This area has a long river filled with a ton of resources. In fact, it holds so many resources for all types of crafts, which is why this route is crazy.
Follow the route above, and you can literally start from anywhere. Rotate around the route, and you will find the following resources. I will include mining resources as well.
- 2 Shockbulb nodes
- 2 Earthspine nodes
- 12 Fronded Petalcaps nodes
- 5 Lifeblooms nodes
- 9-10 Rivercress nodes
- 7-8 Tanglewisps nodes
- 4 Blightroot nodes
- 6 Iron Veins nodes
- 9-10 Seeping Stones (Oil) nodes
- 1 Spinefish Fins (Purple resource)
I used this route for around 4 hours and tried to improve it every time. It took around 10 minutes at first, but I ended up finding more nodes in other areas. In the end, I came up with the most efficient harvesting route that takes 13-16 minutes per rotation.
Here are the skill points you gain in raw numbers for each of the plants in the harvesting route.
Resource | Skill Points Gained |
Tanglewisp | +46 Harvesting Skill |
Fronded Petalcap | +46 Harvesting Skill |
Rivercress | +90 Harvesting Skill |
Lifebloom | +90 Harvesting Skill |
Blightroot | +90 Harvesting Skill |
Earthspine | +90 Harvesting Skill |
Shockbulb | +90 Harvesting Skill |
The curve near the Eldergate will only contain Fronded Petalcaps, and you can actually cut the route short and start from the waypoint (that little yellow pin on the picture). That starting spot will contain 2 Rivercress, 2 Lifeblooms, and a Fronded Petalcaps.
Loot all of these and proceed to the ruined village. There will be 4 Blightroot nodes inside, but the problem will be dealing with the mobs as you might need to kill one or two creatures to loot all 4 Blightroot nodes.
It should not be a problem as they are only level 15 mobs. After looting the village, go to the tiny hut by the river where there will be two more mobs. Dispose of them, and you will get the Spinefish Fins rare location. There is also a supply crate if you want to loot it.
Just beside this area, you will also see 2 Rivercress nodes that you can use to find Rivercress Stems. Keep following the river on that one side, and you will see around 4 Seeping Stones, which gives you Oil if you mine them. This is a great way of leveling up your mining skill too. Just to the left of these Oil which would be slightly away from the river, you will see 2-3 Tanglewisps to harvest.
Head back to the river and follow the route, and you will see two more Rivercress nodes and 2 Earthspine nodes at the end of the river. Once you make the U-turn, you will see around 4-5 Tanglewisps to the side, 2 Rivercress, and 4 Oil nodes.
Keep following the route, and you will see 3 Iron Vein nodes. This area is just opposite the tiny hut where you got the Spinefish Fins.
Follow the route going up the tiny ruins with level 21 skeletons. Avoid them if you are low level. There are two different Lifebloom spots and 1 Shockbulb near this small ruin. After getting them, run back to the river, and you will see around 5 Fronded Petalcaps and three more Iron Vein nodes before getting back to the river.
Once you are near the end of the route, there will be one last Shockbulb and one last Lifebloom to complete the rotation.
The whole process took longer for me as I experimented with the harvesting route to improve it. I stopped mining Iron Veins since it takes a lot of time and eats up your inventory space. Getting full will prevent you from being efficient because you will need to go back to the town to deposit.
I did not stop mining Seeping Stones for Oil because it is also needed to level Arcana and the herbs I was gathering. It takes a while because there are a lot of Oil nodes here but, it will be worth it in the end.
It is best to run this during midnight or early in the morning so that fewer players are going around the area. There will be more routes but, this one is easy to remember. It is because you are just following this one river back and forth.
For other harvesting routes like the one in the highlands area of Monarch’s Bluff, you can easily get lost just because there is no landmark to follow like the river here.
Things to Take Note Of
Like mentioned before, I ran this route for 4 hours straight and managed to level from 30 to 55 and mining from 52-60. It will take longer to reach 100 but running this hard for a few days will speed things up.
The most significant benefit you will get here is that these materials you are farming will probably get you to max Arcana as well. Just the sheer amount of Water Motes you get from Rivercress will help you push Arcana to 60 and above.
Aside from the Water Motes, you will be using Rivercress Stems to create mid-level potions too.
However, this route might be high in traffic if other players take notice. This is because the area is also good for fishing. You can check our New World Fishing Guide if you want to level this skill as well.
You can also farm a ton of Briar to get Briar Buds and Thorny Vines. This is important in leveling your Arcana skills but, it will not give you any leveling boost to your harvesting skill when you get them. There is an unlimited amount of Briars here, including Bulrush for Reeds.
If you are not in this for the money, this is all a precursor to our How to Level Up Arcana Skills Fast guide. You will reap the rewards in the future and end up leveling both your Arcana skill and your harvesting skill.
Alternative Harvesting Routes
While the harvesting route mentioned before is amazing for its resources density, you can eventually make your own harvesting route. Look through your map and find the resources location tab. You will see different terrains that will show you what resources can be found in those areas.
The image above in Faith’s Bounty is the perfect example. The main idea is to make random harvesting routes in the highlands, grass, and forest terrains. Each area has a specific fungus or herb to harvest. They are used the same as each other as long as they are in the same tier.
You can circle the area above to harvest all the Lifeblooms and Suncreeper. There are multiple Suncreeper spawns in the area, and they spawn in bunches. Every time you see a Suncreeper, there should be at least two to three nodes beside it.
They are easy to spot and, there are also Iron Ore nodes you can farm. Since this is in the highlands terrain, there should be enough resources to gather. Once you complete a whole round or cycle, they should respawn already.
If not, you can even level your logging skills by chopping Young and Mature Trees. There should also be two Wyrdwood Tree spawns here.
The Midnight Den in the middle is also a bonus. You can grab a supply chest for Coarse Sandpaper and gather 3 Silver Vein nodes inside.
Overall, this route is highly efficient for all the gathering skills. It is near the settlement, so you can easily make a deposit when your inventory is full.
But, the main point of this route is to show you that each area could potentially have the same efficient way. You can find one in Cutlass Keys or even in First Light.
Final Thoughts
Harvesting is a little tricky to get used to. The names of the herbs, fungus, and magical plants are all confusing since some of them are used the same way when it comes to crafting. It is all based on the harvesting skill level required to gather them.
The higher they are on the harvesting skill list, the better yield you will get from increasing your harvesting skills. Other gathering skills such as mining, skinning, and logging are more straightforward.
It will take a while to get used to but, you should gather everything you can use your Harvesting Sickle on. Regardless of your harvesting skill level, they will all contribute to your harvesting progression in the long run.