[Season 2] Training Life Skills Without Focus

[vale merlin]

In Star Resonance season 2, the devs massively overhauled the lifeskill system. Here I'll create a summary of EXP efficiency for the best gathering nodes in the game as well as a breakdown of the best bang for your buck when it comes to buying training materials. You can see the full version in the spreadsheet linked here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hDLIeR0YxzxVtJBqL2ibJnUDvCLH33IQkAjE5c1w3ck/edit?usp=sharing

A video of this guide can be found here: https://youtu.be/I6hH9fbmfs0

I'll give you additional information so you're better equipped to create your own, personalized plan based on which skills you want to rank. First, I'll cover general information, then I'll go through each skill individually. Let's get into it.

General Info

The biggest change in Season 2 is that crafts now give EXP based on their rank instead of every craft giving 2 EXP.

Common crafts give 2

Uncommon gives 4

Rare gives 10

Epic gives 40

Legendary gives 100.

On top of this change, they roughly tripled the base amount of experience needed per level. It took 160,000 EXP to reach lvl 50, but getting from there to lvl 60 will take another 200k. They also removed the weekly Life Skill quests and instead offer 200 Life Skill EXP books for sale weekly in the Honor Shop. Each book gives 50 EXP for a total of 10,000 EXP. Season 2 lasts 5 months so we'll get about enough EXP to rank 1 skill to 60 using those.

Using Focus now gives EXP equal to 12 times the cost of the craft, so you can get 3 more skills to 60 using that, assuming they started at lvl 50. If you burn all the Focus potions you get from your guild's weekly grocery shop, you can raise another. That leaves just 1 crafting skill unaccounted for so there's no need to stress unless you plan to use Focus for something other than just training or are trying to stockpile books or potions. I repeat, while I am giving you this information so that you can grind efficiently, you do not have to grind unless you want to.

Alright. Now for the fun part. Math.

Gemcrafting

For Gemcrafting, start out with Limestone which has an efficiency of 1.9 EXP per gather.
At lvl 5, you can swap to Rough Paper and then to Durable Paper at lvl 24. Do note that while these are more efficient in terms of gathering, they are NOT more efficient if you're just buying all of your ingredients.

At lvl 37, you have the option to farm Granite, but it's not as efficient as Durable Paper. I included it because you may wish to stock up on some of the secondary materials for other crafts. Alum, for instance, enables a wildly efficient Weaving craft. Limpid Azure Water is also needed for making Paper.

Weaving

For Weaving, Flax and Cotton--the regular sort, not the Alpine variety--are equally efficient at 4 EXP per gather. Both have secondary crafts which require monster drops so just pick whichever you prefer to farm or go with Flax if you're buying them. You can save some cash by buying Honeycombs and crafting them into Beeswax using Alchemy instead of buying Beeswax directly. If you have Alum on hand, perhaps from training Gemcraft, you can also use an incredibly efficient Leather recipe.

Once you hit lvl 44, you can use Alpine Flax for 6.67 Exp per gather, but you'll need 4 times the Beeswax which can be an issue if you're buying all of it. It's cheaper to just buy the whole regular Flax recipe than to buy just the Beeswax for the Alpine Flax recipe, even if you craft the Beeswax yourself after buying the Honeycombs.

Meanwhile, Alpine Cotton is never useful for training. It gives 1.5 EXP per gather.

Smelting

For Smelting, Baru Ore is the way to go. You want to gather from the tier 1 Baru Ore as the higher tiers don't drop enough Coal which increases the number of gathers needed per craft. You'll craft Pig Iron Ingots and turn them into Rivets.

At lvl 36, you have the option of buying Shimmergold to craft Ingots, then Rings. It's a bit more efficient than buying Iron and Coal, but is absolutely not worth gathering under any circumstances. Mithril Alloy is the same--you can buy it instead of Iron and Coal, but do not gather it--the drop rates are too low. If gathered, both give about 0.5 EXP per gather.

At lvl 47, Feier Ore can be smelted into Ingots, then Rings for a slight improvement over Baru Ore. Feier Ore has a better spawn pattern so it's a bit faster to gather too.

Finally, at lvl 53, you get access to Isotopic Alloy. This doubles the efficiency of Feier Ore in terms of gathering and is 3x more efficient to buy than Shimmergold.

Culinary

For Culinary, start with Wheat to make Flour with an efficiency of 2.67. I recommend the Wheat Fields in Bahamar as the nodes are easier to see and closer together. You can start making Overcooked Bone Meal at lvl 1 as well. It's not a very efficient craft, but it enables a craft with 80 efficiency once you get to lvl 15 which more than makes up for it. You'll have to buy the materials as they can't be gathered and don't drop anywhere either.

Once you get to lvl 15, you can make Advanced Fertilizer with all that Overcooked Bone Meal--at this point, it's actually the most efficient way to buy Culinary EXP.

If you like Fishing, there's decent Culinary EXP to be gained from Bahamar fish, but it will be slower than other methods.

Artisanry

For Artisanry, there's still no way to gather for the early lvls. You can finally gather some wood in Season 2, but you need lvl 42 to process it and the first node, Osteo Fir, has an efficiency of 1. It's lower than the Alpine Cotton craft I said to avoid at all costs, but you don't have other options here.

Windchime Birch, which is available at lvl 45, has a respectable efficiency of 4.

Alchemy

For Alchemy, you have a chain of crafts with nearly 10 efficiency available immediately--with a catch. To unlock the craft, you have to go to the second tab of the Alchemy crafting screen and use Enigmite Powder to randomly create Toys. One of these Toys, Ee-chan Fireworks, has Epic rarity. Crafting it's components and the Toy itself will net you significant EXP but it's a bunch of separate crafts so it can be somewhat tedious.

If you're doing Weaving, you can use the Beeswax recipe to train since you'll need heaps of that anyway.

If you're gathering from Minerals or Gems, you can turn all the Clay piling up in your inventory into Bricks with 6 gathering efficiency.

The Season 1 Guide can be found here: https://discord.com/channels/594431022188331008/1416463987155009688

[umbral wraith]

16hr Feier Rich Ore Commission, for the data collection

[opaque harness]

Thank you so much for the guide! I've read through it and came up with a plan for my lifeskills, would appreciate if you can rate it

My priority is on weaving and artisanry, but want to eventually hit 60 for the rest. I want to minimize manual gathering without focus, and will primarily gather materials through homestead commissions

Crafting skills:

1. Weaving: To use my focus here
2. Artisanry: To use homestead gathering commissions for Windchime Birch logs (great luno efficiency with how expensive these logs are) + weekly 10k exp from honor shop
3. Gemcrafting: Pliable Branch from windchime birch homestead commission + buy limpid azure water to craft Durable Paper. Gemcrafting is going to outpace Artisanry with so much pliable branches, so I don't think I'll bother with granite
4. Cooking: Buy and cook Overcooked Bone Meal -> Advanced Fertilizer (I usually buy adv fertilizers for flowers)
5. Smelting: To use focus to 53 and buy the rest on Isotopic Alloy Ingot + Isotopic Alloy Ring
6. Alchemy: Probably focus on whatever's profitable

Gathering skills:

1. Botany: Daily gathering commissions for windchime birch
2. Minerology: Probably focus on whatever's profitable
3. Gemology: Probably focus on whatever's profitable

[vale merlin]

Overall, it's a solid plan.

Artisanry will cap out long before the season ends and those resources can shift to Weaving in the event that the Focus spread leaves it behind (if Focus is being used for profit).

Only issue is that Gemcraft may not be fully ranked when Artisanry hits cap, but you can just shift some book usage there instead. It won't be too far off.

[opaque harness]

got it, thank you!

[old rampart]

granite commission gather 16 hours

@vale merlin do we know the weekly cap of engrams?

[vale merlin]

120 per week from Gathering + Gathering Commissions.

[umbral wraith]

I had an illusion gold commission running, but I accidentally clicked the screen before getting screenshots of the data (closing it out).

I think I got an illusion copper running currently though

[old rampart]

windchme round 2 +17 engram

[umbral wraith]

Bahamar Rich Ore

[vale merlin]

I really don't understand why Bahamar Rich Ore have such a low drop rate on the main ore.

[umbral wraith]

It’s probably just rng, the silver one I posted earlier was 210 (difference of 9). Can’t remember what illusion gold was, but I don’t think it was consistent with either one…

Also, Did you just get a creator badge Sviel? Congratz

[old rampart]

granite again 30 engrams

[umbral wraith]

Since when did we have access to a crafting station for: Artisanry, Smelting, Alchemy, Gemcrafting, and Weaving in the Homestead?

It’s nice that we can craft 4 batches of 100 items per station simultaneously, while we do other things, and get the normal rate of xp as a bonus… But why should it cost us homestead coins?

Also… Why no Culinary station??

Runye Rich Ore Commission

[latent bronze]

Since season 2 start, they enabled this feature then

[silent patio]

Where do i get these commissions?

[old rampart]

3rd granite numbers

[silent patio]

How do i start these commissions or do i just gather

[gusty meadow]

Homestead, girl on the left where the bank is I believe

[silent patio]

Thank you very much

[umbral wraith]

Meteorite Rich Ore Commission

[old rampart]

windchime set 3

[umbral wraith]

Meteorite Rich Ore Commision (submission #2)

Maybe if we're gonna continue this trend of submitting our commission values, perhaps we should starts a separate thread for that purpose???

[umbral wraith]

Helmflower Commission data

[low thicket]

might I add that those of us who voidfarmed last season probably have a ton of these horns that can be crafted into essence bone meal wich only use is a crafting recipie that doesn't exist yet but gives a ton of xp for cheap? there might be more profitable methods but for me this was the easiest since culinary does not give me much good so i'd rather not spend focus on it 😛

"don't buy the horns tho"

[vale merlin]

With n >300 it seems like Rich S2 Ore have 35% drop rate on main ore compared to 50% on base. It bothers me q_q

I did apply to the creator program--thought they ghosted me but I guess not

[umbral wraith]

Wait Really?? The base ore is getting a better rate....? I hope not... That makes no sense... Guess I'll have to run a few on base the next few days to check myself

[vale merlin]

This is definitely a great season for people with piles of materials in their inventory. I don't know if that gold fertilizer will ever materialize, but it would quickly because the best crafting recipe for EXP if it did.

[umbral wraith]

Runye Basic Ore Commission

It appears you get a larger proportion of ore, sand, and clay, but a lower proportion of water from the base ore commission.

[umbral wraith]

Bahamar Basic Ore Commission

[fickle shard]

Whats the cheapest method for raising gem/smelt/weave with luno?

[vale merlin]

This is going to depend on your lvl.

For Gemcrafting, it is Mica if lvl 37+, or Quartz Sand/Sandstone Polishers at lvl 1.

For Smelting, it is Isotopic Alloy -> Ingot at lvl 53, or Gleaming Gold Ingot -> Ring at lvl 36, or Iron Ingot -> Ring at lvl 1.

For Weaving, it is Refined Yarn -> Refined Canvas

[fickle shard]

Was doing mica+gold but was doing handspun thread for weaving - so i was kinda on the money for two of those.

Does weaving get a higher xp craft like the others?

[vale merlin]

Not in terms of Luno/EXP ratio.

[fickle shard]

Like i mean does it get a 40 xp craft

[umbral wraith]

That’d be a no……….