Deliberate ephemeral node behavior?

I noticed - as I'm sure others know - how easy it is to respawn Ephemeral Nodes. You just go to a nearby regular node, open it, close it without gathering a single item, then go to a node from a different pair and do the same thing.

This is useful if, say, your rotation depends on getting an Impulsive Appraisal proc, but neither one does, so you finish the attempt without spending any GP, leaving you with 600+ GP.

My question is whether this behavior for spawning Ephemeral Nodes is deliberate? It seems questionable to me, since other situations (like Favor nodes) require completely finishing off nodes.

Favor nodes are actually the exception, I usually do the same for hidden nodes when trying to get things like maps, soil, titanium ore, etc.

I think so. I think it was designed as a way of easing the gathering of Crystals.

For normal 2.x nodes, touching (not gathering from, just opening the window) three different nodes in a group of four causes the first of those three to respawn. This lets you run between three nodes, gathering nothing, until a map (or other hidden item) spawns. When the node respawns, its position is re-randomized among the possible locations it can appear (the minor variations), hidden items are rerolled, the node returns to 100% health, and it's just like the node was depleted and came back.

For normal 3.x nodes, they work the same, but it seems like you have to touch five to trigger the respawn. I dunno, generally running between all six is just as fast as a group of four would be due to how they're spread out in a triangle, so I just do that. When a 3.x normal node respawns, the node bonus also re-randomizes (2.x nodes all have fixed bonuses based on which of the four nodes it is).

For ephemeral 3.x nodes, they work as if they were 2.x nodes attached to the 3.x node group. If you touch three nodes (including the ephemeral), the node respawns. Since ephemerals have exactly one position they can appear in (there is zero variation), it's hard to tell if the node respawns or not when touching three other nodes in the node group, but if you do touch it and then two others, it definitely respawns. However, ephemeral nodes have a fixed window of time in which they can appear (I think it's a four hour window?). Unlike 3.x unspoiled nodes, this window occurs once per day, not twice, however it seems to be four in-game hours long instead of one. The mining ephemeral node that spawns east of Zenith in the Hardsilver Sand/Cloud Mica area, I think, is 8pm-midnight? I'm sure there's a list somewhere, I don't have my notes with me.

So, you can farm the ephemeral as you said - by using two other nearby nodes and jumping between them like they were a 2.x node group. However, if you do this, the 3.x nodes will not respawn, so if I'm hunting for my daily map in an area that has an epehmeral, I'll hit the ephemeral on my way past in the rotation, but continue rotating between all six so the 3.x nodes can respawn and maybe give me a map.


Favor nodes work differently. They work differently than normal/ephemeral nodes and differently from unspoiled/legendary nodes. They require you to completely deplete a node in the group to give the favor node a chance to spawn. Just touching them is not enough.

Thanks for the thorough explanation, Nyalia!

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

So, you can farm the ephemeral as you said - by using two other nearby nodes and jumping between them like they were a 2.x node group. However, if you do this, the 3.x nodes will not respawn, so if I'm hunting for my daily map in an area that has an epehmeral, I'll hit the ephemeral on my way past in the rotation, but continue rotating between all six so the 3.x nodes can respawn and maybe give me a map.

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I think its two nodes from two different node pairings to re-spawn the EP node. Also you can defiantly use the EP not re-spawn normal nodes. Like i can mine a pair, mine the EP node, mine another pair and repeat.

I have not done any Favors, so I do not know how they tie in with all of this.

2.0 nodes are basically 4 sets of one node each. Simply poking your nose into two sets after the first will cause the first to respawn.

3.0 nodes are basically 3 sets of two nodes each, and where applicable, a fourth set of 1 node, the Ephemeral Node. Just as with the 2.0 nodes, simply poking your nose in two sets after the first will cause the first to respawn.

I hope that clears up any confusion.

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

For normal 2.x nodes, touching (not gathering from, just opening the window) three different nodes in a group of four causes the first of those three to respawn. This lets you run between three nodes, gathering nothing, until a map (or other hidden item) spawns. When the node respawns, its position is re-randomized among the possible locations it can appear (the minor variations), hidden items are rerolled, the node returns to 100% health, and it's just like the node was depleted and came back.

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This part is correct but ...

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

For normal 3.x nodes, they work the same, but it seems like you have to touch five to trigger the respawn. I dunno, generally running between all six is just as fast as a group of four would be due to how they're spread out in a triangle, so I just do that. When a 3.x normal node respawns, the node bonus also re-randomizes (2.x nodes all have fixed bonuses based on which of the four nodes it is).

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The new heavensward nodes work in pairs; there are 3 pairs to any area, and you only have to touch one of each pair to cycle nodes. Over time, you may come to figure out which nodes are actually in the pair as it may not be intuitive at first (for nodes like the birch trees in Sea of Clouds in which three of the node spawn locations may seem ambiguous).

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Originally Posted by Nyalia

For ephemeral 3.x nodes, they work as if they were 2.x nodes attached to the 3.x node group. If you touch three nodes (including the ephemeral), the node respawns. Since ephemerals have exactly one position they can appear in (there is zero variation), it's hard to tell if the node respawns or not when touching three other nodes in the node group, but if you do touch it and then two others, it definitely respawns.

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Using this information about pairs, you can simply touch one node of two separate pairs to respawn ephemeral nodes.

Thank you both for the clarification! I hadn't realized that's how they work, but that makes total sense, and explains some weirdness I had noted a few times.