Ephemeral nodes pop up again after "tapping" surrounding regular nodes

I found out about this farming technique recently, but I'm now wondering if this method is a feature of the game or if it's something that can be considered an exploit. Ephemeral nodes can be made to appear several times within its active timeframe by "tapping" surrounding regular nodes.

This is a call for clarification more than anything as I was sent a generic automated response when I tried to email support regarding this.

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Time: Any time that ephemeral mining/botany nodes are active
Frequency: Always
In-game time: Any of these, but for testing purposes, let's use 16:00 to 20:00
Area and coordinates: Sea of Clouds (34, 30)
Steps:
1. Switch to Miner class
2. Open ephemeral mining node (34, 30)
3. Gather items from ephemeral mining node
4. Open mining node (31, 31)
5. Exit mining node (31, 31) without gathering anything
6. Open mining node (32, 30)
7. Exit mining node (32, 30) without gathering anything
8. IF EPHEMERAL NODE STILL HAS NOT APPEARED, open mining node (35, 29)
9. IF EPHEMERAL NODE STILL HAS NOT APPEARED, exit mining node (35, 29) without gathering anything
10. Ephemeral mining node appears
11. Repeat step 2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nranola

I found out about this farming technique recently, but I'm now wondering if this method is a feature of the game or if it's something that can be considered an exploit. Ephemeral nodes can be made to appear several times within its active timeframe by "tapping" surrounding regular nodes.

This is a call for clarification more than anything as I was sent a generic automated response when I tried to email support regarding this.

===

Time: Any time that ephemeral mining/botany nodes are active
Frequency: Always
In-game time: Any of these, but for testing purposes, let's use 16:00 to 20:00
Area and coordinates: Sea of Clouds (34, 30)
Steps:
1. Switch to Miner class
2. Open ephemeral mining node (34, 30)
3. Gather items from ephemeral mining node
4. Open mining node (31, 31)
5. Exit mining node (31, 31) without gathering anything
6. Open mining node (32, 30)
7. Exit mining node (32, 30) without gathering anything
8. IF EPHEMERAL NODE STILL HAS NOT APPEARED, open mining node (35, 29)
9. IF EPHEMERAL NODE STILL HAS NOT APPEARED, exit mining node (35, 29) without gathering anything
10. Ephemeral mining node appears
11. Repeat step 2

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This is the standard behavior and a well known method of farming for gathering since ARR. This also works with any other regular node. For example, you know a node contains 4 of X, while the other 2 nodes don't; so instead of making the loop emptying all the nodes; just empty the 4x node, then open and close the 2 other nodes and the 4x node will pop again. This doesn't work with legendary/hidden nodes though. /EDITED, this also works for collecting seeds/hidden items. If the item doesn't pop, just move on to the next node until you get it to pop.

This is intended behavior. This is used all across gathering for various purposes, from ephemeral node gathering, to diadem spoils farming, map farming, favor materials farming, scrip farming, farming for hidden items, etc.

If it was unintended behavior, it would have been fixed by now.

Llus and Zetsumei, thank you for your input; that has been what other people have told me as well.

At this point I just need an "official word". If this thread gets a response from a mod, or if it gets moved to the "Working as Intended" section, then I can clear my head 100% and continue farming.