How good does my retainers' gear need to be?

[TomTom1968]

^^ not necessarily. My fisher retainer only has the AF rod. But you need to overmeld your gear to get to the stats you need. My miner and botanist have the Level 70 tools but it is too long ago so I can't remember if I did because I had to or if it was just the Nerd in me wanting to do it lol.

[Squand]

For DoL both gathering and perception matters. Gathering increases the yield at specific thresholds and Perception increases the likely hood of HQ. This was mentioned in the patch notes.

Each Exploration tells you what number you have to hit to even be able to attempt it. I Believe the highest Exploration 14 is 383. But I'm not by my retainer right now.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

18 hour ventures have a very small pool of items, but you'll always get them consistently and the same amount of EXP. Quick ventures are a big gamble.