Gathering non gathered materials

[Risu0042]

I was just wondering, what is the best way to gather non-DoL materials such as leather and bones and the like. with bot and mining you can manipulate your stats and abilities to get a better chance to get HQ items as well as guaranteed items but for hides, bloods and other materials that are drop only you can't. i was wondering if i was just overlooking something or not.

[ManuelBravo]

Well if you have retainers they can hunt.. Based on their stats you can get HQ items. Example I have 8 retainers, 2 are hunters, 3 MNR , 1 FHS, 2 BTN. Other ways include tome items you have options for normal and HQ types. More for advance crafting. Ephemeral nodes however are time based and may need some items to help increase that. You can gather those more than once if your quick enough by knowing the nodes around you. Some you can desynthesize and get HQ items as well. The higher your level is the better your chances. Some items can be from airship gathering or Market Board as a last resource.

[Sunspawn]

Basically, unless you want to grind hours for leathers and burn daily offerings to RNGesus, level a couple of DoW/M retainers and just stock on leathers/bones/bloods/etc well in advance of needing them.