Gathering and crafting systems

Scars of Honor presents gathering and crafting as a broad progression layer rather than a passive background activity. The systems use profession expertise, tool quality, resource requirements, and minigames to determine both efficiency and item quality.

As of that April 2026 design overview, six professions are integrated, with more planned later. The stated direction is to avoid hard profession limits, allowing players who invest enough time to eventually learn and master all professions.

Profession expertise and item quality

Each profession has its own expertise progression. Higher expertise makes associated minigames easier and supports access to better crafted gear. Better preparation also matters, including the use of improved tools for gathering.

Crafting is not treated as a simple success-or-fail action. Performance in a crafting minigame affects the resulting item quality. A stronger performance can produce a higher-quality result, including rare outcomes. Demonstrated example: a crafted axe upgraded to a rare outcome after repeated perfect minigame inputs.

Crafting recipes display required resources and a gold cost. Blacksmithing is described as a profession that can produce gear and weapons, with stronger items requiring a more developed blacksmithing level.

Gathering minigames

Gathering uses distinct minigames for different professions rather than a single shared interaction model.

Woodcutting uses a hold-based timing input. The player presses and holds the right mouse button, then tries to release or land the indicator at the correct point. Accurate inputs can produce perfect hits.

Mining uses a click-timing model instead. The player clicks at the correct moment to strike the node. A central hit is described as a critical hit that deals double damage to the node.

Fishing uses a different control scheme again. The build demonstrated spear fishing (not rod fishing): after the initial throw, the player steers with A and D. Fish movement includes inertia, so success depends on anticipating direction changes rather than only reacting to the current position.

Cooking uses a recipe-memory and heat-management minigame. The player must remember ingredient order and the required temperature range for each step, then manage the fire accordingly. Temperature has inertia, and overheating burns the food while letting the heat drop too low also fails the attempt.

UI guidance for these minigames remains a known gap: when a minigame starts, the client does not yet clearly signal whether to hold right-click, single-click timing, or A/D steering.

Difficulty scaling and time balance

Each minigame is said to have 20 difficulty levels. Difficulty depends on factors such as profession expertise, gear, tools, and the tier of the target resource. Low-tier resources become easier and faster to gather as a character becomes more experienced, while high-tier resources remain more demanding.

The balancing philosophy is based primarily on time. Resource yield, travel time between nodes, and the time needed to complete minigames are considered together. The stated goal is that advanced players clear easier tasks more quickly, while top-end gear and perfect crafted items still require substantial time and materials.

Crafting also includes randomness in item generation. Players are expected to decide what counts as good enough for their needs. Pursuing a perfect item with the best possible bonuses is intended to take much longer than producing a merely strong item.

Failure states and tool durability

Failure has different consequences depending on the profession. In woodcutting, fully failing the minigame reduces the amount of resources gained. In other gathering minigames, the action can generally be repeated, but repeated failure consumes tool durability. A player who fails too often can break tools without getting enough value from the attempt.

Resource nodes and world distribution

Resource nodes are designed to appear within regions rather than always occupying a single guaranteed point. The system uses preset possible locations inside a zone, but not every location is populated at all times. This means players can learn the general area where a resource appears without always finding it in exactly the same spot.

Node size also varies. Larger nodes are rarer, and party-sized nodes may not always be present when entering a zone. Over time, continued gathering in an area is expected to expose better opportunities.

Party nodes and cooperative gathering

Some gathering nodes are designed for groups. Woodcutting is used as the main example: each tree tier has a standard version for solo players and a larger party version that requires multiple players to gather together.

Group participation makes these nodes easier to complete, and party nodes have better chances to award higher-quality or rarer resource outputs. However, they still guarantee some amount of the base resource associated with the node. A wood node always gives wood, and an iron node always gives iron.

Loot from party nodes is distributed separately to each participant rather than being shared from a single pool. This is presented as the fairer solution. A large tree, for example, can yield a substantial amount of resources to every player involved, not just to the visible looter.

Loot pickup and inventory structure

Open design questions include manual ground loot versus automatic pickup. Auto-pickup helps early on when most drops matter, but risks bag bloat; one compromise under discussion is hold-to-loot-all while single presses still pick items individually.

Inventory space is organized by item type rather than a single undifferentiated bag. Separate sections are shown for equipment, consumables, materials, and miscellaneous items. This structure is intended to provide a large amount of practical storage from the start and reduce friction for players who gather and craft regularly.

Crafting materials beyond gathering

Crafting is not limited to raw materials from gathering nodes. Some recipes also require creature drops, including materials found in greater abundance in dungeons or from particular enemies. As a result, crafting can combine gathering, combat, and targeted farming.

The stated long-term direction is that the best gear in the game will likely involve a combination of gathering, defeating difficult enemies, and crafting. Players who prefer combat-focused play are still expected to have alternatives, such as farming gold and buying gear from others, but gathering and crafting are intended to remain relevant to top-end item progression.

Source

• Recording: Gathering Isn’t What You Think Anymore… (Big Changes)
• YouTube: Watch on YouTube
• Published: Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 12:05 PM UTC