Prospecting
Prospecting for valuable minerals and gemstones is a potentially rewarding profession in Ikaanos. A prospector must come prepared, however, and know his way around the woods to be successful.
Gear and locations
You can search for gold and gemstones in prospect-enabled locations. To do this, you must have at least one Prospecting Gear in your inventory ($700, General Store, Redhaven).
Locations have finite amounts of gold and gemstones available. Those thresholds are unknown to the player but he'll be notified when a location is close to being depleted.
When landing on a prospect-enabled location, use Investigate Area > "Deploy camp (gold)" or "Enter cave".
Some locations only offer gold camps, and some only have caves available, which can contain other valuables like Merchandise, but come with the risk of injuries. Some locations can have gold and caves, but they are few. The list below details about the offerings of the locations:
- Preacher's Pond - gold camps.
- Corazon Gorge - gold camps.
- Cole's Canyon - gold camps and caves, a good starting point for a budding prospector, even if Cole's Canyon's mineral deposits are smaller than Silfren Woods and Bela's Marsh.
- Sewo's Bend - gold camps and caves
- Blackfang Valley - gold camps and caves
One prospecting round takes 3 hours and costs up to 6 Stamina Points.
Prospecting skill
The MC's prospecting skill is determined by (Science + Survival) / 2.
- Artisan 60+ adds a +15 chance modification.
- A Follower with either Science 40+, Survival 40+ or The Scavenger trait adds a +10 modification IF you have more than one Prospecting Gear in your Inventory. Followers with Anger 3+ will not add their help bonus to the chance roll. These bonuses are cumulative - for instance, having four Followers with Science 40+ adds a +40 chance bonus.
- Depleting resources adds a (hidden) chance penalty.