Hello Everybody!
For this week’s Friday Feature, we’re going over a few of the details for Using Your Resource Harvesters. We only touched on the use of harvesters in one of our past Friday Features on Exploring Resources. Here, we’re going to go over a lot of the basics of placing a harvester, upkeeping a harvester, and making sure you properly pack them up correctly when it’s time to move on to the next resource! On top of the basics, we’ll even share a few tips on how you can best maximize and utilize your harvesting capabilities.
Collecting resources in Star Wars Galaxies has always been the bread and butter of a crafter. Whether hand sampling for them or engaging with the community for buys/sells/trades to get them, acquiring resources is just part of a trader’s life. One of the widely used means of collecting resources has always been by way of harvester. Sometimes a resource comes around and you just can’t be asked to sit there and hand sample or spend your hard earned credits to acquire them. Harvesters are a way for you to collect your resources while you can focus some of your attention on crafting or enjoying the game how you want to enjoy it. Harvesters with a little upkeep, can run continuously for several hours (sometimes even days) at a time collecting the materials you need to help you craft that special project. So let’s dive in and go over a few of these basics.

I think it’s probably easier to point out what resources you CAN’T use a harvester on. So let’s list some of those things we CAN’T use harvesters on quickly:
Creature Resources (Such as: Hides/Meats/Bones/Mollusks/Eggs/Milk/Etc.).
Mustafarian Resources (Harvesters CANNOT be placed on Mustafar).
Kashyyykian Resources (Harvesters CANNOT be placed on Kashyyyk).
Outside of the above mentioned resources, every other resource has a harvester of some kind that will harvest them.

There are MANY types of organic and inorganic resources that you’re able to harvest in the galaxy and sometimes it can be a little bit tricky figuring out what it is you need to harvest the resource you want. Before we go over some of the different harvesters and what they can pull up for you, let’s quickly touch on the fact that for Mineral, Chemical, Gas, Flora, and Moisture harvesters, each of them has 4 different variants of harvester ranging between different footprint sizes/extraction rates/upkeep costs/housing lot requirements to use. It’s important to be able to use the best kind of harvester you can, but it’s also important that you’re able to properly upkeep whatever harvesters you’re using with money and energy, so find out what’s best for you.
*Note: BER = Base Extraction Rate (Capped values listed below)*
Personal Mineral Extractor (1 lot / BER 5)
Mineral Mining Installation(1 lot / BER 11)
Heavy Mineral Mining Installation(1 lot / BER 14)
Elite Mineral Mining Installation (3 lots / BER 44).

• Metals (Ferrous/Non-Ferrous)
• Ores (Igneous/Sedimentary)
• Radioactive (Class 1-7, High Grade Polymetric Radioactive) **Usable to power your harvesters**
• Solid Petrochemical Fuel

Personal Chemical Extractor (1 lot / BER 5)
Chemical Extractor (1 lot / BER 11)
Deep Crust Chemical Extractor (1 lot / BER 14)
Elite Deep Crust Chemical Extractor (3 lots / BER 44).

• Polymer
• Fiberplast
• Liquid Petrochem Fuel
• Lubricating Oil

Personal Gas Processor (1 lot / BER 5)
Natural Gas Processor (1 lot / BER 11)
Heavy Natural Gas Processor (1 lot / BER 14)
Elite Natural Gas Processor (3 lots / BER 44).

• Inert Gas
• Reactive Gas

Micro Flora Farm (1 lot / BER 5)
Automated Flora Farm (1 lot / BER 11)
High Capacity Flora Farm (1 lot / BER 14)
Elite Flora Farm (3 lots / BER 44).

• Cereal
• Seeds
• Wood

Personal Moisture Vaporator (1 lot / BER 5)
Moisture Vaporator (1 lot / BER 11)
High Efficiency Moisture Vaporator (1 lot / BER 14)
Elite Efficiency Moisture Vaporator (3 lots / BER 44).
Along with the above resources, you’re also able to collect energy resources which you can use for various crafts or simply for powering your harvesters themselves, which consist of the following:

Wind Power Generator (1 lot / BER 10): Collects ONLY Wind Energy

Solar Power Generator (1 lot / BER 15): Collects ONLY Solar Energy

Geothermal Power Generator (1 lot / BER 15): Collects ONLY Geothermal Energy

Fusion Power Generator (1 lot / BER 19): Collects ONLY Radioactive Energy

So you know what resource(s) you want, and you’ve got the harvesters you need now right? Well before you go scurrying off to survey and drop them on the perfect spot, our first major tip for utilizing your harvesting ability is to visit your nearest entertainer! Entertainers offer a wide variety of helpful buffs to enhance your character for whatever endeavor you choose to set upon.
When it comes to dropping harvesters, there’s nothing quite like the Harvest Faire buff, which can give you upwards of a 5% increase to resource extraction to any harvester(s) you drop while under the influence of the buff. 5% may not sound like much at first, but it really does add up, especially if you’ve got expertise on your harvester abilities. A few quick things to note about the Harvest Faire buff:

• The 5% bonus remains on any harvester you drop until the harvester is PICKED UP.
• Using /transferstructure to move a buffed harvester to another character will work and they will retain your harvester perks until said harvester is PICKED UP.

As mentioned earlier in this article, harvesters can come in different sizes. Each size has a unique footprint that you must be able to fit in a given area you wish to harvest in. Sometimes you’re at the mercy of the land when it comes to larger footprint harvesters, so just because you found that really high spawn on a mountain, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to fit your elites up there. It’s not uncommon you’ll have to sacrifice some of a concentration to be able to place your harvesters on even land! When you activate your deed, you’ll see (much like placing a house) bird’s eye view of the area you’re standing in and the footprint of the harvester it is you want to place down. Much like placing a house, sometimes you have to twist and turn to make it fit. Harvesters are no different! (While in this view, you can use your right mouse button to rotate the harvester).

Alright, so you’ve found the perfect spot (finally!) and dropped your harvester. How do we turn it on? Opening your radial menu on your harvester using the tilde key on your keyboard ( ` ) will open up a series of options for you to perform such as checking the status of your harvester, changing the name of the harvester, paying maintenance, or depositing power etc. Add the necessary credits and/or energy to your harvester, and on your radial menu, select the “Operate Machinery” option.
When you select the "Operate Machinery" option, it shows you the inner workings of your harvester. In there, you can find the option to "Change Resource", which will list all of the resources underneath your harvester (all with each of their own concentrations). so find the one you were surveying for and select it. Once you do, you'll be given readings:
In the above example, we're using 1 Elite Mineral Harvester and under the effects of 30% Harvester Expertise and 5% Harvest Faire.
Spec Rate is determined by the BER of your harvester and it also takes into account the bonuses from Expertise and your Harvest Faire buff.
In our above example with a BER 44 harvester, the Spec Rate is 59, which we get when you add 30% of BER 44 (13) and 5% of BER 44 (2): 13+2+44=59
Actual Rate is determined by the concentration % where you drop your harvester down along with any server bonuses happening within game. Here on Legends, the extraction bonuses is slightly increased and during times where Legends offers double everything events, those Actual Extraction Rates will DOUBLE!
*PRO TIP* In the event of a Double Everything, you don't need to pack up your harvesters to get those bonuses, simply turn your harvester OFF and back ON, and you will see the Actual Rate double.

Good job! Assuming you've hit the on switch on your harvester, now it's time to make sure we help upkeep and maintain the harvester so it can keep doing the job. Don't forget to keep checking the Status of your harvesters so you know exactly where they stand time-wise as far as what's put in for credits and power.
Maintenance - All harvesters need credits to stay intact. Failing to upkeep the maintenance will send ingame mails to remind you how much damage your harvester has taken, so always be mindful when you drop harvesters that you put enough credits in so you don't have to worry about losing them forever.
Power - Most harvesters need power to operate. Harvesters that do need power, WILL NOT operate whatsoever without power, so like credits, you want to try and make sure what you put in will last for the length of time you need it to. Wind, Solar, Fusion, and Geothermal Generators DO NOT require power to function, only credits.
Hoppers - All harvesters come with a hopper size. That hopper size varies depending on the quality resources used to craft your harvester. The entirety of your harvester operating, it's going to collect resources until you stop the harvester, lack of power stops the harvester, or the resource you're harvesting dies out, so they can fill up fast and it's on you to make sure they don't fill up and always keep harvesting. Full hoppers wont be able to collect any extra resources until emptied. If you can splurge and find yourself a nicely sized hopper, it's helpful if you're one who likes to wait to the last minute to check your hoppers.

Either something better has come along or whatever you were pulling up has moved on to the great resource container in the sky. Whatever the circumstances, it's time to pack up. When you need to redeed a harvester, it functions just like it would for picking up a house or a factory. There's a specific amount of credits each structure requires at a minimum to be redeeded and NOT destroyed. So pay attention to the texts, and make sure you don't waste perfectly good working harvesters!

I think we could go on and on about resources and harvesters today, but for now, this concludes our Friday Feature on Using Resource Harvesters. So get out there and enjoy throwing down your harvesters with confidence! Maybe you'll run into people you know at the next big spawn! Happy harvesting:
May the resource be with you,
SWG:Legends Staff
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