What tool is used to harvest black pearls?

I have tried all my tools to harvest black pearls but none work. I must be missing something or need a different tool than what I currently have.

 

@Jacqueline

Sickle.
Check if your "Sickle" has its durability reduced to zero.

Also the pearls look about the same graphically if they are Full/Empty so you might be trying to harvest something which is already taken.
The difference is some brown vs white spots and hard to see.

 

they are probably bugged, i never could pick up one.

 

Pretty sure it's the sickle, but tried to harvest last nite and like yourself I couldn't. Ihave harvested in previous releases though so it does seem to be a bug.

 

If they are harvestable the mouse cursor will turn into a sickle shape when you mouse over them. I have found it very difficult to find black pearl nodes that haven't already been harvested. They don't seem to respawn quickly at all. I have resigned myself to having to buy them, and mandrake as well.

 

You don't have to equip the sickle either just have it in your backpack. Black pearl are really difficult to tell when harvestable, but as said you will get the icon showing when you can harvest them. Also beware it is a very valuable commodity, so I rarely find any to harvest.

 

If you don't mind the bad eye that the oracle gives you then in R21 it is relatively easy and fast to simply steal these in any NPC town.
But it is also, tedious and boring after a while.

This since all NPC containers (cabinets, sacks, cupboards, etc) have a RND loot table which usually includes
mug of ale/beer/mead, glass of milk, cheese bread, garlic bread, etc but every once in a while you get 1-20 basic reagents. So doing one round for 15 min in Owl's Head usually nets 300-500 gold from selling the consumables to Thomas in FireLotus plus some 30-50 reagents.
So mandrake and black pearls are no issue at all, if you can live with being boring.

case in point:


There are some places that is even better for mandrake if you know where to look.

 

Harvesting Black Pearl and Nightshade is a timing issue and not a bug. Black Pearl is only harvestable on new moon nights, and the window is pretty small. Nightshade is supposed to only be harvestable on full moon nights, but some of the nightshade nodes are harvestable in the day (West Perennial Trail, bear den, for one). I find it curious these are for sale at the same price as garlic, since BP and NS will be a beast to harvest in quantity if they are only available by gathering. (I hope vendors have a very limited and expensive supply to make the regs pretty rare.) Oh yeah. your tool is the sickle and if you have your artisan sickle it doesn't wear out. Otherwise watch the durability and as long as it is 1 or higher you should be able to gather.

 

Mandrake and Black pearl are somewhat abundant in the North Celestial Wetlands, north of Soltown. You have to really look for the mandrake, they made all the reagents smaller and harder to see.

 

Hmm... Are you certain that is implemented ?

I do agree that specialized timing for various reagents is the eventual intended implementation, however I do not recall reading anywhere that the dev-team had actually enabled such.​

As far as I can tell, the "harvestability" of reagents has not changed since the astronomy cycle was added.

 

I have harvested both Black Pearl (only on new moons), and Nightshade, but Nightshade is fickle, and can be had no matter the phase of the moon (unless you see a lot of it, then it is not harvestable, usually in a road encounter scene).

 

The Mysterious Swamp has black pearls that can be harvested any time day or night, regardless of the phase of the moon. It is the same with the nightshade there. The only thing seemingly affecting them is the re-spawn timer. Beware the spiders, though.

 

Isn't that the swamp with the three liches and their undead hordes?

 

Yes. However, I rarely go to that area. The last time I went there was when I cleared the entire scene back in R15, I think it was. I noticed creature re-spawning had stopped, and thought, "why not?".

 

That pearls are only harvestable on new moons is good to know. I have never been able to randomly harvest a pearl in East Perennial, even when they are indicated as available with my sickle fine.

 

Actually, it's not all that good to know - since it is incorrect.
You can harvest Black Pearl anytime, any season.
Finding it is the tedious part.... There is a fair amount in Hidden Vale - but overall - we'll need a LOT more nodes when we go live. ( Oh, and double that for Mandrake Root)