Tradeskillers used to be known for their pasty white skin and obsessive discussions about reactives and balance. Domino’s arrival on the scene as the new “tradeskill Dev” changed all that with new quest lines and tradeskill epics tempting the tradeskillers out into the open air and … well, not quite adventuring, perhaps, but not far off!

One of the latest additions has been red shinies: collections that are only visible to Master tradeskillers wearing the Earring of the Solstice, part of the tradeskill epic reward. There are eight collections, all of which are accessible at low adventure level, although collecting the items is much much easier if you don’t have to dodge the mobs. Each collection rewards a one-of-a-kind furniture item.

The red shinies are simply ?’s to be gathered, like the standard collections seen in adventure zones, except you must be wearing your Earring of the Solstice in order to see them and the shiny / glowy color around them is red.

Before you start, make sure that your Particle Level of Detail is set to max (Particle Effects can be found under Options → Display) so that you can see the ?’s from as far away as possible.

The collection pieces are lore so you can’t stock up on them. However, you don’t have to take collection items you don’t need - if you choose not to loot the item, the ? will fade in two minutes and a new one will appear in a separate location. However, if you are actively hunting for shinies it is faster to clear them.

You can use Gnomish Divining Rods (made by tinkers) to lead you to the location of a shiny near you although you can’t tell if the node is a standard one or a red tradeskill shiny; the tracking display simply shows a ?. However, as you need to have your Earring of the Solstice equipped for the red shinies to show up on the tracking window, you can check the ?’s that show up by unequipping the earring and seeing which ?’s disappear.

You will find these collections in your journal alphabetically under “Tradeskill:”, below the various Tome collections.

Locations

There is one collection per zone, in the following zones: Down Below and Thieves Way, Enchanted Lands, Barren Sky, Fens of Nathsar, Loping Plains, and Steamfont.

There are two collections in Greater Faydark, one in the nursery area and the other in Tunare’s Glade.

Under the City

The Tradeskill: Slime Samples collection can be found in the dark and manky sewers underneath Freeport and Qeynos: Down Below and the Thieves Way. All the city zones and villages have manhole covers that lead to these under-city zones. Both zones have the same collection pieces. As there are no other collections in these zones, the Gnomish Divining Rods are particularly useful for tracking them down. The red question marks appear to be distributed fairly evenly around the zones but if you are under level 10 in adventure levels, you may have difficulty.

Beware of alligators, too. It seems Qeynosians flush baby ones down their toilets!

Once you have collected all six pieces, hand in for a choice of housepets that some might describe as square.

Enchanted Lands

The Tradeskill: Wooden Salvage collection can be done quite safely along the shore on either side of the docks after you zone in from Nektulos Forest. Unfortunately, this appears to be the only place in Enchanted Lands where the question marks spawn. That means that although there appear to be two or three nodes at a time, if there is more than one person collecting, it can get ugly, fast. If you can’t collect these outside of peak hours, you may wish to wait a few weeks until they are less popular.

There seems to be a fairly consistent node within a short range of Garby Gingham Gigglegibber, the goblin “profit” of Bristlebane at 74,-1,23 so that could be a good spot to park yourself for semi-afk foraging while you watch a film or (shhhhh) log in from work.

The reward is not quite “simply a piece of furniture” - but I wouldn’t recommend trying to look inside. Who knows what you might find?

Barren Sky

The Tradeskill: Piano Keys collection is found up high in the Kingdom of Sky. This is the most difficult area for those tradeskillers who are low in adventure levels. You can not see the map until you’ve traveled around but I would recommend the following route:

Go to Thundering Steppes (or Nektulos Forest) and use the spires to port up to Barren Sky directly. You’ll arrive on Whisperwind Isle where you can find red shinies along the edges of the island near the ridgestone guardians on either side. Watch their pathing and you should be able to collect them without going too close.

The Isle of Awakening has the occasional ? on the edges near the clouds and more commonly on the path leading to the Bonemire Teleport. If you can get to the teleporter, you can collect the shinies by standing around the teleporter and picking up the ?’s which spawn in the local area. The good news is that this collection only has five pieces so is relatively quick to complete compared to the others.

The reward is a most appropriate musical box, offering you the classics of Norrath.

Fens of Nathsar

The Tradeskill: Chart Fragments collection is in one of the highest level zones but also probably the safest for the pure crafter to collect - especially since travel to the Fens should be easy, after completing the tradeskill epic. There are 10 chart fragments in total.

All around the outside Bathezid’s Watch and on the path leading up to it. This area is completely safe to all who have Bathezid’s Watch faction. The only shinies here are the red ones so gnomish divining rods are particularly useful. Bear in mind it’s a large area - if it comes up blank you may want to run around with the tracking window open until you get into range of one.

You can also follow along the path north of Sathir’s Span and you’ll see them, both on the path and below it. This seems to be a higher concentration of nodes but is also more dangerous as you have to keep an eye out for roaming mobs.

I know a woman who does jigsaw puzzles and then frames them once she’s finished. The reward for the Chart Fragment collections made me think of her.

Loping Plains

The Tradeskill: Bar Glasses collection requires seven pieces. Loping Plains can be quite frightening to explore. The most important thing to remember is not to run off in a panic. Always stick to the path and head back to the village if you can.

You’ll find the red shinies all along the paths here - there seems to be a large concentration alongside the path leading from Greater Faydark to Somborne Village. You can find them more rarely on the the westward path that exits out of the north side of Somborn, so if you are finding it difficult to avoid aggro, you could park yourself there and wait - although this is already proving to be a popular spot.

A place to put your glass is the reward for collecting the set.

Steamfont

The Tradeskill: Fae Fireflies collection only has five items to collect.

Red shinies are scattered around Steamfont along the paths and on wall and crater edges. Mobs are fairly well spaced apart: use the Earring of the Solstice to get your run speed up and dash along the paths looking for the ?’s. There are a good concentration at the area leading to the drakes in the south east of the zone. The gnomish divining rod is very useful here - remember to swap out the earring in order to check which ?’s are the red ones.

The reward is reminiscent of the glass jars we used to put fireflies in when I was a child. Just make sure there are air-holes at the top.

Greater Faydark

The Tradeskill: Faydwer Flowers collection is a set of six flowers which can be found around the nursery in Greater Faydark. This is the newbie area for Kelethin in the far north of the zone. Standard collection glowies do exist here but are not that common, so it can be beneficial to use a gnomish divining rod. There appear to be two red shinies up at any given time and they can range from the entrance to the nursery area to the beach. There are low level aggro mobs around the pond and the edges of the zone, so tradeskillers without adventure levels should take care.

The reward is a house item that will light up your home in the most enchanting way.

The Tradeskill: Tunare’s Glade Leaves is fairly self-explanatory for a change. You’ll be collecting six leaves in Tunare’s Glade, a small area on the south side of Greater Faydark - almost a direct vertical line down from the nursery. Finding sparklies here can be frustrating because of the curvature of the leaves and the vines covering the ground. Standard collection glowies are common here, making the Gnomish Divining Rod less useful unless you happen to be looking for the tier 2 grub and forest beetle collections as well. Mobs in this area are non-aggro so there is no danger to tradeskillers roaming the area as long as they remain within the glade.

The reward is a house item which makes artistic use of the leaves which you have collected.

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.