Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is a fresh new take on the Assassin’s Creed franchise. This game did a great job in pleasing a lot of hard-core AC fans as well as bringing new players into the fold.
One of the great things about AC: Odyssey is its ability to lengthen the game outside of the main storyline, while still remaining fresh and not sending you on repeating radiant quests (I’m looking at you, Preston Garvey). Because of this, you can easily sink hours into the game doing things that you have never done before while never feeling like you are “grinding”.
With that being said, if you are wanting to fully upgrade your armor, weapons, or ship; finding materials can be something that does slowly turn boring. This guide is to help you on your journey of harvesting materials.
If you’re looking for more information on how upgrading works, reference the article “When and How to Upgrade Gear – Assassins Creed Odyssey”.
Naturally Occurring Resources
This is the first way that you will likely gather resources-by simply exploring the world around you. It doesn’t require a skill level or much fighting. In fact, you can even collect many of these without even having to get off your horse.
Leather
Hunting animals is an easy way to gather leather. Some animals can even be killed without taking any damage. Of course, some of the more dangerous animals such as bears are likely going to drop more leather than others. It is often a good strategy to find herds of animals, make sure you are hidden, and go to work with your bow and arrow.
Another advantage of hunting more predatory animals is if you attack one of them, the others in close proximity will come to their aid. If you are skilled enough, you can use this method to quickly harvest leather from a group of boars.
Iron Metals, Obsidian Glass, Precious Gems
A good amount of upgrades in this game require things such as iron metals. One of the strategies to getting plenty of iron metal is to go spelunking (cave exploring). Typically, you can find all the iron you need on the side of cave paths and on some of the cave walls.
If you need something more rare such as obsidian glass or precious gems, these can sometimes be found as well. The more rare materials are more prevalent at the bottom of water areas in caves.
Iron metal can also be found outside of caves in rocky areas. The nice thing about the ones that occur outside of caves is that you can gather them while riding past it on your horse. Some of the islands (such as the volcanic ones) are especially beneficial for this method.
Olive Wood
There are trees that you can cut down (or pick?) that occur in the world. This is one that is extremely easy to do while horseback riding.
The trees are smaller than any others, and have a particular look about them. They are relatively easy to spot no matter how you are getting around ancient Greece.
Ancient Tablets
Ancient tablets are only used to upgrade the Adrestia (your ship). They are only found naturally occurring in ruins. However, you can occasionally find them for sale from blacksmiths.
Clearing Forts
Forts and similar style objectives have been around in the Assassin’s Creed series for quite a while. Odyssey really expounded on this in a major way.
One of the things that can be monotonous in a video game is constantly clearing out areas of enemies that have the same exact enemies in a similar location. Odyssey changed all this by making each fort unique in every aspect.
There are multiple ways to enter each fort with a variety of style to choose how to conquer it once you get inside. You can set traps for those that may attempt to call reinforcements by lighting the brazier. You can literally stealth kill everyone. You can also go in swords a’swinging. You can attempt to get a height advantage and take everyone out with your bow. There is no limitations as to how you can conquer a fort.
Although you will get more resources by eliminating everyone in the fort (and subsequently looting their bodies), you can also get many resources by looting chests (especially the nation chests), as well as looting baskets, boxes, and weapons racks. These can be done without killing a single person if you wish.
Another advantage that a fort has is that if you are confident in your combat ability, letting a soldier light the brazier will bring reinforcements. Along with these reinforcements come mercenaries, which are often a good way to get resources as well.
Some of the more difficult resources to gather (such as large quantities of iron metals and precious gems) can regularly be obtained by completely clearing out a fort.
In my opinion, clearing forts is one of the most fun ways to get those desperately needed materials.
Dismantling Weapons and Armor
One of the things that is often forgotten about is that you can dismantle weapons and armor that you are not using. If you are not worried about drachmae, then this is a way to easily get a lot of materials very quickly.
Each weapon and piece of armor that you dismantle gives you a set amount of resources depending on two factors: what level and rarity the item is, and what your mercenary level is. Being a higher level mercenary does have its perks.
There are a lot of disputes about whether it is better to sell them for drachmae, and then use the drachmae to purchase resources. Although this is typically true (especially of the common variants), most merchants do not carry enough of the less common resources to make this a viable option.
If you wish to simply sell the items for drachmae, you will find yourself going all over ancient Greece trying to find enough blacksmiths that have enough of the resources that you need. Instead, you could spend this time gathering more resources. However, if you find yourself rich with drachmae, make a habit of buying materials that you are often short of every time you pass a blacksmith.
There is a great work around to the material limits that I will explain in the next section: the Rebel’s Peak Blacksmith.
Rebel’s Peak Blacksmith
Note: This way of gathering resources does require the DLC “The Fate of Atlantis: Episode 1-Fields of Elysium”.
The Elysium DLC is a beautiful area that is fun to explore. There is a huge advantage to one of the blacksmiths there-a much higher amount of resources that are available to purchase.
As previously mentioned, it is typically more profitable to sell any unused items and then use the drachmae to purchase materials rather than simply scrapping them. The black smith at Rebel’s Peak allows you to buy just about as much materials as you can handle.
So, if you have the Elysium DLC, make sure that you save your items to sell at the Rebel’s Peak blacksmith, and then buy materials directly from him as well.
For those that enjoy battle and adventure on the high seas, naval battles are actually a decent way to get some good materials. There are three primary ways to get resources: picking up salvage, cleaving a ship, and defeating a ship.
Salvage is simply found by exploring, and the other two ways are by engaging in battle with ships. If you choose this way, don’t forget to pick up side missions as many of them are as simple as destroying a certain amount of ships of a country.
Ramming and cleaving a ship is the quicker way of gathering resources as you do not have to go into hand to hand combat. In fact, it is actually mentioned as one of the hints on the loading screen that cleaving a ship gives you the most olive wood.
Defeating a ship does give you armor or weapons though. Defeating a ship also allows you to repair your own ship, and this often a huge benefit if you are fighting multiple ships at once.
Side Missions and Mercenaries
One of the great things about AC: Odyssey is the plethora of side missions to choose from. Along with these side missions are mercenaries that attempt to hunt you down as you become more notorious.
Although side missions and mercenaries are not as consistent of a way to gather materials, it is one of the most varied. Another advantage is that you typically know (or at least have an idea) what you will be receiving as a reward for completing a side mission or defeating a mercenary.
One thing to mention with side missions is even if you aren’t sure if you want to do it, still accept the mission. There is a good chance that you will complete it completely by accident while working on other missions.
Conclusion
There will always be arguments about how one way is quicker or how one way gives more materials than another. There may even be some ways that haven’t been mentioned here. The important thing to remember in AC: Odyssey is to have fun. If there is a certain way that you enjoy getting materials, get them that way!
Don’t let someone ruin the game for you by telling you that you could make 1 drachmae more per hour if you do this or that. Video games are meant to be enjoyed, and AC: Odyssey is an extremely enjoyable game. So go forth wherever you want, conquer whatever you wish, and earn or spend your drachmae and materials in a way that makes you most happy!