Core Systems
Petit Planet Tools and Gathering: Mattock, Rod, Net, and Tongs
Four tools cover almost every gathering node on the planet. Each has its own Strength cost per use, and which one you are holding can decide whether a lap is worth the walk.
At a glance
- Mattock
- Rocks, ore, trees, and lifting plants
- Fishing rod
- Fish and water nodes
- Bug net
- Bugs and small critters
- Tongs
- Shells and beachcombing
- Durability
- No durability loss reported
- Upgrades
- Not published
Four tools, four kinds of node
Gathering in Petit Planet is deliberately uncomplicated: there is one tool per node type, and you almost never have to choose which one applies. The interesting decisions are about sequencing and Strength, not about tool selection.
- Mattock. The workhorse. It fells trees, breaks rocks and ore, and lifts wild plants and flowers out of the ground so they can be carried home and replanted. It is the only tool with two distinct verbs: chopping a tree down and digging a plant up.
- Fishing rod. Casts into water for fish. Aiming the cast marker at the fish shortens the wait, which matters more than it sounds when each cast costs Strength.
- Bug net. Catches bugs and small critters. Same 2 Strength per attempt as fishing.
- Tongs. The beachcombing tool, for shells and shore pickups.
Loose items — fallen branches, shore debris, pickups lying on the ground — need no tool at all and cost no Strength. Sweeping those while the bar is full is the cheapest way to build a stockpile.
When each tool unlocks
The mattock is available from the start; without it there is no way to clear ground for the first farm plots, so it precedes the farming unlock rather than arriving with it. The rod and net follow within the opening days, which is why the first week's guides talk about fishing and bug catching as day-two or day-three activities rather than a later-game hobby.
The one unlock that is properly gated is digging soil mounds, which requires Luca Arbor level 5. That is not a tool unlock — the mattock is already in your hands — but the game will not let you work the mounds until the Arbor says so. The same applies to the highlands at level 13: the terrain exists, and your tools still work, but the node types there do not appear until the gate opens. See the Luca Arbor guide for the full ladder.
Exact unlock levels for the rod, net, and tongs were not recorded consistently across test reports, so this page does not assign numbers to them.
How many swings a node takes
A tree goes down in three swings. Each swing costs 1 Strength, so felling one costs 3 Strength plus the walk between trees. A tree that still has fruit hanging on it has not been felled yet — that is the fastest visual check for whether you have already worked a node, and it is the single most useful habit in the whole gathering loop.
Rocks and ore follow the same per-swing cost of 1, but the number of swings per rock is not documented consistently. What testers did record is that mining a rock node costs 1 Strength per swing, and that the daily soil mounds and ore piles unlocked at Arbor 5 are small and refresh every day — so the minerals you need for Neighbor furniture come from a short daily lap rather than a long session.
Digging a plant or tree up rather than felling it is a different, more expensive action: 5 Strength. That is the cost of relocation, and it is the reason the "group your trees" trick is worth doing once and never repeating.
Do tools wear out?
No durability was reported during the Final Beta. Tools did not break, degrade, or need repair, and there was no repair shop or replacement cost in the test build. If a launch build adds durability, the entire gathering economy shifts, because the current design assumes your only limiting resources are Strength and time.
Which node is the most Strength-efficient?
Ranked by what you get per point of Strength:
| Node | Strength | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ground pickups, shells, debris | 0 | No tool, no cost |
| Tree (three swings) | 3 | Drops Dough and resin; Inspo Cards capped at 2 per day |
| Rock or ore (per swing) | 1 | Small daily nodes; minerals for furniture |
| Watering a crop | 2 | Protects the harvest; not optional |
| Fishing cast | 2 | Best Dough value early when cooked |
| Bug catch | 2 | Feeds the Omni-Gallery |
| Planting a tree | 5 | Once per tree, permanent |
| Digging up a tree or plant | 5 | Relocation cost |
The efficiency answer depends on what you need. For Dough, a fishing trip plus cooking beats felling trees. For building materials, trees and ore beat everything. For gallery progress, bugs are the only route. Because the costs are this flat, the best strategy is not to specialise but to clear the cheap nodes first and then spend the remaining bar on whichever resource you are short of. The Strength guide has the full cost table and route planning.
Tool upgrades and replacement
No upgrade path was documented in the Final Beta, and no repair or replacement system existed. Community posts that describe tiered tools, upgrade materials, or higher-capacity bags are not corroborated by the test build and are not repeated here.
What may change at launch is the tool roster itself. The game's app list is the authoritative source for what a tool does in the build you are playing, and it is worth checking there rather than in a guide written during a previous test.
What counts as miscellaneous in the Omni-Gallery
The gallery's miscellaneous category is where every by-product of gathering ends up, and its entries explain why the same swing produces several things. The list below is the Final Beta set, grouped by how you obtain it.
| Item | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Wood chips | Felling trees | Bulk crafting material; drops alongside the tree's main lumber |
| Tree resin | Felling trees, or Islet surprise boxes | The adhesive used in furniture and building recipes |
| Plain lumber | Apple, plum, and Hexia flower trees | Hexia's base wood; craftable on your own planet |
| Heatwood | Mango, avocado, and flame trees | Taffeh's base wood |
| Ginkgo wood | Ginkgo trees | Islet specialty |
| Bamboo | Bamboo | Islet specialty |
| Dragonblood wood | Dragonblood trees | Islet specialty; deep red grain |
| Cactus fibre | Cactus | Islet specialty; the "lumber" that is actually fibre |
| Fir wood | Fir trees | Alpine terrain only |
| Baobab wood | Baobab trees | Taffeh; soft, porous grain |
| Broken shells | Beachcombing | Free pickup, recyclable |
| Coral branches | Beachcombing | Free pickup, recyclable |
| Crushed stone | Breaking ore piles | By-product of every mining swing |
| Quartz | Quartz nodes | Chance drop from the matching node |
| Iron ore | Iron nodes | Chance drop from the matching node |
| Flowstone | Flowstone nodes | Rare, and the highest-value mining material |
The split that matters for planning is base wood versus islet wood. Base woods come from trees on your own planet and can be farmed indefinitely. Islet woods — ginkgo, bamboo, dragonblood, cactus fibre — only come from the Starsea, so a furniture recipe that calls for one of them is gated behind travel rather than behind your Arbor level.
Gathering habits that pay
- Clear the free stuff first. Shells and ground pickups cost nothing and do not compete with tool actions.
- Check for fruit before you swing. A fruited tree is an unworked tree.
- Dig wild trees home once. Five Strength each, then a lifetime of three-swing harvests in one place.
- Leave fishing and bugs for the end of the bar. Two Strength per attempt is the most expensive regular action.
- Do the mound lap daily after Arbor 5. Four mounds and six ore piles, refreshed every day, feeding every Neighbor furniture recipe.
Baseline: Final Beta 0.95 (Starsea Call). Swing counts, Strength costs, and the absence of durability come from player measurements during the test; tool unlock levels and any upgrade path were not documented.