Resources
The living economy beneath every crafted item — how resources spawn, cycle, and shape the player market on SWG Infinity.
The Resource System
Star Wars Galaxies has the most sophisticated resource system in MMO history. It is still running exactly as designed on SWG Infinity.
In Star Wars Galaxies, nearly every craftable item in the game requires raw resources — and no resource lasts forever. Resources spawn across all planets in shifting deposits, each deposit with unique quality stats. When a deposit is exhausted or its spawn timer expires, it disappears and a new one takes its place elsewhere. The resource pool never stops changing.
This dynamic creates the engine of the entire player economy. An Armorsmith needs the best iron available. A Weaponsmith wants high-quality metal. A Chef needs quality grains and fruits. All of these come from players with Artisan surveying skills and harvesters planted on active deposits — and the window to harvest any given exceptional resource can be as short as a few days.
Understanding the resource system is what separates a casual crafter from a master one. Quality matters. Timing matters. Your resource network matters more than your skill boxes.
Resource Categories
Resources are organised into broad categories, each used by different crafting professions.
Metals & Ores
Iron, aluminum, copper, steel, and many more. The backbone of Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Droid Engineer, and Architect crafting. Metal quality stats (OQ, SR, UT, MA) directly determine weapon damage and armor protection values. High-quality metals are always in demand.
Chemicals
Polymer, radioactive materials, lubricants, and synthetic compounds. Critical for Combat Medic and Doctor consumable production, and used in many advanced Droid Engineer schematics. Chemical quality varies wildly between spawns.
Flora & Organic
Wood, seeds, grains, fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Primary resources for Chef, Tailor, and many Artisan schematics. Organic resources can only be harvested from active biome spawns — they cannot be produced synthetically.
Gemstones & Crystals
Used in high-end weapons, Jedi equipment, and rare decorative schematics. Crystal quality is particularly relevant to lightsaber crafting by Jedi. Gemstone deposits are less common than metal deposits.
Energy
Solar and wind energy resources power harvesters and factories. Energy quality affects operational efficiency of structures. Unlike physical resources, energy is harvested continuously by energy harvesters placed on appropriate terrain.
Liquids & Gas
Water, alcohol, petroleum, and gases. Used in Chef consumables, chemical crafting, and various engineering schematics. Liquid resources are found on specific planet types and require liquid harvesters to collect.
Understanding Resource Stats
Every resource has up to 11 quality stats. Knowing which ones matter for your recipe is essential.
Overall Quality (OQ)
The single most important stat for most schematics. OQ directly affects the overall quality of the finished product. When in doubt, prioritise OQ above all other stats when selecting resources for a new schematic.
Shock Resistance (SR)
Critical for weapons and armor. Affects durability and resistance to damage degradation over time. High SR resources produce gear that holds up better in extended combat use.
Unit Toughness (UT)
Affects structural integrity of crafted items. Particularly important for Architect-crafted structures and Droid Engineer components. Higher UT produces more resilient crafted items.
Malleability (MA)
Determines how well a resource responds to crafting experimentation. High MA resources give more experimentation points on applicable lines, allowing higher-quality finished products from experimentation.
Conductivity (CD)
Key for electronic and energy-based components. Droid Engineers and certain Weaponsmiths using energy weapons need high CD resources for optimal output power and efficiency ratings.
Flavour (FL)
Organic resource stat used exclusively by Chefs. FL affects the potency of food and drink buffs. High-FL ingredients produce consumables with stronger and longer-lasting effects — always in demand.
Surveying and Harvesting
Survey with the Survey Tool
Artisan and Scout skills grant access to survey tools. Using a survey tool on a planet opens a resource map showing deposit concentrations in your area. The map shows concentric rings — move toward the high-concentration zones (shown in red or orange) to find the optimal harvester placement spot.
Identify the Best Deposit
Each resource deposit has a concentration percentage at any given location. 100% concentration is theoretical maximum; real deposits rarely exceed 95%. Place your harvester at the highest concentration point you can find for maximum yield. Survey in a grid pattern if you want to be thorough.
Place a Harvester
Harvesters are structures crafted by Architects. Different types collect different resource categories (personal mining units, personal chemical extractors, etc.). Place the harvester at your high-concentration waypoint and activate it. It will collect resources continuously based on its efficiency and the deposit concentration, deducting maintenance fees over time.
Maintain and Monitor
Harvesters require periodic maintenance payment to keep running — they stop when maintenance runs out. Check your harvesters regularly, especially when a resource spawn is active. Inactive harvesters produce nothing but still occupy a structure slot. When a deposit expires, move your harvesters to the next good spawn.
How Spawns Work
Resources on SWG Infinity follow the original SWG dynamic spawn system. At any given time, each planet hosts a set of active resource deposits across various types. These deposits have a lifespan of roughly 3–22 days before they expire and new deposits of potentially different quality spawn to replace them.
The key insight: exceptional quality resources are rare and temporary. When a resource spawns with very high OQ and SR values, the server community's crafters race to survey it, plant harvesters, and stockpile as much as possible before it despawns. The most valuable crafted items often owe their quality to resources that were only available for a window days or weeks in the past.
This is why veteran crafters maintain massive resource banks — warehouses full of thousands of units of exceptional-quality resources saved from past spawns. Access to a crafter's resource stockpile is often more valuable than their actual skill level.
Buying and Selling Resources
Resources are the raw material of the entire player economy. They can be traded, sold on the bazaar, or exchanged directly between players. Key channels:
- ‣ Bazaar Terminal — Found in most major cities. Search for specific resource types and quality tiers. Sellers list resources in units with per-unit pricing. Buy in bulk for best value.
- ‣ Vendor Shops — Player-owned shops (Architect-crafted structures) often specialise in specific resource categories. Find vendor districts in major player cities for the most competitive selection.
- ‣ Discord Trading — The SWG Infinity Discord has a dedicated trading channel where players post resources for sale. Often faster than the bazaar for specific high-quality requests.
- ‣ Guild Networks — Resource-sharing guilds pool harvester output among members, giving everyone access to a far larger and more diverse stockpile than any individual crafter could maintain.
Resource Tips for Crafters
Hoard, Hoard, Hoard
When you find an excellent resource spawn, harvest as much as you can before it expires. Veteran crafters keep hundreds of thousands of units of good resources in storage. You will never regret having too many — but you will regret missing the window on a 95+ OQ spawn.
Know Your Schematic Weights
Every schematic has different stat weight priorities. Before surveying, check the schematic you intend to craft and identify which stat is most heavily weighted. OQ is most common, but some schematics care far more about SR, CD, or UT. Targeting the right stat maximises your crafted item quality.
Join a Resource Guild
Solo harvesters on a single planet see a fraction of the server's resource spawns. Guilds with members spread across all 10 planets and multiple biomes catch every exceptional spawn. The resource sharing advantage of a good crafting guild is enormous. Ask in Discord about active crafter guilds.
Frequently Asked Questions
The number of structures you can place is limited by your Lot count — a per-character cap on placed structures. Each harvester occupies one lot. Basic characters start with a limited lot count that increases with in-game progression and certain city perks. Many dedicated resource harvesters create dedicated alts specifically for harvesting to multiply their effective lot count.
The Artisan profession’s surveying branch directly improves survey tool quality and increases harvester output rates. The Scout profession provides complementary surveying bonuses. Master Artisan surveying is considered the benchmark for serious resource harvesting. Even without mastery, basic Artisan surveying provides a significant advantage over ungrouped surveying.
No. Once resources are harvested and placed in a container or house storage, they do not expire. You can hold onto exceptional resources indefinitely. Only active spawns in the world expire. This is what makes resource stockpiling so important — you can harvest a great spawn now and use it in crafting months later.