A basic walkthrough of gathering collectables at level 50.

Step 0 - Be level 50 crafter/gatherer.

For the purposes of this guide though, you should be level 50 Miner or Botanist. Ideally you will also be wearing gear at your level. Accessories being sub-50 is fine, maybe some gear being level 45-50 is fine, but optimal collectable exp farming requires adequate gear.

Recommended GP: 550 for the newbies.

Once you hit 51 you can go with just 500.

Step 1 - Do the collectables quest.

Level 50 Quest: Inscrutable Tastes
NPC: Morgayne (X10, Y10 Foundation)

I forgot what you actually do for the quest. Of course, you need to have access to Ishgard, so that is the general prerequisite. For this quest to pop up, you have to complete the main story quest "The Better Half", which is like a quest or two after the quest that takes you on a tour of the city.

At the conclusion of this quest, you gain a bunch of abilities but the ones relevant to gatherers are:

Put them on your hotbar.

About the collectables.

At 50 MIN, your item of interest is Yellow Copper Ore [Slot 2].
Time of availability: [12AM to 12:55AM] and [12PM to 12:55PM] Eorzea Time
Zone: Coerthas Western Highlands
Coordinates: I forgot to write this down but it's around the bridge. You know the bridge.

At 50 BTN, your item of interest is Old World Fig [Slot 2].
Time of availability: [2AM to 2:55AM] and [2PM to 2:55PM] Eorzea Time
Zone: Dravanian Forelands
Coordinates: x27,y13 (north of Tailfeather teleport)

I don't actually know how much Gathering stat you need to have to hit these nodes, just make sure you're geared.

I recommend getting flying in these two zones, because that would be immensely helpful.

IMPORTANT - You will need at least 3 empty spots in your inventory.

Three spots for one gatherer class. If you are going to do MIN then BTN in one go, you'll need 6 empty spots. When you hit level 51, you will need an additional spot each, so 8 empty spots. LOL SET MOR DHONA AS FAVORED/FREE TELEPORT

Step 2 - The first time you gather this junk.

Find the node, ignore everybody else blocking your view.

Open the gathering window like usual.

The first time you roll, you should find the Slot you need and then use Sharp Vision III (MIN) or Field Mastery III (BTN) to increase the mystery item gathering chance to 75%, and hope that you get it the first shot.

If you didn't uncover the node on the first shot, bash until you uncover the node, and then exit the node and wait for the next time it spawns to do collectables.

Step 3 - The standard procedure of collecting.

When you have the item uncovered, use this

and the window will change

Bash the item like you normally do. This thing will show up.

You'll see your standard gathering chance and HQ chance in the upper right.

Wear is the measure of how many chances you have to increase the rarity of the items you collect. If you surpass the maximum amount of wear on the item (in the above example the max is 30), the gathering chance will drop to 10%. You'll get nothing.

Rarity is the measure of the 'collectability' of the item. Do you think Rowena is just going to accept any pile of shit? Nay.

The minimum collectability she will accept for Yellow Copper Ore and Old World Fig is 240. You have to raise the rarity to at least 240 before you can even collect anything from the node.

How to increase rarity?

Methodical Appraisal increases Wear by 10 and increases rarity based on your Perception stat (Natasha Jayhawk said Perception, if it's wrong blame him).

At level 50, you will likely have to use 3x Methodical Appraisal to surpass 240 rarity. At higher levels you learn new Appraisals, but for the 50 nodes Methodical is sufficient.

Important - Each Appraisal eats a chunk of the node HP, as if you were hitting it.

Once your rarity is above the minimum, click/select "Collect".

Another window will pop up asking about the collectability (which is slightly randomized to number that is in a few number range of your rarity, plus/minus). If your collectability is not high enough, you can opt to keep it as a normal item. Otherwise, you want it, so hit "Yes".

How your inventory should look after.

Your standard rotation, from the moment you open the gathering window, should think about how to optimize the number of collectables you get. At level 50, I did

Collector's Glove (can be used while in gathering window)
Toil of the Mountaineer/Toil of the Pioneer
Hit the node
Discerning Eye ("crits" next appraisal)
Methodical Appraisal (HP down)
Methodical Appraisal (HP down)
Collect (HP down)
Collect (HP down)
Collect (HP down)
Collect (HP zero)
For people will low gathering chance (90-95% or below), use a Sharp Vision I or Field Mastery I.

This will have to be adjusted depending on how much rarity you get. If your stats aren't good enough, you'll have to stick with collecting only 3 at a time. If your stats are good enough, you can get 4.

The difference between 3 collectables and 4 collectables is 60,000 exp!

At level 51+ you can use Natasha Jayhawk's YOLO method, which is to use Discerning Eye and then Instinctual Appraisal, and hopefully get 240 rarity in 1 appraisal hit. Which would make it possible to collect 5, like so

But wait, I only got some 6000 exp from bashing the node??? What 60k exp?!

Step 4 - The hand in.

You guys should know this tent in Mor Dhona. If not, it's just north of the teleport point.

Talk to the Collectable Appraiser dude and you will get this

This window is also available on your Timers list, by clicking/selecting the Rowena's House of Splendors timer.

It's pretty self-explanatory, and items you have available to hand in will be highlighted so you know you have something to hand in. Yellow Copper Ore and Old World Fig are ALWAYS available as hand ins; other items above level 50 change with timer.

On the bottom of the window you can see the rewards for items at different ranges of collectability.

Look at this ridiculousness

Important Points

You should have 500-550 GP when you hit the node.
The nodes only last 1 in-game hour. If you're still traveling there at 30 min past, you might get 1 collectable. Ha.
Old World Fig actually spawns around this one stone pillar sticking out of the ground. That's the landmark to figure out where you should be.
USE STEALTH. The BTN node is surrounded by bears and there is literally a FATE there all the time.
Remember, inventory space.

Step 5 - Become an collectable addict.

See Sosul Mars for explanation.

I can't really give much recommendation for how to gather the higher level stuff, because it's quite difficult to reach minimum rarity without higher level abilities. Sosul bashed his way to 60 by brute forcing the lvl 50 nodes every day for like 3 days.

Also I haven't done crafting or fishing collectable. Ask Apolly Chan about fishing. Uhhhhhh ask somebody about crafting.

Ask your questions in FC chat or below.