ArcheAge Guide for the Thunderstruck Log

This is a guide to the Thunderstruck Log, an item that you will surely want and need. We will figure it out what it is, how to get it from easy to hard and what it is used for.

Nature

It's a piece of wood from a tree that has been struck by lightning. Yes, in ArcheAge the weather can affect items and can impact what an item is - technically. In reality it's all RNG and an actual storm doesn't have to happen to produce the log. After a tree has been struck by lightning (as determined by RNG gods), harvesting it will result in a thunderstruck log.

Thunder (well, lightning) striking a tree is rare. So rare I don't have a picture of it nor have I seen it, but it's not so rare that it's impossible to obtain. In the world, look for a tree with a few branches, no leaves, and looks scarred from lightning damage. That will provide you with a thunderstruck log.

And the tree must be struck while it's growing - some say growing and young, some say just growing, but a full mature tree won't count. This means of course, trees with a longer growth time will produce more logs.

The rarity of them gives you about one every few days, assuming you plant in a location where it rains often - although this is subjective, since by most accounts it's RNG during the growing phase if a tree will or will not produce it.

The type of tree is up for debate to, many will claim pine and ebony are your best bets, but again, so very little is known by anyone on how these appear, your best guess is as good as mine - just not enough player research has gone into it and KR version players are about as dumbfounded as we are.

The reason of the Rarity That Thunderstruck Log Use AKA 

It's used to build the tractor, which lets you carry four packs plus one on the back of the driver for five. This is a major money earner and is very important for gold farming later in the game. Basically, end game trading works like this.

You create a trade fleet. In this fleet, you have trade vessels, a scout, and multiple defense ships. You arrange to land, then unload all of the goods into tractors, then drive, again, with an escort to the location. Once there, start the process all over again.

So that log is a gold mine waiting to happen.

Effective and Easy Way to Obtain (The Cheating Method)

Buy one from another player or from the cash shop if available.

Hard Way to Get

Plant trees and hope that you harvest one. The longer the growth rate, the more time RNG gods have to decide if it's flagged thunderstruck or not.

Sorry for the total lack of advice here, but literally there is two ways to obtain it. Either from planting or buying it from someone else/cash shop. I'm not specifically sure what advice on the planting to give, there is a rumor that planting on islands produces more thunderstruck logs, but they do drop from every tree planted anywhere.

Anyway, it is better for us to avoid listening to the trolls / people regurgitating bad advice. If it's the next big step in your ArcheAge career, keep your tree farm going and you should get one, otherwise, keep farming gold to purchase one outright