I only got about one present per drop as well, except for a couple of times where I got lucky and found two.

This is probably true for most people...the difference being that some people can be online a lot more than others, so they get more presents. There's no way to remedy that.

My usual route was Moors -> Gloriana -> Bondero -> Balach -> Tornada.

I don't know how doing the mountains or UV would be any better.

Mountains and Highway have too much traffic. UV seems the same way, but fewer people go down there I think so the success rate might be a little higher. I never found anything down there myself, but hey, whatcha gonna do?

Several people were doing UV. Me, Phoebus, Talan, probably some others I forgot.

I was down in the UV too, and did anyone else feel that the fishers were hitting a little bit harder than usual?

The system is fine. It does seem to be random, as much as people want to think otherwise.

You don't dedicate yourself to searching roads/mountains because the entire game is going to be passing through those areas on the way to whatever areas they frequent. If you find one on the roads, it tends to be sheer luck. If you move quickly, your first 3 (maybe even 4) areas are going to have the best chances, but it tapers off exponentially after that. It's all luck. This is my first year getting artifacts, ever, and I'm pretty happy with it (duh).

In general, while finding actual gnomes is luck, your 'scanning' capability relies heavily on your movement buffs (hunting to dodge cows, mounts for trotting or adroitness/ooshphet/etc) and geography knowledge. I found four gnomes in Skarch once, and when people started frequenting the area I moved to Muhanlesh first, which produced 4 gnomes at one drop, 1 at another and then 0 for the rest of the holiday. So yeah, luck and efficiency. I didn't even pay attention to where I was going, though I stopped to squint down stray passages/corridors rather than waste precious movement time. Having 'gnome' and every iteration of the word therein triggered to a rather loud sound effect also made the whole process easier, though there were dozens of false alarms.

Pretty much what Furien said. As soon as lots of people started looking, it became much harder since there became fewer areas you could effectively search before anyone else. I got three gnomes a drop on the first three drops, which weakened steadily after that. On the last day, I didn't get a single gnome on five consecutive drops!

You should be careful how much you automate in regards to finding gnomes. Dance too close to that line and you may find yourself green and leafy.

(And there's still -5- gnomes out there, SOMEWHERE, in the game, from the final few drops!)

I do all of mine manually, I just head towards the same general areas on my beast trained in trotting. Easy as pie!

5 GNOMES?! THE GNOMES MUST BE MINE.

We found one last night. Not sure what was in it.

Did someone mention automation? By "pre planned circuit" I just meant a list of areas in your head that you wanted to hit. It's usually good to start on one end of the Basin and work through areas to the other side.

And that's crazy, I was just wondering last night if there were any more out there.

*makes it my goal to find another gnome*

Like you need anymore artifacts from gnomes.

On the other hand, if you just give it to Casilu, it will just turn anything in it to pocketbelts

I was going to give it out!

I'm actually more interested in knowing where they are hiding than the present itself.

Casilu won one of my present contests. She got pocketbelts.

Me too. Whoever finds them better tell me, because I'm totally dying from suspense here.

I was looking for something to do to take a break from forging. Wonder if I will ever find them.

They clearly must be in secret or hidden rooms if no one's found them by now.

Are there any restrictions to where they -can't- be found?

They're clearly hiding where the last Custodian of Justice likes to vanish to.

A chubby little gnome in a red suit stands here, tapping his nose with a finger.

Success!

Edit: X2!!!

Edit: X3!!!!

Where were they?

Quest areas of Scorpion Caverns.