Comments

Comment by Gershuun

In Mists of Pandaria, when completing a Pandaren or Mogu Artifact, instead of vendoring it, it can be Crated with Crate Restored Artifact and used to purchase a box of fragments from all the pre-mop races from Brann Bronzebeard.

Essentially by digging in Pandaria you can also complete every Archeology project in the game.

Comment by Rossmallo

And on that note, Archeology is now completely tolerable again.

Might FINALLY be able to get the Battle Tank.

Comment by ezek86

How many fragments come in the crate?
Really interested in Tol'vir exchange.

Comment by MMOSimca

Edit: As a result of the hotfixes applied on October 12th, 2012, Crates of Archaeology Fragments are no longer unique. This means that this macro is fairly irrelevant - only slightly useful now, but I'll leave it here just in case.

Also, I'd like to note that all of the posts on the contents of this box are slightly wrong. This box's contents are identical to that of one Archaeology "node" gathered normally. That means there are between 5 and 9 Fragments in each box with a chance for a Keystone of the same race (well, at the very least I've gotten Dwarven Runestones from the Dwarf crate, so I assume the same is true with Tol'vir). Your chat may say more or less fragments, but that is only because you're opening them so fast that it combines the numbers.

If you came here because you realized that trading in 30+ Restored Artifacts for 30+ of a unique Crate that you had to close the vendor window to open was going to take forever, then you came to the right place.

/use Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments
/run BuyMerchantItem(7,1)

Comment by Makhunty

Each Archaeological Crate will contain 5-10 fragments of their respective race.

Comment by painezor

Tol'vir artifacts
Crawling Claw
Staff of Ammunae
Scimitar of the Sirocco
Scepter of Azj'Aqir
Ring of the Boy Emperor
Pendant of the Scarab Storm

Comment by Stryker666

Upon reaching 600 Archaeology I purchased 21 of these crates.

They contained between 5 and 13 fragments each.

I would also highly recommend MMOSimca's macro:

/use Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments
/run BuyMerchantItem(7,1)

Comment by Taraezor

Be careful buying this one if you are less than 600 level in Archaeology as you will NOT be able to open the crate. Thus it will take up space in your bags. Better to just keep stacking up your restored artifacts until you are able to use them.

Comment by QuickBASIC

October 12 Hotfix: "Crates of Archaeology Fragments are no longer unique."

If you don't want 9 different macros to buy and open crates:

/use item:87533
/use item:87534
/use item:87535
/use item:87536
/use item:87537
/use item:87538
/use item:87539
/use item:87540
/use item:87541

Put macro on hotkey... right click the crate you want to buy, hit hotkey... rinse repeat.

OR

/run BuyMerchantItem(7,1)
/use item:87539

Comment by 957270

You can also turn in Spirit of Harmony for these crates.

Comment by swaggerbear

Has anybody actually triggered a rare artifact using this method? I just used over 70 crates that resulted in a lot of Canopic Jars (which would be good news if I were an alchemist) and assorted junk, but no new Tol'Vir rare artifacts. Can someone confirm crates offer the same chance to trigger a rare as normal archaeology?

Comment by 683021

Something I found while opening a large number of these. If you click them too fast while you are opening, you may bug some of the boxes which will cause them to "loot" but the box will not disappear from your inventory. You also can't click and drag on the box or try to destroy it in any way. I put in a ticket and I will update this post as I find out more about this issue.

Comment by 462295

I've used over 600 of those crates which is about 4200 fragments of Tol'Vir and none of 3 epic items left appeared, so either Crates are scam or it's an instance of really bad luck.

Comment by 572194

Now it has a good chance to contain Tol'vir Hieroglyphic.

(In patch (5.1.0) I got 6 from 14 crates. In patch (5.0.5) I got 0 from ~110 crates)

Comment by Luniwenor

Not only me, but other people who are way more into achievements confirm that getting a rare solve while using crates seems to be bugged. While in cataclysm obtaining the fragments was waay longer, harder, i have got about 3 rare items from tolvir in way less amount of fragments total. And now, after almost being done with pristine artifacts (missing just 3) and 5-solves of mantids, i havent seen a single rare item. not even a dust from it... i have been spending all my artifacts on tolvir crates.
I have ticketed a GM about the ridiculous ratio of common and rare solves while using this method, he did not deny the possibility of a bug and declared to contact the developers. I have also submitted a bug report - now, after about a month ive asked again about some sort of confirmation if there is any action taken, or if this 'bug' is intended. Second GM confirmed, that the developers 'are still looking into this', yet no info.

but must admit, the number of Tol'vir Hieroglyphic is incredible. I've completed a bunch of solves thanks to these being present in about 1/5 of my crates.

Comment by zazz999

Alright there is actually something wrong by solving Tol'vir artifacts this way, I have 54 solves with this and all i have got it common finds.

Comment by Toonami

I want to confirm that getting rare artifacts with crates is NOT bugged, its just the chance is low.
After being done with panda archeology achieves, i had 600+ restored artifacts in bag. Traded all of them for tolvir crates and got: pet, mount, scimitar.

Comment by nahkhaz

The faster process for Tol'vir fragment collection is through Pandaria trade-ins and not through Uldum site spawns. While the trade-in with Brann Bronzebeard does exchange a full Mogu, Pandaran, or Mantid solve for 5 to 10 Tol'vir fragments, the site completion rate in Pandaria is so quick, that you will rack up more Tol'vir shards. Primarily, this speed difference is because the exchange with Bronzebeard guarantees that you get Tol'vir fragments; you don't have to *hope* that an Uldum spawn spot opens.

For example, in an hour of archaeology in Pandaria, you can solve close to 10 artifacts, and turn in each for between 5 to 10 Tol'vir fragments (plus keystones, which infrequently drop from crates). That means at the minimum you get 50 Tol'vir fragments an hour in Pandaria. Unless someone is uber lucky, that same rate is not possible in Kalimdor.

The only thing that will slow you down is if Pandarian, Mantid, or Mogu rares pop up in your cycle. You'll have to solve that rare and turn it in for just the regular 5 to 10 Tol'vir fragments.

And the greatest bonus of all? Not having to dig fossils out of the #*$%&$ Lokkari Tar Pits.....

Comment by 668210

So I have solved every single rare item from every Race/Type of Archaeology and gotten all the Archaeology Achievements. This is what I found from:
209 x Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments .

300g from solved vendor trash
11 x Tol'vir Hieroglyphic
5 x Canopic Jar
0 x Recipe: Vial of the Sands (Yes I am an Alchemist)

Seeming more like a 5% droprate of Tol'vir Hieroglyphic than a 12% droprate.

Comment by Skullhawk13

Does the dwarven racial give a bonus to obtaining things from this? Anyone know?

Comment by oogumboogum

I opened 40 crates and received only 2 Tol'vir Hieroglyphic. Also with 16 Tol'vir solves I only popped 1 Canopic Jar. This is going to be a very rough grind...

Comment by InvertedHelix

Just recorded results from opening 100 crates:
703 fragments (so 7.03 fragments average per crate) with a range of 5-9 fragments per crate
6 heiroglyphs

Comment by 1549749

Just a small write up I thought I'd do for the people who are a little confused by Pandaren Archaeology and how it works.

First let me say that I fully endorse this way over trying to get Uldum Dig sites to spawn in Kalimdor. Comparatively (with the use of Pandaren flying) I have been able to easily solve more Tol'Vir Artifacts using this method and using less time, I have less traveling to do versus Kalimdor, and can also solve Pandaren rares too (of which there are some pretty solid either BoA items or fun toys).

Whenever you get a white solve in Pandaria it's actually a good thing. The white solves turn into restored artifacts when you right click them, allowing you to trade them in for the Tol'Vir Crates containing fragments, even better news is that Brann Bronzebeard is IN Pandaria and will sell you the crates. He's located in Vale of Eternal Blossoms in the top section of the Mogu'shan Palace (not the instance!) here is where you will also go to turn in the quest rewards for the quest relics that you'll uncover. To get there you will NEED to have the ability to fly.

(here is the link to Brann to help with the location.)
Brann Bronzebeard

PLEASE NOTE

The old bug that stops you from getting rare solves using rare crates is gone, I got the solve for one of the rare toys for the Tol'vir doing this.

If you buy the wrong crate from Brann, you CAN NOT return it. I suggest you just right click the crate, and learn from the mistake rather than writing a ticket.

There are a lot of people from both the horde and alliance here also (doing what you;re doing), so you may run into the issue of griefers on a pvp realm, I'm currently 95 and well I do see horde players usually they're focused on getting the fragments too.

If you want a change up from Kalimdor (I ended up solving all the Night Elve rares trying to get the Tol'Vir digsites to spawn, got very sick of it very fast) I would HIGHLY recommend this.

Comment by Masterjohnson

I just opened 400 of these crates. I ended up getting 66 solves all common. I still need 3 rares. I also got 37 tol'vir heiroglyphs in the 400 crates. I ended up not using the heiroglyphs in the solves and sold them all for about 40k. Farming these is not a bad way to make money.

Comment by Ysosrslawl

If you're farming this to get the vial of sands pattern or any of the rare items like I am and you have to start archaeology from scratch. I highly suggest grinding legion digsites to level. I did this from 160 on my alchemist (I already had some levels from grinding previously and getting fragments in wow) to 525 so I could go to Pandaria and start my Mantid digsite grind.You will stop getting levels from solves part way to 600 when you switch over to Mantid digsites. Not really a problem since you should have The Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator and at least 1 Lorewalker's map. These are only obtainable by having exalted with the lorewalkers. However, Handynotes has a very nice plugin for the lorewalker locations. I did all of them including extras in Isle of Thunder in less than an hour.

You will not only gain access to these helpful items but also be able to get the flying disc mount if you don't already have it. So farm I have 78 restored artifact crates with quite a few pristine artifacts to turn in to get more. I'll add an edit once I decide to stop farming and do my solves. Ideally, you should consider stock piling a large amount of these crates to possibly save you from having to grind this again. That is if you quit after a hundred or so and the rng gods hate you.

Edit: As an update, I used 229 fragments and solved 32 artifacts. 1 epic ring, 1 scarab toy, and 8 jars. No recipe as of yet.

Edit 2: I farmed for 2 hours, got 46 restored artifact crates. Which gave me 321 fragments. Zero jars and about 8 solves. Out of the 153 restored artifacts I used to get more fragments to do more solves. I was only able to create 3 more jars. Really bad rng this time. Still no recipe

Comment by lordlight

New macro to buy and use crates from the vendor in Dreanor is

/run BuyMerchantItem(8,1)
/use item:87539

If you run the old macro of 7,1 it will buy orc crates from the vendor in stormshield. This is working as of 8.3

Comment by yesiroleplay

As of 8.3/VoN'Z, Uldum has been updated for Visions of N'zoth assaults. If you're starting a new alchemist and planning on farming for Canopic Jar, be sure to visit Zidormi (She is just to the SW and around a corner from the Seat of Ramkahanen. You can see her speech bubble on the mini map if you portal into the zone from your capital city. /way Uldum 56 35.2 Zidormi ) and switch back to the Cataclysm version of the zone before digging all over Kalimdor surveying dig sites hoping for a Tol'vir dig site to pop. These dig sites will not spawn in the new zone.

Remember you also also need Archeology 450 for these dig sites to appear.

Comment by yesiroleplay

Buying these in bulk can be a pain, what with the needless prompt after every purchase. Especially since you can't change the quantity. And the macros I found out there are both vendor-specific and dangerous because they depend on this item being in a certain "slot" in the vendor list.
This macro will work for any vendor that sells these crates:
/run for i=1,GetMerchantNumItems()do local l=GetMerchantItemLink(i)if l then if l:find("Tol'vir Arch")then BuyMerchantItem(i)end end end
/use item:87539

Just have the merchant vendor list open and spam a button bound to the macro until you're out of Restored Artifact.

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Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments

Item Level 1
Binds when picked up

Requires Archaeology (600)
"A small crate of Tol'vir Archaeology fragments."
<Right Click to Open>

Vendor Locations

This item can be purchased in Dazar'alor (83), Dalaran (9), Stormshield (6), The Great Seal (6), Warspear (5), Boralus (4), and Vale of Eternal Blossoms (2).

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Guide to All Shirts Archaeology Rares

Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments

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