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Making Gold With Achievements
This is what happens when you take a screenshot at 2:30am
I’d had what many might call a “righteously shitty week” and was hungry to achieve something just to get that jones of success. I scrolled through the Achievements window and was drawn to Cataclysmically Delicious, probably because it seemed simple enough, but mostly because it was ten at night and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. “Sample the following Cataclysm delicacies,” seemed like a good idea on all fronts.
And sample I did. Between the Auction House and various vendors, Herculano had managed to sink his teeth into just about every culinary delight offered. Wearing his industrial strength stretchy pants, all that was left was for him to dine on was the scrumptious-sounding Unidentifiable Meat Dish and Vile Purple Fungus. A quick search on Wowhead revealed some good news – both items were available on vendors. However, the bad news that followed bunged up more than Herculano’s intestinal tract. It almost eighty-sixed the whole Achievement run.
The Fungus was only available on two vendors. One of them, Zungam, only became available after running a quest in Zul’Aman which unlocked him as a vendor. The other vendor was Grunka who, along with Edric Downing (the vendor who sold the Unidentifiable Meat Dish), could only be accessed if you were on the twilight cultist questline in Hyjal. If you weren’t on it, the NPC’s were hostile toward you. So if you’d completed the Hyjal questlines and were currently doing the Fireland dailies, the ship had sailed and these NPC’s were out of your reach. Which also meant the achievement would be impossible to complete.
As luck would have it, I had a hunter who hadn’t completed the questline yet. I sent her in, completed what needed finishing, then loaded up on vendor goodies as soon as they were nice to me. I sent the rations to Herculano. Other than a case of the runs which produced a stench science hadn’t invented a name for, Herc managed not one, but two achievements –
For dessert, he used some of his chef awards to buy the recipe for the Chocolate Cookies needed to bang out the achievement You’ll Feel Right As Rain (pictured above).
You may have figured out how a person could make money off of these achievements. But for those of a more “challenged” nature, here you go.
– Go through the list of items needed for the achievement and find the ones located on vendors. Track down the items, buy them, then put one or two of them on the AH. Focus on the rare items like the ones listed above (which would be the Meat Dish and the Fungus) that can only be accessed through phased instances in questlines. Most people won’t stop to pick up items from these vendors as they level through, so make them pay for it. Both the Cataclysmically Delicious and Drown Your Sorrows achievements have items like this, so do your research and make some easy gold by vendor diving (which is not as dirty as it sounds – it’s just like dumpster diving, but with vendors).
– Provide the mats that are going to be needed for some of the foods. Notice how many of them involve fishing? Get the hint? Wink wink? Seriously though, fish up the mats and put them on the AH. Fish will always sell.
-You can even make some gold by using the chef awards from the Cooking daily quests to buy the Imported Satchel full of cocoa beans from the cooking vendor. That’s the only place people can access the beans needed to make the Chocolate Cookies for the achievement. Easy Peasy!
Feliciamarie did her homework in the Wowhead comments for these achievements and took care of most of the research. All that’s left is for you to do!
Cataclysmically Delicious Mini-Guide:
Baked Rockfish – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Algaefin Rockfish.
Basilisk Liverdog – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Basilisk “Liver”.
Beer-Basted Crocolisk – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Crocolisk Tail.
Blackbelly Sushi – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Blackbelly Mudfish.
Blackened Surprise – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Toughened Flesh.
Broiled Mountain Trout – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Mountain Trout.
Buttery Wheat Roll – Sold by some innkeepers. Innkeeper Gryshka in Orgrimmar, Innkeeper Allison in Stormwind.
Chocolate Cookie – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Simple Flour and 1 Cocoa Beans.
Crocolisk Au Gratin – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Crocolisk Tail.
Delicious Sagefish Tail – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Deepsea Sagefish.
Fish Fry – Made from cooking. Requires 3 Sharptooth.
Fortune Cookie – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Simple Flour and 1 Mysterious Fortune Card.
Gilnean White – Sold by two innkeepers in Twilight Highlands: Innkeeper Teresa and Lizzy “Lemons”.
Grilled Dragon – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Dragon Flank.
Grilled Shark – Sold by Kazemde in Uldum. If you’re too low level or haven’t done the pre-requisites, then Innkeeper Nufa in Orgrimmar and Talaelar in Darnassus.
Hardtack – Sold by numerous npc’s in Cataclysm zones. Only non-Cata zone is in Orgrimmar: Jin’diza. For Alliance(+Horde): Kazemde in Uldum.
Hearty Seafood Soup – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Blood Shrimp.
Highland Pomegranate – Sold by Innkeeper Nufa and Innkeeper Allison in Stormwind.
Highland Sheep Cheese – Sold by Miwana and Elaine Trias.
Lavascale Fillet – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Lavascale Catfish.
Lavascale Minestrone – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Lavascale Catfish.
Lightly Fried Lurker – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Striped Lurker.
Lurker Lunch – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Striped Lurker.
Massive Turkey Leg – Sold by some innkeepers. Innkeeper Gryshka in Orgrimmar, Jaeana in Darnassus.
Mushroom Sauce Mudfish – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Blackbelly Mudfish.
Oily Giblets – Sold by Edric Downing in Mount Hyjal.
Pickled Guppy – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Highland Guppy.
Pine Nut Bread – Sold by some innkeepers. Innkeeper Gryshka in Orgrimmar, Innkeeper Allison in Stormwind.
Roasted Beef – Sold by some innkeepers. Innkeeper Gryshka in Orgrimmar, Jaeana in Darnassus.
Rock-Hard Biscuit – Sold by Grunka in Mount Hyjal.
Salted Eye – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Snake Eye.
Scalding Murglesnout – Made from cooking. Requires 3 Murglesnout.
Scarlet Polypore – Sold by Kor’jus in Orgrimmar, Maegan Tillman in Stormwind.
Seasoned Crab – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Monstrous Claw.
Severed Sagefish Head – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Deepsea Sagefish.
Simmered Squid – Sold in 80+ zones. Kazemde in Uldum.
Skewered Eel – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Fathom Eel.
Sliced Raw Billfish – Sold by Kazemde in Uldum or Batamsi in Ogrimmar and Talaelar in Darnassus.
Smoked String Cheese – Sold by Miwana in Orgrimmar or Elaine Trias in Stormwind.
Sour Green Apple – Sold by Innkeeper Nufa in Orgrimmar or Innkeeper Allison in Stormwind.
Stewed Rabbit – Sold in 80+ zones. Both Chef Sizzlebang and Innkeeper Francis in Twilight Highlands.
Tasty Puffball – Sold by some Hyjal vendors. Sebelia.
Tender Baked Turtle – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Giant Turtle Tongue.
Tropical Sunfruit – Sold by Lizzy “Lemons” and Innkeeper Francis in Twilight Highlands.
Unidentifiable Meat Dish – Sold by Edric Downing in Mount Hyjal.
Vile Purple Fungus – Sold by Grunka in Mount Hyjal.
Violet Morel – Sold by Kor’jus in Orgrimmar and Maegan Tillman in Stormwind.
Whitecrest Gumbo – Made from cooking. Requires 1 Blood Shrimp.
Drown Your Sorrows Mini-Guide:
Darkbrew Lager – Created from cooking.
Fungus Squeezings – A random drop off mobs. Salty Dogs in Kelp’thar Forest have an 8 percent chance to drop one. Also sold by Grunka in Hyjal.
Highland Spirits – Created from cooking.
Murky Water – Sold by Grunka in Hyjal. Also sold by Zungam in Zul’Aman in a hut on the way to Halazzi.
Sparkling Oasis Water – Sold by most innkeepers. Innkeeper Gryshka in Orgrimmar, Innkeeper Allison in Stormwind.
Fresh Water – Sold by most innkeepers. Innkeeper Gryshka in Orgrimmar, Innkeeper Allison in Stormwind.
Greasy Whale Milk – Sold by Caretaker Movra in the Shimmering Expanse at Silvertide Hollow.
Highland Spring Water – Sold by most innkeepers. Innkeeper Gryshka in Orgrimmar, Innkeeper Allison in Stormwind.
South Island Iced Tea – Created from cooking.
Starfire Espresso – Created from cooking.
On Wings Of Nether
Due to some RL family issues, I’ve been unable to commit myself to putting fingers to keyboard to put something on the blog. However, I do feel like I should get something up here and will therefore post my latest achievement (or achievements, which surprised me).
First, I’ve always loved the Netherwing Drake mounts. Drakes may look cool, but ones that look like sharks surpass “cool” and land somewhere in the neighbourhood of “badass”.
The voiceover for the Netherwing Drakes would be done by Samuel L. Jackson, for the record.
After finishing up in Firelands, or finishing up as much as I’d bother to, I thought I’d try grinding out the rep to get myself one of the Netherwing Drakes. Especially now, since most people don’t bother with old content and the netherwing eggs that can be turned in for rep wouldn’t be as contested as they once were. It only took a few days, rather than a few weeks back in the old days, but after my last drake egg hand in I was surprised when two achievements popped up on my screen:
Even the Netherwing’s achievement banner is badass.
Fifteen exalted reputations? News to me. Regardless, with a great deal of satisfaction, I finished off the final quest (which involves a brief meeting with Illidan Stormrage OMG SPOILERS), and reaped the reward of selecting my very own reins of the Onyx Netherwing Drake.
My reins are the ones with “Bad Motherfucker” written on them.
Flameward Hippogryph
How do you know when you can leave a set of dailies (ie Fireland) behind?
1) When you’ve capped out the rep that you need. (meh)
2) When you’ve bought all the epic gear/goodies they’ll let you buy. (yawn)
3) When you get the achievement for it. (Okay…)
4) When they mail you a flaming bird mount.
HELLS YES!
Global Conquest Complete
I’ll bet you thought I’d forgotten about this.
Hells no.
I had a good stretch where I managed to knock off Eastern Kingdom, which left only Outland to complete. Piece of cake when you ride a jacked up rocket like Herc does.
Still, my eyes crunch when I blink which means I think I’ve spent enough time in front of a monitor for one day. Short post, but between Lotteries and crafting epic helicopters for Rukgut to pilot, I’d had enough.
This is Herc the Merc – World Explorer.
Herculano Conquers A Nation
Yeah, I don’t like your odds either.
Herc’s first brush with the Alliance in this phase of Operation: World Explorer resulted in deaths.
None of which were his.
The strategy this time around was to finish exploring the mainland of Kalimdor, before attacking the island zones inhabited by the Alliance. It’d been awhile since I’d seen many of these zones, especially Darkshore. Being more of an Alliance zone, I had forgotten some of the more interesting landmarks it provided.
A big knife through the forehead. Artwork I can appreciate.
Taking in the scenery was fine and dandy, but there was work to be done. So Herc worked it, baby.
That was the mainland. The question now was – how do I reach the islands? The ships were protected by high level Alliance guards, but that was all the recon I had on them. Were they Elites? Was I going to have to pull a Spirit Rez gimmick to get to where I needed to go?
The answer came to me in a vision.
Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.
It was obvious: Wipe them out. All of them.
I’d like to thank the good folks in Auberdine for their hospitality as Herc waited for the ship to arrive. Their insistence that I pay for my ticket, which was met with a severe case of Axe to the Face, helped to pass the time. Herc mounted up on his Devil Goat as the ship arrived, and he rode onto the deck.
Pictured Above: Alliance Military Force, in no hurry to ask Herc for his ticket.
Nobody moved, nobody got hurt. Despite the fact that they were all targetable, and they were all level 75, the ride was uneventful. That changed once I reached the shore and rode towards the big purple teleport sphere to Darnassus. Those folks wanted to fight.
Bad idea.
A few minutes later, Teldrassil was under the fist of Herc the Merc.
After the conquest, Herc rode back to the dock to catch the boat back to Auberdine. There, he’d take the next ship to Azuremyst Isle, say Hi to the Space Goats, and wrap up the Kalimdor leg of World Domination.
Herculano was not alone on that dock. There were Alliance players there. And Herc was flagged for PVP. They started talking, but it was all [Common] gibberish. Finally, one Night Elf Warrior had enough of this Tauren and his Devil Goat, and he attacked.
And attacked.
And attacked.
He was level nine.
The easy thing would have been to dismount and crush him. But Herc was in a good mood, and it was much more entertaining to just ignore him and move on. Still, I respect his insanity and suicidal nature so to Valtar, I tip my hat.
I assume his meds kicked in at this point and he decided he’d take the next boat to Auberdine.
I wish I could say the rest of the trip was as entertaining. I didn’t see a soul in Draenei Land. With a shrug and a sigh, Herc dug his heels into his Devil Goat’s ribs and knocked off the final two zones –
… and finally –
Boo Yah!
It may be a week or two before I start the next phase of Operation: World Explorer. Herc has let his JC dailies slip, and Gold is a good thing to have. But it’s nice to see the zones one final time before Cataclysm, so I’m sure it’ll be sooner rather than later before Herc the Merc enters Phase Three.
This is Herc the Merc, reminding newbie Warriors to stay on their meds, or up the dosage.
Rokk Talk 