QUICK ANSWER In WoW Forever, early gold is slow and tight. Grinding mobs at level 20 pays only about 1.5g per hour, so most of your gold will come from professions, vendor sales and smart use of the auction house. This guide lists 28 different methods. Each one is listed once, with its stage (early, mid or late), gold per hour where a real number exists, and whether it needs a class or a profession.
There is no WoW Token in WoW Forever and no legal way to buy gold. Every gold coin comes from play. That is why it is worth knowing which methods fit your level and your time.
The Gold You Will Need
A quick note on coin letters used in this guide: g is gold, s is silver (100s = 1g) and c is copper (100c = 1s).
Know your targets before you pick a method.
| Cost | Level | Gold |
|---|---|---|
| Training all class abilities, levels 1 to 60 | 1 to 60 | About 206g to 207g |
| First mount and Apprentice Riding | 40 | 100g |
| Extra mount colors | 40+ | 20g each |
| Journeyman Riding | 60 | 1,000g |
| Epic Swift mounts | 60 | 200g each |
Paladins and Warlocks get a free level 40 mount from a quest. Honored reputation with your home faction gives 10% off riding and mounts, and the Bartering Legacy talent can add up to 10% off mounts only.
How to Read This Guide
Stages. In this guide, Early means levels 1 to 20, Mid means levels 21 to 40, and Late means levels 41 to 60.
Gold per hour. Auction prices change all the time, so firm numbers are rare. Where a method has a measured figure, it is shown on that method. Here are the ones we have.
| Measured in the beta | Gold per hour | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Mob grinding in Duskwood | About 1.5g | 20 |
| Linen Pants and wand shuffle | About 2.5g to 3g | Around 20 |
| Heavy Copper Mace shuffle | About 5g to 7g | Mid |
| Rough estimate only | Gold per hour | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Beta leveling | 3g to 10g | 20 to 30 |
| Launch at max level | 20g to 60g | 60 |
Treat the two estimates as a rough range, not a promise. Prices at launch may be very different.
Class or profession. Every method shows what it needs.
What to Know About the Auction House
- The auction house is shared by a huge number of players, so prices can drop fast and some sellers undercut you within seconds.
- There is a 1s minimum deposit. If your item does not sell, you lose it each time you repost.
- Enchanting materials count as commodities. Posting thousands in one stack costs only 1s in total.
- Faction auction houses take 5% of a sale. Neutral houses (Gadgetzan, Booty Bay, Everlook) take 15%.
- Do not mail full stacks or a full mailbox on the beta. A bug lost about 11g in transit during testing. Check whether it is fixed at launch.
Early Game Gold (Levels 1 to 20)
1. Pick the Quest Reward That Sells Best
- Stage: Early to Late
- Needs: No profession
- Addons: Best Value
When a quest gives you a choice of gear you cannot use, check the vendor price and take the highest one. The Best Value addon does this for you: it puts a gold coin on the reward that sells for the most and shows each reward’s sell price. A weapon worth 4s beats a piece of armor worth 2s. It takes two seconds and pays all the way to 60.
2. Skin Everything From Day One
- Stage: Early
- Needs: Skinning
Learn Skinning in the starting zone and skin beasts that other players have killed. You get leather for free, and you can sell it straight to a vendor instead of fighting the auction house. Vendor prices have been seen at about 3s for Light Leather, 10s for Medium Leather and 30s for Heavy Leather. This is the safe, boring route, and it skips the undercutting problem.
3. Gather While You Level
- Stage: Early to Mid
- Needs: Herbalism, Mining or Skinning
- Addons: NodeSight
Take a gathering profession and pick up nodes as you pass them. Materials sell from the first day. Two tips:
- Use the NodeSight addon. It puts herb and ore icons on your minimap, and has an optional arrow and sound alert you can turn on.
- At level 25, the Bountiful Harvest Legacy perk can give you more scarce materials from gathering. (Reported, confirm in game.)
If you level alts, doing it with a second gathering profession doubles the haul.
4. Keep Your Cooking Meat
- Stage: Early
- Needs: Cooking (a secondary profession)
Do not vendor your drops of meat. Use them to level Cooking, because cooked food gives a +5% kill XP buff, or sell the meat to other players. Cooking does not use a main profession slot.
5. Turn In or Sell Waylaid Crates
- Stage: Early to Mid
- Needs: No profession
Waylaid Crates are items you find as you play. You can sell them as they are on the auction house, or fill them with the requested materials and turn them in for silver and a reputation currency called Merchant’s Favor. The Alliance turn-in is at Three Crossroads in Redridge Mountains. The Horde has an equivalent at the Durotar supply camp. Merchant’s Favor also unlocks recipes (see method 19).
6. Do the Skyborne Starting Quests
- Stage: Early
- Needs: The paid Skyborne pack
Skyborne starting quests pay noticeably more silver than normal starter quests. If you bought the pack, the first hour is a little richer.
7. Sell 8-Slot Bags on Day One
- Stage: Early
- Needs: Tailoring
Everyone needs bags at launch. Tailors who rush 8-slot bags can sell them to new players before the market fills up. You can also offer free bag crafts in general chat for tips and free skill-ups while you level the profession.
8. Use a Mage to Read Scrolls
- Stage: Early to Mid
- Needs: Mage only
Mages can cast Comprehend Scroll on unreadable scrolls that drop from mobs. List the decoded scrolls on the auction house. A Mage alt is worth it if you plan to collect scrolls anyway.
9. Craft, Disenchant, Sell (the Tailoring and Enchanting Shuffle)
- Stage: Early to Late
- Gold per hour: About 2.5g to 3g (Linen step)
- Needs: Tailoring and Enchanting
- Addons: CraftProfit Forever
This is one idea with three steps as your levels grow. Tailors craft cheap green armor, and the Enchanter disenchants it into dust, essences and shards that sell well. Enchanting makes most of its money by selling materials, wands and oils, or through services in trade chat.
| Step | Craft | Disenchant into |
|---|---|---|
| Early | Linen Pants from Linen Cloth or Bolts | Lesser Magic Essence, Strange Dust |
| Mid | White Bandit Mask (Mageweave Bolt, Bleach, Silken Thread), item level 43 | Vision Dust, Lesser Nether Essence, Small Radiant Shard |
| Late | Runecloth Belt (3 Runecloth Bolts, Rune Thread), item level 51 | Dream Dust, Eternal Essence |
Early extras (Enchanting 70): craft Greater Magic Wands and sell them to a vendor for 15s each. Turn leftover Strange Dust into Minor Wizard Oil with a Maple Seed and an Empty Vial, and vendor the oils for about 3s per dust instead of selling raw dust. To level Enchanting fast, buy materials and use a self-enchant macro on your own gear while you are away from the keyboard. Tailoring also gives you free early skill levels when you turn cloth into bolts.
10. Fish for Trunks
- Stage: Early to Late
- Needs: Fishing (a secondary profession)
Fishing pulls up trunks that hold silver, gold, green items, consumables and trade goods. Fish are also sold for food. Fishing is easy to do while you wait for something else, such as a flight or a group.
Mid Game Gold (Levels 21 to 40)
11. Use the Best Skinning Spots
- Stage: Early to Mid
- Needs: Skinning
These are the best spots for level 30. Each one gives hides and raw coin.
| Rank | Spot | Level | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hillsbrad Foothills, Yeti Cave and surroundings | 30 | Many yetis, fast respawns, good coin and hides. Ranked best overall |
| 2 | Duskwood, top left | 20+ | Wolves, easy skinning if you are under-geared |
| 3 | Duskwood, bottom right | 30+ | Worgens give more leather, but come in packs and hit harder |
| 4 | Stranglethorn Vale, lake area | 30 | Tigers in packs, plus gray items for coin |
| 5 | Thousand Needles | 26 to 28 | Elder Cloud Serpents, good coin and skins |
12. Run the Heavy Copper Mace Shuffle
- Stage: Mid
- Gold per hour: About 5g to 7g (tested)
- Needs: Blacksmithing (50) and Enchanting
- Addons: CraftProfit Forever
Buy Copper Ore and Light Leather and craft Heavy Copper Maces (12 Copper Bars, 2 Light Leather, 2 Weak Flux). Disenchant them into Greater Magic Essences, which sell well. Keep your crafting cost under 20s per mace or the profit disappears. It is semi-AFK, so you can do something else while you craft.
13. Join the Gurubashi Arena Chest Event
- Stage: Mid
- Needs: Nothing special, but you will be fighting other players
Every 3 hours a chest appears in the Gurubashi Arena in Stranglethorn Vale. Players race to open it while fighting each other. It holds rare loot and the Arena Master trinket. This is a PvP-style event, so go in knowing you may die for nothing.
14. Hop Layers at Chest Spawns
- Stage: Early to Mid
- Needs: Nothing special
When you stand near a chest spawn, the “Refresh Now” layer prompt can move you to a different layer of the world, where the chest has not been looted yet. Loot, hop, repeat. (Confirm how it works at launch.)
15. Run Scarlet Monastery
- Stage: Mid to Late (levels 30 to 60)
- Needs: A group or a strong solo character
Scarlet Monastery gives drops and cloth for a long range of levels, so it keeps paying as you grow. Sell what you do not need.
16. Farm Silk and Mageweave
- Stage: Mid to Late (levels 28 to 50)
- Needs: Nothing special
Cloth is in constant demand because Tailors need it and the shuffle in method 9 eats it. Kill humanoids and sell the stacks.
17. Gather Then Craft Your Own Supplies
- Stage: Mid to Late
- Needs: A gathering profession plus its matching crafting profession
- Addons: CraftProfit Forever
Pairs that fit together:
- Herbalism and Alchemy: potions, flasks and other consumables.
- Mining and Blacksmithing or Engineering: sharpening stones and gear.
- Skinning and Leatherworking: leather armor and kits.
You buy less, so your margin is higher. A few crafts are worth much less at a vendor since the October 15 patch, so check prices before you make a big batch.
18. Flip Items on the Auction House
- Stage: Mid to Late
- Needs: Some starting gold
- Addons: Forever Ledger
Buy when supply is high, such as early mornings and weekends. Sell when demand rises, such as Tuesday and Thursday evenings around raid time. You can also buy out low-supply recipes, epics or pets so prices reset higher. Watch the 1s minimum deposit: bad flips cost you gold every time you repost.
19. Be First to Market on Locked Recipes
- Stage: Mid to Late
- Needs: Often a profession, plus reputation or Merchant’s Favor
- Addons: Forever Ledger
Some recipes or crafts are gated behind reputation or Merchant’s Favor. The first few players who unlock them can set a high price across the whole shared market before others catch up. It is a risk and a race. If you are late, prices crash.
20. Sell Dungeon Carries
- Stage: Mid to Late
- Needs: A strong, well-geared character and a group
Offer to carry lower-level or newer players through a dungeon or boss for gold. Always agree on the price first. Do not use outside services that charge real money for this, and never pay with real money.
Late Game Gold (Levels 41 to 60)
21. Farm Big Mouth Clams for Golden Pearls
- Stage: Late (mid-40s and up)
- Needs: Nothing special (Fishing optional)
Golden Pearls are needed for strong Vanilla gear and enchants, such as Truefaith Vestments, the Arcanite Rod, Mooncloth Robe and Gloves, and a spell power weapon enchant. Blizzard has doubled the recipes that need them, adding low and mid-level Arcane tailoring sets and Holy Paladin and Shaman blacksmithing armor. Where to get the Big Mouth Clams that hold them:
- Azshara ruins (top spot): dense, fast-respawning Naga with about an 80% clam drop rate and treasure chests.
- Feralas island cave: Hatecrest Naga in the mid-40s that drop clams, greens and cloth.
- Azshara fishing pools: fish for clams and Essence of Water.
22. Do Dungeon Quests at 51 to 60
- Stage: Late
- Needs: Ideally a group
At max level, quest experience turns into raw gold. High-level dungeon quests (levels 51 to 60) pay a lot for fresh level 60s. Run them with friends.
23. Run Dire Maul
- Stage: Late (levels 55 to 60)
- Needs: A group or a strong solo character
Dire Maul East and North are popular farms for drops and materials at the top of the leveling range.
24. Solo the Maraudon Princess
- Stage: Late (levels 58 to 60)
- Needs: A class that can handle the fight alone
A solo farm for the Maraudon princess boss near the cap. Pick a character with enough survivability and clear speed.
25. Farm Endgame Materials
- Stage: Late
- Needs: Depends on the row
| Material | Level | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| Thorium and Arcane Crystals | 48 to 60 | Mining |
| Endgame herbs | 50 to 60 | Herbalism |
| Devilsaur Leather | 55 to 60 | Skinning |
| Rugged Leather loops | 53 to 60 | Skinning |
| Runecloth and Felcloth | 48 to 60 | None |
| Elemental essences | 50 to 60 | None |
These feed crafters and raiders, which means steady demand once raids open on December 9.
26. Pickpocket as a Rogue
- Stage: Late
- Needs: Rogue only
Rogues can pickpocket humanoids, including in Dire Maul and Blackrock Depths. It is one of the few gold methods tied to a single class.
27. Sell Rare BoE Drops
- Stage: Mid to Late (levels 20 to 60)
- Needs: Nothing special
Blue and epic items that you can trade, called BoE, can sell for a lot. Do not vendor an unknown item before you check its price.
28. Invest Slowly in Cheap Materials
- Stage: Mid to Late
- Needs: Patience and spare gold
- Addons: Forever Ledger
Prices drift up as players hoard gold for mounts and as new content arrives. Buy items that sell close to their vendor price early, such as Aquamarines or the materials for Limited Invulnerability and Free Action potions, and sell later when demand rises. There is also reported price movement between factions and the neutral auction houses at Gadgetzan, Booty Bay and Everlook. Remember the 15% cut at neutral houses.
Tools, Reminders and Easy Mistakes
Addons That Help You Make Gold
Download these from CurseForge and check that each one lists the Forever version.
| Addon | What it does | Methods |
|---|---|---|
| Best Value | Marks the quest reward that sells for the most and shows sell prices | 1 |
| NodeSight | Herb and ore icons on your minimap | 3 |
| CraftProfit Forever | Shows craft cost and profit on each recipe | 9, 12, 17 |
| Forever Ledger | Scans the auction house, shows item values, deal alerts and a gold tracker | 18, 19, 28 |
Unconfirmed by Blizzard
- A Black Market in Powderfuse Port that may buy Black Lotus and Arcane Crystal for 50g each and Pyrite for 5g. It is unconfirmed, so treat it as a rumor until you see it in game.
- Guild bank gold. A guild bank was reported to cost 100g to open on the beta.
Easy Ways to Lose Gold
- Reposting items that keep getting undercut. Each repost costs you the 1s deposit.
- Crafting a big batch before you check prices.
- Buying gold from a third party. It risks your account and is against the rules.
- Going into PvP gold events when you are not ready to lose.
Quick Reference: All 28 Methods
| # | Method | Stage | Gold per hour | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Best quest reward | Early to Late | Varies | None |
| 2 | Skin on day one | Early | Varies | Skinning |
| 3 | Gather while leveling | Early to Mid | Varies | Gathering |
| 4 | Keep cooking meat | Early | Varies | Cooking |
| 5 | Waylaid Crates | Early to Mid | Varies | None |
| 6 | Skyborne starting quests | Early | Varies | Skyborne pack |
| 7 | 8-slot bags | Early | Varies | Tailoring |
| 8 | Scroll reading | Early to Mid | Varies | Mage |
| 9 | Tailoring and Enchanting shuffle | Early to Late | About 2.5g to 3g (Linen) | Tailoring and Enchanting |
| 10 | Fishing trunks | Early to Late | Varies | Fishing |
| 11 | Skinning spots | Early to Mid | Varies | Skinning |
| 12 | Mace shuffle | Mid | About 5g to 7g | Blacksmithing and Enchanting |
| 13 | Gurubashi chest | Mid | Varies | None |
| 14 | Layer hopping | Early to Mid | Varies | None |
| 15 | Scarlet Monastery | Mid to Late | Varies | None |
| 16 | Silk and Mageweave | Mid to Late | Varies | None |
| 17 | Gather then craft | Mid to Late | Varies | Profession pair |
| 18 | Flipping | Mid to Late | Varies | None |
| 19 | First to market | Mid to Late | Varies | Profession |
| 20 | Dungeon carries | Mid to Late | Varies | Strong character |
| 21 | Golden Pearls | Late | Varies | None |
| 22 | Dungeon quests 51 to 60 | Late | Varies | None |
| 23 | Dire Maul | Late | Varies | None |
| 24 | Maraudon Princess | Late | Varies | Strong solo class |
| 25 | Endgame materials | Late | Varies | Varies |
| 26 | Pickpocketing | Late | Varies | Rogue |
| 27 | Rare BoE drops | Mid to Late | Luck | None |
| 28 | Slow investing | Mid to Late | Varies | None |
Questions Players Ask
What is the fastest way to make gold in WoW Forever? There is no single fastest way. The best tested figure we found is about 5g to 7g per hour from the Heavy Copper Mace shuffle in the mid levels. Gold at level 60 is expected to be higher.
How much gold do I need for my first mount? 100g at level 40. Paladins and Warlocks get a free one from a quest.
Is there a WoW Token in WoW Forever? No. All gold must be earned in play.
Which professions make the most gold early? Gathering professions are the easiest start. Tailoring and Enchanting have the best tested shuffle. Skinning is the safest if you want to avoid the auction house.
Can I make gold as any class? Yes. Only a few methods are class locked: the scroll method is Mage only, and pickpocketing is Rogue only. Some methods are risky for weaker characters.
Do prices change a lot? Yes. The shared auction house makes prices move fast, so always check before you buy or craft a large batch.
Is it safe to buy gold from other sites? No. It can get your account suspended or banned, and sellers often steal accounts too.
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