Merchant's Favor turns materials into a currency for recipes, cosmetics and a mount. Instead of finding recipes by chance, you fill crates with herbs, ore or cloth, hand them in at a trade faction and buy what your profession needs. This guide explains the process, compares the crates and does the maths on where the effort pays off. Run the numbers for your own goals in the favor calculator.
How it works
- Waylaid Crates drop from enemies in the open world and in dungeons. They are tradeable, so you can also buy them at the auction house.
- Each crate lists several material bundles. You fill it with one of them – for example an Expert Fabrics crate with 8 Bolts of Mageweave and 2 Cured Heavy Hides.
- The filled crate becomes a Sealed Crate. Hand it in at your faction's trade camp for favor plus 50 copper per point of favor.
- Spend the favor at the camp's vendors. Some rewards also require a reputation level.
Merchant's Favor is per character, not account-wide. Both trade factions sell the same recipes.
The trade factions
| Alliance | Horde | |
|---|---|---|
| Faction | Azeroth Commerce Authority | Durotar Supply and Logistics |
| Camp | Three Corners, west edge of Redridge Mountains (10, 73) | outside the west gate of the Crossroads, The Barrens (42, 34) |
| Crate hand-in | Marcy Baker | Dokimi |
| Vendor | Tamelyn Aldridge | Gishah |
| Mounts | Huey Sunnydale | Okamache |
| Scribe | Dianne Softstep | Kurvelk Shadowhoof |
Crates and favor
There are 30 crates in four tiers. Herbs, ore, textiles and curiosities give the base favor; fabrics, ingots and parts give double – they already contain processed materials.
| Tier | From level | Herbs, ore, textiles, curiosities | Fabrics, ingots, parts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apprentice | 10 | 5 favor, 2 silver 50 copper | 10 favor, 5 silver |
| Journeyman | 10 | 10 favor, 5 silver | 20 favor, 10 silver |
| Expert | 20 | 15 favor, 7 silver 50 copper | 30 favor, 15 silver |
| Artisan | 35 | unknown | unknown |
Expert herbs come in two variants (earthly and flowering), and so do Artisan herbs. The favor of the eight Artisan crates is not known yet.
Reputation and standings
Crates give no reputation. Reputation only comes from two places:
- once from the "Shipping Label" quest, which starts with your first filled crate: 50 favor and 2,000 reputation;
- from Craftsman's Writs: Journeyman 75, Expert 125, Artisan 200 reputation, each writ once per day.
The standings follow the familiar ladder: Friendly from 3,000, Honored from 9,000, Revered from 21,000 and Exalted from 42,000 reputation. A worked example: if you complete the writs of all three tiers every day after the Shipping Label (400 reputation), you need about 18 days to Honored and 100 days to Exalted. With the Journeyman writ alone (75 reputation), Honored takes about 94 days. The Legacy node Diplomat increases reputation gains by up to 10%.
The rewards
There are 324 rewards in total, 310 of them recipes:
| Profession | Recipes | Favor for all |
|---|---|---|
| Leatherworking | 81 | 4,620 |
| Tailoring | 67 | 3,120 |
| Blacksmithing | 61 | 3,510 |
| Enchanting | 39 | 5,790 |
| Alchemy | 28 | 3,780 |
| Engineering | 28 | 5,445 |
| Cooking | 6 | 300 |
Recipes without a reputation requirement cost 30–45 favor, Friendly recipes 60–180 and Honored recipes 90–360. The most expensive are engineering schematics such as the Ultralight Goblin Glider or the Gnomish Poultryizer (360 each).
There is also:
- Reins of the Pack Kodo – mount, 6,000 favor, Exalted, level 60;
- Packmule Treat – companion, 1,500 favor, Revered;
- Advertising License Application – leads to a tradeskill sign toy, 1,200 favor, Honored;
- tabards of both factions – 200 favor each, Exalted;
- six certifications – 1,000 favor each, only skill 300 in the profession required.
What is worth it?
- Prefer the double crates: fabrics, ingots and parts give twice the favor per crate. If you gather cloth or smelt anyway, that is the fastest way forward.
- Your own recipes first: all recipes of one profession cost between 300 (cooking) and 5,790 favor (enchanting). For comparison, the Pack Kodo alone costs 6,000 favor – 200 Expert crates of the double kind.
- Plan Legacy in: Performance Bonus 3/3 gives a 15% chance of double favor on every hand-in, so 15% more on average. It requires Bountiful Harvest 5/5, which yields more scarce gathering materials. Details in the Legacy guide.
- Start reputation early: since reputation only comes from daily writs, it pays to do them from day one – even if you spend the favor later.
What is still open
The favor and silver of Artisan crates are missing, as is the yield of the blue "sealed" and Elite crates that exist in the client. The recipe standings come from a beta guide; the client directly confirms only the tabards (Exalted) and the Advertising License (Honored).
Sources
Frequently asked questions
How do I get Merchant's Favor?
Waylaid Crates drop in the open world and in dungeons. Fill one with one of the requested material bundles to turn it into a Sealed Crate, then hand it in at your faction's trade camp for favor and some silver.
Do crates give reputation?
No. Reputation only comes from Craftsman's Writs (75, 125 or 200 reputation, each once per day) and once from the "Shipping Label" quest with 2,000 reputation.
Which reputation level do I need for recipes?
According to the data known so far, Honored at most. Only the Packmule, the tabards and the Pack Kodo require Revered or Exalted.
How much favor do Artisan crates give?
That is still unknown. Artisan crates could not be handed in during the beta.