When it comes to multi-passenger flying mounts
in WoW, there are currently 3 choices. There's
the X-53 Touring Rocket, the Obsidian Nightwing,
and the Vial of the Sands, also called the
Sandstone Drake. Both the X-53 Touring
Rocket and the Obsidian Nightwing are Refer-A-Friend
rewards, meaning you recruit someone, that
person pays for 60 days of game time, then
you, the recruiter are given your choice of
one of these mounts as a reward. The Vial
of the Sands however, is crafted in-game and
in fact, is the only craftable multi-person
flying mount in the game.
The recipe for the mount is discovered through
Archaeology and the mount itself is crafted
by Alchemy. The recipe only drops from Canopic
Jars which are gathered from Uldum dig sites
using Archaeology. You will need to be at
least level 80 and have at least 450 Archaeology
in order to see dig sites in Uldum. You
will also need to have at least 525 Alchemy
in order to craft the mount. The recipe is
Bind on Pickup but the resulting crafted item
is not and can be traded or bought and sold
on the Auction House.
There are a total of 69 possible dig sites
in Kalimdor, 16 of which can appear in Uldum,
and only 4 of which can be up at a time. By
completing one dig site it will cause another
to appear randomly. So that means any time
you complete a dig site in Kalimdor you have
a roughly 16/66 or 24.24% chance that the
next dig site will appear in Uldum. The reason
it's 16/66 and not 16/69 is because the 3
sites you're not digging at will not change.
Uldum dig sites contain Tol'vir Archaeology
Fragments which can be combined to form one
of 6 rare items or one of 7 common items.
So you essentially have a 1/13 or 7.7% chance
of getting a Canopic Jar. But considering
each rare can only be solved once, every time
you complete a rare you increase the probability
of getting a Canopic Jar in the future. So
for example, if you were to solve all 6 Tol'Vir
rares, from that point on you would always
have a 1/7 or 14.3% chance of getting a Canopic
Jar. If you happen to get a Canopic Jar as
your first solve you will not get another
one until you solve all 7 common artifacts
because commons don't repeat until you've
solved all of them at least once.
But just getting the Canopic Jar isn't enough
because not all jars contain the recipe. The
exact drop rate is not known but it is speculated
to be around 10%. That means for every Canopic
Jar you open you have a roughly 10% chance
of getting the recipe. The recipe is smart
loot, meaning it will only appear for Alchemists.
Here is a chart I put together showing the
probability of getting the recipe after opening
varying amounts of Canopic Jars.
If you are able to get the recipe in 5 Canopic
Jars or less you should consider yourself
very lucky. For most people it will take around
10 jars and for the very unlucky it will take
upwards of 30 jars.
For a point of reference, here's a list of
all the Tol'Vir solves I had to to do before
getting the recipe.
I got one Scimitar of the Sirocco, that's
a rare. That took 150 fragments to make.
I got one Ring of the Boy Emperor, another
rare, and one Pendant of the Scarab Storm,
another rare.
I ended up getting 5 Canopic Jars, 7 Castle
of Sand, 3 Cat Statue with Emerald Eyes, 3
Engraved Scimitar Hilts, 4 Sketch of a Desert
Palace, 3 Soapstone Scarabs, and 2 Tiny Oasis
Mosaics.
If you tally up all the fragments from all
the solves it's a total of 1,665 Tol'vir Archaeology
Fragments.
If you happen to have max level Archaeology
there's another method you can use to get
Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments at a chance
for this mount. This is an alternative method
for people who have 600 or higher Archaeology
and flying in Pandaria.
If you have 600 or higher Archaeology you
can go to Brann Bronzebeard in the Vale of
Eternal Blossoms. His coordinates are 83.6,
31. And exchange a Restored Artifact, which
is made from a Pandaria Archaeology solve,
for a Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments
which can contain 5-9 Tol'vir fragments and
a small chance of a Tol'vir Hieroglyphic.
If you're Exalted with the Lorewalkers you
can buy an item called the Mantid Artifact
Hunter's Kit. Once you open that item and
use the Lorewalker's Map inside you will only
see Mantid dig sites in Pandaria for the next
24 hours. So you can just fly around Dread
Wastes and Townlong Steppes digging up all
the Mantid sites you see as fast as possible,
then trading in your Restored Artifacts for
Tol'Vir fragments. Some people find this method
to to be faster than digging in Kalimdor because
the dig sites are smaller and closer together,
thereby minimizing travel time.
After obtaining the recipe, crafting the item
requires these mats.
One Pyrium-Laced Crystalline Vial, that's
bought from Yasmin in Uldum for 5,000 gold.
Her coordinates are 26.6, 7.2.
You also need 8 Sands of Time, also bought
from the same vendor, Yasmin in Uldum, for
3,000 gold each.
You will also need 12 Truegold, 8 Flask of
the Winds, 8 Flask of Titanic Strength, and
8 Deepstone Oil.
For the Alchemy craftables you will need
these raw mats...
36 Pyrium Bars, which equal 72 Pyrite Ore
if you're smelting using Mining or 12 Elementium
Bars and 12 Volatile Earths if you're making
it using transmutation in Alchemy.
You're gonna need 120 Volatile Fires, 120
Volatile Airs, 120 Volatile Waters, 128 Volatile
Life, 64 Azshara's Veil, 128 Whiptail, 64
Cinderbloom, 8 Albino Cavefish, and 16 Crystal Vials.
Once you've learned the mount you can type
/mountspecial to do a neat roar animation
and you can use this macro to eject your passenger...
If you'd like more information you can check
out these links on Wowhead...
Thanks for watching guys and if you found
this guide useful remember to leave a like,
comment and subscribe! See ya later!
