In Guild Wars 2 there are countless materials, each having its own uses. One of the most common need of materials are legendary weapons and armor. Needless to say, the most rare and expensive materials are Tier 6 Intermediate Crafting Materials (T6 materials for short). These are the following:
Vials Of Powerful Blood
Vicious Claws
Ancient Bones
Piles Of Crystalline Dust
Vicious Fangs
Armored Scales
Elaborate Totems
Powerful Venom Sacs
Obviously the most effortless way of acquiring these materials is buying them. That can end up being very expensive. In the following guide we are going to take a look at methods that we can use for farming these materials instead of buying them.
Note: The following are not all the ways that we can get these materials, but rather what we consider the best ones for farming them. T6 Materials can be dropped from all kinds of mobs and containers. If you want to check which ones, click on the material above to see their corresponding GW2Wiki page which containts a list with every mob that drops them. Let us begin:
Table of Contents
1. Upgrade From Tier 5 Materials
While not so much of a farm, upgrading materials is one of the best ways to utilize your T5 materials (which cost almost nothing) and convert them to their valuable T6 counterpart. This is done in the Mystic Forge and the recipe is very simple:
- 50 tier 5 materials
- 1 tier 6 material
- 5 Piles Of Crystalline Dust
- 5 Philosopher’s Stones
This method is a bit of RNG since every time you throw the aforementioned stuff in the Mystic Forge you will get 5-12 of the corresponding material.
For example: If you throw 50 Vials Of Potend Blood, 1 Vial Of Powerful Blood, 5 Piles Of Crystalline Dust and 5 Philosopher’s Stones in the Mystic Forge, you will get back 5-12 Vials Of Powerful Blood.
You may ask, since we are giving away 5 Piles Of Crystalline Dust every time, is it actually worth it? The answer is yes for two reasons: 1. Piles Of Crystalline Dust are the cheapest of the T6 materials and 2. You can get lots of them by salvaging Globs Of Ectoplasm. Since you will end up having a lot of them, it’s quite worth it to use them for upgrading the other, more expensive materials. This way you will save your gold and make quite a good number of the desired materials.
2. Map Bonus Rewards
Map Bonus Rewards work like this:
- Every zone (map) has different rewards, depending on the level. For example, level 75-80 zones tend to reward T6 Materials
- Each time you complete an event you gain points (even though you can’t track your progress). Full participation (Gold medal) award 100 points
- Every 200 points you are awarded the “Next Reward”
- Every 20th reward gives 10x materials
- Rewards for each map change every Thursday through an eight-week cycle
What all these mean is that if you complete events in a certain zone you will get a reward every two events (assuming you get full participation).
There are two ways on how you get to farm these materials:
Event Farming
The “traditional” way. In order to farm events your best choice is to find a so called “champ train”. Sometimes, in high level areas a commander will post on LFG that he is doing a “champ train” meaning he runs around the zone doing Events where you fight Champion monsters.
This method has the bonus of farming Karma, Exotic loot containers as well as whatever the mobs drop. Be sure to follow the commander and have a class that makes farming easier, like Necromancer or Engineer with lots of AoEs.
You can of course farm any events on your own but that will become boring and time consuming fast.
Pact Scout’s Mapping Materials
The second method is gathering the Pact Scout’s Mapping Materials every day. What these items do is instantly giving you 200 points of Map Bonus Rewards of the zone you are currently in. They don’t work in zones of Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire.
In short, using one of these will get you the “next reward”. Remember that every 20th reward grants you ten times more materials.
The downside is that only 6 of these can be bought every day and they cost Karma. Buying all 6 in a day costs 31.500 Karma.
In order to buy them you will have to travel across Tyria to find 6 different Pact Supply Network Agents (follow link to see their current location in the GW2Wiki page).
Note: Even though the items they offer reset at server reset time, their location doesn’t change for another 8 hours. For example if server reset happens at 00:00 UTC, the location of the vendors change at 08:00 UTC.
Now if you go for this method (which of course can be combined with the other method), we suggest that you buy the 6 Pact Scout’s Mapping Materials every day, hoard them until you have 150-200 and use them in a zone that has the Material you need most. For example if you are in need of Vials Of Powerful Blood, find the zone that rewards them and go there to use the Mapping Materials.
Another good way if you also wanna make some money in the process, is to wait until the rotation reaches a good week. For example during one of the weeks of the rotation, the Rewards offered are Vials of Powerful Blood, Charged Cores, Charged Lodestones and Obsidian Shards. Since charged cores and lodestones are quite expensive, you can hold on to the Vials of Powerful Blood and sell the Cores and Lodestones, making some money as well.
Note that this method can become quite expensive in terms of Karma over time. If you can spare the Karma, it’s a good way to get some free materials and/or make money.
3. Laurel Exchange
Important Note: Laurels are extremely valuable. You can only get them from login rewards and can be used buying ascended recipes among other things. This method of getting T6 Materials is only recommended if you have lots of Laurels and have not any other use for them whatsoever.
If you go to the Laurel Vendor (most notable in Lion’s Arch) you will notice you can buy Crafting Bags. For T6 Materials you will need to buy the “Heavy Crafting Bag”. These contain 3 random T6 Materials.
By simple math, 100 Laurels = 300 T6 Materials. This method is hence recommended only if you need all of them. If you need a specific material, this should not be your go-to method.
4. Unbound Magic Exchange
Unbound Magic is the currency earned in Living World Season 3 maps. This means you require the corresponding episodes in order to travel to these maps. It can be earned by almost everything, from mobs to gathering nodes to events.
What we want to buy with Unbound Magic are the Magic-Warped Bundles. These cost 500 UM + 1 gold in most maps, but in Ember Bay they cost 1.250 UM + 40 Silver, and since we want to save some gold in the process, this should be our go-to.
Ember Bay is the map associated with Episode 2 of LWS3 and you will need that in order to buy the specific Magic-Warped Bundles, but we also recommend having Episode 3 “A Crack in the Ice” because in its map, “Bitterfrost Frontier”, lies the best farming method for Unbound Magic: Winterberries. Stay tuned for a video guide for Winterberries.
So the steps that lead to our desired Tier 6 Materials are as follows:
- Get LWS3 Episode 2 and 3
- Farm Unbound Magic in Episode 3 (or in any map for that matter)
- Go to Ember Bay and buy the Magic-Warped Bundles that cost 1.250 UM + 40 Silver
- Open the Magic-Warped Bundles and get your Tier 6 Materials
One downside is that you won’t always get T6 Materials from the containers. Sometimes they drop other stuff as well like Lodestones, Amalgamated Gemstones, Mystic Clover etc. When this happens either sell the materials you got in order to at least make some gold (or MORE gold) back.
Tier 6 Materials drop in stacks of 10 from these containers. That means you will get 10 of a random Tier 6 Material when it drops.
5. Champion Loot Bags
Our last method of farming Tier 6 Materials is actually a bonus from farming Gold. When you farm gold at places like Silverwastes or in any Heart of Thorns map you will end up with lots of Exotic Loot Bags, like Embroided Coin Purses or Noxious Seed Pouches.
These loot bags have a good chance of rewarding you with T6 Materials. That makes it a viable farm that you will end up having some gold made in the process. It’s not the best farm or the fastest one, but it’s certainly viable.
6. Bonus: Trophy Shipments (Volatile Magic)
Buying Trophy Shipments from the Volatile Magic vendors will reward you with lots of T6 Materials. So why is this method listed as a bonus? Mainly because you might be unlucky and get Tier 5 materials from the container.
This method is a bit of RNG, but with good chances of getting the desired T6 materials. One Trophy Shipment costs 250 Volatile Magic and 1 gold. It will reward you with 10 of any T5 or T6 material, as well as Eyes of Kormir and Congealed Putrescence.
Getting anything other than the T6 materials will have you wasted a gold since everything is no more than mere copper or 2 silver at best. That being said, getting 10 of any T6 material for 1 gold will be quite worth it. Our suggestion is that you buy in bulk. Like 10 or 20 shipments each time.
Volatile Magic can be farmed in any Living World Season 4 map, most notably Domain of Istan. That means you must have the Episodes unlocked in order to farm Volatile Magic and buy the Trophy Shipments.
And that was it. Good luck on your journey for farming these valuable materials and stay tuned for more guides from the world of Tyria.
