Archaeology 1-800 Leveling and Collecting Strategies

By Karadine Updated: 2018/06/02

ArchaeologyCataclysmHow it worksLocating digsitesTIP:ExplorerSurveyingSurveygreenyellowredredgreenredyellowArchyisCompleting artifactsINFO:Dwarf Rune StoneHighborne ScrollTroll TabletOrc Blood TextDraenei TomeVrykul Rune StickNerubian ObeliskTol'vir HieroglyphiccommonrareLeveling up (1-525)General tips

Each time you complete a dig and loot artifact fragments (found using Survey), you will gain +1 Archaeology skill.

You'll gain +5 skill points for solving a common project, and +15 points for solving a rare one.

Make sure to visit an Archaeology trainer when you get close to your current maximum so these points aren't wasted by hitting a skill cap.

Collecting fragments from digsites currently gives a very large amount of experience points. The amount is scaled based on your current level and is also affected by rested experience, guild perks, and heirloom item bonuses. It is an excellent leveling option for characters that are below maximum level - if you know your character is going to be an Archaeologist, start early!

Power-levelingkeystoneskeystoneskeystones

Eastern Kingdoms for Dwarf and Troll

Kalimdor for Tol'vir, Night Elf, and Fossil

Outland for Orc and Draenai

Northrend for Vrykul and Nerubian

keystonesCompletionist/Collector levelingkeystoneskeystoneskeystones

Dwarf - Continue solving projects in Eastern Kingdoms until your final rare Dwarf project appears, then stop and move to Kalimdor. There is one single Dwarven dig site (Bael Modan), and during the course of working on Tol'vir projects, you will easily finish that rare.

Tol'vir and Fossil - Since Tol'vir are exclusive to Kalimdor and Fossils aren't found in Northrend, prioritize those digsites as soon as they appear for you while working on that continent.

Nerubian and Vrykul - These are native to Northrend, so again, prioritize those digsites as soon as they appear for you while working on that continent.

Night Elf and Troll - Until you've collected all other rares from other races, there is no need to focus on these two races because they are very common throughout Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Northrend.

Restored ArtifactMists of Pandaria (525-600)

Pandaren - Pandaren Archaeology Fragment, Pandaren Pottery Shard

Mogu - Mogu Archaeology Fragment, Mogu Statue Piece

Mantid - Mantid Archaeology Fragment, Mantid Amber Sliver

Ancient HauntRestored ArtifactBrann BronzebeardLorewalker's LodestoneLorewalker's MapMantid Artifact Sonic LocatorPower-levelersCompletionistsMantid Artifact Sonic LocatorMantid Artifact Hunter's KitRestored ArtifactWarlords of Draenor (600-700)Warlords of Draenor: Archaeology OverviewBrittle Cartography JournalRestored ArtifactGrakisSrikkaRestored ArtifactLeveling from scratch on Draenor

Comments

Comment by Sas148

I think you've done a great job with this guide. I don't personally have anything to suggest at this time. Thanks for creating it.

Comment by darthwarcraft

Great Guide! How many hours will it take to max from 1 to 525?

Comment by Dolemite

Great Guide! One suggestion would be to list out all artifacts per race, broken down into commons, rares and epics.

Comment by 363431

Excellent guide, just one addition: Nerubian artefacts can, in fact, be found outside Northrend (at least one digsite in the Plaguewood area of Eastern Plaguelands, possibly more).

Keep up the good work, and thanks for sharing what you know.

Comment by 821994

Don't forget the Darkmoon Faire! Just 15 Fossil Fragments to level 5 points.
This is an excellent opportunity to level up other professions by 5 skill points. Especially if there is an expensive hump to get over. Your profession level must be at 75 to pick up the given quest.
Things to bring:

Alchemy: 5 Moonberry Juice
Archaelogy: 15 Fossil Fragments
Cooking: 5 Flour
Inscription: 5 Parchment
Leatherworking: 5 Coarse Thread, 10 Shiny Baubles, 5 Blue Dye
Tailoring: Coarse Thread, Red Dye, Blue Dye

Also note:

All other mats are either supplied or around the faire.
The above items are mostly available near the DM Portal.
Enchanting - just click on the junk, don't try to DE it normally.
Blacksmithing - there's an anvil behind the Heirloom Prize Vendors.
Be sure to visit your trainer to have room for those 5 skill points. : }

If you forgot something, your Engineer can always drop a mailbox near you. Pretty tough to mail the fossil frags though. ; )

Comment by 117821

Don't know if it is a hotfix or a bug, but as of Oct 20, 2012 Archeology skill ups are being awarded for every dig. No mention was made in patch notes about this kind of change.

Comment by sabrestryke

Awesome guide!

Comment by pac123

good work

Comment by Tertiam

In the crates of archaeology fragments that you can buy from Brann Bronzebeard, you actually can get keystones. I have gotten Tol'vir Hieroglyphic from Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments.

Comment by DrakkonDarkspell

Interesting information, but I have a question: Why wait so long before starting the solves? Is there some advantage to waiting you didn't discuss? I don't understand why you say to wait so long. Thanx if you can explain the logic.

Comment by 821994

Bad Archeology Changes

• #1 Blizz has added 1 second to the CD of survey (giving the ‘that item is not ready yet’ warning) costing us more time when trying to quickly narrow down a red survey. Why a survey should have more than a 1 second CD is certainly a mystery anyway – are we getting a more powerful cast / lol.
• #2 they made the distance of a green survey longer. Now you can NOT be basically guaranteed a discovery when surveying at 5 ‘paces’ or ‘yards’ after getting a green.
• #3 an orange survey is now less accurate, it no longer yields a straight path to a discovery.
• #4 you need to be closer to get an actual discovery to show now. I’m not positive about this, but the distance here seems to have been narrowed slightly – again causing more surveys.

These may seem like petty changes, but when all combined they are adding significant unnecessary time to this profession. (BTW, this seems to have occurred circa 5.0.5.)

Although I can only conjecture, perhaps this has been done to ease time pressure on crowded cross realm servers by keeping people out of congested areas.

I’d highly recommend pulling a ticket and pointing out that your game is no longer working as it had been and should be working. We are paying for playing time, not waiting time.

<Blizzard, why are you making an already barely credible "profession" more difficult?> --> "Time is money, friend."

Comment by Vis4ge

Tks a lot by this guide. very organized! good job mate :P

Comment by 1212335

What do we do if we max out the artifacts for a certain race

Comment by Odshealer

Just a heads up, the power leveling section of the guide is no longer applicable for the first 150 points if you're trying to just save.

There was a change (don't know when) where we're capped at gathering 200 of the artifact. I hit about 60 in Archaeology and I had to start solving for both Dwarf and Fossil.

Overall, a great guide.

Appreciate you editing in the information in the power leveling section.

Comment by Shadowewolfe

I just reached 450 Archaeology, how do start to dig/collect from Tol'vir? Do I need to complete a race collection first?

Comment by alvexman

Great guide I'm using it now to level my Arch

Comment by billymm

nice guide, thankyou ;)

Comment by breebee

Once you're down to the last rares/achievements you're trying to collect, it might be smart to move along to Draenor, where you will be accumulating Restored Artifact items. These can be traded for fragment crates which can help you continue to produce artifacts without needing to Survey.

Do you mean move to Pandaria? Or was this changed for the new upcoming expansion, Warlords of Draenor? I just want to make sure I'm in the right place while trying to level and complete everything! Thank you! Great guide!

Comment by ir0nmike

For the people who are completionists, like me, I've made a google docs document, which you can use to "tick off" the artifacts you have found already. You just have to convert it to your own google docs or excel document.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wndfh9bxL6OYq5YpdLnWxywk0l4yVA_5HhDiktX6bgQ/edit?usp=sharing

Comment by yarinasher1

amazing ty !

Comment by pat33

The greatest hotfix of all they did in 6.2.2 is to give flight back to cut time to dig for artifacts.

I also suggest a Drud to get all your achievements because of the instant incantation in bird form.

Comment by windinface

is there a cap on the amount of digsites on the continents? My Monk is in the eastern continent, but can't find any more digsites there. I have ready done quite a bit of digging in the Eastern Continent

Comment by nickyjean

For those who wish an Auctionator List for Keystones:

Dwarf Rune Stone
Highborne Scroll
Troll Tablet
Orc Blood Text
Draenei Tome
Vrykul Rune Stick
Nerubian Obelisk
Tol'vir Hieroglyphic
Pandaren Pottery Shard
Mogu Statue Piece
Mantid Amber Sliver
Draenor Clan Orator Cane
Ogre Missive
Arakkoa Cipher

--Reminder: No Keystones for Fossils.

Comment by Xoros

@Karadine

Thank you for the guide.

An important point for 90+ characters that I didn't see specifically mentioned:

If you are just starting out / resuming low-level Archaeology, (i.e. 40/75 Arch skill), instead of going back to trainer every 75 skill points to learn next tier (and potentially waste skill-ups if you forget you're capped), simply Survey a site or 2 in Draenor, you'll get the Brittle Cartography Journal and *poof* your Arch skill cap is 700.

No need to return to an Archaeology trainer as you level.

(An added bonus: you save Arch skill trainer costs for all the tiers you skipped.)

Comment by Luongo

Question... if I only want to get rares from the dig sites, do I need a high skill to obtain certain things, or are they all obtainable even with a skill of 1?

Comment by DrummerKane

Hotkeying the survey button can shave, what turns out to be, quite a bit of time.

Comment by Ghyndui

This may be "old news" to a lot of folks, but as I'm just getting back into Archaeology, I have found that once I hit 600, I no longer get points for digging in Pandaria. So, to continue leveling Arch with digs I have to move onto Draenor :(

Comment by 6by6n6

Just starting out with Archaeology in BFA?

Go meet Jane Hudson in Boralus.. 68.45, 8.57. She will raise your potential Archaeology skill all the way to 950. No heading back to the trainer as you level.
Happy digging.

Comment by sivla

so tell me why has this not been updated and why does it say 1-800 when in fact it you only take the guide up to 700, bit misleading

Comment by anonsequitur

I could not find an archaeology trainer in Oribos. May I conclude that archaeology is not practiced in Shadowlands?

Comment by Kukkaspoika

If anyone is reading this and wants to level this mostly dead profession (until Blizz gets around to doing more in Dragonflight with it).

The fastest way to level this is to hotkey your survey and mount buttons to your mouse. If you are a Druid you will save a HUGE amount of time using flight form any second you are able.
eg. Survey > Instant flight form > Fly to location > Survey > Instant flight form

Also use "Minimal Archeology" addon. The rest are not worth it at all. There used to be an amazing addon that literally showed all possible nodes on your minimap but it no longer works at all and it was only working in Legacy > MoP expansions anyway.

I also recommend using BfA leveling zones unless you REALLY want a specific artifact from another zone. Why? Because these dig sites last MUCH longer and provide WAY more keystones and artifact pieces. You will level 3 times faster than if you are going with Legacy and MoP zones etc. You can start in BfA zones from level 1 too if you have learned BfA Archeology which you can at level 1 from any respective trainer.

Comment by chubble10

Despite being called a `1-800` leveling guide, this seems to stop at 700 😞

Comment by ricangsxrdude

For those either leveling to 950 or just getting titles and mounts and pets or whatnot, do yourself a few favors.

Download Minimal Archaeology addon. HUGE help. The other addons are crap for lack of a better word.

Also, try to do this with a Druid. Hopping off a mount to survey to mount to survey is annoying AF and time-consuming to the point you will get annoyed. I wish I had done this with a Druid rather than a Mage. Expect to spend CRAZY hours doing this (I am going for the Professor title) so try to have something else like a movie or anything to distract you a bit before you lose your mind.

I am collecting everything up to 200 fragments and solving as the cap is hit per race. Also, switch locations/worlds/continents because it will get monotone quickly.

Good luck all.

Comment by Decypha

1 - 750
Surveying dig sites at Broken Isle is the fastest way to level Archaeology to 750 because you can survey each dig site 9 times, and the dig sites are confined to one zone, so you will get to each dig site much faster. (The zone where you can find dig sites changes every two weeks)

Alternatives:

You can level until 700 in Draenor. You will also get 9 skill points from dig sites in Draenor, but you will have to travel more between dig sites.
You can level until 600 in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. But, you will only get 6 skill points from each dig site, and you will have to travel a lot more between dig sites, so these continents are much slower.
You can also level to 600 in Outland (from 300), Northrend (from 375), and Pandaria (from 525) once you have high enough Archaeology skill.
750 - 950
You could do the 750-800 part at the Broken Isle, but from around 750, looting the fragments at dig sites will give skill points much less frequently, so I recommend switching to Zandalar or Kul Tiras.

And for the last 150 points, you can only gain skill points by surveying in Zandalar or Kul Tiras dig sites, and solving artifacts won't give any skill points anymore.

As you get closer to 950, you will get skill points much less frequently. The last 30-40 points will be really slow, you will sometimes have to clear multiple dig sites just to gain a single skill point.

Archaeology 1-800 Leveling and Collecting Strategies

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