No Longer Lost in Time: A Time-Lost Proto-Drake Guide

By xisthena Updated: 2026/01/04

Reins of the Time-Lost Proto-DrakeTime-Lost Proto-DrakeWoW Secret Finding Discord

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.

The Basics

Time-Lost Proto-Drake has a 100% chance to drop the mount when killed.

Time-Lost Proto-Drake has a spawn timer of approximately 2-8 hours, and shares this timer with Vyragosa, who spawns far more often.

There are four spawn points, all of which are shared by Vyragosa.

/way The Storm Peaks 31.5, 70.0 Frozen Lake
/way The Storm Peaks 51.1, 71.2 Brunn Village
/way The Storm Peaks 35.0, 76.5 Waterfall
/way The Storm Peaks 52.3, 35.0 Ulduar Ravine

enrage timer of approximately 4-5 minutesWild WrathFatal Bitecannot be tagged and looted in a raid groupbeforeWhat you will needAddons

Remember, with SilverDragon and other "rare scanner" addons, you will only receive an alert if you see a nameplate, target the NPC or mouseover the NPC. These limitations were forced with the introduction of Vignette mobs in Warlords of Draenor, which overhauled the rare NPC system as a whole. Therefore, you cannot completely AFK and expect your addon to announce a spawn for you as was possible in the past.

Macros

/targetexact Time-Lost Proto-Drake
/targetexact Vyragosa
/run local N = UnitName("Target");if N and (N=="Time-Lost Proto-Drake") then PlaySound(13363);print(date(),N,"Found");SetRaidTarget("target",8);end

Spawn InformationTracking her spawns and kills will help you keep track of when Time-Lost Proto-Drake can spawn.The spawn timer is currently estimated to be 2-8 hoursdoes

Frozen Lake
Brunn Village
Waterfall
Ulduar Ravine

The Hunt: Camping, Sharing, and MoreCamping

Have a Rare scanner addon as well as a keybound target macro. While the macro doesn't need to be spammed at every instant, it helps to use it once in a while to alert you to any spawns you may have missed.

Record the time of each spawn you get, whether it was skinned or not, and whether it was Vyragosa or Time-Lost Proto-Drake. Effective timer-tracking is effective camping.

Skin every Vyragosa that you find or kill. If your character does not have Skinning, try partying up with someone who does. Doing so will shorten the time until the spawn window and also prevent other players and groups from being able to use the corpse to determine the timer for that realm.

weigh the risksanyone invited to the group after that point will not get lootnotCamping on Roleplay Servers and Inactivity ResetsIf you elect to go forward with using an RP server, you have two options: Either level a new character to 25 or use a class trial character to phase over to one.Leveling a New Character:Phasing with Class Trials:

To phase over to an RP server with a group, have someone in your group make a class trial character on the RP server you want to use, and use it to invite everyone else. Before inviting, make sure the trial character is in Storm Peaks and has the same warmode settings as the rest of the group. You cannot get loot from Time-Lost Proto-Drake on a class trial, so after the person with the trial invites, they should pass the group lead to another player and get invited back on a real character. If you have a group of five, you can safely remove the trial character from the group, once at least two group members have successfully phased over to the RP server.

To phase for solo camping, you will need help. Ask a friend to make a class trial on the server you want to camp on. Have them come to Storm Peaks on the same warmode setting as you, then invite you. They can log out of the trial afterward. Note that if you leave the group, leave the zone, or log off, you may get put back on your original server. You can also do this method by yourself, if you have a second account.

Tagging

A few of the rarest creatures in Azeroth can again only be looted by the first group to engage them. This includes Aeonaxx and Time-Lost Proto-Drake.

notNote: Your party must all be in range of Time-Lost Proto-Drake when he is first tagged to get loot.

Make sure none of the party members are on a class trial; Class trials cannot loot Time-Lost Proto-Drake for the mount.

Ensure all of your party members are in The Storm Peaks and close to you before tagging Time-Lost Proto-Drake.

Kill Time-Lost, and loot him. Note that as long as everyone in your party is close enough, you do not all need to tag. Simply killing him will give credit to everyone in your party who is in range.

Cross-Realm Zones, Warmode, and Chromie Timecross-realm techCross-Realm Zones

CRZ Group Name

Servers

East Coast

Aerie Peak, Area 52, Arthas, Bleeding Hollow, Burning Legion, Dalaran, Illidan, Kel'Thuzad, Mal'Ganis, Sargeras, Shattered Hand, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Thrall, Turalyon, Zul’jin, (Bloodhoof, Duskwood), (Alexstrasza, Terrokar), (Baelgun, Doomhammer), (Ysera, Durotan), (Aggramar, Fizzcrank), (Blackhand, Galakrond), (Elune, Gilneas, Auchindoun, Cho'gall, Laughing Skull), (Greymane, Tanaris), (Altar of Storms, Anetheron, Magtheridon, Ysondre), (Alleria, Khadgar, Exodar, Medivh), (Arygos, Llane), (Garona, Icecrown, Malygos, Burning Blade, Lightning's Blade, Onyxia), (Dawnbringer, Madoran, Azuremyst, Staghelm), (Ghostlands, Kael’thas, Gnomeregan, Moonrunner, Grizzly Hills, Lothar, Malfurion, Trollbane), (Ravencrest, Uldaman), (Black Dragonflight, Gul'dan, Skullcrusher, Eonar, Velen, Andorhal, Scilla, Ursin, Zuluhed), (Dentarg, Whisperwind), (Hellscream, Zangarmarsh, Eredar, Gorefiend, Spinebreaker, Wildhammer), (Coilfang, Dalvengyr, Dark Iron, Demon Soul), (Blackwing Lair, Dethecus, Lethon, Haomarush), (Detheroc, Shadowmoon), (Deathwing, Executus, Kalecgos, Shattered Halls), (Alterac Mountains, Balnazzar, Gorgonnash, The Forgotten Coast, Warsong, Anvilmar, Undermine), (Blade’s Edge, Thunderhorn, Agamaggan, Archimonde, Jaedenar, The Underbog), (Blood Furnace, Mannoroth, Nazjatar, Azgalor, Azshara, Destromath, Thunderlord)

West Coast

Darkspear, Garrosh, Hyjal, Kil'jaeden, Lightbringer, Proudmoore, Tichondrius, (Dragonblight, Fenris), (Draenor, Echo Isles), (Blackrock, Muradin, Nordrassil, Azjol-Nerub, Khaz Modan), (Antonidas, Uldum, Eldre’thalas, Korialstrasz, Akama, Dragonmaw, Mug'thol), (Bladefist, Kul Tiras), (Frostmane, Ner'zhul, Tortheldrin, Korgath, Cairne, Cenarius, Perenolde), (Misha, Rexxar), (Quel’dorei, Sen’jin), (Bronzebeard, Shandris), (Eitrigg, Shu’halo), (Hydraxis, Terenas, Borean Tundra, Shadowsong, Mok’nathal, Silvermoon, Drak’thul, Skywall), (Draka, Suramar, Darrowmere, Windrunner), (Bloodscalp, Boulderfist, Dunemaul, Maiev, Stonemaul), (Runetotem, Uther), (Nazgrel, Nesingwary, Vek’nilash), (Frostwolf, Vashj), (Kilrogg, Winterhoof), (Drak'tharon, Firetree, Malorne, Rivendare, Spirestone, Stormscale), (Aegwynn, Bonechewer, Daggerspine, Gurubashi, Hakkar), (Arathor, Drenden, Anub'arak, Chromaggus, Crushridge, Garithos, Nathrezim, Smolderthorn)

Latin America

Drakkari, Ragnaros, Quel’thalas

Brazil

Goldrinn, Gallywix, Azralon, Nemesis, Tol Barad

Oceanic

Barthilas, (Frostmourne, Gundrak, Jubei’thos, Dreadmaul, Thaurissan), (Aman’thul, Dath’remar, Khaz’goroth), (Caelestrasz, Nagrand, Saurfang)

RP 1

Argent Dawn, The Scryers

RP 2

Blackwater Raiders, Shadow Council, Sisters of Elune, Cenarion Circle

RP 3

Earthen Ring

RP 4

Feathermoon, Scarlet Crusade

RP 5

Kirin Tor, Sentinels, Steamwheedle Cartel

RP 6

Farstriders, Silver Hand, Thorium Brotherhood

RP 7

Twisting Nether, Ravenholdt, Maelstrom, Lightninghoof, The Venture Co

RP 8

Emerald Dream

RP 9

Wyrmrest Accord

RP 10

Moon Guard

CRZ Group Name

Servers

English 1

Al'Akir, Burning Legion, Draenor, Magtheridon, Skullcrusher, Xavius, (Dragonmaw, Haomarush, Spinebreaker, Stormreaver, Vashj), (Alonsus, Anachronos, Kul Tiras), (Aszune, Shadowsong), (Azjol-Nerub, Quel'Thalas), (Azuremyst, Stormrage), (Aerie Peak, Bronzebeard, Blade's Edge, Vek'nilash, Eonar), (Bloodhoof, Khadgar), (Bronze Dragonflight, Nordrassil), (Darkspear, Terokkar, Saurfang), (Doomhammer, Turalyon), (Emerald Dream, Terenas), (Lightbringer, Mazrigos), (Agamaggan, Bloodscalp, Crushridge, Emeriss, Hakkar, Twilight's Hammer), (Bloodfeather, Burning Steppes, Executus, Kor'gall, Shattered Hand), (Burning Blade, Drak'thul), (Bladefist, Frostwhisper, Zenedar, Darksorrow, Genjuros, Neptulon), (Dentarg, Tarren Mill)

English 2

*Pozzo dell' Eternità (Italian), *Nemesis (Italian), Chamber of Aspects, Frostmane, Kazzak, Outland, Ragnaros, Ravencrest, Silvermoon, Stormscale, Twisting Nether, (Aggramar, Hellscream), (Dragonblight, Ghostlands), (Arathor, Hellfire, Kilrogg, Nagrand, Runetotem), (Thunderhorn, Wildhammer), (Aggra, Grim Batol), (Ahn'Qiraj, Balnazzar, Boulderfist, Chromaggus, Daggerspine, Laughing Skull, Shattered Halls, Sunstrider, Talnivarr, Trollbane), (Sylvanas, Auchindoun, Dunemaul, Jaedenar), (Deathwing, Karazhan, Lightning's Blade, The Maelstrom)

English RP 1

Argent Dawn, (Moonglade, Steamwheedle Cartel, The Sha'tar)

English RP 2

(Defias Brotherhood, Ravenholdt, Scarshield Legion, Sporeggar, The Venture Co, Darkmoon Faire, Earthen Ring)

German 1

Aman'Thul, Blackmoore, Blackrock, Thrall, (Alleria, Rexxar), (Ambossar, Kargath), (Area 52, Senjin, Un'Goro), (Arygos, Khaz'goroth), (Baelgun, Lothar), (Dun Morogh, Norgannon), (Durotan, Tirion), (Garrosh, Nozdormu, Shattrath), (Gilneas, Ulduar), (Lordaeron, Tichondrius), (Malfurion, Malygos), (Malorne, Ysera), (Perenolde, Teldrassil), (Anetheron, Festung der Stürme, Gul'dan, Kil'jaeden, Nathrezim, Rajaxx), (Anub'arak, Dalvengyr, Frostmourne, Nazjatar, Zuluhed), (Arthas, Blutkessel, Kel'Thuzad, Vek'lor, Wrathbringer), (Azshara, Krag'jin), (Destromath, Gorgonnash, Mannoroth, Nefarian, Nera'thor), (Dethecus, Mug'thol, Onyxia, Terrordar, Theradras)

German 2

Aegwynn, Antonidas, Blackhand, Eredar, Frostwolf, (Alexstrasza, Nethersturm), (Madmortem, Proudmoore), (Echsenkessel, Mal'Ganis, Taerar)

German RP 1

(Die ewige Wacht, Die Silberne Hand, Das Konsortium, Das Syndikat, Der Abyssische Rat, Die Arguswacht, Die Todeskrallen, Kult der Verdammten), (Todeswache, Zirkel des Cenarius, Die Nachtwache, Forscherliga, Der Mithrilorden, Der Rat von Dalaran)

German RP 2

Die Aldor

French 1

(Chants éternels, Vol'jin), (Drek'Thar, Uldaman), (Eitrigg, Krasus), (Arak-arahm, Kael'thas, Rashgarroth, Throk'Feroth), (Garona, Ner'zhul, Sargeras)

French 2

Archimonde, Hyjal, Khaz Modan, Ysondre, (Dalaran, Marécage de Zangar), (Elune, Varimathras), (Medivh, Suramar), (Arathi, Illidan, Naxxramas, Temple Noir), (Cho'gall, Eldre'Thalas, Sinistralis)

French RP

(Confrérie du Thorium , Les Clairvoyants, Les Sentinelles, Kirin Tor, Conseil des Ombres, Culte de la Rive noire, La Croisade écarlate)

Spanish

C'Thun, Dun Modr, (Colinas Pardas, Los Errantes, Tyrande), (Exodar, Minahonda), (Sanguino, Shen'dralar, Uldum, Zul'jin)

Russian

(Подземье, Разувий), (Король-лич, Седогрив, Гордунни), (Пиратская бухта, Ткач смерти), (Гром, Термоштепсель)

WarmodeChromie Time BasicsChromie Time is a separate phaseChromieChromie Time and Party SyncAdditional tips on using party sync:

Some enemies are difficult to defeat alone in Chromie Time. Using party sync to bring others in to Chromie Time to help you will make them much easier to handle.

Due to a bug, you currently need to complete all invites prior to activating party sync. If you attempt to invite someone with party sync already active, the accept invite window will not appear for the person being invited. To make sure your invite works properly, turn off party sync before issuing the invite, then turn it back on afterwards.

You will not be able to activate party sync if you are currently in combat.

Class trial characters cannot party sync into Chromie Time.

Making Use of Chromie TimeTrivia & History

There is a Time-Lost Proto-Drake easter egg in Nagrand, Draenor. This always-dead NPC is a nod to the time-lost nature and rarity of the elusive drake.

Time-Lost Proto-Drake and Vyragosa used to have a very long spawn timer, which has been reduced over the years. It used to be 6-22 hours back in Wrath of the Lich King, and was reduced to 4-12 hours in Warlords of Draenor, before it was brought down to its current spawn time of 2-8 hours.

There are always new theories being tested by the Secrets Discord. One of the older ones is that there is a "wave" to Time-Lost and Vyragosa spawning, meaning that when one server spawns one, then another might spawn on a different server. There has been some evidence to back this up, but it's likely to just be coincidental!

The Red Rider Air Rifle provided a simple way of tagging Time-Lost Proto-Drake before Battle for Azeroth launched. It used to deal 1-2 damage and could be purchased from a vendor, but it now does 0 damage, making it an unsafe method of tagging.

Comments

Comment by DeadlyBanana

Very insightful guide! One question. Do we have an average of the targeting range for Vyra and Proto? If you fly the route you showed, is there no risk you will fly past an already spawned drake that is patrolling mid-way and not be close enough to target it?

Comment by Icrashdump

So what is it with the tagging? Aren't you sharing loot in a group anyway? Is that really nessesary? I mean I'm about to group up with random people I never met. I'm probably better off alone?

Comment by Missikrissi

I have a horde DH in a highly alliance RP realm and had her in war mode (I swear I am alone..) and use her to farm achievements like Bloody Rare and Frostbitten...which is what i was in the process of working on when I came across the TLPD..yall I hollered! I about woke my kids up! I chase mounts...but this was one I never thought I would ever get due to the time invested in it! Good luck all! <3

Comment by Meghan

This was extremely helpful, and goes right into the point. Thanks to this guide, I was able to finally get the Time-Lost drake. :) I was circling around Storm Peaks just casually looking, afk’ed for like 10 minutes, took another lap but this time I flew through Bor’s Breath heading towards the flight path in Frosthold... and then BAM! I flew right into him. I aggro’ed him and flew to the side of the mountain, right behind Frosthold, and insta-kill! 2:45am server time. Best of luck to all. :)

Comment by Araphea

Heya,

Just wanted to say that I made a RAID group where people were able to loot the mount - HOWEVER, ONLY the ones who had tagged it.

Argent Dawn EU: 10:40 morning time.

Comment by Dockie

Anyone know if the macro still works in 8.3?

Comment by Zaphod392

Just one note to add, to those that are using low pop realms to try and force this spawn.

If no one is in the zone, it goes to into an idle mode, where the timer is essentially sleeping. So if its a 2-8 hour spawn rate, someone has to be in the zone for that timer to start. If everyone leaves, it goes into that idle state causing the timer to essentially pause.

Edit: Oct 23, 2020 - After spending much time on TLPD and other mounts like Aeonaxx, when a zone is completely empty, it will reset like a server reset. This means, if you go into a fresh zone, the timer for TLPD will reset to zero, and will be 2 hours min before you might see a respawn. But, Deepholm and SMV dont do this reset, their timers are always going no matter if anyone is in the zone. So Aeonaxx might up any time or VT portals if its 48 hours after reset.

Comment by bunglemania

Hello fellow TLPD farmers. This guide is a great starting point that I highly recommend reading in full and I would like to share my experience with it. Long story short, I've been after this mount for yrs ever since WOTLK. I've been sniped many times and I've seen more TLPD corpses than I care to count. I've given up so many times on this and come back to try again. Some are luckier than others, but persistence pays off. I'm on a highly competitive US server. For those who are confused to how Storm Peaks works, it is a phase shared by any/all servers within your region -/+ 3 hrs from your server time. With this in mind, my server was mashed with about 16 other servers and constantly had any where from 5-10 people at ea spawn point. So I ended up transferring a toon to a Latin American server which ended up working out for me and my fellow campers that I farmed with, well one of them anyways. I would phase them all into my zone by inviting them while they were in Dalaran so that when they flew into Storm Peaks, they would be in my phase. If you invite them while they're in Storm Peaks or if they go AFK in your grp, you risk being phased back to their server phase. After 10 straight Vyra kills and keeping track of timer, we downed TLPD. The only problem we had was the final night of the spawn we were all waiting for, we had some competition. Since we had a full grp of 5, 2 of us sat at Village spawn point trying to scare away the competition. With the competition it was either he gets it or at least 2 of us gets it. It was a lock spamming aoe non stop. I was on my warrior and had a macro for target and taunt. I know taunt risks the rest of the group not getting it as it apparently counts as tagging but I was willing to try gaining aggro and tag waiting for the rest of my grp to meet to at least try. Well it so happens while the lock was spamming aoe and I was spamming my taunt macro, TLPD spawned right on top of me and I ended up taunt tagging and then one shotted it. What was suppose to be a much celebrated exciting occasion was also laced with some guilt as only 2 of us out of the 5 got to loot. I spent the following hr replaying the kill trying to figure what went wrong. Then I updated my macro to target a random mob to see what would happen. The one thing I didn't account for was the auto attack that followed taunt. Some of us forget how much the game has changed over the years and forget little details such as this.

So with my story I leave you this, use a trial character or just straight trans a char like I did risking it all and check out low pop server's Storm Peaks phases. In my case I used Latin American servers as the time difference advantage and the fact they only shared with 2 other servers, I figured this was best for me. Most will say low pop RP servers. If the phase looks dead with no other campers, then go a head and transfer a char over. Some I heard used trial chars to phase others in and then passed lead and switch to their acct to be phased in as well, but I suspect a lot of issues arise with being phased back out. I mean I was a part of the server I used had lead and one person going afk on another server phased us back to theirs. Don't forget, trail chars can no longer loot TLPD! The phases are weird but once you begin to understand them and how they work, the more you can use them to your advantage. There are dead phases out there with no competition and unclaimed TLPD mounts. Oh and one other piece of advice, I know its RNG, but I've seen more TLPD corpses' at Village spawn than anywhere else and that's where I got mine. Even with the Vyra kills we had, 6x @ Village, 3x @ Lake, and 1x @ WF. If you're solo camping or group camping, always stick to one spot no matter what happens. Before I transferred servers, my group stayed together due to the competition at one spawn point and we made the mistake of moving after every Vyra spawn thinking it was going to spawn somewhere else only to spawn at our previous spot. Your odds are better to just stick to one spot, otherwise find a low pop server and get at least 3 friends and camp all 4. Best of luck!

Comment by SeraphX

I took the liberty and refined that macro a bit, it alerts the party as well, 250 chars, if you want to send it to raid_warning you might need to shorten it out a bit:

/targetexact Time-Lost Proto-Drake
/targetexact Vyragosa
/focus
/run local N = UnitName("Target");if N and (N=="Time-Lost Proto-Drake") then PlaySound(13363);local M = date() .. " Found " .. N;SendChatMessage(M, "PARTY");SetRaidTarget("target",8);end

You might want to use Mega Macro or anything that allows extra long macros for an extended version:

/stopmacro
/cleartarget
/targetexact Time-Lost Proto-Drake
/targetexact Vyragosa
/focus
/stopmacro

# You can edit these
/run SetChan = "PARTY"; SetSound = 13363; SetSoundChan = "MASTER";

# Setting internal variables
/run c = C_Map; d = date(); t = "Target"; p = "PLAYER";

# Main Function
/run PlaySound(SetSound, SetSoundChan);SetRaidTarget("target",8);
/run SendChatMessage(d, SetChan, nil, 5);
/run SendChatMessage(format("Found: %%t (%d%%) {rt8}",UnitHealth(t)/UnitHealthMax(t)*100), SetChan, nil, 5);
/run local u = format("Found: " .. UnitName("Target") .. " (%d%%)",UnitHealth(t)/UnitHealthMax(t)*100);RaidNotice_AddMessage(RaidWarningFrame,u,ChatTypeInfo);
/run local m = c.GetBestMapForUnit(p)c.SetUserWaypoint{uiMapID=m,position=c.GetPlayerMapPosition(m,p)}SendChatMessage(format("%s %s","My Location:",c.GetUserWaypointHyperlink()),SetChan,nil,5);

What it does:

Check if focus is set -- if so, the macro won't be executed
Clear the target -- just in you have something other in target
Looking for exact match on either TLPD or Vyra
Set the target into focus, this highlights the nameplate a bit different
Check if focus is dead or doesn't exist, no point in continuing if true
Now comes the fun part:
Set Custom Variables (chatoutput, sound, soundchannel)
Play the sound and set the raidtarget to skull.
Send Date to designated Channel
Send Target-Information to Channel
Send Target-Information to Raidwarning, which sadly only you can see
Send Your Current Location as a Map Pin

Possible Chat-Types:
Default "PARTY" -- Sends the output to Party Chat
"SAY" -- Character says it
"CHANNEL" -- Sends it to the Channel # found in the last parameter (set to 5)
"RAID" -- Sends it to Raidchat

There are a few more, but not really interessting ones for this content.

Possible Sounds:
Take your pick:
https://www.wowhead.com/sounds
Default 13363, though I like 17223

Possible Soundchannels:
Default "Master" (this will play the sound also with disabled sounds like before 4.0.1)
"SFX" -- Play designated sound with Sound Effects, yes, mounts do make SFX, which can be annoying after sitting on a mountain for several hours.
"Ambience" -- Play on Ambience Channel
"Music" -- Play on Music Channel

To test if the Macro is working, you can add another line after the /targetexacts with someone in your group.

Why the Focushandling?
I am using Focus mostly only in raid-enviroments and in the open game world seldom, so I thought handling the macro through focus is the smart approach. First of all, I can make a stopmacro right at the start if my focus target is set, which doesn't spam into chat after it first sets it. and a second stopmacro to check if focus is set. It can only be set by the mobs stated in /targetexact - so the function-bit is only executed with an actual focus target.

Hope you like it =)

Comment by waelkd

vyragosa corpse despawned in less then 5 mins on todays kill

Comment by waelkd

downed vyragosa today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvBDwpIuAzQ&ab_channel=WK

Comment by HalfBloodNord

I've come across the same observation with server idling and agree whole heartedly. I'm glad someone has already documented this. We should write bug reports. I'm on a dead, dead, dead, dead, world, I have killed Vyragosa over a dozen times.
To test the idle theory, I logged in after a 15 minute gap (never extending over the initial 30 minutes), the Vyragosa corpse was gone. If no one skinned it, it should have been there. This happened on multiple occasions (remember 12 kills),I’ve tried 5m, 10m, 12m, (corpse, corpse, corpse) but 17m.,17m , it was gone! Repeatedly with the same results, after 15m of inactivity the server goes idle and next person to login initiates a “cold start”.
Two take aways :
1. Not hopeful that TLPD drops on first spawn from a cold start. the first Vyragosa death in a sitting for me has always been 2-3.5h ( mostly 3h) then the second kill without logging off is up to 6h . That has been consistent in my experience. First kill short, second kill long… never had stamina to try for a third kill in a single camping
2. Whether blizzard did this on purpose or not, the cold starts really screws with my game play experience. I expect to go into a dead zone and not have to wait 3 hours to kick off a rare spawn. The NPC’s, Rares, etc should be living the life even when we’re not (non stop party in Storms Peaks Woot! Woot!). Albeit these are default settings for aws lambda (cloud computing) and they would have to proactively make a change to the infrastructure in order to stop the zone from idling.

If anyone wants to proof out/double check my findings, lets compare notes! Just make sure your on an RP server with chromie time on while doing it!

Comment by vicpav

" All group members should be in-group and within range of the rare before he is engaged in combat."

What does this means, that you cant even bodypull the drake?

Comment by SilkCharm

We (group of 5 across multiple servers) brought down TLPD last night. Some information: NPC Time said she was alive for 8 min 14 seconds (we had trouble as she has a very small aggro range bringing her to a place where we could kill her that didn't mean a massive fall.). That means she spawned at either 23:00 or 23:01 on 25/02 on Feathermoon US server. As we had people on each spawn point, we took a few minutes to get to the Northern most spawn point where she had spawned. It's frustrating tagging that high up as a) you dismount, have to land and remount again to try and herd her to a high up ledge and b) she really doesn't do body pulling very well and c) is it possible that her corpse could fall down a never ending cliff? Try and sort out where you are going to pull TLPD to if in a group before the happy event :) as she will aggro you which will dismount you and then de-aggro just as quick. Try not to cast-kill her over a never ending fall that you can't loot the corpse from. that would be annoying :P

Comment by Dougal2131

I found and killed the TLPD today, after about a week of camping. I was on Chromie Time and had WM on. The kill was the third sighting in 3 days. On Friday, I was in a group of 2, The other guy found the TLPD and killed it, he then linked me the mount in chat. The next day, I was in a group of 5. As we were pulling the Proto-Drake to the ground, an Alliance mage sniped the kill. Even though the Shaman in the group had cast flame shock first, our name plates greyed out after the Mage hit it. Today, I had just logged in at K3 and was flying up towards the waterfall. The TLPD spawned right infront of me, Silverdragon went off but Rarescanner didn't. I got the kill but when the drake died, it fell through the scenery and was half in, half out. It was too high for me to loot from the ground and too low from the platform I was standing on. I have submitted a bug report about this.

Through my time camping I also found out that if I swapped over to a level 60 character with WM on, there was always a TLPD or Vyragosa spawn within 30 minutes of the kill on Chromie Time. I also found there is always at least 4 hours minimum between spawns and there are certain spawn windows, the first of the day being between 0000 and 0200, the second between 0700 and 0900, the third between 1100 and 1330 and the last being between 1700 and 1930. During my time, I also found the Waterfall to be the most common spawn point with 12 spawns and the lake at Frosthold to be the least common with 3 spawns. In total, I had 6 TLPD sightings, 4 of which were on the Waterfall flightpath.

If you really want this mount, I highly recommend taking notes of all your kills, spawn points and times. You'll start to notice patterns and know when to be online and when you don't need to be in Storm Peaks, I also recommend you have one character on Chromie time and one at max level to double your chances.

Good luck!

Comment by Omino

So Basically if I'm playing on a low population RP Server and I'm the only one on Storm Peaks, I can't leave or else the zone will unload?

What happens if I scout for an hour and then go to Dalaran for the next hour and wait for it to spawn (theoretically)? will it unload again and I'll have to start over and do the whole 2 hours again?

Comment by burnouts

You can no longer use class trial and chromie time since 9.1 patch has dropped, chromie tells you to go to icecrown now and gives no option to change timelines.

Comment by minka25

Camping him since release.

Today was the first time i ever saw him. But he was dead after i tabbed in. Cause SIlverdragon didnt send me any sound. After i targeted him, it alerted me... in Shadowlands zones everything is fine an this !@#$ty addon is always yelling at me.

I guess another 10 years of camping. Camping in WoD Chromie time since its available

Killed Vyragosa 637 times for now.

Comment by mp96

Got him today at 22:34 EU-Blackmoore after camping about 3-4 days - not 24/7, but switching with two chars in two phases - wm off and chromie wm off with a twink - and saw/killed Vyragosa in that time for seven times. I usually gave up when I killed Vyragosa in the afternoon and switched on the other char or randomly logged in in the evening to check for Vyra/TLPD, so my tactics are definitely not the best. Since I was sleeping at night, I always logged in in the morning with no clue about any timer which was quite awful, so I talked with a few people to get a bit of intuition of what is going on with spawns and in average TLPD spawned each day although I cannot confirm their statements.

Regarding my kill: firstly - such a beautiful mount, secondly, as I realized he was there I wildly tried to dismount and attack him in the air without dying. I am not sure if SilverDragon would have thrown a notification, I have been watching sports and it had just ended, so I went to my computer afterwards and he was in front of me. Since many people are reporting this kind of issue, I highly doubt SilverDragon correctly notifies you in time if you are tabbed out and afk, I also cannot confirm any notification from Vyragosa - it notified me about Skoll when I flew over him, for Vyragosa I never received one, but my setting could be wrong as well. I just want to emphasize that you should not completely rely on any addon and check ingame for any spawn on your own.

In addition, I - my char is a monk - attacked him in the air with Tigerpalm, killed him and used Zen Flight to safely land. I was waiting at the spot near Bors Fall, there were usually people camping in the other spots, so I was just unbelievably lucky although I also invested quite a lot of time over the last few months (even if it was not regularly). When I was actively camping, I usually flew around and checked the routes, also to look for any dead bodies. This was my first spawn at Bors Fall, for the other three spots I only got Vyragosa. I also recognized some patterns with timings (I constantly saw a spawn between 14:00 - 16:00 and in the evening 20:00 - 23:00), but I do not know if this was just random, in particular since I only camped and reported a few days. I never saw more than two Vyras in one day, so I am quite sure I missed a lot (probably a half) of spawns.

I can highly recommend building a group and/or use Chromie phase - this helps a lot even though I didn't got him there, but CT was quite empty all the time and Vyragosa was easy to kill as a level 37, however it is just more of a time commitment since you might have to wait 2h due to the server reset. Otherwise you need to rely on your luck (more than you already need) which might take you even more time.

All the best and happy new year!

Comment by MuTeKi88

Killed it 2 days ago. First time ever seen dead or alive. First time ever hunting it too, probably spent an hour total. Killed Vyragosa (after checking all the spawn points) heading north between Snowdrift and Grom'Arsh at 20:52 ST on Ragnaros, WM on, Chromie time. Went to sleep once I saw nothing spawned 2hs later. Logged back at 04:53 and and TLPD was flying low between Brunnhildar Village and Engine of the Makers. Flew across him and got pulled right away. Got Aeonaxx today too after 2 days randomly logging in and flying a lap around the temple so I'm super pumped since I finally got both drakes.

Comment by fkdlzh

i've been farming this beast for 2 days straight, 16hours of game a day. i killed vyragosa 6 or 7 times, please tlpd spawn now and let me kill you

edit: got it. after 12 vyragosa kills, finally it spawned. its curious but everytime that vyragosa spawned it happened around 2-4hours of the despawn, but when tlpd spawned it took him around 7 hours

Comment by EatFish

Question for the Brain!

If TlPd or Vyra Spawns.. and you log out..
will they despawn when zone unload if not killed? (15 min rule for empty servers) ?

Thanks for any replies!

Comment by Missyll

Farm it on RP server. Really. I took me 2 days to have it, alone on all the area.

Don't wast time, go lvl up to 30 et start camping on RP serv.

GL

Comment by forever86d

Other than 10 minutes here, half hour there never camped hard.

Spent 12 hours today with a group on all spawns didn't see either drake on Stormscale.

Will update with future efforts

Comment by MrHexo

how to:
SOLO CAMP ALL SPOTS

- on your main battle.net account create new game account
- create new 10lvl char, log on and choose Chromie timeline
- log on main account, inv 10lvl char and promote him to leader
- set party-sync on 10lvl char (now your main can see low lvl char)
- on Your main use 2-seater flyin mount to take 10lvl to spawn spot in Storm Peaks
- repeat 2-3 times

now you can see all spots at the same time. if You will see TLPD just go there on main char (cant kill on alt char coz drake will be 30lvl for your 10lvl alt)

got it this way (Chromie WM off, noRP) in 10h. one Vyra, no other ppl showed up during camp. seen only one player in that 10h - during kill TLPD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVkfRrT_Des

Comment by TarrynItUp

Using Chromie time is a load of BS. Only WM on and WM off matters. I seen a level 60 1 shot Veragosa while on my lvl 45 toon in Chromie time and you can not even be in Chromie time (at the time of this post) at lvl 60. So irrelevant completely. Sorry!

Comment by Nezzey

FYI for Wrath Classic people using the information on this page!

The macro is wrong, there is no dash(-) in Proto Drake in 3.3.5. Missing this detail cost me the mount first time. Be safe and just add /tar Time to it, and it will catch TLPD
/tar Time-Lost Proto Drake
/tar Time
/tar Vyragosa
/run local N = UnitName("Target");if N and (N=="Time-Lost Proto Drake") then PlaySound(13363);print(date(),N,"Found");SetRaidTarget("target",8);end

good luck!

Comment by AttaWoW

Just got TLPD today, 08 Feb 2023, patch 10.0.5 and am happy to confirm that the very first spawn on a server after a reset / inactivity CAN be TLPD. I'm on a moderately sized RP server and was dismayed to hear that others went on large dry streaks with the first spawn only being Vyragosa. I got NPCTime to see how long the zone had been loaded and where we were in the spawn cycle. With WM on it was only ever myself loading the server, except at peak times. WM off was dependent on the time of day, but it usually loaded in around 0500-0600 in the morning. I would hop on around 0800. By the evening it would be loaded in around 1630-1700 onwards, out to roughly 2100-2200. That's two consistent windows of first spawns to catch.

All in all, I ended up seeing 6 spawns. The first Vyragosa I didn't have NPC time and I then camped to the second (a gap of 5 hours and 10 minutes). It was a classic second-spawn timing as others have mentioned. Once I found the time to come online when the zone was about 2 hours on, the next three Vyragosa timings were all consistent (2 hours exactly, 1 hour 55 minutes, 2 hours 21 minutes). I kept trying to catch early morning 2 hour spawns in the hope there would be a TLPD and sure enough spawn number 6 coming in at 2 hours 50 minutes was TLPD. It's a small sample number, and not every kill was mine. One Vyragosa and TLPD were from Ulduar Ravine (first spawns of the load). One Vyragosa was Waterfall, and the only second spawn I ever tracked or observed was Brunn Village. The timing on TLPD / Vyragosa (I'm assuming they're the same speed, I only clocked TLPD with NPCTime) is 8 minutes from Ulduar Ravine to the classic Frozen Lake triple coverage site (basically right outside Frozen Lake mountain spawn point). Given that is roughly speaking half of the entire loop from that site, you can probably expect in the worst case scenario 16-ish minute loops. Keep that in mind when / if you decide to poke over to the Brunn Village loop periodically.

So my advice is to be smart, get NPCTime, and figure out about when that 2 hour spawn cycle comes online. For an investment of just 30 minutes at an early spot in the day, for instance, you can reliably camp these spawns. Or if you really want you can serially abuse consistent 2-3 hour spawns on an empty time frame of WM On, never waiting for the longer second spawn. This actually saves you time either way, assuming you hop to a server or time that quiet.

Comment by Flanell

Blizzard seems to have messed up the whole zone reset thing. I often camp for the 2h+ window on a rp server. Zone was active for 1h50 when i came in (NPCtime addon), but havent found anyone. Probaly someone went in an out Ulduar on reset Wednesday. So i decided to stay and camp till the first spawn. I always tab in and out on desktop, check time, spam macro. It was 2h35min when i did so. Coming back few seconds from desktop reading something in the forum I coudnt believe my eyes. NPCtime said 6min! The whole zone was resetted while I was in it and camping! Shortly before the first possible spawn of TLPD/Vyragosa.

I checked my full main server to control if blizzard did a serverrestart or so, and again addon said 7 min on the npcs. Annoyed I started camping again from fresh on the rp server in wm on. After 2h 50min got Vyragosa. I switched to my main server checking it again (only person there), because if blizz resetted everything at 12 o'clock for whatever reason, I should have the same time window there without empty zone reset. I was right, 2h50min there too. After 10 minutes i decided to switch back on the rp realm saving my last kill timer there, because you have to lock back in before the zone resets after 15 min. Right?
But guess what, the zone resetted again! Ok screw that, I logged back on my not reseting full server. And was shocked. I was only few seconds away and the whole zone was again reseted! That can not be! Its a full old pvp server. I was in warmode, checked again in wm off and again a full reset. What the hell!

I dunno if Blizzard did stupid silent server restarts today on 22.2.23 at 12:00 and 15:00 or empty zone reset was wided on old full pvp/pve server and without the 15 min protection, but it's strange that this happend while I was in the zone first on my empty rp server.

TLDR: Zone resetted while camping on empty rp server, NPCtimer started again. Zone resetted even on old full pvp/pve server wm on and off. Zone resetted without 15 min protection window after last person leaving the zone.

Update: Just checked that this applys to every zone even Ogrimmar. So something weird is going on today at least on EU.

Cant say how f*** up I'm at loosing 2 spawns at 2h50 because of this *!@#. I dont have much time camping for this sucker.

Update2: Farming Rukhmar now, killed him once, moved other twinks to the spot, others already camping. Moved the 3rd alt there, loading screen to Arak took strangely long. Came in and zone shard was diffrent. No fellow campers, no 6 min left spawn timer from WBT addon, Rukhmar already flying around. Logged back on different toon, again other shard. WTF is going on? Others wondering too. No single World Boss Timer is right now. Oh, and I got phased away just while waiting for Rukhmar.

Update: it's fixed. It seems it was just a weird week.

Comment by Fartballz

This is for retail only.

WOTLK it is average 16 hours and under 11 hours is almost unheard of.

I have 3 TLPD in classic wotlk and over a hundred Vyragosa kills

Comment by Pegas868

Is the 15-minute server reset fixed? I got NPCTime addon trying to get this mount and a lot of NPCs show time of about 4-5 days. Shouldn`t those times be in minutes if the server resets when empty? Especially early in the morning on a low population server

That being said, tried all 4 modes (chromie time, WM), neither Vyragosa nor TLPD seem to be up, so it seems like something is up with the NPCtime rather than the server not resetting anymore

Comment by DHCello

Hello fellow mount hunters! Just wanted to share my heartfelt gratitude for this excellent guide and helpful comments. After being killed by the TLPD while leveling in WotLK, and hunting him on/off ever since, I finally got him yesterday in Chromie Time WM OFF on an RP server.

Can confirm that in retail in 2024 SilverDragon + NPCTime + jumping to WM on/off shards and camping for the first spawn only (second seems to take longer) was very efficient. I ended up camping him over 3 days for ~10, 4 and 8 hrs respectively, during which I saw Vyragosa 5x. I was gearing myself up for a fourth long day when a miracle happened: I had just logged on at 8:10am server time, and done my first round of all spawn points, when in the Brunn Village a magnificent gold/brown dragon flew up from behind the mountains! What an epic moment!

The irony in all of this is that he had been up for 47min (!) before I killed him - I guess no one really checks the Brunhild loop as often as the other 3, so keep that in mind.

Also, I found that camping on an RP server with WM on in Chromie Time often meant that I am starting the shard fresh, which meant 2 hrs of wait time until the first spawn window... So I would recommend picking an RP server that is not completely dead... it really helped me that when I logged in first thing that morning, the server had been up for ~ 14 hours... this was key in my kill at least, so I thought I would share that so that it may help some folks. Best of luck and happy hunting!

Comment by TheLuckyBlackCat

As of today in the year of our lord and savior the Stormwind Bread Vendor, tuesday June 2024, i am now a proud owner of TLPD mount!

TO CONFIRM: TLPD CAN SPAWN FIRST AFTER SERVER RESETS!

I was on my druid on the Moonguard rp realm and waited about 4-5 hrs and had him spawn and travel the long loop. (did not check clock when first logged on, and waited at the juncture where 4/5 flight routes converge) All zones are generally dead empty unless in major rp spots or weekends. Routinely id have 0 competition waiting for and killing Vyragrosa probably over 30 times or so before TLPD finally came to visit! I did not have to kill Vyra first, and TLPD spawned first! ik there was alot of discourse over if Vyra is a guarenteed first spawn, so wanted to confirm NOPE! Maybe its a reduced chance, but there's a chance nonetheless!

Comment by coho

As someone who has been camping for over a month, killed Vyragosa 68 times now, and seen TLPD only twice (both dead), I have some thoughts.

After camping on my main for a few weeks (where I saw the two dead TLPDs and had a bunch of competition), like many, I leveled an alt on a deserted RP server. This is definitely the way to go because there isn't much competition. HOWEVER - to those who believe TLPD can spawn on the first spawn after a server reset, I haven't seen it, and I now have many, many Vyragosa kills to show for my trusting those who stated that it could. If you carefully read the descriptions below for those who believe TLPD can be the first spawn after a reset, it doesn't seem they were tracking the reset using NPC Time, or can say with absolute certainty that when they observed a TLPD spawn, it was the first TLPD spawn after a server reset. If I'm wrong about this, I'd love to see someone clearly state that they personally reset a shard, then waited 2+ hours and observed a TLPD spawn as the first spawn. I might be wrong, but I doubt it.

It's my firm belief that TLPD can't be the first spawn after a reset. If I'm right, what you need to do is reset the empty shard by logging out for 15 minutes, wait 2-3 hours (typically) for the first Vyragosa spawn, kill Vyra and skin it, then wait an additional 2-8 hours for a potential TLPD spawn. That makes it an effective much longer wait (4+ hours minimum) for the first potential TLPD spawn. But don't be like me and kill Vyragosa, reset the shard, and try again, because you'll just get more Vyragosas.

Comment by Ulyssi

I have had multiple times where it's 6+ hours between spawns and it's been Vyragosa. I saw TLPD twice in one day three weeks ago and I have not seen him since.

Comment by Glockoma

Slayed TLPD Today!
First sighting of it and it was glorious!
My Cousin and I camped the zone on multiple characters on multiple accounts for 4 days, around 48 hrs of total Camp time and 13 Vyragosa kills to 1 TLPD. The longest day being 16 hrs. Finally logged into a shard that I had another character positioned on (high pop realm with chromie time on) , flew around and caught sight of it around Ulduar. Pulled it over to a mountain top near snow drift plains and killed it safely on top (as I have read a few people had it fall down a cliff face and couldn't loot the corpse)

A few things to note:

-Was on a high pop server in Chromie time no War Mode.

-Shard for the Storm Peaks resets after 17 minutes with nobody in the zone.

- TLPD Definitely CAN AND MAY spawn FIRST on a fresh shard. NPC time had the shard open for 3Hr 42Min at the time of sighting. NPC time also had TLPD alive for 52 of those minutes.

- You will be able to see TLPD or Vyragosa from rather far away and usually at a mid-range height.

- There is no guarantee the first spawn will happen exactly at 2 hrs. I've had about 4 Spawns out of 14 start right around the 2 hr mark. The rest were between 2.5 and 3.5 hrs If the shard had just been opened. TLPD spawned right around 2hr 45min for me.

My suggestions - This is just what worked for me (these methods were inspired and learned from the guide above):

Add-ons: NPCtime, RareScanner

1. Start a character on a low-pop RP realm. Every War-mode Shard was blown out.
2. Use Chromie Time
3. Try to start a fresh shard
4. Recruit a friend(s) to help camp spawns and fly the routes opposite of you.
5. Use "/who the storm peaks" to check how many people are in zone and compare levels. Its likely that spotting a lvl 80 character this way indicates that they are in another layer of the zone. This MAY mean that someone on another layer, in the same server will keep the
shard open and be visible by this search method.
- Additionally, People in Chromie Time with War mode on will show up under the /who command even though they are not phased into your shard.
6. Set and AFK timer on your phone and refresh your game every 20 mins for the first 2 hrs.
7. Log to check other characters on other realms and shards but set a timer for 15 mins so you make it back in time before the shard resets.
8. Wait it out

Eventually you'll get your mount. Good Luck and Happy Hunting!

Comment by HeatherZWeather

On a brand new shard, Vyragosa / TLPD will ALWAYS spawn between 2-4 hours. Never less than 2, never more than 4. Learned this method from camping Soundless a few months back and it was confirmed during this farm.

I would recommend after killing Vyra, leave the shard entirely (or switch to the other side of WM) for at least 15 minutes so it resets and starts again. TLPD can be the first spawn on a brand new shard, just gotta get lucky! :)

Comment by GnomesRule

Just got this mount yesterday following mostly this guide. I joined camping groups for a few times but felt annoyed with sitting around doing nothing so instead I set up 9 characters on different server groups, some in war mode, some in chromie time, some even in war mode chromie time, logging in to each one of them within a 15 minute window to keep the shards alive. It felt like switching to broadband from dial-up internet. It only took 8 hours total farming in 3 sessions to get Time-Lost, while having around 15 Vyragosa kills. What the guide here didn't mention:
LVL 10 CHROMIE TIME CHARACTER CAN'T LOOT RARES in Storm-Peaks.
?You need to be Level 17(maybe) to be able to loot rares in Chromie time, so I needed some alt leveling to prepare for this (had them on Level 21 just to be sure).

Comment by EmmaScarletx

Just killed TLPD a few minutes ago, in Chromie time warmode off (after x2 vyragosa kills), using the "fresh shard zone" method.

x1 Vyragosa spawned close to 4h mark, and the other Vyragosa plus TLPD spawned past the 4h mark. Never beyond 4h30 mark though. Thought this information might help future collectors :) good luck!

Comment by tbonejoe78

After years of on-and-off camping, the hunt finally paid off… I claimed the TLPD.

5/12/2026
Server Time: 14:38
US Hellscream
Chromie Time: On | War Mode: Off

I used SilverDragon to track spawns.

The NPC Time add-on was an absolute game-changer. Most spawns were hitting that 2–3 hour window on a fresh layer, and Chromie Time turned Storm Peaks into a ghost town—hours would pass with barely another player in sight. During the day, maybe one or two would drift through. I racked up 60 Vyragosa kills… and even missed TLPD once before to another player (before I switched to Chromie Time camping).

Finally last week after server maintenance, it happened. I had a fresh layer and was flying my patrol when out of nowhere—there he was. The Time-Lost Proto-Drake, gliding over the chasm near Ulduar like a legend come to life. My heart started pounding. No hesitation—I dove.

And then—disaster.

TLPD knocked me off my mount.

I fell. All the way down into the gorge… and died.

For a split second, I thought it was over.

I rushed back, re spawned, and looked up—there he was. Still flying above me.

But! Disaster! Another player had spotted him too, flying overhead while I scrambled to get back in range. It could’ve turned into a race… but instead, I sent the invite.

They accepted.

Together, we pulled him down onto one of the broken stairways along the Path of the Titans near Ulduar and finished the fight. My heart was still racing as I looted him.

We gave each other a quick wave before parting ways—thankful for the cooperation, mutual respect, and one unforgettable moment.

After all that?

Yeah… pretty sure we both needed a drink.

No Longer Lost in Time: A Time-Lost Proto-Drake Guide

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