THE WOW FOREVER COLLECTION · GUIDE · RESEARCH CHECKED SEPTEMBER 23, 2026
Short answer: Merchant's Favor is a new currency you earn by filling supply crates for two trade factions, and you spend it on profession recipes. Waylaid Crates drop from ordinary mobs once you are level 10. You open the label to see what shipment it wants (20 Copper Ore, 40 Linen Cloth, 16 Copper Tubes and so on), fill it, and hand the sealed crate to the Azeroth Commerce Authority at Three Corners in Redridge if you are Alliance, or Durotar Supply and Logistics just west of the Crossroads if you are Horde. Your first crate pays 50 Favor through a one-time quest. After that, testers report about 5 per low-level crate. The currency buys 311 recipes, a pack mount, profession certifications and a couple of tabards.
Blizzard has not said a word about any of this. It was not in the BlizzCon Deep Dive, there is no blue post in either beta forum thread about it, and every number below comes from Wowhead's Forever database (mined from the beta client) or from testers. Treat it as beta data, which is exactly what it is.
What Merchant's Favor is
It is a currency, currency 3402 on Wowhead, added in beta build 1.60.1.69876. Its tooltip calls it an "interim currency" that the Durotar Supply and Logistics and the Azeroth Commerce Authority will trade for. It is not a reputation, although both of those groups are also reputation factions, and your first turn-in comes with 2,000 reputation.
If this sounds familiar, it should. It is the Waylaid Supplies system from Season of Discovery, carried over almost whole: the same two faction names, the same crate-filling loop. The difference is that in Forever the currency is the point, because it is how you buy a large share of the 600 new recipes Blizzard promised.
Not found anywhere yet: whether Merchant's Favor has a cap, and whether it is shared across your characters.
How to get it
1. Loot a Waylaid Crate
A Waylaid Crate drops from normal world mobs, needs level 10 to use, and stacks to 20. Wowhead's drop data shows it on things like Defias Rogue Wizards and Goretusks, at very low rates. There is no specific farm spot; you find them while questing. Right-click it to read the label, and it turns into a typed crate telling you what it wants.
2. Fill it
Each typed crate asks for one bundle from a short list, so you pick whichever you have. There are raw-material crates and crafted-goods crates, in four tiers that line up with the profession ranks:
| Crate tier | Level to use | Example asks |
|---|---|---|
| Apprentice | 10 | 20 Peacebloom or 20 Silverleaf; 20 Copper Ore or 20 Tin Ore; 40 Linen Cloth or 20 Light Leather; 20 Strange Dust or 6 Small Glimmering Shards |
| Journeyman | 10 | The same kinds of bundle, from the next tier of materials |
| Expert | 20 | As above, one tier higher |
| Artisan | 35 | As above, top-tier materials |
The raw-material crates come in four kinds: Herbs (split into Earthly and Flowering above Journeyman), Ore, Textiles (cloth or leather) and Curiosities (enchanting materials). The crafted-goods crates are Fabrics (bolts of cloth and cured hides, for tailors and leatherworkers), Ingots (smelted bars) and Parts (engineering, from Copper Tubes up to Thorium Widgets).
That spread matters. Every profession feeds this system, including gathering-only characters. A herbalist with no crafting profession can fill Herbs crates all day.
3. Turn it in
Filling the crate gives you a Sealed Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Artisan or Elite Crate. Each tier comes in white, green and blue quality versions. Nobody has published what decides the quality, though testers say the payout varies with what you packed. Take it to your faction's trade post:
| Faction | Turn-in NPC | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Alliance | Marcy Baker, Inventory Intake | Three Corners, Redridge Mountains (about 9.5, 71) |
| Horde | Dokimi, Inventory Intake | The Barrens, just west of the Crossroads (about 50, 29) |
The turn-in quest is called "A Sealed Crate" and is repeatable, with no daily or weekly limit in the data.
How much you get
- Your first crate: 50 Merchant's Favor. The first filled crate carries a Shipping Label that starts a one-time quest (Alliance 98247, Horde 98248). It pays 50 Favor, 2,000 reputation and 660 experience.
- Every crate after that: about 5. That figure is from testers turning in low-level crates, one of whom notes it "will vary on what was used." Wowhead has no amount recorded on the repeatable quest, so higher tiers and better-quality crates probably pay more, but nobody has published those numbers yet.
The Legacy perk that boosts it
Performance Bonus, in the account-wide Professions Legacy tree, gives a chance to receive 100% more Merchant's Favor when you turn in a crate. Each rank is a 5% chance. Wowhead lists three ranks and shows 15% at the top one; the BlizzCon demo export we use for our Legacy tree listing shows five. Either way it is a small, random bonus, not something to rush.
What it buys
Wowhead counts 323 items priced in Merchant's Favor: 311 recipes, 10 other items and 2 tabards. They are sold by a row of vendors at the same two trade posts: a Supply Officer (Tamelyn Aldridge for Alliance, Gishah for Horde), a vendor for each crafting profession, and a mount handler.
Recipes by profession:
| Profession | Recipes |
|---|---|
| Leatherworking | 81 |
| Tailoring | 67 |
| Blacksmithing | 61 |
| Enchanting | 39 |
| Alchemy | 29 |
| Engineering | 28 |
| Cooking | 6 |
Prices run from 30 to 360 Favor. Most are cheap: 105 recipes cost 30, 54 cost 60 and 52 cost 90. Some examples:
- Pattern: Brawler's Leather Tunic, 30
- Pattern: Shadow Gown, 30
- Plans: Veteran's Silvered Chain Helm, 30
- Recipe: Spellblasting Potion, 45
- Schematic: Satchel of Copper Bombs, 45
- Formula: Enchant Chest - Absorption, 120
- Recipe: Elixir of the Owl, 180
- Formula: Enchant Cloak - Agility, 240
- Schematic: Satchel of Dark Iron Bombs, 270
Everything else:
- Reins of the Pack Kodo, 6,000. The big-ticket item.
- Packmule Treat, 1,500.
- Profession Certification for Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking or Tailoring, 1,000 each.
- Advertising License Application, 1,200, which Warcraft Tavern says leads to a Dwarven Tradeskill Sign toy.
- Faction tabards, 200 plus 5 gold.
Does it matter for levelling a profession?
Less than you would think, and that is deliberate on our part. Our 1-300 profession guides are built from trainer recipes first, because a route that needs 90 Favor per pattern at 5 Favor per crate is not a route anyone can follow in week one. Where the cheapest route uses one of Forever's new recipes, and many of those are the ones sold for Merchant's Favor, we flag it as "New in Forever" with its source unconfirmed. That is the honest state of it: the Tailoring, Leatherworking and Blacksmithing routes past skill 240 lean on new patterns, and some of those will turn out to cost Favor.
Where Favor does matter is gear. Most of those 30-Favor patterns are level 20 to 30 armour sets, and testers think they are strong for the level.
What testers think
Two threads carry most of the feedback, and the mood is not good.
On the EU forum, one player says they found "like three" crates on the way to level 20. At 50 for the first and 5 for each one after, that is 60 Favor, or two cheap patterns, for a whole levelling bracket. On the US forum a thread titled "The Merchant's Favor system will not work as it currently is" describes crates as "as rare as world drops," says the level 20 gear they unlock is overtuned, and points out that a crate you delete by mistake is gone for good. A third thread asks for crafted-goods crates, which the data shows already exist (Fabrics, Ingots and Parts) and may just not be dropping at the beta's level cap.
There is no blue reply in any of them. Given that the system arrived in a mid-beta build and the drop rates are the most common complaint, expect the rates or payouts to change before launch on November 4.
The short version
- Level 10, loot a Waylaid Crate, read the label, fill it with the goods it asks for.
- Alliance hand in to Marcy Baker at Three Corners, Horde to Dokimi west of the Crossroads.
- First crate 50 Favor, about 5 each after that at low level.
- Spend it on the recipe vendors at the same posts: 311 recipes, most at 30 to 90 Favor, plus the 6,000 Favor Pack Kodo.
- Nothing about it is confirmed by Blizzard, and the drop rate is the thing most likely to change.
For what each profession gives you once trained, see every profession bonus and camp object. For the cheapest 1-300 route in each one, see the profession leveling guides.
Sources: Wowhead's Forever database for Merchant's Favor (currency 3402, including its "currency for" list), the Waylaid Crate, the typed and sealed crate items (248682 to 248779), the "A Sealed Crate" and Shipping Label quests, the trade post NPCs and the Performance Bonus perk (spell 1225456); Warcraft Tavern's Waylaid Supplies factions from SoD spotted in WoW Forever (September 14); wowforevertalents.com's Merchant's Favor page; talentsforever.com's Legacy tree; and the beta forum threads Merchant's Favor gear feedback (EU), The Merchant's Favor system will not work as it currently is and Merchant's guild crates expansion (US).