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Archaeology instructions
Archaeology Artifact node

Minimap showing an archaeology 'node' after being uncovered

Archaeology icon Cataclysm Archaeology (Profession)

Archaeology is a secondary profession released in the expansion, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. It:

  • Provides players with a casual profession to enjoy in their "downtime".[1]
  • Focuses on locating, piecing together, and appraising artifacts unearthed by the Cataclysm.[1]
  • Allows you to interact with artifacts you find in a manner similar to other gathering professions. It has been specifically stated that you will be able to track both artifacts and your regular tracked objects for gathering professions (e.g. herbs or ore). Instead of tracking individual nodes, you will instead search marked regions on the world map, given by a shovel icon when viewing an entire continent or by a red enclosed region when viewing a single zone.
  • Produces completed artifacts that go into your inventory, and creates an entry in your archaeology journal describing the artifacts you completed.
  • Unlocks unique rewards such as vanity pets, mounts, and other "toys", with occasional rare and epic quality weapons or armor.[1]
  • Expands players' knowledge of the game's lore by filling in plot holes and documenting the history of the world as it was before the Cataclysm.[1] Players will reportedly be able to compile what amounts to a lore database.[2]

Description

Upon learning the archaeology secondary profession, the player receives the ability Inv misc shovel 01 [Survey].

There are nine fields of research players can explore, each relating to a race in the game, such as troll, night elf, dwarf, and tol'vir.

Using the surveying skill, players gather Archaeology Fragments of one type (e.g. Trade archaeology dwarf artifactfragment [Dwarf Archaeology Fragment]) from Archaeology Finds of the same type. They can then solve the current stage of this race's research and will receive an item upon doing so.

How Archaeology Works

As related by Ghostcrawler... [3]

Sites

Once Archaeology is trained, you can see dig sites on your continent map (but not the mini-map). There are always four dig sites per continent. These will not change until you dig all the fragments out of any one site.

Your dig sites appear in level-appropriate zones. Players will not be able to survey in Outland or Northrend until they have reached the minimum level to enter those zones.

Sites are race-specific. You can usually discern the race by the location and name, and some race locations are only available on some continents. You need both a minimum character level and a minimum archaeology level to use some sites.

There is no competition for dig sites; each site is player-specific.

Finds and fragments

Each dig site can be searched three times before it despawns and a new site spawns. To search a dig site, use the Inv misc shovel 01 [Survey] ability. A theodolite will spawn, pointing in the approximate direction of a find; it looks like a telescope with a small flashing light on a pole next to it. The color of the light and the rate at which it flashes tell you how far you are from a find: red means you are far away, yellow means you are close, and green means you may be within 40 yards or so. When you are very close, about 10 to 15 yards or so, the light will flash extremely quickly. The precise ranges for the different light colors vary depending on the site, with larges sites having longer ranges. When you loot your find, you'll get several fragments specific to a particular race, and may get a keystone. Each site yields only finds specific to one race. Note that unearthed archaeology finds will despawn if they aren't looted quickly enough, so be careful about surveying in combat. Also remember that if you are having some difficulty seeing your find, it will automatically show up on the minimap, just as herbs and minerals do with Inv misc flower 02 [Find Herbs] and Spell nature earthquake [Find Minerals]. Although each archaeology site can have three finds unearthed at a time, only one node is active at a time: once the first find is unearthed, the location of the second find is randomly selected, it is possible to unearth two or even three finds in a row at the exact same location.

There are two main strategies to surveying. The first strategy involves attempting to triangulate by moving around the outer edge of a dig site. However, due to the inaccuracy of the directional indicator (the find may be anywhere in a frontal cone of about 75 degrees) this will often prove to not provide sufficient information for locating finds. The farther away from the theodolite, the greater the area that can include the find. The second strategy involves some orienteering, heading in the general direction indicated and for approximate distance indicated and survey again from that position, to "zero in" on the artifacts, using geographical landmarks to help locate finds.

Being aware of the landscape can help locate finds as well. Consider that the fragments are not "randomly" placed. Spawn points were placed by designers who utilize their "design aesthetics" in placing them. Consider the landscape and proximity to geographic features and existing non-fragment ruins and animal bones when choosing a location to survey. This can speed up your location of fragments.

The fact that each digsite contains only a few nodes could allow gathering addons such as Gatherer or Gather Mate to aid in archeaology. Addons such as Archaeology Helper, S.A.L. and ArcheoTriangle aid in triangulation and orienteering.

As the spawn points are not random, try surveying on the spot after finding your first and second fragment. It is entirely possible for the next one to be within reach, and even to spawn in the exact same spot as the last one.

Artifacts

When you get a new kind of fragment, you'll start a research project. You can only work on one artifact per race at a time. When you have enough fragments, click Solve to complete that artifact. You cannot waste excess fragments: if you have leftover fragments, they will just apply to the next project. You can accordingly save many fragments of one kind and solve several projects in a row.

Most artifacts are common. These give a bit of lore or flavor text and an item you can sell for a small profit. You can estimate the value of the artifact by the number of fragments required to finish it.

Subsequent instances of a given artifact for a race will not be solvable until all the available artifacts of that race and skill level have been found at least once (with the exception of rare artifacts).

Some artifacts are rare, and make a blue or purple item. Many of these are toys, or for flavor, but some are actual weapons and armor. Weapons and armor are bound to account, but will not scale like heirlooms do. Also, such artifacts can only be solved once per character.

Archaeology-journal

Journal concept

Levels

Archaeology uses the same leveling scheme as the other secondary professions. Players begin as apprentices with zero skill points, and gain points by practicing archaeology skills. Players may reach 525 skill points in archaeology.

Until skill point 60, players receive one skill point for every successful collection of archaeology fragments. As there are three sets of fragments per dig site, at first players will gain three archaeology skill points per dig site. However, at skill point 60, collection of a fragment goes green, meaning that players will no longer consistently receive skill points for collecting fragments. Fragment collection goes gray at skill point 100, after which archaeology can only be increased by completing artifacts.

At all levels, players receive five skill points for creating a common artifact and 15 skill points for completing a rare artifact. It may be advantageous to save all artifact fragments until 100 archaeology, however completing artifacts allows increased frament yields and the possibility of obtaining keystones.

  • Apprentice archaeologists (skill points 0–74) receive two to four fragments per survey, for a maximum of 12 fragments per site.
  • Journeyman (skill points 75–149), expert (skill points 150–224), and artisan (skill points 225-299) archaeologists receive three to five fragments per survey, up to 15 fragments per site. Starting at the journeyman level, players also occasionally collect keystones, each worth 12 fragments, that can speed artifact construction. (This depends on the project; only some projects permit their use. See the archaeology rewards page for fuller details.)
  • Master (skill points 375-449) receive three to six fragments per survey, up to 18 fragments per site.

Apprentice archaeologists can only construct poor-quality artifacts. Journeyman and expert archaeologists will start to see rare-quality projects come up (see archaeology rewards for more information). Most of these rare items have merely cosmetic effects, but players can also construct non-combat pets and other highly desirable items. Players also get new titles upon reconstructing enough rare-quality artifacts: Assistant Professor for the first rare reconstructed item, Associate Professor for 10 rare reconstructed artifacts, and Professor for 20 rare artifacts. (These titles correspond to tenure-track faculty ranks in North American universities.)

Archaeology levels also limit what kind of artifacts players can make. Players begin by collecting fragments for dwarf, night elf, and troll artifacts, as well as natural fossils, such as shells and fossilized ferns. At higher levels, players can research artifacts from different cultures, which will take them deeper into the lore. The higher-level archaeology racial project pages (e.g. orc or tol'vir) are not available to players until they have reached the appropriate level and have collected some fragments for a given type, though players can always see the greyed-out, untitled, and unclickable icons of not-yet-accessible cultures on the "Races" page of the archaeology journal. As soon as players hit the appropriate point level and make one successful dig at a new kind of site, that section of the journal is fully opened (i.e. a player can first see the draenei section of the archaeology journal upon hitting 300 archaeology and collect the first draenei archaeology fragments).

Zones and dig sites

Main article: Dig site

Archaeology dig sites can be found on all four continents. There are four dig sites on each continent available at any one time. Dig sites are available based on player skill. However, compared to other gathering professions, there is no competition between players. Upon reaching a dig site, players will be able to collect their three finds before the dig site dries up and a new one is made available. Even if other players are searching at the site, the finds are individual to each player.

Culture Level Zones
Dwarf 1 Eastern Kingdoms (18/55): Twilight Highlands (4), Badlands (3), Wetlands (3), Burning Steppes (2), Searing Gorge (2), Arathi Highlands (1), Hillsbrad Foothills (1), Hinterlands (1), Loch Modan (1)
Kalimdor (1/69): Southern Barrens (1)
Fossil 1 Eastern Kingdoms (13/55): Western Plaguelands (3), Blasted Lands (2), Burning Steppes (1), Duskwood (1), Eastern Plaguelands (1), Hillsbrad Foothills (1), Northern Stranglethorn (1), Redridge Mountains (1), Swamp of Sorrows (1), Wetlands (1)
Kalimdor (13/69): Un'Goro Crater (5), Desolace (2), Dustwallow Marsh (2), Tanaris (2), Southern Barrens (1), Stonetalon Mountains (1)
Night Elf 1 Kalimdor (35/69): Feralas (8), Mount Hyjal (5), Ashenvale (4), Desolace (4), Felwood (4), Winterspring (3), Azshara (2), Stonetalon Mountains (2), Darkshore (1), Silithus (1), Southern Barrens (1)
Northrend (4/29): Crystalsong Forest (2), Borean Tundra (1), Dragonblight (1)
Eastern Kingdoms (2/55): Duskwood (1), Eastern Plaguelands (1)
Troll 1 Eastern Kingdoms (20/55): Northern Stranglethorn (8), Hinterlands (5), Cape of Stranglethorn (4), Arathi Highlands (1), Eastern Plaguelands (1), Swamp of Sorrows (1)
Northrend (5/29): Zul'drak (4), Grizzly Hills (1)
Kalimdor (4/69): Tanaris (5)
Draenei 300 Outland (15/28): Shadowmoon Valley (4), Terokkar Forest (4), Netherstorm (3), Zangarmarsh (2), Hellfire Peninsula (1), Nagrand (1)
Orc 300 Outland (13/28): Hellfire Peninsula (4), Nagrand (4), Terokkar Forest (3), Shadowmoon Valley (2)
Nerubian 375 Kalimdor (2/55): Eastern Plaguelands (2)
Northrend (7/29): Borean Tundra (3), Icecrown (2), Dragonblight (1), Zul'drak (1)
Vrykul 375 Northrend (14/29): Howling Fjord (7), Icecrown (3), Storm Peaks (3), Grizzly Hills (1)
Tol'vir 450 Kalimdor (16/69): Uldum (16)

Rewards

Main article: Archaeology rewards

Archaeology was originally intended to allow advancement in Path of the Titans system and may have awarded players with Ancient Glyph slots and recipes. At present, rewards include various non-combat items, mounts and epic quality Bind to Account gear. Players are able to piece together skeletal fragments to create a skeletal raptor mount, for example. Players can also read ancient runes found in ruins and dungeons to give buffs to themselves and others.[1]

All 26 of the rare artifacts are listed here:

Race Rare artifacts
Draenei (2) Trade archaeology naarucrystal [Arrival of the Naaru] Trade archaeology draeneirelic [The Last Relic of Argus]
Dwarf (4) Trade archaeology chalice of mountainkings [Chalice of the Mountain Kings] Inv misc head clockworkgnome 01 [Clockwork Gnome]
Trade archaeology staffofsorcerer than thaurissan [Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan] Trade archaeology theinnkeepersdaughter [The Innkeeper's Daughter]
Fossil (2) Trade archaeology tinydinosaurskeleton [Fossilized Hatchling] Ability mount fossilizedraptor [Fossilized Raptor]
Nerubian (2) Trade archaeology oldgodtrinket [Blessing of the Old God] Trade archaeology cthunspuzzlebox [Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron]
Night elf (7) Trade archaeology highbornesoulmirror [Highborne Soul Mirror] Trade archaeology druidprieststatueset [Druid and Priest Statue Set]
Trade archaeology queenazshara dressinggown [Queen Azshara's Dressing Gown] Trade archaeology bones of transformation [Bones of Transformation]
Trade archaeology kaldoreiwindchimes [Kaldorei Wind Chimes] Trade archaeology wispamulet [Wisp Amulet]
Trade archaeology tyrandesfavoritedoll [Tyrande's Favorite Doll]
Orc (1) Trade archaeology ancientorcshamanheaddress [Headdress of the First Shaman]
Tol'vir (6) Inv offhand stratholme a 02 [Crawling Claw] Trade archaeology pendant of the aqir [Pendant of the Scarab Storm]
Trade archaeology ring of the boyemperor [Ring of the Boy Emperor] Trade archaeology sceptor of azaqir [Scepter of Azj'Aqir]
Trade archaeology scimitar of the sirocco [Scimitar of the Sirocco] Trade archaeology staff of ammunrae [Staff of Ammunae]
Troll (1) Trade archaeology zinrokh sword [Zin'rokh, Destroyer of Worlds]
Vrykul (1) Inv axe 97 [Nifflevar Bearded Axe]

There are also achievements awarded as a result of leveling archaeology and finding rare finds:

Note
Note: This list is up to date as of Patch 10.1.7


Macros

Easy access

This simple macro puts both new skills on one button for your toolbar. Click to survey or hold a modifier key like shift and click to open your Archaeology skill book.

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod] Survey; Archaeology

Solve count and summary

This macro shows how many finds players have come across. Open up the archaeology window and look at the results list before this macro will do anything useful.

/run local g,a,n,c,r=GetArtifactInfoByRace for x=1,9 do r,a,n,c=0,0,GetArchaeologyRaceInfo(x),GetNumArtifactsByRace(x)for y=1,c do a=a+select(9,g(x,y))r=r+select(3,g(x,y))end print(n..': '..c..' (rare: '..r..' solved: '..a..')')end

Example output:

Dwarf: 9 (rare: 1 solved: 8)
Draenei: 10 (rare: 2 solved: 16)
Fossil: 13 (rare: 2 solved: 13)
Night Elf: 9 (rare: 2 solved: 12)
Neurbian: 4 (rare: 0 solved: 3)
...

The first number is the count is the amount of unique finds players have come across for that race, whether or not that find has been solved. The next number lists the quantity of rare finds, and the solved count lists the total number of artifacts solved for that race, including duplicates. If players have not had a duplicate find for a race, the unique count will be greater than the solved count for that race.

Druid swift-shifting

This macro allows druids to shift out of flight form and into travel form to survey a digsite when clicked, and switch back into swift flight form when right clicked. Simply remove the word "swift" from the macro if you do not have swift flight form.

#showtooltip Survey
/run UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use [nostance:4] !Travel Form
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast [btn:2] Swift Flight Form; Survey
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear();UIErrorsFrame:Show()

Videos

Introduction to Archaeology:


Tankspot's overview:

Websites

Main article: Fansites#Databases_and_resources

Below are websites associated with Archaeology.

Patches and hotfixes

Cataclysm Patch 4.0.6 (2011-02-08): Seven new Tol'Vir Dig Sites added to Uldum: Akhenet Fields Digsite, Cursed Landing Digsite, Keset Pass Digsite, Obelisk of the Stars Digsite, River Delta Digsite, Sahket Wastes Digsite, and Schnottz's Landing. Also, two new Nerubian sites added to Eastern Plaguelands: Terrorweb Tunnel Digsite and Plaguewood Digsite. Lastly, two new Nerubian sites added to Northrend: Pit of Fiends Digsite (in Icecrown) and Sands of Nasam (in Borean Tundra).
Cataclysm Patch 4.0.6 (2011-02-08): The sell value of all common artifacts has been doubled, while a small subset of common artifacts have had their sell value increased far beyond that.
Cataclysm Patch 4.0.6 (2011-02-08): Archaeology finds now grant a guaranteed skill point up to 50 skill, and then no longer grant skill gains, as opposed to granting up to 100 skill very slowly.
Template:Patched Template:Patched Template:Patched Template:Patched Template:Patched Template:Patched Cataclysm Patch 4.0.3a (2010-11-23): Added

References

ru:Археология

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