Waylaid Crates: the Merchant’s Favor that pays for your recipes
Source : Wowhead · ForeverChanges · wow.gg · Icy Veins · wago.tools · 10 November 2026
Share on WhatsApp (new tab)Share on Facebook (new tab)Share on X (new tab)Mid-fight, a monster sometimes drops a crate of goods that never reached its destination. Fill it with materials, deliver it to your faction’s trade hub, and you earn Merchant’s Favor: the only currency that unlocks recipes you won’t find anywhere else, a pet, a mount and titles.
- Level
- 10
- Faction
- Horde and Alliance
- Currency
- Merchant’s Favor
How to do it
Step 1 : Get a Waylaid Crate
Monsters out in the world sometimes drop a Waylaid Crate, usable from level 10. It’s rare: according to ForeverChanges, most players find one to three before level 20. Hang on to them, they stack up to 20.
Good to know: crates aren’t bound to anyone. If luck isn’t on your side, the Auction House is the fastest way to get some: search for “Waylaid Crate”.
Step 2 : Read the label
Use the crate to find out what it needs. It turns into a specific shipment, for example Waylaid Crate: Apprentice Herbs, offering several bundles to choose from: 20 Peacebloom, 20 Silverleaf, 10 Earthroot… One bundle is enough. Shipments come in four tiers and two families: raw materials (white shipments) or crafted goods (green shipments).
- 10Level
Apprentice
- 10Level
Journeyman
- 20Level
Expert
- 35Level
Artisan
One example per tier: each has white herb, ore, textile and curiosity shipments, and green fabric, ingot and part shipments. Hover a shipment to see the accepted bundles. A green shipment pays twice as much Favor as a white one of the same tier.
- 10Level
Step 3 : Fill it
Once the bundle is in your bags, use the crate again: it turns into a Sealed Apprentice Crate, bound to your character. Your very first crate also gives you a Shipping Label: keep it, it’s worth a nice bonus (step 5).
Our advice: herb shipments are the cheapest to fill; a player quoted by ForeverChanges mentions about one silver for 5 Favor with 20 Peacebloom. If you already craft cloth bolts, bars or engineering parts, go for green shipments: twice the Favor.
Step 4 : Deliver it to your faction’s trade hub
- Alliance: Talk to Marcy Baker at the Azeroth Commerce Authority hub in Three Corners (Redridge Mountains).
- Horde: Talk to Dokimi at the Durotar Supply and Logistics hub, just west of the Crossroads (The Barrens).
They take the sealed crate and pay you on the spot. On a PvP realm, watch out: Redridge Mountains is a contested zone.
Step 5 : The first-crate bonus
The first time, also hand the shipping label in at the hub: the quest of the same name gives you 50 Favor in one go plus 2,000 reputation, once per character.
A crate you don’t want to fill? The Forged Delivery Receipt, sold by the Uncertified Scribe according to ForeverChanges, goes on an empty crate: you return it for 50 reputation instead of Favor.
Result
Each sealed crate earns you Merchant’s Favor, plus a bit of money. The amount depends on the shipment’s tier and color:
| Tier | White | Green |
|---|---|---|
| Apprentice | 5 | 10 |
| Journeyman | 10 | 20 |
| Expert | unknown | unknown |
| Artisan | unknown | unknown |
Favor per crate according to ForeverChanges and wow.gg, which agree; Expert and Artisan not recorded yet. The Performance Bonus Legacy perk sometimes doubles a crate’s Favor (+5% chance per rank, 15% at most).
What Favor buys
A pet, the Minimule: Packmule Treat, 1,500 Favor, at Revered.
A mount for your whole account: Reins of the Pack Kodo, 6,000 Favor, at Exalted, level 60 with Journeyman Riding.
A title for all your characters: at 300 in a profession, its certification costs 1,000 Favor, for example Blacksmithing Certification.
A toy: the Advertising License Application (Alliance) or Advertising License Application (Horde), 1,200 Favor, at Honored, which leads to a tradeskill sign.
Your trade hub’s tabard, at Exalted, for 200 Favor and 5 gold: Azeroth Commerce Authority Tabard or Durotar Supply and Logistics Tabard.
What about reputation?
Many of these purchases require a reputation rank with the trade hub. Crates give little, apart from the shipping label and forged receipts: the steady source is Craftsman’s Writs, which give reputation but no Favor. The two systems go hand in hand.
Tiers, shipment contents and items: Forever game tables and Wowhead Forever tooltips. Favor per crate and prices: ForeverChanges and wow.gg; recipes and recipe prices: Wowhead. Forever still changes its rewards: when in doubt, the in-game vendor is what counts.
Recipes not to miss
- Alchemy
- Recipe: Elixir of the Grizzly 240 Favor
- Recipe: Major Frenzy Potion 240 Favor
- Recipe: Major Spellblasting Potion 180 Favor
- Tailoring
- Pattern: Runecloth Reagent Bag 60 Favor
- Pattern: Radiant Sandals 90 Favor
- Pattern: Black Sandals 90 Favor
- Cooking
- Recipe: Wicked Smoothie 90 Favor
- Recipe: Spicy Smoothie 60 Favor
- Enchanting
- Formula: Brilliant Wand 180 Favor
- Formula: Idol of the Dream 240 Favor
- Formula: Totem of Thunder 240 Favor
- Blacksmithing
- Plans: Enriched Thorium Breastplate 120 Favor
- Plans: Legionite Glaive 120 Favor
- Plans: Enriched Thorium Helm 120 Favor
- Engineering
- Schematic: Gnomish Poultryizer 360 Favor
- Schematic: Loot-A-Rang 270 Favor
- Schematic: Ultralight Goblin Glider 360 Favor
- Leatherworking
- Pattern: Mystic Rugged Armor Kit 90 Favor
- Pattern: Mender’s Leather Waistguard 90 Favor
- Pattern: Skirmisher’s Mail Belt 90 Favor
On video
Sources
Wowhead · Azeroth Commerce Authority (new tab) · Wowhead · Waylaid Crate (new tab) · ForeverChanges · Merchant’s Favor (new tab) · wow.gg · Merchant’s Favor (new tab) · Icy Veins · camping et métiers (new tab) · wago.tools · tables du jeu (ItemSparse) (new tab)
