Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank

Made with Archaeology. The Scepter of Azj'Aqir, which teaches the mount, is one of the six rare Tol'vir projects: it has to come up as the character's Tol'vir project, and is then solved for 150 Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments. Which project comes up after a solve is chance, so the work is solving Tol'vir projects until it is the Scepter. The fragments come from the Tol'vir dig sites in Uldum or, the way players do it now, from Crates of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments, which Brann Bronzebeard at the Seat of Knowledge in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms hands out for Restored Artifacts, the crated finds of Pandaria's dig sites.

Chance Never published. After each Tol'vir solve the next project is drawn at random, a common one or one of the six rares; a commenter of September 2026 counts a rare about every 15-20 solves, and the Scepter is one of the six in no fixed order. Nineteen reports on Wowhead (2012-2026) give the number of Tol'vir solves before the Scepter came up: 31, 51, 54, 60, 67, 68, 76, 78, 116, 140, 167, 169, 178, 242, 256, about 267, 350, 492 and 770, the middle one 140. Those who gave up do not report, so the true middle is higher

Time there about 5 min a visit

• Archaeology learned (a trainer in any capital; Brann Bronzebeard at the Seat of Knowledge is one) and raised to 600, which the Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments asks for. The Scepter's own project asks for 450 · about 6 h
• Exalted with The Lorewalkers, for the Mantid Artifact Hunter's Kit: its Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator, carried in the bags, makes every new Pandaria dig site a mantid one for a day (all of them in Townlong Steppes and the Dread Wastes, small and close together), and its Lorewalker's Map is used first to draw the dig sites afresh. Not needed for the mount itself; the hours of the next step suppose it · about 1.5 h
• Tol'vir projects solved until the Scepter of Azj'Aqir comes up: dig at Pandaria's sites, crate each finished common artifact into a Restored Artifact, give those to Brann Bronzebeard for Crates of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments (one each), and solve the Tol'vir projects they pay for. Players report the Scepter after anything from 31 to 770 Tol'vir solves · about 35 h
• 150 Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments for the Scepter itself once it is the project; up to three Tol'vir Hieroglyphics can be set into it in place of fragments · about 1 h

In all: about 43.5 h of play, starting from nothing.

/way is for the TomTom addon. Travel times are estimates: flying at 55 yards a second in a straight line and 30 seconds for a portal. A star marks a portal that needs a quest or other unlock done first.

The journal says only 'Profession: Archaeology'. The item is the Scepter of Azj'Aqir (64883); the solve creates it, and there is no vendor and no drop. It binds when picked up and asks for level 17 and Apprentice Riding (wiki).

The route followed here is the one the Wowhead comments of 2023-2026 agree on and call the Mantid method. A 2024 comment lays it out:

• Exalted with The Lorewalkers
• the Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator
• mantid dig sites (the smallest in the game, most projects 50 fragments)
• Restored Artifacts
• Tol'vir crates
• solve and hope

The locator: since patch 5.4 it is only to be had inside the Mantid Artifact Hunter's Kit, together with a Lorewalker's Map (a patch note quoted in a 2013 comment; Wowhead's contained-in list for the locator). The kit costs 2 Restored Artifacts by comments of 2024 and 2025; the wiki's list still has the locator alone for 1. The wiki has Brann Bronzebeard as the seller; a 2025 comment names the Lorewalkers quartermaster, who stands in the same hall. The locator lasts one day of real time (Wowhead's tooltip), so long sessions waste fewer.

Right after buying, use the map to draw the dig sites afresh, or surveying fails with 'You can't use that here' at every site that is not mantid (the best-rated comment on the locator, 2014; another of 2022). A mantid project usually takes 50 fragments and a find gives about 8 (a 2016 comment).

Restored Artifacts come from crating most common artifacts of Pandaria, Draenor, the Broken Isles and Battle for Azeroth (wiki), and the same crates are given by Grakis in Stormshield and Srikka in Warspear (wiki), so digging in any of those gives Tol'vir fragments. A 2024 comment prefers Legion's sites for a fresh character.

The plain way still works: Tol'vir dig sites in Uldum, which come up among Kalimdor's four active sites at random. A 2025 comment took 350 solves that way and warns that Uldum has to be set to its Cataclysm version (Zidormi in Ramkahen, 56.0, 35.2 by the wiki), since no dig site appears in the Battle for Azeroth version; another of 2025 reckons a Kalimdor site takes ten times as long as a mantid one.

Keystones: a Tol'vir Hieroglyphic stands in for fragments in a Tol'vir solve and a Mantid Amber Sliver in a mantid one. They are found while digging, and commenters who buy them say that roughly doubles the pace; that is not counted here.

The six Tol'vir rares are the Crawling Claw, Pendant of the Scarab Storm, Ring of the Boy Emperor, Scepter of Azj'Aqir, Scimitar of the Sirocco and Staff of Ammunae. A rare does not come up twice on a character (wiki: each can be solved once), so after five of them the next rare is the Scepter (a 2026 comment); the order is random (comments of 2012).

Some commenters start again on another character after 100-150 fruitless solves (2024, 2025); whether that helps was not established. A 2025 comment also describes characters whose archaeology progress reset on logging out, a fault it could not explain.

Brann's own coordinates were not read. The place given above is the spot of Tan Shin Tiao, the Lorewalkers quartermaster in the same hall (82.2, 29.4, as given for the Disc of the Red Flying Cloud); the wiki puts the Seat of Knowledge at 81, 33.

Not established:

• whether Brann is there in both versions of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms (before and after N'Zoth's assaults)
• what skill Pandaria's dig sites ask for
• how many fragments a crate holds

No current step-by-step guide was found to link: Wowhead's Casual Archaeology Guide is a list of dig sites from patch 5.4, last edited in 2018.

Confidence in this entry: medium. Looked up in 2026.

Sources

• Wowhead: scepter of azjaqir
• Wowhead: mantid artifact sonic locator
• Wowhead tooltip: item 64883
• Wowhead tooltip: item 87539
• Wowhead tooltip: item 95509
• Wowhead: casual archaeology guide 1403
• Wiki: Scepter of Azj'Aqir
• Wiki: Archaeology
• Wiki: Restored Artifact
• Wiki: Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments
• Wiki: Seat of Knowledge
• Wiki: Zidormi