You can absolutely enjoy World of Warcraft without being rich, but once you’ve got a decent pile of gold to spend on whatever you want, the game becomes a lot more fun.
In this guide, we’ll break down all the basics of gold-making and tell you everything you need to know about how WoW’s economy works and where to get fast and cheap WoW gold without turning the game into a second job.
What Is Gold, and What Do You Need It For?
Alright, let’s start with the very basics.
Figuratively speaking, gold is the oil that keeps the WoW engine running. It’s the main in-game currency that you’ll need for pretty much all major upgrades and purchases. You use gold to level your professions, buy gear, consumables, mounts, crafting mats, and other things, as well as repair your gear after battles and even pay for your WoW subscription by buying a WoW Token and converting it into game time. Long story short: gold is absolutely essential, so let’s find out how to earn it.
A Quick Look at WoW’s Economy
Before we talk about actual gold-making methods, let’s quickly go over the in-game economy.
WoW’s economy is surprisingly close to a real one. It has supply and demand, driven both by players themselves and by in-game events. There’s inflation, there are market shifts, and prices are constantly shifting daily (for example, during peak hours, when a lot of players are online and actively selling), weekly (consumables often spike in price before raid nights), and around major content drops.
At the center of it all sits the Auction House, the in-game marketplace where you trade with other players, selling and buying all sorts of items as long as they aren’t bound to your character or your Warband. Most of your gold will come from Auction House sales, so understanding how it works is very important.
At the Auction House, you list an item or a stack of items for a certain duration, setting a starting price that players can start bidding from and a buyout price, usually higher, that lets another player instantly buy the item without waiting for the auction to end.
On top of that, there are auction fees:
- A deposit, which you pay when posting the item (you get it back only if the item sells)
- An auction cut, which the Auction House takes from the final sale price
Now that this is out of the way, let’s finally get to the actual gold-making methods.
Main Gold-Making Methods for Beginners
Early Gold-Making
So, you’ve just started playing WoW. You don’t have access to the Auction House yet, but you can already start earning your first gold.
Simply by doing campaign quests and killing mobs, you’ll be getting raw gold drops. Some coins go straight into your pocket, and the rest of your income comes from selling unwanted loot to vendors. Later on, you’ll also unlock daily, weekly, and World quests, which are absolute must-dos, as they’re fast, easy to complete, and surprisingly rewarding. Most of them grant Pinnacle Caches, which contain useful gear and other loot that you can either use yourself or sell.
Farming
Open-world farming is another relatively simple way to make gold. You just kill mobs in a specific location and collect valuable loot to sell later. The same approach works in dungeons and raids: mobs and bosses there usually drop items that can fetch a nice price on the Auction House.
Professions
Professions give you even more gold-making opportunities. Gathering professions let you collect resources from mobs and the environment: things like fish, herbs, ore, and leather. Crafting professions, on the other hand, allow you to turn raw materials into new items.
Gathering is an excellent choice for beginners: it’s low-risk, always in demand, and fits neatly into the leveling process. Crafting is a bit more complex: you’ll need to farm or buy materials and carefully calculate your profits and losses, but once you get the hang of it, it’ll be an easy money-maker as well.
Note: To unlock new recipes and increase the quality of your crafts or gathered materials, you’ll need to level your professions. Professions also have a specialization system, which lets you focus on a specific niche and gain various perks and bonuses.
How to Make Gold-Making Easier
You don’t have to dedicate hours to farming gold or spend your entire weekends sitting at the Auction House to earn enough for all your in-game needs.
The trick here is not to treat gold-making as a separate activity and weave it into the things that you’re already doing while playing.
Take weekly quests, for example. Always check what they offer and see if there are ones that reward gold for things you were planning to do anyway. If you’re about to run some Delves and there’s a weekly quest that asks you to complete Delves, why not grab it and kill two birds with one stone? Or let’s say you’re waiting in a dungeon queue. Instead of just doing nothing, you can gather nearby resources or farm a decent spot. This way, you won’t be spending extra time on gold-making, but will still be earning your coins.
If you’re a crafter, make sure you’re specced in a way that gives you more gold from the activities you already do. If you’re a raider and a tailor, for example, it’s better to pick specs like Quality Fabric to maximize cloth drops from raid content. When you’re specced correctly, you can generate tons of passive gold with very little extra effort.
Another important thing is keeping tabs on your expenses. Be careful with how much you spend, especially early on. Try to be as self-sufficient as possible: farm your own crafting mats whenever you can and get gear from in-game activities instead of buying it. When it comes to consumables, always stock up ahead of time so you don’t overpay right before a raid night.
All of this might feel a bit overwhelming at first, but once you actually start doing it, you’ll just go with the flow, and it’ll get much easier. So start small and test different methods to see what works for you and what doesn’t. As long as you keep earning as much passive gold as you possibly can just by playing the game the way you like, gold-making will never feel like a grind, and your gold stash will always stay in a good place.
