Deadmines in WoW Forever: Drops Worth Selling

The short answer

The Deadmines is the first dungeon most WoW Forever characters will run for money, and on the beta it is also one of the few dungeons you can reach at all. Most of what the bosses drop is Bind on Pickup, so the gold comes from a short list: the new Blueprint: Cookie's Feast (latest scan 90 silver), the occasional Bind on Equip green such as Defias Mage Ring (…), and the steady trickle of Wool Cloth (55 copper) and Linen Cloth (13 copper) from the Defias. The biggest change in the client is a new encounter, Miner Johnson, slotted between Sneed and Gilnid. Run it for the blueprint and the cloth, vendor the rest, and do not expect the famous blue weapons to pay you anything but upgrades.

What the Forever client says about the Deadmines

We read the dungeon straight out of the beta client tables, so this section is fact rather than memory. The instance is map 36, internal folder DeadminesInstance, and it still carries the old ten-player cap in its map row. The dungeon finder table has a Deadmines entry (id 5) pointing at a content tuning row set to level 16 in build 70291. That matters on the beta: Blizzard's own beta notes say the level cap starts at 20 and rises to 30 later in the test, so a level 16 dungeon sits right inside what testers can do today.

The encounter table is where Forever shows its hand. The Classic Era client lists seven Deadmines encounters. The Forever client lists eight:

In Classic, Miner Johnson was an optional rare spawn in the mine tunnels, there on some runs and missing on others. Forever promotes him to a full encounter with his own slot in the boss order. The client also adds a new statistic, "Edwin VanCleef Kills (Deadmines)", alongside kill counters for the other old dungeon end bosses, so the game now tracks how many times you clear it.

Requirements

Level

16 content tuning in the client; the beta cap is 20, rising to 30

Group

Five players recommended; the map row still allows ten

Location

Moonbrook, Westfall

Profession

None required; Tailoring turns the cloth into bolts

Which drops can you actually sell

This is the part most Deadmines gold guides skip. A drop is only gold if the Auction House will take it, and in the Deadmines the answer is usually no. We checked the binding flag on every named boss item in the Classic Era client tables (build 1.15.9.70003), and cross-checked the gaps against the Anniversary client (2.5.6.70006). Of the 19 boss drops we looked at, 15 are Bind on Pickup and four are Bind on Equip.

Two things stand out. First, the weapons everyone remembers, Cruel Barb and Smite's Mighty Hammer, are soulbound the moment you loot them. They are upgrades, not income. Second, the four Blackened Defias pieces that do trade are the low-requirement half of the set, and on the day we looked only the gloves had a beta listing, at 1 gold10 silver with thirteen on the market across two houses. Thirteen listings for a single green tells you supply is already ahead of demand.

The trash is a better source of tradeable greens than the bosses. Defias Mage Ring is Bind on Equip in both clients and sold for … in the latest scan. The Defias Rapier and Defias Mage Staff, both Bind on Equip in the Era client, showed beta listings of 7 gold and 5 gold16 silver, each with a single item listed. Single listings are asking prices, not proof of sales, so do not plan around them.

The new money item: Blueprint: Cookie's Feast

The most interesting tradeable object tied to the Deadmines is new to Forever. Blueprint: Cookie's Feast is an uncommon blueprint at item level 25 with no binding flag in the beta client, so it trades freely. It vendors for 3 silver75 copper. It belongs to a family of 26 blueprints in the beta client that appear to unlock camp objects such as the Anvil, Tanning Rack and Fishing Rack. The finished Cookie's Feast also exists as a tradeable item at item level 28.

The client does not say where the blueprint drops. The name points straight at Cookie, the Deadmines cook, and that is the obvious place to look, but we have not seen a drop logged yet. Treat the source as unconfirmed.

What we can measure is where it sits in the blueprint market. On 2026-10-08, 13 blueprints had beta listings:

Cookie's Feast ranked tenth of thirteen. The median listing was 2 gold, so the Deadmines blueprint traded at well under half the typical blueprint price. Our read: the feast is a group buff object, and a group buff is worth less to a solo tester than a Tanning Rack is to a leatherworker. That may flip at launch, when guilds start levelling together and a shared feast becomes a convenience people pay for. Right now it is a decent drop, not a jackpot.

Cloth: the steady part of every run

The Defias humans in the Deadmines are a cloth source, and cloth is the one thing you will loot on every single run. In Classic, the humans at this level dropped mostly Linen with Wool showing up as you went deeper; we have not logged a Forever run, so we cannot give drop rates for the beta.

Live Auction House prices

Linen Cloth13 copper2 houses listing

Wool Cloth55 copper2 houses listing

Bolt of Linen Cloth45 copper2 houses listing

Bolt of Woolen Cloth2 silver65 copper2 houses listing

Silk Cloth3 silver67 copper2 houses listing

Lowest buyout from player scans of the WoW Forever beta Auction House, as of beta build 70291. Beta prices are a testing economy and will not carry over to launch. Last verified7 hr ago

Here is the arithmetic for whether a tailor should turn cloth into bolts. Our profession extract (build 70124) says a Bolt of Linen Cloth takes two Linen Cloth and a Bolt of Woolen Cloth takes three Wool Cloth.

The woollen bolt was the better conversion that day, a little over a silver per bolt, because three Wool Cloth at 55 copper each came to less than a bolt fetched. Linen bolts barely cleared their cloth. A tailor who is levelling anyway should make the woollen bolts and sell the Linen raw. A non-tailor should sell both cloths raw and let the tailors fight over them: in the same scans more than 6,000 Linen and more than 8,000 Wool were listed, so there is no shortage to exploit.

A step-by-step Deadmines money run

This is how we would run it for gold on the beta. It is a plan built from the client data and the prices above, not a timed route.

1. Enter at level 18 to 20 with a full group. The content tuning says 16, and a few levels of margin keeps the run fast.
2. Loot every Defias humanoid. Cloth is the only drop you are guaranteed to see, and it adds up over a clear.
3. Clear to Miner Johnson. He is a full encounter now, so he is always there. In Classic he dropped Miner's Revenge; the Forever client marks that pickaxe Bind on Pickup, so take it as an upgrade or vendor it for 17 silver75 copper.
4. Kill Cookie and check the loot for Blueprint: Cookie's Feast. If it drops, list it. Do not use it unless you actually want the camp object.
5. Sell the Blackened Defias Gloves, Leggings, Boots and Belt if they drop, because they are the only boss items that trade. Vendor everything soulbound you will not wear.
6. Vendor grey trash such as Red Defias Mask (81 copper each). It is soulbound in both clients and has no Auction House value.
7. Bank the cloth and list it in stacks once you have a few runs' worth, not one stack at a time.

Walked route status

Deadmines full clear, Westfall

Not walked yet

No hourly gold figure is published here until this route has been walked end to end with a timer and a full loot log. Until then this page gives you the inputs (live prices and what drops) and leaves the arithmetic to you.

Level band and what to expect

The Deadmines is a low band dungeon and its loot reflects that. Here is how it lines up against what the beta lets you do.

Moonbrook, where the entrance sits, is in southern Westfall. Elwynn Forest is next door, and a lot of Alliance groups will form there in launch week.

What to watch on the Auction House

• The blueprint floor. At 90 silver the Cookie's Feast blueprint is cheap next to other blueprints. If a few guilds decide feasts matter, this is the price that moves first.
• Wool against bolts. The woollen bolt only pays while the bolt sits clearly above three Wool. When it closes, stop converting.
• Blackened Defias greens. Thirteen gloves on the market is a crowded shelf. List yours slightly under the lowest price or just vendor them.
• Launch day. Every new Alliance character passes Westfall around the same time on 2026-11-04. Cloth and low greens will flood, and buyers will be tailors pushing their skill through the Linen and Wool recipes.

Is the Deadmines worth farming for gold?

On the beta, only as a side effect. The run is worth doing for the soulbound blues, the cloth pays for repairs, and the blueprint is a pleasant surprise when it drops. The new Miner Johnson encounter makes every clear a little longer and a little more predictable, which is good for groups and neutral for gold. At launch, the Deadmines will be one of the busiest dungeons on any realm for a week or two. That is when cloth and low greens are easiest to sell and hardest to sell well, so list early and list in volume.

We have not walked or timed a Deadmines run on the beta, so there is no hourly figure on this page. When we do, the route box above will change.

Changelog

• 2026-10-08: Review pass corrected two boss drop bindings (Rhahk'Zor's Hammer, Buzzer Blade) from stub Era rows to the Anniversary client rows, and the blueprint binding to none per build 70291.
• 2026-10-08: First version. Map, encounter, dungeon finder and content tuning rows from beta build 70291; item bindings from the Classic Era client; bolt recipes from our beta profession extract (build 70124); prices from player scans of the beta Auction House on 2026-10-08.