Gold From Level 40 to 50 in WoW Forever: Runecloth, Rugged Leather, Thorium and Mount Hyjal

The short answer

Level 40 to 50 is where WoW Forever's biggest material markets begin, but on the beta most of them barely exist yet. Rugged Leather has the largest recipe demand of any material in the client, 213 recipes, and yet it sold at its own vendor price of 5 silver. Runecloth listed at … on just ten units. Thorium Ore listed at 77 silver on seven. The herbs are where the beta shows real premiums: Arthas' Tears sold at 48 gold88 silver against a vendor price of under one silver. Use this bracket to stockpile the materials with huge recipe counts, sell herbs and gems, and keep your Runecloth for the launch economy.

The 40 to 50 materials, priced

Between 40 and 50 you level in Tanaris, Feralas, the Hinterlands, Azshara, Searing Gorge and the start of Un'Goro Crater, and in Forever you also have Mount Hyjal. Humanoids drop the first Runecloth, beasts give Rugged Leather and Rugged Hide, and miners reach Thorium.

Live Auction House prices

Runecloth…no price recorded

Bolt of Runecloth20 silver2 houses listing

Rugged Leather5 silver2 houses listing

Thorium Ore77 silver2 houses listing

Thorium Bar299 gold99 silver1 house listing

Dense Stone1 gold4 silver2 houses listing

Purple Lotus1 gold20 silver2 houses listing

Arthas' Tears48 gold88 silver1 house listing

Blindweed34 silver99 copper2 houses listing

Gromsblood15 silver2 houses listing

Star Ruby50 silver2 houses listing

Dream Dust3 silver50 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

The demand math: three materials carry the endgame

Here is the analysis this page is built on. We added up how many units each material would need if one character crafted every recipe that uses it exactly once, from our extract of the beta profession tables.

Rugged Leather and Thorium Bar are each more than twice the size of any material in the 30 to 40 bracket. Bolt of Runecloth needs five Runecloth per bolt in the client, so its 1,379 bolts stand for 6,895 Runecloth. These three are the materials every endgame crafter will be buying at launch, and on the beta they are almost unlisted. That is the opportunity in this bracket: the materials with the most demand in the client are the ones the beta economy has not priced yet.

Rugged Leather: priced at the floor, needed everywhere

Rugged Leather sold at exactly 5 silver on 2026-10-08, the same as its vendor price, on 109 units. A price sitting on the vendor floor means sellers were not getting more from players than from a merchant. That will not survive launch. Seventy-three of its 213 recipes are new in Forever, including 59 new Leatherworking recipes, and the client's Cured Rugged Hide turns one Rugged Hide and one Refined Deeprock Salt into two cured hides that feed another 144 recipes.

The call for a Skinner in this bracket is to bank Rugged Leather rather than dump it. A stack in the bank costs nothing, and the vendor price means you cannot lose much by holding: the worst case is that you vendor it later for the same 5 silver.

Runecloth: hold it

Runecloth listed at … on ten units, and Bolt of Runecloth at 20 silver, barely above its 20 silver vendor price. At those prices five Runecloth were worth 2 gold50 silver and one bolt 21 silver, which is not a real market on either side. The client tells you what Runecloth will be worth when the market fills: 179 bolt recipes, 66 of them new, and another 30 recipes that use raw Runecloth, 16 of them in Engineering. Keep your Runecloth. You will use it in the next bracket, and our 50 to 60 guide covers when to sell it.

Thorium: smelt your own, sell the ore only if someone bites

Thorium Ore had seven units listed on the beta, at 77 silver. Thorium Bar had none. The client's Smelt Thorium is one ore for one bar at skill 250. With 132 recipes waiting for the bar and two waiting for the ore, the bar is where the value will sit once Blacksmiths arrive. Until the scans show a Thorium Bar price, smelt your own ore for your own crafting and bank the rest.

Dense Stone, the stone that comes with Thorium, listed at 1 gold4 silver on five units. It feeds 8 recipes, including a new Mining entry and a new Engineering one.

The 40 to 50 herbs: the real premiums

Herbs are the one place where the beta already pays well in this bracket.

1. Arthas' Tears: 48 gold88 silver on 22 units, against a vendor price of 95 copper. On the 2026-10-08 snapshot that is about 26 to 1 (2 gold50 silver against 95 copper), the widest gap of any herb in this bracket. Purple Lotus comes next at about 16 to 1, then Blindweed at about 13 to 1. Six of its eight recipes are new in Forever.
2. Purple Lotus: 1 gold20 silver on 78 units. Purple Lotus has 23 recipes, and 8 of them are new Blacksmithing recipes, which is very unusual for a herb.
3. Blindweed: 34 silver99 copper on 22 units, nine Alchemy recipes.
4. Gromsblood: 15 silver on two units. Gromsblood feeds 14 Alchemy recipes and 56 units of total demand, a lot per recipe.
5. Sungrass and Ghost Mushroom had no listings at all on 2026-10-08. Sungrass has 14 recipes, 8 of them new.

Gems and enchanting

Star Ruby sold at 50 silver, about twice its 50 silver vendor price, and feeds 39 recipes. Aquamarine sold at 2 gold25 silver against a vendor price of 10 silver, though on 141 units that price may have been one seller's choice. For Enchanters, Dream Dust sold at 3 silver50 copper, the Greater Nether Essence at 4 gold50 silver, and the Large Radiant Shard at 13 gold99 silver, the most expensive common reagent in the bracket.

The elemental drops nobody is selling yet

Mobs in this range drop the second tier of elementals, and on the beta they were almost entirely missing from the scans. Heart of Fire, Globe of Water and Core of Earth had no listings at all on 2026-10-08. Breath of Wind had a single unit at 2 gold14 silver. The client shows why those empty shelves matter. Heart of Fire goes into 34 recipes and 154 units of total demand, 15 of them Blacksmithing and 13 Tailoring. Globe of Water goes into 28 recipes, 16 of them new in Forever, split evenly between new Blacksmithing and new Tailoring recipes. Core of Earth goes into 12. In Classic these drop from elementals in Tanaris, Searing Gorge, Azshara and Un'Goro; we have not confirmed drop sources on the Forever beta. Keep every one you loot.

Live Auction House prices

Heart of Fire…no price recorded

Globe of Water99 gold1 house listing

Core of Earth…no price recorded

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 verified11 hr ago

Mount Hyjal: what the client shows

Mount Hyjal is one of Forever's three new zones, alongside Zephras Isle and the Riverglades. Our new-world extract (build 70058) shows it on the Kalimdor map with its old area name changed from "Hyjal" to "Mount Hyjal", and nine named subzones: Cradle of Tranquility, Dae'gun, Elderwild, Felblood Scar, Malorne's Retreat, Mourning's Rest, Shrine of Aviana, Summit of Eternity and Tainted Foothills. None of them carries an explore level in the client yet, so the files do not tell us its level range.

The items the client ties to Hyjal point to the top of the level range. Hyjal Berries, a food item, has a required level of 45 and vendors for 1 silver50 copper. Savory Shen'dralar Steak, another food, also requires 45. Hyjal Nectar requires 55, and Engineering gains two new Mount Hyjal transporters at level 60. At BlizzCon, Blizzard described Hyjal as an endgame leveling zone with new reputations and the Hyjal Summit launch raid. Put together, Hyjal looks like a zone for the end of this bracket and the next. We have not been there on the beta; it is above the level cap.

Walked route status

Mount Hyjal

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.

A note on Zephras Isle

Zephras Isle is sometimes listed with Hyjal as a new endgame area. The client disagrees: our extract gives its subzones explore levels between 3 and 12, and Blizzard opened it in week one of the beta as the Skyborne starting zone. It belongs in our 1 to 10 guide, not here. Our new zones guide covers all three new zones side by side.

Other new areas in this range

The client adds smaller new areas inside old zones near this bracket. Azshara gains Thalassian Vanguard Camp at explore level 49 and Legashi Stronghold at 52, and its Legash Encampment is renamed Legashi Encampment. Un'Goro Crater gains the Stomping Grounds at 48. The area long known as Timbermaw Hold is renamed Blackmaw Hold. A new zone called Shen'dralas also appears on the Kalimdor map with subzones such as Bristleback Retreat, Magram Front and Forlorn Gardens, but no explore levels yet.

Requirements

Level

40 to 50

Profession

Skinning, Mining or Herbalism at Artisan range

Gear

Skinning Knife or Mining Pick; Apprentice Riding recommended

Group

Solo

A 40 to 50 checklist

1. Bank Rugged Leather; it is at its vendor floor on the beta and has the most recipes in the client.
2. Hold Runecloth for the 50 to 60 bracket and for launch.
3. Smelt Thorium for your own use; bank the rest until bars appear on the scans.
4. Sell Arthas' Tears, Purple Lotus and Blindweed now, in small stacks.
5. Disenchant level 40 greens and blues if you are an Enchanter; the dust and shards outsell the items.
6. Keep an eye on the riding trainer: swift mounts need riding skill 150, which the client grants through Journeyman Riding, and the epic mount items cost 200 gold at level 60.

Before this, read gold from level 30 to 40. Next is gold from level 50 to 60. Gatherers should also read the best gathering professions to level with. The whole lane is on the leveling gold hub, and every Forever page is on the WoW Forever gold guides index.

Changelog

• 2026-10-08: First version. Item and vendor data as of beta build 70291, recipe counts from our beta profession extract (build 70124), zone areas and renames from our new-world extract (build 70058), launch facts from Blizzard's Forever pages, prices from player scans of the beta houses read on 2026-10-08.