Can you get a month’s worth of playtime exclusively in Elwynn Forest, the Human starter zone? Apparently so – with 5 days and 41 levels /played!
A player decided to enjoy the game in a new and creative way by taking on a ZoneLocked Challenge – farming gold in a single zone without leaving (except to use the Auction House). The rules are simple: start in a zone with zero gold and no items, grind until you earn enough for a WoW Token, then unlock a new zone and repeat the process. And luckily for us, it was all thoroughly documented!
The Elwynn Forest
Sauc3ry started the ZoneLocked Challenge in Elwynn Forest, aiming to bring back the fun in WoW – and it worked. He also used the Stockades dungeon, which is in Stormwind, but technically part of the zone (and it wasn’t even worth it anyway). After over 5 days played, they walked away with 332,000 gold, netting them one WoW Token, all earned without ever leaving the zone. What most see as a starter area became a goldmine through sheer persistence and smart farming.
Top Sales and Surprising Finds
The main earning method was selling whatever was found in the zone on the Auction House. As it turns out, Elwynn has quite a few wanted transmog drops, fetching up to 85k gold!
Small Wooden Hammer – 86,137g (rare drop from Gug Fatcandle)
Brood Mother Carapace – 26,599g ×2, 19,644g ×1 (from Motherfang)
Thuggish Shield – 25,364g (from Thuros Lightfingers)
Boarhide Leggings – 3,799g
Pale Skinner – 2,906g (from Fedfennel)
Kobold Mining Mallet – 959g (dropped by Kobolds)
Even the smallest items added up… low-level loot turned into serious gold thanks to transmog collectors and rare drop hunters.
Elwynn By the Numbers
- Total items sold: 22,817 (mats + grays included)
- Stockades runs: 81 — not worth it, copper farming was way better
- Best mining path: Left side of the zone = more nodes, better GPH
- Leftover inventory: 253 items stored on an alt
- Final gold total: 332,000g
- Level at finish: 41
- /Played time: 5 days, 1 hour
And that’s not the end of the grind either – he’s taking on the next zone with a fresh start – zero gold, zero items, and a brand new grind.
For the full breakdown on how it all went down, check out the YouTube video!
Pathelerix was the original creator of the ZoneLocked Challenge and This whole journey wouldn’t exist without their awesome idea. Thanks for bringing a fresh spark of fun back to WoW!
