Merchant's Favor and Trading Companies in WoW Forever (ACA and DSL)
Two new trading companies, one per faction, pay a currency called Merchant's Favor for filled supply crates. Here is how the system works, what Favor buys and how much of it you need.
The WoW Forever trading companies are two new factions, the Azeroth Commerce Authority for the Alliance and Durotar Supply and Logistics for the Horde. You loot supply crates in the world, fill them with the goods they ask for and hand them in at your company's camp. Each crate pays 5, 10 or 20 Merchant's Favor, a currency you spend on recipes, titles, a pet and the Pack Kodo mount.
It's one of the few genuinely new systems in Forever, and it works a bit differently from what Classic veterans expect. Favor isn't reputation. Crates don't raise your standing. And the most famous reward costs more than most people guess. Here's how it all fits together.
- Alliance: Azeroth Commerce Authority (ACA), camp at Three Corners in Redridge.
- Horde: Durotar Supply and Logistics (DSL), camp just outside the Crossroads in the Barrens.
- Currency: Merchant's Favor, 5, 10 or 20 per filled crate.
- Reputation: comes from Craftsman's Writs, not from crates.
- Top reward: the Pack Kodo mount for 6,000 Favor.
- Also on sale: Packmule Treat, profession title certification, recipes and the company tabard.
- Values come from the beta and pre-release data and can still change at launch.
What Is Merchant's Favor in WoW Forever?
Merchant's Favor is the currency of the two trading companies. You earn it by handing in filled supply crates and spend it at the company's own vendor, Tamelyn Aldridge for the ACA or Gishah for the DSL. It isn't gold and it isn't reputation, so it can't pay your trainer and it won't move your standing bar.
Why do people chase it? Because the company vendor sells things you can't get anywhere else in the same way: profession recipes, a certified profession title for crafters at skill 300, a small pet, a tabard and the Pack Kodo. For a crafter, the recipes alone justify the time. For a collector, the kodo is the point.
Think of it as a side wallet that fills up while you play normally. You don't log in to "farm Favor" in week one. You pick up crates on your questing route, and later, once you know what you want to buy, you decide whether to push harder.
Which Trading Company Is Yours: ACA or DSL?
Your faction decides it for you. Alliance characters work with the Azeroth Commerce Authority, Horde characters with Durotar Supply and Logistics. You can't pick the other company, and you don't need to: both run the same system with crates, writs and a Favor vendor.
| Azeroth Commerce Authority | Durotar Supply and Logistics | |
|---|---|---|
| Faction | Alliance | Horde |
| Short name | ACA | DSL |
| Camp | Three Corners, Redridge Mountains | Outside the Crossroads, the Barrens |
| Nearby landmark | The road between Elwynn and Lakeshire, close to The Riverglades | The Crossroads, the busy Horde hub in the central Barrens |
| Currency | Merchant's Favor | Merchant's Favor |
| Reputation source | Craftsman's Writs | Craftsman's Writs |
Nice touch from Blizzard: you ride past both camps anyway somewhere in your teens and twenties. Handing in usually costs you thirty seconds off your route, not a trip. Locations here are from the beta; we'll update this guide if anything moves at launch.
How Do You Farm Merchant's Favor?
You loot supply crates out in the world, read what each one asks for, put those goods in and hand it in at your camp. The payout is 5, 10 or 20 Merchant's Favor depending on the crate. We haven't seen a daily limit mentioned anywhere. Your real cap is luck with drops and what's in your bags.
In game they're Waylaid Crates. Open the tooltip and it tells you its shopping list, say linen, light leather, copper, some herb, or magic essences for the enchanter-flavoured one. Cheap stuff for the small ones, pricier goods for the ones paying 20. That's why gatherers and crafters fill them faster than anyone: the materials are already in their bags. Beta testers also reported that crates showed up rarely below the mid-teens, so don't expect many in the first couple of hours.
A quick bit of maths shows how big the long goals are:
- 6,000 Favor for the Pack Kodo is at least 300 crates at the top rate of 20.
- At the bottom rate of 5, the same 6,000 is 1,200 crates.
- Real numbers land in between, because you'll hand in a mix.
So the kodo is a project of weeks, not an evening. Smaller targets, like a few recipes, need only a handful of turn-ins. If you'd rather not count crates at all, a Merchant's Favor farm can be ordered by amount, and the Favor ends up on your character, ready to spend.
Favor Is Not Reputation: Where Craftsman's Writs Fit
Crates pay currency; writs pay standing. That split confuses many players on the beta, so it's worth spelling out. Handing in a Waylaid Crate gives you Merchant's Favor and nothing on the company's reputation bar.
Reputation with the ACA or DSL comes from Craftsman's Writs. A writ is a work order: it asks you to supply or craft a particular item and deliver it. Turn it in and your standing with the company goes up. The bar is the usual one, 42,000 points from Neutral to Exalted, with the last rank alone worth 21,000.
Does standing matter? For most goods, Favor is what you pay with. Reputation gates the top status items, most clearly the company tabard, which requires Exalted on top of its Favor price. If you want both bars handled, the WoW Forever reputation boost section has separate ACA and DSL orders priced by rank.
What Can You Buy With Merchant's Favor?
Recipes, a profession title, a pet, a tabard and the Pack Kodo. The list below comes from pre-release data for the company vendor, so treat the exact numbers as likely rather than final until the live game confirms them.
| Reward | Merchant's Favor | Extra condition |
|---|---|---|
| Profession recipes | 45 to 240 | Matching profession and skill |
| Company tabard | 200 | Exalted with your company |
| Profession title certification | 1,000 | Profession skill 300 |
| Packmule Treat (pet) | 1,500 | Revered with your company |
| Pack Kodo (mount) | 6,000 | Exalted with your company |
The Pack Kodo is the headline item and also the most expensive. Both factions can buy it, from Huey Sunnydale at the ACA camp or Okamache at the DSL camp, and it isn't tied to a class or a raid. Our WoW Forever mounts guide compares it with every other mount you can work towards at launch.
The title certification is the quiet favourite of crafters. At skill 300 you pay 1,000 Favor and earn the matching title, such as the Alchemist or the Blacksmith. It's purely for show, which is precisely why some people want it first.
How Much Merchant's Favor Do You Actually Need?
Recipes cost you a few hundred, the title 1,000, the Packmule Treat pet 1,500, the kodo a whopping 6,000. Set one target before you start, because buying small things along the way delays the expensive ones by a lot.
Four kinds of players, four ways we'd spend it:
- Broke crafter: grab the one recipe your guild keeps asking about, or the one that sells. Favor turned into gold, sort of.
- Collector: save everything for the Pack Kodo and buy nothing else until it's done. Every recipe you grab on the way pushes the mount back.
- Completionist crafter: recipes first, then the title at 300, then the kodo as the long project.
- Casual player: fill crates only when the goods are already in your bags. You'll still end up with a useful balance by 60.
Whatever the plan, Favor stays on the character that earned it. Your Horde alt doesn't share the Alliance main's balance, and a new character starts at zero.
Should You Fill Crates or Sell the Materials?
Want something from the vendor? Fill. Need gold this week? Sell. Remember the goods inside a crate could have gone on the Auction House instead, so every point of Favor quietly costs you money, and in launch week, when everyone needs cloth and ore, it costs the most.
Beta testers noticed something else: crates themselves, plus the stuff they ask for, ended up for sale on the Auction House, so a little market around them is likely live too. Our rule of thumb? Stuff nobody buys goes in crates. Spare linen nobody buys? Into the crate. Iron ore going for a good price the night riding opens? Sell it, and come back to crates later. Our WoW Forever gold farming guide goes deeper into which materials actually earn money.
One more thing to keep in mind: gold and Favor live on the same character and the same ruleset. A crate filled on PvP pays Favor to that PvP character only.
Is Booty Bay Reputation Part of This?
No. Booty Bay, Gadgetzan, Everlook and Ratchet are the old goblin trading towns of the Steamwheedle Cartel, and their reputation is a separate system from the original game. Waylaid Crates and Merchant's Favor have nothing to do with it.
The mix-up is understandable: both are "trade" factions with goblin flavour. But Steamwheedle standing comes from the classic world, while the ACA and DSL are new to Forever and run on crates and writs. Turning in a crate won't move your Booty Bay bar, and Booty Bay reputation won't unlock anything at the company vendor.
A Simple Merchant's Favor Plan for the First Weeks
Crates start turning up while you level, so the system begins on launch day whether you plan for it or not. A loose plan stops you wasting good materials and keeps the expensive goals realistic.
- Levels 10 to 30: loot every crate, fill only cheap ones with goods you already carry, hand in when you pass the camp.
- Riding at 40: gold comes first. Sell valuable materials, keep crates for leftovers.
- Level 60: decide the long goal. Kodo, title or recipes. Then fill crates with intent.
- Exalted planning: if you want the tabard, start Craftsman's Writs early; the last rank is half the bar.
If your goal is the mount alone, the Pack Kodo boost farms the full 6,000 Favor and buys the Pack Kodo on your character in one order. Orders inside leveling can start on November 4; standalone orders start about a week after launch, once the character can reach the camp.
wow forever trading companies FAQ
What is Merchant's Favor in WoW Forever?
It's the currency of the two new trading companies, the Azeroth Commerce Authority for the Alliance and Durotar Supply and Logistics for the Horde. You get it by handing in filled supply crates, 5, 10 or 20 per crate, and spend it on recipes, a profession title, a pet, a tabard and the Pack Kodo.
How do you get Merchant's Favor fast?
Fill the bigger crates, which pay 20, and fill them with goods you gather yourself instead of buying them. Herbalists, miners and tailors win here, because the goods are already sitting in their bags. Stack up three or four full crates, then swing by camp once.
Do Waylaid Crates give reputation?
No, crates pay Merchant's Favor only. Your ACA or DSL standing grows through Craftsman's Writs instead, little job sheets saying "bring me this" or "make me that". You need both if your goal is the company tabard, which asks for Exalted standing plus 200 Favor.
How much Merchant's Favor is the Pack Kodo?
6,000 Merchant's Favor, the highest price on the company list. At the top crate rate of 20 that means at least 300 turn-ins; with smaller crates it can reach 1,200. Both factions can buy it from their own company, the ACA for the Alliance and DSL for the Horde.
Can Horde players work with the Azeroth Commerce Authority?
Sorry, no. Horde gets its own outfit, Durotar Supply and Logistics, camped just past the Crossroads, while the Redridge camp at Three Corners serves Alliance only. Don't feel short-changed though: same crates, same writs, same sort of shop, and yes, the kodo is on both lists.
Is Merchant's Favor shared between characters?
No. Favor stays on the character that earned it, like gold. An alt starts from zero, and a character on another ruleset or faction keeps its own balance. Account-wide progress in Forever comes through the Legacy system, not through company currencies.
