Kam's guide to the Noblegarden

I have been messing around testing Noblegarden on the 3.1 Public Test Realms, so here is what I've discovered thus far. This is also valid for 3.3.3 as I have run through the achievements again on an alt.

This post also contains massive spoilers for the Noblegarden event, so if you want to discover it yourself, don't keep reading!

The plot
Magical eggs are appearing all over the starter towns, bearing chocolates! A feeder quest is available from at least Silvermoon city, sending you to any of Falconwing Square, Brill, Razor Hill or Bloodhoof Village. Alliance will obviously be sent to your very own starter towns. There you will find a Noblegarden merchant who will offer you a quest to get your very own Noblegarden basket for 10 chocolates, and a mage who offers a daily to collect 20 egg shells, one shell per egg. The merchant also sells a variety of goods, in exchange for Noblegarden chocolates.

The mechanics
Brightly painted eggs will spawn all over the starter towns, mostly underneath carts, next to buildings and inside bushes. You just run up to them, right click one, and loot the Noblegarden Chocolate from inside. Now on an empty PTR, I have managed to loot around 50 eggs in 30 minutes. On a live realm, with 1/8 of the realm population in each, this rate will take a nosedive, and the festival seems very much designed around a Bun-Fight (or Smash-and-Grab if you prefer!).

Occasionally I have found the Spring Robes (1/40 chance) and Spring Flowers (1/40 chance) in an egg. Also, sometimes you will be turned into a Noblegarden rabbit, which renders you unable to cast spells, take a taxi or mount. This buff can be removed by right clicking, and happened once every 30 eggs or so. I have also looted the pet rabbit from an egg.

Once you complete the starter quest, you get your own Noblegarden basket which increases run speed by 60% for 10 seconds, with a 10 second cooldown. In other words, spammable. On the PTR, this stacked with the ghost wolf form speed increase. I suspect you will need this basket to get to eggs quickly. However you can also try camping the eggs on a busy day.

I tried wandering outside the starter zone towns to see if I could spot more eggs, but I could not. Tellingly the Noblegarden basket will not work outside the starter towns, it displays an error message saying it only works where Noblegarden eggs are found. They are only found in the starter towns.

The loots
The Noblegarden merchant sells a variety of items for Noblegarden chocolates, which are obtained by looting eggs. A noteworthy item is the Spring Rabbit's Foot for 100 chocs, which is a non combat rabbit pet.

The achievements
It's no secret that Noblegarden is now part of the meta achievement, so let's take a look at what is involved. * means not part of the meta.



I Found One!
Loot an egg. Easy. Part of the meta.

Chocolate Lover.
Eat 100 chocolates, looted from eggs. Part of the meta.

Sunday's Finest.*
Loot a tuxedo shirt or pants from an egg. The garb can be gotten from eggs, which is handy because the tuxedo shirt and pants from Noblegarden are not the same as the tailored ones. Not part of the meta.

Dressed for the Occasion.*
Loot a Elegant dress from an egg. The chance of this is lower than the other clothes from what I've seen. Not part of the meta.

Hard Boiled.
Lay an egg in Golakka Springs during Noblegarden. Eh? So when you are turned into a rabbit, if you stand stationary, you will sometimes lay a little brightly coloured egg. It's not lootable but its funny, especially as it rolls down inclines. The Blossoming Branch will put a rabbit costume on a party member, which means you can get to Ungoro, be turned into a rabbit, and lay your egg. Once you have been turned into a rabbit from looting an egg, you cannot cast, mount or take a taxi. So your only way to get to Ungoro is running, taking a zep or an orb of translocation (or maybe a summon). You do get 60 minutes on the rabbit buff so it is doable, and you can still melee attack mobs. Part of the meta.

Spring Fling.
Find your pet rabbit another one to love in each of the starter towns, where the eggs are spawning. This then requires you to collect 100 chocolates, or get lucky with an egg which according to warcraftpets.com, can contain a rabbit. Then I think you just need to have the rabbit out and find someone else with one, which shouldn't be too hard. Part of the meta.

Noble Garden.
Hide an egg in Silvermoon city. You can buy a hideable egg from the vendor for 5 chocolates. Part of the meta.

Shake Your Bunny-Maker.
Is this holiday themed around Playboy? Use your Spring Flowers to place rabbit ears on females of all races and factions. Once you have some Spring Flowers from either an egg, or for 50 chocolates, you target the victim and use the flowers. There is a 5 minute cooldown on this and the female in question must be at least level 18... so no creating level 1s on test accounts! You can use the Spring Flowers to put ears onto yourself, should your toon be female. Or you want rabbit ears. Overachiever has added this to its trackable tooltips. Part of the meta.

Desert Rose.
Use the Spring Robes you get in an egg, or purchase for 50 chocolates, when equipped and they will plant a flower in the ground. You need to plant a flower in the deserts of The Badlands, Silithus, Thousand Needles, Desolace and Tanaris. There is a mere 1 minute cooldown on the robes, so just a bit of travelling is needed for this one. Part of the meta.

Blushing Bride.
Ok and now onto the weirdest achievement of the whole damn lot. You need to wear the noblegarden-specific tuxedo pants and shirt (the tailored ones are different and will not work) and /kiss someone who is wearing the Elegant Dress. Whatever floats your boat Blizzard... This means you personally need to discover the tuxedo items, or pay a total of 50 chocolates for them, but also someone needs to discover or pay 50 chocolates for the dress. Top pulling tip: equip the dress and hang out in capitals or starter towns for guaranteed "action"! Part of the meta.

Thoughts.
Thus far Noblegarden is shaping up to be a fluffy holiday for the bunny-obsessed among us, as well as hardcore (casual) achievement seekers.

The achievements Spring Fling, Shake Your Bunny-Maker, Desert Rose and Blushing Bride don't specify they have to be done during Noblegarden, the items needed are not time limited, so maybe they can be done later. This will help a great deal. There are 110 achievement points on offer here, including 10 from the meta, so a good chance to bump up your score.

Assuming no luck with the tuxedo and pet from eggs, you will need a total of 255 chocolates. I got very lucky and got the robes, flowers, clothes and pet from eggs, so only 105 eggs were needed. If you don't get the Spring robes and flowers, make that 355 chocolates. That's the same number of eggs to loot. It's hard to estimate just how long it will take to get even 180 chocolates - with the spawn rates on the PTR it could take about 90 minutes, but that's with no competition, and you won't have that luxury on live. H3ll no.

Links for other information
World Of Raids Noblegarden guide
WoW Insider coverage
WotLK wiki achievements
WoWWiki Noblegarden page

A gallery follows: