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Ogri'la and the Apexis Economy: the Depleted Badge Gold Guide
Ogri'la is the dailies hub where the rep is time-gated but the currency is not. The full Apexis shard and crystal economy, every daily, the Shartuul event, and the Depleted Badge that sells like a raid drop.
Ogri'la is the ogre daily hub perched on the plateaus of Blade's Edge Mountains, and it runs on a two-currency economy that no other faction uses. Reputation gates what you may buy. Apexis Shards and Crystals pay for what you actually buy. The result is a hub where hitting Exalted is only half the project, and where a surprising amount of gold changes hands through items most players never look at twice.
It is also the second half of a dual-faction circuit: Ogri'la's dailies and the Sha'tari Skyguard's overlap in the same zone, several quests pay both reputations at once, and the Skettis guide covers the other half of the morning.
The unlock
Ogri'la does not open with a flight path, it opens with a group. Start with Grok in Shattrath City, who sends you to Blade's Edge to run the ogre quest chain, which involves settling the succession by dealing with Gruul's sons. The chain is group content tuned for five players around level 70. Most players grab a few friends or a recruiting channel group the week they decide they want the dailies, and it is the only mandatory group step in the entire faction.
The dailies
Once the hub is open, the daily board pays out like this:
| Daily | Reputation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Relic's Emanation | 350 | The Simon-says crystal puzzle |
| Bomb Them Again! | 500 | Also pays full Sha'tari Skyguard reputation |
| Wrangle More Aether Rays! | 350 | Also pays Skyguard |
| Banish More Demons | 350 | Unlocks at Honored |
Two group activities sit on top for the ambitious. To Rule the Skies cracks open a dragon egg for 35 shards and summons elite dragons for the group to kill. And at Honored, the Banish More Demons daily starts handing out Kronk's Grab Bags, which contain shards, fragments, and occasionally a complete Darkrune, the ticket into Shartuul's Transporter.
Shartuul's Transporter
The Legion Ring event is TBC's strangest mini-game: you fight your way in, then possess a series of demons and use them to destroy each other while the event's boss watches. It pays up to 750 Ogri'la reputation per run, one of the largest single reputation chunks in the expansion, and it drops BoE items on top. Every Darkrune from your daily grab bag is a free shot at it. Players who master the demon-swapping clear it in fifteen minutes; players who do not still usually finish, slowly, with a repair bill.
The two currencies
Apexis Shard is the common currency. It drops from the level 70 mobs, demons and elite ogres across the plateaus, from every daily, and from Bash'ir's Landing in the north of the zone. A session of daily quests banks a stack without trying; a deliberate grind of the elite ogres banks several.
Apexis Crystal is the rare one, dropped only by the summoned elite dragons and demons that cost 35 shards apiece to call and are tuned for five players. Every crystal in your bags represents a group summon somebody organized, which is why the Exalted vendor items that cost four crystals feel expensive in a way gold never does.
What the vendors sell
Jho'nass at the Ogri'la camp sells the faction ladder: crystal healing and mana potions at Neutral for shards, the ogre brews at Honored for pocket change, and the real rewards at Revered and Exalted. The Revered tier, one crystal plus 50 shards, buys the Apexis Cloak, Ogri'la Aegis shield, Crystalforged Trinket and Cerulean Crystal Rod. The Exalted tier, four crystals plus 100 shards, buys the Crystalline Crossbow, Shard-bound Bracers, Vortex Walking Boots and the Crystal Orb of Enlightenment, solid BoP starter epics for a fresh 70, plus the tabard for ten shards.
Those prices are the honest cost of Exalted: roughly a month of dailies for the reputation, and a small mountain of organized summoning for the currency to actually spend there.
The part that pays: Depleted items
Here is where Ogri'la becomes a gold guide instead of a reputation guide. The elite mobs of the Blade's Edge plateaus drop Depleted items, bind-on-equip gear fossils that anyone can power up using 50 Apexis Shards. Powered, a Depleted item becomes a real blue or epic: the Depleted Cloak becomes the Crystalweave Cape, the Depleted Mace the Apexis Crystal Mace, and so on through bracers, daggers, gauntlets, rings and staves.
The famous one is the Depleted Badge, which becomes 
Badge of Tenacity: a trinket whose on-use agility and armor combo made it the premier feral tank trinket of the expansion, still prized through Phase 3. It sells on the auction house at prices that embarrass raid BoEs, because the supply is a rare world drop from plateau elites and the demand is every tank druid on the realm. Farmers who camp the elite ogre and demon camps are not farming reputation. They are farming Depleted drops, and the shards from the same kills pay for the powering.
The trade works both ways. A Depleted item plus 50 shards is worth dramatically more than either half, which means a player with shard income can buy depleted drops cheap from players who cannot be bothered, power them, and relist. It is the cleanest crafting-free flip in The Burning Crusade, and it runs on the currency this hub exists to print.
The honest schedule
Dailies alone take about thirty days from Neutral to Exalted. The efficient morning: the four Ogri'la dailies and the two Skyguard dailies in one Blade's Edge pass, then Terokkar for the Skettis pair, with the elite plateau camps farmed for Depleted drops whenever the schedule allows a grind session. It stacks cleanly with the gathering routes through the same zone, and the gold it produces, mostly from Depleted sales and vendor trash, lands well below a good primal farming hour but on a schedule no camp in Outland can match for consistency.
FAQ
How long does Ogri'la Exalted take?
About 30 days doing every daily, faster if you add Shartuul's Transporter runs, the group quests, and the one-time quest chains. The reputation is time-gated by dailies; only Shartuul and group content push past the gate.
What are Apexis Shards used for?
Vendor purchases, powering Depleted items at 50 apiece, the 35-shard dragon egg summon for To Rule the Skies, and the Banishing Crystal for the demon dailies. They also convert upward in practice, since every 35-shard summon is a shot at the crystals the top vendor items need.
How do I get Apexis Crystals?
They drop from the summoned elite dragons and demons of the Blade's Edge plateaus, which cost 35 shards each to summon and are tuned for five players. Every crystal implies an organized group summon.
What is the Badge of Tenacity and why is it expensive?
A trinket created by powering a Depleted Badge with 50 shards, with an on-use agility and armor profile that made it the defining feral tank trinket of the expansion. Supply is a rare elite-drop, demand is every druid tank, and the auction house prices accordingly.
Can I make gold from Ogri'la without raiding?
Yes, through Depleted items. Farm the plateau elites for the drops, spend shards to power them, and sell the results. The Depleted-to-Badge flip is the classic version, and shard income from the dailies funds the powering for free.