Quest

Surveying the Tower

A World of Warcraft quest in Zaralek Cavern. Facts and objectives from the current retail game data.

Top Comments

The highest voted Wowhead comments for this page. They are community notes, not TheWoWDB comments.

arisen12024-01-23T19:10:01-06:00+36via Wowhead

If you're confused like I was:
1) Talk to the NPC to get started
2) Go to a yellow dot marked on your map
3) Put down the totem by clicking the icon in your quest log
4) Now, click the totem you just placed on the ground to begin the excavation mini-game
Don't feel bad. This is really poor quest design.

lirrienne2024-04-13T19:46:47-05:00+15via Wowhead

Full Explanation - use the green Archivists Totem near one of the disturbed earth mounds that shows up on your mini-map. Click on the totem. Your Helpful Earth elemental will scan the mound and your bar will start moving toward the Earth symbol. Little lavas show up around you. Once the bar starts to get a bit too earthy, RUN OVER THE TOP OF A LAVA. Just one will probably be fine. Once you can keep the bar relatively balanced you'll find you can CLICK ON THE MOUND TO EXCAVATE. Watch the bar, run over another lava now and again and you'll get to 100%.

Shardsy2024-03-12T07:45:46-05:00+3via Wowhead

Clicked on the totem and absolutely nothing happens. I delete the quest.

Read all 8 on Wowhead ↗

Quest facts

LevelLevel 70

LocationZaralek Cavern

CategoryAzerothian Archives

Quest ID76026

Check whether you have already completed this quest in-game: /run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(76026))

Description

Get a load of those rock formations! Surveying doesn't get much better than this. This tower has been here for ages. The black dragonflight used it for some seriously dark stuff, but that's not why we're here. After the dragons left, a troupe of niffen bandits took shelter in the ruins and robbed the place blind. But they left a bunch of trash everywhere. Imagine what we could learn about the niffen from that trash once we get digging!

Where to go

Pins are the quest’s own POI points from the current retail client, projected onto the in-game zone map. The game marks one blob as the quest’s turn-in; the rest are objective areas. Points that fall outside a map’s window are dropped rather than guessed at.

Coordinates

Turn-inZaralek Cavern 47.7, 48.6/way #2133 47.7 48.6
Objective area (centre of the marked area)Zaralek Cavern 47.4, 48.7/way #2133 47.4 48.7
Objective areaZaralek Cavern 47.5, 48.6/way #2133 47.5 48.6

Map coordinates of the pins above. An area the client draws as a shape is given by the centre of its points.

Nearby on the Zaralek Cavern map

A Tower Yonder about 180 yards
Where There's Smoke, There's Fire about 590 yards
Six Hundred Feet Under about 590 yards
Honor the Flame about 640 yards
Raked Over the Coals about 670 yards
The Endless Burning Sky about 670 yards
Consequences about 690 yards
Take Out the Head about 690 yards
Battlefield Triage about 690 yards
No Dragon Left Behind about 720 yards

Quests whose map markers the client places closest to this one on Zaralek Cavern, nearest first. Distances are straight lines between the markers.

Getting there

Flight points closest to the quest’s turn-in marker on Zaralek Cavern:

Loamm, Zaralek CavernAlliance and Horde · about 650 yards south-east
Dragonscale Camp, Zaralek CavernAlliance and Horde · about 1,100 yards south-west
Obsidian Rest, Zaralek CavernAlliance and Horde · about 1,100 yards north

From the turn-in, the objective areas lie:

Objective areaabout 80 yards east

Straight-line distances in yards between the quest’s own map markers (QuestPOI) and the client’s flight-point positions (TaxiNodes); flight paths and terrain are not modelled.

Community notes from Wowhead · 8 comments

Top 3 shown above

The comments below were written by Wowhead users. They are community notes, not TheWoWDB comments. See them in context on Wowhead.

The top 3 are shown in Top Comments above. Read all 8 on Wowhead.

Money28 gold9 silver

Experience9,500 XP

Surveying the Cliffside

Surveying the Frozen Wastes

Surveying the Mana-Bog

Surveying the Riverbed

Survival of the Fittest

Survival Skills

Survival: The Thieving Apprentice

Survive

Storyline

Azerothian Archives

Part 24 of 44.

Previous: Excavation: Gaze of Neltharion · Next: Hidden in the Midden

Showing steps 19 to 30 of 44.

Storyline order is the client’s own QuestLine data from the current retail build.

Where this quest fits

Before this quest

Taken from the storyline's own step order.

Excavation: Gaze of NeltharionLevel 70
A Niffen colleague of mine gave me the underground info about an underground tower. It's decrepit and smack-dab in the middle of Zaralek between Loamm, the Djaradin, and that ghastly lab of Neltharion's. Grab your favorite shovel and meet me there!

After this quest

Taken from the storyline's own step order.

Hidden in the MiddenLevel 70
<This dragon statue is similar to others found in the region but has been covered in paint. Googly eyes, stink lines, whiskers, and all manner of other rude drawings decorate the otherwise-imposing stone. The paint looks old and is flaking in places but is not as old as the statue itself.

The storyline at a glance

Azerothian Archives has 44 steps, from To the Archives! to Graduation Day.

Maps its steps are placed on (steps per map): Thaldraszus (14), The Forbidden Reach (9), Zaralek Cavern (8), Ohn'ahran Plains (4).

Other storylines on the Zaralek Cavern map

Zaralek Cavern72 steps, starts with The Land Beneath
The Ancient Bargain16 steps, starts with Where There's Smoke, There's Fire
Sundered Legacy11 steps, starts with Future Aspects
The Dragons and the Scale Expedition11 steps, starts with Medicinal Fungi
Breaking Ground16 steps, starts with The Land Beneath
Inevitable Confrontation10 steps, starts with Fading Embers

Steps, storylines and map placement from the client’s QuestLine, prerequisite and QuestPOI data; neighbouring quest text is Blizzard’s own (quest API), shortened to its opening sentences.