Crafting estimate at current listings

At current lowest listed prices the reagents cost more than the crafted item lists for: an estimated loss of 135 gold15 silver per craft.

Reagent cost (lowest listed): 515 gold15 silver
Crafted item, lowest listed price: 400 gold
Auction House cut (5%): 20 gold
Estimated profit at that listed price: −135 gold15 silver (-26%)

Evidence: 10 current listings holding 150 units of the crafted item in the US region. We see listings, not sales, so how many sell and at what price is unknown.

Verified priceAuction House1 hr agoUS region

Recipe facts

Profession: Inscription
Requires skill: 1
Expansion tier: Shadowlands Inscription
Item level: 1
Reagent slots: 3
Cast time: 2 sec

Crafts

Contract: The Undying Army400 gold

Reagents

5Luminous Ink30 gold
5Umbral Ink73 gold
1Dark Parchment15 silver

Cost per reagent

Reagent	Qty	Each	Cost	Share
Luminous Ink Inscription · 962 on the Auction House · crafted by Luminous Ink (Inscription)	5	30 gold	150 gold	29%
Umbral Ink Inscription · 8,703 on the Auction House · crafted by Umbral Ink (Inscription)	5	73 gold	365 gold	71%
Dark Parchment Other · 16,894 on the Auction House	1	15 silver	15 silver	0%
Total per craft			515 gold15 silver	100%

About Contract: The Undying Army

One craft takes 5 Luminous Ink, 5 Umbral Ink and 1 Dark Parchment. It is taught by Technique: Contract: The Undying Army, which needs Shadowlands Inscription 60.

Recipe category: Contracts (Shadowlands Inscription)
Skill-up colours (Shadowlands Inscription skill): Orange below 80 · Yellow 80 to 84 · Green 85 to 89 · Grey 90 and up
Skill points per craft: 1

Contract: The Undying Army tooltip

Contract: The Undying Army

Item Level 1

Consumable

Requires Level 51

Use: Enter a contract with The Undying Army that allows you to gain reputation with them every time you complete a world quest in the Shadowlands.

Sell price: 25s

How to learn Contract: The Undying Army

Technique: Contract: The Undying Army

Teaches: Teaches you how to craft a Contract: The Undying Army.
Requires: Shadowlands Inscription (60) · Revered with The Undying Army
Binding: Binds when picked up

More Contracts recipes (Shadowlands Inscription)

Contract: The Undying Army: lowest listed price, last 30 days

The current lowest listing is 20% below its 30-day median.

Now: 400 gold
30-day low: 400 gold Sep 7
30-day high: 500 gold Sep 18
30-day median: 500 gold
7-day median: 500 gold
Hourly snapshots: 686

US region, the cheapest listing at each hourly Auction House snapshot. These are asking prices, not sales.

Where the reagents come from

Luminous Ink. Made with Luminous Ink (Inscription, Shadowlands Inscription) from 1 Luminous Pigment, 1 Aerated Water and 1 Rune Etched Vial. At lowest listed prices that makes one Luminous Ink for 24 gold32 silver, against 30 gold listed. Also a required reagent in 30 other recipes (30 Inscription); Soul Keeper's Spire takes the most, 22 per craft.

Umbral Ink. Made with Umbral Ink (Inscription, Shadowlands Inscription) from 1 Umbral Pigment, 1 Aerated Water and 1 Rune Etched Vial. At lowest listed prices that makes one Umbral Ink for 62 gold58 silver, against 73 gold listed. Also a required reagent in 29 other recipes (29 Inscription); the most per craft: Glyph of the Wild Mushroom (Inscription, 24 per craft), Mark of the Gloomstalker Dredbat (Inscription, 24 per craft), Mark of the Midnight Runestag (Inscription, 24 per craft), Mark of the Regal Dredbat (Inscription, 24 per craft) and Mark of the Sable Ardenmoth (Inscription, 24 per craft).

Dark Parchment. No recipe, Blizzard quest reward or dungeon journal drop in our game data produces it. Also a required reagent in 28 other recipes (28 Inscription); the most per craft: Codex of the Still Mind (Inscription, 75 per craft), Newly Departed Codex (Inscription, 50 per craft), Tome of the Still Mind (Inscription, 25 per craft), Tome of Maldraxxian Rituals (Inscription, 10 per craft) and Crafter's Mark II (Inscription, 5 per craft).

More Shadowlands Inscription recipes in the same skill range

Reading these numbers

At current lowest listed prices the 3 reagents for one craft of Contract: The Undying Army cost 515 gold15 silver. Most of that is Umbral Ink - 5 at 73 gold each, 365 gold, 70.9% of the whole basket. Watch that one price and you have watched most of this recipe.

Break-even is 542 gold26 silver - below that listed price the craft loses gold once Blizzard’s 5% cut is taken. The crafted item’s lowest listed price is 400 gold, which does not clear it.

The crafted item currently lists for less than its reagents cost: −115 gold15 silver before fees, and the Auction House would still take 20 gold of a sale, so a craft loses 135 gold15 silver at these prices. At current listings, buying the crafted item costs less than making it. That is an estimated -26.2% return on the gold you put into reagents.

Listing depth right now: 150 units across 10 auctions region-wide. Depth separates a market price from a single asking figure, but listings are not sales, so read it alongside the estimate.

Costs use each reagent’s lowest listed price; the estimate is the crafted item’s lowest listed price, times the items one craft makes, minus those reagents and Blizzard’s 5% sale cut. Listings are asking prices, not sales. Recalculated every snapshot and left blank rather than guessed when a price is missing. How we estimate crafting profit →

Other recipes that use Luminous Ink

Featured in guides

Guides and routes on this site that cover Contract: The Undying Army.