Explorer's Stonehide Packbeast

Explorer's Stonehide Packbeast is an epic ground mount added in patch 10.2.5 of the Dragonflight expansion. It is a massive stonehide thunder lizard, laden with expedition supplies and gear for lengthy archaeological expeditions. The mount's model resembles other thunder lizards of the Dragon Isles, but it stands out with a unique color scheme and expedition equipment.

The mount is purchased from Provisioner Arista at the Azerothian Archives headquarters for 20,000 Mysterious Fragments.

• Guaranteed acquisition — unlike mounts with a percentage drop chance, the Explorer's Stonehide Packbeast is purchased from a vendor. Once you accumulate enough Mysterious Fragments, the mount is yours
• Unique appearance — a pack lizard kitted out with archaeological gear looks striking and is a perfect fit for explorer-themed characters
• Available to all characters — once purchased, the mount becomes available on all characters of your account
• No reputation required — you only need to save up the currency to buy it; no separate reputation level with the Azerothian Archives is required

To buy the mount you must accumulate 20,000 Mysterious Fragments — the currency of the "Azerothian Archives" world event.

1. Head to Valdrakken and visit the Roasted Ram tavern. Pick up the quest "To the Archives!" from the flyer on the wall
2. Follow the introductory quest chain, which will lead you to the Azerothian Archives headquarters — on a floating island north of the Algeth'ar Academy in Thaldraszus
3. Take part in the "The Big Dig" event and complete local tasks to accumulate Mysterious Fragments
4. Once you have saved up 20,000 fragments, find Provisioner Arista at the archives headquarters
5. Purchase the Explorer's Stonehide Packbeast and use the item to learn the mount

"The Big Dig" — the main source of fragments

The "The Big Dig" event takes place at the Traitor's Rest (Azure Span) every hour and lasts about 10 minutes. During the event you complete various tasks: dig up artifacts, clean bones, hand out hats to weary archivists, and gather pages to fill the progress bar.

When the event ends, a final boss appears, and killing it rewards you with about 100–120 Mysterious Fragments.

Tomes

During "The Big Dig" you find tomes of three rarity types:

• Dusty Tomes — 40–60 Mysterious Fragments
• Preserved Tomes — 100–120 Mysterious Fragments
• Pristine Tomes — 280–320 Mysterious Fragments

Opening tomes is an important source of currency. Try to find as many high-rarity tomes as possible during each event.

Currency sources

Optimal farming strategy

1. Complete the weekly quest — "The Big Dig: Traitor's Rest" gives 5,000 fragments for the first completion and is the largest single source of currency
2. Take part in events every half hour — "The Big Dig" starts at xx:30 each hour. The more events you attend, the faster you accumulate the currency
3. Don't skip local tasks — they appear every 3.5 days and give a noticeable amount of fragments for minimal effort
4. Use the group finder — open "Group Finder," choose "Premade Groups," and search for groups using the query "Big Dig." By joining groups on other realms, you may land in an event with a different set of tomes
5. Collect all tomes — during the event, open every tome you find. Pristine Tomes give up to 320 fragments each

How long it will take

With active participation in events and completion of all available tasks, you will accumulate 20,000 Mysterious Fragments in about 2–3 weeks. If you take part in several "The Big Dig" events per day and don't skip the weekly quests, the timeframe can shorten to 1–2 weeks.