How to get the Long-Forgotten Hippogryph Mount

The devs have done it again. Every expansion they always have some awesome rare mount that can be found out in the world, usually with a little dedication (and sometimes luck), and the ways to obtain them keep getting more interesting and (in my opinion) quite fun.

In Wrath of the Lich King we had the Time Lost Proto-Drake, in Cataclysm we had Aeonaxx and Mysterious Camels, in Pandaria we had Alani and then in Draenor we had to find those crazy portals to get the Voidtalon of the Dark Star. Well now we've got something completely different on the Broken Isles, and I find it to be one of the most unique and exciting mounts to find yet. It's basically a cross between a treasure hunt and a race!

The "Time Lost Proto-Drake" of Legion is called the Long-Forgotten Hippogryph, and I love it - IT'S SO PINK!

The magnificent Long-Forgotten Hippogryph

How to get it:

So here's the skinny on this mount - in order to obtain it you'll need to be the first person to find and click five Ephemeral Crystals when they're up in Azsuna. They are a bright pinkish/purple color when found in outdoor areas. When found in caves and under water they look a little less bright and more purple in color. These crystals can only be found in Azsuna on The Broken Isles, and have many, many spawn points (over 100) all over the zone. 

Ephemeral Crystal (TY @roxiqt for the screenie!)

I've heard conflicting reports that the crystals either all spawn in at once, OR there will initially be only one of these spawned in the zone when the "event" is up. If the second case is true, then when someone clicks the first crystal a second one will spawn in, when that one is clicked a third will spawn, etc. until all five crystals are found. Either way, the goal remains the same - be the first person to click all five to get your mount.

When you click the first crystal you'll get an invisible buff called Crystal Dummy Aura 1. Each crystal has a unique invisible aura which lasts 8 hours, giving you 8 hours to find all five crystals (this buff continues to run down even while logged out). If someone else is ahead of you in clicking crystals, you can still find and click them in any order. Once you've clicked a crystal you will no longer be able to interact with it, but you will still be able to see it.

Some notes on the crystals:

• Their minimum spawn timer seems to be about 12 hours.
• Their spawn points are completely random.
• If you die while on your hunt, you will loose your invisible buff & will have to re-click any crystals you'd already found.
• The range at which you can see these crystals is VERY far. Even at the lowest settings you can see them from incredible distances (See screenshot below).

Even with low graphics settings you can see the crystals way off in the distance. (Click screenshot to enlarge)

• New spawn points are still being discovered, so don't just check known spawns - keep your eyes peeled everywhere and anywhere while running around.
• Almost all caves in the zone have a crystal spawn location.
• The crystals can spawn underwater.
• When someone finally clicks the fifth and final crystal all of the crystals will disappear, and a zone-wide emote will be seen "You hear a faint caw in the distance and then silence..." (See screenshot below).

Zone-wide emote after someone receives the mount. (Click screenshot to enlarge)

• You can server hop to find crystals. Just keep in mind that you cannot click the same crystal twice due to the invisible buff. (Even though the crystals may be in new locations on another server, there is still always a crystal #1, crystal #2, #3, etc.) For example, if you found crystal 1 & 2 before changing realms, you will not be able to click on those two on the new realm, so don't be alarmed if you find a crystal after realm hopping that you cannot click.
• You do not need to be level 110 to participate. You can search for the crystals and get the mount on a fresh level 100 character.
• Recruiting friends to help you locate crystals is a great way to get this mount more quickly - just be sure to return the favor!
• Consider using some Fighter Chow and a Stonehide Leather Barding throughout your search to help avoid getting dismounted by mobs and regain health quickly while running. (TY @Ariannasaurus for the tip!)
• When you finally find and click fifth and final crystal the (friendly rare) Long-Forgotten Hippogryph will spawn in front of you briefly and the Reins of the Long-Forgotten Hippogryph will be dropped into your bags! Huzzah!

Long-Forgotten Hippogryph Spawn after clicking final crystal. (TY to @Reinoverall & @Roxiqt for the screenies!)

• Once you've found all the crystals and received your mount you will still be able to see the crystals (so you can help your friends find it too).
• The mount cannot be traded or sold.
• As mentioned previously there are a LOT of spawn points - using a waypoint addon such as tomtom will be EXTREMELY helpful throughout your search. (More on that below.)

 Helpful addons & Waypoint Macros:

I've probably mentioned TomTom in just about every post I've done where knowing the exact location of something was necessary. TomTom is awesome. For anyone not in the know, this addon allows you to add waypoints onto your world map AND minimap. Ephemeral Crystals have so many spawn points, that the thought of memorizing them, or ever tabbing back and forth in and out of game to find spawn locations is kind of silly - especially when your essentially racing with others to get to that last crystal.

To have a leg up on the competition your going to want some kind of addon that will let you see potential spawn points in game, and TomTom will help you do just that. I also recommend using the addon: Paste along with it. What Paste does is allows you to paste unlimited length text commands (as they're normally limited to 255 characters). Basically, there are so many crystal spawns, that not using paste would require you to have about 4 or 5 different TomTom macros without it.

Once you've got TomTom setup you can copy and paste this text below into either separate macros or you can put the entirety directly into the Paste box.

/way 54.75 33.85 In the water with the basilisks
/way 37.50 32.90 Behind the wall, on the grass
/way 50.55 20.45 In the Leyhollow cave
/way 50.21 23.49 In cave - very hidden inside the crystal formation only the tip shows
/way 61.15 30.40 Inside the cave
/way 47.30 61.90 Between 2 rocks
/way 34.55 35.68 Inside the cave
/way 42.25 8.35 Up the side of the cliff
/way 44.10 59.80 On a rock overlooking a ship
/way 60.15 49.00 On the grass
/way 29.85 35.87 Between some dead trees
/way 45.55 17.25 By a unicorn NPC
/way 56.45 40.50 Under the bridge
/way 67.10 46.30 Next to rock and log
/way 49.15 8.15 In the cave on the rock
/way 48.45 48.15 On a little grass patch
/way 59.75 27.85 Behind the tree
/way 54.80 28.05 Between the large tree and the river
/way 54.16 27.60 Behind the building
/way 62.53 52.36 By some bushes
/way 52.41 13.44 By the tree
/way 67 51.95 Behind the building
/way 35.6 37.8 By the tree
/way 51.85 57.6 Inside the cave, hidden behind some wood
/way 54.85 52.25 Inside cave
/way 50.48 57 Inside cave
/way 40.55 36.29 In the bushes by the tree
/way 62.73 40.70 Behind tent
/way 52.20 25.50 Behind the tree
/way 58.52 45.48 In the cave
/way 59.28 38.40 At bottom of cliff, behind tent
/way 60.54 46.73 On the rock by the cave
/way 61.90 30.90 Behind the tree
/way 47.50 26.00 Between the tree and the statue
/way 34.91 17.15 Behind the ruins
/way 48.88 45.61 On a rock
/way 53.70 28.05 In the cave by the river
/way 49.30 50.55 Behind the sleeping giant
/way 57 26 Inside cave
/way 57.39 16.69 On the path
/way 48.05 52.70 In the cave next to some piles of gold
/way 46.58 53.60 Between some rocks
/way 65 29 By the log
/way 46.95 48.93 Above the cave entrance
/way 40.23 32.80 Behind the tree
/way 49.28 58.03 By the broken pillar
/way 41.50 31.00 Inside the Jilted Lover npc cave
/way 36 23 Between 2 trees
/way 47 33 On the grass by the river
/way 52.70 57.90 On the side of the cliff
/way 50.00 33.10 By the Murloc hut
/way 51.31 65.15 Inbetween 2 large wooden logs
/way 38.69 9.31 By the berry bushes
/way 67.75 32.90 By the cliff face
/way 55.55 10.30 Up the side of the cliff
/way 53.90 63.5 By the torch
/way 45 53.40 Inside the broken ship
/way 64.46 33.19 Between the tree and tent
/way 63.38 46.14 Under tree
/way 65.15 50.82 Under tree
/way 45.38 45.49 Under tree
/way 55.96 29.36 By the building
/way 30.30 23.95 In the cave
/way 58.22 24.65 By tree on the top of cliff
/way 62.25 35.90 By the trees
/way 46.90 17.75 At the top of the slope
/way 50.75 50.00 In the cave by the table
/way 37.00 21.75 By the tree
/way 56.50 12.45 By the pink flower
/way 65.49 42.47 At the bottom of the cliff face
/way 51.70 31.10 On the grass
/way 49.60 53.79 By the waterfall
/way 49.3 24.2 Near the graveyard
/way 40.54 37.36 By the tree, south side
/way 49.32 31.53 By the bushes
/way 60.20 35.03 Next to the ruins
/way 60.2 54.4 Next to the Shadowfiend area
/way 51.4 37.8 Underwater
/way 53.08 36.03 Underwater, under the rock#
/way 61.85 40.00 Behind a tree
/way 46.00 8.80 Bottom of slope
/way 29.90 26.60 On the island
/way 56.85 38.90 Near the water
/way 63.50 54.10 On the skeleton
/way 51.00 76.35 In the cave
/way 57.69 42.31 Inside cave with big giant
/way 55.56 32.72 Bottom of cliff, next to tree
/way 52 71 No information
/way 68 23 No information
/way 64 34 Crossroads
/way 68 23 North of the demon area
/way 43 18 Inside cave
/way 53 27 No information
/way 61 39 No information
/way 65.4 38.4 No information
/way 53 27 No information
/way 62.17 54.76 No information
/way 67 33.7 Behind the ruins
/way 59.7 36.8 On the hill
/way 49.67 55.35 In the cave next to some piles of gold
/way 36.00 36.00 On the cliff edge
/way 55.98 42.82 No information
/way 70 30 No information
/way 46.55 5.36 No information
/way 64 39 No information
/way 36.58 12.14 No information
/way 57 31 No information
/way 60 17 Besides tree with the owlcats
/way 42.96 28.75 Near Doomlord Kazrok

This is the most complete and comprehensive list of waypoints I've found yet. (It was curated by SerroDan for his incredibly helpful video: Long-Forgotten Hippogryph Game Guide - check it out!)

It's also fantastic in that when you scroll over the points on your minimap it will show you the detailed information on that particular spawn (if available). For example, you may see a point and wonder if the spawn is in a cave or on top of it - if you scroll over said point the text may read "In the cave by the table". Now you know to go directly into the cave to look instead of wasting time searching around on top as well.

Handynotes will also mark locations on your map, but I have not used it personally in a while and am not sure whether or not the spawns points are totally up to date.

Ephemeral Crystal Search Route:

I found the most efficient way to search for crystals to be to follow a planned route, (as mentioned in SerroDan's guide - I followed his route & built upon it a bit). After running the route a couple of times, I actually began to memorize it a bit making it that much quicker to run from potential spawn point to spawn point when the crystals were up.

I recommend running this loop clockwise, as there are a couple of areas taken into account where you'll be jumping down a hill to save time (like near Nor'danil Wellspring). Yellow areas are where the route takes you into a large cave. There are many smaller caves along the route as well with potential crystal spawns. (As stated above, if you use TomTom, you'll know exactly which caves to check.)

Ephemeral Crystal Search Route - I Recommend Going Clockwise (Click Map to Enlarge)

My Story:

Attempt #1: After several weeks of searching, I finally found crystals up on a Monday morning. I found the first one around 10am (est), and found three additional crystals within about an hour. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the 5th and final crystal before someone else. I've got screenshots below of the four that I did find:

Attempt #2: Then yesterday (a Thursday at around 1pm est) one of my buddies informed me the crystals were up again. We found the first four very quickly (within about 20 minutes). We continued searching every known spawn point for the next several hours with no luck. We even branched out and started searching new areas. We combed the zone over and just couldn't find a thing. We even worked with other people in general chat trying to find it with no luck. I logged off and then got on later (about 7 hrs from initial crystal spawn) and the same four we found were still up. I am not sure if the fifth crystal was just EXTREMELY well hidden or if it was simply bugged. Either way, I think those round of crystals ended up de-spawning shortly after. Here are the four crystals I found in that round:

Attempt #3: The next round of crystal hunting finally ended in my favor. Perhaps it was because it was my birthday? I don't know, but for some reason I've always had good luck finding rares on my birthday in the past...

Anyway, at around 9:45am (est) on a Friday I found my first crystal. I took me about an hour to find all four using the route planned out on the above map. Here are all five locations and the Long-Forgotten Hippogryph spawning at the end:

Other First Hand Experiences:

I had started writing this post way before I had even found a single crystal. I'd done a lot of research on obtaining this beautiful mount, and some of that included some interviews with a couple of friends who had received the mount before me. These guys were so awesome to not only let me interview them and tell me about their experiences, but they sent me many of the wonderful screenshots you see all over this post as well! THANK YOU GUYS! 

So without further adieu, here is Reinoverall (who has also helped me with countless posts in the past), to talk about his experience: 

About how long had you been searching for crystals before you finally came across your first one? 

Rein: Ever since this mount was discovered, I was on the prowl when I wasn't raiding or doing world quests. I'd spend a couple of hours at a time searching, but no longer than that so I wouldn't burn myself out. Eventually I stumbled upon my first crystal while getting ready to kill Stormfeather for a world quest, it turns out the crystal was just inside the cave directly in front of Stormfeather.

Did you follow a specific route? 

Rein: I followed what I had marked by handynotes. There were very few spawns marked with that unfortunately, so I also had to grab waypoints in tomtom via wowhead and youtube videos. Prior to that I was frantically looking everywhere and anywhere I could think to.

How long did it take you between finding the first crystal and last crystal?

Rein: From the time I clicked the first crystal, it took me roughly 2 to 2 1/2 hours to find the remaining four.

What day of the week did you find them on?

Rein: It was actually on a Monday morning. I started seeing them around 1:38 am eastern, and found the last around 3:38 am eastern. 

Is there anything you'd like to share about your experience? 

Rein: The crystals weren't very well hidden - the only two I had to go into caves for were the first and fifth ones - the remainder were in very open areas. One was nearest the village where the ghosts are wondering around in the very north western part of Azsuna. Another was in the area where the owlcats are prowling near a small creek behind a tree, and the other was down south where the skrogs and naga are wondering (one of the more common areas to find one as marked by handy notes). The first one as I said before was in the cave directly in front of Stormfeather as he's facing it when he spawns in. The fifth was in the cave where the bandits are that tell you to "watch it" and become hostile if you open the chest inside that cave if you hadn't looted it before.

When I had realized what it was that I had stumbled upon, excitement, panic, happiness that I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be on the hunt for them was amazing. When I was out of ideas, I went to youtube for more waypoints with tomtom. I didn't want to risk disconnecting by going to wowhead so I veered away from there just to avoid losing my chance at finding all 5. I will also note that when I accidentally went out of the zone limits (ie. Suramar), I was still able to see and continue the hunt for the remaining crystals. When I finally found the fifth crystal I was relieved, I was ecstatic. At the same time my hunt had ended and I was a bit saddened too, as I love the thrill of hunts especially unique ones such as this; but it's a bittersweet thing to have found all 5 before any other players.

Any extra tips/tricks you'd like to give to people looking for this beauty?

Rein: My advice would to be vigilant, it may not seem like you will find them but you will, you just have to keep looking. Look high, look low, leave no stone unturned. Do not get yourself in a situation you will not come back from. If you die, you'll have to start over. Do the search with caution, do not take risks that will cause you to lose your chance at obtaining it. If you use addons, I would recommend both TomTom and Handynotes - they will both be very valuable in your search, again do be cautious. There are very helpful youtube videos which link each of the waypoints in the description boxes, the one I found most useful was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXvblKyWCBs&t=38s. I will give credit to the Wowhead and Youtube communities for helping find all these waypoints or I'd probably still be on the search today. Keep on searching fellow rare hunters, the hunt for any of these rarespawns are not impossible, just remain vigilant, most of all, never give up!


I also had the pleasure of interviewing Roxiqt who got the mount right smack dap in the middle of my work on this post. Luckily I had the pleasure of getting her story as well:

About how long had you been searching for crystals before you finally came across your first one? Did you get all five on your first go-around?

Roxi: On my first attempt looking for crystals, I found 4. They were all very easy to spot and I found them on another server. I went googling that night to get some help from people who had gotten it before and found a Discord server with a bunch of LFH hunters. One of them came with me and we looked everywhere but determined that 5th must have been glitched somewhere. We never found it.

Two days later, someone in that Discord group posted that they found a crystal on US servers so I made my way over to that server quickly. I made a trial level 100, hearthed to Stormwind, skipped the quests and hopped off of Dalaran into the sea and swam to Azsuna as fast as possible. They had already found two crystals fairly close together. The other three were located in random spots throughout the zone and one was actually fairly well hidden.

Did you follow a specific route?

Roxi: I read through comments on Wowhead and found TomTom coordinates but didn't really follow a specific route. Just looked especially hard where the coordinates suggested but kept my eyes out all over. There are over 110 potential spawn points so you can't really rule anywhere out except for a few specific areas that they haven't really spawned in (from what I know). It's early in the expansion though so who knows? But right now, I wouldn't bother with the Isle of the Wardens or Faronaar while looking for crystals. They -can- spawn in the water too between Oceanus Cove and the Isle of the Wardens though.

How long did it take you between finding the first crystal and last crystal that finally earned you your mount?

Roxi: About an hour.

What day of the week did you find them on? Approx time you found the first crystal?

Roxi: I found my first crystal ever at 3 AM EST on a Friday but I didn't end up finding the mount then. The second batch of crystals I found on Sunday around 5 PM EST and that is when I got my mount. These were on different servers. The respawn timer seems to be somewhere between 12 and 20 hours.

Is there anything you'd like to share about your experience?

Roxi: Finding the last crystal was a ton of anxiety for me. We think there may have been someone else hunting while I was. We had looked almost everywhere except one area that none of us had wanted to check with. We finally found the last crystal in Llothien (a sub zone in Aszuna) behind a bush in front of a window.

Any extra tips/tricks you'd like to give to people looking for this beauty?

Roxi: Be prepared to server hop. Don't be afraid to ask friends if you can camp on their low pop servers for a while. Get a group of friends who won't steal your mount to help you find crystals. You'll find the mount way faster if multiple people are looking together which will give you better odds. I had 2 other people help me get my mount (by hunting for crystals) and now I'm going to try to spread the joy and help others in the Discord server that helped me. Once you know what you are looking for, the crystals get a lot easier to spot and it's a lot of fun helping other people. I'd also recommend taking breaks. If you don't find crystals up after doing a sweep of the spawn points on a server or two, take a break, try again the next day.

In Closing:

Search carefully, download some waypoint addons, watch a few Youtube vids, read the super helpful comments on Wowhead, grab a friend or two. If you really want it, you'll get this mount.

All information in the post was obtained via Wowhead, SerroDan's phenominal guide on Youtube, my awesome friends (Reinoverall & Roxiqt) & first hand experience.

Good luck out there, happy hunting and may the odds be ever in your favor!