Sparks of Ingenuity are by far the most valuable crafting reagent in all of World of Warcraft Dragonflight. Sparks are needed to craft some of the most powerful gear the game has to offer, as nearly all epic-quality items require at least one Spark in their recipe.
However, Sparks of Ingenuity are hard to come by. The power they hold and the direct access they give players to some of WoW’s strongest pieces of gear make them a high-commodity item. After receiving your first sparks from Dragonflight’s endgame campaign, you’ll have to grab the rest from high-end content like dungeon and raid bosses.
Here’s how to get Sparks of Ingenuity in WoW Dragonflight.
Getting Sparks of Ingenuity on your main character
The easiest way to get five Sparks of Ingenuity on your first WoW character is to complete the achievement “In Tyr’s Footsteps,” which requires you to run through a questline that’s centered around the Engine of Innovation.
The questline will have you meet the Maiden of Inspiration at different locations throughout the Dragon Isles, and alongside her, you’ll learn the history of the titan keeper Tyr, as well as how to power one of his most powerful creations, the Engine of Innovation.
After completing the questline and its subsequent achievement, you’ll have access to five Sparks of Ingenuity, which can later be turned into five pieces of crafted gear. Additionally, the Maiden of Inspiration will grant you an “Essence Detector,” which will allow you to find Bottled Essence in Dragonflight dungeons and raids. One Bottled Essence can be turned into a Spark of Ingenuity at the Engine of Innovation.
Getting Sparks of Ingenuity on all of your alts
After completing “In Tyr’s Footsteps” on your main character, all of your following alts will have access to the Engine of Innovation as soon as they hit level 70. When reaching max level with an alt, you can go directly to the Engine in Valdrakken and pick up five Sparks of Ingenuity for free, without having to complete In Tyr’s Footsteps all over again.
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Your alts will also have the Essence Detector available to them upon hitting level 70, meaning they can jump right into dungeons and raids and start adding more to their own personal library of Sparks and crafted gear. Unfortunately, Sparks of Ingenuity are non-transferrable across characters on your account, meaning any Sparks you get on one character will stay on that character.
The Essence Detector can reward your WoW characters with Bottled Essence upon completing a Mythic+ dungeon or defeating a raid boss. Since Sparks of Ingenuity are a direct way to craft strong gear at item level 418, the drop rate for them is quite low.
Although there is no set-in-stone rate for Bottle Essence, it’s believed that getting one from an endgame activity sits somewhere between one and five percent.
