GW2 Mysterious Vine Backpiece Guide

Post author By Dulfy
Post date July 29, 2014
114 Comments on GW2 Mysterious Vine Backpiece Guide

GW2 Mysterious Vine Backpiece guide. This is a new backpiece introduced with The Dragon’s Reach Pt1 update. Special thanks to Old Sayid for the help!

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Mysterious Vine Backpiece

This is the only the first iteration of the backpiece. You will be able to build on it with The Dragon’s Reach Pt2 update, whenever that arrives.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsH4Pxno0nM&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

Shopping List

Master List (assumes you craft everything yourself)

270 to 350 Geodes
29 Pile of Incandescent Dust
25 Thermocatalytic Reagent
5 Glob of Eectoplasm
48 Foxfire Cluster
300 Bloodstone Dust
200 Thick Leather section

14 Potent Vendom Sac
14 Vial of Potent Blood
14 Large Bones

14 Slab of Red Meat
14 Ghost Pepper
14 Saffron Thread

Crafting Instructions

WARNING: Step 8 and 9 are time gated and you can only make 1 food per day. Therefore, you want to reach step 8 &9 ASAP so you can make them as soon as possible.

Crafting requirements: 400 Artifice, 400 Huntsman, and 400 Chef. You can purchase the finished products on the TP if you do not have the required crafting skills.

Step 1: Finish Reach of the Dragon Pt 1 Living Story to receive the following 4 items

Receive the Mysterious Seed from Brutus Rendflesh in Iron Marches after you finished helping him in Iron Marches
Waypoint Conundrum instance will grant you 1 Ley Line Infused Stone on completion
Summit Invitations instance will grant you 1 Vial of Sacred Glacial Water on completion
Plan of Attack instance will give you 1 Pile of Phantasmal Residue on completion.

Step 2: Go to Dry Top and find a T3 or T4 instance and visit the vendors. There is one right by the waypoint to Dry Top.

You want to purchase the following, which requires 350 Geodes for T3 (310 for T4, 270 for T5). Geodes are account bound but you can get more by replaying Living Story episodes on your alts or farm events in Dry Top (especially T4/T5 events during sandstorm).

Prices are for vendors in T3 Dry Top. T4 vendors sell recipes for 45 Geodes and Bricks for 7. T5 vendors sell recipes for 40 and 6 Geodes respectively.

1 Recipe: Clay Pot (Artificer 400) – 50 Geodes
1 Recipe: Plate of Meaty Plant Food (Huntsman 400) – 50 Geodes
1 Recipe: Plant of Piquant Plant Food (Chef 400) – 50 Geodes
25 Brick of Clay – 8 x 25 = 200 Geodes

Step 3: Make Clay Pot (400 Artificer required). Clay Pot can also be brought on the TP if you can’t make it yourself.

15 Pile of Incandescent Dust
25 Thermocatalytic Reagent
5 Glob of Eectoplasm
25 Brick of Clay

Step 4: Click on Ley Line Infused Stone and head to the Wreckage of the Breachmaker in Lion’s Arch

At the very bottom, you will find something you can interact to make it into a Polarized Ley Line Infused Stone

Step 5: Combine the following in the mystic forge to make Ley Line Infused Clay Pot

1 Polarized Ley Line Infused Stone
20 Foxfire Cluster (drops from trees you can chop in various zones including Dry Top. Might need to be an elder or ancient tree, can be brought on TP)
100 Bloodstone Dust
1 Clay Pot

Step 6: Click on Ley Line Infused Clay Pot to transform Mysterious Seed into Mysterious Seedling

Step 7: Click on Vial of Sacred Glacial Water and go to the location in Frostgorge Sound.

You have to complete the jumping puzzle there (entrance is underwater) and get a Purified Vial of Sacred Glacial Water from the ice shard at end of the jumping puzzle

Step 8: Now craft or buy 7 Plate of Meaty Plant Food (Huntsman 400)

This step is time gated and you can only make one per day. However, you can bypass this by buying them from the TP. The follow is the mats required for 1 Plate of Meaty Food

2 Potent Vendom Sac
2 Vial of Potent Blood
2 Large Bones
2 Piles of Incandescent Dust

Step 9: While you don’t need this immediately, you want to craft or buy Plate of Piquant Plant Food (400 Chef).

This step is also time gated and you need 7 of them as well. The following is mat for each plate of Piquant Plant Food.

2 Slab of Red Meat
2 Ghost Pepper
2 Saffron Thread
4 Foxfire Cluster

Step 10: Once you have 7 Plates of Meaty Plant Food, you can use it to make 1 Package of Sacred Plant Food with the following recipe in Mystic Forge

100 Thick Leather Section
7 Plates of Meaty Plant Food
1 Purified Vial of Sacred Glacial Water
100 Bloodstone Dust

Step 11: Feed this Sacred Plant Food to the seed to transform it into Mysterious Sprout

Step 12: Click on the Pile of Phantasmal Residue and go to the Ascalonian Aqueduct

You will find a well you jump into and then use the skill point to charge it up to a Weirded Phantasmal Residue

Step 13: Go to the Mystic Forge and make the Package of Phantasmally Infused Plant Food

100 Thick Leather Section
7 Plates of Piquant Plant Food
1 Weirded Phantasmal Residue
100 Bloodstone Dust

Step 14: Now Feed the food to the sprout to make Mysterious Vine backpiece (exotic)

You are all done until the next patch!

By Dulfy

MMO guide writer and blogger. Currently playing and covering SWTOR, GW2, and TSW.

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114 replies on “GW2 Mysterious Vine Backpiece Guide”

that was really fast….

I love the way this looks. 🙂

is it accound bound?=

Most exotics are not. However, it sounds like the next part of the story might add to it (in the way we built the Spinal Blades over the course of multiple story parts) and my guess would be that the final product is ascended.

Nice. Not too hard to make other then collecting more geodes. Just glad to see they put something else we can make in game. Thank you for the guide as always. 🙂

Sorry for my poor english, but what exactly are “gathering trees in dry top” ?

Thx for your help 🙂

Sounds like shes saying the tree nodes you gather from in Dry Top have a chance of dropping the item.

1. I found something to replace my fervid censer on my mesmer finally. 2. I like that there is an actual kind of quest involved in getting this rather than just farming. You actually have to go and DO stuff to get it, that’s awesome.

This is awesome, i love how the making of the backpiece is a journey and takes you everywhere making it feel so adventurous 😀

Wow, this is one complicated creation process. O.o I like it though. Reminds me of the Black Moa Chick minipet scavenger hunt from GW1. 🙂

Just to inform you but you can also buy the mysterious seed from the centaur tending to the farm in the drytop oasis for 1 laurel.

maybe this is a prelude to crafting precursors, to see how the player base reacts

They already canceled precursor crafting on their site, that’s why the prices doubled.

Where do you get the phantasmal residue?

It is from Plan of attack instance, i forgot to write it down

Is there a chat link yet?

Why can’t these recipes be clearly explained in game? But thanks for the tutorial.

You’re supposed to figure them out yourself.

How exactly do you “craft” the Plate of Meaty Plant food + the Plate of Piquant Plant Food? I’ve tried opening up the crafting station menu and can only put about 3 of the ingredients in because there isn’t a way to put the Foxfire cluster in.. went to the MF too and it doesn’t work. Does it require a crafting recipe to unlock how to make it first or what? I have the 400 requirements btw.

Step 2. Buy

1 Recipe: Clay Pot (Artificer 400) – 50 Geodes

1 Recipe: Plate of Meaty Plant Food (Huntsman 400) – 50 Geodes

1 Recipe: Plant of Piquant Plant Food (Chef 400) – 50 Geodes

Ahhh I see now, many thanks!

so how did you guys get firefox clusters ? i completed gathering woods like 5 times ( 5x wholemap)in dry top but just got 2 ? Anet please add moar RNG stuff

you can get them from any tree
my rate so far is 1 in every 5 trees so it’s not so bad (found about 10 so far)

ohh my … really are you using gathering bonus or something ?

I had abysmal luck finding the foxfire clusters in Dry Top. Try Frostgorge Sound, Malachor’s Leap and Cursed Shore for Ancient and Elder logs. Took me couple of days with gathering boosters but it is doable. Got the last one I needed today and first time getting a double foxfire cluster from one tree also! Now just waiting out the time gate on the plant foods.

Gosh it sucks that buying the stuff is expensive as hell but its well worth it since I like the look of the backpack…

Guess decided nvm with the backpack and working my way to get 400 Huntsman/Artificing and to buy the materials for it from the TP is too much.. but it does look like a awesome backpack. 🙁

oh God seems like such a tedious work x.x to get it or not to get it.. I would love to know how it will look when completed .-. like this I’ve no idea if it’s totally worth it since I have Light of Dwayna and I don’t need something purple-ish..

Wonder if it looks like Spinal Blades but has Vines instead of the blade-things? o-o

Last time you also needed the base of the spinal blade backpack to do the dungeon. So I’m getting it to make sure.

Considering I spent over 2,000 Gauntlet Chances to NOT get a Chaos of Lyssa Recipe, I really fully appreciate this method of obtaining it.

Looks like all I need are more Geodes and Foxfire Clusters. How exactly do I get more Foxfire Clusters?

Cut down elder/ancient trees and hope you get a drop or buy them on TP

Ah okay. Thank you very much =)

now this is how crafting a unique item should be like. 10/10 GJ anet

I feel like you can reorganize the steps to:
First, the stuff anyone can do (1,4,7,12)
Second, the steps that require geodes and 400 Artificing (2,3)
Third, the time-gated crafting, (8,9)
and finally, putting it all together. (5,6,10,11,13,14)

Just a suggestion.

cleared for 2nd character. no phantasmal residue reward at end. anyone having same issue?

Same problem

it seems foxfire cluster also drop from mobs. i just got one from mordrem wolf in dry top

By first iteration u mean the backpiece actually evolves/grows and changes compared to the initial form it has after u first craft it?

think so, from the initial statements from the devs: “Players will be able to start construction of a new back item that will grow and change as you adventure during these next two episodes.”

http://dulfy.net/2014/07/29/gw2-the-dragons-reach-part-1-episode-releases-today/

if anyone else can’t upgrade the phantasmal residue, try clearing quartz from your bags. wouldn’t give me the option to upgrade until i did.

The limitation of 12 hours each one craft is annoying its like choosing which to make for example for me i first made clay then when i logged in with my 400 artificer character i had 12 hours cool down like the ascended crafting. Its like wtf its a different item with a different profession but same cool down.

It is not a fixed 12 hours cooldown. As you can craft each item once per day, it just indicates the remaining time before the next reset.

But what you are reporting is strange. I was able to craft all the 3 items today without any restriction (i.e. clay pot and the two plates). Which item did you craft first and on which other item did you get the cooldown?

Ok now i don’t have that problem anymore but lol today its 15 hours 🙁

It is always the remaining time before the next reset (0:00 UTC). If you craft the item 15 hours before the reset, the cooldown is 15 hours ; if you craft it 1 minute before the reset, the cooldown is 1 minute, and so on.

Thank you for clearing this mystery 🙂

Another backpiece…? Ugh.

You can always pretend it doesn’t exist if it offends you that much.

Already doing so. Time gated busy work and a gold sink.

Besides the backpiece also got a cultivated seed after doing the last step. Wonder what that will do. It says something about using another type of magically infused clay pot, but as far as I know there is only one type of pot.

Just looked over this list of complicated gibberish and my first thought was “well that’s stupid.” If you don’t have a guide like the above is it obvious at all in game what you need to do to make this?

Yes it is, the items show you where to go and that you can use them on mystic forge, the only step not really explained is the recipes at the dry top vendor you need to get, and where is the foxfire, but all those can be bought on the tp anyway.

Will this disappear with the next patch? I want to craft this backpiece so bad, but I have to get my cooking and artificing to 400, which is going to take some time… :/

If you have enough gold, you can buy everything from the trading post without ever having to craft a thing and go straight to the mystic forge part.

Season 2 content is permanent it should remain.

I just did cooking last night for 5 gold, and that was with buying round numbers of everything and only what I needed, I had a great amount of gathered materials from just the game itself over the last 2 years.

Huntsman is the same way, its cost me nothing so far aside from lumps of xyz for making certain ingots.

The cost isnt associated with the actual professions for this one. If you were to buy all the foxfire clusters it would be much more than the professions. Iron is so cheap right now at under 2 silver a piece.

Just another gold sink.

So much timegated requirments and over 60gold not going to waste my time.

it’s worth pretty much nothing if you do it over 7 days.

Anyone else lost it’s “mysterious seed” somewhere along the way? I still got the other items in my inventory. But missing the seed. 🙁

It will be delivered by mail

i lost it aswell … farm for geodes like crazy ( for recipes and keys aswell ) and now i am missing the seed …

I heard you can buy it at the farm in oasis but I never checked whether that info is true.

Lol, It was in my mail. Unlike the other itmes you get directly. I feel stupid now ^^

Just sayin’ : 14 Potent Vendom Sac

A small question, when we finished the back get a second seed that should be used when following the story alive I think. But we already know to be near the materials we need? Such as an approximate number of geodes, its already be a good progress I think. Thank you in advance if someone answers

i think we will have to make another “Ley Line Infused Clay Pot” as written in the descrption of the new seed but for that we’ll surely need the next patch because of the “Polarized Ley Line Infused Stone”we used.^^ i’m sure that the craft is approximately the same (the next version of the back piece would be ascended so different craft) and the next patch will bring us again the material we got through missions.

The pile of phantasmal residue is only available through the living story achievement reward. Since you can only get 1 per account of that, you cannot make multiple backpieces.

Actually, you can get multiple. Just talk to Rox after finishing the last instance and she’ll give one to you.

oh great, another gold sink! Don’t forget to change gems for gold, guys!

Hard to see why it is a gold sink. Only foxfire clusters are a bit expensive on tp, but it is very fast to gather at least 4 clusters per day so no need to buy them.

If the next version is ascended, it will probably cost a lot more though.

Mimimimimimimimi.
Guys like you cannot get satisfied. You better try WoW to spend your weeks doing nothing.

So the cheap way is to make it in 7 days and the cost atm is bout 40-50 gold while to get it fast its about 130gold+ and dropping. I will craft it in 7 days 🙂

And yet another timegated, ‘we do not make grindy games’ item….

Technically time gated items prevent the game from being grindy as they force you to NOT do the same thing for hours each day just to get enough gold/mats. Spending 20 minutes on this each day for 7 days is not a grind. However the GW2 game itself is grindy as hell in general, this back piece however is a step in the right direction and AWAY from actual grind.

yea because cutting down 500+ trees for 48 foxfires isn’t a grind *rolls eyes’

So gathering 4 foxfire clusters per day is a grind? You have at least two weeks to craft it. Take your time and it will not be grindy anymore.

Yeah, I doubt they’ll be removing foxfire clusters for at least another month, if ever, there’s plenty of time.

Hardly a grind if it’s over 7 days and something that most people do naturally anyway whenever they see a tree node. If it bothers you so much you can always buy foxfire each day, they cost peanuts currently.

I HATE the grind in this game but anyone who considers this back piece a grind clearly expects stuff like this to just magically appear in their bag while they afk in Lion’s Arch.

2012 called, it wants its complaint back. Kidding, but seriously, if there was NO grind, there’d be no game. Unless they’re making an 8-bit game with next to no investment involved, there’s no dev resources to just keep making continuous content. And even if it were that, it’s too much to ask of creators to keep coming up with new stuff constantly.

BUT… this is probably the best blend to date between items made through different types of content. So grind is to be expected, it’s still not as bad as needing 4500 scraps of silk for Chaos of Lyssa.

The user can choose which attributes of the item? or is it fixed?

Fixed for now

Dulfy, you believe in the possibility of when the item become ascended it make its selectable attributes?

Because of the Spinal Backpiece earlier, which you couldn’t make ascended until the next patch either, I’m pretty sure that’s possible to happen.

I’m a sucker for this stuff. I work my Guardian’s butt off to get the back item skins but then I never use them.

I’m in the same position as you. All of my characters (the ones I use anyway) already have the back items I want for them, but seeing a new one just made me want to get it. All I need to do now is to make the time gated stuff and I’m golden. I wonder what insane number of ingredients they’ll make us grind for to upgrade it.

I may use it on my Sylvari, but for the time being I’m just gonna make a profit off of the time gated stuff.

I see what you’re trying to do Anet, trying to get me to spend my legendary funds so I never get it eh? I’m on to you! 😉

On the contrary if you make and sell the plant food and clay pots you can get to your legendary faster!

48 Foxfire Cluster or 24 Foxfire Cluster dulfy ???

nvm misreading 7 for the food lol

I farmed all of SoD, Malchors and Cursed shore. once i got 1 fox fire, next i got 4, then 7, then two. I still don’t have all 48 i need and i”m rolling in elder wood. How is this not a grind? Time gated or not. Time gated just means i have to wait longer to get the back piece.

Like…this is maddeningly convoluted. Why aren’t Precursors like this? It’s already a dumb amount of gathering of mats for the thing, why not just put together a chain of events like this to have us forge that part to?

Sure, maybe they’re testing the waters for that very thing but… I dunno, only so much testing can be done before it’s just an excuse.

this is probably a test for precursor crafting. kinda have to test something like this is it is a new system to the game.

so basically u need alot of 400 crafts to make this back gear, else u can just dream on owning it through crafting?

You can buy the crafted stuff from the TP

Also these ingredients are quite cheap comparing to what was at release.

They are dropping in cost each day.

I have repeated the story three times now.
In “Plan of Attack” but I have no “Pile of Phantasmal Residue” get more.
The other ingredients, there were several times. A known bug?
(Translated with Google)

Did you speak to Rox at the end of the mission? She should give you the pile.

Only those 3 Stats can get on it? Thoughness / Vitality / Healing power?

Sadly i am an warrior, so quit useless.

You can upgrade it and pick stats next patch I am sure

Hmmm I think I am doing something wrong in collecting those Foxfire Clusters… anyone know the chance ratio of farming them? Then again I’ve only been farming them in Dry Top, didn’t know they were in all other areas too…

It’s pure RNG…just try over and over again..if u have multiple characters u can farm the same trees over and over again. Also look for gathering bonus banners.

Ahhh The RNG Goddesses… how they frown at me so much. Whelp time to run like crazy then haha. Thanks.

There is a good spot in the SE area of Malchor’s Leap, at the statue near Rayhan Bayt point of interest (at least 5 trees). More effective if you have multiple characters, of course.

Thanks it certainly helps, though sadly I am one of those lame players that has… maybe 2 level 80s and the rest level 1s due to laziness of raising their levels up.

I have on residue from Plan of Attack…any way to go back and get it?

I made a checklist for the whole works if anyone else finds it useful you can copy it to your google drive
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1imNNHx9A63Ltc_j6HJQ1vv8BxVlNymepZa_DUern5Mg/edit?usp=sharing

I’m only incentivised to do this to get rid of the annoying clutter required to make the back piece. I just can’t bring myself to chuck out what could be a nice novelty back piece skin.