There are several ways to obtain it:
As a guaranteed drop inside Noxious Pods, the default chests in Dragon’s Stand (a random amount between 1, 3 or 10 Ore) As a reward for completing certain achievements in HoT Act 4 story instances (3 Ore each) As a reward for completing the HoT story chapter Bitter Harvest (25 Ore) As a guaranteed drop inside Victor’s Cache, obtained when finishing the final story chapter in HoT (15 Ore) Sold by your Guild Trader in exchange for Commendations
However, the most efficient way to farm Crystalline Ore is by doing the Dragon’s Stand meta event and opening Noxious Pods.
Doing Dragon’s Stand Meta
The Dragon’s Stand meta consists of several escorting/advancing events and a final boss. Most of the small events spawn Noxious Pods, which are the main source of Crystalline Ore in the game. After the meta is completed, bonus Pods spawn in different locations. The objective is to open as many Pods as possible. There’s no daily Ore cap, so you can farm the event as much as you want per day.
Preparing For The Event
Noxious Pods are opened with machetes. These can be obtained by completing events and earning participation in the meta, inside certain containers, or they can be bought at Merchants in Dragon’s Stand for all 3 previous HoT maps’ currencies (Airship Parts from Verdant Brink, Lumps of Aurillium from Auric Basin, and Ley Line Crystals from Tangled Depths) Tip: It’s highly recommended that you do all of those maps’ metas before getting into Dragon’s Stand, since they are a bit shorter and their currencies are very easy to farm. That way, you will make sure you don’t run out of machetes. When you’re ready to do the meta, try getting into a freshly started map, in order to complete as many events as you can, and thus farm for more machetes and open all Pods. If you enter a finished map, just wait for it to restart. If you enter an already started map, use LFG to find an organized squad and start doing events. Tip: Always try joining a new map when going for the meta, so that you can make the most profit. If there are not many players in it, try opening up a squad/party in LFG yourself.
Opening Noxious Pods
During the meta, you will escort different NPCs and advance through three different lanes (North, Mid and South), unlocking camps and waypoints, until you reach the boss’ location, Dragon’s Domain. Noxious Pods spawn when events are done in each of the lanes, especially near those camps and WPs. You don’t need to complete events in every single lane – Pods will spawn there anyway. The best strategy is choosing a single lane on which to advance, and teleporting to WPs on the other ones to open Pods in between escorts. Tip: Pods don’t despawn, so you can either open them while doing the meta or once it’s finished. However, it’s recommended that you open them while advancing, since it’ll give you more time to open bonus Pods at the end of the meta.
Bonus Pods
Once the boss fight is over, you will find that there are several bonus hidden locations for Noxious Pods, highlighted by red arrows. Some of them can only be reached by using certain HoT Mastery skills. You have some time before the map resets to find as many Pods as you can, as well as to fight 4 mini-bosses and 3 Treasure Mushrooms. The meta has a 2-hour timer, but if there are enough players and everything goes well, it can be completed in about an hour or even less, giving you more than 50 Crystalline Ore per run.
