These currencies include:
Volatile Magic, from Living World Season 4 Unbound Magic, from Living World Season 3 Bandit Crests, from The Silverwastes Currencies from Heart of Thorns maps (Verdant Brink, Auric Basin and Tangled Depths)
There are a couple other ways to obtain them which are worth mentioning, but let’s take a look at these currencies first.
Purchasing Obsidian Shards with Volatile Magic
Volatile Magic Collectors sell Obsidian Shards for 100 Volatile Magic and 96 copper coins each. They can be found in all 6 LW4 maps, so your best bet is joining a LW4 squad, party or a meta-train. That way you’ll obtain Volatile Magic by doing events, and you will also farm the maps’ corresponding materials, which in turn can be consumed to obtain more Volatile. However, not all the maps are the same. It is highly recommended that you join squads in Dragonfall and Thunderhead Peak, since there you can also collect trails of floating Volatile Magic orbs with your Skyscale.
Purchasing Obsidian Shards with Unbound Magic
Unbound Magic Collectors sell Obsidian Shards for 100 Unbound Magic and 96 copper coins each. They can be found in every LW3 map. Pretty much like with Volatile Magic, Unbound Magic is obtained by doing events, metas, and opening chests in LW3 maps. There are also LW3 materials that can be consumed to obtain Unbound Magic:
Blood Rubies —> Bloodstone Fen Petrified Wood —> Ember Bay Fresh Winterberries —> Bitterfrost Frontier Jade Shards —> Lake Doric Fire Orchid Blossoms —> Draconis Mons Orrian Pearls —> Siren’s Landing
And just like with LW4 maps, not all LW3 maps are the same. The most recommended one is usually Bitterfrost Frontier, since Fresh Winterberries are very easy to farm. If you have multiple characters, you can plan a gathering route and follow it with all of them. You can also purchase small bundles of Winterberries from Karma Vendors after doing their quests. Tip: It is a good idea to purchase a set of Infinite Unbound Magic gathering tools whenever they’re on sale at the Gem Store, to make the most out of your gathering. If you can’t afford them, you can use a Glyph of the Unbound, which you can buy from the Trading Post with gold, or purchase finite Unbound Magic gathering tools from Unbound Magic Collectors.
Purchasing Obsidian Shards with Bandit Crests
Bandit Crests are a currency that’s exclusive to The Silverwastes. They can only be obtained by doing the map’s meta. The Silverwastes’ meta consists of a long series of events, several final bosses, some bonus Champions and a chest opening event. It’s a great meta to farm for Obsidian Shards, since you can both purchase them for the map’s currency, and they can also drop from chests. And it’s also a continuous event; once it’s over, it resets. So you can just join a squad or party in LFG, and farm as much as you want.
Purchasing Obsidian Shards with HoT Currencies
All HoT maps except Dragon’s Stand have special vendors that you can only talk to after training certain Masteries. They sell Obsidian Shards (individually and in bundles of 5) in exchange for the map’s currency and Karma. The currencies you need are:
Airship Parts (Verdant Brink) Lumps of Aurillium (Auric Basin) Ley-line Crystals (Tangled Depths)
They are quite easy to farm, since all these maps’ metas spawn a good amount of chests. The best thing about these maps is that their metas are very conveniently timed. That means you can join a “train” squad in LFG and do all of them in a row several times a day. You do need specific keys to open the maps’ chests, so make sure to enter freshly started maps, in order to do as many events as you can and hoard some keys.
Other Ways To Get Obsidian Shards
Extra Method #1: One other good way to farm Obsidian Shards is by completing the Gift of Battle and Guildrider Warclaw Skin reward tracks in WvW. You complete reward tracks just by getting into WvW and doing events. Join a squad, a party or do some solo roaming. Extra Method #2: Last but not least, you can also obtain 8 Obsidian Shards on the 28th day you log in by choosing the Chest of Legendary Crafting materials from the reward options.
