One of those objects is considerably more useful than it first appears.
Venom-Cursed Fragments earned from activities inside the Vaults of Atal'Utek can be combined into a guaranteed item level 292 Champion 1/6 piece of gear.
You only need two fragments.
And depending on what you have already completed during the Patch 12.1 pre-season, there is a decent chance those fragments are sitting in your bags right now.
Possibly underneath seventeen profession reagents you promised yourself you would sort out later.
Two Venom-Cursed Fragments Create Champion 1/6 Gear
The system itself is wonderfully simple once you know it exists.
Collect two Venom-Cursed Fragments.
Click the item in your bags.
The two fragments combine into an item level 292 Champion 1/6 gear piece.
That puts the reward at the same starting item level as the Champion gear currently dropping from Mythic 0 during the pre-season.
We covered those early dungeon rewards in our guide to farming Season 2 Champion gear before Season 2 begins.
The difference here is obvious.
No dungeon RNG.
No hoping the correct boss drops something.
No watching another player win the item you needed with a roll that appears to have been personally blessed by the Titans.
Get two fragments.
Combine them.
Champion gear.
There Are Three Known Sources of Venom-Cursed Fragments
Players can currently obtain Venom-Cursed Fragments from three Vaults of Atal'Utek activities:
- Vaults of Atal'Utek: A Toxic Tour campaign quest
- Purging the Vaults weekly quest
- Your first Ancient Foe kill of the week
Each source can provide one fragment.
That means a character progressing normally through the Vaults can potentially receive three fragments during the current week even though only two are required for the gear reward.
The first two sources naturally introduce players to activities such as Temple Patrols, Temple Strikes and Temple Incursions.
Temple Patrols can generally be completed solo, while Strikes and Incursions are more naturally handled with other players. The currently active activities can be checked directly on the world map.
If you have been following our Patch 12.1 pre-season checklist, you may already have completed enough Vaults content to be most of the way there.
Your First Ancient Foe Can Provide the Third Fragment
The third known source comes from the Vaults' Ancient Foe system.
Completing a Temple Incursion can spawn an Ancient Foe. The active foe rotates, and the current one is Khu'tulak. Your first Ancient Foe kill of the week can provide another Venom-Cursed Fragment.
The kill also rewards a Venom-Drenched Sack containing Corrosive Coins, Champion Mistcrests and a Veteran-track gear piece.
So even after you have the two fragments required for Champion gear, the Ancient Foe is still worth doing.
This ties neatly into the wider progression system we first examined in our guide to Corrosive Powers and the Altar of Corrosion.
The Vaults are not merely a place to kill things because a quest marker told you to.
They feed gear, Corrosive Coins, Mistcrests and the broader Coiled Isle progression loop.
Check Your Bags Before You Farm Anything Else
This is probably the most useful part of the whole story.
Before queueing for another dungeon or searching for another catch-up route, type:
Venom-Cursed Fragment
into your bag search.
If you already have two, you may have an immediate item level 292 Champion upgrade available without doing another activity.
For a geared main coming out of Season 1, the resulting item may not be exciting.
For an alt, returning player or character still wearing weaker slots, Champion 1/6 can be an excellent pre-season upgrade.
That is the same reason the refreshed Season 2 Renown gear quests are particularly useful for alts.
Neither system replaces proper Season 2 gearing.
Both are excellent ways to remove obvious weak spots before the serious content begins.
This Is Different From the Hero Gear Delve Trick
There is an important distinction here because Patch 12.1 currently contains another unusually strong pre-season reward.
We recently covered the Trovehunter's Bounty that can produce Hero-track gear from a Tier 8 or higher Delve.
That reward and the Venom-Cursed Fragment system are completely separate.
The Delve method uses a Trovehunter's Bounty and can produce a higher-track Hero item.
The Vaults method requires two Venom-Cursed Fragments and produces Champion 1/6 gear.
So yes, Patch 12.1 currently contains multiple ways to obtain surprisingly good equipment before the actual Season 2 launch.
Apparently pre-season has become less of a quiet week and more of a scavenger hunt for hidden item levels.
There May Be a Reason to Combine Your Fragments Immediately
There is one community-reported wrinkle worth knowing about.
Several players responding to Wowhead's report say they encountered strange behavior after collecting additional Venom-Cursed Fragments. In some cases, players claim they had two fragments, earned another, and later found themselves with only one without knowingly creating the Champion item.
This has not been confirmed by Blizzard as a bug.
Other players have reported receiving all three fragments normally.
Still, there is very little obvious reason to sit on two fragments if your goal is the Champion reward.
Once you have two, combine them.
Do not keep them in your bags for sentimental reasons.
They are cursed fragments.
They were never going to become family heirlooms.
Champion Gear Is Useful, but Season 2 Starts Immediately After
There is also no reason to overspend upgrade currency on the resulting item unless it fills an important slot.
Season 2 begins with the reset this week, bringing Mythic+, The Venomous Abyss, Bountiful Delves and stronger gear sources.
As we explained in our guide to the first Season 2 Great Vault, even the opening World-row Vault can reach Champion 3/6, while later Season 2 activity quickly pushes beyond the pre-season reward ceiling.
Champion 1/6 is therefore catch-up gear.
Good catch-up gear.
Guaranteed catch-up gear.
But still something likely to be replaced as Season 2 progresses.
Use it where it matters.
Do not pour every Mistcrest you own into a temporary belt because the upgrade NPC looked lonely.
The Vaults Are Quietly One of Patch 12.1's Best Catch-Up Systems
The more we learn about the live Vaults of Atal'Utek, the more useful the activity becomes.
The zone already contributes toward Great Vault progression, Corrosive Powers and Patch 12.1 outdoor rewards.
We have also seen Blizzard fix progression bugs affecting Vaults objectives and other Patch 12.1 activities, which mattered precisely because so many new systems now run through this content.
Now there is another reason to visit.
Two Venom-Cursed Fragments equal a guaranteed item level 292 Champion 1/6 item.
No boss loot table.
No weekly Vault lottery.
No Bonus Roll.
No elaborate simulation required.
Just check your bags.
You may already own the upgrade.
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