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When Do Delves Unlock?
How Do Delves Work?
Delve Companion
All Delve Locations
Bountiful Delves
Aside from the usual content that players have come to expect, every expansion for World of Warcraft adds something new and exciting to the game. Whether it was flying mounts in The Burning Crusade or the revamp of Azeroth in Cataclysm, expansions provide new ways for players to experience World of Warcraft.
In the case of The War Within, the biggest feature added is arguably Delves. Serving as a bite-sized, scaling mini-dungeon, Delves can be completed in 15 to 20 minutes and can be done solo or with four other players.
Minor spoilers below, proceed with caution.
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When Do Delves Unlock?
In order to unlock Delves, you will first need to have made enough progress in the campaign. Once you've arrived at the Isle of Dorn, one campaign quest will direct you to the location of a Delve. You cannot progress the story until you've completed the Delve. On Tier 1, Delves are not particularly difficult. Unlike later tiers, you have unlimited revives as well. From Tier 4 onward, you have a limited number of revives, and if you deplete them all you have to start the Delve all over again.
How Do Delves Work?
Once your party is assembled (or if you are solo), right-click on the smoky barrier at the entrance to select a difficulty tier. There are 11 Tiers in total, but players will only have access to the first one at the start. Once you've selected it, you will enter the Delve. Each Delve has three separate variants that rotate daily, but typically the objectives will involve collecting items, rescuing NPCs, or killing monsters.
No matter the objective, you will always have to fight a boss at the end. Mechanically speaking, boss fights in Delves are pretty simple as it is mostly just telegraphed attacks that you can get out of if you are paying attention.
Delve Companion
During the Delve, you will be accompanied by an AI companion. In this case, Brann Bronzebeard will join your adventures. It was implied that later Seasons of The War Within would have different AI companions, but no information is available about that at this time. Any updates will be added to this guide when they are available.
Brann can either be a DPS (damage per second) or a healer. His role can be changed at any time when you interact with the Explorers' League Supplies inside the Delve. Killing enemies grants Brann experience along with completing Delves. You can also gain additional experience for Brann from looting various treasures found within a Delve. Once Brann has gained enough experience, he can level up and learn new abilities. Currently, Brann's level cap is 60.
As you complete more Delves on higher difficulties, you will unlock Curios that you can equip to Brann. These Curios add a variety of unique abilities that can make your life much easier while running a Delve. Brann can have two different types of Curios equipped at once, a Combat Curio and a Utility Curio. Curios can be upgraded, but only the first rank is available prior to the start of Season One.
All Combat Curios
Curio Name | Effect |
|---|---|
Idol of the Final Will | Brann designates a player to guide his shot. Four seconds later, he fires toward their location. |
Porcelain Arrowhead Idol | Brann's abilities have a chance to weaken a foe, increasing critical strike chance on them by 20% for five seconds. |
Unbreakable Iron Idol | When a player falls below 40% health, this idol deals physical damage to all nearby foes and taunts them. Can only occur once every two minutes. |
Rage-Filled Idol | Brann periodically enrages, increasing damage output by 5% every 2.5 seconds for 10 seconds. Brann loses 3% health per second while this effect is active. |
Idol of the Earthmother | Brann's abilities have a chance to shield the player for 15% of their missing health. |
Light-Touched Idol | Using a defensive ability that has at least a 30 second cooldown causes the idol to heal a player for 1% of their maxium health per second for 10 seconds. |
Brute Force Idol | When prompted, jump on Brann to get launched into enemies, dealing a large amount of damage. |
All Utility Curios
Curio Name | Effect |
|---|---|
Olden Seeker Relic | When gathering resources, Brann has a chance of providing a permanent buff for the remainder of the Delve that increases your stats. |
Time Lost Relic | Brann's abilities have a chance to create a field that increases movement speed, attack speed, makes cooldowns faster, etc. Enemies can also gain this benefit if they are standing in the field. |
Amorphous Relic | When you enter combat, you will either grow larger or shrink. If you are large, you have 5% more health and deal 3% more damage. If you are small, you movement speed increases by 5% and your haste increases by 3%. |
Streamlined Relic | While out of combat, you have 10% increase to movement speed. While in combat, your haste is increased by 5% for 8 seconds. |
Lifeless Necrotic Relic | Fatal damage doesn't kill you, instead you are restored for 100% health and become undead. While undead, you cannot be healed, and you lose 20% of your maximum health every second and do an additional 6% damage and healing. |
Relic of Sentience | When a steel trip is activated, Brann has a chance of throwing another trap. |
All Delve Locations
While The War Within launched with twelve Delves available, there is one that will not be available until the start of Season One. The 12 Delves that are available are scattered across Khaz Algar, and they can be found in the following zones. Based on the in-game map, the 13th Delve, Zek'vir's Lair, will be in Azj-Kahet.
Isle of Dorn
- Kriegval's Rest
- Fungal Folly
- Earthcrawl Mines
The Ringing Deeps
- The Dread Pit
- The Waterworks
Hallowfall
- Mycomancer Cavern
- Skittering Breach
- The Sinkhole
- Nightfall Sanctum
Azj-Kahet
- The Spiral Weave
- Tak-Rethan Abyss
- The Underkeep
- Zekvir's Lair (Not available yet)
Bountiful Delves
Once you've reached Level 80 and completed the campaign, you will unlock the endgame version of Delves. In addition to higher difficulty tiers, this also unlocks Bountiful Delves. Across Khaz Algar, you will find Delves where the icon now has a glowing light coming from the doorway. This indicates that the Delve is now a Bountiful Delve. What this means is that there is a chest at the end with significantly better loot.
In order to open this chest, you will need to get a Restored Coffer Key, which can be obtained by completing weekly quests and by combining 100 Coffer Key Shards. Once you've started the Level 80 campaign, you will get a quest that introduces you to all of these mechanics. Completing this quest will reward you with a unique mount called Delver's Dirigible. This mount can be customized in a way similar to dragon mounts in Dragonflight, and these customization options are a part of the Seasonal Delve rewards.
Speaking of Seasons, the Great Vault now has a slot for outdoor activities like Delves. By completing three, six, or 12 Delves, you can unlock slots in the Great Vault that will allow you to pick a piece of loot the following Tuesday. The higher tier the Delves are completed on, the better the reward will be.
World of Warcraft: The War Within
- Franchise
- Warcraft
- Base Game
- World of Warcraft
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Released
- August 26, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Blizzard
- Publisher(s)
- Blizzard
- Genre
- MMORPG
