Efficient Progression · Priority Order · Crest Mastery
Log in and immediately head to Silvermoon City to pick up your weekly quest. This is your primary driver for earning easy Champion track loot and opening bountiful keys and pinnacle caches. You can also pick up veteran pieces from these chests, which is a solid bonus early in the season.
The world boss drops an instant champion track piece of gear that is warbound until equipped, meaning you can transfer it to any character on your account before putting it on. After your weekly quest pickup, this should be the very next thing you do. Quick kill, potentially free champion gear.
LFR drops veteran track gear. The real reason to go is tier pieces. You're hunting for early tier set pieces. Getting even a single tier slot from LFR opens the door to an early 2-set bonus later in the week, which is a massive power spike. It takes roughly 15–20 minutes total and gives you two shots at tier pieces.
Easiest path to the achievement: reach 1,600 rating in rated PvP (solo shuffle or solo battlegrounds, queues are very short early season). The heroic raid clear is the alternative but unlikely week one.
If you haven't reached track level 4 yet, do a few hunts on Normal and Hard mode first. Once unlocked, talk to Aelar Bloodsworn at the prey area. There may be a quest. Accept your Nightmare Prey Hunt and begin.
After accepting the hunt, head to your zone and find the world quest prey area on your map. Disarm as many traps as possible before finishing the quest. Combine this with completing nearby world quests, opening treasures, killing rares, and finding anguish locations on your map. This combination dramatically accelerates your hunt progress.
This bounty map has a chance to drop inside any delve. When you find it, do not activate it until you are in a Tier 8+ bountiful delve. Completing the bounty at that level rewards a guaranteed hero track piece of delve loot. This is on a weekly cooldown. One activation per week. It can also optionally be used to open your Nightmare Prey Cache at the prey headquarters.
Unlocks at Delve Season Track Level 1. Whenever you open a mislaid curiosity, you receive an additional buff that makes you stronger. Keep an eye out for these powerups inside delves to progress faster.
New seasonal blessing buffs are said to drop from Nemesis Strongboxes at the end of a delve. The idea: finish a delve, collect the buff, carry the bonus into your next delve for a snowball effect.
| Rank | Unlock |
|---|---|
| Rank 1 | Boon buffs from mislaid curiosities activate |
| Rank 2 | Gilded Stash unlocks |
| Rank 3 | Sanctified Banner spawns inside delves, find it for bonus rewards |
| Rank 4 | Myth track crests begin dropping (note: NOT week one per seasonal journey) |
| Rank 5 | Ethereal vendor appears at end of delve, purchasable gear variety |
| Rank 8 | Champion warbound loot from T9+ delves (alt character use); Bountiful Coffers chance at Hero track loot |
Mythic Zeros open this week, scale to champion track loot, and reset on a daily cooldown. Use these to do world tours for missing gear slots or target specific best-in-slot pieces before Mythic Plus opens next week. This is also your most efficient way to farm crest every single day while champion loot remains a consistent reward.
Spend all four sparks on your weapon(s). With four sparks, you can craft a two-handed weapon this week, potentially up to 276 item level with best-in-slot stats, embellishments, and enchants already applied. This is by far the largest single item level gain available to you this week.
In Midnight, veteran ranks 5–6 and champion ranks 1–2 share the same item level breakpoints. The game grants a discount when you've already hit a specific item level on a gear slot, meaning you can use this overlap to upgrade pieces for free.
| Condition | Conversion Unlocked |
|---|---|
| All slots reach 237 item level | Convert Adventurer Crest → Veteran Crest |
| All slots reach 250 item level | Convert Veteran Crest → Champion Crest |
| Continue upgrading… | Higher tiers follow the same pattern |