The Brawler’s Guild is back! Here’s everything you need to know to get in and have a good time

The Brawler’s Guild reopens today with patch 8.1.5. It’s not as well known as a lot of things in the game, and with the arrival in the patch of the Zandalari and the Kul Tirans, it’s probably not the one thing you’re most looking forward to doing. I’ve had a lot of fun with it since its inception, though, so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s new. Here’s a rundown of what to expect, courtesy of Blizzard.

First of all, you need an invitation. They are the Blood-Soaked Invitation or a Brawler’s Pass. These dropped off a wide variety of mobs and could be traded or sold. For a time, we had several in our guild bank. They will be updated for Battle for Azeroth, and you still need one of them to gain admittance. Only level 120s can use them. They will drop off enemies of the opposing faction anywhere in either Zandalar or Kul Tiras. A new vendor in Orgrimmar and Stormwind — A. Shady — is promised to “occasionally” have them — the key word there is “occasionally.” What that means isn’t clear yet.

New brawls, rewards and a quest

As with past updates with new expansions, new items, bosses, and rewards will be available. With this iteration, you’ll have a mystery to solve. In order to obtain the quest line, you have to prove yourself in the arena. Then, as you work to solve the mystery, you’ll be facing new opponents such as the Hyper Mega-Mecha Seagull X9000, Mama Stormstout, and Thog Hammerspace. We all know some information must be obtained from informants via more — um — physical means. But you’re a member of the Brawler’s Guild. Obtaining this shouldn’t be an issue, right?

When you win a match, you receive gold. Lots of new items have been added to entice you to part with that gold. I’m excited for the following:

• Blood-Soaked Angel Figurine. Having the graveyard inside the Brawler’s Guild means no more begging a disinterested guild Priest to come along with a bunch of us so we don’t have to run back all the time.
• Rumble Cards: Penguin Stampede, Battle of the Brew, Senya. These are three of seven cards which can be purchased. All players currently in the queue, when the card is played, participate in the rumble. These three look to be the ones which — to me — will bring about the most laughter. The one issue I see — and I couldn’t find an answer to this — is if you are in the queue and don’t wish to participate in the rumble, can you opt out and not lose your place in the queue? On heavy participation nights, losing my place would make me intensely dislike players with these cards.
• VIP Room Rental Form. Watching people from the VIP room is a lot of fun. Plus, the drinks are different up there. While this is exclusive to the Alliance’s Brawler’s Guild, Horde do get an equivalent.

Horde get, as compensation for not having a VIP room, a Zeppelin Rental Form which gets you 10 minutes of free zeppelin rides. Would that these things were both sides. What if you could ride a zeppelin as an Alliance or have a view from the Alliance’s VIP room as a Horde? There used to be the achievement in Season 2 where — if you got 20 people to queue for a match — a portal opened and you could go to the other faction’s Brawler’s Guild. That was a lot of fun, and I wound up bribing guild members to get enough people to queue for a match to open the portal and then quickly hearth back before being noticed by guards.

Every Brawler’s favorite crocolisk in a new form

For me, one of the most exciting rewards is having Bruce — everyone’s favorite chomper — as a mount. Bruce is my all-time favorite opponent. He was the very first boss when the Guild opened and you had to get away from his Chomp Chomp Chomp attack. (Yes, Hunters had it easy with Bruce.) In later editions of the Guild, he was moved to Rank 5 and his “cousin” — MechaBruce — was added — with the lasers and the rockets. The Bruce mount — which the PTR mentions a Horde and Alliance version — comes from finishing the murder mystery and reaching at least level 6 with the Guild. If you want to prepare for the adventure, you can read the Alliance side quest as documented by our friends at Wowhead. Also for purchase are the usual potions which help make fights a bit easier; two pets — Clock’em and Tylarr Gronnden — which require reaching rank 3; and a Brawler’s Garb transmog gear set.

I have always enjoyed the Brawler’s Guild even though I’m not very good at defeating the higher level bosses. It’s a fun diversion from roaming the world. If you’re looking for something to do — as if there wasn’t enough — head to Stormwind and Orgrimmar with your invitation.