A quick guide to doing all of WoW’s 16th Anniversary content

Happy 16th anniversary, World of Warcraft! This year follows mostly the same format as last year. The event is held in the Caverns of Time and will run right up to Shadowlands launch (ending November 22).

When you log in, you’ll find Anniversary Gift in the mail for each of your characters. It includes 200 Timewarped Badges, Celebration Package, Invitation from the Timewalkers, and Celebration Firework. Use the Celebration Package on every character, as it’s a permanent 16% rep and xp buff while the anniversary event lasts. The invitation will start a breadcrumb quest to lead you to Chromie.

The 200 Timewarped Badges can be used to purchased this year’s new item: a unique cosmetic cloak, Crafted Cloak of War. You can log onto a random alt to use its Timewarped Badges to purchase the cloak if you want to save up badges on your main characters. The transmog is account-wide but, like all vendor items, it needs to be nonrefundable before it shows up. You can do this by waiting for the refund timer to expire (2 hours in real time), transmogrifying your cloak into the appearance, or setting the transmog as a favorite and then removing the favorite.

Head to the Caverns of Time to get this party started

Inside the Caverns of Time, there is a whole celebration going on with many revelers and attractions. To get there, take the portal from your faction’s portal room — for Alliance, at the opposite end of the hall; for Horde, on your way out of the portal room, go down the stairs on the side to a second portal room.

There is a volleyball court where you can bounce Khadgar’s head in the Bouncy Wisdom Ball over the net. Coridormi has a Scarab Gong for players to ring their heart out. Elite Tauren Chieftain will show up to play a concert, and Blight Boar plays in the graveyard every hour. For nostalgia, you can watch various old cinematics via Chronocrystals.

Note that if  you’re a Tailor and are on the Tools of the Trade questline for Synchronous Thread, Caverns of Time will be phased for you until you complete it.

Alterac Valley of Olde

If you’re a glutton for punishment, come do this! It’s like the Classic Alterac Valley with no time limit, and it scales everyone to level 60. Unlike last year, it’s not an XP-farm for alts, but leveling in general is pretty quick since pre-patch anyway. But if you want the mounts (it gives you both), you’ll have to run it a few times. It’s better than last year, where the only way to earn credit for the 200 Timewalking Badges was to only do the repeatable quests and not help out with the battleground. Now, both winning and losing will contribute to the progress bar.

You queue up for this in the PVP group finder interface in the Quick Match tab under “Korrak’s Revenge,” but grab Soldier of Time from Chromie. To view your progress toward the mounts, hover over the reward icon next to Korrak’s Revenge in the PVP interface.

World bosses and transmog

The world bosses are also back and they drop 85 ilvl loot, which has a chance to upgrade to 95 ilvl. Make sure to grab The Originals quest from Historian Llore or Historian Ju’pa. Note that it’s a weekly quest, but you can do it every week until Shadowlands launch. The world bosses are daily for loot chances and they drop good loot for transmog, including old appearances that were removed.

Vendors and rewards

Usually Llore and Ju’pa act as anniversary vendors, but now Historian Ma’di has the job. She sells all the anniversary items from the past several years, including Bronze-Tinted Sunglasses and Overtuned Corgi Goggles. You can still do the daily trivia quests from Llore or Ju’pa for 5 badges each day. Otela, in the hall leading down into the caverns, sells a Jar of Sunwarmed Sand toy for 1000 Timewalking Badges and Sunwarmed Sand for 10 badges. She’s also there year-round.

The anniversary event lasts for three weeks, which gives you time to farm transmog and Timewalking Badges. Happy hunting!