Intimidated by Covenants? I was, but you don’t have to be.

Covenants can seem pretty daunting. They’re the culmination of the 50-to-60 game in Shadowlands, and they’re the source of our Soulbinds, which are the major endgame power-up system in the expansion. They’re also the main storytelling vehicle once you’re done with the introductory questlines for the four Covenants — you pick a Covenant and that’s how you progress through the story. So on the surface it can seem pretty daunting, and with the holidays upon us, you may be thinking you’re not going to get this done anytime soon.

But it’s really not as daunting as it at first seems.

Take a deep breath, relax, it’s really not that bad

I was overwhelmed, but I didn’t need to be. There are really only two quests a week you have to do, to get caught up on Renown and progress your Covenant. Renown itself is earned by a variety of factors — there’s the Covenant story itself, which is also Renown locked, so chapters of it become available as you progress in Renown and when those chapters are completed you gain a level of Renown. So basically, by just playing out the story, you’ll get more Renown.

There are also two Weekly Quests you can do to gain more Renown and get up to the Renown cap, which goes up week by week. These quests are Replenish the Reserves and Return Lost Souls, and they’re pretty self explanatory — rescue souls from the Maw to complete Return Lost Souls and grub up some Anima for your Covenant of choice for Replenish. And that’s all you really have to do for your Covenant in a week. Do those two quests and play the Covenant story up to the current progression level. Since there’s a weekly Renown cap, there’s a limit to how far you can advance the Covenant story, and thus your time can only be so taken up with Covenant stuff.

Renown is purely limited by the cap, so there’s no reason to panic

To complete the Replenish the Reserves quest, keep your eyes on Anima rewarding World Quests, and the various Callings (which don’t grant Renown, so they’re okay to skip if you don’t want the rewards) and running Torghast doesn’t have any real effect on Renown, so it’s okay to do it or skip it as you choose. Basically, all the other options that players have in the course of a week don’t really affect one’s Renown, and thus, the various rewards that higher levels of Renown won’t be affected.

Plus, because there’s a Renown cap, if you’re a couple of weeks behind, you’ll be able to catch up by simply playing the Covenant storyline out until you hit the cap. You don’t have to worry overmuch about keeping on top of things. If you go out of town for the holidays — but please don’t; stay home, watch some TV, heck you could even play World of Warcraft I’m just saying — you won’t mess up your Covenant progression.

So if you’re working on a Covenant or just dithering about picking one like I did, relax — we’ve been overthinking it.