How to complete Nightmare Incursions, Season of Discovery Phase 3’s new PVE event

Each WoW Classic Season of Discovery phase so far launched a both a reprised dungeon as a raid and a PVP zone activity but Phase 3 (which just went live) is the first phase of the season that introduces a new zone PVE event, Nightmare Incursions, instead of a zone PVP activity. Nightmare Incursions happen in different places throughout Azeroth and are meant to challenge players between level 25 all the way through level 50.

For more about Season of Discovery, check out our guide to everything you need to know about WoW Classic’s current season!

With the phase just getting started, let’s look at what Nightmare Incursions are, where you can find them, and what you need to do to complete them!

What are Nightmare Incursions?

Nightmare Incursions are a new world PVE event designed for groups of 3 to 5 players to complete specific missions for the Emerald Wardens, a new faction introduced in Phase 3. These missions, and the demonic enemies you encounter within them, are elite-level quests and while some players may be able to complete some of them solo, Blizzard recommends grouping up to make completion easier. Keep in mind, while this is a PVE event, Blizzard has also said that PVP rules will be active on PVP servers and that Nightmare Incursions can happen concurrently during the Battle for Ashenvale.

Where are Nightmare Incursions?

Nightmare Incursions happen at the four portals to the Emerald Dream, each one located in a different zone throughout Azeroth. The Nightmare Incursions have different, escalating difficulty levels because they are meant to be a long-term endgame type activity that help players level up through their respective level bands and reward them with high level loot:

• Level 25 — Twilight Grove, Duskwood
• Level 40 — Bough Shadow, Ashenvale
• Level 50 — Seradane, The Hinterlands
• Level 50 — Dream Bough, Feralas

How to complete Nightmare Incursions

Located at near each portal is a Field Captain of the Emerald Wardens — Palandar (Duskwood), Hannalah (Ashenvale), Arunnel (Feralas), and Korlian (The Hinterlands). To get started with a Nightmare Incursion you need to:

• Accept the Recover Incursion Field Report starter quest from the Field Captain and complete it by killing demons near the portal and checking in with an Emerald Warden scout who gives you a field report.
• Return this field report to the Field Captain.
• They’ll give you random missions that require you to enter the Dream Portal and complete the objective.
• Return the completed mission brief to the Field Captain and collect your rewards.
• Accept another mission brief and go again.

When you enter the Dream Portal, you’ll receive the Emerald Nightmare condition and technically be part of an instanced zone that looks identical to zone the you entered from. The Emerald Nightmare zones do have boundaries so if you try to leave the Nightmare zone (ex. leaving Nightmare Duskwood to go to Stranglethorn), the game will give you a 10 second warning before transporting you back somewhere in the middle of the Nightmare zone.

The missions you need to complete are similar to the Cenarion Hold Field Duty missions in vanilla and Classic WoW but involve killing a certain amount of enemies, taking down an elite boss, or utilizing a gathering skill to collect a specific item (which is another reason to group up).

According to Blizzard, if you’re in a group when you when you in the initial mission at the Field Captain, the missions for each player in the group will likely be different. These missions can then be shared with the other group members, allowing players to knock out multiple missions at once. At this time, it’s unknown how many missions you can complete in a day but it sounds like players can attempt as many as they want as long as they return to the portals respective Field Captain between missions.

Nightmare Incursion rewards and Emerald Warden reputation

Each Field Captain is also paired with a nearby Emerald Warden quartermaster: Quartermaster Falinar (Duskwood), Quartermaster Kyleen (Ashenvale), Quartermaster Alandra (Feralas), and Quartermaster Valdane (The Hinterlands). Like other faction based rewards, the Emerald Warden quartermasters will sell you different gear once you reach the Friendly rank with the faction and you’ll be able to purchase different gear pieces when you gain additional ranks. These quartermasters also sells stat-boosting consumables you can use during the Incursion missions.

When you turn in your mission briefs you’ll earn experience, gold/silver, Emerald Warden reputation, and the Emerald Chip currency used to buy items at the Revered and Exalted rank from the Emerald Warden Quartermasters. Right now it looks like you earn more reputation from completed the mission briefs in the higher level Nightmare zones. Independent of the repeatable missions is the daily quest Fight the Nightmare Incursions specific to The Hinterlands and Feralas Nightmare Incursions which reward 1000 reputation with the Emerald Wardens.

It hasn’t outright been said but once a player out-levels a Nightmare zone, they may start seeing diminishing rewards like the Season of Discovery supply quests, meaning players must complete Nightmare Incursions respective to their level to make any meaningful progress.

We’ll have a better idea how the reputation progress works (and hopefully any other new secrets) as Phase 3 unfolds so check back here often!

Originally published on April 4, 2024. Updated on April 8, 2024.