How to complete Delves in The War Within for raid-level gear, your very own dirigible, and other rewards

Delves are a new instance activity introduced as a core aspect in World of Warcraft: The War Within. Delves can be completed solo or in groups up to five players (with cross-faction grouping enabled) with no restrictions on class combinations, and players are always accompanied by an NPC companion with customizable abilities to support them. This new activity is another progression option for players rewarding gear equivalent to raids and Mythic dungeons, as well as another narrative bridge for storytelling in The War Within.

Delves are bite-sized instances that are intended to change as we progress through The War Within expansions and seasons so there are things about the activity that could change from patch to patch. The basic mechanics of the activity should be the same throughout so if you’re interested in running Delves in The War Within, here’s everything you need to know!

How to start Delves in The War Within

There are 13 total Delves across Khaz Algar’s four new zones. The main campaign will direct you to the first one in the Isle of Dorn to run you through the basics of how to complete the activity, after that you’re free to go run them at your whim. Delves are marked by a unique door symbol on the main map and mini-map.

When you find a Delve, your NPC Companion will be near the entrance, which looks like a foggy barrier. In Season 1 of The War Within, the NPC companion is Brann Bronzebeard, but in later seasons we’ll work with new NPCs who will probably be part of the Dragonscale Expedition. Interacting with your NPC companion lets you set their role, check their abilities, and manage their utility and combat trinkets.

After you set your NPC loadout, you can interact with the Delve entrance to get started. Delves will have 11 escalating difficulty tiers in total and each tier will grant more experience and rewards but higher tiers will also add different modifiers for an extra layer of challenge. When you complete one tier, you’ll automatically unlock the next difficulty tier for your entire Warband. Once Season 1 begins on September 10, players will be able to unlock all Delve tiers.

After you choose your difficulty tier, you’ll be able to seamlessly walk through the foggy barrier and start the Delve.

How to complete Delves in The War Within

Delves aren’t timed so you can complete them at your own pace, but they should take about 10 – 15 minutes to finish end-to-end. If you want to chain-run Delves, there won’t be a limit on how many you can run each day, though you’ll earn fewer rewards after your first daily completion.

Each Delve will have a randomized scenario featuring different enemies and other NPCs, requiring you to help your companion NPC complete a set of objectives that include:

• Freeing trapped NPCs
• Survive an enemy ambush or killing a certain amount of enemies
• Puzzles and platforming
• Completing a final encounter, usually killing a boss

Throughout the Delve, you can acquire extra abilities by opening webbed treasure chests or killing random elites. These abilities only last for a minute but they do stack! Your NPC companion gains experience by completing Delves and can level up to access new abilities. As your make your way through a Delves, you’ll also have a chance to find a new item called Curios that act as trinkets for your companion and further enhances their abilities when equipped. The NPC companions also have some unique behavior. There are material gathering nodes through Delves and your companion will interact, collect, and bring you the materials. If you AFK, the NPC will find a place to lean against and go to sleep, waiting for you to return.

Right before the final encounter is a checkpoint stone that you can use to save your progress as well as a vendor station if you need to repair gear or sell items.

Rewards from Delves in The War Within

Once you complete a Delve, you’ll end up in a treasure room with a Bountiful Treasure Chest. Interacting with the chest nets you rewards based on the tier difficulty you chose at the beginning of the Delve but at minimum you’ll earn Delves reputation, gear, gold, crafting materials, transmog pieces, and Resonance Crystals, a new currency used to purchase items from Khaz Algar Renown vendors.

Once Season 1 starts,  you’ll be able to keep track of your Delves reputation in a new logbook tab next to Mythic Dungeons, PVP, and raids. Completing Delves will also count towards progress with The Great Vault and you can earn higher ilvl gear based on the tiers you complete for the vault:

• Tier 1-3: ilvl 584, Veteran level 1-2 track gear
• Tier 4: ilvl 597, Champion level 1 track gear
• Tier 5: ilvl 603, Champion level 3 track gear
• Tier 6: ilvl 606, Champion level 4 track gear
• Tier 7: ilvl 610, Hero level 1 track gear
• Tier 8-11: ilvl 616, Hero level 3 track gear

There is a Delves hub run by the Dragonscale Expedition in Dornogal where you can adjust your NPC companion’s loadout and interact with Sir Finley Mrrglton and Reno Jackson, who are the Delves reward vendors. At the start of Season 1 another Delves currency, Undercoins, become available which you can use to purchase items with either vendor.

At level 80, Delves can become Bountiful and at the Treasure Room there will be a Bountiful Coffer which offers powerful gear and a Radiant Echo, an item needed to complete Worldsoul Memory events throughout Khaz Algar. You can only open a Bountiful Coffer if you have a Restored Coffer Key. You create your own Keys by combining 100 Coffer Key Shards which you can get by completing world quests, Worldsoul Memories, or the Khaz Algar zone events. Keys can also be bought from Sir Finley for 2000 Undercoins once you reach Renown level 10 with Assembly of the Deeps.

The endgame gear you can earn at the highest Delves difficulty will be comparable to gear from Mythic 15 dungeons and Heroic raids. One of the other endgame rewards is a customizable mount, the Delver’s Dirigible, which you can earn by starting the quest Ship It! You’ll need to be level 80 and complete the Bountiful Delves quest in order to for this quest to become available with Brann in Dornogal.

Originally published on April 18, 2024. Updated on September 4, 2024.