All the info you need to complete You Xal Not Pass, the Season 1 meta achievement for The War Within

Although it’s just about time to start our Season 2 adventure in the Undermine, patch 11.0.7 of The War Within gave us a meta-achievement that includes all of the Khaz Algar content up to this point. You Xal Not Pass is a departure from previous expansion-wide meta achievements like A World Awoken, which dropped just before the next expansion’s launch and required everything from the first quests through the final raid boss. This time it looks like we’ll be getting multiple season-wide meta achievements instead of one expansion-wide one.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that the reward is a pretty cool mount. For completing this nested set of achievement’s you’ll earn the Shadow of Doubt, a smoky black elemental with silver shoulder armor and a riding disc atop its body. While I am looking forward to surfing through Undermine on top of a malevolent shadow, it is disappointing to see such a major achievement reward a recolor of models that are more easily available. The Dragonflight meta achievement gave us noted good boy Taivan, the only rideable bakar in the game and a hard act to follow.

The achievement itself is daunting but by strategizing and completing sections in parallel, it is certainly doable. It requires five smaller meta achievements, one for each of the zones of Khaz Algar we have visited thus far. Let’s break it down to see exactly how much work you’ve got to do before earning your shadowy chariot.

My best friend is an Earthen

The mini meta achievement for The War Within’s starting zone, the Isle of Dorn, is Slate of the Union. It does stray slightly into The Ringing Deeps by labeling itself as an opportunity to experience life as the Earthen do.

• Adventurer of the Isle of Dorn requires ten special encounters. As you’re flying around the map completing the rest of this list, keep an eye out for rare named mobs and this one won’t take too long to finish.
• Treasures of the Isle of Dorn takes you around the island to collect twelve treasures. Some are as straightforward as picking up an item on the ground, others will require a bit of puzzle-solving.
• Flat Earthen is easily accomplished by heading into the central forge in Dornogal, near the Blacksmithing trainer, and allowing yourself to be pancaked by the equipment.
• We’re Here All Night asks you to participate in all six plays that the Theater Troupe puts on at the amphitheater outside Dornogal. If you’re completing this world event each week for the renown and gear rewards, you shouldn’t have any trouble earning this one without any special effort.
• A Star of Dorn involves gaining renown with the Council of Dornogal. At levels 8, 10, 14, and 21, a new quest will become available near the amphitheater to enhance your thespian abilities during the Theater Troupe world event. Completing all four quests nets you the achievement.
• Rocked to Sleep sends you to the Ringing Deeps to locate ten Earthen who have gone offline in the course of their duties. Finding them and reading their plaques gives credit for the achievement. Be sure to think vertical when searching for these, as it seems to be popular to enjoy a good view as you go offline if you’re an Earthen at the end of their cycle.

Rolling in The Ringing Deeps

The second leg requires aiding the Assembly of the Deeps to earn Rage Aside the Machine.

• Adventurer of the Ringing Deeps and Treasures of the Ringing Deeps are the same as the last leg: hunt down rare named mobs and treasures around the zone.
• It’s Not Much, But It’s Honest Work asks you to finish all 20 waves of the Awakening the Machine world event. Once you hit level 80 and begin to get some end-game gear, the event becomes a breeze.
• Super Size Snuffling simply requires you to loot 100 of the Globs of Wax that can be found throughout Khaz Algar. Keep an eye out for these on your travels (they look like inconspicuous dirt piles) and you’ll earn this one in no time.
• Notable Machines involves reading six scraps of notes on Machine Speakers that are located throughout The Ringing Deeps. It’s another search-and-find achievement, so if you didn’t find them all while leveling through the zone, it won’t take more than a few minutes to look up their locations and tag them all for the achievement.
• Not So Quick Fix is another scavenger hunt, this time for six consoles that have been worn down by the ravages of time. No puzzles or challenges here — simply clicking all six to restore them to working order rewards the achievement.
• To All the Slimes I Love continues a very long tradition of emoting /love to the critters found on our adventures around the cosmos. The Ringing Deeps is the only zone that has this achievement for The War Within so far, so set up a hotkey to share the love with every creepy crawly you see in The Ringing Deeps as you explore and you can wrap up the ones you missed after the rest of the meta achievement is done.

Helping out in Hallowfall

For the third component, Crystal Chronicled, you’ll need to spend some time getting to know our new homesick half-elven friends, the Hallowfall Arathi.

• Adventurer of Hallowfall and Treasures of Hallowfall are much the same as the previous two iterations: vanquish rare foes and find treasure.
• The Missing Lynx requires a circuit of Hallowfall to pet every fuzzy kitty you come across.
• Mereldar Menace is a tough one to figure out, but once you’ve located a few suitable rocks for throwing at various targets around the Arathi capital it won’t take long to earn.
• Biblio Archivist sends you all around the zone to collect and read eleven books. They range from lore-dense and interesting to downright chilling accounts of the first few shadow cycles of Beledar.
• Beacon of Hope requires a whole lot of participation in the zone’s world event, Spreading the Light. Contributing Radiant Remnants gives credit for the weekly cache, but completing the resulting daily quests (all 17 of them) nets you the achievement.
• Sharing the Light also takes place during Spreading the Light, this time completing events at the eight larger Keyflames.
• Lost and Found is a tricky one to get started on, but seeking out Maera Ashlyd just north of the Stagnant Mire starts you along the quest chain. It will take three weekly resets to recover all nine items and return them to their owners.
• Igniting the Keyflames will achieve itself once you’ve completed Spreading the Light enough times, as it only takes 100 Radiant Remnants contributed to earn.
• Children’s Entertainer involves playing games with the kids at the Mereldar orphanage. If you’re like me and you kind of hate it when World of Warcraft pretends to be a platforming game, then don’t try for this one when you’re already in a bad mood.

Embracing the abundantly-legged horrors of Azj-Kahet

The fourth segment takes you on a whirlwind tour of the home of the complex nerubian society for Azj the World Turns.

• Adventurer of Azj-Kahet and Treasures of Azj-Kahet involve more hunting down rare mobs and unique treasures around the zone.
• You Can’t Hang With Us is easy — just wander around the City of Threads until a guard spots and ejects you.
• The Unseeming is another quick one you can get by gaining stacks of Unseeming Shift in the Maddening Deep, just east of the City of Threads. Soaking yourself in a pool of pinkish goo is the fastest way to earn this one.
• Worm Theory requires the completion of three world quests in the far southeastern part of the zone, so be sure to check the rotation every few days until you see them all.
• Itsy Bitsy Spider asks you to emote /wave at six little spiders around Khaz Algar. This one can be tricky, as some of them don’t have a single, fixed location, but with a targeting macro you should be able to find all of them without a huge effort.
• Smelling History is a two-part task. First you’ll need to purchase some potion from a vendor in the northern part of the City of Threads that will allow you to ‘read’ the nerubian language (which is largely based on smells). Then you’ll need to seek out twelve tomes while you’re temporarily able to decipher their text. Grab a handful of potions, as the buff only lasts for ten minutes, and think vertically when you’re searching out these books — sometimes you’re on the right spot but there’s a chamber beneath you where the item lies.
• Bookworm is a sort of epilogue to Smelling History, requiring the same perception-enhancing potion but only three books all located in the Wormlands just west of the Weaver’s Lair.

Jetpacking around Siren Isle

The newest zone in Khaz Algar has a meta-achievement, Isle Remember You, that awards its own mount (unlike the previous four). For completing the tasks around this stormy speck of land, you will receive The Breaker’s Song, a nifty flying ship with an angry siren figurehead. Even though it’s only been accessible for a few weeks, I’m pretty close to earning this one without having been glued to my computer, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble accomplishing the last leg of the Season 1 meta achievement.

• A Song of Secrets is awarded for simply completing the main storyline on the island. Follow the magenta quest markers.
• Sirenity Now!, probably the best-named achievement on the list, requires all seventeen of the weekly quests. These come in three batches, depending on whether the naga, vrykul, or pirates are invading the island.
• Excavation Projects is a breeze. Just open up the command table in the center of the main camp and contribute some Flame-Blessed Iron to each of the three excavations. If any are unavailable, just wait a few minutes until that excavation is complete and it will reset.
• Clean Up on Isle Siren is where you might get hung up. You need to defeat sixteen specific rare creatures found across the island. Not all of the Siren Isle rare mobs are on the list, some appear only during specific invasions or phases, and without being able to fly you might miss your chance to tag one if it spawns on the other side of the island.
• Treasures of the Storm is different from the four other treasure-hunting achievements so far. After a certain point in the Siren Isle storyline, you’ll gain the ability to let the wind guide you to treasure chests. Once you begin to recognize the animation that indicates you’re close to a chest, it won’t be long before you’ve got this one completed.
• A Choir of Citrines requires you to collect all twelve gems that can be socketed into the powerful ring, Cyrce’s Circlet, that you get early on in your exploration of Siren Isle. These come from various sources but none of them are very out of the way, so as you explore the island, complete quests, and farm for the Flame Blessed Iron currency, you’re likely to come across all of them easily.

Final thoughts and advice

While this list of tasks seems quite massive, almost all of it consists of things that you will complete in a thorough exploration of Khaz Algar. There aren’t any hydra-headed monster grinds like past meta achievements (I’m looking at you, Into the Storm). You’ll need either a flawless eagle eye or some help locating every single out-of-the-way plaque, chest, spider, quest, book, and gem.

It is notable that all 37 achievements that make up You Xal Not Pass consist of solo activities that can be done without high-end gear. There are no dungeons, raids, Delves, or World Bosses required. It really is an exploration achievement, so my first piece of advice is: be thorough. Poke around in every nook and cranny, take the time to scan around for items you can interact with, and never turn down a quest.

Secondly, I advise that you set yourself up for success. Create macros that you can use to target the spiders and lynxes you need to find, download addons that will alert you to rare mobs spawning or treasure nearby, and have a handy list of things to do each week to make sure you don’t miss out on a rotating quest or foe.

Finally, make sure you take your time and have fun with it. Give yourself the challenge of finding and solving what you can, but don’t be afraid to look up the location of those last two books instead of making yet another door-to-door journey around all of Hallowfall. Take the time to read the lore items that you’re tasked with finding, otherwise all the achievements might as well be “find and click on twenty more objects”. Don’t feel rushed either — this achievement isn’t going away, so even if it takes you well into Midnight, the chance to earn the Shadow of Doubt will be there for the intrepid explorer.