The War Within Season 2 Turbo Boost will kick things up a notch with speedier gearing — including Puzzling Cartel Chips

Were you, like the rest of WoW‘s players, still waiting for any word whatsoever on those Puzzling Cartel Chips? Even as patch 11.1.5 went live, the Puzzling Cartel Chip was the one missing feature on everyone’s mind, to the point that Blizzard even had to put out a post essentially saying “Soon(tm).” Well, good news: the Puzzling Cartel Chips have been found, and they’re bringing friends — they’re just one piece in a new feature that Blizzard is calling the “Turbo Boost” — intended to kick Season 2 into high gear starting on May 13, 2025.

Here’s what you need to know about the gearing improvements coming to season 2 this May.

Puzzling Cartel Chips will let you have your pick of raid loot

First off, yes, the Chips have been found! A new weekly quest will reward you with one Puzzling Cartel Chip in return for defeating four Liberation of Undermine bosses on any difficulty, up to a total of nine Chips per character — Blizzard announced you’ll get three chips week one! You will then be able to trade three of those Chips in at a new NPC — Consultant Wrexxle, who will be hanging out near the Great Vault in Undermine — for your choice of loot from Liberation of Undermine.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to jump straight to Mythic-level gear this time (or the weird track that Bronze Bullion gear rewarded in Amirdrassil that spanned the entirety of the item level range): you can buy the item on the Hero track if you’ve defeated the boss that drops it on any difficulty, but you can only buy the item on the Myth track if you’ve defeated the boss that drops it on Mythic. Sorry, folks who were salivating at the idea of a Myth track best-in-slots: you’ll need to actually beat One-Armed Bandit on Mythic.

More upgrades for Hero and Myth track gear

However, that Hero track (and Myth track) will be getting a little more exciting with the launch of the Turbo Boost, too. All Hero and Myth track items (including your Chip-purchased ones) will now be able to be upgraded two more levels, going from 6 to 8 levels of upgrade.

Heroic items thus maxing out at 672, and Mythic items reaching the unprecedented new item level of 684.

No more cap for Crests

Need upgrade materials for all that? No problem: the cap for Crests is lifted, and Valorstones will become Warbound for the entirety of the Turbo Boost. Finally, your alts that you’re leveling right now with the Winds of Mysterious Fortune can quit scrabbling for every Valorstone they can lay their greedy little hands on — and they might even get new gear without lifting a finger, since the drop rate for Warbound gear from Mythic+ is also doubling.

More drops from Delves

But where will you get those Crests? Have you considered Delves? Pretty much everything from Delves is being significantly boosted as part of the Turbo Boost, too: Delver’s Journey progress, Crests, Valorstones, and “repeatable earnable Crests across Delve tiers.” Presumably this includes both the thrice-per-week Gilded Undermine Crests from the Gilded Stash, as well as the regular Crests you can earn from doing Delves.

Brann will also gain more experience during this time, so if your Brann (like mine) is languishing in the 60s somewhere, now’s the perfect time to get him to his level cap of 80.

More upgrades for crafted gear

I can still hear you, though: “but what about my crafted gear?” After all, those item level 675 pieces represent a significant investment of Gilded Crests! Well, good news, Blizzard didn’t forget about crafted gear for once, either: Llande and Syenite in Dornogal (and presumably Fawkes Peppergear inside the raid), the NPCs who normally sell the Enchanted Crests required for making high-quality crafted items, will also sell a new item called the Augmentation Matrix that can be used when crafting (or recrafting) gear to add 6 more item levels, topping your best crafted gear out at 681.

We don’t quite know how you’ll purchase these yet — my guess is a small pittance of gold — but it’s nice to see those invested Crests won’t go to waste, either.