The War Within Delves Guide

Delves
Written By Julie

Delves have become one of The War Within‘s standout features—quick, scalable adventures for 1-5 players (with Brann as your trusty NPC companion for groups of 1-4), blending dungeon-crawling thrills with solo-friendly design. They’re perfect for gearing alts, farming currencies, or knocking out Great Vault options without committing to a full raid or Mythic+ pug. 

Whether you’re a newcomer hitting level 80 or a veteran pushing Tier 11s, this guide has you covered. We’ll break down the basics, dive deep into Season 3 updates from Patch 11.2.5 (live since October 7, 2025, with Turbo Boost kicking in later), and highlight all the juicy rewards. Grab your pickaxe—let’s explore! 

Getting Started: Unlocking and Accessing Delves

Ready to plunge in? 

Delves can be done as your leveling to 80 and will grants XP and gear, but you will be limited to tiers 1-3 until you hit 80.

Once you hit level 80, you will need to complete the Full War Within Campaign on at least one character and the achievement  War Within Delves: Endgame is shared Warband-wide.  That's it. That's all you need to start. This will grant you access to Delves at Tier 4+, which then you have to slowly work your way up to Tier level 11 to max out.

As you increase the Tier level, the number of revives you have goes down, which impacts the gear that you get at the end, so the goal would be to do them with as few deaths as possible.

Players in parties will only be able to do the highest delve tier all party members have completed. For example, if there are three players in the party and two can do Tier 8 but one can only do Tier 6, the party will only be able to do up to Tier 6.

When you complete a Tier in a delve, that opens that tier for all delves.

For a list and guide for each of the delves, check out the link below.

All Delves in The War Within

What’s new in Season 3

The latest Delve Season introduces a unique challenge that you and your NPC companion must tackle by completing delves and confronting the Delve Nemesis. Completing the Season Journey unlocks exclusive rewards such as Achievements, a Title, and a unique mount skin for the seasons mount: Delver's Mana-Skimmer.

This season, Brann’s clothes have been stolen, and a bounty has been placed on you and your companion. Your mission is to recover Brann’s stolen clothes and confront this season’s Delve Nemesis, Nexus-Princess Ky'veza. To begin, make your way to the Delver's Headquarters in Dornogal. Brann Bronzebeard has several quests ready to kick off your adventure.

  1. Ethereal Delves
    Meet Brann in Dornogal.

  2. Seasonal Reminder
    Learn about Season 3 Delves from the Delver's Documents, then purchase supplies from Reno Jackson and Sir Finley Mrrgglton.

  3. Repossessed!
    Recover Brann's lost gear.

  4. Defeating Ky'veza
    Track down and Defeat Nexus-Princess Ky'veza on Tier 8.


Companion: Brann will keep his current levels as we head into Season 3. His new maximum level is now 100. For players who didn’t reach the previous cap of 80, experience gains have been boosted to help you reach level 80 faster.

  • New delve: Archival Assault

  • New treasures known as Flickergates are scattered throughout your Delves. They may reward you with Undercoin and companion experience, but be cautious—they also carry a chance to summon this season's Nemesis.

  • New ethereal-themed Strange Disturbances have been introduced.
    Additional Delve variations are now available.

  • Use your Reshii Wraps to unlock secret rooms with fun bosses and unique challenges.

  • A Delve Trinket vendor can be unlocked.

  • You can now find messages left by other players in Delves and see tombstones marking their deaths.

  • Delver's Bounty will need to be unlocked in the Delver's Journey before they will begin dropping.

  • Active delve variations will now be displayed on your map.

Faction Race:

  • The Horde and Alliance can now race against each other.

  • The faction that completes the most delves in the allotted time will get to fly their colors in the Delver's Headquarters and unlock faction customization for their Delver's Dirigible.

Nemesis:

Delver's Headquarters

Head to the Delver’s Headquarters in Dornogal—your central hub. Here, you’ll find quests to daily Bountiful Delves, vendors like Sir Finley Mrrgglton (keys, gear, Shrieking Quartz) and Reno Jackson (post-season unlocks), and Brann’s desk for progress tracking on your Delver’s Journey. Pick up the intro quest Ethereal Delves from Brann to kick things off.

Delver’s Journey

Delver's Journey is earned by completing Bountiful Delves. You will need 42000 to fill the bar.

  • Completing a Tier 4 Bountiful Delve grants 50 Delver's Journey.

  • Completing a Tier 5 Bountiful Delve grants 75 Delver's Journey.

  • Completing a Tier 6 Bountiful Delve grants 100 Delver's Journey.

  • Completing a Tier 7 Bountiful Delve grants 125 Delver's Journey.

  • Completing a Tier 8 Bountiful Delve grants 150 Delver's Journey.

  • Opening a Bountiful Coffer with a Restored Coffer Key grants 250 Delver's Journey, no matter which tier.

  • Looting the Archaic Cipher Key from end of Delve Chests and turning in the Weekly Quest The Key to Success grants 1,500 Delver's Journey.

Completing the Delver's Journey

  • It takes 4200 points to earn 1 Delver's Journey rank progress.

  • As there are 10 ranks, it will take a total of 42000 points to reach maximum rank.

  • If you don't ever open any Bountiful Coffers and only complete Tier 8 Bountiful Delves, this will take approximately 280 Tier 8 Bountiful Delve completions, or 70 days for the season (with 1 character running 4 Bountiful Delves per day).

    • These numbers are reduced by Season Nemesis encounters and opening Bountiful Coffers with Restored Coffer Keys.

    • Delver's Journey is Warband-bound, so you can speed this up by running Bountiful Delves with multiple alts.

  • If you want exact numbers on how far along your Delver's Journey is, use the following macro:

/dump C_MajorFactions.GetMajorFactionRenownInfo(C_DelvesUI.GetDelvesFactionForSeason())

Delve Companion- Brann Bronzebeard

Each Delve is a compact underground adventure—fight mobs, bosses, and hazards. Hunt treasures while you manage lives. Checkpoints are found half way through each delve and let you respawn Brann and swap roles/curios.

Brann Bronzebeard is your companion for groups of 1-4. He has a max level of 100 and retains prior progress with XP boosts if under 80. 

You can make him ranged DPS, Healer, or Tank at the boxes of supplies at the start and halfway points in the Delve. He levels via kills, chests, and completions (~1 level every 2 T11 Bountiful Delves). He will still do damage in Tank and Healer specs, but will do the most damage in the DPS combat spec.

Each time you run a delve, you have a chance to loot a curio, which is a skill that Brann can do. You can swap these out and figure out which works best for your spec or group.

    •  Ethereal Energy Converter: When a party member drops below 60% health, an Ethereal Energy Converter materializes, dealing moderate damage to nearby enemies and taunting them for 4 sec. Once the taunt expires, the Converter releases an Etherwave healing nearby allies for 20% of their health. Can be triggered every 2 min. Killing enemies reduces the cooldown of this effect by 2 sec.

    •  Hatarang: Brann has a chance to pull out random hats and throw them at his enemies, dealing moderate damage and applying 1 debuff(s) to 2 targets.
      Possible debuffs include a 20% damage taken increase, 20% damage dealt decrease, and 20% attack and cast speed decrease.

    •  Mana-Tinted Glasses: Brann dons mana-tinted glasses while in combat, periodically increasing his damage done by 5% and damage taken by 5% every 5 sec up to 10 times.
      Dispelling the glasses will heal Brann for 70% of his maximum health and stun nearby enemies for 5 sec.
      Otherwise this effect is automatically dispelled when Brann drops below 30% health which prevents the stun from occurring.

    •  Quizzical Device: Brann has a chance to grant players a 20% bonus to health, damage, or healing for 20 sec based on his selected Combat Role.
      Players have a chance to grant Brann a 20% bonus to health, damage, or healing for 20 sec based on their selected role.

    •  Nether Overlay Matrix: During combat Brann has a chance to manifest a 60% weaker ethereal copy of himself to fight by your side for 1 min.

    •  Audio Amplification Crystal: Brann's voice is tremendously amplified with Arcane magic causing his words to potentially grant the party a buff based on what was spoken.

    •  Battered Aegis: While the Aegis is equipped, all party members deal 3% increased damage and healing. Every 10 sec during combat, you and Brann heal for 5% of the damage you've taken during that time.
      When a player dies, the Aegis grants them 1% damage reduction and 2% increased healing received upon revival, but reduces their damage and healing dealt by 1% stacking up to 3 times.

    •  Sands of K'aresh: When Brann uses Gathering Tools, sands begin swirling around party members, granting 12% Critical Strike up to 10 times and slowing nearby enemies by 12%.
      Dealing a Critical Strike creates a Sand Devil at the target's location for 6 sec that periodically pulls enemies to its center. Can only occur every 45 sec.
      Gathering Tools
      Brann uses his gathering tools to help players find additional gold, ore, herbs, fish, leathers, and treasures.

    •  Tailwind Conduit: Generates a burst of speed on exiting combat, increasing your Movement speed by 100% for 10 sec decaying over time. Using a defensive cooldown while in combat has gusts of wind surround you, applying a shield for 8 sec equal to 50% of your missing health.

    •  Temporal Decelerator Crystal: Damaging an Elite at 80% or above and at 20% or below health causes Brann to trigger the crystal's energies, reducing the Elite's attack and cast speed by 50% for 30 sec. Killing the targeted Elite while the debuff is active grants the party an 8% stacking Haste buff.

Gear Drops and Progression

Gear from Delves scales directly with the tier you complete, peaking at Tier 8 for the best consistent drops—think item levels in the 655 to 694 range, equivalent to Heroic raid or mid-level Mythic+ in Season 3 terms. The final boss chest uses personal loot, spitting out class-appropriate armor, weapons, or trinkets tailored to your spec. Bountiful Delves sweeten the deal with an extra Bountiful Coffer, but you’ll need a Restored Coffer Key (crafted from 100 Restored Shards gathered from world quests and events) to open it. These coffers often contain upgraded gear, Radiant Echoes for further enhancements, and rare Curios.

Your Great Vault benefits hugely: rack up completions for rewards up to Mythic+15 item levels. Push into Tier 8 or higher for chances at hidden caches via Delver’s Bounty drops, which can yield even loftier item levels. Delver’s Bounties are Focus on Bountiful Tier 8 runs for optimal progression—Tiers 9 through 11 are achievement-focused and don’t improve gear further.

Tier 11 delves completed with lives remaining will also feature a Gilded Stash in their treasure room. This can be looted 3 times a week and rewards 7 Gilded Ethereal Crests per chest.

End bosses can drop 40x Titan Disc Fragments for the meta quests Archives: The First Disc and Archives: Seeking History.

There will be a weekly world event, the Delves Bonus Event, that promises increased rewards for completing delves.

Starting with Tier 4, you will also need to deal with Nemesis Strongbox, which adds a group of Ky'veza's allies into the delve. Defeating them will upgrade the Nemesis Strongbox chest in the delve treasure room and earn you bonus rewards, such as extra Undercoin, Delver's Journey progress, and Companion Experience at the end of the delve. This will add 1 set of enemies starting in Tier 4 and more as you move up in tiers. They pop up randomly in the delve, it’s not something that you have to seek out.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton at Delver's Headquarters in Dornogal sells Veteran (1/8) iLevel 668 BoP and Warbound gear once you have opened up Tier 9 of the Delver's Journey.

  • Bountiful Delve: 655 Adventurer 1/8

    Great Vault: 655 Veteran 1/8

    No Delver’s Bounty Rewards

    Recommended iLevel: 515

  • Bountiful Delve: 658 Adventurer 2/8

    Great Vault: 668 Veteran 1/8

    No Delver’s Bounty Rewards

    Recommended iLevel: 532

  • Bountiful Delve: 662 Adventurer 3/8

    Great Vault: 671 Veteran 2/8

    No Delver’s Bounty Rewards

    Recommended iLevel: 545

  • Bountiful Delve: 665 Adventurer 4/8

    Great Vault: 681 Champion 1/8

    Delver’s Bounty: 671 Veteran 2/8

    Recommended iLevel: 548

  • Bountiful Delve: 668 Veteran 1/8

    Great Vault: 688 Champion 3/8

    Delver’s Bounty: 678 Veteran 4/8

    Recommended iLevel: 567

  • Bountiful Delve: 671 Veteran 2/8

    Great Vault: 691 Champion 4/8

    Delver’s Bounty: 684 Champion 2/8

    Recommended iLevel: 574

  • Bountiful Delve: 681 Champion 1/8

    Great Vault: 691 Champion 4/8

    Delver’s Bounty: 691 Champion 4/8

    Recommended iLevel: 587

  • Bountiful Delve: 684 Champion 2/8

    Great Vault: 694 Hero 1/6

    Delver’s Bounty: 694 Hero 1/6

    Recommended iLevel: 600

  • Bountiful Delve: 684 Champion 2/8

    Great Vault: 694 Hero 1/6

    Delver’s Bounty: 694 Hero 1/6

    Also drop Runed Ethereal Crest

    Recommended iLevel: 610

  • Bountiful Delve: 684 Champion 2/8

    Great Vault: 694 Hero 1/6

    Delver’s Bounty: 694 Hero 1/6

    Also drop Runed Ethereal Crest

    Recommended iLevel: 623

  • Bountiful Delve: 684 Champion 2/8

    Great Vault: 694 Hero 1/6

    Delver’s Bounty: 694 Hero 1/6

    Also drop Runed Ethereal Crest

    Recommended iLevel: ??? Brutal

Delve mount

The first character who reaches level 80 and has completed the campaign through Urban Odyssey will get the quest Bountiful Delves from Brann Bronzebeard in Dornogal (see the section below about obtaining a Restored Coffer Key). Once you have completed this, you will get the followup quest Ship It! and be awarded your own Delver's Dirigible flying mount.

Bountiful Delves

Once you reach level 80, you can access Bountiful Delves.

To unlock Bountiful Delves, pick up the Bountiful Delves quest from the Delver's Journal in Dornogal. Each day, four delves in Khaz Algar will have the Bountiful affix. To find out which ones are bountiful, open up your map and look for the glowing yellow in the entrance of the delve icon.

Bountiful Delves feature an extra treasure chest at the end called a Bountiful Coffer. Opening this requires a Restored Coffer Key.

After reaching Tier 2 of the Delver's Journey, you’ll unlock the ability to earn Bountiful Coffers. These coffers reward powerful gear, Radiant Echoes, bonus currencies, and a chance to get new or upgraded Curios for your Delve Companion.

Completing Bountiful Delves weekly also gives you a chance to obtain a Delver’s Bounty map. Using the Delver’s Bounty adds a Hidden Trove at the end of your delve, containing powerful gear, extra crests, and Curios. You can only get one Delver’s Bounty per week, per character.

The locations of Bountiful Delves rotate daily, so check your map to see which delves are Bountiful each day. They are marked by a glowing golden door. Hovering over the door will show you details, including how long that delve will remain Bountiful.

Restored Coffer Keys

Restored Coffer Keys are a season-specific, character-specific currency and cannot be traded or transferred. At the end of each season, any remaining Restored Coffer Keys are removed from your character, and you will need to acquire new ones for the new season.

You have to be level 80 to get Restored Coffer Keys. There are several ways to do this:

Delve Features

Every delve follows a similar pattern:

  • You’re given a main objective, like defeating a certain percentage of mobs, completing a brief series of tasks, or locating/rescuing a set number of items or NPCs. This goal usually spans multiple rooms or levels.

  • You’ll encounter objects such as ropes or bouncy mushrooms that help you move between levels. Be careful—backtracking here can be frustrating.

  • Hazards are common and include ground effects, limited-time protective items you need to carry, area-of-effect traps, and more. The best advice? Simply don’t stand in them.

  • Once you complete your goal, you’ll face an end boss or a final encounter, like a series of ambushes to defeat.

  • After beating the final challenge, all hazards disappear, and you gain access to the Treasure Room where you claim your rewards!

In addition, all delves share these positive features:

  • Common encounters, often silver elites or special treasures marked on your map, grant Boons (called Anima Powers in delves) that benefit your entire party during the delve. For example, if you come across Reno Jackson and Sir Finley Mrrgglton inside a delve, defeating them will earn you the boon Reno’s Random Reactions.

  • Sturdy Chests don’t show up on the map but can hold valuable loot. There’s an achievement called Leave No Treasure Unfound for opening all Sturdy Chests in each of the 14 primary delves. This achievement contributes toward the meta-achievement that rewards the Ivory Goliathus mount, along with the title "%s, Seeker of Loot."

  • Occasionally, small Mislaid Curiosity items may appear. These include objects like a tiny jar or a mushroom glowing purple. When clicked, they grant varying amounts of Companion experience: 100, 250, or 525 experience points.

    Delves can contain Herbalism and Ore nodes, along with Fishing pools, some of which may be rare variants. Once your Companion has the Gathering Tools ability, Brann will provide you with ore, herbs, and skins regardless of whether you have those gathering skills yourself.

Delve Boons

Delve Boons are special bonuses, similar to Anima Powers, that you earn by defeating specific encounters within the delve. They typically come from battling silver elite enemies like the Stolen Loader, collecting rare items such as a Construct Canker, or finding random chests scattered throughout the delve. Once you receive a Delve Boon, it stays with you or your party through death until you exit the delve. There’s no option to choose—what you get is what you get.

If something looks unusual or out of place, interact with it to see what happens. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

Examples of Boons include:

  • Prototype Heroism Canister - In combat, Brann can break open a canister that increases Haste by 8% for all party members. Lasts 15 sec.

  • Essence of Life - Increases your maximum health by 50%.

  • Lucky Cursed Potion - Increase your maximum health by 100% until your health drops below 66%.

  • Shards of the Not-So-Unbreakable Iron Idol - When any player's health falls below 40% health during combat, the idol awakens dealing moderate Physical damage to nearby enemies and taunting them for 6 sec. Can only occur every 2 min.

  • Loader Signal - While in combat, a Magnetic Loader has a chance to assist you, pulling enemies towards it for 5 sec before exploding for 178279 Fire damage. Can only happen every 120 sec.

  • Construct Canker - Increases your damage done by 15% and size by 20%. This effect lasts until you're brought beneath 50% health.

Gathering Tools also gives your Delve Companion a chance to find a Boon while locating treasure. This appears in the form of an Ancient Artifact (it looks like a chalice]. Clicking this will award a Boon that gives a small percentage bonus to a primary stat, such as Ancient Power, or to a secondary stat such as Ancient Swiftness, Ancient Savagery, or Ancient Hunger.

Delve Memories

Delve Memories introduce a new feature that lets players leave pre-written messages for others during delves! These messages are created using single-use items you can buy from Dip Stickshift at the Delver's Headquarters for 50. Once placed, these items appear as crystals on the ground and trigger their related NPC dialogue when interacted with. For instance, the Memory of Illidan will say, "You are not prepared!" when activated.

Currently available memories include:

Now that you know everything, what are you waiting for? Let’s get delving!

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The War Within Delves Guide
The War Within Delves Guide

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Julie

Welcome to Ohm Terra, where we celebrate life’s little luxuries and the beauty of everyday moments. From DIY decor and self-care rituals to fashion tips and cozy recipes, our blog is for those who cherish simplicity and elegance. Find inspiration for creating a warm, inviting home, nurturing inner peace, and embracing a style that feels uniquely yours. Each post is a reminder that living well is all about the details, making Ohm Terra your go-to source for a thoughtfully curated, beautiful life.

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