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Initially released alongsideWorld of Warcraft’sBattle for Azeroth in 2018, Island Expeditions features players fighting the opposite faction on mysterious islands in the hunt for Azerite. Along with the enemy’s team, varying invading forces will also attempt to steal away your loot, including the Naga, Twilight Dragons, Mogu, and Nerubians.
At the completion of each expedition comes a chance at exclusive mounts, pets, and appearances, as well Seafarer’s Dubloons, the currency for expeditions. Although collecting all nine available mounts can be overwhelming at first, it is relatively simple with some patience and a levelled character.
Getting Started In Island Expeditions
To be eligible for Island Expeditions,you must have at least two footholds on the opposite faction’s continent.This requires a significant amount of progress in the expansion’s War Campaign, but once you’ve gotten to the right point, you will automatically get the quest:The Azerite Advantage.
Accepting it will walk you through a sort of tutorial island to show you the ropes before letting you off on your own.
As long as you have finished this tutorial island on one of your characters, it should be available to all characters in that faction.
Queueing For The Battle
Once you are ready to get started,head to your faction’s Island Expedition table.
For theHorde, this will betowards the docks at Zuldazar, next to “The Moderlode!” dungeon, while for theAllianceit will beoutside the portal room, just past the ship with the mission table.
All you have to do now istalk to your faction’s NPC, that being Captain Rez’okun and Flynn Fairwind, respectively, and ask to queue for a “private tour” Mythic expedition.
You can always choose the lesser difficulties, but they will have significantly lower chances of dropping good loot. Additionally, be sure to queue by interacting with the NPC rather than via the table, as this will allow you to start a Mythic alone.
From there, you will be promptly queued and ready to go! And don’t worry, you won’t be queued with anyone else unless you want to.Since this is an older feature, you should be able to win just fine on any decently-geared and currently leveled character,but of course, running it with friends will be faster.
Which Island To Choose?
Every Tuesday at the weekly reset,three new island optionswill be available. With 11 islands total, each island has different enemies and therefore offers different mounts.
When viewing the islands at the expedition table, a picture of the main enemy for that week will be shown, but the islands will still generally have their own pool of themed enemies.
Mounts will have a chance to drop based on the enemies on the island, even if you don’t kill one.Unfortunately, you do not get to choose when you queue, but instead will be randomly assigned one.
What To Do On The Island
The main objective of Island Expeditions is easy: collect the 12,000 Azerite needed before the opposing team does.
This can be done by killing enemies and rares, opening chests, mining Azerite nodes, and using the Azerite extractors.Rarer enemies will result in more Azerite, and some chests will be locked behind defeating the group of enemies around it.
You may also run into the opposite faction’s NPC team, who will promptly attack you on sight. For the most part, though, this is more of an annoyance than anything.
Finally,every island will have one or two “invading” enemiesthat arrive at about the halfway mark.Pursuing these new enemies will easily get you the rest of the Azerite you need.Additionally, these invaders can bring additional enemy types to the island, allowing for more rewards.
If you stumble upon a group of necromancers on the island, don’t be alarmed if defeating them all doesn’t unlock the trove of Azerite behind them; this is a common bug with currently no fix.
Island Expedition Rewards
As stated earlier,mounts have a chance of dropping as long as their respective enemy is on the island. Additionally, you can try your chances by opening Salvage Crates. These will besold by the nearby Dubloons Traders for 175 Seafarer’s Dubloonseach, with their stock matching whatever the weekly islands are.
Dubloons will most always drop as rewards after expeditions, usually giving you around four to ten per expedition.The Saltwater Seahorse and Siltwing Albatross mounts can also be bought for 500 and 1,000 dubloons, respectively.
The Surf Jelly, Bloodgorged Hunter, and Stonehide Elderhorn can be found in any salvage crate, including the blue/rare crates, which only sell for 120 Seafarer’s Dubloons each. So, if you are hunting those in particular, this option will be significantly cheaper.
Below is a comprehensive list of each mount, which enemy gives a chance at it, and which crate can contain it:
Storm dragons
Crestfall Salvage and Rotting Mire Salvage
Dread Chain Salvage and Snowblossom Salvage
Dread Chain Salvage, Crestfall Salvage, and Jorundall Salvage
