Island Expeditions Guide in Shadowlands (Patch 9.1.5)

As of Patch 9.1.5 you are now able to Queue up for Island Expeditions Solo. This means that you do not need to search for 2 other players in order to start the Expedition and can just jump in there alone to farm for all the mounts, toys, and other collectables that are offered!

In order to join the Solo Island Expeditions as Alliance you need to talk to Flynn Fairwind in Boralus and select the option "I'd like an Islands Expedition private tour"

If you are on the Horde side you need to talk to Captain Rez'okun in Port of Zandalar and also select the option for the solo venture.

If playing solo is not your style then you still have the option to queue together with others as well.

In Patch 8.3, Blizzard added new Dubloon vendors to the game, which sell two types of crates for Seafarer's Dubloons.

The first category includes Island-specific crates which cost 175 Seafarer's Dubloons each and contain mounts, battle pets, toys, and transmog items tied to a specific Island.

You can buy three types of crates each week, depending on the Island Expeditions that are available during that week.

The following eleven crates are available for purchase:

• Crestfall Salvage;
• Dread Chain Salvage;
• Havenswood Salvage;
• Jorundall Salvage;
• Rotting Mire Salvage;
• Skittering Hollow Salvage;
• Snowblossom Salvage;
• Molten Cay Salvage;
• Un'gol Ruins Salvage;
• Verdant Wilds Salvage;
• Whispering Reef Salvage.

The second category includes Invasion-specific crates which cost 75 Seafarer's Dubloons each and contain items tied to specific Island invasions.

The following crates are available from the vendors:

• Elemental Salvage: Contains items from Elemental invasions;
• Venture Co 'Salvage': Contain items from Tol'vir and Black Dragon invasions.

With these changes, you have more control over Island Expeditions rewards.

The first time you do Island Expeditions, you will do a short tutorial scenario that will teach you what the objectives to completing the scenarios. You can start your Island Expedition in your faction hub in Boralus Harbor or the Port of Zandalar very near where you can do your missions and foothold quests. You will be able to select a difficulty, see your weekly progress of Azerite gathering, and the three islands available for your conquest on any given week. The difficulty is of particular note with the typical difficulty levels of Normal, Heroic, and Mythic plus one additional difficulty level which is Player versus Player (PvP).

Difficulty	Objective	Gear Requirement	Azerite Gain % Increase	Enemy Health % Increase
Normal	6,000 Azerite	None	None	None
Heroic	9,000 Azerite	TBA	50%	100%
Mythic	12,000 Azerite	Must be in a 3 player team	100%	200%
PvP	12,000 Azerite	Must be in a 3 player team	100%	200%

Each week, Alliance and Horde players have a quest to gather 36,000 Azerite. This quest progress is indicated on the Island Expedition map interface. This should be one of your highest priorities each week as the 3,500 Azerite reward to your Heart of Azeroth is enormous. Completing the objective and winning an Island Expedition rewards the amount of Azerite gathered as progress towards your weekly quest. Therefore, you will need to win:

• 6 Island Expeditions in Normal difficulty for a total of 36,000 Azerite;
• 4 Island Expeditions in Heroic difficulty for a total of 36,000 Azerite;
• 3 Island Expeditions in Mythic or PvP difficulty for a total of 36,000 Azerite.

You also are awarded any Azerite gathered in a losing effort. For example, if you attempt a Heroic level Island Expedition and fail by only recovering 7,000 Azerite when the opponent gathers 9,000, then you will earn 7,000 Azerite. Therefore, there are some other ways to complete the 36,000 Azerite goal and each weekly progress should dictate the path of least resistance to complete your weekly quest. Completing each scenario will also reward a smaller amount of Azerite that is repeatable. The reward scales with difficulty topping out at 250 Azerite for completing a Mythic level scenario.

Our recommendation: With the reduction in the total needed in Patch 8.1 from 40,000 to 36,000, each difficulty can be repeated to complete the exact total needed for the weekly completion. Players can either do 6 Normals, 4 Heroics, or 3 Mythics in order to complete the weekly requirements.

Completing the weekly objective of 36,000 Azerite also awards you a treasure map for your followers in the form of a mission. This mission awards either 5,000 gold or 2,000 Azerite Power with the potential of earning another 1,500 Azerite Power if your followers 200% the mission. This makes this a very valuable source of Azerite Power each week with a chance of acquiring a nice sum of 5,000g. In addition, the mission can also award any of the cosmetic pets, toys, or even mounts that drop from the island expeditions!

NOTE: These treasure maps last only 72 hours, so be sure to be ready to complete them in time before they expire and their rewards are lost!

If you do not complete your Island Expedition weekly quest, the progress will be carried over to the following week and your requirements will be 36,000 Azerite less what you carry over from the previous week, but you will miss out on the 3,500 Azerite reward and the valuable 1,500 reputation with the 7th Legion or the Honorbound.

Patch 8.1.5 brings some new purchasable items that can be sent to alts; these can be used at Level 10 to give new characters some gear ready to level with if you do not have access to Heirlooms. These items include:

• Island Expedition Belt — 20x Seafarer's Dubloon
• Island Expedition Boots — 20x Seafarer's Dubloon
• Island Expedition Bracers — 20x Seafarer's Dubloon
• Island Expedition Cloak — 20x Seafarer's Dubloon
• Island Expedition Gloves — 20x Seafarer's Dubloon
• Island Expedition Legwear — 20x Seafarer's Dubloon

When an Island Expedition is entered, you will have a short period of time to prepare for battle. Once the scenario is started, you can go anywhere and everywhere and should strive to gather as much Azerite as possible. Doing just about anything on the island will reward you with Azerite including killing creatures and your faction opponents, completing bonus objectives, and opening treasure chests. You can also physically mine Azerite as you find it.

The idea with Azerite gathering is that the bigger it is, the more Azerite it rewards. Larger and more difficult enemies will reward more Azerite. Larger treasure chests will reward more Azerite than smaller boxes. Always be acting like a pirate on these Island Expeditions by looting, gathering, and killing as much as possible!

The biggest tip we can offer that seems to be largely unknown is that the blue Azerite spheres that drop from rares are VERY powerful! They restore a lot of HP, grant a power bonus, and actually resurrect players that have died nearby. If you have died and an ally is about to kill a rare, do not release!

The primary strategy for your group should be to prioritize rare enemies as they award Azerite in a comparable amount to a large treasure chest, which is 250 on Heroic. Pay special attention when your faction leader tells you that a large amount of Azerite has appeared as this will lead to a large Azerite creature that is worth a large amount of Azerite as well as leaving two large Azerite bags on the ground. Do not skip any Azerite mining opportunities as even the small veins on the ground award an amount that is very valuable per time spent gathering. Loot all treasure chests on the ground and look for things that can be interacted with such as seashells on the beach which, when opened, reward an amount of Azerite equivalent to a rare enemy. The idea is that you want to gather Azerite in a method that is as time efficient as possible to beat the opposition's rate of gathering.

Of special note is the amount of Azerite that is applied to you and your opponents as the island expedition continues. As time passes, you and your opponents are worth more Azerite the longer you remain alive. If killed, your Azerite value will be reset. If you are behind the enemy team in points, make it a priority to kill them once as their value will likely be at the 250 maximum making killing them worth 750 Azerite while also providing the benefit of forcing them to the graveyard and halting their advance and gathering of Azerite. To the same effect, do not continuously engage the enemy forces as their value will slowly rebuild to the maximum, and fighting them without the maximum value is heavily discouraged as they are usually the most difficult encounter on the island due to their increased AI capabilities. Fight them once and then avoid them unless their value builds up to the 250 maximum again.

Your opponents in Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulty will be NPCs that have been juiced up when compared to previous PvP NPCs. These AI controlled characters will do things that you would expect real players to do such as use crowd control, swap to low health targets, and be much more difficult than you might initially expect. The Rogue, for example, will Sap a player and attack another. The Death Knight can Death Grip you, and the Priest will be throwing out a lot of healing spells. Prioritize fighting these enemies as you would in real PvP in that you disable or defeat the healer first while applying crowd control to one of the other two players. Always be weary of separating from your team by a large amount of distance as you could be ambushed by a Rogue which would not be fun. These scenarios encounters can be considered as a PvP "trial" that helps non-PvP oriented players learn some techniques that they might not have otherwise employed when fighting normal quest enemies or in dungeons and raids. Just remember to use stuns, interrupts, silences, and dispels to your advantage.

In PvP difficulty, however, you will face against three other real players. This difficulty could prove to be faster if both teams avoid each other and go for gathering Azerite, but do not expect the losing team to not consider attacking the winning team to gain an advantage. This is as close to a PvP type scenario in a PvE setting as we have seen in a long time. If Mythic Island Expeditions start to get too easy, go conquer the real enemy in PvP difficulty! The bonus reward for completing an Island Expedition in PvP difficulty is 50 Conquest.

Within the Island Expeditions are a couple of notable features in shrines and Seafarer's Dubloons and the corresponding vendor.

Shrines and their effects are gained by clicking them similar to the shrines found on the Timeless Isle back in Mists of Pandaria. However, these shrines are not all nice, and you gamble when you find one as you may get a debuff that makes you more susceptible to the many dangers of the island. You may, though, get a big boost, if your class can utilize the buff! Shrines last for ten minutes.

A note about the shrine buffs increasing your stats by a percentage is that the buffs increase your secondary stat rating, not the percentage. For example, if you get the Song of the Sea Shrine for the +30% Haste buff, your haste will not go from 10% to 40% but instead will increase your rating by 30%. For example, if you have 1,000 haste rating, then your haste will become 1,300. This is particularly important for classes that do not stack certain secondaries as the benefit will not come close to outweighing the negative. Be mindful when picking up a shrine bonus.

Shrine	Shrine Spell Effect	Positive Effect	Negative Effect
Altar of the Sea	Song of the Sea	+30% Haste	Periodic Frost Damage
Cursed Offering	Burned Soul	+30% Mastery	-50% Maximum Health
Death Ward	Shadow-Touched	+30% Shadow Damage and Shadow Damage Procs	+50% Holy Damage Taken
Deepwoods Totem	Heart of the Woods	+30% Nature Damage and Nature Damage Procs	+50% Arcane Damage Taken
Moon-Touched Ruins	Moon Frenzy	+30% Critical Strike Chance	+50% Magic Damage Taken
Overgrown Relic	Unleashed Light	+30% Holy Damage and Holy Damage Procs	+50% Shadow Damage Taken
Pillar of the Watchers	Light's Zeal	+30% Healing Dealt and Received	Cannot Dodge, Block, or Parry
Primal Shrine	Primal Rage	+30% Physical Damage	-50% Armor
Rune-Etched Stone	Ancient Arcana	+30% Arcane Damage and Arcane Damage Procs	+50% Nature Damage Taken
Slithering Shrine	Slitherskin	+30% Movement Speed	Receiving or Removing "Buff" deals 80% of maximum HP
Spirit Font	Devouring Souls	Retaliation Damage Procs	None
Wanderer's Respite	Wanderer's Endurance	+30% Versatility	-60% Healing Received

Seafarer's Dubloons are lootable currency that can be used for items in Island Expeditions. These can be earned at the end of Island Expeditions as a prize as well as randomly found during the scenarios. Farming these in Normal difficulty to use in Mythic difficulty is a wise strategy! The items purchased with Seafarer's Dubloons are Bind-on-Account and can be sent to other characters. These items can be purchased at the starting location before and during the Island Expedition. They are listed below and cost between 1 and 3 Dubloons each. Note that each island only has certain items available and not all items are available for purchase on every island!

Item	Category
A.T.O.M.I.K. Target Painter	Damage
Blessed Bandage	Damage/Healing
Bloom Shroom	Damage/Healing
Flashfire Brew	Damage/Healing
Forge Hammer	Damage
GG-118 Micro-Jetpack	Damage/CC Application - Knockdown
Grapeshot Grenade	Damage
Hidden Cannon	Damage/CC Application - Knockback
Lightprism	Damage
Netherwind Wand	Damage
Phasing Stone	Damage
Sanctified Scroll	Damage/Healing
Soulbinding Mist	Damage
Spear-Mint Gum	Damage
Sun Stone	Damage
Thornberry	Damage/Healing
Trick Vest	Damage/Mitigation
Void Wand	Damage
Arcane Mirror	Mitigation
Blackrock Plating	Mitigation
Clashgrain Bar	Mitigation
Dark Mirror	Mitigation
Deepforged Plating	Mitigation
Miniaturizer	Mitigation
Ratwhisker Luckydo	Mitigation
Springstep Cola	Mitigation
"Healthy" Chips	Healing
Brainsmasher Brew	CC Application - Stun
Links of Faith	CC Application - Root
Root Ball	CC Application - Root
Signet of Stormwind	CC Removal
Signet of Orgrimmar	CC Removal
Unluckydo	CC Application - Disorient
Burstforce Explosive	Utility - Launch to Closest Ally
Demolisher Controller	Utility - Upgraded Demolisher for 20 minutes
Engineered Spyglass	Utility - Detects All Azerite Sources Instantly
Rabbit's Charm	Utility - Reduces Detected Chance for 30 minutes
Siege Engine Controller	Utility - Upgraded Siege Engine for 20 minutes

Our recommendation: We strongly suggest purchasing the Flashfire Brew for its 200% increased critical strike damage and healing effect, the Blessed Bandage or Thornberry for its powerful healing effect, the Brainsmasher Brew for its incredible 20 second stun effect, and the Engineered Spyglass for its ability to reveal all Azerite locations which should increase your winning chances by reducing the amount of time searching for large Azerite sources. Note that these items will not be available for every island, so be sure to take a look at the vendor and select the items that will help you the most such as healing items if your team does not have a healer or the Spear-Mint Gum for a flat 20% damage gain for 10 minutes!

Seafarer's Dubloons can also be used at a new Patch 8.1 vendor for various items. The Horde vendor is Captain Zen'taga while the Alliance vendor is Captain Klarisa. The new items include purchasable reputation items for each of the faction's reputations that has you trading 100 Dubloons for 250 reputation with one of the faction appropriate reputations. There are also three pirate hats available for 100 Dubloons and are usable for transmogrification purposes. Finally, the vendors have five pets and two mounts available at more expensive Dubloon costs. The Lyrics: Song of the Sea item empowers your Flight Master's Whistle to port back to your ship during Island Expeditions.

• Lyrics: Song of the Sea - 25 Dubloons
• 250 Reputation for Proudmoore Admiralty - Dented Coin - 100 Dubloons
• 250 Reputation for Storm's Wake - Lost Sea Scroll - 100 Dubloons
• 250 Reputation for Order of Embers - Exotic Spices - 100 Dubloons
• 250 Reputation for Tortollan Seekers - Soggy Page - 100 Dubloons
• Transmogrification Hat - Red Tricorne Hat - 100 Dubloons
• Transmogrification Hat - Grey Tricorne Hat - 100 Dubloons
• Transmogrification Hat - Blue Tricorne Hat - 100 Dubloons
• Battle Pet - Crimson Octopode - 100 Dubloons
• Toy - Hand Anchor - 150 Dubloons
• Battle Pet - Albino Duskwatcher - 200 Dubloons
• Toy - Cranky Crab - 200 Dubloons
• Toy - Gnarlwood Waveboard - 300 Dubloons
• Mount - Saltwater Seahorse - 500 Dubloons
• Mount - Siltwing Albatross - 1,000 Dubloons

• Lyrics: Song of the Sea - 25 Dubloons
• 250 Reputation for Voldunai - Shimmering Shell - 100 Dubloons
• 250 Reputation for Talanji's Expedition - Golden Beetle - 100 Dubloons
• 250 Reputation for Zandalari Empire - Island Flotsam - 100 Dubloons
• 250 Reputation for Tortollan Seekers - Soggy Page - 100 Dubloons
• Transmogrification Hat - Red Tricorne Hat - 100 Dubloons
• Transmogrification Hat - Grey Tricorne Hat - 100 Dubloons
• Transmogrification Hat - Blue Tricorne Hat - 100 Dubloons
• Battle Pet - Crimson Octopode - 100 Dubloons
• Toy - Hand Anchor - 150 Dubloons
• Battle Pet - Albino Duskwatcher - 200 Dubloons
• Toy - Cranky Crab - 200 Dubloons
• Toy - Gnarlwood Waveboard - 300 Dubloons
• Mount - Saltwater Seahorse - 500 Dubloons
• Mount - Siltwing Albatross - 1,000 Dubloons

The reputation items are exchangeable as often as desired. The total cost for the three transmogrification hats are 300 Dubloons, the total cost for the pets are 300 Dubloons, the total cost for the toys are 650 Dubloons, and the total cost for the two mounts are 1,500 Dubloons for a grand total of 2,750 Dubloons for non-repeatable items.

Island Expedition loot has been a mystery in how it can be acquired for quite some time, but Blizzard has revamped the process in Patch 8.1 to allow any cosmetic item to drop from the island's theme upon completion. This will alter some previous strategies of hunting for rare enemies and will simply allow players to complete the island expeditions as fast as possible to earn cosmetic rewards.

On top of the Azerite rewards, special loot is available for completing Island Expeditions or finding special items within them. Let us get right to what we can find in our adventures!

• Craghorn Chasm-Leaper
• Qinsho's Eternal Hound
• Squawks
• Surf Jelly
• Twilight Avenger

These pets are part of an achievement called I'm Here for the Pets.

• Barnaby
• Bloodstone Tunneler
• Captain Nibs
• Coldlight Surfrunner
• Craghoof Kid
• Deathsting Scorpid
• False Knucklebump
• Giggling Flame
• Juvenile Brineshell
• Kindleweb Spiderling
• Kunchong Hatchling
• Inky
• Laughing Stonekin
• Littlehoof
• Mischievous Zephyr
• Muskflank Calfling
• Octopode Fry
• Playful Frostkin
• Poro
• Sandshell Chitterer
• Scuttle
• Snapper
• Snort
• Sparkleshell Sandcrawler
• Sunscale Hatchling
• Thistlebrush Bud
• Tinder Pup
• Voru'kar Leecher

• Bad Mojo Banana
• Enchanted Soup Stone
• Magic Monkey Banana
• Oomgut Ritual Drum
• Whiskerwax Candle

There are also a ton of Bind-on-Equip weapons available to be looted within Island Expeditions. These weapons serve primarily a transmogrification purpose as the item level they drop at is not competitive with the current expansions loot table.

Along with plundered weapons come some quest items that can be looted after winning an island expedition and turned in for reputation gains and Azerite. Be on the lookout in your rewards after conquering an Island Expedition!

With Patch 8.2, players have two new Island Expedition maps to explore. This brings the total island count to 11. Crestfall is one of the first Islands to have lore based off of Warcraft 3, while Snowblossom Village is a small Pandarian town in the hills and can be found fighting off vermin. Players can expect one island to be available per week in Patch 8.2.

Players will be able to obtain a Twilight Dragon Transmog set as a reward from completing this Island Expedition.

• Southsea Pirates
  • Squawks
  • Captain Nibs
  • Barnaby
  • Plundered Blue Captain's Hat
  • Plundered Crimson Captain's Hat
  • Plundered Pirate Admiral's Bicorne
  • Old Jon's Left Hand
  • Rusty Captain's Hook
  • Brinebeard's Shanker
• Twilight Dragons
  • Twilight Avenger
  • Battered Twilight Scale

Players will be able to obtain the Tomb Keeper Armor set as a reward from completing this Island Expedition.

• Mogu
  • Qinsho's Eternal Hound
  • Plundered Jadefury Shield
  • Plundered Jadestar Blade

In Patch 8.2, players are able to obtain this new Essence from completing Island Expeditions. In this section, we will go over what players will need to do for each different rank. You can read more about the effect of each rank in our Essences guide.

• Rank 1 ( Volatile Worldvein) — Complete the daily quest Azerite for the Alliance or Azerite for the Horde.
• Rank 2 ( Stalwart Worldvein) — Combine 15 Fragments of Zem'lan's Lost Treasure Map from Island Expeditions to form a Zem'lan's Lost Treasure Map. This will unlock the Zem'lan's Lost Treasure mission, which will reward the Rank 2 upgrade.
• Rank 3 ( Fluctuating Worldvein) — Collect 3 Worldvein Intelligence Reports, which are rewarded from completing the weekly quest Azerite for the Alliance or Azerite for the Horde. Players will then need to complete the Investigating the Rumours mission.
• Rank 4 ( Brilliant Worldvein) — Obtain a Map to the Last Worldvein from Island Expeditions and complete the following missions:
  • Finding a Key
  • Tracking the Worldvein
  • The Last Worldvein

Please keep in mind that the fourth rank of the Essence is only a cosmetic upgrade to its visual and it shares the stats of the previous rank.

Thank you for reading this Island Expedition guide, and we hope you enjoy Island Expeditions!