How to unlock higher tier Delves in WoW The War Within

The new major feature in the new World of Warcraft: The War Within expansion is Delves, a PvE-focused feature that allows you to dive into mini-adventures with friends or NPC companions as you complete tasks inside the Delve, defeat bosses, and earn exclusive rewards and even gear. Here is how to unlock the higher tier Delves in WoW The War Within and gain access to higher Item Level gear.

How to unlock higher tier Delves in The War Within

When attempting to access a Delve in WoW The War Within, you’ll notice there are up to 11 tiers for the Delve, increasing its difficulty and rewards. Traditionally speaking, you unlock harder and higher tiers of Delves simply be completing the previous tier. Once you complete a Tier 2 Delve, you can now access any Delve on Tier 3. However, there is a bit of a caveat due to the time gating at the beginning of The War Within expansion launch.

Due to The War Within launching with an Early Access period, and then having a roughly two week warm-up period before the start of Season 1, followed by the release of Mythic+ and Mythic Raids a week later, there are essentially four periods of The War Within launch. Here are the highest tier of Delves that you can do in each part of The War Within launch:

• Early Access (August 22-August 25) – Tier 3 Delves
• Global Release (August 26-September 9) – Tier 3 Delves
• Season 1 Start (September 10-September 16) – Tier 11 Delves
• Mythic+ and Mythic Raid Week (September 17 and later) – Tier 11 Delves

This means that at the launch of WoW The War Within, the highest tier of Delve you can do until Season 1 begins on September 10, 2024 is Tier 3. Once Season 1 begins, you will be able to do any Tier of Delve up to Tier 11 provided you have unlocked it by completing the previous tier.

Should you do Delves for loot or Weekly Vault?

This question will mostly depend on if you actually enjoy doing Delves, as it’s intended to be another form of optional PvE content for players to enjoy and use to acquire gear. If you’re not a huge fan of pushing Mythic + or competing in the highest difficult raids, Delves are a solid alternative to gearing up.

However, from a purely technical standpoint, Delves will mainly be worth doing during the week that Season 1 begins from September 10 through September 16. For this week only, Mythic 0 Dungeons will unlock but not Mythic+ dungeons. In Mythic 0, the dungeons are on a daily reset, and only drop Item Level 593 gear.

Delves, however, will be unlocked all the way to Tier 11. At Tier 8 and higher, completing Delves rewards you with Item Level 603 gear, which is higher than what you will be able to acquire from dungeons that week. Furthermore, the Weekly Vault reward for completing Tier 8+ Delves is Item Level 616, which is the highest Item Level gear you can earn from the Weekly vault this week.

Once Mythic+ and Mythic Raid opens a week later on September 17, the M+ dungeons will reward players with loot up to Item Level 613 for completion and the Weekly Vault up to Item Level 623. This makes the loot from Delves slightly lower Item Level than the best gear you can obtain from Mythic+ dungeons. Still, if you enjoy the content, Delves can be a nice alternative to farming out gear upgrades.