Quest



A quest is a task given to a player character that yields a reward when completed. Most quests are given by by an NPC (non-player character). However, some quests can come from right-clicking signs (usually the wanted poster type), reading scrolls or documents, opening containers, using certain looted items (which will say "Begins a quest" on the tooltip when moused over), or from completing a previous quest (chain quest). Until you reach the maximum level, a quest will also reward you with Experience Points (XP). After that, you will receive gold instead. Many quests will also reward you with reputation from the same faction as the NPC quest giver.

There are currently more than 24,000 quests in World of Warcraft. The initial design had only 100 horde quests, 100 alliance quests and 100 neutral quests planned for the whole game.

The Quests category has articles on many specific quests. This list may not be as comprehensive as database sites such as Wowhead, but the quest articles have the advantage of being a summary of information on a quest, as opposed to a long list of sometimes conflicting or old comments added to the raw quest data.

New quests can be added to Wowpedia by reading Creating a quest article, using the Quest Boilerplate to record the details and adding categories for the starting zone, obtainable at level (e.g. Quests at 18) and other categories as appropriate. Then update the main zone quest guide page, and any pages for the quest giver or starting item.

For a complete list of quests available, see the Category:Quests by level page.

Starting out
Depending on your race you will start in a different geographical region with some common quests and some race/class-specific quests with several low-level creatures around and a limited number of NPCs. Many of the quests in World of Warcraft are single-step, but there will often be multiple followup quests that turn into a long quest series.

Many NPCs can offer you more than one quest; when talking to them, you'll get a window giving you the option to select which quest you wish to talk to them about, using the same symbols as appear over their heads. To find out the quest or the status of an uncompleted quest, talk to the NPC with a quest status indicator. Occasionally as you adventure in Azeroth, you may encounter dropped or fixed items that will give out quests when activated (right-clicked).

Try to get and finish all the quests in a given geographic locale before moving on to a higher-level area with new quests. The reason for this is that other quests may send you in different directions and into other map areas. By the time you get back to the original quest track, the quests have gone gray. They can still be accomplished, but any items received will be below your current level, the XP will be much less helpful, and the cash, if any, will be small change compared to the amounts you are currently bringing in from looting and selling vendor trash items. However, if it is a member of a long quest chain, it may be worth completing gray quests, because later ones may be for your level or even for above your level.

Identifying quest givers


You can identify quest giving NPCs from indicators over their heads:


 * A gold exclamation point indicates an available quest.
 * Since patch 2.3, the marker will also show up on the minimap.
 * Since patch 9.0.1 a new quest marker [[File:CampaignAvailableQuesticon.png]] distinguishes major quests that are required to advance the narrative from optional side quests that tell more localized stories.
 * A silver exclamation point indicates a quest that will be available when you gain a few levels. This does not display on the minimap.
 * A gold question mark indicates a completed quest (you have met its requirements). In the past, they would appear as a yellow dot ([[File:Resource blip 16x12.png]]) on the minimap, but this was easily confused with other detectable things.
 * Since patch 2.3, the marker will also show up on the minimap (see lower image to the right).
 * Since patch 9.0.1 a new quest marker [[File:CampaignActiveQuesticon.png]] distinguishes major quests that are required to advance the narrative from optional side quests that tell more localized stories.
 * A silver question mark indicates an in-progress (un-completed) quest that you still have requirements to meet.
 * Since patch 9.0.1 a new quest marker [[File:CampaignIncompleteQuesticon.png]] distinguishes major quests that are required to advance the narrative from optional side quests that tell more localized stories.
 * A blue exclamation point or question mark  indicates that the NPC has a repeatable quest available. These type of quests are usually meant as a means of gaining reputation with a certain faction, as a reward and xp is only given the first time the quest is completed. After that, xp gained is much lower and there is often no reward but a certain amount of reputation for the respected faction.
 * A red exclamation point over a monster indicates killing it will start a quest. An example is the Angry Blight Slimes in the Ruins of Southshore.
 * An orange exclamation point indicates the quest is part of a Legendary or Artifact item quest chain.

Also as of patch 2.3, you can identify quest givers by the pointer change when you move it over them:
 * [[File:Pointer quest on 32x32.png]] quest giver    [[File:Pointer quest off 32x32.png]] quest giver out of range

Also as of patch 2.3.2, you can identify quest enders (completed quest) by the pointer change when you move it over them:
 * [[File:Pointer questdone on 32x32.png]] quest ender    [[File:Pointer questdone off 32x32.png]] quest ender out of range
 * [[File:Pointer questrepeatable on 32x32.png]] repeatable quest ender

If you have completed a quest but you might not want to turn it in yet (because your bags are full, for instance), you can return to it later at any time. However, until you turn it in, the quest ender will continue to display a gold question mark, so you will not know if they have a new quest for you until you turn it the completed quest or speak to them as if to turn it in.

Low level quests
If a quest is considered too low level for your character (if it will have a gray color in your log), it will be much less visible. By default, an exclamation point will not appear above the quest giver's head, nor will one appear on the minimap without an extra step (see below). Since patch 2.3, the quest title in the quest giver's talk window will also be tagged "(Low Level)".

Before patch 3.0.2, a low-level quest could be discovered only by mousing over (or interacting with) its quest giver. Since 3.0.2, selecting "Low Level Quests" on the minimap radar will display exclamation points for every available quest, including those considered "low level". This also causes a dull exclamation point to appear over NPCs offering low-level quests.

Quest types
In World of Warcraft, quests are separated into several broad categories:


 * Solo quests &mdash; the most common kind.
 * Group quests &mdash; suggested for more than 1 player.
 * Dungeon quests &mdash; objective of the quest is inside an instance.
 * Heroic quests &mdash; objective of the quest is inside a Heroic-mode version of an instance.
 * Legendary quests &mdash; usually the main story-line, such as the War Campaign
 * Raid quests &mdash; objective of the quest is inside a raid instance or involves a raid boss.
 * PvP quests &mdash; quests that require you to complete them while flagged for PvP.
 * Repeatable quests &mdash; can be soloable or for groups with the primary intention to boost reputation with a faction.
 * Daily quests &mdash; special repeatable type of solo quest introduced in The Burning Crusade for those at the level cap to primarily generate money, but changed in to be used more as an RRQ also.
 * Seasonal quests &mdash; available only for limited periods of time and often related to events or holidays.
 * Bonus Objectives &mdash; objectives for entering certain areas.

Solo quests
Most quests are intended to be completed by a single player, but depending on the quest, different classes may have differing levels of difficulty completing quests.

Group quests
In the quest text a group quest will have a recommended number of players to complete this type of quest. These number estimates are conservative and some 2 player quests can be easily soloed while others may be slightly difficult with given number of players. Many quests recommending 3-4 players can be done with 2 players.

Previously called an "elite" quest.

Dungeon quests
Requires an objective inside an instance. Other than that they can be similar to solo and group quests.

Raid quests
Requires an objective inside a raid instance or involving an outdoor raid boss. Besides the Heroic quests, these are the hardest types of quests to complete for players of the recommended level range. This is the only quest type that can be done while in a raid group

Heroic quests
For non-raiders, these are the hardest quests as they require completion inside a Heroic mode, non-raid instance. These are the hardest types of non-raid quests to complete for players of the recommended level range. These quests can also be a variant of a daily quest which tends to be slightly easier.

PvP quests
These quests require players complete them while flagged for PvP and usually in a PvP battleground or zone. These quests can also be a variant of a daily quest which may be tied to a specific battleground or can be very tedious and often are ignored by PvP oriented players.

Repeatable quests
Most quests are of the standard type. However, some can be repeated indefinitely (or at least until some maximum is hit) and can be identified by the blue or  over the head of the quest giver whether or not you have the requisite items. The symbol remains a blue after you turn it in again. Such repeatable quests are quite frequently begun by a normal quest, and once you've completed that quest it appears as is described.

Most repeatable quests are repeatable reputation quests (RRQs) for increasing your reputation with a particular faction. See the repeatable reputation quest article for a list. Contrary to the type of quest described just above, for example, the Timbermaw furbolgs of Felwood and Winterspring want you to prove to them that you're on their side. In this case, each time you turn in the quest, rather than having a blue question mark, you get a familiar gold exclamation point.

The Darkmoon Faire has special repeatable quests that both increase reputation and allow you to collect tickets for rewards.

Technically these quests cannot be done indefinitely, since they stop appearing if a reputation maximum is reached.

Daily quests

 * See also: Daily quest or Category:Daily quests''

Daily quests are a sub-type of repeatable quests that you may only do once per 24 hours. The exact reset hour depends on the realm, but it never changes, is chosen to be in the early AM, and will not coincide with the instance reset. Each character used to be limited to 25 quests of this type they could do a day, until the limit was removed in Mists of Pandaria.

Daily quests come in normal, profession, heroic, and PvP subtypes.

Weekly quests
Weekly quests are a sub-type of repeatable quests that you may only do once per week, often resetting on Tuesday for US servers and Wednesday for EU servers.

Monthly quests
Monthly quests are a sub-type of repeatable quests that you may only do once per month. Very few quests do this, most notably the profession quests at the Darkmoon Faire are monthly quests, since the faire is only available one week out of each month.

Seasonal quests

 * See also: Event or Category:Events''

Seasonal quests are available during short time (from one day to two weeks) at special time of year. They can be both normal and daily; some normal quests can be repeatable during the next season.

Bonus Objectives
When you walk around a zone, new objectives might appear randomly in your quest list. Completing the objectives will reward you with extra experience, and leaving the area will drop the quest. However, if it is partially completed, credit will not be erased.

Quest variations
Most standard quest tasks take one of the following forms with a variety of quest objectives:


 * Gather a number of items and return them to the quest giver or some other NPC.
 * Kill a number of creatures and return to the quest giver or another NPC.
 * Deliver an item (usually a letter or a package) or some items from the quest giver to another NPC.
 * Kill a number of creatures, loot a single quest item or several quest items from them, and return with the quest item(s) to the quest giver or another NPC.
 * Use a profession to acquire or make a single or several items and return with the item(s) to the quest giver or another NPC.
 * Escort an NPC from one place to another, usually through a dangerous area. (See Category:Escort quests.)
 * Many quests that involve escorting an NPC through an area full of mobs can be quite difficult to do alone. "The Defias Traitor" quest in Westfall is one such example, as is the Forsaken quest in Silverpine Forest "Escorting Erland."  The NPCs of those quests are suicidal hotshots who engage each enemy within a 10-yard radius despite your directive to keep them alive, leaving you to save them from themselves as well as all the other mobs attempting to eat both of you. In addition, many escort quests have scripted events where a number of enemies will spawn right in front of you, forcing you to fight them at once. Failing these quests occurs commonly, but you can easily abandon it and start over.  Or, in some cases, if you find yourself overwhelmed during quests like these, abandon the quest and run away as far as you can, and try it again when you are at a higher level or have some backup coming with you.  "The Defias Traitor" is notorious as a  favored target for Horde attacks, which simply extends the duration of the quest (and, in some cases, necessitates a complete restart of the quest).
 * Some players find Escort quests extremely annoying because the NPC almost always walks, regardless of the reason for the escort (even when you are escorting an NPC during an escape, they only run if they are moving to attack something).
 * When soloing escort quests, a useful tactic is to stay slightly ahead of the NPC, so that you can tank with any enemies that attempt to ambush your escort. This tactic is much more effective if the escort quest is at a much lower level than your character.
 * Find and speak to an NPC, which usually leads to a subsequent quest. When such quests are designed to have the sole purpose of leading a player from one zone to another, they are known as Bread Crumb Quests
 * Build and/or maintain a level of reputation with a specific faction.
 * Find a container item, loot an item in it that gives you a follow-up quest.
 * Explore a particular region or area and return to the quest giver or some other NPC.
 * Breadcrumb quests exist for the sole purpose of guiding the player to a new zone or subzone to quest in. They are often given by NPCs upon completing the previous quest hub, as well as Hero's Call Boards, Warchief's Command Boards, and the Adventure Guide. Often there are multiple breadcrumb quests followed by the same follow-up quest, and normally they are mutually exclusive, meaning that accepting one breadcrumb quest will make all the others leading to the same location unavailable. Also, normally completing the follow-up quest will make any breadcrumb quests leading to it unavailable, whether or not they were completed.
 * Use a vehicle, most often to kill a substantial number of enemies quickly, but for no experience. Vehicles have up to six abilities and can be either literal vehicles, an NPC the adventurer is training, or even a historical figure from the game's lore.
 * Use a quest item to do something special to enemies or objects. It may either kill outright, transmute, or cause any number of other effects on the target.

NOTE: Some quests have a time limit, which is counted down in a clock that appears under the mini-map.

Quest rewards
Most rewards take the form of items or money, but some quests (especially class-specific ones) give abilities or spells. Some of the more desirable reward items include quality or better items or recipes for use with professions. All quests tend to include XP as part of the reward, although some repeatable reputation quests do not reward XP.

Additional notes:
 * Some quests allow you to choose among reward items.


 * Most reward items will be bind on pickup, also known as Soulbound.


 * The completion of quests will also impact your reputation with particular factions, which can have further beneficial effects such as cheaper prices at vendors and access to special vendors such as mounts.


 * Some reward items may not be usable by your character (based on class usually). In this case many players simply choose the item that sells for the most gold, or best disenchant materials if they are an enchanter.


 * Characters at level cap gain money instead of XP for turning in quests. This was done to encourage them to continue completing quests in the endgame.  The exchange rate is 6 copper for each XP that the quest would otherwise have given (for example, a quest yielding 14150 XP gives you  extra); however, repeatable quests are exempt from this rule and will not yield additional money.

Quest chains
A quest chain (also known as "questline" or similar terms) is a series of quests connected in the sense that when quest A is completed, quest B becomes available. The majority of quests in the game are connected in quest chains, and progressing along quest chains provide much of the game's story element.

Managing a quest log
Currently active quests are listed with their status and details in the Quest Log (L key). Quests can also be shared with other party members. A player can be in the process of completing (or completed but not turned in) up to 25 quests at any one time. A warning will sound and a small message appears if you try to accept a quest when you already have 25 quests.

Sharing quests
To share a quest, open the Quest Log, select a quest and click Share Quest at the bottom of the window. Each member of the party who is in the vicinity will be prompted whether they want to join the quest. Once you've tried to share a quest, the following things may happen:


 * If the party member is eligible for a quest, a yellow system message will appear stating you are sharing the quest with the character. The receiving character will get a quest window as if they were receiving a quest from an NPC.
 * If the party member accepts the quest, a yellow system message will appear stating the character accepted the quest.
 * If the party member is not eligible to begin a quest, a yellow system message will appear stating the character is not eligible. This can happen if the party member is, for example, of the wrong class (if the quest is class-specific) or is of insufficient level.  It can also happen if the character has not completed the quest's prerequisite quest(s), if any, or does not have the special item that starts the quest.
 * If the party member already has the quest, has already completed the quest, or has a full quest log, a yellow system message will appear stating this.
 * As of patch 3.0.3, there is no longer a restriction on distance for sharing quests.

Some quests will not be sharable, since they apply only to the player who accepted the quest. If the option to accept the quest is not given to a party member, they will not receive credit for having helped complete it. If accepting the quest gives an item which is required to do the quest, the quest is usually not shareable.

Abandoning quests
Quests can be abandoned with no penalty by clicking Abandon Quest in the Quest Log, except that the player must find the quest giver again to pickup the quest again. The Cancel button in the Quest Log just closes the window and does not affect any selected quests. There will be a warning that the special quest items already obtained (if there are any) will be destroyed when the quest abandoned. This does not include normal, non-quest items needed for some quests.

"Kill X of Y" quests
Any quests that require you to kill "X" amount of something will have you restart at 0 killed if/when you pick up the quest again. This will affect all kill counters for any single quest, regardless of the number of different items needed to kill.

"Collect X of Y" quests
If the items you are collecting are marked as Quest item you will lose those items when you abandon the related quest. Items, such as trade goods, which are not quest items will not be lost. Quests that have you collect "X" amount of something though will be updated to show the current amount you have collected (on person or in bank) if/when you pick up the quest again.

The quests that are most easily abandoned are the ones that come from drops that you have found. This way you can just reactivate the item and get the quest right back. Also, other good quests to drop (in case you need to) are the ones you get from NPCs in the area of your Hearthstone-bound inn. This way you don't have to travel far to re-obtain them. It could be inconvenient, however, if you suddenly decide to do a quest that you get from there, yet you have to travel quite some distance to arrive at where you complete the quest. It can be very difficult to juggle quests. It would be helpful to write down what quests you've seen, where to get them, and where they're completed, and where you turn them in, so you can do several quests at once in one area.

Trivia

 * During the early development of World of Warcraft, quest text instantly appeared when talking to quest givers. However, Blizzard received feedback from their internal testers that there wasn't enough story in the game, which turned out to be because testers would simply skip the quest description and go straight to the objectives. To encourage people to actually read the lore, the designers made quest text appear gradually by "typing" across the quest interface instead of having it all pop up at once. To the designers' amusement, the same testers who had previously complained about the lack of lore responded by praising the "addition" of story to the game. An option of switching to the instantaneous quest text was later implemented.
 * During the development of World of Warcraft, each playable race was originally planned to have an epic life quest which told the story of that race. As they started implementing these life quests, however, the designers increasingly found that they felt canned rather than cool and individual since they gave the same backstory to every player character of a particular race. The designers ultimately steered in the direction of simply making epic high-level questlines with stories based around the NPCs, rather than trying to tell players what their character's life story is. A similar idea was eventually implemented with the introduction of heritage armor quests in Battle for Azeroth.