Island Expeditions in Battle for Azeroth

By Sanghelios Updated: 2019/06/24

OverviewIntroductionHeart of AzerothNew in Rise of Azshara

New Islands: Snowblossom Village and Crestfall

New islands introduce some elusive creature types as primary enemies, such as Twilight Dragons on Crestfall.

New transmog such as a Black Tooth Grunt set and Converted Carrot Carbine.

Damage of most enemy creatures has been significantly reduced on higher difficulty Islands.

Some items previous purchased with Seafarer's Dubloon have been removed. New items have been added in their place.

Many items removed from the Seafarer's Dubloon vendor have been added as items that can be found and used on the Island itself.

New enemies being introduced to match the themes of the new island.

New expedition teams representing all-druid teams of Zandalari Trolls and Kul Tirans.

Artifact Power gains from Normal, Heroic, Mythic and PvP Islands increased. Mythic Islands now reward 450 AP (was 350).

Weekly quest Azerite for the Alliance / Azerite for the Horde now rewards 3500 AP (was 2500).

New mechanics such as collecting parts to put together the A.T.O.M.I.K. Mk. II Razzle Dazzle which can then be used as a massive bomb to kill enemies or the enemy team.

Islands provide players with the Azerite Essence Worldvein Resonance.

Obtaining the Worldvein ResonanceWorldvein ResonanceHeart of AzerothHeart of Azeroth Essence Overview - Descriptions, Rank Upgrades and Drop Locations - BFA 8.3

Volatile Worldvein Rank 1: Obtained after completing your first weekly Island quest, Azerite for the Alliance / Azerite for the Horde.

Stalwart Worldvein Rank 2: Obtained after putting together Fragment of Zem'lan's Lost Treasure Map and completing the mission table mission provided from it.

Fluctuating Worldvein Rank 3: Obtained after collecting 3 Worldvein Intelligence Reports from the weekly quest, Azerite for the Alliance / Azerite for the Horde.

Brilliant Worldvein Rank 4: Rare reward from a Mysterious Treasure Map reward.

New in Tides of Vengeance

New Islands: Havenswood and Jorundall

New rare rewards and Seafarer's Dubloon purchasable rewards such as Siltwing Albatross and Albino Duskwatcher

New enemies and relocation of many enemies on existing Islands. Many many rare enemies are present on every Island.

New events and changes to existing events such as an Azerite Extractor that slowly collects Azerite overtime.

New expedition teams representing Dark Iron Dwarves and Mag'har Orcs.

New quest items rewarding Azerite.

Upgrade your Flight Master's Whistle to be usable on Island Expeditions with Lyrics: Song of the Sea.

Azerite for the Alliance / Azerite for the Horde weekly quest now requires 36,000 Azerite (down from 40,000 Azerite)

Mythic and PvP Difficulty Islands now reward 350 Azerite baseline (up from 300 Azerite).

All Island Expeditions now have 2 "out-of-theme" enemies in addition to an Island Invasion. (Was 1 "out-of-theme" enemy.)

Island Expeditions now can have multiple invasions in a single Island Expedition, and the Azerite elemental has being added to the invasions list.

Invasions will always occur, even on high difficulties and while beating the enemy team by a lot.

Non-rare Elite enemies now give significantly less Azerite score compared to rare enemies and azerite nodes.

Completing your weekly Island Expedition cap now also awards a follower mission item for more potential Artifact Power.

Currently a work in progress and will be finished with more detail closer to the release of Patch 8.1Weekly Quest Changes and Treasure MapsAzerite for the AllianceAzerite for the HordeMysterious Treasure MapTreasure Map of JorundallGetting Startedprogressed your War Campaign past the point where you have established 2 footholds on the other faction's continent and level 116.The Azerite AdvantageThe Azerite AdvantageFlynn FairwindCaptain Rez'okunIsland ExpeditionIsland Expedition

Alliance War Campaign Guide: Alliance War Campaign in Battle for Azeroth

Horde War Campaign Guide: Horde War Campaign in Battle for Azeroth

QueueingAlliance Expedition Map Location (Coords: Boralus - 66.6, 33.4)Horde Expedition Map Location (Coords: Dazar'alor - 44.5, 95.3)More About the Interface

Weekly Quest Progress: At the very top of the Expedition Map is a progress bar of your progress towards the quota of 36,000 Azerite. Once this bar fills you will receive the reward listed at the right of the bar. Any progress made towards the reward carries over to the next week until you earn the reward. Afterwards, on the weekly reset, the bar resets to 0 and the reward can be earned again.

Islands: The center of the Expedition Map will contain the names of the Islands you can visit this week along with a sketch of the map of the Island. Only 3 Islands are available in a given week.

Primary Enemy Type: Each Island picture will also have a sketch of a race such as a Saurok or Mogu. This picture means that enemy race will be encountered frequently while on that particular Island. This is consistant throughout the week.

Repeatable Base Reward: Mousing over the difficulties on the bottom of the Expedition Map will show you the minimal guaranteed reward for winning the Island Expedition on the selected difficulty.

More About the Difficulty SettingshereNormal:

No requirements after Introduction is complete.

May queue as 1-3 player party.

Race to collect 6000 Azerite.

Heroic:

295 item level required.

May queue as 1-3 player party.

Race to collect 9000 Azerite.

All Azerite gain increased by 50%.

Mythic:

315 item level required.

Must queue as 3 player party.

Race to collect 12000 Azerite.

All Azerite gain increased by 100%.

PvP:

295 item level required.

PvP Talents Enabled

Must queue as 3 player party.

Race to collect 18000 Azerite.

All Azerite gain increased by 200%.

Azerite for the HordeAzerite for the AllianceConquestCore MechanicsUnderstanding The Map Scouted Azerite: Azerite Source: Powerful Foe:Bonus Objective:Enemy Faction Member: Alliance Ship: Horde Ship:Portal:Azerite Extractor Location:Azerite Rupture Location:Fog-of-WarHow to WinSeafarer's Dubloon

Killing any creature

Opening chests / Mining Azerite

Completing Bonus Objectives

Killing the other faction

Islands

Molten Cay

Dread Chain

Whispering Reef

Skittering Hollow

Rotting Mire

Verdant Wilds

Ungol Ruins

Havenswood

Jorundall

Crestfall

Snowblossom Village

For more detailed information on each Island of Island Expeditions visit our Strategies for All Islands Guide.

Creatures

Common Creatures: Creatures such as crocolisks and spiders are found on almost every Island. There is no sure way to tell the existence of some of these creatures on the Island without encountering them first.

Island Theme Creatures: Some types of creatures only appear or appear more frequently on certain Islands. Under each Island name on the Expedition Map is a sketch of an enemy that will be found frequently on that Island. More details about the themes of enemies found on particular Islands can be found in our guide to each Island.

Invasion Event Creatures: These enemies can be rarely found on any Island, but are very different from most enemies you will encounter and completely ignore the theme of the Island. These types of NPCs usually appear due to special events that occur during an Island Expedition. creatures such as Dragons and Faceless are some of the types of enemies that work like this. For more detail about special events and invasions and what kind of creatures appear because of them visit our Random Events and Invasions Guide.

Mining Nodes, Chests and SatchelsEvents and InvasionsCaptain Rez'okunFlynn FairwindEerie Fog

For a complete list of all events that can occur during Island Expeditions and how they work, check out our Guide to Random Events and Invasions.

Seafarer Dubloons and Unique ConsumablesSeafarer's DubloonSeafarer's DubloonSeafarer's Dubloon

Blizzard

Island Expeditions

Seafarer's Dubloon items may no longer be used in PvP Island Expeditions.
Developers’ notes: We're looking for ways to use Dubloons in the future, but for the time being, we do not feel that Dubloon use makes for a good experience in a PvP setting.

Seafarer's DubloonCaptain KlarisaCaptain Zen'taga

More detailed information on these buffs, items and consumables and how to obtain Seafarer's Dubloon can be found in our Island Expedition Consumables Guide.

Other Faction PresenceNOTAdvanced NPCs

More information on the specific Advanced AI Teams players will encounter and what to look out for can be found in our Guide to Island Expedition's Advanced AI Teams

Player vs. PlayerRewardsIn Patch 8.1, rare rewards at the end of Island Expeditions are based on all mobs that were present on the Island you just completed instead of what you killed. Also some rewards are now purchasable with Seafarer's Dubloon.Experience

Blizzard

Island Expeditions

The bonus XP reward for completing a normal Island Expedition has been increased.

AzeriteHeart of AzerothHeart of Azeroth

Weekly quest Azerite for the Horde or Azerite for the Alliance. 3500 Azerite.

Mysterious Treasure Map follower mission items obtained from completing the weekly quest.

Winning bonus (higher difficulties means bigger bonus). 450 Azerite on Mythic/PvP difficulty.

Rare quest items obtained from Island Expeditions wins. 750 Azerite per quest.

Azerite for the HordeAzerite for the AllianceAzeriteAzeriteAzeriteQuest Item RewardsAzeroth's TearGolden BeetleAzeroth's TearChampions of AzerothGolden BeetleTalanji's ExpeditionUnscarred Black ScaleDruidic FurTell Me A TaleUnscarred Black ScaleDruidic FurRare Mount, Pet, Transmog Rewards

A full list of rewards can be found in our Island Expedition Rewards Guide.

MountsTwilight AvengerSquawksPetsBarnabyInkyPlundered Weapons

Plundered Biting Shot Longbow

Plundered Iceshard Bite

AchievementsExpedition LeaderI'm Here for the Pets

More information about all the achievements of Island Expeditions can be found in our Island Expedition Achievements Guide

Comments

Comment by argentlupus

Okay, simply put looking at the teams involved The Roughnecks are there! Which is AWESOME!

Comment by Vikinng

Tons of great information thanks

Comment by Adeuxline

The guide is translated in French here. Le guide est traduit en français ici.

Expéditions sur les Îles dans Battle for Azeroth

Comment by Madholm

I hope they tune the rewards in terms of AP.

Currently giving about 350AP on beta which is just stupidly low when there are also WQ that give 350AP.

Comment by Soeroah

Predictable that higher difficulties reward different items, but I'd been hoping it would just increase the drop rates - also that we were guaranteed a reward on each victor, since there are so many options. Hopefully there's protection in place so you don't get the same account-wide reward more than once?

Great guide, though!

Comment by maryalice

Will these scenarios be added to LFD, or must we put our own groups together?

Also, can you kick players for the group, and if so are they replaced or are the remaining players left to try and finish?

Comment by Freed0mLad

Can anybody tell me where to actually start the introduction quests for Expeditions?

Comment by Rawveggie

One question I can't seem to find the answer to: If you kill the opposing faction (AI, not players) do they respawn or are they gone from that point on?

I am guessing they are not gone but it'd sure make it a bit easier. They probably respawn but was looking for confirmation.

Comment by gunsotsu

just ridiculous to think peopel are gonna stand there at a misson table all day to que for this feature..very poorly designed.

Comment by cleric670

It appears the progress bar on the island expedition table only shows up once you have reached level 120.

Comment by Karma99

Missing the most important info: where do you go and how do you start/queue up for an expedition.

Comment by FlexoAdapt

I have done a few of these and found nothing that holds my interest with these 3 man instances. At least the Pandaria scenarios had some level of play through. These are Diablo style smash and grab, but take too long to kill anything and reward little for the kill. It takes just long enough to be tedious and rewards nearly nothing making it feel pointless.

Yes, there are some awesome looking pet rewards in particular but they are so incredibly dull it doesn't seem appealing enough to spend much time doing these.

Yet, I retain Island Expeditions may be the most mindless and boring thing ever added to the game besides the mission table in WOD.
Maybe someone can add a comment with how these are a better use of your time than say world quests.

Comment by pakosrls

For the Alliance the table to start this is by Flynn Fairwind in Boralus at coords /way 66.63 33.46 Expedition Table

Comment by LeFortuneCookie

The location of Captain Rez'okun and the table for Island expeditions, is located at /way 44.56, 95.38 .

As part of the Dazar'alor temple, on the map it is located at the most southwest corner, bottom level of the entire temple complex. Close to the Grand Bazaar, you'll spot it across from Captain Greenbelly and some stairs, in a covered area, attached to a ship.

Comment by pmkaboo

Any ideas why im getting only around 115 AP for some HC wins?

Comment by Dracology

Still seems semi buggy. Had the other faction NPC's just stop doing anything at 501 collected Azerite in one match, next we killed the entire other team but it still didnt't drop the tag from a 300 azerite value gold mob.

Comment by FatCheeseMan

The rewards for this seem really poor besides the cosmetic ones. People said it was good ap, but it really doesnt seem like it for time invested.

Comment by Chewbarka

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse for the severely socially anxious after the road block forced raids, now we have Island expeditions to screw us all over too. Thanks Blizzard! I'm sure you all shot out of the womb bursting with confidence but sadly some of us are stuck permanently in our houses with Warcraft as our only source of light socialization (meaning we can be around people without actually having to talk/have people rely on us for anything), at least we did, until our gaming experience was ruined by major parts of the game being blocked by raids, dungeons, scenarios and now island expeditions. Very disappointing. I've been playing since 2004 and it's starting to look like the end for me.

Comment by gunsotsu

suggest we all petition blizzard to make it so you can que through group finder, because the fact you can't is killing this feature.

Comment by Aerozia

You cant win mythic expedutions atm. Not possible.

Comment by Navarrosh

What team setup would you recommend for Island Expeditions? 1 tank, 1 healer e 1 dps? Or 2 dps and 1 healer?

Comment by JolietJerry

I never cease to be amazed at the reasons for whining from entitled "adults."

Here's how hard it was for me and two guildies to queue last night:

"Want to do Island Expeditions?"
"Sure!"
"Anyone in Boralus? If not I can hearth there and queue us." <----- This would take less than a minute
"Nah, I had stuff to turn in anyway so I'm there. I'll queue us."
"Cool."

Oh, the horror. I don't know how we persisted through this feature killing atrocity.

Comment by lorekiller

I'm level 118, have all three footholds, but never got any quest to start Island Expeditions? I share a battle.net with my sib so maybe they've already done the intro quests, but I now have no idea how to get access to island expeditions.

Comment by WhiteWoof

A bit late to the party, but I just did 3 Normal IEs tonight with a friend. And dear god, Blizz..... I see this as something I'm going to GRIND out just for the damn reward. It was tedious, it was stressful, it was absolutely NO FUN whatsoever for me. I DESPISE "race" missions. Race against the time, race against an enemy...it's not fun for me.
With dungeons, it's effectively the pace the tank feels comfortable with. Even if that's faster than I'm comfortable with while DPSing, it doesn't really affect me, because I just jump into the pack and start pummeling them down. This racing, I felt pushed to pull more, to pull things on my own, get that extra bit of Azerite.
Also, bravo, Blizz, for making it table only, so we can't leave Boralus (more like Bore-alus now) while doing IEs.

Comment by Aerynsun8449

I may have missed it in the guide, but as the 3rd tier of the War Effort Advancement requires you to complete 5 different island expeditions. Is there a way to know which islands we've done, which ones we still need to do. How many different ones we've done I mean, as there isn't a requirement to do specific islands, just 5 different ones. I'm assuming this is character specific, doesn't make sense to be account wide.

Some people are really ignorant. I mean, it's a valid question, why, except for just being a jerk, would anyone even bother to down vote it? It's a question. If you know the answer, maybe, just maybe you could answer it. If you don't, then WTF would you down vote it? So NO ONE could answer it?

Comment by Aerynsun8449

Comment by 1782194

Ok, so I've done about 5 of these and they're really boring. I just don't see the point. And the reward isn't even worth the time investment.

Comment by Eighjan

Aren't these supposed to be role-agnostic...? How come there's mention of Tank, DPS & Healer...?

No; I haven't done any more than the intro., so...

Comment by Dracul1

getting real sick of doing these on mythic and getting nothing but useless Doubloon coins to buy the even more useless minor buffs that don't even persist thru death.

Comment by Irishmoon

This guide is off. I had 3 pieces of azerite gear, one foothold open, and started island expeditions, before doing any quest and at level 112.

Comment by Reddervish

I just did my first Island Expedition today. On Normal.

I did not see any option to do it solo.

So, how does one try solo?

I'll admit the mob was difficult with 3, but I presume the AI would scale some features for solo play, as it does in other gameplay.

Comment by Kessyra

I went through a portal today to "Unknown Crypt" that was empty. Can anyone tell me what this is about?

Comment by atomicsnare

People seem to find it funny to kick you just before the win. Happen to anyone else yet?

Comment by raknaar

This might be old news at this point but some might find it useful. Unlocking island expeditions seems to be account wide and after unlocking them any alts can queue for the lowest difficulty even while leveling. The recent buff to the xp gained and addition of the weekly wq for ap make doing expeditions while leveling a decent way to get a head start on ap, and some extra xp for those that are tired of questing or don't have the time to do dungeons.

Comment by Sador

This whole expansion reeks of Blizzard half-assing a lot of stuff that should've been addressed in Beta.

Comment by Fenril7

Hey BLIZZARD if you are reading this how about increasing the cap for COMMUNITIES. At the moment my Island Expedition Community is capped at 1,000.

Community 1, 1,000 members, you might see if we went under the cap, if so use this code: YeBzeRlskWm
Community 2 around 300 members or so, use this one if community 1 is still full and that community has a link for #1 for the future. Use this code: amYdNVWi54b

Why in the world would you cap a cross server feature?

Comment by Fedonox

As the guide does not entirely cover all "strategies", here is something I found useful on normal difficulty.

Follow the "X"-spots marked on the map. I recommend doing them in a set order, i.e. starting with the one nearest to the ship and then following outwards. If you completed the first 3 spots, new one's should appear. Follow them the same way.

While on the way to the "X"-spots, kill all mobs with a skull marked on the map.

If you encounter the opposing faction team, mark one and focus them one-by-one.

Do not waste your time with quests, as they take too long to complete.

I follow these steps every time and get 100% victories in about 7-8 minutes. Of course only if the PUG's follow my lead ;)

Hope it helps a bit.

Comment by Haglstorm

I know that the drop rate has been improved, but...
There are three island per week (or so) and you do not choose which one to do (small problem).
The random other two players might want to do this as fast as possible and thereby not getting to stage three and the named rares, like Barnaby.
Then there is the ordinary RNG on the loot table.
And since some of the stuff you want are BOP it is no use to buy anything from AH, because you want the BOP stuff.

but...
The difficulty level has no influence on the drop rate.
It does not matter if you win or loose.

All this is going in the "play as slow and bad as you can and show no interest whatsoever" direction (without getting kick-voted)
Never run toward the "action" - only walk.
Never use anything other then auto attack.

If it where possible, simply join an IE and do absolutely nothing, read a book, or watch something on TV.
I wonder if there are premade groups that actually does this?

In short it is boring and counterproductive. Let´s see if 8.1 does something to change this.
(and I am not mentioning the Azerite thingy)
I certainly hope so. I do like to play WOW, but...

Comment by TehLucario

... I like islands...

Comment by FaeDyne

The guide hasn't been updated with the new rules for 8.1 loot. It still says that it's dependent on what mobs you kill.

The loot rules are still VERY confusing. The last two WoW news updates about the weekly islands states seemingly contradictory information:

Havenswood can have the following special enemy types and rewards

you will no longer receive end of expedition rewards based on what you've killed.

Is it because "special rewards" aren't rewarded at the end?
Does the rewards for mobs in invasion events require the invasion event to trigger before you win? or does it always trigger before you win? Can the mounts tied to specific mobs which are in turn tied to specific islands also randomly from the invasion events?

Considering Blizzard's attitude, it sounds like my most efficient route for getting what I want is just waiting until they've almost finished the expansion and they let you buy the items you want with some currency like doubloons. I want choice and progress instead of just pure RNG.

Comment by Amazonas

Can someone please tell me exactly how to queue for soloing the Island Expeditions? The guide says it is possible to solo these on "Normal," but there's no explanation as to how to sign up for soloing.

I've gone to the map, chosen "Normal," and then clicked "Find Crew" (which is the only option on the map)...and then I'm told I've been queued for a group. Consequently, I declined, because I don't want to group.

Should I have done something differently?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Comment by Otnot

thanks very much for the guide

Comment by Maantos

Hey, if you're extremely unobservant like me and want to know how to queue for Heroic/Mythic/PVP it's actually on this screen. Maybe this is obvious to everyone else but I'm just so used to LFG queueing that I wasn't sure where to go with this system. Pic below:

https://i.imgur.com/yg2ADLz.png

Comment by Malachi68

"Normal difficulty is available to solo or group queue"

The key word in this statement is queue. It is unfortunately not possible to actually "solo" an Island Expedition. It simply means that individuals can sign up for a mission instead of needing to be in a group.

Comment by Cahirr

Be aware, that if you leave the instance (say for the reason that you've already done this island), you'll get the Deserter debuff, which prevents you from queueing for the next 30 minutes...

Comment by Ogheria

Caution: After you hit 70 on your neck in BFA, you no longer can get Azerite. This means that the island expedition quests now give you 8-12 gold and NO Azerite. Not really worth the trip...

Comment by peasap

I must be doing something wrong. When completing an Island Expedition, I see the victory screen but my only option is to leave the island? What gives. I was killing everything along with team mates.

Comment by amalek137

Those of you that are looking to queue but cannot because you did not do the "required" battles you are unable to find ppl in the warfront queue for - i just noticed that is now not a requirement. it was reported to blizzard last week - it remains unreplied, as is the norm in fact but i can tell you that after doing said island expeditions with someone else queueing me in for the first time a week ago, i found the map in the port available to me today as i was seeking to queue for the battle of stromgarde (again), to no avail..it wasn't even an option because of a lack of "horde resources." so your information about how to queue, prerequisites is not true and not accurate at this time. i believe it became available to me either because i completed my first island expedition last week and/or leveled up my heart of azeroth to 72 or so..not sure tbh. just trying to help by sharing all i know about this because my research told me otherwise. yet again.

Comment by Gerotora

You can now solo queue to a normal/heroic/mythic Expedition by talking to Captain Rez’okun or Flynn Fairwind (standing next to the map table).

Comment by Elill

In order to solo queue, you need to pick a quest from the map i bfa, choose tiragarde, talk to quinn and get the quest: The Smoking Gun

After that he appears by the table and you can talk to him to solo queue.

From lvl 10-60 you can queue for normal, from lvl 51-60 you can queue for heroic and mythic.

Hope this helps! Took me a while to find updated info about this.

Comment by LeNoir

Dragonflight: I did an expedeition solo queue at level 61 and it provided decent XP. HOWEVER it gave me order resources and dragon isles supplies after completion.

Comment by Kosmix

Correct me if I am wrong but I didnt see it here. You can now solo island expeditions, just talk to the guy at the table. He has three chat options for a "private tour", normal / heroic / mythic.

Island Expeditions in Battle for Azeroth

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