A guide to unlocking flying in past expansions, including a walkthrough of both BFA Pathfinder achievements.
If you are a new player or returning to the game after a few years (or expansions) off, you may be wondering how you can unlock flying in past content. In this quick guide, I want to walk you through what you need to do to unlock flying for previous expansions, including BFA, Legion, and Draenor.
Unlock Flying in Legion (Broken Isles) and Draenor in Shadowlands
With the launch of the Shadowlands pre-patch, the pathfinder and reputation requirements to fly in Draenor and Legion zones were removed. In other words, there is nothing special you need to do to unlock flying for these expansions.
Once you reach level 30, head to Stormwind or Orgrimmar and buy Expert Riding to use flying mounts in Draenor or Legion areas!
Unlock Battle for Azeroth (BFA) Flying in Shadowlands
Unfortunately, the requirements to unlock BFA flying remained unchanged with the launch of Shadowlands. This means you will need to earn two achievements to unlock flight — Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part One, and Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part Two.
These achievements have several parts to them and can take a while to complete. In addition to completing significant portions of the story, you will need to fully explore the BFA zones and obtain reputation with several factions.
Let’s take a look at the detailed requirements for both of these achievements.
Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part One
The first requirement of BFA flying is the completion of Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part One. This achievement is account-wide once unlocked but requires a considerable amount of work. If you hover over the link for the achievement, you will notice that there are 5 things that you will need to complete to earn it, including:
- Battle for Azeroth Explorer
- Azerothian Diplomat
- Wide World of Quests
- Complete Zone Questlines (Loremaster of Kul Tiras [A] / Zandalar Forever! [H])
- War Campaign (Ready for War [A] / Ready for War [H])
Completing Battle for Azeroth Explorer will require you to explore all the zones on Kul’Tiras and Zandalar for a total of 6 areas.
To get Azerothian Diplomat, you will need to earn revered reputation with several groups depending on your faction. You can reach this reputation through completing quests in the appropriate zone (via the storyline and world quests). Here are the groups you will need to charm:
The third requirement is the completion of 100 world quests for Wide World of Quests. To unlock world quests, you will need to be level 50, have all 3 footholds opened through the War Campaign, and have friendly or better rep with the 3 major groups for your factions. In other words, you will need to earn Uniting Kul Tiras [A] or Uniting Zandalar [H].
Obtaining friendly status with each group shouldn’t be too hard if you also complete the zone questlines. If you are an Alliance player, this means you need to complete the main story in:
- Tiragarde Sound (A Sound Plan)
- Stormsong Valley (Stormsong and Dance)
- Drustvar (Drust Do It.)
For Horde, this requires completion of the central zone quests and two side storylines.
- Zuldazar (The Throne of Zuldazar)
- Nazmir (The Dark Heart of Nazmir)
- Vol’Dun (Secrets in the Sands)
- Side Quest: The Blood Gate (A Bargain of Blood)
- Final Zuldazar Quest: The Final Seal (After doing the other 4)
As a side note, completing these storylines will award Zandalar Forever!, a significant part of unlocking the Zandalari Troll allied race. For the other requirements, check out my guide on How to Unlock Zandalari Trolls in Shadowlands.
The last requirement for Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part One, is completing the first part of the War Campaign. If you are setting up footholds and can visit the enemy continent, you are probably well on your way to earning this. To check your progress, you can search your achievements for the one called Ready for War [A] / Ready for War [H].
After completing these 5 tasks, you will receive Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part One, and a 20% increase to your mount speed in Kul Tiras and Zandalar.
Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part Two
One part down… and one to go. To complete Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part Two, you will need to explore the areas added to the game in the first BFA patch (8.1) and become revered with 2 other groups.
The new areas added by the patch are called Nazjatar and Mechagon.
To complete Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part Two, you need to do the following:
- Finish Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder, Part One
- Explore Nazjatar
- Explore Mechagon
- Reach revered with the Waveblade Ankoan [A] or The Unshackled [H]
- Reach revered with the Rustbolt Resistance
Before you can begin exploring, we need to first help you unlock Nazjatar and Mechagon!
Getting to Nazjatar
To get to Nazjatar, you will first need to reach level 50 on your character. Once you do, a quest should appear in Boralus Harbor or Dazar’alor. For Alliance, the quest is The Wolf’s Offensive. Horde players should look out for The Warchief’s Order. This will set you off on a chain of about a dozen quests in Nazjatar. Once you have completed that introductory chain up to the quest called A Way Home (where you will open a portal back to Boralus or Dazar’alor), you are ready to unlock Mechagon.
How to Unlock Mechagon Island
To unlock Mechagon, you need to complete the Nazjatar quest chain until Magni appears and gives you the Essential Empowerment quest. This will take you on a 14 quest storyline throughout the world and back through Nazjatar. Once you complete the last quest: A Tempered Blade [A] or Save a Friend [H], a gnome will pop up with a quest to unlock Mechagon.
Wrapping up Pathfinder Part Two
Now that you have unlocked Nazjatar and Mechagon, you will need to explore them both thoroughly. You will then need to complete story and world quests to increase your reputation to be revered with the Waveblade Ankoan [A] or The Unshackled [H] in Nazjatar. You will also need to reach revered with the Rustbolt Resistance on Mechagon.
Grinding rep for these groups can take a while because the best way to get rep is through daily and world quests. You can also receive minor rep when you kill a rare in Nazjatar or Mechagon for the first time only. If you are looking to speed up the grind, you can also purchase contracts on the AH, which award 10 bonus rep for each world quest completed in any BFA zone.
In Mechagon, you can also turn in a Bundle of Recyclable Parts once a day for 150 bonus rep. This requires collecting Machined Gear Assemblyx5, Hardened Springx30, and Tempered Platingx10. These parts can be farmed at the Junkwatt Depot near where you turn in the Bundle of Recyclable Parts.
For Nazjatar, you will primarily do daily quests with recruited companions to earn rep.
With the additional zones explored and rep earned, you can now fly in Kul Tiras and Zandalar. You will also receive the shiny Wonderwing 2.0 mount for your troubles.
Final Thoughts
Shadowlands introduced changes in requirements to fly in past expansions. Flight in Draenor and Legion zones are now included under the riding training umbrella. Sadly, players who did not unlock flying in BFA would still have to invest considerable time into earning both parts of the pathfinder achievement. I imagine that requirement will also go away eventually, but probably not for another expansion or two. So, if you want to fly in BFA zones for the next few years, you may have to invest a few weeks to get it.
If you are looking to unlock flying in the Shadowlands zones you can check out my detailed guide here.
Thanks for reading!
This is a great guide for flying in BFA, Legion, and Draenor. I have been flying in all three zones and it has been a breeze with this guide.
This is a great guide for flying in BFA, Legion, and Draenor. I have been flying in all three zones and it has been a breeze with this guide.