DRAGONFLIGHT PATCH 10.1.5 UPDATE: MANY OF THE REQUIREMENTS LISTED BELOW NO LONGER APPLY. THE ONLY REQUIREMENT TO UNLOCK HIGHMOUNTAIN TAUREN NOW IS TO REACH LEVEL 40 ON A CHARACTER AND VISIT THE ORGRIMMAR EMBASSY TO PICK UP THE RECRUITMENT QUESTLINE STARTING WITH “A FEAST FOR OUR KIN.”
Many allied race guides don’t include the details that new or returning players need. This is especially true when it comes to traveling to different zones and starting specific quest chains. This guide will show you what you need to do to unlock the Highmountain Tauren allied race and give you the details you need to get started.
Before we dive into the details, at a high level, there are two things you need to do to unlock the Highmountain Tauren allied race in Dragonflight.
- Earn the Ain’t No Mountain High Enough achievement by finishing the Highmountain storyline.
- Complete a recruitment questline, which starts at the Orgrimmar Embassy (requires level 45+ Horde character).
To get started on earning Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, you need to first get to Highmountain. If you haven’t been there before, or it has been a while since you played, you may feel lost.
Don’t worry; I will walk you through exactly what you need to do to travel there and start the storyline.
How to get to Highmountain in Dragonflight
Highmountain is the northern-most zone located on the Broken Shore continent. You can get to the Broken Shore by using your Dalaran Hearthstone. Alternatively, you can take the portal to Azsuna found in the Stormwind or Orgrimmar portal room. From there, you can fly or run to Highmountain.
However, both of these approaches only work if you have been to the Broken Shore before.
What if you haven’t been to the Broken Shore? How do you start the Ain’t No Mountain High Enough questline?
Brand new player
If you are a new player and haven’t reached level 50 on any character yet, you will need to complete the Battle for Azeroth (BFA) introduction first. This short quest chain awards an achievement Come Sail Away (Alliance)/Welcome to Zandalar (Horde).
Once you get that achievement, you can visit the Hero’s Call Board in Stormwind or Warchief’s Command Board in Orgrimmar to start the Legion storyline. These boards can be found near banks/auction houses in their respective city.
The option you are looking for on the board is for the Broken Shore and says, “Fight the Legion.” This will let you start the Legion storyline and get to Highmountain without Chromie Time. Using this option will scale Legion content from levels 10 – 45.
If you don’t see it in your list, you can open and close the command board to refresh the options. If that still doesn’t work, you can pick up the available quests (and drop them later) to refresh the options until Broken Shore appears.
Accepting the quest from the board will walk you through the process of traveling to the Broken Shore. After completing In the Blink of an Eye, an NPC should spawn and start the process of unlocking your class hall. It may take a moment for the NPC to show up (must be in Dalaran), so try relogging if they don’t show up.
Once you unlock your class hall, use the Scouting Map to accept The Lone Mountain quest. This will start the Highmountain storyline and the process of earning Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
New player with a level 50 character
If you have reached level 50 on a character, you have a couple of options.
You can use your main character to pick up the Broken Shore quest from the command board and follow the same process as above. Or, you can start a new character and level them up through Highmountain by using something called Chromie Time.
Chromie Time is a feature that allows players with a level 50 toon to create additional characters and level them in old expansions. To use Chromie Time, you will need to travel to the embassy in Stormwind or Orgrimmar and find the gnome with the giant hourglass nearby.
You can then select “The Legion Invasion” to start the Broken Shore and Highmountain questline on a level 10 character.
If your level 50 character is an Alliance character, I recommend that you level a new Horde character in Chromie Time. This will prepare you for the recruitment quest chain, which requires a level 45 Horde character!
Returning Players
As a returning player, the first thing you should do is check to see if you have a Dalaran Hearthstone. If you do, you are well on your way to starting the Highmountain questline.
If you do not have the hearthstone, you can try taking the portal to Azsuna from the Stormwind or Orgrimmar portal room. Should both those options fail, you will need to use Chromie Time to start The Legion Invasion (if you have a level 50 character).
For returning players without a level 50 character, you will need to pick up the Broken Shore questline from a command board after completing the BFA introduction. If you do not have a level 45+ Horde toon, you should consider starting one at this point because it is required for the last step in unlocking Highmountain Tauren.
Once you have arrived on the Broken Shore and unlocked your class hall, you can pick up The Lone Mountain from your class hall scouting map. This will begin the Highmountain quest chain required to earn Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
Complete the Highmountain storyline
Now that you have traveled to Highmountain and started the questline, you can begin working on the achievement. In total, you will need to complete 7 chapters of the story and unite the tribes of Highmountain.
If you are having trouble finding where to begin a chapter, you can look at your world map. Major quest start points will be marked with large gold exclamation points to make it easy. If you are ever lost, return to Thunder Totem (the large building in the middle of the zone) because many quest chains start there.
If no quests show up, make sure you have completed The Lone Mountain by picking it up from your class hall in Dalaran.
For reference, I have included a list of chapters you will need to complete and a map showing where you can start each one. Be aware that some chapters need to be completed before others unlock, so you want to finish them in the order listed.
- The Rivermane Tribe
- Riverbend
- Huln’s War
- Secrets of Highmountain
- The Bloodtotem Tribe
- The Skyhorn Tribe
- Battle of Snowblind Mesa
All around, it will take you about 3-4 hours to finish all the quests and earn Ain’t No Mountain High Enough. If you are under level 30 and don’t have Legion flying, it could take you a little longer.
Do the recruitment quests
With the Highmountain storyline out of the way, it is time to recruit the Highmountain Tauren into the mighty Horde (and onto your character creation screen).
To do this, you need to travel to the embassy in Orgrimmar and pick up a quest called A Feast for Our Kin. This requires you to have a level 45+ Horde character and the Ain’t No Mountain High Enough achievement.
The quest chain is pretty quick and can be done in less than an hour. Once you have finished it, you can now play as a Highmountain Tauren!
I have included a few frequently asked questions below. If you are working on unlocking other allied races, here is my quick allied race unlock overview and links to detailed guides for every race.
| Alliance | Horde |
|---|---|
| Dark Iron Dwarf | Highmountain Tauren |
| Kul Tiran Human | Mag’har Orc |
| Lightforged Draenei | Nightborne |
| Mechagnome | Zandalari Troll |
| Void Elf | Vulpera |
Frequently Asked Questions
Given the length of the Highmountain storyline, I would expect it to take you around 4 – 6 hours to unlock Highmountain Tauren from scratch. However, it could take longer if you need to level a Horde character to level 45 to start the recruitment quest.
The Highmountain Tauren allied race can play as 6 different classes in World of Warcraft. They cannot play as demon hunters, mages, paladins, priests, rogues, or warlocks.
The classes they can play include:
Death Knight
Druid
Hunter
Monk
Shaman
Warrior
Highmountain Tauren have 1 active racial ability and 4 racial passives.
Their active ability is called Bull Rush. When used, it causes you to charge forward and knock down any enemies you come in contact with.
Highmountain Tauren’s racial passives include:
Pride of Ironhorn – Faster mining and 15 higher skill in the mining profession.
Mountaineer – Versatility stat is 1% higher.
Rugged Tenacity – Damage taken is reduced by your level times 3 (so 180 damage at level 60).
Waste Not, Want Not – Chance to loot more meat and fish.
Once you have unlocked Highmountain Tauren, you can begin working on acquiring their heritage armor. To do this, you need to earn the Heritage of Highmountain achievement. This requires you to reach level 50 on a new Highmountain Tauren.
As an important side note, you will not earn the achievement if you reach level 50 by using a level boosts, race change, or recruit a friend levels to unlock the armor.
Final Thoughts on Unlocking Highmountain Tauren
You can unlock the Highmountain Tauren allied race by completing the main Highmountain zone storyline and a short recruitment quest chain. To start the Highmountain quests, you need to get to Legion Dalaran and unlock your class hall.
From there, use the Scouting Map and select Highmountain. Finish those quests and then head back to the Orgrimmar embassy to start the recruitment.
If you are working on unlocking another allied race, you can find all my guides in the table above or in the related articles below.
Thanks for reading!
FYI after doing the artifact weapon quest to unlock your class hall and doing the quests there to unlock the map the quest to goto Highmoutain is bugged. It will tell you to take portal back to Dalaran. and speak to Warbrave Oro. And the Archmage will talk to him about your coming, only Oro isn’t there. He’s at Hightmountain. On Hunter I just went back to lodge which is at Highmountain and flew to Oro.
Thanks for the comment. I knew hunters had a slightly different path than any other class but wasn’t aware of the bug. Thanks for sharing!