DRAGONFLIGHT PATCH 10.1.5 UPDATE: MANY OF THE REQUIREMENTS LISTED BELOW NO LONGER APPLY. THE ONLY REQUIREMENT TO UNLOCK ZANDALARI TROLLS NOW IS TO REACH LEVEL 40 ON A CHARACTER AND VISIT THE ORGRIMMAR EMBASSY TO PICK UP THE RECRUITMENT QUESTLINE STARTING WITH “A ROYAL OCCASION.”
When World of Warcraft introduced allied races in Legion and Battle for Azeroth, I rushed to unlock them all. While I was excited about all the races, I think Zandalari Trolls were the ones I looked forward to the most. Since unlocking them, the requirements have changed, and many guides aren’t clear on what you need to do now. In this article, I want to provide clear directions on how you can unlock Zandarlari Trolls in Dragonflight.
At a high level, there are 3 requirements to unlock Zandalari Trolls in WoW Dragonflight, which includes:
- Finishing the main storyline in all 3 Zandalar zones and 2 other story quests (using Horde character).
- Completing parts 1 and 2 of the Horde War Campaign.
- Doing the 17 recruitment quests, starting at the Orgrimmar Embassy (level 50+ character).
Now that I have given you a little taste of what we will cover… let’s dive into the nitty-gritty details!
Finishing the main storylines of Zandalar
The first requirement to unlock Zandalari trolls is to complete the main storylines on the continent of Zandalar. Doing these storylines will award Zandalar Forever, which is actually made up of 5 minor achievements. Before we go over the individual achievements, let’s make sure you know how to get to Zandalar.
Getting to Zandalar
If you have never been there, you can get to Zandalar by talking to Sylvanas in Orgrimmar (Grommash Hold) to pick up Battle for Azeroth: Mission Statement. This will take you on a short quest chain through Stormwind and eventually to Zandalar. If you have been to Zandalar before and don’t remember how to get there, you can find a portal in the Orgrimmar portal room.
Earning the Zandalar Forever Achievement
Zandalar has three zones with major storylines — Vol’Dun, Nazmir, and Zuldazar. Each zone has multiple “chapters” in its story that you need to complete to earn an achievement. You can check your progress on the chapters by navigating to that zone in your quest log. This will show a box for story progress at the top. Here is an example of my Zuldazar story progress in my quest log.
You can do the zone stories in whatever order you want. Once you complete the main storyline in each zone, it will reward an achievement. The main areas and their accompanying achievement are listed below:
- Vol’Dun (Secrets in the Sands)
- Nazmir (The Dark Heart of Nazmir)
- Zuldazar (The Throne of Zuldazar)
In addition to these zone storylines, you will also need to complete 2 other quest chains. The first one starts with a quest called The Blood Gate. This can be started with a level 10 character and is picked up in the city of Dazar’alor. Completing this quest chain will award A Bargain of Blood, another achievement needed for Zandalar Forever.
The final piece you will need to earn Zandalar Forever is finishing The Final Seal. This quest chain requires that you have completed all other parts of the Zandalar Forever achievement before you can start it. Once you have done the other 4, this one should show up as a golden exclamation point on your map in Dazar’alor. It involves a short combat-driven scenario that doesn’t take long to complete.
Overall, completing all the Zandalar storylines will take about 4-6 hours for the average player, depending on whether you have flying unlocked. Fortunately, the time you invest into finishing Secrets in the Sands will also help you unlock Vulperia at the same time.
Okay, that is one step down… two to go.
Completing parts 1 and 2 of the Horde War Campaign
The second requirement to unlock Zandalari Trolls is to complete the first two parts of the Horde War Campaign. These quests require your character to be level 35+ and can be started on the ship at the south end of Dazar’alor.
Part 1 of the campaign requires you to establish footholds on the alliance continent of Kul’Tiras and complete a few other quests. In total, there are 8 quest lines included in the first part which include:
- Drustvar Foothold
- Stormsong Valley Foothold
- The Marshal’s Grave
- At the Bottom of the Sea
- Tiragarde Sound Foothold
- The First Assault
- Death of a Tidesage
- The Strike on Boralus
Once you finish all the storylines on this list, you will be awarded Ready for War and can begin the second part.
For the second part, you will be given the Tides of Vengeance achievement; once you do the following 4 questlines:
Completing the first two parts of the War Campaign will take the average player 2-3 hours. While there are more parts to the campaign, you only need to go until you get Tides of Vengeance to unlock Zandalari Trolls.
On a side note, obtaining Ready for War is the requirement for getting the Mag’har Orc allied race. So, if you do the first two requirements, you should have what you need to start the Vulperia and Mag’har questlines.
Even better, you are now ready to begin the questline to officially play as a Zandalari Troll!
Do the 17-quest Zandalari Troll recruitment storyline.
To start the Zandalari Troll quest chain, you will need to visit the Orgrimmar Embassy. This is located in the southwest corner of the city. You will find the quest giver, Rokhan, inside the hut at the embassy.
The quest he gives you is called A Royal Occasion. As an important note, beginning this quest requires you to be level 50+.
After accepting the quest, you will use the Zandalar portal to travel back and play through a short series of quests. This chain goes pretty quick and will take the average player about 30 minutes to an hour to complete.
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 | Mag’har Orc |
| Lightforged Draenei | Nightborne |
| Mechagnome | Zandalari Troll |
| Void Elf | Vulpera |
Frequently Asked Questions
Based on the requirements, it takes about 6 – 10 hours to unlock Zandalari Trolls from scratch. If you have already done some Zandalar questing or the War Campaign, it may be faster. For players who do not have flying in BFA zones, it will take longer.
Zandalari Trolls can play as 10 of the 12 classes in World of Warcraft. They cannot play as Warlocks or Demon Hunters. Every other class is fair game, including:
Druid
Death Knight
Hunter
Mage
Monk
Paladin
Priest
Rogue
Shaman
Warrior
Zandalari Trolls have some of the most exciting traits of any race in the game. One of the coolest ones is Embrace of the Loa, which allows you to choose a Loa to follow in return for a buff to your character.
You can change the Loa you follow by visiting the appropriate shrine in Zuldazar. This can only be changed every once every 5 days. For the exact locations of each shrine and the buff each Loa provides, check out our article on the Zandalari Troll Loa Shrines.
In addition to the Loa buffs, you also have access to an ability that reduces your falling speed (Pterrordax Swoop) and one which regenerates 100% of your maximum health (Regeneratin’).
Zandalari Trolls also have a 2% increase on all gold earn from creatures thanks to the City of Gold buff.
Final Thoughts
It takes a few hours to earn the Zandalari Troll allied race, but the steps are pretty straightforward. In summary, you need to play through the main storyline of Zuldazar, the faction Campaign, and the recruitment questline. No reputation (rep) grind required!
Thanks for reading, and enjoy cruising around on your new Zandalari Direhorn!
You are no longer required to complete the war campaign or the story lines in each zone. Just go to the embassy and do the last part where you witness talanjis ascension.
I have the achievments “Zandalari forever” and “Ready for war” since back in 2018. So, according to the guide I should be able to pick up “Our war continues” for Nathanos aboard the ship to continue with the “Tides of vengance” achievment. However, when I board the ship, he stands there and does not offer any quest. When I log into another character, the ship is not even there.
How should I go about getting this damn quest? I’ve tried so many things.
Sorry to hear about that Jacob. I would definitely recommend you download the BtWQuests and BtWQuests: Battle for Azeroth addons. From there, you can search for the “Our War Continues” quest and see what prerequisites you are missing!
I believe “Our War Continues” is offered by Sylvanas on the boat and is tied to another quest called “The Day is Won.”
Hopefully that helps!
Thanks for the great guides. However, I am trying to do the Zandalari trolls unlock and cannot pick up Tracking Tidesages after having done The Marshall’s Grave section – it keeps saying I need ‘Generic – Dummy that’s never used for quest invis kill credit’ as a requirement – I went back to Nathanos in Zandalar and went to Stormsong Valley but Rexxar won’t give me the quest.
Can this not be done at 60? Purge the Infecrion won’t pop so I can’t finish Nazmir. WTF.
That is strange… if you haven’t done so yet, I would download the BtwQuests and BtwQuests: Battle for Azeroth addons and see where things are getting stuck in the quest chain. They are great addons and allow you to see the full quest chain in tree form and you can hover over incomplete quests to see the prerequisites.
Your guides are great. I play Alliance normally but I wanted to get these done and they have been very helpful.
A note for anyone that needs the Zandalar Forever achievement: As of 9.2 you have to do the 3 BFA zones on the SAME character. If you don’t you will not be able to start The Blood Gate quest. I confirmed this with a GM. Hopefully we’ll get full account-wide achievements someday.
Thanks again through…I wouldn’t have gotten through Nightbourne without these guides.
Thanks! Glad the guides have been helpful. I try to update them based on feedback so I’ll look into adding your caveat regarding using the same character. Congrats on unlocking Nightborne, it can be a trip!
Hey, I used to play and started again recently and i very much want to get the new races as well, i went on an old account and got it level 45 then talked to ji firepaw in the embassy in orgrimmar but now i have no clue as to the next step. i took the boat on the echo isles but got no quests in zandular, any idea as to what i should do?
Hi, thanks for the comment. I assume you are playing a Horde character? If so you can start the Zandalar quests by picking up Battle for Azeroth: Mission Statement in Orgrimmar.
Without knowing what quests your character has completed, it is hard to know exactly what the problem is. Maybe try downloading the BtWQuests and BtWQuests: Battle for Azeroth addons. That will give you a dungeon-journal for the Zandalar quests and tell you what the prerequisites are to start certain quest chains.
Hope that helps!
Sorry, just checked, the bargain of blood is needed for zandalar forever, still cant start any meaningful quests in war campaign before level 50 though.
Yeah unfortunately most of the campaign requires level 50. I will look at updating to clarify that it is mainly the foothold quests that you can start working on at level 35. Thanks for reading!
Im not sure when this was published but right now, in order to do the rest of the war campaign beyond just setting footholds, you need to be level 50.
Also, the blood gate does not seem to be a requirement for zanadalar forever achievment.