Chances are a lot of you already have the Allied Races unlocked if you have pre-purchased Battle For Azeroth, though I am still seeing a lot of people struggling with the various reputation grinds necessary to play these new races. With that in mind, It's certainly a good idea to have an easy guide on how to unlock Allied Races for those who are perhaps returning or even new to World of Warcraft and want to play around with the shiny new races.

Requirements

First thing's first, and hopefully most obvious, to unlock Allied Races you will need to pre-purchase Battle For Azeroth on your World of Warcraft account. Without the expansion, you cannot access the races. If you are new or returning and want to catch up quickly, that pre-order does come with a character boost to 110 which is the current max level and you will need it to work through a lot of these pre-requisites, so that may be a big help in your journey to unlocking the new races.

  • Nightborne: Exalted with the Nightfallen and completion of Insurrection

  • Void Elf: Exalted with the Argussian Reach and completion of You Are Now Prepared!

  • Lightforged Draenei: Exalted with the Army of the Light and completion of You Are Now Prepared!

  • Highmountain Tauren: Exalted with the Highmountain Tribe and completion of Ain't No Mountain High Enough

So let's go down the list.

Unlocking the Nightborne

You will need to complete the Insurrection achievement and be Exalted with the Nightfallen faction to unlock the Nightborne as a playable race, which may look more intimidating than it actually is.

To start Insurrection, you will need to be at 20000/21000 Revered reputation with the Nightfallen and complete the quest "A Change of Seasons", which culminates the first part of the Suramar campaign. Suramar can be a long, arduous grind so I would recommend you settle in and enjoy the story. Read the quest text, watch the cutscenes, listen to the music, and enjoy the experience, because it is an amazing zone. If, however, you really would rather not then get yourself something to watch or listen to and buckle in. You can complete all of the raid quests on LFR, which makes things a fair bit easier, and you will get the Arcanist's Manasaber mount for completing Insurrection and killing Gul'dan. The map will usually tell you where to pick up the next major quest, if not just head back to the Arcan'dor and you should find the next part. There's a lot of feeding fruit to Elves and Artifact Power to gain.

As for the reputation, you will get a lot just for completing all of these quests, and there are a lot, but you can also complete World Quests - of which more will unlock the further through the questline you get - and gain Insignia rep tokens from your Class Order Hall mission table and treasure chests, these are Bind on Account so if you have alts it may be worth checking their mission tables, too.

Unlocking Void Elves

Void Elves are a fair bit easier to unlock than Nightborne for players newer to Legion content as the You Are Now Prepared achievement required only needs you to complete the Argus campaign, which is quite a bit quicker to complete than Suramar. Simply follow the story and you'll complete the achievement.

Reaching exalted with the Argussian Reach can seem a bit slow, but the further through the Argus campaign you get, the more World Quests you will unlock. There will be emissaries to complete, Insignias you can pick up from missions, chests, and sometimes World Quests which only become Bind on Account, the Insignia you can earn through the Kirin Tor emissary if it's up, but there are also Weekly Quests you can complete for even more reputation: Fuel of a Doomed World, Invasion Onslaught, and several Seat of the Triumvirate weekly dungeon quests.

Unlocking Lightforged Draenei

You'll also need to complete You Are Now Prepared to unlock the Lightforged Draenei. The same counts here as for Void Elves.

Army of the Light is the first of the Argus reputations you'll come across during the Argus campaign and the earliest faction you'll unlock World Quests for. Just like the Argussian Reach, you can earn Army of the Light reputation through World Quests, emissaries, Insignias, and the weekly quests: Fuel of a Doomed World and Invasion Onslaught.

Unlocking Highmountain Tauren

The Highmountain questline is the only one on this list that you can start pre-level 110 so if you happen to be leveling through the Broken Shore, consider starting in Highmountain. There is quite a lot to work through here in order to complete the Ain't No Mountain High Enough achievement, though still nowhere near as much as there is in Suramar. Simply work your way through the quests and enjoy the story.

You will gain a lot of reputation with Highmountain just from completing all the quests in the zone, but you will probably still need to do a little more work to reach Exalted. You have a few options here, you can complete any side-quests you come across and, as with Suramar, there are World Quests and emissaries, reputation tokens you may be able to pick up from Class Hall missions and treasure chests.

Speed Up That Reputation Grind

That's a lot of reputation to grind out if you want to unlock all four currently available Allied Races, but there are several ways you can give that grind a bit of a boost. Firstly, do any Kirin Tor emissaries that pop up and choose the Insignia for the faction you're struggling with the most, probably Army of the Light or the Argussian Reach which may have more World Quests but there's less reputation to gain through quest lines. Check your Class Order Hall mission tables and treasure chests in relevant zones on all of your max-level characters to pick up Insignia tokens which offer 250 or 750 reputation. You also have the chance to pick up a Demon's Soulstone from Argus rares that grants 1,000 reputation points to Broken Isles and Argus factions, basically this expansion's Medallion of the Legion. This is Bind on Account and can only be used on Argus.

You can also increase the rate you gain reputation in a few different ways. If you have the choice, I would recommend doing any reputation grinds on a Human character as they have the passive Diplomacy racial that increases all reputation gains by 10%. If the Darkmoon Faire is in town, make sure you're rocking the Darkmoon Faire Top Hat which you can carry around with you and ride the Carousel (these two buffs don't stack so choose one or the other) for an hour-long 10% experience and reputation bonus. Check each week what bonus event is active because if the World Quest bonus is up you will get a 50% reputation bonus to Broken Isles World Quests.

And that's about it for now. We know that Zandalari Trolls and Dark Iron Dwarves will also be options somewhere down the line, likely when Battle For Azeroth launches, but we don't know exactly how they will be unlocked just yet. Perhaps we'll update this guide when we know more but for now, remember that the grind is totally doable, if a little frustrating, and it's totally okay if you decide it's not worth the time. Check this article to see what each Allied Race comes with. If there is anything we missed or you have any additional questions, make sure to leave a comment below and we'll take a look and get back to you!