So, you want to play an allied race in World of Warcraft but don’t have it unlocked? Fear not! In this guide, I’ll show you how to unlock all allied races in World of Warcraft for both Alliance and Horde. Buckle up and get ready for some questing.
In the past, unlocking allied races required a good deal of work. But now you only need to complete an achievement per each race that you want to unlock as well as the miniature quest chain from the Embassy. With that, you have to be level 45+ to unlock any allied race from Legion, and 50+ for anything from Battle For Azeroth.
Before we get started, I would like to offer you some advice for speeding up the process. Unlock flying in Legion and Battle for Azeroth to make the process much smoother and faster. And you can use this attunement tracker to find out which characters on your account are closest to completing the required achievements for each race.
Note: There are certain achievements for Alliance and Horde that share the same name but are tagged by their faction in your achievement sheet. You must complete the Alliance version of these achievements to unlock Alliance allied races and the other way around.
Alliance Allied Races
Let’s start with Alliance. For alliance you have the following Allied races from the following expansions:
- Void Elves – Legion
- Light forged Draenei – Legion
- Dark Iron Dwarves – Battle for Azeroth
- Kul Tirans – Battle for Azeroth
- Mechagnomes – Battle for Azeroth
Shown below is the location of the Stormwind Embassy Highlighted in Blue. You will need to visit this location for every Alliance allied race.
Void Elves and Light Forged Draenei
I will include both of these races together as their requirements are the same. Void Elves and Light forged Draenei coming from legion means you only need level 45+ to begin their quest line to unlock.
Before you can take on their quest lines, however, you must have completed the achievement You Are Now Prepared! This achievement requires that you travel to Argus and complete the main campaign there. In order to gain access to Argus, you need to get these three Achievements:
Once you’ve completed the main campaign in Argus, it’s time to move on to the Stormwind Embassy. Approach the NPC with the quest marker on top of their head, et voila! You can now begin the small quest line for your chosen allied race.
Kul Tirans and Dark Iron Dwarves
Unlocking Kul Tiran Humans require you to quest in all areas of Kul Tiras. You must complete these 3 achievements to unlock Kul Tiran Humans:
In order to begin the Tides of Vengeance, you must first complete Ready for War. This achievement requires you to complete the war campaign in Kul Tiras. It can be done by periodically returning to Tiragarde Sound and grabbing the quests as they appear every few levels.
For A Nation United, you will need to complete the main storyline for each area in Kul Tiras. This includes Tiragarde Sound, the capital of this region for Alliance, Drustvar, and Stormsong Valley.
After completion, head on over to our favorite location for all your allied race needs, the Stormwind embassy. Grab the quest of the NPC and after a short quest line, you now have access to the Kul Tiran Humans!
Oh, but wait, I forgot Dark Iron Dwarves! Or did I? Dark Iron dwarves are actually unlocked as a bonus from unlocking Kul Tiran Humans. Dark Iron Dwarves only require the achievement Ready for War, allowing you to grab both allied race quests at the same time and get the two for one special.
Mechagnomes
For Mechagnomes, you must first unlock Mechagon. In order to unlock Mechagon, you must have reached level 50 at least, and start the quest chain in Boralus Harbor called The Wolf’s Offensive. Upon receiving the quest, you will need to complete the quest chain all the way up to and including The Legend of Mechagon.
Mechagnomes only need one achievement completed after unlocking Mechagon, however, this achievement is expected to take several hours and a dungeon to complete. This achievement is called “The Mechagonian Threat” and for your efforts, you will be rewarded with a race that makes you feel like an inspector gadget.
Horde Allied Races
For the horde we have the following races to unlock from the following expansions:
- Highmountain Tauren – Legion
- Nightborne – Legion
- Mag’har Orcs – Battle for Azeroth
- Zandalari Trolls – Battle for Azeroth
- Vulpera – Battle for Azeroth
After completing the achievements per each race, you can find their corresponding unlock quest at the Orgrimmar Embassy highlighted below in red.
Highmountain Tauren
Highmountain Taurens are among my favorite races and are actually really easy and fast to unlock, easily done in one sitting. You are required to complete the achievement Ain’t No Mountain High Enough involving completing the main storyline in Highmountain.
The main story of Highmountain will take you around an hour if you press the gas pedal and forget where the brakes are making this an easy pickup while leveling.
You know the drill, return to the embassy, pick up the quest from Spiritwalker Ebonhorn, and congratulations! Highmountain Tauren horns for everyone!
Nightborne Elves
“An Illusion! What are you hiding?” Get used to this phrase, you’ll be hearing it a lot while unlocking the Nightborne. The Nightborne elves are unlocked by completing the main storyline of Suramar.
Thanks to the removal of reputation requirements, this storyline is no longer “rep gated” and can be completed in one sitting. The achievement you will need to complete is called Insurrection.
This was honestly one of my favorite locations in Legion to play. This quest line takes a couple of hours to complete but is very fun to play your first time through. Head to the Orgrimmar Embassy and grab your Nightborne questline to finish it off and start blazing a trail with your Nightborne elf!
Zandalari Trolls Vulpera, and Mag’har Orcs
We’ve arrived at the Zandalari Trolls. This race, much like the Kul Tiran Humans, will simultaneously complete the requirements for the second race as well as the third race following, the Vulpera, and the Mag’har Orcs. You will need to complete 3 achievements to unlock the use of the Zandalari Trolls as shown below:
In order to begin the quest line for Tides of Vengeance, you must first complete the Ready for War achievement to unlock access. You can complete Ready for War while leveling and periodically returning to Zuldazar and grabbing the quest every few levels as they appear.
As far as completing Zandalar Forever!, you will be required to complete each region’s main storyline in Zandalar. This region includes the areas of Zuldazar, the main capital of this region for Horde, Vol’dun, and Nazmir.
After completing these achievements, you can return to Orgrimmar and grab the unlock quest from the NPC at the Embassy. After a short quest line for each race, you can now officially unlock the Zandalari Trolls, the Vulpera, and the Mag’har Orcs!
So that just about does it for this guide on how to unlock allied races in World of Warcraft! Now that you’ve united the people of Azeroth into combined forces, get out there and show the enemies of Azeroth what you’ve got!
