WoW Forever Drowned City guide: entrance, quests, every boss, loot and the hidden Primeval Elemental

The Drowned City is a level 35 to 40 dungeon that plays more like 37 to 40

The Drowned City is one of the nine dungeons that are new in World of Warcraft: Forever. Blizzard’s dungeon overview puts it at levels 35 to 40, off the coast of Stranglethorn Vale, and describes troll ruins that have risen out of the sea, now held by trolls and naga, with a wrecked pirate ship nearby. It is open to the sky, and the weather builds from mist to a full storm before the last fight.

The level range is generous. Live database entries and player reports put the bosses at 37 (Zul’Alai), 38 (Var’Taka, Captain Dreadrise and the Primeval Elemental), 39 (Deathless Marrow) and 40 (Min’loth the Serpent), and the first crabs inside are already 37 to 38. A thread on Blizzard’s forums titled “Drowned City is NOT a level 35 dungeon” sums up the player view: “Stop queueing if you are under 37/38.” Low-level melee miss too often to carry their weight on Deathless Marrow, which is a damage check.

It is also long. Players report anything from 30 minutes with a tank who knows the route to more than two hours for a first run, and around an hour is typical. Several say the trash respawns after about an hour, so a slow group can find the entrance refilled after a late wipe.

Our dungeon and raid list shows where it sits among the nine new dungeons, and the leveling guide covers the dungeon XP rules.

The entrance is an underwater cave west of the Vile Reef, at about 21.4, 27.9

The portal is inside Sunken Hollow, a cave on the sea floor off the north-west coast of Stranglethorn Vale, due west of Grom’gol Base Camp and just past the Vile Reef. Player-measured coordinates cluster around 21.4, 27.9. Look for a cave mouth with a large stone tablet beside it. Brinescale naga swim all around it. There is no boat, so both factions swim.

• Horde: take the zeppelin or a flight to Grom’gol Base Camp, then swim west over the Vile Reef and dive. Three of your quests start at Grom’gol, and the Brinescale Skirmishers you need for one of them are right outside the cave.
• Alliance: Booty Bay is the only Alliance flight path in the zone and it is a long way south, so many players come down the coast from Westfall or Duskwood instead. Grom’gol’s guards are hostile, so stay offshore as you pass it.

The dive is deep and parts of the dungeon are fully underwater, so bring something for your breath: a Warlock’s Unending Breath, a Shaman’s Water Breathing, a Druid’s Aquatic Form, or water breathing potions for everyone else. Forsaken hold their breath longer.

Each faction has five Drowned City quests, and two of them are shared

Names, objectives and item rewards are from live database entries, checked against players’ runs. XP figures are what players reported at turn-in. Every quest inside is level 38 to 40.

Both factions

Alliance quests

The Southshore quests are the slow ones to unlock. At the Rebel Camp, Sergeant Yohwa gives The Second Rebellion and Bad Medicine, then Brother Nimetz gives Kurzen’s Mystery, Troll Witchery and finally An Acquaintance in Southshore, which sends you to Dibbs. Troll Witchery is the wall. It wants fetishes from Skullsplitter Mystics and Witch Doctors, which are thinly spread among big packs, and one player on Blizzard’s forums reported four hours and twenty kills without a single drop. Bring friends, and remember every player needs their own.

Inside, Take Two With Water asks for rubbings of the four Tablets of I’lalai. Magics of the Drowned City asks for 5 I’lalai Fetishes from the undead trolls. Creator tygarlily found Profane Necromancers the most generous. Ancient Gurubashi Secrets wants the Ancient Gurubashi Idol from the Deathless Marrow fight.

Horde quests

Kin’weelay’s chain is quick. The Vile Reef sends you to a tablet in the reef (you can reach it from the outside edge without waking the elite murlocs), The Gurubashi Legends of Old to a second tablet in the troll ruins on the hills to the north, and Locating the Lost City just asks you to swim to the dungeon cave. Enemies in the Water opens after the second tablet. Do not delete the hide and charcoal you are given: you need them for the rubbings inside.

The Drowned City is the Horde copy of the tablet quest, The Only Good Brinescale… is a boss kill (Var’Taka), and Ancient Gurubashi Idol wants the same idol as the Alliance’s Dalaran quest. Mazu’kon stands at the Skywatcher Plateau, the same Earthen Ring camp that the Excavation Site relic chain ends at.

Where the four Tablets of I’lalai are

1. First tablet: just past Zul’Alai. Go up the big staircase and look down to the left, at the foot of a skull totem.
2. Second tablet: beside Var’Taka, on the left (naga) side of the city.
3. Third tablet: beside Captain Dreadrise, on the right (pirate) side.
4. Fourth tablet: at the very back, next to Min’loth the Serpent.

Three creators’ runs agree on those four spots. Click the last one before you leave. One player reported on November 12 that the fourth tablet gave no credit after the Min’loth kill, so check your quest log while the group is still there.

The city is not linear: go up, left, underwater, then right, then to the back

You arrive in a cave and fight up a hill past Chasm Crawlers and Makrura Snappers to Zul’Alai. Past him, a staircase opens onto the whole city: a large square pool in the middle with a wing on each side and more ruins behind it. The route most groups settle on, described the same way by a player on Blizzard’s forums and by creators Saucy722 and Combats Gaming Den, is:

1. Zul’Alai, then the first tablet.
2. Left to the naga wing for Var’Taka and the second tablet. Click the Glowing Pearl.
3. Into the water beside Var’Taka’s area for the hidden Primeval Elemental.
4. Back up and across to the right wing for the Saltseer pirates, Captain Dreadrise and the third tablet. Click the second Glowing Pearl.
5. West to Deathless Marrow, then through the passage behind it to Min’loth the Serpent and the fourth tablet.

The two Glowing Pearls, one near Var’Taka and one near Captain Dreadrise, take down a barrier that blocks the way deeper in, so both of those bosses are required even if nobody has their quests.

The trash is what kills groups. Things players call out:

• Chasm Crawlers and Makrura Snappers at the start hit the tank hard. Crawlers lower Strength with Muscle Tear and Snappers stack Sunder Armor. Pull one pack at a time.
• Risen Sentries charge and knock players back, often into the next pack. Fight with your back to a wall.
• Profane Necromancers cast Conjure Spirit, which adds Drowned Spirits to the pull. Interrupt it or kill them first.
• Brinescale Sorceresses hit with Frostbolt and cast a Fear. The packs are tight, so one feared player usually means a second pack. Interrupt the Fear, and drop Tremor Totem if you have a Shaman.

Deathless Marrow is the fight that ends runs

Abilities below are named in live database entries or by at least two players’ runs unless we say otherwise. Blizzard has not published tactics, so read the boss tooltips as you go.

Zul’Alai, the undead troll at the top of the hill

A level 37 undead troll standing in front of a gong. Monstrous Slam is a visible cast that damages and stuns everyone close to him, so melee step out and ranged stay back. Rotted Strike slows the tank’s movement and attacks and can be dispelled. At 30% health he gains Undying Oath: he attacks faster and regenerates, so save cooldowns and finish him quickly. One creator’s level 37 to 40 group killed him in about 30 seconds.

Var’Taka, the Brinescale leader

A level 38 naga up a staircase in the left wing, with two Brinescale Priestesses who heal him and throw Frostbolts. Clear the sorceresses and side packs in the room first, then kill or crowd-control the priestesses before you touch the boss. He cleaves in front of him, so only the tank stands there, and Harpoon yanks a random player into melee: walk straight back out. Click the Glowing Pearl afterwards.

Captain Dreadrise, the Saltseer captain

A level 38 pirate in the open plaza on the right side of the central pool, surrounded by his crew. Clear the pirates first (you want their artifacts anyway). Embrine traps a random player in a water bubble that stuns and drowns them: everyone switches to the bubble and breaks it. Waterbolt Volley hits the whole group and should be interrupted every time. Two players reported being stuck at walking speed after the boss died while they were still in the bubble, so free the trapped player before the killing blow. Click the Glowing Pearl afterwards.

Deathless Marrow, the blood orb

A level 39 orb of blood floating over a stone bowl at an altar on the west side. It casts Bloodbolt on the group for the whole fight while waves of Deathless Guardians, Sorcerers and Watchers keep arriving. Guardians stun, Sorcerers throw Fireball and Watchers charge. The trick is that every add you kill makes the orb take 20% more damage. Ignore the adds and you will not out-damage its health pool. Kill only adds and the healer runs dry.

What works, in the words of one tank on Blizzard’s forums: “burn about 6 mobs for the debuff” and then turn everything on the orb while the tank holds whatever is left. Creator Saucy722 warns that the encounter starts a gauntlet, so eat and drink first. The Ancient Gurubashi Idol for the Dalaran and Mulgore quests comes from this fight. Loot it at once: one player died on the kill and found the corpse, and the idol, gone by the time they had run back.

Min’loth the Serpent, the witch doctor at the back

A level 40 troll at the end of a long hall, reached by the passage behind Deathless Marrow with no trash in between. He has two health bars. As a troll he hits the tank with Drench and washes the whole group with Deluge. At zero he transforms into a giant serpent at full health while the storm breaks overhead. The serpent casts Poison Bolt Volley on everyone and a Fear. Cleanse the poison, keep Tremor Totem or Fear Ward up, and hold your cooldowns for this phase.

Two details come from a single creator each: tygarlily describes a Horrifying Presence debuff near the boss that cuts healing by 30%, so ranged should stand at maximum distance, and Bulwark’s tank called out a Mortal Strike in serpent form.

The hidden boss is the Primeval Elemental: kill every Undying Offering to summon it

The Primeval Elemental is not standing anywhere when you arrive, which is why players keep calling it the secret boss. To find it:

1. From Var’Taka’s area in the left wing, go back down and dive into the pool beside his stairs.
2. Follow the underwater tunnel. The whole section is flooded, with piranha-like Bladetooth Frenzies on the way.
3. You reach a dark, round flooded chamber full of undead trolls called Undying Offerings.
4. Kill all of them. The Primeval Elemental spawns on top of you the moment the last one dies. There is nothing to click.

The elemental is level 38. Freeze Water (some players call it Frozen Water) is a channeled area spell that slows and stacks up damage fast: interrupt it every time. It also casts an interruptible Waterbolt at the tank. Otherwise it is a simple fight in a cramped room.

The danger is your breath bar. There are air pockets along the ceiling and small cubbies near the top of the chamber where you can surface, and you cannot sit and drink down there. Saucy722 noticed mana fish in the tunnel that restore mana to players near them when they die, which we have not seen a second player confirm. Use water breathing before you dive.

It is worth the detour for casters. It drops the Heart of the Primeval trinket, the Robe of the Drowned and the Waterlogged Burial Shroud. A player on Blizzard’s forums called the trinket “the best caster trinket at my level”.

Three rare spawns that are not there every run

• Umbra: a level 38 murloc near the stairs up to Var’Taka, with five Saltscale murlocs whose bleeds stack. Tank everything and use area damage.
• Gill: one report places him near the path to the Primeval Elemental. He throws dynamite at the tank that splashes, so spread out. Sources disagree on what he is: one calls him a goblin, live data files him as an elemental.
• “Pyromancer” Braxton: a human in the pirate section, according to one report. A November 9 bug report describes him tossing a flame onto a pyre and then standing there without fighting.

Zin’aka, the shark in the central pool

Zin’aka is a level 45 elite shark circling the big pool, five levels above the last boss. It is not in the dungeon journal, no quest needs it, and players who killed it report that it drops nothing. It kills a level-appropriate tank in one or two hits. Walk around the pool.

Every boss drops three blue items, and each has roughly a one in three chance

All boss drops are rare quality and bind when picked up. Stats are from the live item tooltips.

Zul’Alai’s drops require level 34, Var’Taka’s, Captain Dreadrise’s and the Primeval Elemental’s require 35, Deathless Marrow’s 36 and Min’loth’s 37. Loot data collected from players puts every item on that table between 27% and 41%, with the Heart of the Primeval the most common. The Bloodspine Staff is the standout for casters and healers, and the Harpoon of Command for bear tanks and hunters.

The rares each carry two items: Umbra drops Deep-Dweller’s Grips (cloth hands, +11 Spirit, 1% hit) or the Umbral Scaled Belt (mail waist, +12 Intellect, +14 Attack Power). Gill drops Gill’s Gills (trinket, +12 Attack Power, underwater breath lasts 50% longer) or the Tidebound Dagger (up to 56 Frost spell damage). “Pyromancer” Braxton drops the Pyromancer’s Baton (one-hand mace with a Fire burn on hit) or Flamestarter’s Signet (ring, +10 Intellect, up to 9 Fire spell damage).

Live data also lists a pair of mail boots, Linken’s Boots of Iron, on several bosses’ tables. We have not found a player who has seen them drop.

Min’loth does not yet give Experienced Spelunker credit

The Drowned City counts toward the Experienced Spelunker Legacy challenge, and live data ties that credit to the last boss. Since November 8, players have reported on Blizzard’s forums that killing Min’loth the Serpent after a full clear does not tick the dungeon off. Reports were still coming in on November 13 and Blizzard’s hotfix notes through November 12 do not mention a fix. Some players suspect the shark is the real requirement. One forum poster had “heard reports” that killing it grants the credit, with no proof, so do not wipe your group on Zin’aka to test it.

One Warlock also reported that a Succubus cannot path to Deathless Marrow, so swap pets for that fight.

FAQ

Source & credit

Level range, location and the dungeon description come from Blizzard’s dungeon overview for World of Warcraft: Forever, and the fixes and tuning changes from Blizzard’s hotfix notes of November 6 and November 9, 2026. Quest names and objectives, boss names, item stats and drop rates were checked against live database entries and the Warcraft Wiki on November 13, 2026. Quest givers, tablet spots, the route, boss tactics and the Primeval Elemental summon come from players’ runs: threads on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Forever forums and videos by tygarlily, Saucy722, Bulwark, Dirkentosh and Combats Gaming Den. None of the tactics are confirmed by Blizzard. Images are frames from Blizzard’s Your Adventure Begins video. Our coverage: the Drowned City reveal, the new zones by level and the dungeon and raid list.