Midway Mayhem: A Challenger’s Guide to the Darkmoon Faire

The Darkmoon Faire is an event that WoW Players can take their characters to in order to experience a carnival like atmosphere. There is food, games, rides, music, competitions, and all sorts of fun souvenirs to buy. This event usually starts on the first Sunday of the month, runs for one week, and recurs monthly.

The Darkmoon Faire takes place on Darkmoon Island. In order to gain access to the island, you’ll need to utilize one of two portals depending on your faction. Darkmoon Faire representatives can be found in all of the capital cities including Shattrath and Northrend Dalaran. These representatives can teleport you to your faction’s Darkmoon Faire portal location for a small fee to save you some travel time. The portals that allow you to gain entry to Darkmoon Island are only accessible during the event.

Alliance players will need to use the portal in Elwynn Forest, which can be found in Goldshire near the Lion’s Pride Inn. Horde players will need to use the portal in Mulgore, which is located along the road at the base of Thunder Bluff.

The following information is for the Solo Iron Man Challenge and Iron Man Teams Challenge. For information on the other challenge variants please see below.

Quests
The Darkmoon Faire has a handful of quests available to do. While some of them are off limits to Irons due to profession requirements, there are a couple that are ALLOWED:
The Darkmoon Faire(H)/The Darkmoon Faire (A): This is the breadcrumb quest to get you to Darkmoon Island where the faire takes place. We like to refer to this as the “bag” quest sometimes since this quest awards you 5 tickets for turning it in. You can then use those tickets to buy and sell 4 Darkmoon Storage Boxes and keep the 5th one as a “free” 16 slot bag if you so choose. You can redeem those tickets for the storage boxes from Gelvas Grimgate. The Darkmoon Storage Box is considered to be a unique item, meaning you can only have one on your person at a time. You will need to buy one and then sell it before you can purchase the next one.
Test Your Strength: This quest asks you to collect 250 Grisly Trophies. These can only be looted from mobs that grant experience or honor and you will need to have the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide on you. While this quest is allowed whether you attempt it or not is up to your discretion. Killing mobs for some classes at higher levels as an Iron challenger can be deadly.

Mini Game Daily Quests
The Darkmoon Faire has 7 mini games that count as daily quests available to play. These dailies do not award experience points. Instead, they will award you Darkmoon Faire tickets that can be used to purchase a large assortment of souvenirs.
All of the mini games are ALLOWED for Irons but you may want to keep the following in mind if you are weighing risk versus reward while choosing what to play.
The Humanoid Cannonball: This daily quest involves you getting into a cannon and launching yourself into the air in the direction of a target ring along the coast. There is a button for you to press to descend to the ground to try to land in the middle of the target ring. While this sounds simple enough, if you hit this button too soon you could descend while still over land and there is a good chance that will not end well for your challenger. There were some comments on WoWHead where some people didn’t receive the floating wing buff at all and got launched into a tree.
Firebird’s Challenge: This daily quest involves flying through the air through rings of fire within a time limit. Caution should be used if you attempt this one as it should with all flying around in the air quests. Something could go wrong causing you to plummet to the ground and certain doom.

Adventurer’s Guide Turn Ins
While you are NOT ALLOWED to participate in battlegrounds or partake in a murderous rampage through dungeons, you are ALLOWED to turn in the Darkmoon Faire quest items from those activities providing your character finds them in the auction house and has the money on hand to purchase them. Each of these turn-ins rewards experience and is repeatable monthly.

The following is a list of potential Darkmoon Faire quest items you might find in the Auction House: Fallen Adventurer’s Journal, Banner of the Fallen, Captured Insignia, Soothsayer’s Runes, Imbued Crystal, Monstrous Egg, Mysterious Grimoire, Ornate Weapon, and A Treatise on Strategy

Off To The Races
The quests and daily quests Welcome to the Darkmoon Races, The Real Race, and The Real Big Race are ALLOWED. These daily quests do not give experience points. Please keep in mind that these quests take you around different parts of the island. One of them takes you right past where Moonfang is often being killed. There is a risk of death from Moonfang’s spells if you happen to run by at the wrong time. In our personal opinion, this set of quests is not worth the risk and should be avoided.

The Darkmoon Rabbit and Moonfang
Due to the rule change, world bosses are NOT ALLOWED for challengers.

Musical Interlude
The Blight Boar concert can be found in the Cauldron of Rock. This is an event that requests your help defending the band from the Death Metal Knight and his Ghouls. This event requires further testing so for the time being, we are considering this a world boss and is NOT ALLOWED. This is a fight your challenger will most likely not survive without help. Leave this event to your normal characters.

A Buffing Good Time
The Darkmoon Top Hat is an item that when used grants a buff to experience and reputation gains. This item is NOT ALLOWED.

Currently, there are 2 different rides available at the Darkmoon Faire. The Darkmoon Carousel and the Darkmoon Rollercoaster. Both of these rides provide an experience and reputation gained buff which is NOT ALLOWED making these rides off limits.

Sayge the fortune dispensing gnoll gives out buffs depending on how you answer his questions. These buffs are NOT ALLOWED.

Pet Battle Quests
The pet battle quests Darkmoon Pet Battle and A New Darkmoon Challenger are NOT ALLOWED due to pet battling being off limits for challengers.

Green Man & Green Teams
The following quests are ALLOWED:
The Darkmoon Faire(H)/The Darkmoon Faire (A): This is the breadcrumb quest to get you to Darkmoon Island where the faire takes place. We like to refer to this as the “bag” quest sometimes since this quest awards you 5 tickets for turning it in. You can then use those tickets to buy and sell 4 Darkmoon Storage Boxes and keep the 5th one as a “free” 16 slot bag if you so choose. You can redeem those tickets for the storage boxes from Gelvas Grimgate. The Darkmoon Storage Box is considered to be a unique item, meaning you can only have one on your person at a time. You will need to buy one and then sell it before you can purchase the next one.
Test Your Strength: This quest asks you to collect 250 Grisly Trophies. These can only be looted from mobs that grant experience or honor and you will need to have the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide on you. While this quest is allowed whether you attempt it or not is up to your discretion. Killing mobs for some classes at higher levels can be deadly.

The daily quest mini games are ALLOWED. These daily quest mini games do not give experience points and caution should be used with the mini games listed below:
The Humanoid Cannonball: This daily quest involves you getting into a cannon and launching yourself into the air in the direction of a target ring along the coast. There is a button for you to press to descend to the ground to try to land in the middle of the target ring. While this sounds simple enough, if you hit this button too soon you could descend while still over land and there is a good chance that will not end well for your challenger. There were some comments on WoWHead where some people didn’t receive the floating wing buff at all and got launched into a tree.
Firebird’s Challenge: This daily quest involves flying through the air through rings of fire within a time limit. Caution should be used if you attempt this one as it should with all flying around in the air quests. Something could go wrong causing you to plummet to the ground and certain doom.

You are ALLOWED to turn in the following Darkmoon Faire quest items if you find them in the auction house and can afford them. Each of these turn-ins rewards experience and is repeatable monthly. You are NOT ALLOWED to buy these on a different character and send them to your challenger.
Fallen Adventurer’s Journal, Banner of the Fallen, Captured Insignia, Soothsayer’s Runes, Imbued Crystal, Monstrous Egg, Mysterious Grimoire, Ornate Weapon, and A Treatise on Strategy

The quests and daily quests Welcome to the Darkmoon Races, The Real Race, and The Real Big Race are ALLOWED but the daily quests give no experience points. Also, keep in mind that these quests take you around different parts of the island. One of them takes you right past where Moonfang is often being killed. There is a risk of death from Moonfang’s spells if you happen to run by at the wrong time.

Due to the rule change, the world bosses The Darkmoon Rabbit and Moonfang are NOT ALLOWED for challengers.

The Blight Boar concert can be found in the Cauldron of Rock. This is an event that requests your help defending the band from the Death Metal Knight and his Ghouls. This event requires further testing so for the time being, we are considering this a world boss and is NOT ALLOWED. This is a fight your challenger will most likely not survive without help. Leave this event to your normal characters.

The buffs from the Darkmoon Top Hat, Darkmoon Carousel, and the Darkmoon Rollercoaster are NOT ALLOWED.

Sayge the fortune dispensing gnoll gives out buffs depending on how you answer his questions. These buffs are NOT ALLOWED.

The pet battle quests Darkmoon Pet Battle and A New Darkmoon Challenger are NOT ALLOWED due to pet battling being off limits for challengers.

Tin Man
The following quests are ALLOWED:
The Darkmoon Faire(H)/The Darkmoon Faire (A): This is the breadcrumb quest to get you to Darkmoon Island where the faire takes place. We like to refer to this as the “bag” quest sometimes since this quest awards you 5 tickets for turning it in. You can then use those tickets to buy and sell 4 Darkmoon Storage Boxes and keep the 5th one as a “free” 16 slot bag if you so choose. You can redeem those tickets for the storage boxes from Gelvas Grimgate. The Darkmoon Storage Box is considered to be a unique item, meaning you can only have one on your person at a time. You will need to buy one and then sell it before you can purchase the next one.
Test Your Strength: This quest asks you to collect 250 Grisly Trophies. These can only be looted from mobs that grant experience or honor and you will need to have the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide on you. Those attempting a zero-death run may want to use caution with this one as you get higher in levels.

The daily quest mini games are ALLOWED. Please keep in mind that these daily quest mini games do not give experience points and while deaths are not an issue for Tin  challengers, caution should be used with the mini games listed below if you are attempting a zero death run:
The Humanoid Cannonball: This daily quest involves you getting into a cannon and launching yourself into the air in the direction of a target ring along the coast. There is a button for you to press to descend to the ground to try to land in the middle of the target ring. While this sounds simple enough, if you hit this button too soon you could descend while still over land and there is a good chance that will not end well for your challenger. There were some comments on WoWHead where some people didn’t receive the floating wing buff at all and got launched into a tree.
Firebird’s Challenge: This daily quest involves flying through the air through rings of fire within a time limit. Caution should be used if you attempt this one as it should with all flying around in the air quests. Something could go wrong causing you to plummet to the ground and certain doom.

You are ALLOWED to turn in the following Darkmoon Faire quest items if you find them in the auction house and can afford them. Each of these turn-ins rewards experience and is repeatable monthly. You are NOT ALLOWED to buy these on a different character and send them to your challenger.
Fallen Adventurer’s Journal, Banner of the Fallen, Captured Insignia, Soothsayer’s Runes, Imbued Crystal, Monstrous Egg, Mysterious Grimoire, Ornate Weapon, and A Treatise on Strategy

The quests and daily quests Welcome to the Darkmoon Races, The Real Race, and The Real Big Race are ALLOWED but the daily quests give no experience points. Also, keep in mind that these quests take you around different parts of the island. One of them takes you right past where Moonfang is often being killed. There is a risk of death from Moonfang’s spells if you happen to run by at the wrong time. While deaths are allowed in this challenge, if you are attempting a zero death run caution should be used.

Due to the rule change, the world bosses The Darkmoon Rabbit and Moonfang are NOT ALLOWED for challengers.

The Blight Boar concert can be found in the Cauldron of Rock. This is an event that requests your help defending the band from the Death Metal Knight and his Ghouls. This event requires further testing so for the time being, we are considering this a world boss and is NOT ALLOWED. This is a fight your challenger will most likely not survive without help. Leave this event to your normal characters.

The buffs from the Darkmoon Top Hat, Darkmoon Carousel, and the Darkmoon Rollercoaster are NOT ALLOWED.

Sayge the fortune dispensing gnoll gives out buffs depending on how you answer his questions. These buffs are ALLOWED.

The pet battle quests Darkmoon Pet Battle and A New Darkmoon Challenger are NOT ALLOWED due to pet battling being off limits for challengers.

Working Man
 The following quests are ALLOWED:
The Darkmoon Faire(H)/The Darkmoon Faire (A): This is the breadcrumb quest to get you to Darkmoon Island where the faire takes place. We like to refer to this as the “bag” quest sometimes since this quest awards you 5 tickets for turning it in. You can then use those tickets to buy and sell 4 Darkmoon Storage Boxes and keep the 5th one as a “free” 16 slot bag if you so choose. You can redeem those tickets for the storage boxes from Gelvas Grimgate. The Darkmoon Storage Box is considered to be a unique item, meaning you can only have one on your person at a time. You will need to buy one and then sell it before you can purchase the next one.
Test Your Strength: This quest asks you to collect 250 Grisly Trophies. These can only be looted from mobs that grant experience or honor and you will need to have the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide on you. While this quest is allowed whether you attempt it or not is up to your discretion. Killing mobs for some classes at higher levels can be deadly.

Due to professions being part of your challenge, you’ll have access to a few extra quests. The following profession quests are ALLOWED you just need to have the corresponding profession in order to access them.
A Fizzy Fusion: This will be available to those with Alchemy and has no skill level requirement. You will need to bring 5 Moonberry Juice with you. This can be purchased from most Innkeepers.
Baby Needs Two Pair of Shoes: This will be available to those with Blacksmithing and has no skill requirement.
Putting Trash to Good Use: This will be available to those with Enchanting and has no skill requirement.
Talkin’ Tonks: This will be available to those with Engineering and has no skill requirement.
Herbs for Healing: This will be available to those with Herbalism and has no skill requirement.
Writing the Future: This will be available to those with Inscription and has no skill requirement. You will need to bring 5 Light Parchment with you. This can be purchased from most trade goods vendors.
Keeping the Faire Sparkling: This will be available to those with Jewelcrafting and has no kill requirement.
Eyes on the Prizes: This will be available to those with Leatherworking and has no skill requirement. You will need to bring 5 Coarse Thread, 5 Blue Dye, and 10 Shiny Baubles with you. These items can be purchased from most trade goods vendors.
Rearm, Reuse, Recycle: This will be available to those with Mining and has no skill requirement.
Tan My Hide: This will be available to those with Skinning and has no skill requirement.
Banners, Banners Everywhere!: This will be available to those with Tailoring and has no skill requirements. You will need to bring 1 Coarse Thread, 1 Red Dye, and 1 Blue Dye with you. These items can be purchased from most trade goods vendors.
Fun for the Little Ones: This will be available to those with Archaeology and has no skill requirement. You will need to have 15 Fossil Fragments available in order to complete this. If you haven’t come across any dig sites offering up Fossil Fragments this one may have to wait for a few levels until you do.
Putting the Crunch in the Frog: This will be available to those with Cooking and has no skill requirement. You will need to bring 5 Simple Flour with you. This item can be purchased from most trade goods vendors.
Spoilin’ for Salty Sea Dogs: This will be available for those with Fishing and has no skill requirement.

The daily quest mini games are ALLOWED. These daily quest mini games do not give experience points and caution should be used with the mini games listed below:
The Humanoid Cannonball: This daily quest involves you getting into a cannon and launching yourself into the air in the direction of a target ring along the coast. There is a button for you to press to descend to the ground to try to land in the middle of the target ring. While this sounds simple enough, if you hit this button too soon you could descend while still over land and there is a good chance that will not end well for your challenger. There were some comments on WoWHead where some people didn’t receive the floating wing buff at all and got launched into a tree.
Firebird’s Challenge: This daily quest involves flying through the air through rings of fire within a time limit. Caution should be used if you attempt this one as it should with all flying around in the air quests. Something could go wrong causing you to plummet to the ground and certain doom.

You are ALLOWED to turn in the following Darkmoon Faire quest items if you find them in the auction house and can afford them. Each of these turn-ins rewards experience and is repeatable monthly. You are NOT ALLOWED to buy these on a different character and send them to your challenger.
Fallen Adventurer’s Journal, Banner of the Fallen, Captured Insignia, Soothsayer’s Runes, Imbued Crystal, Monstrous Egg, Mysterious Grimoire, Ornate Weapon, and A Treatise on Strategy

The quests and daily quests Welcome to the Darkmoon Races, The Real Race, and The Real Big Race are ALLOWED but the daily quests give no experience points. Also, keep in mind that these quests take you around different parts of the island. One of them takes you right past where Moonfang is often being killed. There is a risk of death from Moonfang’s spells if you happen to run by at the wrong time.

Due to the rule change, the world bosses The Darkmoon Rabbit and Moonfang are NOT ALLOWED for challengers.

The Blight Boar concert can be found in the Cauldron of Rock. This is an event that requests your help defending the band from the Death Metal Knight and his Ghouls. This event requires further testing so for the time being, we are considering this a world boss and is NOT ALLOWED. This is a fight your challenger will most likely not survive without help. Leave this event to your normal characters.

The buffs from the Darkmoon Top Hat, Darkmoon Carousel, and the Darkmoon Rollercoaster are NOT ALLOWED.

Sayge the fortune dispensing gnoll gives out buffs depending on how you answer his questions. These buffs are NOT ALLOWED.

The pet battle quests Darkmoon Pet Battle and A New Darkmoon Challenger are NOT ALLOWED due to pet battling being off limits for challengers.

Pacifist
As a Pacifist challenger, you are well aware that proximity kills can happen just about anywhere or at any time. Darkmoon Island can be hectic at times. When venturing there with your pacifists try to pick non-peak play times if possible in an attempt to reduce the prox kill possibility.

 The following quests are ALLOWED:
The Darkmoon Faire(H)/The Darkmoon Faire (A): This is the breadcrumb quest to get you to Darkmoon Island where the faire takes place. We like to refer to this as the “bag” quest sometimes since this quest awards you 5 tickets for turning it in. You can then use those tickets to buy and sell 4 Darkmoon Storage Boxes and keep the 5th one as a “free” 16-slot bag if you so choose. You can redeem those tickets for the storage boxes from Gelvas Grimgate. The Darkmoon Storage Box is considered to be a unique item, meaning you can only have one on your person at a time. You will need to buy one and then sell it before you can purchase the next one.

Due to professions being part of your challenge, you’ll have access to a few extra quests. The following profession quests are ALLOWED you just need to have the corresponding profession in order to access them.
A Fizzy Fusion: This will be available to those with Alchemy and has no skill level requirement. You will need to bring 5 Moonberry Juice with you. This can be purchased from most Innkeepers.
Baby Needs Two Pair of Shoes: This will be available to those with Blacksmithing and has no skill requirement.
Putting Trash to Good Use: This will be available to those with Enchanting and has no skill requirement.
Talkin’ Tonks: This will be available to those with Engineering and has no skill requirement.
Herbs for Healing: This will be available to those with Herbalism and has no skill requirement.
Writing the Future: This will be available to those with Inscription and has no skill requirement. You will need to bring 5 Light Parchment with you. This can be purchased from most trade goods vendors.
Keeping the Faire Sparkling: This will be available to those with Jewelcrafting and has no kill requirement.
Eyes on the Prizes: This will be available to those with Leatherworking and has no skill requirement. You will need to bring 5 Coarse Thread, 5 Blue Dye, and 10 Shiny Baubles with you. These items can be purchased from most trade goods vendors.
Rearm, Reuse, Recycle: This will be available to those with Mining and has no skill requirement.
Tan My Hide: This will be available to those with Skinning and has no skill requirement.
Banners, Banners Everywhere!: This will be available to those with Tailoring and has no skill requirements. You will need to bring 1 Coarse Thread, 1 Red Dye, and 1 Blue Dye with you. These items can be purchased from most trade goods vendors.
Fun for the Little Ones: This will be available to those with Archaeology and has no skill requirement. You will need to have 15 Fossil Fragments available in order to complete this. If you haven’t come across any dig sites offering up Fossil Fragments this one may have to wait for a few levels until you do.
Putting the Crunch in the Frog: This will be available to those with Cooking and has no skill requirement. You will need to bring 5 Simple Flour with you. This item can be purchased from most trade goods vendors.
Spoilin’ for Salty Sea Dogs: This will be available for those with Fishing and has no skill requirement. Do be especially careful while doing this one. Ferre has witnessed other players running along the beach killing the crab critters. Even critter kills can sometimes trigger a prox kill.

When it comes to Pacifist challengers and mini games extreme caution should be used. These daily quest mini games do not give experience points and due to past experiences, we know that breaking objects and extinguishing fires can count as kills. The following mini games should be considered problematic for pacifists:
The Humanoid Cannonball: This daily quest involves you getting into a cannon and launching yourself into the air in the direction of a target ring along the coast. There is a button for you to press to descend to the ground to try to land in the middle of the target ring. While this sounds simple enough, if you hit this button too soon you could descend while still over land and there is a good chance that will not end well for your challenger. There were some comments on WoWHead where some people didn’t receive the floating wing buff at all and got launched into a tree. This is ALLOWED but dangerous.
Firebird’s Challenge: This daily quest involves flying through the air through rings of fire within a time limit. Caution should be used if you attempt this one as it should with all flying around in the air quests. Something could go wrong causing you to plummet to the ground and certain doom. This is ALLOWED but dangerous.
It’s Hammer Time: This is the quest/mini game we refer to as Whack-a-Gnoll. It involves running around and smacking gnolls popping up out of barrels. Doing so counts as killing blows. This quest/mini game is NOT ALLOWED.

You are ALLOWED to turn in the following Darkmoon Faire quest items if you find them in the auction house and can afford them. Each of these turn-ins rewards experience and is repeatable monthly. You are NOT ALLOWED to buy these on a different character and send them to your challenger.
Fallen Adventurer’s Journal, Banner of the Fallen, Captured Insignia, Soothsayer’s Runes, Imbued Crystal, Monstrous Egg, Mysterious Grimoire, Ornate Weapon, and A Treatise on Strategy

The quests and daily quests Welcome to the Darkmoon Races, The Real Race, and The Real Big Race are ALLOWED but the daily quests give no experience points. Also, keep in mind that these quests take you around different parts of the island. One of them takes you right past where Moonfang is often being killed. There is a risk of death from Moonfang’s spells if you happen to run by at the wrong time and of course, the dreaded proximity kills possibility. 

The world bosses The Darkmoon Rabbit and Moonfang are NOT ALLOWED. Your challenge involves not killing anything.

The Blight Boar concert can be found in the Cauldron of Rock. This is an event that requests your help defending the band from the Death Metal Knight and his Ghouls. This event requires you to kill mobs and is NOT ALLOWED.

The buffs from the Darkmoon Top Hat, Darkmoon Carousel, and the Darkmoon Rollercoaster are NOT ALLOWED.

Sayge the fortune dispensing gnoll gives out buffs depending on how you answer his questions. These buffs are NOT ALLOWED.

The pet battle quests Darkmoon Pet Battle and A New Darkmoon Challenger are NOT ALLOWED due to pet battling being off limits for challengers.

Blood Thirsty & Blood Thirsty Teams
Everything at the Darkmoon Faire is off limits for you since the whole event revolves around quests that are NOT ALLOWED.

 

This blog post was co-authored with Ferre.

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