WoW 12.1.5 Aqir Invasion Guide: Schedule, Affixes, Rewards and Rep

The WoW 12.1.5 Aqir Invasion is a new zone-wide public event from Patch 12.1.5, The Promise of Tomorrow, live October 13. For ten minutes every hour the aqir hit Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman, you clear a chain of public events, kill a boss, and get paid in reputation, Voidlight Marl and Champion Mistcrests.

Exalted with the Aqir Research Enclave unlocks the Corrupted Swarmer for 2,500 Marl. The event drops no Ascendant Venomstones, nobody has confirmed it fills a Great Vault slot, and all four of its achievements sit under Event Feats of Strength, which is Blizzard for farm it before it disappears.

Status check for the patch: 12.1.5 adds this event from scratch. Patch 12.1, Curse of Ula’tek, had nothing called an Aqir Invasion, so every figure below is live 12.1 systems plus 12.1.5 PTR data that Blizzard can still retune.

What It Is and Where to Go

Picture a Void Assault with more legs. The invasion covers an entire zone, rolls public objectives one after another, then ends in a boss fight. Each week it sits in either Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman, and never in the zone hosting that week’s Void Assault.

There is no entrance and no fixed coordinate for the fight, because objectives spawn across the whole map. The one coordinate you need is the vendor, Estelia Archtender, in the southwest quarter of Silvermoon City at 39.3, 80.3.

• Eversong Woods wraps around Silvermoon City, so you walk out of the gate and you are already in the event zone.
• Zul’Aman borders Eversong, so it is one flight from the city and zero excuses.
• Arriving late costs you more than travel time, because the objectives you missed are reputation you will never see.

Schedule and How to Know It Is Up

The Midnight aqir invasion schedule is simple and cruel. One window per hour, ten minutes long, twenty four windows a day, in whichever zone holds the invasion that week. PTR testers clocked the start at the top of the hour.

Parameter	Value
Frequency	Every hour
Window	10 minutes
Zones	Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman, rotating weekly
Clash rule	Never in the same zone as that week’s Void Assault
Finale	Boss fight at the end of the chain
Group	Open world, anyone in the zone can join

How to tell it is up: find the zone the Void Assault took this week, and the invasion is in the other one. Stand there a minute before the hour, because the timer does not wait for your flight path.

Scenarios and Affixes

Blizzard built six scenario types, three combat and three non-combat. The achievement data names all six: Disrupt Aqir, Aqir Nesting Grounds, Aerial Assault, Aid Defenders!, Whack the Aqir and Reinforce Defenses. Blizzard has not said which three are the combat ones, though the names give most of it away.

Combat scenarios roll one of eight Aqir Invasion affixes. The objective stays the same, only the way you die changes.

Affix	What it does	What you do
Void Protection	A Voidweaver shields other aqir with a barrier	Kill the Voidweaver first
Aqir Burrower	Burrowers move aggressively and knock players into the air	Keep moving and stay off their path
Void Sphere	Moving spheres try to trap players	Never stand still near them
Astalor’s Anguish	Anguish Crystals hit aqir and players caught in the blast	Drag aqir into the blast, step out yourself
Swarms!	Aqir are replaced by swarms of smaller enemies	Bring area damage
Aqir Elites	Fewer enemies, each much stronger	Focus single targets, press defensives
Void Infestation	Infested aqir explode and can infect other aqir	Spread out and kill them away from packs
Web Weavers	A Webweaver channels a web onto a player	Interrupt it every single time

How to Take Part

This Aqir Invasion guide has two readers. One has never seen the event, the other runs it every reset and wants the loop, not the tour. Each gets a full block, so read yours and skip the other.

First-Timer: Your First Invasion

You need no group, no queue and no prior quest. You need to be in the right zone when the hour turns.

1. Before the hour, work out which zone holds the invasion this week and fly there.
2. When the window opens, watch your objective tracker and the map, then ride to the first public event that lights up.
3. For most of the window, clear each scenario as it chains into the next, since every finished scenario pays 35 reputation and 50 Voidlight Marl.
4. When an affix shows up, read its name once and do what the affix table says, which usually means kill the caster or stop standing in things.
5. Before the timer runs out, the chain ends at the boss, and the kill pays 100 reputation, 10 Champion Mistcrests and 150 Marl.
6. Your first boss kill of the week also hands out the Aqir Research Pouch, so do not log off early.
7. After the window, visit Estelia Archtender in Silvermoon City to see what your new standing buys.

First-timer priority is short. Finish scenarios, be alive at the boss, ignore your bags. Showing up only for the boss skips most of the payout and teaches you nothing.

Farmer: The Optimal Loop

You know what a Webweaver is. Here is the loop, nothing else.

• Park in the zone the Void Assault did not take this week, one minute before the hour, mounted.
• Group up before the timer starts, because rewards scale with objectives completed and an organized group completes more.
• Split by affix instead of zerging, so kickers handle Web Weavers and area damage handles Swarms!
• Spend zero seconds looting between scenarios, because the next one is already running.
• Kill the boss every window you play, since its 100 reputation is worth almost three scenarios.
• Bank the weekly Aqir Research Pouch on your first kill, then keep farming only while you still need reputation or Marl.
• Stop once you own the Exalted rewards, because after that the run pays Marl, Champion Mistcrests and a gold-plated sense of duty.

Farmer priority in order: scenarios finished per window, then the boss kill, then the weekly pouch. Everything else is noise.

Rewards and What They Are Worth

The Aqir Invasion rewards come in three layers, per scenario, per boss and once a week. All numbers below come from the 12.1.5 PTR.

Source	Reputation	Voidlight Marl	Other
Each finished scenario	35	50	Nothing
Final boss kill	100	150	10 Champion Mistcrests
Weekly Aqir Research Pouch, first boss kill	Aqir research token	250	1,000 gold, 100 coffer key shards, 40 Champion Mistcrests, 20 Hero Mistcrests, 1 Champion 1/6 gear piece

PTR data lists the pouch items as possible contents, so do not expect every line every week. The gear is the weak link. A Champion 1/6 piece is the bottom rung of the Champion track, nice for a fresh alt, useless for anyone who has seen a Normal raid. The real prize is the crests, especially the Hero Mistcrests, and the crest cap lifts the week of October 20.

• Alts should run it, because the weekly pouch drops 40 Champion and 20 Hero Mistcrests for ten minutes of work.
• Collectors should run it, because the mount, the toy and three pets are sold nowhere else.
• Raid mains chasing item level can skip it, because no Venomstones and no confirmed Vault credit come out of it.

Aqir Research Enclave: Reputation Math

The Aqir Research Enclave are Silvermoon paladins who study the aqir so the city survives the next swarm. Aqir Research Enclave reputation uses the old ladder from Neutral to Exalted, no renown track.

Standing	Reputation required
Neutral	0
Friendly	500
Honored	1,500
Revered	3,000
Exalted	5,000

A full run is whatever you finish in ten minutes. Blizzard has not published a cap on scenarios per window, so here is the math for realistic outcomes, without the weekly token.

Run result	Reputation per run	Runs to Exalted	Marl per run
1 scenario and boss	135	38	200
2 scenarios and boss	170	30	250
3 scenarios and boss	205	25	300
4 scenarios and boss	240	21	350

With 24 windows a day, Exalted fits into one long day. Whether your wrists agree is your problem. At three scenarios a run you hit Exalted with about 7,500 Marl earned, and the Exalted shelf alone costs 6,000.

All four achievements tied to this event are filed under Event Feats of Strength. Blizzard puts things there when it plans to retire them, and no end date has been announced. The Corrupted Swarmer also needs Exalted before Estelia will even quote a price, so start in week one, not the week the next patch lands.

Mounts, Pets, Toys, Decor and Achievements

Everything below is sold by Estelia Archtender in Silvermoon City for Voidlight Marl, gated by standing. The Corrupted Swarmer mount is an account-wide flyer and the reason most of you are reading this.

Reward	Type	Standing	Cost in Marl
Dormant Brood Egg	Decor	Friendly	250
Nourished Brood Eggs	Decor	Friendly	250
Aqir Wingreaver	Pet	Friendly	1,000
Dormant Brood Egg Cluster	Decor	Honored	250
Nourished Brood Egg Cluster	Decor	Honored	250
Aqir Scuttler	Pet	Honored	1,000
Dormant Clutch of Brood Eggs	Decor	Revered	350 to 500
Nourished Clutch of Brood Eggs	Decor	Revered	350 to 500
Aqir Razorwing	Pet	Revered	2,000
Aqir hunting trophy	Decor	Exalted	1,000
Curse of the Aqir	Toy	Exalted	2,500
Corrupted Swarmer	Flying mount	Exalted	2,500

PTR builds disagree on the Revered decor, hence the range. Clearing the whole vendor costs 11,700 to 12,000 Marl. No event-exclusive transmog shows up in the vendor data, and the random Champion piece from the pouch looks like every other Champion piece you vendored last month.

The Aqir Invasion achievements stack into one title.

• Aqir Research Associate asks for Exalted with the Aqir Research Enclave.
• Driving Back the Swarm wants 10 completed invasions.
• No Hives Left Standing wants each of the 6 scenarios finished at least once, so pray the rotation hands you Whack the Aqir before you lose interest.
• Bane of the Swarm requires the three above and awards the title Bane of the Swarm.

Great Vault, Crests and Venomstones

Short answers, since you will skim anyway.

• Ascendant Venomstones do not drop here, because Blizzard lists only Heroic and Mythic raid bosses, Mythic+ at 10 and above, Tier 11 Bountiful Delves and Nightmare Prey Hunt Champion gear chests.
• Crests do drop here, with 10 Champion Mistcrests per boss kill plus 40 Champion and 20 Hero Mistcrests in the weekly pouch.
• Great Vault credit is unconfirmed, and no 12.1.5 source lists the invasion as a World row activity, so do not plan your week around it.

Venomstones go to Orin Straylight at the Catalyst in Silvermoon, where ten of them push a fully upgraded Season 2 Hero, Myth or top Tidal Crafted weapon, trinket or necklace one step higher. You will not be bringing him any from the bug hunt.

Where It Fits in Season 2

The Patch 12.1.5 world event replaces nothing on paper. It runs next to the Void Assault in the other zone and next to the rest of the patch: the Kith’ix pull in The Unbinding of Kith’ix, the Kindo’jan run in the Labyrinth, and the Season 2 key.

• Raiders and key pushers keep their week as it is and treat the invasion as a crest top-up and a mount grind.
• Alts can swap low-tier Delve farming for the weekly pouch, since 40 Champion and 20 Hero Mistcrests for one boss kill is the cheapest crest deal in Quel’Thalas.
• Collectors replace nothing and lose sleep instead.

Lore: Why the Bugs Are Back

The Promise of Tomorrow Aqir Invasion is the bill for 12.1. Kith’ix, a C’Thraxxi general, was bound in a subterranean lair beneath the Venomous Abyss. You killed Ula’tek, the restraints weakened, and his swarm went looking for elves.

Quel’Thalas has history with bugs. Trolls and aqir fought an ancient war over these lands, and the Amani held them long before Silvermoon existed. Now the Aqir Research Enclave studies the enemy, Lady Liadrin stands beside you in the raid, and PTR files hold a Silvermoon City attack scenario that ends with Lor’themar’s Stand. Translation: the swarm is not staying in the woods.