WoW 12.1.5 Val Zone Guide: Unlock, Rares, Rewards and Mounts

WoW 12.1.5 Val guide, short version for those who quit after one paragraph: Val is the frozen Void mini-zone added in patch 12.0.7, open only every other week in rotation with Naigtal, and entered through the Greater Void Portal in Voidstorm after a short intro from Riftblade Maella in Silvermoon City. Patch 12.1.5 adds nothing to it. At 90 it is a Field Accolades and Voidlight Marl farm with a 15-Marl surfboard mount at the end, not a source of Ascendant Venomstones, catalyst charges or gear your main will keep past Tuesday.

Two readers walk in here. Characters from 80 to 89 can run the Normal World Tier quests for experience, while Heroic World Tier is locked to level 90. Nothing in Val gates another zone, a campaign chapter, the Kith’ix pull or the Kindo’jan run, so every minute spent here is voluntary suffering.

How to Get Into Val

The answer to how to unlock Val in Midnight is one questline and one portal. Val is not part of the open world: it runs as a scenario, so there is no flying, no Skyriding and no back door. Finish the intro once and Maella offers a Warband skip to every alt.

1. Find Riftblade Maella south of the Void Assaults and Ritual Sites hub in Silvermoon City at /way #2393 47.6 51.0.
2. Accept A Secondary Strike for Val or The Time to Strike if the active week is Naigtal.
3. Complete Stalkers of the Stars and Veterans of the Great Dark inside Silvermoon.
4. Finish To the Voidstorm and Beyond! to open the way to Voidstorm.
5. Talk to Maella again at the portal in Voidstorm, /way #2405 51.7 71.0, and take Through the Cold Rift.
6. Click the Cynosure of Twilight, step into the void and use the extra action button to open the rift.
7. Use the Greater Void Portal at /way #2405 51.4 71.3, pick Normal or Heroic World Tier, and arrive on Val.
8. Hand in Surveying the Frozen Wastes and A Frigid Welcome to Val to unlock the Umbral Base Camp at /way #2599 59.6 21.4.

Entrance or travel point	Coordinates	What it does
Riftblade Maella, Silvermoon City	/way #2393 47.6 51.0	Intro chain and every weekly Showdown quest
Riftblade Maella, Voidstorm	/way #2405 51.7 71.0	Second-zone chain and rift opening
Greater Void Portal, The Howling Ridge	/way #2405 51.4 71.3	Only way into Val, World Tier selection
Umbral Base Camp, Val	/way #2599 59.6 21.4	Quest hub, vendors, Lightforged Beacon home
Kifaan, Umbral Base Camp	/way #2599 59.2 19.4	Mounts, pets, cosmetics
Portal to Void Acropolis Interior	/way #2599 49.4 95.5	World boss and two storylines
Portal to the Forgotten Depths	/way #2599 43.3 70.9	The Horror Below and Dispose the Deranged
Portal to Transit Platform	/way #2599 33.1 72.6	Umbral Title Bout arena

Flight paths do not exist until you build them. Spatial Reasoning places four Portal Bridges at /way #2599 60.8 16.4, 46.7 71.5, 30.5 68.2 and 64.4 69.4, and each one becomes a flight node. The Road Not Taken Twice hands out Rift Slippers that pull you out of caves. The Lightveil Recall Beacon toy from the intro returns you to the active Umbral Base Camp on a 15 minute cooldown, and the Lightforged Beacon in camp goes back to Silvermoon or Voidstorm.

Quest Order for the Leveller, Level 80 to 89

Every Val quest is tagged 80 to 90, so a character on the road to 90 can do almost all of it on Normal World Tier. Normal recommends item level 219, which a levelling character in quest greens can reach without trying. Val unlocks no zone and no campaign chapter, so treat it as an optional detour, not a step on the path.

• Do the intro chain first, because it is the only thing in Val that stays useful on every future alt.
• Take Showdown on Val from Maella, since below 90 it pays 95,600 to 102,650 experience and a Recruit’s Cache instead of the level 90 loot.
• Run Spatial Reasoning early, because walking a storm zone at 50 stacks of slow is how levellers learn patience.
• Pick up world quests while you pass them, as each one pays around 13,550 experience.
• Leave the Domanaar storylines for later unless the experience per quest beats your current zone, since they only feed achievements.
• Skip Heroic World Tier entirely, because it is locked to level 90 and will not open for you no matter how hard you click.

Quest Order at Level 90

At 90 the order is weekly first, achievements second, everything else never. Pick up both weeklies in Silvermoon before you zone in, because Maella in Val will not save you the walk. Then clear the three Domanaar storylines once for Frosty Domanaar Politics, which feeds the zone meta.

• Grab Showdown on Val (Heroic) or Showdown on Val from Maella in Silvermoon City before entering the portal.
• Kill Imperator Pertinax in the Void Acropolis Interior for A Pertinent Punishment on Normal or A Pertinent Punishment on Heroic.
• Finish Surveying the Frozen Wastes and A Frigid Welcome to Val if this character skipped them, as they count for Into the Stars.
• Complete Spatial Reasoning and The Road Not Taken Twice for movement and for Prepared for a Showdown.
• Run the three storylines in order, because each chain unlocks the next one in the camp.
• Spend leftover time on rares and world quests, which feed both currencies and two achievements at once.

Storyline	Quests in order	Notes
Umbral Blitz	Disrupting the Order, Port of Entry, Victory Within Hindsight	Kill three Umbrawardens, then a stealth scene at the Glacial Reservoir portal
Considering an Alternative	A New Approach, Captivating Science, A Place to Negotiate, A Shot at the Dark	Disguise with Veilcaster, ends on Impotus
A Dance with Domanaar	Vanquish the Warmonger, Dispose the Deranged, Umbral Title Bout	Kills Ignedus, Periculus and Gladius Reginax

Renown Faction in Val

There is no renown faction for Val. No ranks, no reward track, no paragon chest, nothing to farm by rank. Blizzard replaced the whole idea with two currencies and a vendor list gated behind achievements.

The fastest way to farm that substitute is Heroic World Tier: every rare pays 60 Field Accolades instead of 30, and Heroic world quests pay 16 to 30 instead of 10 to 20. Voidlight Marl is shared across all Midnight outdoor content, so Val is one tap among many for that wallet. The only renown-shaped thing you will touch here is the Showdown progress bar on your weekly quest.

World Quests, Weeklies and Events for the Leveller

Below 90 the Showdown weekly is the only item on the menu that justifies the portal loading screen. World quests are fine as a top-up while you are already inside, and the storm event is worth one pass for the pet unlock if you plan to collect on this character later anyway.

• Do Showdown on Val, because the experience chunk is the single biggest payout Val offers a levelling character.
• Do More Disruptions: Val and Dangerous Enemies: Val after the Showdown, since both are flagged level 80 and open to a levelling character.
• Do the Storm Mitigation bonus objective when it spawns on your path, as it also clears the Freezing debuff around you.
• Skip rare hunting, because the gear rewards are tuned for level 90 and a levelling character outgrows them in hours.
• Skip Imperator Pertinax unless a group is already pulling him, since a solo levelling attempt is a donation to the spirit healer.

World Quests, Weeklies and Events at Level 90

Val world quests in Season 2 pay Field Accolades and crests, not progression. Fourteen of them rotate on a timer: One Friend is Plenty, Caver Savior, Aberration Liberation, Until it is Done, Tainted Ritual, Cold Reception, Dissent and Divide, Shadowy Strategies, Solid Cold, Junction Dysfunction, Ignoble Gas Collector, A Lingering Echo, Freeze Range Eggs and Lingering Corruption. Eight different ones complete Showdown Success: Val.

Weekly quest	Tier	Reward
Showdown on Val	Normal	Riftstalker’s Cache
Showdown on Val (Heroic)	Heroic	Riftstalker’s Overflowing Cache
More Disruptions: Val or Dangerous Enemies: Val	Normal	Riftstalker’s Favor
More Disruptions: Val (Heroic) or Dangerous Enemies: Val (Heroic)	Heroic	Riftstalker’s Overflowing Favor
A Pertinent Punishment or A Pertinent Punishment	Normal or Heroic	Field Accolades plus the weekly world boss drop
Knocking Off the Top (Heroic)	Heroic, one time	Four Void Commander’s Emblem for a cloak, belt or bracers

The Showdown bar fills from everything, but not evenly. After it completes, Unity Against the Void lets you pick the world quest track or the rare track, and finishing one opens the other.

Activity	Showdown progress
Rare kill	12 to 24 percent
World quest or event	15 percent
Bonus objective	12 percent
Death Squad elite, Heroic only	11 to 12 percent each
Treasure	2 percent

• Do the Heroic Showdown chain every Val week, because its caches are the best Val payout per minute.
• Do Imperator Pertinax weekly only for the Field Accolades, since the boss still drops Season 1 gear that a Season 2 character vendors on sight.
• Do rares before world quests, because one rare pays as much Showdown progress as a world quest and twice the currency on Heroic.
• Use Val elite rares, Overseers and Rivals to finish Seeking Knowledge Week 5 of 5: Off-World Magic, which a hotfix made drop its quest item here.
• Skip Knocking Off the Top (Heroic) on a geared main, as its Myth-track reward is a Season 1 item that Season 2 already buried.
• Skip the Val Sparks of War quest, because it is no longer offered in Season 2.

Val Heroic World Tier is the version worth your time at 90. Enemies gain affixes and far more health, and Patrolling Death Squads called the Blackstar Legion roam between the western cliffs at /way #2599 39 39 and the Void Acropolis at /way #2599 49 93, built from Mender Amatory, Reaper Gorzok, Starseeker Dreadus and Vanguard Kadoxe. The 274 item level recommendation is a Season 1 number, so a Season 2 character treats it as a light warm-up rather than a threat.

What Patch 12.1.5 Changes in Val

Patch 12.1.5 Val changes: none. No new rares, no new events, no new currency, no new vendor line, nothing in the 12.1.5 notes points at the zone. The Promise of Tomorrow campaign, the Kith’ix raid on the Coiled Isle, the Labyrinth of Kindo’jan and the Aqir Invasions in Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman all happen somewhere else.

• Orin Straylight’s 12.1.5 quest Umbral Blessings of the Catalyst lets you trade gold, Voidlight Marl or Veteran Mistcrests for one extra Nebulous Voidcore a week, which gives Val Marl its first real Season 2 use.
• Ascendant Venomstones drop only from Heroic and Mythic raid bosses, Mythic+ at +10 and above, Tier 11 Bountiful Delves and Nightmare Prey Hunt Champion gear chests, so Val gives you zero.
• Aqir Invasions run ten minutes every hour in Eversong Woods or Zul’Aman, so Val gets no invasion traffic and no invasion rewards.
• By the weekly swap math from the June 16 launch, the 12.1.5 week of October 13 should be a Val week, so check the Greater Void Portal before you plan around it.

Season 2 already gutted Val as a gearing source in patch 12.1: rares and elites drop Adventurer Mistcrests, Warbound gear from rares sits on the Adventurer track at item level 275, and Imperator Pertinax plus the one-time Heroic quest still hand out Season 1 items. 12.1.5 did not touch any of it. If your goal is Kith’ix, a Season 2 key or Venomstones, Val is a cosmetics shop with a snowstorm attached.

Dungeons, Delves and Raids in Val

Val contains no dungeon, no delve, no Labyrinth and no raid. The closest things are three portal sub-areas inside the zone itself, all open on both World Tiers.

Sub-area	Portal coordinates	Inside
Void Acropolis Interior	/way #2599 49.4 95.5	Imperator Pertinax at /way #2618 40.8 74.6
Forgotten Depths	/way #2599 43.3 70.9	The Horror Below at /way #2621 43.0 61.7
Transit Platform	Portal to Transit Platform at /way #2599 33.1 72.6	Three waves and Gladius Reginax

Rares, Treasures and Hidden Objects

Val rares in 12.1.5 work exactly as they did in 12.1: ten rares, a respawn of roughly 20 minutes, a 3 minute tag protection and identical loot tables on every kill. Six of them complete Showdown Slugger: Val.

Rare	Coordinates	How to reach or spawn
Sleet-Rune	/way #2599 61.7 78.9	Cave entrance, rare at /way #2599 68.7 85.9
Atomus	/way #2599 37.9 76.3	Open ground in The Devouring Ingress
Glacial Broodmother	/way #2599 56.1 50.0	Cave entrance, break the egg sac at /way #2599 67.0 42.0
Mercilus	/way #2599 49.7 78.6	Outside the Void Acropolis
Xirah	/way #2599 29.1 73.9	Outside The Collapsed Passage
Krilkan	/way #2599 46.2 48.4	Patrols the Glacial Reservoir
Opprimius	/way #2599 35.3 38.9	Kill the corrupted adds first or he takes no damage
Nelgothar	/way #2599 30.4 38.6	Cave entrance, frozen at /way #2599 22.8 41.7
The Horror Below	/way #2599 43.3 70.9	Portal to the Forgotten Depths, back of the cave
Shadowguard Destroyer	/way #2599 46.5 59.6	Hilltop in the Glacial Reservoir, no spawn yell

Drop	Normal	Heroic
Field Accolades	30 per rare	60 per rare
Coffer Key Shards	75 per rare	75 per rare
Warbound gear	Chance, Adventurer track in Season 2	Chance, Adventurer track in Season 2
Adventurer Mistcrests	Yes	Yes
Dark Particle	Chance, trades for Field Accolades	Chance, trades for Field Accolades

The Imperator Pertinax location is the Void Acropolis Interior: take the portal at /way #2599 49.4 95.5, walk down the stairs and find him at /way #2618 40.8 74.6 among his collected beasts. He respawns fast, and the weekly kill drops one Warbound item per Warband plus one Soulbound item per character, both from the Season 1 pool.

Treasures are Domanaar Storage Vessel spawns with no fixed coordinates: 5 Field Accolades on Normal, 8 on Heroic, 15 to 25 Coffer Key Shards, and a low chance at Lost Armaments or Ethereal weapon cosmetics. The storms apply Freezing, 1 percent slow per stack up to 50, so kill the raging elementals or leave the storm before chasing a rare.

The Ice Guardian’s Sleetblade location is Sleet-Rune Hollow, and the sword exists only on Heroic World Tier.

1. Enter Sleet-Rune Hollow at /way #2599 61.4 78.8.
2. Click the Enchanted Hilt at /way #2599 70.5 84.3 and choose to pull the sword, which grants Testament for 30 minutes.
3. Kill any rare or Imperator Pertinax twice to collect two stacks of Vanquishing, which survive leaving the zone.
4. Return to the hilt with both buffs active and click it again for Ice Guardian’s Sleetblade.

Mounts, Pets, Transmog, Toys and Achievements

The Voidmancer’s Starcarver mount is the Val trophy: buy it from Kifaan for 15 Voidlight Marl once the meta is done. The price is a joke, the meta is not, because it needs both rotation weeks of attendance before the vendor takes your coin.

Reward	Type	Requirement	Cost
Voidmancer’s Starcarver	Flying mount	A Trip Around the Stars	15 Voidlight Marl
Tortured Gorger	Ground mount	Heroic Showdowns, both zones on Heroic	15 Voidlight Marl
Frosticus Maximus	Pet	Ultradon Carnage, tied to Until it is Done	15 Voidlight Marl
Silento	Pet	Showdown Success: Val plus Showdown Success: Naigtal	15 Voidlight Marl
Fishstick Keith	Pet	Climate Strange: Val	50 Sin’dorei Swarmer
Ice Guardian’s Sleetblade	Weapon transmog	Hidden Heroic object	Free
Bulging Ethereal Pack	Ethereal weapon cosmetics	None	250 Voidlight Marl
Bulging Winter Pack	Winter transmog set	None	250 Voidlight Marl
Response Team set from Fieldsmith Ventem	Armor and weapons	None	30 Field Accolades and 300 Marl per armor piece, 60 and 500 per weapon
Lightforged decor from Zuronar	Housing decor	Prepared for a Showdown or Pain of Command	150 to 500 Marl
Lightveil Recall Beacon	Toy	Intro questline	Free

The A Trip Around the Stars achievement is six achievements stacked on two zones, so plan for at least two Val weeks and one Naigtal week.

Achievement	Requirement
Into the Stars	Finish the intro chains on Val and Naigtal
Prepared for a Showdown	Finish the follow-up utility and story quests on both zones
Frosty Domanaar Politics	Finish the three Val storylines
Climate Strange: Val	Complete Storm Mitigation five times
Showdown Slugger: Val	Kill 6 of the 10 Val rares
Showdown Success: Val	Complete 8 different Val world quests
Heroic Showdowns	Heroic meta: 15 Heroic world quests, 10 affixed kills, both world bosses, 5 Heroic storms per zone, 15 Heroic rares

What Val Is For at Level 90

Val is not dead, it is retired. It still pays two currencies and a stack of collectibles, but it stopped being a gearing source the day Season 2 started, and 12.1.5 left it exactly there.

Resource	Where it goes	Worth it in 12.1.5
Field Accolades	Void-Touched caches from Maren Silverwing, 500 random or 750 targeted	Only for fresh alts, Adventurer or Veteran track
Voidlight Marl	Mounts, pets, decor, plus Orin’s weekly Nebulous Voidcore trade	Yes, the Voidcore trade is the only real power use
Venomstones	Not available in Val	No
Catalyst charges	Not available in Val	No
Collectibles	Starcarver, Gorger, three pets, Sleetblade, transmog	Yes, if you collect

Mains chasing the Kith’ix pull and a Season 2 key should come here for the Voidcore Marl, the mount and nothing else. Alts get a cheap Adventurer set. Everyone else can let the snow fall on someone else.