What allied races are
Allied races arrived with Battle for Azeroth. In design terms they are variants of the main races: most reuse the body frame of an existing race with a new model, but each has its own racial abilities and its own full set of emotes and voice lines.
Every allied race except the Earthen and the Haranir belongs to one faction. The Vulpera are the only one not based on a core race (their frame is close to the goblins), and the Haranir mostly use the night elf frame.
How to unlock them
- Reach level 40 with at least one character on your account.
- Go to your faction's embassy: the Stormwind Embassy for the Alliance or the Orgrimmar Embassy for the Horde.
- Finish the quests "The Call for Allies" and "A Choice of Allies". They open a separate recruitment quest chain for every allied race.
- Complete a race's chain and you can create characters of that race. They begin at level 10 in their own starting area, not in Exile's Reach.
- Level the new character to 50 without a level boost or a Recruit-A-Friend boost to earn its heritage armor set.
All allied races
| faction | race | Added in patch | Racial traits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alliance | Void Elf | 7.3.5 | Chill of Night, Entropic Embrace, Ethereal Connection, Preternatural Calm and Spatial Rift |
| Alliance | Lightforged Draenei | 7.3.5 | Light's Judgment, Forge of Light, Demonbane, Light's Reckoning and Holy Providence |
| Alliance | Dark Iron Dwarf | 8.0.1 | Dungeon Delver, Fireblood, Forged in Flames, Mass Production and Mole Machine |
| Alliance | Kul Tiran | 8.1.5 | Brush It Off, Child of the Sea, Haymaker, Jack of All Trades and Rime of the Ancient Mariner |
| Alliance | Mechagnome | 8.3.0 | Combat Analysis, Mastercraft, Emergency Failsafe, Skeleton Pinkie and Hyper Organic Light Originator |
| Horde | Nightborne | 7.3.5 | Ancient History, Magical Affinity, Cantrips, Arcane Pulse and Arcane Resistance |
| Horde | Highmountain Tauren | 7.3.5 | Bull Rush, Pride of Ironhorn, Mountaineer, Rugged Tenacity and Waste Not, Want Not |
| Horde | Mag'har Orc | 8.0.1 | Ancestral Call, Open Skies, Savage Blood and Sympathetic Vigor |
| Horde | Zandalari Troll | 8.1.5 | City of Gold, Embrace of the Loa, Pterrordax Swoop and Regeneratin' |
| Horde | Vulpera | 8.3.0 | Make Camp, Return to Camp, Fire Resistance, Alpaca Saddlebags, Bag of Tricks, Rummage Your Bag and Nose For Trouble |
| Both | Earthen | 11.0.2 | Azerite Surge, Hyper Productive, Ingest Minerals, Quiet Contemplation, Titan-Wrought Frame and Wide-Eyed Wonder |
| Both | Haranir | 12.0.1 | Lash Out, One with Nature, Rootwalking, Subterranean Predator and Thorn Bloom |
The Earthen came with The War Within and the Haranir with Midnight; both can join either faction. Because of them, dwarves and trolls are now playable on both sides. See Alliance Races and Horde Races for the core races.
Classes
Which classes an allied race can play follows its lore more than a strict balance between factions. Every allied race gained access to the Death Knight in Shadowlands.
Patch history
| Patch | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 7.3.5 | 2018-01-16 | First four: Void Elf, Lightforged Draenei, Nightborne, Highmountain Tauren (needed the Battle for Azeroth pre-order). |
| 8.0.1 | 2018-07-17 | Dark Iron Dwarf and Mag'har Orc. |
| 8.1.5 | 2019-03-12 | Kul Tiran and Zandalari Troll. |
| 8.3.0 | 2020-01-14 | Mechagnome and Vulpera. |
| 9.0.1 | 2020-10-13 | Exalted reputation no longer needed; new characters start at level 10 instead of 20. |
| 10.1.5 | 2023-07-11 | Achievement requirements removed; unlock level lowered from 50 to 40. |
| 11.0.2 | 2024-08-13 | Earthen added. |
| 12.0.1 | 2026-02-10 | Haranir added. |
Sources
Game pictures: © Blizzard Entertainment · worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com
