Reputation and Renown

Reputation works much like experience: you earn points with a faction and climb through its levels, and each higher level usually needs more points. Unlike experience, you can also lose reputation, for example by killing that faction's members or helping its rivals. A faction's name appears under its NPCs, and you usually need Neutral or better to deal with them.

• Complete Quests for the faction, including repeatable ones.
• Kill certain NPCs and monsters tied to the faction.
• Wear a faction's championing tabard while running Dungeons and Instances of the right level.
• Turn in writs (Argent Tournament, Molten Front) or use contracts made with Inscription.

Some factions are rivals: raising one lowers the other faster. The four pairs are Aldor and Scryers, Steamwheedle Cartel and Bloodsail Buccaneers, Ravenholdt and Syndicate, and The Oracles and Frenzyheart Tribe. Open the Reputation tab with the U key to see every standing; there you can show one faction as a bar above your experience bar, mark it At War to be able to attack its members, or move it to the bottom as Inactive.

The discounts apply at the faction's vendors, flight masters and repairs (since patch 2.3.0). Every playable race has a home faction, such as Orgrimmar for orcs. To buy another race's mount you must be Exalted with that race's faction; for example, a troll needs Exalted with Orgrimmar for a wolf. A quest for one Alliance or Horde faction also gives a quarter of that reputation to the other factions on your side, but this spillover stops at Friendly. You are always Hated with the opposing side's factions and cannot change it.

• Individuals (from Mists of Pandaria): some NPCs track a personal friendship with you, from Stranger up to Best Friend. Every step costs the same 8,400 points.
• Paragon (from Legion): after Exalted with an eligible faction, a bag icon opens an extra bar you can fill again and again. Each time it fills you get a reward cache; Legion, Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands caches can hold a toy, pet or even a mount.
• Warband reputation (from The War Within): reputations marked this way share one standing across every character on your account.

Renown replaces the old eight steps with many more levels, and each level gives a reward such as cosmetic gear, pets, mounts, titles or new quest lines. It began in Shadowlands, where each of the four Covenants had its own Renown (first up to 40, later 80). From Dragonflight on, you can raise every major faction at the same time, and one Renown level costs 2,500 reputation earned from weekly and daily quests, events and other sources.

After the last Renown level of a faction, you can keep earning reputation: every 7,500 points gives a Maximum Renown reward, much like Paragon. In Midnight the major factions are the Amani Tribe, The Singularity, the Hara'ti and the Silvermoon Court, each with 20 Renown levels. Since patch 12.0.0 Renown quartermasters have their own minimap icon.

• Event buffs: for example +10% during the Darkmoon Faire, Pilgrim's Bounty or Hallow's End, and a bonus equal to the anniversary number during WoW's anniversary in late November.
• Guild banners: +5%, +10% or +15% depending on the banner, unlocked by guild achievements.
• Timewalking events give bonus reputation for the expansion being featured, and championing tabards give reputation in that faction's expansion dungeons.