The new version of the Darkmoon Faire went live on Sunday, Dec. 4, and it'll run until the very end of this Saturday, Dec. 10. Like many of you, I was curious about all the new stuff on offer but had some trouble keeping it all straight, especially because Blizzard recently clarified a few mechanics in addition to tinkering with some items. There's also an unfortunate bug related to characters who did a previous version of the breadcrumb quest getting you to the Faire, which didn't help matters, as my main is one of the toons affected and was left scratching her head over what she was supposed to be doing.

If you're as confused as I was, I hope the information past the cut is helpful. How long will it take you get all the pets and mounts? How do you cheese Blastenheimer Bullseye? And how the hell did Corki manage to get himself captured by a bunch of carnies?

I'm lying about that last bit. I have no idea why Corki's part of the zoo, and I have no intention of springing him again. Ever.

When is the Darkmoon Faire available?

As with its older version, the new Darkmoon Faire runs for one week from the first Sunday of each month.

How do I get there?

While the Faire is active, a portal will appear in both Mulgore and Elwynn Forest where the Faire itself used to be staged. If you're not familiar with the previous location of the Darkmoon Faire, it's easy to find:

• Elwynn Forest Just south of Goldshire
• Mulgore Southwest of Thunder Bluff

NPCs in major cities can also send you to the portal for a small fee (which scales from a few copper if you're a very low-level player to 30 silver for those of us at 85). However, there appears to be a bug with the breadcrumb quest they offer. If your character's done it for the old version of the Faire, you're unable to pick it up now. This is unfortunate because the quest gives five Darkmoon Prize Tickets, the new currency of the Faire. Blizzard may or may not be able to fix this.

What can I get from the Faire?

Heirloom gear, noncombat pets, mounts, and vanity items. The profession quests also award skill-ups. Of note here is that the vanity items include replicas of the old dungeon sets from classic WoW for transmogrification.

That heirloom items are available with Darkmoon Prize Tickets is especially interesting, as it means that even new players on their first toons will be able to get heirlooms while leveling (albeit in a more restricted manner than a level-capped player can).

How do I buy the new Darkmoon items?

The Faire offers both weekly and daily quests that award Darkmoon Prize Tickets, a currency used to purchase items.

How many tickets can I get in a week?

You're functionally capped at 145 Prize Tickets per week. The six new pets all cost 90 tickets each, and the two new mounts cost 180 tickets each.

How long will it take to get the pets and mounts?

Assuming you want all the pets and mounts, you'll need at least seven Darkmoon Faires (i.e., seven months) to afford them all. Budget more, obviously, for any vanity items you might want.

What's this Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide that I'm given?

The Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide is an item that allows you to loot Darkmoon artifacts from player corpses in battlegrounds or 5-man, heroic, and raid bosses. The artifacts reward you with additional tickets once turned in at the Faire.

If you take the breadcrumb quest to get to the Faire, you'll be given one at the end of the quest. If, like me, your main can't get this quest, you can still pick up the Guide from Selina Dourman.

Having carried the Guide on a tanking druid for several days now, it's my impression that the Darkmoon artifacts are not a common drop, at least in 5-mans. I've killed the bosses in the new 5-mans many a time and seen an artifact drop exactly once. However, Blizzard confirmed earlier that you can continue to loot Darkmoon artifacts even while the Faire isn't on, so it might be worth keeping the Guide in your pack between Faires. In addition, the artifacts are tradeable, and if you're really desperate for a particular one (e.g., you hate PvP and wouldn't ordinarily have access to the battlefield artifacts), keep checking the Auction House.

Collecting all the Darkmoon artifacts rewards the achievement Darkmoon Despoiler (see below).

New Darkmoon Faire achievements

The Darkmoon Faire gets its own subheading under the World Events section of your achievements tab. While a full guide will have to wait for OverAchiever to tackle it, these are all of the achievements present as of patch 4.3:

• Blastenheimer Bullseye This may be bugged for certain racial models, although several people have said that jumping in the center of the bullseye immediately after landing seems to work.
• Come One, Come All! You should get this immediately while porting to the Faire for the first time.
• Darkmoon Defender You'll have to have the Adventurer's Guide in your packs and loot player corpses in Battlegrounds (in the same way that you'd remove insignias) in order to do this.
• Darkmoon Despoiler Turning in each of the nine Darkmoon artifacts will reward this.
• Darkmoon Dominator The Darkmoon arena is pretty similar to the Stranglethorn arena, except you can count on its being a lot more popular for the forseeable future. You will probably need some friends to help you do this. It involves looting the Pit Fighter trinket 12 times from the chest that spawns every three hours in the arena.
• Darkmoon Duelist However, this achievement only requires you to do the above once.
• Darkmoon Dungeoneer This is the same as Darkmoon Defender, but it involves the five Darkmoon artifacts available from 5-man and heroic dungeons.
• Faire Favors Assuming that you have two primary professions and all four secondary professions (fishing, cooking, archaeology, and first aid), you should be able to get this done fairly easily.
• Fairegoer's Feast You'll only need to visit two vendors on the island, Stamp Thunderhorn and Sylannia, in order to do this. Please note that some of the drinks and food involved require level 85, so lower-level players cannot get this.
• I Was Promised a Pony Very easy. The ponies are located on the southeastern end of the Faire.
• Quick Shot Turning your character in the direction of the target needed is all that's required. Apart from actually shooting, that is.
• Step Right Up You should get this over the course of doing the daily quests on offer from the carnies.
• Taking the Show on the Road (Alliance)/Taking the Show on the Road (Horde) The Darkmoon Fireworks in question are sold by Boomie Sparks at the Faire. Blizzard recently changed the fireworks to have a seven-day duration and require the Faire to be on, so you will have to do this otherwise simple achievement while the Faire is active.

New pets and mounts

There's one pet that doesn't have to be bought here but rather fished.

• Darkmoon Balloon
• Darkmoon Cub
• Darkmoon Monkey
• Darkmoon Tonk
• Darkmoon Turtle
• Darkmoon Zeppelin
• From fishing in the waters around the island: Sea Pony. This is currently estimated at a one-in-1,000 drop rate.
• Darkmoon Dancing Bear
• Swift Forest Strider

What are the new quests?

There are new daily and weekly quests on offer at the Faire. The new profession-related quests (available weekly) are as follows:

• Alchemy A Fizzy Fusion
• Archaeology Fun for the Little Ones
• Blacksmithing Baby Needs Two Pair of Shoes
• Cooking Putting the Crunch in the Frog
• Enchanting Putting Trash to Good Use
• Engineering Talkin' Tonks
• Inscription Writing the Future
• First aid Putting the Carnies Back Together Again
• Fishing Spoilin' for Salty Sea Dogs
• Herbalism Herbs for Healing
• Jewelcrafting Keeping the Faire Sparkling
• Leatherworking Eyes on the Prizes
• Mining Rearm, Reuse, Recycle
• Skinning Tan My Hide
• Tailoring Banners, Banners Everywhere!

The new daily quests:

• He Shoots, He Scores!
• It's Hammer Time
• Target: Turtle
• The Humanoid Cannonball
• Tonk Commander

And one more weekly quest:

• Test Your Strength The Grisly Trophy is a (somewhat random) drop off any mob that rewards experience or honor. It does not need to be looted and will simply appear in your packs automatically. You'll find some useful discussion on how best to farm them in Monday's Queue, although you should be able to amass 250 fairly easily if you run 5-mans with some regularity. It definitely won't be as quick as going off to farm them on your own, but you don't need to go out of your way to farm them if you don't want or need them all at once.

What happens to my stash of old Darkmoon tickets?

These have now become Tattered Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets and are functionally worthless. Sorry, folks: There doesn't appear to be a way to exchange them. You may want to hang onto them for nostalgia's sake or in the event that Blizzard decides that participation in the older Darkmoon Faire is worth being a feat of strength.

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Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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