Advertisement

The OverAchiever: Guide to Lunar Festival achievements

Allison Robert
Updated ·9 min read

The Lunar Festival runs this year from Sunday, Feburary 14th at 9:00 am server time through Sunday, March 7th at 9:00 am server time. That's right, folks; you've got three weeks to get everything done. The basics of the holiday involve talking to a number of Elders to honor them, receiving Coins of Ancestry in return, and then using the Coins to purchase fun holiday items. The To Honor One's Elders meta-achievement is also a requirement for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. In general, this is not a difficult holiday, but it is time-consuming; you'll need to hunt down a lot of NPCs. Because of the mileage you'll rack up doing this, it'd be a good time to do World Explorer if you haven't already done that, or pick up flight paths that a character doesn't yet have.

We've updated and expanded our 2010 guide to include exact coordinates for every Elder in the game, and I've also arranged them in what I hope to be the most straightforward way to reach them all. Let's get started.




Elders of Eastern Kingdoms

In order to honor an Elder, all you need to do is find and talk to them (which is generally easy as they're always sitting in a big beam of light). You'll need to speak with all of the following NPCs in order to complete this one. In rough order from the northern part of the continent to the southern:

Elders of Kalimdor

Done with the Eastern Kingdoms? Hop a boat or zeppelin to the west, and talk to all of the following (again, in rough order from the northern part of the continent to the southern):

Elders of the Alliance

Most of the Elders you'll have to talk to are just a matter of running around. However, you'll also need to talk to a series of Elders located in capital cities, and if you're of the opposite faction...well, things get hairy. All three are straightforward if you're Alliance, and much less so if you're Horde, so I'm really writing this with an eye toward the difficulty of reaching them as a Horde player.

  • Bladeswift the Elder: 33,14 in the Cenarion Enclave in Darnassus. This is located in the northern part of the city. Sorry, Horde -- there's no real way to cheese this. You'll have to run in off the boat to Rut'theran Village, get past the guards, hang a left, and make a beeline for the Cenarion Enclave. This will keep you away from the most "crowded" area of Darnassus (insofar as any portion of Darnassus could be termed "crowded"). As long as you're on Teldrassil, keep heading east afterwards to talk to Elder Bladeleaf in Dolanaar.

  • Bronzebeard the Elder: 29,17 in the Mystic Ward of Ironforge. If you're Horde, hang a left after entering the city's front gates and drop down into the trench that runs the the length of The Commons -- this should get most of the guards off your tail. Keep going, and the first ramp up from the trench should put you within sight of Elder Bronzebeard. At this point, you can hearth (if possible), port to Moonglade using a scroll from a Festival Harbinger, or get to the Deeprun Tram so you can knock off the Stormwind elder. Which one's easier is probably going to depend on how many Alliance are in Ironforge at that point. That said, for Horde it's probably less dangerous to get to the Stormwind elder coming from the harbor.

  • Hammershout the Elder: 35.65 in the Park in Stormwind. If you're coming from the Deeprun Tram, you're going to have to ride from the eastern to the western end of the city to get to him, which is one of the reasons I'm unenthusiastic about Horde players electing that option (it is still, however, vastly preferable to riding in through Stormwind's front gates). It's much easier to come in from the harbor, either by swimming down or bumming a ride on the ship from Valiance Keep. Ride up from the harbor to the city, hang your first right into the Park, and keep going until you reach Hammershout.

Elders of the Horde

It's slightly less troublesome for Alliance to reach the Horde elders than vice versa, but the odds of your attracting attention while doing these is still reasonably high. As with their Alliance counterparts, the Horde elders are simple to reach if you're Horde, so I'm writing this with an eye toward the difficulty of reaching them as an Alliance player.

  • Darkhorn the Elder: 41,35 in the Valley of Wisdom in Orgrimmar. Darkhorn is going to be the toughest to get, but you can avoid the most crowded portion of Orgrimmar by zoning in through the western gate. Once you're in, follow the road and you'll eventually reach the Festival area and Darkhorn. Unless you have a death wish, I would highly recommend hearthing (if possible), backtracking in order to zone out, or taking a port to Moonglade using a scroll from a Festival Harbinger.

  • Wheathoof the Elder: 72,23 on Elder Rise in Thunder Bluff. This is an elder named for Ezra Chatterton, a young player who died in 2008 and was the first to receive a phoenix mount. Ezra Wheathoof is one of Blizzard's in-game nods to him (he's actually a copy of Ezra's character, Ephoenix), and you'll note he's the only Elder to have a pet with him (not surprisingly, a phoenix). Because Thunder Bluff is usually deserted, you should encounter minimal player resistance, but you can still cut down on encounters with Horde player by using the northern elevator. Hang a quick left into the "bridge building" after you come up (mouseover the beam over the entrance to see where it goes and confirm you've got the bridge to Elder Rise), and head over; you'll see the Elder to the left of the big druids' tent on Elder Rise. If you're getting harassed by Horde players or guards, you can jump off the Rise afterwards, although I recommend having a slow fall effect of some kind prepared so that you survive the jump.

  • Darkcore the Elder: 66,38 in the Ruins of Lordaeron above Undercity. This guy's easy to find, although with increased Horde traffic on the zeppelins during the Lunar Festival, the odds of running into high-level players getting on and off the elevators is fairly high. Ride into the Ruins of Lordaeron above the city and keep going straight; you'll find the Elder in the circular throne room along with the rest of the Lunar Festival NPCs.




Go to part 2 >>