WoW Insider's Guide to Pilgrim's Bounty 2013 achievements

While Pilgrim's Bounty isn't part of the meta What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, it's inarguably one of the most helpful yearly events. Yes, you can rack up some points with the Pilgrim meta and get a plump turkey pet, but the holiday has an unbeatable side benefit -- it's a fast, easy, and cheap way to level cooking to 350. If you've got a lot of alts around that haven't leveled the profession or never got around to doing it on your made, Pilgrim's Bounty will get that fixed as long as you're willing to put in a little elbow grease. As with Hallow's End and the recent anniversary tabard, you can also get a reputation boost from participating: The Spirit of Sharing from the feast tables grants an additional 10% to reputation gains.

Pilgrim's Bounty runs from Monday, Nov. 25 through Monday, Dec. 2nd this year. It's not one of the longer holidays, so if you'd like to get all the goodies, you'll want to start early. However, there's been no sign of an update to this year's version (we assume the developers are busy with Warlords of Draenor), so if you've done Pilgrim's Bounty previously on all the characters who needed to level cooking, you probably won't see additional benefit this year apart from a bit of fun.

"FOOD FIGHT!"

"FOOD FIGHT!" is a very simple achievement. Bountiful Tables are located in each capital's feasting area, and all of them are very large and easy to spot. Each chair at the tables is actually a vehicle. Mouse over the chairs and you'll see them clearly labeled, e.g., "The Stuffing Chair" or "The Turkey Chair." You can only pass a dish already located at that chair; if you're sitting in the sweet potatoes chair, you can pass sweet potatoes but not turkey, and so on and so forth. Once you've taken a seat (and for this achievement, it won't matter where), you'll find five options available.

1. Eating turkey If you're in the turkey chair, this will always be an available option; otherwise, it must be passed to you.

2. Eating cranberries If you're in the cranberry chair, this will always be an available option; otherwise, it must be passed to you.

3. Eating stuffing If you're in the stuffing chair, this will always be an available option; otherwise, it must be passed to you.

4. Eating sweet potatoes If you're in the sweet potatoes chair, this will always be an available option; otherwise, it must be passed to you.

5. Eating pie If you're in the pie chair, this will always be an available option; otherwise, it must be passed to you.

The only thing you need for this achievement is to have someone else sitting at the table, which should be easy in the holiday's first few days. Sit wherever you like, target a fellow player at the table, and use the first option (to "pass" a dish) repeatedly. Rather than passing it, you'll eventually throw it at them and get your achievement.

As with all holidays, Pilgrim's Bounty tends to be busiest in the first few days and more particularly at server high times, so I would advise doing this early. Cross-realm zones in most capital cities will help somewhat if your guildies/friends can't be around to help.

Sharing is Caring

As with "FOOD FIGHT!", Sharing is Caring is an achievement done while seated at a Bountiful Table. You'll need to visit all five chairs at a table and select the first option (again, passing the dish) at each one. No other player is required to be at the table for you to get this. However, if the feast area is crowded and players aren't budging from their own chairs, you can get this achievement by visiting different chairs at different tables, so don't worry about trying to hit them all at one.

Now We're Cookin'

Now We're Cookin' requires you to cook all five holiday recipes. You'll need to have at least 280 cooking skill to make all of them, but if you haven't leveled cooking, don't worry; Pilgrim's Bounty exists for just this reason.

The recipes you'll need are all from a single book sold for one silver by Pilgrim's Bounty vendors (all of whom will be located conveniently in feast areas). The book is called the Bountiful Cookbook and requires only 1 cooking skill in order to use. Right-click the book once it's in your inventory, and it'll give you all five recipes.

The recipes you'll need to cook are:

• Spice Bread Stuffing (requires 1 cooking skill) This one is the only recipe that uses an existing cooking item, but fortunately for us, it's the earliest one available -- one Spice Bread plus one Autumnal Herbs.

• Pumpkin Pie (requires 100 cooking skill) This recipe requires one Ripe Elwynn Pumpkin (Alliance, purchased from the Stormwind vendor) or Ripe Tirisfal Pumpkin (Horde, purchased from the Undercity vendor), plus one Honey.

• Cranberry Chutney (requires 160 cooking skill) You'll need one Tangy Wetland Cranberries (Alliance, purchased from the Ironforge vendor) or Tangy Southfury Cranberries (Horde, purchased from the Orgrimmar vendor), plus one Honey.

• Candied Sweet Potato (requires 220 cooking skill) Use one Teldrassil Sweet Potato (Alliance, purchased from the Darnassus vendor) or Mulgore Sweet Potato (Horde, purchased from the Thunder Bluff vendor), plus one Honey and one Autumnal Herbs.

• Slow-Roasted Turkey (requires 280 cooking skill) For this recipe, you'll need to make a trip to Elwynn Forest or Tirisfal Glades in order to get Wild Turkey, which is a 100% drop off the Wild Turkey mobs that spawn there for the duration of the holiday. One Wild Turkey per recipe, plus two Honey and one Autumnal Herbs.

Pilgrim's Bounty vendors sell the Simple Flour, Refreshing Spring Water, Mild Spices, Honey, and Autumnal Herbs you'll need for all five recipes, so you won't need to make any special trips for ingredients beyond turkeys. You don't even need to train cooking elsewhere; there'll be a cooking trainer in the feast areas too! Vendors in Stormwind/Undercity, Orgrimmar/Ironforge, and Darnassus/Thunder Bluff will also sell you the pumpkins, cranberries, and sweet potatoes (respectively) you'll need, so until you reach 280 cooking skill you won't even need to set foot outside your faction's major cities. If you want to make things especially convenient for yourself, make sure you cook at least 20 of each recipe so you can turn them into holiday NPCs for Pilgrim's Progress.

Once you get to the Slow-Roasted Turkey recipe, you'll need to make a hunting trip to Elwynn Forest or Tirisfal Glades. For the length of the holiday, low-level Wild Turkey mobs with two HP spawn all over these zones, and their meat is a 100% drop. As long as you're out stocking up on them for cooking purposes, you might as well do ...

The Turkinator

The Turkinator could reasonably be considered the holiday's toughest achievement. Each time you kill a Wild Turkey mob, you'll get a 30-second stacking buff named Turkey Tracker. The object of this achievement is to kill 40 turkeys without letting the buff drop. As such, every time you kill a turkey, you'll have 30 seconds from each kill to find and slaughter another one. Do this successfully 40 times, and you'll get Turkinator.

This achievement has attracted a number of complaints, mostly due to uneven mob spawns and griefing by other players (druids abusing Travel Form and Moonfire have historically been a sore point). While many players already have the Pilgrim meta on their mains and the holiday's likely to be populated largely by new alts, you may have a better shot at getting Turkinator done in one go if you wait a day or two. While there are a lot of turkeys available in both Tirisfal and Elwynn and they respawn quickly, it can still be difficult to get a perfect 40-mob killing spree if you have serious competition for the spawns. I'll put it this way -- finding and killing as many turkeys as you want at any point during this holiday is not difficult. It's finding and killing 40 of them within 30 seconds of each other with competition nearby that can get hairy.

I've been able to manage this on multiple characters simply by circling Brightwater Lake in Tirisfal, but even if you don't work with a set path, you can make it easier by making a /tar Wild Turkey macro and just spamming it. Nearby turkeys will light up, so head for the nearest kill, spam the macro again, and keep at it. As an aside -- yes, players with instant nukes have a significant advantage here, so just be aware that any competition from nearby druids and mages (among others) can put a real dent in your ability to do Turkinator.

As a number of our commenters have suggested, Tracker Snacks can really come in handy on this achievement if you're not a hunter. It does require 400 level cooking, so unless you buy them off the Auction House, you won't have easy access to them unless you've already leveled the skill.

Pilgrim's Progress

Pilgrim's Progress (Alliance) and Pilgrim's Progress (Horde) are fairly easy, though if you haven't yet leveled cooking, you'll have to put a bit of elbow grease in to ensure you're capable of finishing all five quests. The holiday's five dailies are all offered by Pilgrim's Bounty NPCs located in major cities (Stormwind, Ironforge, and Darnassus for Alliance or Thunder Bluff, Orgrimmar, and Undercity for Horde). All five can be completed in one day, so if you don't have a lot of time over the week that Pilgrim's Bounty is running, just budget about half an hour on a good day, and you're all set.

For Alliance, the quest links are as follows:

1. Can't Get Enough Turkey Bring 20 Slow-Roasted Turkeys to Caitrin Ironkettle outside Ironforge.

2. Don't Forget the Stuffing! Bring 20 Spice Bread Stuffing to Caitrin Ironkettle outside Ironforge.

3. Easy As Pie Bring 20 pieces of Pumpkin Pie to Mary Allerton outside the gates of Darnassus.

4. She Says Potato Bring 20 Candied Sweet Potatoes to Jasper Moore outside Stormwind.

5. We're Out of Cranberry Chutney Again? Bring 20 servings of Cranberry Chutney to Ellen Moore outside Stormwind.

For Horde, the quest links are as follows:

1. Can't Get Enough Turkey Bring 20 Slow-Roasted Turkeys to Ondani Greatmill outside Orgrimmar.

2. Don't Forget the Stuffing! Bring 20 Spice Bread Stuffing to Ondani Greatmill outside Orgrimmar.

3. Easy As Pie Bring 20 pieces of Pumpkin Pie to Mahara Goldwheat outside Thunder Bluff.

4. She Says Potato Bring 20 Candied Sweet Potatoes to William Mullins in Undercity's courtyard.

5. We're Out of Cranberry Chutney Again? Bring 20 servings of Cranberry Chutney to Roberta Carter in Undercity's courtyard.

Pilgrim's Paunch

Pilgrim's Paunch is done while seated, though your unfortunate and groaning toon is going to have to waddle his/her way around a few capitals. The Spirit of Sharing buff is gained when you eat all five dishes available at a Bountiful Table: turkey, cranberries, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pie. For this achievement, you'll have to run to each of your faction's cities, park yourself at each of the five chairs around a Bountiful Table (or ask other people at the chairs to pass you dishes so you can eat them), and gorge your way to the Spirit of Sharing buff. Once you've done this in all four major cities, you'll get the achievement.

The Spirit of Sharing buff is a 10% bonus to all reputation gains for an hour, so keep that in mind if you're working on reputation grinds like Shaohao. I'll grant that reapplying it from Pandaria over and over again isn't too efficient, so hopefully you've still got the anniversary tabard around.

Pilgrim's Peril

Ugh. Blizzard has a peculiar mania for sending players to their deaths in foreign cities, and
Pilgrim's Peril (Alliance) and Pilgrim's Peril (Horde) are this holiday's contribution to the cause. Anyway, the achievement requires you to sit at hostile Bountiful Tables while wearing at least one piece of Pilgrim attire. As all those of us who have done achievements like King of the Fire Festival are painfully aware, this rarely ends well, but sitting is at least quick. On PvE servers, you won't get flagged in all of the enemy cities due to feast area placement, but you will get flagged in some. Each faction has two cities in which they should be safe and two cities in which they won't.

The locations of each capital's feast area should be as follows:

• Stormwind Southeast of the main gates (east of the path into the city). Horde players will not get flagged here on PvE servers.

• Ironforge Directly outside the main gates. Horde players will not get flagged here on PvE servers.

• Darnassus Directly east of the main city (in the courtyard between the main gates and the Warrior's Terrace). Players without flying mounts will have to run the length of the city in order to reach the feast area, and Horde players will be harassed by guards every step of the way. This is by far the most inconvenient (and for Horde, dangerous) of all eight feast areas to reach. Don't go at server high time.

• The Exodar Directly outside the main city entrance (i.e. eastern side of the main building). Horde players will get flagged.

• Orgrimmar Southeast of the main gates (Durotar). Alliance players will not get flagged here on PvE servers.

• Undercity In the Ruins of Lordaeron courtyard immediately inside the main entrance to the city. Despite not being located far into the complex, this is the nastiest area for Alliance to reach, as there's steady Horde traffic from both the zeppelins and Silvermoon teleport, and the entrance to the Ruins is an unfortunate choke point. Don't go at server high time.

• Thunder Bluff Directly below the western elevators. Despite appearing to be outside of the city, the feast area is still within it and will get Alliance players flagged.

• Silvermoon City South of the city's main gates. Alliance players will not get flagged here on PvE servers.

Pilgrim attire is a reward from any of the cooking dailies given by NPCs in the feast areas, and it's extremely easy to get. You should have no difficulty collecting as many pieces as you want. Put on a dress, robe, or attire, and hie thee to your enemies' feast areas.

As with all achievements requiring you to enter an enemy city:

1. Try to go during your server's off hours, if possible.

2. Try not to go alone.

3. Plan your route in advance and know which cities you'll hit in which order.

4. Budget time in the quite likely event that some jackass camping the tables decides to make your life miserable.

5. If you don't have a flying mount, just accept that a certain amount of ugly death may be par for the course.

Terokkar Turkey Time

Terokkar Turkey Time is extremely easy if you've out-leveled The Burning Crusade content. Talon King Ikiss is the last boss of Sethekk Halls, a Burning Crusade dungeon located in the Auchindoun complex of Terokkar Forest. Still better, the achievement doesn't care if you defeat Ikiss on normal or heroic. Pick up some Pilgrim attire from the daily quests, head to Sethekk Halls, and you're in business.

As long as you're there, you might as well have a crack at Anzu if you're doing the heroic version and want a shot at the Reins of the Raven Lord.

Turkey Lurkey

Turkey Lurkey (Alliance) and Turkey Lurkey (Horde) are, in combination with The Turkinator, generally the two most troublesome achievements. We've already discussed why The Turkinator can make life difficult, but unless your server is home to an unusually high number of orc, dwarf, gnome, and troll rogues, then this achievement can give you some grief too. Actually, I would argue that Turkey Lurkey is probably more difficult these days than it was previously, as the 2009 and 2010 incarnation of the game had so many people of both factions camped in Dalaran. Then again, cross-realm zones may turn out to be your friend here.

Turkey Shooters, like Pilgrim clothing, are potential rewards from the holiday's daily quests. Getting a Shooter is very easy, but finding one rogue of each race might keep you occupied for a bit. Once you've finished off your own faction, your best bet is to sit outside of enemy capitals hoping that a rogue you need will show up (unless you can enlist help from friendly members on the opposite faction). However, one of the holiday's more delightful surprises was the number of enterprising players who rolled rogues from the less-played races, begged summons from friendly warlocks, and then parked themselves in a high-traffic area to grant achievements to a grateful public. On my server, several level one rogues with names like Shootmepls and Turkeytime have historically lined up on the Dalaran bank steps and around the Orgrimmar feast area. If you're not having any luck finding the elusive dwarf rogue, you might want to advertise on your realm forums or just keep trying. As our commenters have suggested, you may also want to try queuing for battlegrounds or trying a neutral city like Dalaran or Shattrath to see who's hanging around.