15 easy (and not so easy) achievements to work on while leveling
If you've played WoW for more than a half hour or so, chances are you've noticed the game's achievement system, which rewards you with (meaningless) points and sometimes more tangible rewards (like unique tabards or special titles) for doing certain things in the game. You'll find you get achievements for leveling, achievements for completing quests, achievements for picking up gold, achievements for leveling professions, there's even an achievement for visiting the barber's shop. We've gathered some achievements that are a bit more out of the way, but all of which you can either pick up or work on while you're leveling. They aren't all easy, but none of them require you to be level 90 and epiced out.
So if you're leveling but are interested in upping your achievement game, give these a try. We've ranked them in what we think of as order of difficulty. If nothing else, they're a distraction from the leveling grind!
1. Duel-icious
All you have to do here is duel another player and win. Any player -- even if they're much lower level than you are -- will do. We recommend asking a friend to duel with you, but you can request duels from anyone. Just remember to be polite about it rather than just going around challenging everyone in an area to duels!
2. 5 Daily Quests Complete
This one's a snap: just complete 5 daily quests to pick it up. You might miss this one while leveling only because there aren't many daily quests you run into while leveling. However, if you're training cooking (and the ability to make nice buff food for yourself is a good reason to), there's a daily cooking quest in all major cities that will reward you with cooking skill, experience, faction standing, and (eventually) this achievement.
For those who do a lot of dailies, there's another version of this achievement for 50, 200, 500, 1000, 2500, 5000, and 10,000 daily quests completed. This is more than a bit of a grind and, at present, offers you no tangible rewards. But still, it's there for the overachievers and completionists in the audience.
3. A Simple Re-Quest
This is a variation on 5 Daily Quests in that it requires you to complete a daily quest every day for 5 consecutive days. Don't break the chain!
4. An honorable kill
If you don't do any PvP, you won't notice this little achievement. But if you enjoy PvP, you've probably already gotten it. Either way, a single honorable kill is very easy to snag: just head out to the nearest battleground and get on the PvP bandwagon. (Who knows, you might find you like it!)
For the serious PvP player, you'll also get achievements for 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000, 100,000, and 250,000 honorable kills. This is no small amount of work, but if you hit 100,000 kills, you'll get the title "of the Alliance" or "of the Horde" depending on your faction. And for 250,000 kills you'll get the title "the Bloodthirsty." If either of those interest you, you should get started on that kill count today.
5. Ten Tabards
You'll pick up this simple achievement by equipping 10 different tabards. The only thing challenging here is finding and purchasing them. If you want to keep collecting, there are also achievements for 25 tabards and 30 tabards. 25 tabards gives you the unique Tabard of the Achiever but 30, currently, has no special reward.
6. Going Down?
This achievement challenges you to fall 65 yards without dying. It's entirely possible... so long as you find a drop that's just far enough but not too far. Make sure you're at full health before you jump because a 65 yard fall will eat up most of your health bar.
7. Make Love, Not Warcraft
Another simple PvP achievement, Make Love, Not Warcraft requires you to /hug a fallen enemy before they've released and gone to the graveyard. So hit up the nearest battleground and spread the /hugs!
8. 25 Fish
If you enjoy virtual fishing, this is the achievement for you. Catch (and loot) 25 fish and you're home free! Those of you in training to win the Stranglethorn Fishinig Extravaganza will be pleased to know that there are also achievements for 50, 100, 250, 500, and 1000 fish. Though none of these have any extra rewards, 1000 Fish is part of the Accomplished Angler achievement which rewards skilled fish-finders with the "Salty" title.
If World of Warcraft's companion pets are your thing, this achievement challenges you to collect 15 of them. Want to keep going? There are also achievements for 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 250, and 400 pets in your mini-menagerie -- and plenty of pet rewards as you go. At 50 pets you're rewarded with Stinker, at 75 you get Little Fawn, at 100 you get Nuts, at 125 you get Brilliant Kaliri, at 150 you get Celestial Dragon, at 250 you get Feral Vermling, and at 400 you get Venus.
10. Stable Keeper
To nab this achievement, you need to have 10 different mounts which isn't too challenging: buying all available colors of your racial mount will get you a good start. For the lazy (like me), remember that mounts are account-wide, which means the easiest way to pick up a mount for another race in your faction is to roll an alt and level it to 20. (That may sound like a chore, but it's still faster than getting to exalted reputation with each race.)
For the true mount collector, there are also achievements for 25, 50, 100, and 150 mounts, each of which become increasingly difficult. However, for 50 mounts you'll get an Albino Drake, for 100 you'll get a Red Dragonhawk (Horde) or Blue Dragonhawk (Alliance), and for 150 you'll get a Jade Pandaren Kite to ride.
11. It's Happy Hour Somewhere and Tastes Like Chicken
It's happy hour everywhere with this achievement, which requires you to drink 25 different types of beverages. So hit up the nearest bar, then the next nearest bar, then the next nearest bar... until you've either gotten the achievement or forgotten what you were working on.
While you're working on It's Happy Hour Somewhere, you may as well also work on Tastes Like Chicken, which requires you to eat 50 different kinds of food.
12. Pest Control
This isn't an achievement you can finish until you can get to Northrend, but you can certainly make a start on it. Pest Control challenges you to eliminate pesky critters around the World of Warcraft, They're easy enough to kill, but you have to find them first -- check Wowhead comments for exact locations and other tips.
13. To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before
Love critters? Then this is the achievement for you! Just go up to a number of different Azerothian creatures and /love them. Finding these guys will involve a lot of running around (and a lot of /love), but is doable with time and patience.
And if you liked this achievement, there's also To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life (primarily in Northrend), To All the Squirrels Who Cared for Me (covering new Cataclysm creatures), and To All the Squirrels I Once Caressed? (which covers Pandaria's critters).
14. World Explorer
World Explorer isn't an achievement you're going to be able to get immediately, but it is fairly easy in that all it requires you to do is explore zones. Unfortunately, to get the complete World Explorer achievement, you have to explore every zone which will take some time -- but grant you "the Explorer" title.
You get an achievement for any zone you explore completely, so we recommend taking the time to reveal the whole map wherever you are -- working on this achievement as you go is a lot less hassle than having to come back and go everywhere. The World Explorer achievement is granted when you've completed all of these smaller achievements: Explore Eastern Kingdoms, Explore Kalimdor, Explore Outland, Explore Northrend (which also grants you the unique Tabard of the Explorer), Explore Cataclysm, and Explore Pandaria. That's a lot of exploring, so you should probably get started!
15. The Loremaster
This one is last on our list because it's hard. It takes a lot of concentrated time and effort to become Loremaster, which involves completing a certain number of quests in each zone of the game. We think the achievement is ever so slightly easier to do if you make a point of completing all of a zone's quests as you level through them, because then there are fewer stray quests to come back and find later, so if you're interested in this one... get questing!
The full Loremaster achievement, which grants you the unique tabard Loremaster's Colors as well as the "Loremaster" title, is granted for completing all of these achievements: Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms, Loremaster of Kalimdor, Loremaster of Outland, Loremaster of Northrend, Loremaster of Cataclysm, and Loremaster of Pandaria.
Though that should be enough achievements to keep anyone occupied for a good long while, if you find you're an achievement addict, you should check out The OverAchiever for all of your achievement-acquiring needs.
Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't bring your A-game to World of Warcraft! Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from the seven things every newbie ought to know to how to get started as a healer or as a tank.
