In World of Warcraft: Midnight, Prey is a dynamic world activity that challenges players to hunt specific targets across the lands of Quel'Thalas. These hunts are more than simple monster kills — they're part of an evolving system with unique mechanics, multiple difficulties, seasonal progression, and valuable rewards.
In this guide, you'll learn:
- How to unlock the Prey system
- What the hunt process looks like
- How to survive ambushes
- All Prey affixes by difficulty
- Rewards from hunts, vendors, mounts, pets, and housing decor
- How Prey ties into the Great Vault
Let's dive in!
What Is Prey in Midnight?
Prey is a zone‑wide activity where you track down special targets using clues earned by completing objectives. As you make progress, an Anguish crystal fills up — once it's fully charged, you pinpoint the target and engage in a boss fight.
Prey is seasonal, comes with its own Preyseeker's Journey track, and offers unique rewards ranging from gear and currency to mounts, pets, and housing decorations.
How to Unlock Prey
Step 1 — Reach Silvermoon City
You'll unlock Prey as soon as your character gains access to Silvermoon City in Midnight. Head there and look for Astalor Bloodsworn, found at the coordinates:
Silvermoon City/way 2393 55.0 63.4 — Astalor Bloodsworn
Astalor will give you the introductory quest Prey: Astalor's Initiative. Follow this first questline until you finish To the Sanctum! To the Sanctum! Completing it will unlock Normal difficulty hunts at the Hunt Table in Astalor's Sanctum — and you can start doing hunts immediately, even while leveling.
Unlocking Hard & Nightmare Difficulties
To unlock the advanced hunt tiers:
- Reach Level 90 with your character
Once you hit 90, Hard and Nightmare difficulties become selectable at the Hunt Table.
These higher tiers add more challenges (and affixes — more on that below), but they also improve your rewards significantly:
✅ Better gear from the Adventurer Chests
✅ More currency drops
✅ Higher‑tier Dawncrest drops
✅ Improved progress for the Great Vault and seasonal Journey
How Prey Hunts Work
Starting a Hunt
- Interact with the Hunt Table in Astalor's Sanctum
- A world map opens showing available hunts
- Select a target — you'll see:
- Zone
- Difficulty
- Active affixes
- Potential rewards
Once chosen, travel to the hunt zone. Your goal is to draw out the target by completing objectives.
Drawing Out Your Target
The hunt uses an Anguish crystal tracker that fills as you complete objectives:
You can progress the tracker by:
- Completing World Quests
- Looting Treasures
- Killing Rares and Remnants of Anguish
- Disabling Traps
Once the crystal turns bright red, the target's location is marked on your mini‑map. Interact with the crystal at that spot to spawn the boss and start the hunt.
Prey Ambushes
During hunts, your target might ambush you mid‑combat. Ambushes are dangerous, but you can survive them two ways:
To safely repel an ambush:
- Reduce the target's health to 50%
- Trigger a Disarmed Trap on the target
Successfully surviving an ambush causes the target to flee, rewarding:
- Increased hunt progress
- Remnant of Anguish currency
After the target flees, a red outline will appear on your map — interact with it to Riposte the target and earn even more hunt progress.
Prey Affixes by Difficulty
As difficulty increases, so do the mechanics and risks:
| Affix | Normal | Hard | Nightmare | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambush | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | Target may ambush you in zone combat |
| Torment | ✔️ | ✔️ | Damage taken increases, stacking | |
| Hunter's Momentum | ✔️ | ✔️ | Death reduces hunt progress | |
| Seeping Gore | ✔️ | ✔️ | Shadow damage pools appear beneath you | |
| Echo of Predation | ✔️ | Shadow spirit stalks and damages players | ||
| Bloody Command | ✔️ | Fail forced objective = massive bleed |
Nightmare difficulty includes all affixes and is meant for seasoned players seeking the best rewards.
Preyseeker's Journey Track
Similar to the Delver's Journey, the Prey system has its own seasonal progression track with 10 ranks of rewards. You earn Preyseeker's Journey XP primarily by completing hunts.
- First 4 hunts/week grant 1,000 Journey XP each
- Every additional hunt grants 50 Journey XP
Because of this steep dropoff, focusing on at least 4 hunts per week is the most efficient way to climb the seasonal track.
Prey Rewards Overview
Prey delivers rewards in multiple forms: loot cache rewards, vendor items, mounts, pets, gear, and housing decor.
Hunt Rewards
Each hunt completion gives:
- Preyseeker's Journey progress
- Gold
- Preyseeker's Adventurer Chest
Contains:- Adventurer‑track gear
- Voidlight Marl
- Veteran Dawncrest
- Chance at Tormented Tantalum
Repeating hunts yields Preyseeker's Adventurer Sacks, which are like chests but without the gear piece drop.
Vendor Rewards (Construct V'anore)
Construct V'anore, found in Astalor's Sanctum, sells a variety of items in exchange for Prey currencies such as:
- Remnants of Anguish
- Voidlight Marl
- Coffer Key Shards
- Dawncrests (Adventurer → Champion tier based on rune quality)
You can purchase:
Transmog & Armor Ensembles
Item | Cost | Required Preyseeker's Journey |
1600 1600 | - | |
1600 1600 | - | |
1600 1600 | - | |
1600 1600 | - | |
400 400 | Rank 3 | |
400 400 | Rank 3 | |
500 500 | Rank 6 | |
500 500 | Rank 6 |
Profession Recipes
V'anore also sells high‑end recipes in Enchanting and Inscription that require:
- Preyseeker's Journey rank
- Remnants of Anguish
- Artisan Enchanter's or Scribe's Moxie
Mounts, Pets & Toys
Prey offers some of the most iconic cosmetic rewards:
| Reward | Cost | Required Journey |
|---|---|---|
| Voldy (Pet) | 800 | — |
| Preyseeker's Hubris (Mount) | 2000 | Rank 5 |
| Preyseeker's Hearthstone (Toy) | 2000 | Rank 6 |
| Lil' Preyseeker (Companion) | 1200 | Rank 9 |
| Preyseeker's Wrath (Mount) | 2550 | Rank 10 |
These rewards are exclusive to the Prey system and add permanent collectibles to your account.
Player Housing Decor Rewards
The Prey system also contributes decorative items for your housing space. Construct V'anore sells several ornamentals — such as:
Achievement Decor
Completing Hard and Nightmare boss hunts also unlocks decor pieces tied to achievements:
- Preyseeker's Amani Bust
- Preyseeker's Amani Effigy
- Preyseeker's Breaker Bust
- Preyseeker's Breaker Effigy
- Preyseeker's Consul Bust
- Preyseeker's Consul Effigy
- Preyseeker's Ethereal Bust
- Preyseeker's Ethereal Effigy
- Preyseeker's Executor Bust
- Preyseeker's Executor Effigy
- Preyseeker's Farstrider Bust
- Preyseeker's Farstrider Effigy
- Preyseeker's Knight-Errant Bust
- Preyseeker's Knight-Errant Effigy
- Preyseeker's Magister Bust
- Preyseeker's Magister Effigy
- Preyseeker's Ren'dorei Bust
- Preyseeker's Ren'dorei Effigy
- Preyseeker's Rutaani Bust
- Preyseeker's Rutaani Effigy
- Preyseeker's Thornspeaker Bust
- Preyseeker's Thornspeaker Effigy
- Preyseeker's Tinker Bust
Prey & the Great Vault
Prey Hunts contribute to the World row of the Great Vault. To fully unlock the World row, you need 8 activities combined from:
- Hunts
- Delves
- Open world objectives
Maximize your Vault progress by balancing your weekly hunts with other world content.
Conclusion — A Unique Layer of Midnight Progression
The Prey system in Midnight offers a compelling blend of world gameplay, strategic objectives, and collectible rewards. By understanding how hunts work, planning your weekly targets, and unlocking higher difficulties, you'll gain some of the best seasonal rewards — from glam transmog to powerful cosmetic rewards and housing decor.
Whether you're hunting your first target or pushing Nightmare runs, Prey is one of Midnight's richest endgame activities — and definitely worth mastering.
