Midnight Season 2 Delves Tier List — Ranked by Speed and Story

Twelve regular Delves in Season 2, and picking the right one is worth more time than optimising your rotation.

But there's a problem with how Delve tier lists usually work: the active Story affects your run time more than which Delve you picked. Parhelion Plaza with Bombing Run active is one of the fastest runs available. Parhelion Plaza with a different Story is unremarkable. Same Delve, completely different experience.

Patch 12.1 made this worse by adding a fourth Children of Ula'tek Story to eight of the ten original Delves — and those new Stories are consistently the slowest options in their respective Delves.

So this guide ranks both: the Delves, and every Story inside them.

The Short Version

Venomfall Deeps is the Season 2 Nemesis Delve and sits outside this ranking — it's a boss encounter, not a farming target.

Rough timings: Fast tier runs complete comfortably under 10 minutes. Fine tier sits around 10 minutes. Slow tier takes roughly 20 minutes on a clean run, and considerably longer when something goes wrong.

Pick by Goal, Not by Tier

Before the rankings, one thing worth settling: what are you actually running Delves for? The answer changes which ones you should pick.

Filling your Great Vault. Your Vault reward caps at Tier 8. Running Tier 9, 10, or 11 gives you no better Vault item. If Vault slots are your only goal, run Tier 8 in the fastest Delves you can find and stop there.

Myth Mistcrests and Delver's Journey points. These require Tier 11. Gilded Stashes only appear after Tier 11 clears, and Journey points scale hard with tier — a full Tier 11 run is worth roughly 57% more than a Tier 8. If you're chasing crests or Journey ranks, tier matters more than Delve choice.

Levelling alts. You want enemy density and compact layouts, not short objective lists. Collegiate Calamity and The Grudge Pit are the picks here.

Levelling Valeera. The Ring of Glory is the only Delve where you can mount, which makes it the fastest Mislaid Curiosity circuit available.

Fast Tier — Your Default Picks

Sunkiller Sanctum

Voidstorm — /way #2405 54.8 47.1

One of only two Delves that didn't receive a Children of Ula'tek Story, which is quietly a significant advantage — three Stories instead of four means a higher chance of rolling a fast one.

Direct layout, less objective busywork than most Season 2 Delves. Watch the final boss, Esuritus — he's the only real threat in an otherwise smooth run.

Verdict: the most consistently fast Delve in the pool. Two of its three Stories are top-tier and the third is perfectly acceptable.

Atal'Aman

Between Eversong Woods and Zul'Aman — /way #2395 63.7 80.1

The outdoor layout is the key advantage — you move between objectives quickly rather than navigating corridors.

Venomous Vapors is the Ula'tek addition, cleaning up poison infestation. More interaction than the originals, but the underlying Delve is easy enough to navigate that it stays acceptable.

Twilight Crypts

Zul'Aman — /way #2437 25.4 84.4

Trapped! has a learning curve — your first run will be slower than every subsequent one. Learn the trap positions and it becomes a fast Story.

Why'd It Have to Be Snakes? is the outlier: exploding snakes and a fight against Replicating Venomborne. Notably more involved than the original three.

Collegiate Calamity

Silvermoon City — /way #2393 40.6 53.7

The most consistent Delve in the pool. No punishing routes on any variant.

Invasive Glow rewards AoE-heavy specs specifically. If your class has strong cleave, this is one of the fastest Stories available anywhere. The Grimgrow Deweeder helps clear smaller Lightbloom enemies and speeds up the objectives considerably.

Best pick for levelling alts — dense enemies in a compact layout is exactly what you want when experience per minute is the metric.

The Ring of Glory

Coiled Isle, eastern side — /way #2512 71.2 56.5

New in Season 2, and it earns its placement through pure structure: it's a small combat arena. Almost none of your run time goes on travel, which is where most Delves lose their minutes.

Open Night is the one to avoid if speed is your priority. Multiple opponents before the final boss, and it demands more interrupt discipline than the other two.

One important exception: The Ring of Glory is an outdoor Delve, which means you can mount inside it. If you're farming Valeera experience through Mislaid Curiosities, this is the only Delve where you can run a continuous mounted circuit — and for that specific purpose, Open Night's length actually works in your favour.

Fine Tier — Situational Picks

These don't stand out for speed and don't demand special skill. Around ten minutes for a clean run. Fine to take when they're Bountiful, not worth seeking out.

The Darkway

Silvermoon City docks — /way #2393 39.3 31.7. Enter through the boat to reach the Arcway beneath Suramar.

Better than it looks at first glance. Its original Stories are consistent rather than fast, and Eggsplosive Growth is a genuinely efficient option that pulls its average up.

Parhelion Plaza

Isle of Quel'Danas — /way #2424 46.8 40.9

The highest-variance Delve in the game.

Bombing Run is one of the fastest Stories available anywhere in Midnight. When it's active, treat Parhelion Plaza as a Fast tier Delve without hesitation — it outperforms most of the Delves ranked above it.

Every other Story is unremarkable. That gap is why it sits in Fine tier despite having a top-tier variant, and it's the clearest example of why Story matters more than Delve.

Practical approach: always check Parhelion Plaza's active Story before picking something else.

Shadowguard Point

Voidstorm — /way #2405 37.1 49.1

Stolen Mana is the efficient variant: simple objective, and the borrowed weapon destabilises the required containers without wasted time.

Basilisk Blitz is manageable. Its boss, Disciple of Vash'nik, needs you to interrupt Malignance and avoid Living Venom — nothing complicated once you know.

The Grudge Pit

Harandar — /way #2413 70.4 64.8

Genuinely entertaining, but Season 2 made its completion times unpredictable. Three of its four Stories now stretch the run.

The stealth exception: The Grudge Pit has the highest enemy density in the pool. For Rogues, Druids, and anyone who can move through packs unseen, that density becomes an advantage rather than a threat — this is the best Delve for stealth-class farming. For everyone else, it's a hazard.

The Gulf of Memory

Harandar — /way #2413 36.7 49.6

The other Delve without a Children of Ula'tek Story — three variants only.

Environmental annoyance: plants hanging from the ceiling grab you if you walk underneath. Some routes reward careful movement more than others.

Not the worst Delve in Midnight anymore, but Descent of the Haranir is the Story dragging its average down.

Slow Tier — Skip These

Both combine long objectives with layouts or mechanics that more damage won't solve. That's the defining feature: gear doesn't fix them.

The Shadow Enclave

Southern Eversong Woods — /way #2395 45.5 86.0

The original Shadow Enclave was already slow. Infiltrate and Ameliorate, the new Ula'tek Story, is the reason it now sits at the bottom.

The Story asks you to sneak through part of the Delve, sabotage cauldrons with Oddball Ingredients, use jumping mushrooms to reach objectives, and clear Children of Ula'tek before fighting Abominable Blunder. No amount of item level shortens it — the objective itself takes the time.

There's also a known bug worth knowing about. Oddball Ingredients have been reported disappearing, failing to award credit, or becoming impossible to interact with. Because the number of ingredients available is limited, this can force a complete reset of the run.

Recommendation: avoid The Shadow Enclave entirely while Infiltrate and Ameliorate is active, unless it's Bountiful or you specifically need the Story for completion credit.

Gnarldor Isle

Southern Coiled Isle — /way #2512 64.4 77.7

The most tedious regular Delve in Season 2, and the problem isn't difficulty — it's size and mandatory objective work. All three Stories are heavy.

Minchi's Osseous Adventure is among the slowest measured runs in Midnight, which tracks with the sheer amount of objective work stacked into it.

The trash punishes careless pulls too. Stonerender Raiders charge-stun you and follow with heavy frontal damage. Tuskcrusher Outriders knock you into neighbouring packs. Large pulls that work elsewhere get you killed here.

Worth running for achievements, Story completion, or when it's Bountiful. If your only goal is clearing Tier 8+ Delves quickly, this is the first one to skip.

The Story Rankings That Matter Most

If you remember nothing else from this guide:

Always take these Stories: Bombing Run (Parhelion Plaza), Loosed Loa (Twilight Crypts), The Gravitational Effect and Not What I Expected (Sunkiller Sanctum), Ritual Interrupted and Toadly Unbecoming (Atal'Aman), Stolen Mana (Shadowguard Point), Adopt-a-thon (The Ring of Glory), Arena Champion (The Grudge Pit).

Always avoid these Stories: Infiltrate and Ameliorate (The Shadow Enclave), Minchi's Osseous Adventure (Gnarldor Isle), Open Night (The Ring of Glory) unless you're farming Valeera, Descent of the Haranir (The Gulf of Memory), Fungal Pharmacon (The Grudge Pit).

The general rule for Season 2: the Children of Ula'tek Stories added in Patch 12.1 are consistently slower than the originals. When you have a choice, take an original Story.

Practical Weekly Approach

If you're farming Delver's Journey points or Myth Mistcrests: run Tier 11 in Sunkiller Sanctum, Atal'Aman, Twilight Crypts, or Collegiate Calamity. Check Parhelion Plaza's Story first — if it's Bombing Run, run that instead.

If you're filling Great Vault slots only: Tier 8 is the cap. Run the fastest Delve available and don't overreach on tier.

If you're gearing an alt: Collegiate Calamity for density and layout. The Grudge Pit if you're on a stealth class.

If Gnarldor Isle or The Shadow Enclave is Bountiful: run it anyway — Bountiful rewards outweigh the extra ten minutes. Otherwise, skip both.