Blizzard has announced a new mode for World of Warcraft that mixes the traditional gameplay of the popular MMO with the Battle Royale genre. Available later today, Plunderstorm is World of Warcraft‘s pirate-themed take on Fortnite.
60 players will drop into an all-out fight with this new mode, which is separate from the main game. These aren’t going to be your normal geared-and-tiered WoW characters participating in this. You’ll make a unique base character without classes and racial abilities. Everyone will be on even footing when they land in a specialized version of the well-worn Arathi zone, complete with a storm that slowly closes in over time.
The goal, like any Fortnite or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds-style game, is to run around looking for weapons and supplies in chests. However, instead of standard guns and melee weapons, you’ll see spell-like abilities drop. These can be tiered from common to epic, and are going to be your main equipment. It’s not uncommon to see NPC enemies on the field of other battle royale games. But, in Plunderstorm, leveling up will also be a necessary part of becoming the last person standing.
Now, it sounds like a fun mode and all, but what’s the point if it’s separate from your characters in the main game? Plunderstorm comes with a reward track that will look very familiar to players who have leveled up renown in Dragonflight and Shadowlands. As you play the new mode, you’ll earn various items to take to both the retail version of WoW, and WoW Classic. Most will be cosmetic transmog pieces, but there will also be mounts and pets available.
While they’ve said this is a limited-time event, they haven’t given any specifics on how long it will last. At a guess, we think it might be until the next major patch for Season 4. Hopefully, it’s the big 11.0 patch that prepares the game for The War Within this summer. In the announcement video, they state that rewards can be earned “at least once per day” to players. Because there’s 40 ranks to reach, we believe this should be going for at least a month.
All you need to enjoy this mode is an active WoW subscription. When you log in, you’ll see a logo for the Plunderstorm mode on the character select screen. Simply select that and drop in. You can queue for Solo or Duos, depending on whether you want to bring a friend along to claim that loot.
