World of Warcraft Shadowlands introduces Covenants to the long-running MMO, and once you align with one you’ll want to increase your Renown with them. Unlike Legion and Battle for Azeroth, Renown is not leveled by dumping limitless amounts of a resource into the system. If you saw Anima and worried Shadowlands would be yet another endless power treadmill you can relax. Renown is much easier to increase, and there is a weekly wall that limits progression. This guide has been updated for Shadowlands Patch 9.1.
Increase your Renown in Shadowlands by completing Covenant weeklies, clearing Campaign quests, killing bosses, and winning PvP matches.
Renown is how you level your Covenant, and ultimately your Soulbinds (Shadowlands version of “borrowed power”). The higher your Renown rank the more features, activities, and rewards you’ll have access to. Unlike Artifact Power and the Heart of Azeroth you won’t be dumping infinite amounts of Anima into your Renown. Renown is leveled in a far more straight-forward manner than either of those systems, and there is a weekly limit to how high you can climb.
There are currently (as of Shadowlands Patch 9.1) 80 Renown ranks. Each week your Covenant will have one weekly Anima quest that will reward one single rank upon completion, and there is a weekly Korthia/Maw weekly (“Shaping Fate”) that awards a second rank upon completion. You read that correctly: one whole rank-up per quest. No dumping Anima into Renown until it levels up, no perpetual grind to keep up with everyone else – just two weeklies. These are how you’ll increase your Renown rank in Shadowlands whenever you are at the weekly cap.
Additionally, you can earn Renown ranks by completing chapters in the campaign – both your Covenant’s and the Chains of Domination campaign (though the latter are much less common). This applies to any new Covenant you may swap to, since you have to increase your Renown separately per Covenant in Shadowlands. The same can’t be said of the Chains of Domination campaign: that Renown is one-and-done.
If you are behind on Renown there are way to increase it in Shadowlands up to the current weekly cap. Your Callings have a chance to award Renown, though these tend to fall off the closer you get to cap. Killing the weekly World Boss will always grant you Renown if you are catching up. Additionally, dungeon and raid bosses can drop Renown, and the harder the content the better the drop chance. You can also increase your Renown in Shadowlands by winning PvP matches, though this method tends to be the slowest.
In Shadowlands Patch 9.1 it is easier to increase your Renown if you are below the cap. All the sources I listed above have seen their Renown drop-rates increased, so if you are leveling an alt or changed Covenants recently you should catch-up to the former max Renown Rank of 40 soon. You’ll certainly want to, since flying is locked behind Renown Rank 44.
If you are unsure if you can earn catch-up Renown or not open up your Covenant UI and navigate to the Renown tab. The circle with your current Renown rank at the top will have a little orange icon at the bottom if you can still increase your Renown that week. Remember, Renown is a time-gated system, so as of Shadowlands Patch 9.1 we’ll only be able to reach Rank 44 on the second week, and so on. If you keep up with those two weekly Covenant quests and the campaign you’ll always increase your Renown to the highest rank for that week.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Patch 9.1, Chains of Domination launches June 29th (NA) and June 30th (EU).
