Ever since Warlords of Draenor World of Warcraft has had some form of upgradable “base”, and the feature returns as Sanctum Upgrades in Shadowlands. Your sanctum is your Covenant’s home base, and upgrading it offers a handful of benefits. Thankfully none of these Sanctum Upgrades affect your power progression in any substantial way. Instead they providing quality-of-life improvements that will make exploring your Covenant’s zone easier, speed up your transmog acquisition, and unlock a minigame activity unique to your Covenant that provides cosmetic and other similar treasures.
Sanctum Upgrades are unlocked after choosing your Covenant and reaching level 60 in Shadowlands.
In order to unlock Sanctum Upgrades in Shadowlands you’ll need to both pick your Covenant and reach level 60. If you are leveling an alt via the Threads of Fate you’ll knock out the first step immediately, but you’ll have to reach the new level cap to start the Covenant campaign. Sanctum Upgrades are tied to the first chapter of the campaign, which is essentially a giant “Shadowlands Endgame 101” tutorial. You’ll be introduced to the Renown system and your first Renown weekly quest prior to unlocking Sanctum Upgrades.
You’ll be tasked with farming 1000 Anima to complete the quest just prior to “Home Improvement”, which is the quest to unlock Sanctum Upgrades in Shadowlands. This Anima quest will grant you a Renown rank-up, and you’ll have enough Anima afterwards to purchase your first upgrade. Once you move on to “Home Improvement” talk to your Covenant’s Sanctum Upgrade NPC (they’re the quest-giver) to open the Sanctum Reservoir interface.
This UI serves two functions. First, it’s where you will convert all of your Anima items into spendable Anima. Clicking “deposit” at the bottom of the interface will dump all the Anima items you currently have in your inventory into your Covenant’s Anima reservoir, freeing up bag space and allowing you to spend the Anima on Sanctum Upgrades (amongst other things).
The second function is to, well, upgrade your Sanctum! You’ll notice four options around your reservoir: the Transport Network, Anima Conductor, Adventure Command Table, and your Covenant’s special activity. You will need Anima and Redeemed Souls to purchase Sanctum Upgrades in Shadowlands, and since Redeemed Souls are gated by a weekly quest you won’t be able to purchase every upgrade for at least a few months.
You’ll have enough Anima and Redeemed Souls from the previous quests to choose one upgrade. If you used the Threads of Fate to level in Shadowlands you may have enough Anima to unlock the first upgrade for everything but your Covenant activity (it requires 6 Redeemed Souls, and you’ll only have 5). Purchase whatever you can afford to complete the quest. Here on out you’ll have permanent access to Sanctum Upgrades, so be sure to farm more Anima as you play, and don’t forget to complete your weekly Redeemed Souls quest to purchase additional upgrades.
