What happens to character boosts in Shadowlands

As you’ve probably read a lot of our stories, guides, and facts about WoW’s eight’s expansion, here’s an important question no one mentioned yet. Precisely, this is something that bugs a lot of players and we can formulate it as “What happens to unused character boosts in Shadowlands?” question. 

Therefore, you might wonder will they also get squished and boosted to the according level or should you boost before or after getting the expansion. Finally, this guide will help you remove all doubts that might arise regarding unused boosts and we’ll also explain how the boost will work in Shadowlands. 

As we all know, previous boosts were in a form of 110 and 120 level tokens. Additionally, you can stack more of each and many people have not really used them yet. So, you’re probably wondering what’s the best use for those tokens and how will they go along with the first level squish in WoW’s history. 

Now, let’s do two things: 

1. Let’s remind ourselves what level squish does
2. Let’s look at the situation with the previous expansion – Battle for Azeroth and what happened with boosts at the time it came out. 

Level squish logic

To be short – probably most of us are already aware of how the level squish works. Simply said, it squishes or scales down your level and sets up a new way the game sees your level and leveling in general. 

For example, cap level 120 characters will scale down to level 50 and level 60 will be the new cap level. Furthermore, we can expect that this will happen to boosts, so the level 120 token will become a level 50 token. 

Logically, the level 110 token will be converted accordingly, following the same conversion rate which level squish will introduce. Moreover, don’t panic, and don’t be worried that your boost will get deleted or that it will become obsolete. First, you paid for these boosts, and second, it’s safe to say that Blizzard will play their part fairly. 

To conclude, don’t rush by using these boosts! – You can safely save them for Shadowlands.

Boosts from previous expansions

About this topic, it is worthy to recall what happened with previous boosts, say the ones preceding BfA. In that light, Blizzard did the logical, fair move and upgraded the old boosts. Precisely, boosts from WoD were originally level 90, but when BfA came out they got an upgrade to level 100 boosts. What’s more, the boost from BfA came as originally a level 100 boost. 

Therefore, following this logic we can expect only to get our unused boosts squished, at worst. At best, our unused boosts should get squished to the according level and upgraded a bit, like with previous expansions.

Possible limitations when using boosts

Now when we talked about what happens with character boosts in Shadowlands, it’s time to talk about some possible limitations that will follow. Presumably, if you use your character boost on some specific races, you might experience a few limitations and downsides.

To be precise, let’s recall when Mists of Pandaria came out and when Blizzard introduced Pandaren – a new race at that time. Well, some type of temporary restriction got in place when players wanted to use a boost on the Pandaren race. 

Ever since, Blizzard didn’t do such a thing, even on new Allied Races, but it’s good to keep this situation in mind. What’s more, some speculations are circulating on the internet, saying that boosting an Allied Race might ban a character from getting the Heritage Armor transmog. 

Therefore, make a mental note of these two possible limitations when boosting.

Shadowlands character boosts

Finally, let’s see what’s the catch with Shadowland’s freshly coined, character boosts. First and foremost, WoW: Shadowlands Heroic and Epic Editions will come with a Character Boost. Besides, you can also buy it from the in-game Shop in the Services menu.

Further, when you activate the boost your character will get a new set of gear (according to the character’s current level) and 4 22-slot bags. That’s not all, you will also receive the Expert Riding and flying ability which applies to all flight zones. 

However, Professions will not receive a boost! Additionally, content unlock will occur, in terms of quests, dungeons, and raids:

1. You will be able to access BfA quests, islands and warfronts 
2. Boost will also unlock the mission table and followers
3. The first chapter of the war campaign will be completed after activating the boost
4. Reputation will be set to Friendly with Tortollan Seekers, Champions of Azeroth, and further: 

• For Alliance – Order of Embers, 7th Legion, Proudmoore Admiralty, and Storm’s Wake 
• For Horde – Talanji’s Expedition, the Honorbound, Voldunai, and Zandalari Empire

Final words

We hope you enjoyed our little guide about what you can expect & do with your unused boosts. Overall, we have no doubt that Blizzard will do their best to justify and somehow redeem the delay of Shadowlands. In that light, we advise not to worry about your unused boosts, and we hope that some good news or additional benefits will come from Blizzard. Anyhow, we are all counting the days until the final release of Shadowlands, so stay tuned for our upcoming articles.