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How to Unlock the Zandalari Trolls Allied Race in Shadowlands

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how to unlock zandalari tolls

 The launch of World of Warcraft’s 7th expansion Battle for Azeroth introduced a feature that excited players and had them asking themselves “What races are they going to allow us to play?” While it has been a long time since Battle For Azeroth was current, many continue to speculate which races, both new and old will be added to the wide array of races to choose from when starting a new adventure in World of Warcraft.

 We won’t cover all of the 10 allied races that are available in World of Warcraft’s current expansion- Shadowlands– but we will be talking about the first Horde Allied Race introduced from Battle For Azeroth: The Zandalari Trolls.

The Zandalari Trolls are an ancient race that sit at the heart of the immensely powerful Zandalari Empire. Sound familiar? That’s because they’ve been within the lore of World of Warcraft since the beginning! The Darkspear Trolls-one of the original 8 races to choose from-frequently mention their lives during the Zandalari Empire and the story of how they came to be separated from them. But we won’t be covering that here either, we’re strictly going to talk about how to unlock Zandalari Trolls, what classes can they choose from, and what racial abilities they have.

How do you unlock Zandalari Trolls as an Allied Race?

  With the Shadowlands expansion being current, the work to unlock has become minimal. If you’re at the max level of 60, it’ll be a breeze. But if you’re picking up the game for the very first time and are a little frustrated to see a cool looking race being gated, don’t sweat it, you can easily level a character and get all the requirements necessary to unlock Zandalari Trolls and can begin to level an alt, or even, a new main.

So what are the basic requirements?

Originally, it was required that you needed to be exalted with the ‘Zandalari Trolls’ faction but with the addition of Shadowlands that requirement has gone away and the requirements left are as follows :

Tides of Vengeance

This achievement is given to you when you complete the 4 storylines within the Battle For Azeroth war campaign which are available once you unlock each of the Kul Tiran Zones through the War Campaign.

tides of vengeance


Each piece of the achievement corresponds to a different storyline of the invasion of the Kul Tiran continent-the Alliance’s main continent-during the story of Battle For Azeroth

The Norwington Assault

Sends you to Tiragarde Sound where you assist the Horde Champion, Rexxar, in stealing stockpiled Azerite Weapons from the Alliance in an effort to turn the tide in the war. You are granted “The Day is Won” upon completion of this questline.

Escape From Tol Dagor

Requires you to head to the Kul Tiran prison of Tol Dagor on the order of the Horde Warchief, Banshee Queen, and Leader of the Forsaken, Sylvanas Windrunner. There you are to break out the Lady Priscilla Ashvane, a Kul Tiran of high nobility, who Sylvanas believes has information essential to her plan. And of course, there are resources to be looted. You are granted “Through the Front Door” upon completing this questline. 

The Adventures of Gallywix and the G.M.O.D

Teams you up with the fat, resourceful, greedy, and (in my opinion) hysterical leader of the Goblins, The Former Trade Prince of the Bilgewater Cartel, Jastor Gallywix. Together you two engage in activities typical of any Goblins/(insert your race here) tag team including but not limited to: slaughtering alliance, rescuing goblin peons-because who wants to shell out for medical expenses- and most importantly, blowing stuff up! You are granted “Mekkatorque’s Battle Plans” upon completion of this questline.

Once these storylines are completed you will gain access to the last storyline of the achievement The Fury of the Zandalari which sends you back to Nazmir(assuming you’ve done it) where the Alliance have invaded and it’s up to you(who else) to drive them back! The completion of the “The Fury of the Zandalar” questline grants you “Fly Out to Meet Them

Once completed you have finished one leg of the journey to unlock the Zandalari Troll allied race.

Zandalar Forever!

This achievement is awarded when you complete the storylines of all three questing zones of the Zandalar continent; where the Horde storyline during the Battle For Azeroth expansion takes place. Each of the zones: Zandalar, Nazmir, and Vol’dun have their own storyline, with Zandalar having two.

Once you enter Zuldazar(the capital city of Zandalar) and go through the roleplay introducing you to the Horde story of Battle For Azeroth, you will be given choices of quests sending you to one of each zone. Don’t worry, choosing one quest won’t lock the others for you. You can choose to start the other zones at any time.

Zandalar Forever!

The Throne of Zuldazar

The storyline that takes place in the main zone(Zandalar) of the continent, where the main city, Zuldazar resides. You automatically get another requirement of the achievement, A Bargain of Blood, from this storyline.

Secrets in the Sands

Sends you to Vol’dun where you assist the Vulpera and a sub-faction of Sethrak in killing a bunch of not as good sethrak? Idk I didn’t pay much attention to this zone.

The Dark Heart of Nazmir

Sends you into, you probably guessed it, Nazmir(lol) with your newfound ally and Heir to the Throne(important) Princess Talanji to get to the root of the Blood Troll problem they’ve been having and, you guessed it again! To slaughter some Blood Trolls for their loot(and because they’re evil or something)

Once you complete all 4 of the Horde Zone Storylines, you will be able to receive a quest called The Final Seal from King Rastakhan at the Bloodgate(60.0, 22.4). Once completed, You’ll receive the Zandalar Forever! Achievement which will unlock the final requirement for Zandalari Trolls.

You’ll then be able to receive a quest called A Royal Occasion, which will unlock a chain of quests that culminates in you receiving Zandalari Trolls as an allied race! For a more in-depth look at the quest chain check out this article on WoW Head

Here is a video of the entire quest chain

What are the Zandalari Troll Racials?

Like all other races in World of Warcraft, Zandalari Trolls have 4 different racials. You can see the them as they appear in character creation below.

What are the Zandalari Troll Racials?
  • Regeneratin’ is a channeled spell that restores 100% of your health over 6 seconds, but will be interrupted by damage. This can be useful in raids/dungeons inbetween packs of mobs or during mechanics where there is no damage going out.
  • City of Gold increases the amount of gold you receive from killing mobs by 2%. While minimal, is sure to add up over time. This ability is passive. 
  • Pterrordax Swoop is an activated ability that summons a Pterrordax to latch onto you and reduce your falling speed for 2 minutes. The spell is on a 15 minute cooldown, but offers nice utility.
  • Embrace of the Loa is the 2nd on this list, but the most unique and exciting racial that Zandalari Trolls have. Your Zandalari Troll can choose one of the 6 different Loa that you have allied with throughout Battle for Azeroth. Upon choosing, you will receive a boon. All 6 of the Loa give different buffs, the spell itself is on a 5-day cooldown.

The buffs each loa give are as follows

  • Akunda: Your Healing abilities have a chance to heal their target
  • Bwonsamdi: Your damaging abilities have a chance to deal shadow damage and heal you for 100% of the damage dealt.
  • Gonk: Increases your movement speed by 5%
  • Kimbul: Your damaging abilities have a chance to cause the target to bleed over 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.
  • Krag’wa: Taking damage has a chance to grant you additional health and armor
  • Paku: Your abilities have a chance to grant you 4% Critical Strike for 12 seconds.
The buffs each loa give are as follows
Source: Google // Reddit


You can ask the guards for the locations of each shrine and they will mark it on your map. Or, you can refer to this chart below
Overall Zandalari Troll racials are pretty boring, except for Embrace of the Loa which adds a unique buff and can be very strong for some specs.

What Classes can Zandalari Trolls Be?

Refer to the image below to see what classes Zandalari Trolls can be.

What Classes can Zandalari Trolls Be?


As you can see, they can be every class in the game except for Warlock and Demon Hunter. The Death Knight option only became available in patch 8.3 if you preordered Shadowlands. And then became available for all once Shadowlands released.

I hope this helps for new players just starting out in Shadowlands and for older players coming back to the game