Wowhead's Prey Interview
Midnight OverviewEverything About Prey
Prey's Release Schedule in Midnight
While War Within veterans are used to the content release schedule of an expansion, not much has been known about the content cadence for Prey, the new open world opt-in hunting system coming in Midnight. In our interview with Kim Flack, Senior Game Designer (Prey), we finally learned about the staggered difficulty release schedule:
Normal Mode: Available in Early Access (Feb 26th) starting at Level 90.
Hard Mode: Available at Journey Rank 1 after the first weekly reset for Midnight's Launch (March 3rd).
Nightmare Mode: Available at Journey Rank 4 with Season 1 (March 17th).
All unlocks are account-wide, so you'll only need to complete the requirements on your first character. Subsequent characters will have Prey available starting at Level 80. Completing the 4 hunts per week should be sufficient for reaching Journey rank unlock requirements.
Kim Flack, Senior Game Designer (Prey)Once you reach level 90 and complete the main level up campaign,...you're going to get a quest to meet Astalor Bloodsworn in Murder Row. He's going to send you on a short tutorial to learn the ins and outs of the system. After that you'll unlock Normal Mode account-wide, you won't need to do that on every single character. Normal mode is available during Early Access.
Hard Mode is unlocked very early at Journey Rank 1, so effectively the first reset after Early Access or the regular Midnight launch. Nightmare mode is unlocked shortly afterward at Journey Rank 4 at the start of Season 1. Both of these unlocks are also account-wide, you won't need to do it multiple times.
Once you've unlocked Prey , any of your alts that are at least level 80 will have access to Prey while they're leveling. Upon reaching level 90, they'll naturally then have access to Hard and Nightmare modes if they're unlocked on your account already.
Players are only going to be able to reach Rank 3 before the start of Season 1. Normal Mode is locked until Rank 4. ...If you're doing those 4 hunts per week to get your big chunks of Journey Progress, you're going to be right on pace to unlock Nightmare Mode with Season 1. You won't need to grind out random hunts.
Prey Rewards
With the staggered difficulty release for Prey, the item level of the gear obtainable will also be capped till Season. Completing a Hunt will grant Preyseeker's Journey progress, gold, and a Preyseeker's Adventurer Chest containing a variety of goodies:
A piece of gear that will increase in item level based on difficulty.
Normal: Adventurer Track
Hard: Veteran Track
Nightmare: Champion Track
Upgrades crests based difficulty: Adventurer Dawncrest, Veteran Dawncrest, and Champion Dawncrest
Voidlight Marl with a chance at Tormented Tantalum and other profession items.
Are you excited to start your Prey hunt in Midnight? Do you like the staggered difficulty release for Prey?
