Midnight Delves GuideNulleaus Nemesis Boss Guide
Delve Puzzles Absent in Midnight
Scattered about War Within delves were interactables like the Necrotic Cauldron, Wrapped Spool, and Pipe-Filled Chest that when activated would open up a puzzle for players. Puzzles varied from one that required you to move pipes to direct the flow from inlet to outlet to another where you'd move nodes to untangle connecting lines so they wouldn't intersect as well as a few more.
Upon solving the puzzle, players would be offered a buff like Shield Alert Version 0.76 to aid them through the remainder of the delve. Early on in the War Within these puzzles could take considerable time to solve, often being skipped by players in a hurry to complete delves as quickly as possible. As the expansion progressed, these puzzles shifted to only require 1-2 moves making for an efficient buff.
So why were these removed? We don't believe there's been a clear reason given by Blizzard, but if we had to wager a guess it would likely be based on player feedback. Either they were too time consuming compared to the advantage they provided or they weren't difficult enough to offer compelling gameplay. Striking that balance was likely difficult and thus the puzzles were likely sunset in favor of more interactive and high action gameplay.
Achieving the Unachievable
Whether you love them or hate them, these puzzles are now gone from Midnight Delves, but their removal comes with new problems. While there's no specific cosmetic rewards attached to these puzzles, there's a series of achievements that have become considerably more difficult now that players can't passively make progress:
Perplexing Puzzle
Plentiful Perplexing Puzzles
Prodigious Plentiful Perplexing Puzzles
Completing 100 of these puzzles is no small task, especially when you can't make progress towards it in current expansion content. That's a significant investment in doing old War Within delves for completionists. For those that are looking to complete these achievements, your best bet is trying to attempt some of the strategies found in the comment sections of the achievements.
One farming method we found helpful was entering the Tier 1 Spiral Weave delve with the Tortured Hostages story active. Along the right side of the initial room there's a decent chance for a Wrapped Spool puzzle to spawn. Complete it then right click your player frame and 'Leave Delve' to get ported outside. Rinse and repeat till you complete the achievements.
Many other players also found success clearing Tier 1 War Within delves with AoE abilities at level 90 where they'd typically find 1-2 puzzles per delve.
Do you miss the delve puzzles or do you prefer the combat-forward delve gameplay of Midnight? Did you get the puzzle achievements in The War Within, if so what was your strategy?
