Overview / How Delves Work
Delves are solo or small-group instanced content introduced in World of Warcraft: The War Within and expanded significantly in Midnight. They are self-contained dungeons with a fixed set of objectives, scaling enemies, and tiered difficulty levels from Tier 1 through Tier 11.
Each Midnight Delve has a unique theme and set of encounters. Completing a delve at any tier awards loot and contributes to your DelveIO score. Higher tiers award significantly better loot and more score points.
Key Facts
- There are 10 available Midnight Delves
- Delves scale from Tier 1 to Tier 11
- Torment's Rise is a special Nemesis Delve with its own difficulty system (?, ??, and ???). The ??? tier was awarded to the first 4,000 players to defeat the Nemesis and is no longer obtainable, but players who earned it retain the 40% score bonus.
- Only level 90 characters are tracked on DelveIO
- Scores update whenever you sync on the website or automatically each night
Tier Scaling Table
Your highest completed tier is the single largest contributor to your DelveIO score. The bonus grows steeply at higher tiers to reward pushing difficulty.
Rewards Breakdown
Each tier has a recommended item level to attempt it comfortably, and awards loot at the end of the run, from the Delver's Bounty chest, and from the Great Vault weekly reward.
Recommended Item Level by Tier
Tier 1
170 ilvl
Tier 2
187 ilvl
Tier 3
200 ilvl
Tier 4
213 ilvl
Tier 5
222 ilvl
Tier 6
229 ilvl
Tier 7
242 ilvl
Tier 8
255 ilvl
Tier 9
261 ilvl
Tier 10
268 ilvl
Tier 11
271 ilvl
Loot Item Levels by Tier
Tier 8 loot applies to all tiers 8 and above. Great Vault rewards are based on your highest tier completed that week.
Bountiful Delves
Bountiful Delves are a daily-rotating variant of regular Delves, marked with a golden door icon on the zone map. Four Delves gain the Bountiful affix each day. They are identical in layout and combat to their normal counterparts but award an additional Bountiful Coffer at the end of the run that requires a Restored Coffer Key to open.
How They Work
- Four Delves gain the Bountiful affix each day. Check the in-game Delver's Guide or zone map to see which ones
- Completing a Bountiful Delve awards a Bountiful Coffer at the end of the run
- Opening the Coffer requires a Restored Coffer Key (consumed on use)
- If you exhaust all your revives during the run, you lose access to the Coffer
- After Valeera reaches level 15, only Bountiful Delves grant her XP (weekly cap of 28, expanding by 28 each week)
Revive Limits
Exhausting all revives forfeits your Bountiful Coffer. Know your limits before attempting higher tiers.
Restored Coffer Keys
Keys no longer drop directly. Instead, earn Coffer Key Shards that auto-convert to a key (100 shards = 1 key) when you enter a Bountiful Delve. Weekly cap: 600 shards = 6 keys.
Free keys beyond the weekly cap: Delver's Starter Kit (2 keys, once per warband), Naleidea Rivergleam vendor (2 keys after Seasonal Journey progress), Delver's Journey Level 7 (purchase with Undercoins).
Coffer Rewards
- Tier 11: Hero-track gear and Untainted Mana-Crystals (used at the Zah'ran gear vendor)
- Tiers 8-10: Scaled gear, Voidlight Marl, Dawncrests, Valeera Curios, and Bounty Maps leading to Hidden Troves
Strategy Tips
- Save Restored Coffer Keys for Tier 8+ runs. Gear quality and currency rewards are not worth a key at lower tiers
- Complete 8 Bountiful Delves per week for Great Vault credit
- Clearing 6 of the 8 Pinnacle Caches each week fills the 600-shard weekly cap
- Bountiful Delves are required to level Valeera past level 15.
Strategy & Optimization
To maximize your DelveIO score, you need to balance three things: pushing your highest tier, clearing as many unique delves as possible, and accumulating total clears.
Push Tier First
The tier bonus is the largest single contributor to your score. Getting from Tier 10 to Tier 11 adds 180 points, more than clearing three extra delves. Always push your tier before farming clears.
Clear Every Unique Delve
Each unique Midnight delve you clear for the first time adds 50 points (breadth bonus). With all 10 Midnight delves now available, completing all of them is worth 500 points.
Farm Clears for Volume
Each individual clear adds 5 points regardless of tier. Once you have cleared all unique delves, repeat runs on any delve continue to contribute. The volume bonus rewards consistent play over time.
Kill the Nemesis
Defeating Torment's Rise: Nullaeus on ?? difficulty adds 25% of your base score on top. If your base score is 1600, that is an extra 400 points. Completing the Nemesis at ?? should be a priority for competitive players. Note: a ??? tier (40% bonus) was awarded to the first 4,000 players to defeat the Nemesis and is no longer obtainable, but some leaderboard scores include it.
Mechanics & Rules
Understanding how DelveIO tracks and scores your characters.
How is my score calculated?
Your score is the sum of three parts: a tier bonus based on your highest completed tier, a breadth bonus of 50 points per unique Midnight delve cleared, and a volume bonus of 5 points per total clear. Torment's Rise does not count toward breadth or volume. Instead, defeating the Nemesis boss adds a percentage bonus on top of your base score, scaling with difficulty.
Does tier matter per delve?
No. Due to a Blizzard API limitation, we can only track your single highest tier completed globally, not per delve. The tier bonus reflects the hardest content you have cleared across all delves.
Which delves count?
Only Midnight expansion delves count toward your score. The War Within delves are not tracked. Torment's Rise is tracked separately as a Nemesis encounter.
How often does my score update?
Your score updates when you click Sync My Characters on the website. Keep in mind that Blizzard's API can take several hours to reflect recent in-game activity, so a sync right after completing delves may not show the latest results. If your score does not look right, wait a bit and sync again. Scores also update automatically each night.
What counts as a clear?
Any completed run of a Midnight delve at any tier counts as a clear and contributes to your volume bonus. Your first clear of each unique delve also counts toward the breadth bonus.
FAQ
My character is missing from the leaderboard.
Make sure you have clicked Sync My Characters on the dashboard after logging in. Only level 90 characters are tracked.
My score looks wrong.
Scores are calculated from Blizzard's API data at the time of sync. Blizzard's achievement stats can lag several hours behind in-game activity, so if you completed delves recently the data may not be available yet. Wait a few hours and sync again. If the score still seems off, check your Delve History on your profile page to see exactly how each component is calculated.
Can I see scores in-game?
Yes. The DelveIO addon is available on CurseForge and shows DelveIO scores directly in player tooltips. Search for DelveIO on CurseForge or install it through your addon manager.
Why does the addon show stale scores?
The nightly sync starts at 10:00 UTC and takes 7-8 hours to complete. The addon database is pushed once the sync finishes, so updated scores are available in-game approximately 17:00-20:00 UTC. The website always shows live scores.
Can I track characters from other regions?
No. Only the US region is tracked.
How do I appear on the leaderboard for my realm?
Sync your characters on the website, then use the Realm filter on the leaderboard page to filter by your realm.
The Nemesis section on my profile shows Not completed.
You need to defeat Torment's Rise: Nullaeus in-game and then sync your characters. The difficulty shown reflects the highest difficulty you have completed it on.
External Resources
Useful links for Delve guides, gear optimization, and general WoW resources.
Wowhead Delve Guides ↗
Comprehensive guides for each delve, boss mechanics, and rewards.
Icy Veins ↗
Class guides, specs, and gear recommendations for all content.
Raider.io ↗
Mythic+ and raid tracking.
Warcraft Logs ↗
Combat log analysis and rankings for raid and dungeon content.
WoW Armory ↗
Official World of Warcraft website by Blizzard Entertainment.
Archon.gg ↗
Statistics and meta analysis for all WoW game modes.