World of Warcraft has always been remarkably good at making players feel guilty about taking a holiday. Miss a couple of weeks, return to Azeroth, and suddenly everyone else has acquired three new currencies, finished an unfamiliar reputation track and discovered that a perfectly ordinary-looking vendor is now selling something essential. You were only away for a fortnight. Apparently, the entire economy has been reorganized.
Fortunately, Midnight Patch 12.1.5 has introduced a substantial catch-up system for Prey, making it considerably easier for returning players, new characters and anyone who simply neglected their hunting duties during Season 2 to reach the important rewards.
And for once, this is not a tiny numerical adjustment buried beneath seventeen unrelated tooltip corrections. Blizzard has effectively removed a large part of the early Prey Journey grind.
One Hunt Can Now Give You an Entire Journey Rank
The biggest improvement applies to characters below Prey Journey Rank 4. Under the new rules, completing a hunt awards 4,000 Journey progress, equivalent to an entire rank. That means a player starting from the beginning can climb through the early progression considerably faster than before.
Better still, these boosted hunts do not consume the special progress allocation from your first four weekly hunts. Blizzard has explicitly separated the early catch-up bonus from that system, preventing players from wasting their valuable weekly progress while working through the lowest ranks.
This is particularly useful because Nightmare Prey becomes available at Journey Rank 4, provided the appropriate introductory requirements have been completed. A milestone that previously demanded considerably more attention can now be reached through a relatively short series of hunts.
It is almost suspiciously generous by Warcraft standards. Somewhere, an elderly reputation vendor is probably shaking his head in disapproval.
Ranks 4 to 9 Also Receive a Major Boost
The catch-up does not stop when players reach Rank 4. Characters progressing through Ranks 4 to 9 now receive 2,000 Journey progress from each of their first four weekly hunts, effectively doubling the previous 1,000-point reward for those hunts.
That provides up to 8,000 progress from the four weekly bonuses while the character remains within the eligible rank range, although the actual benefit depends on where the character starts and when it reaches the next progression threshold.
Players who remember Blizzard's earlier attempts to improve Prey catch-up will recognize the direction. Back in March, the developers increased the rewards for additional hunts below Rank 4, making it easier to keep progressing after completing the first four weekly activities. Patch 12.1.5 goes considerably further by directly accelerating the Journey itself.
The intention is straightforward. Blizzard wants players to participate in Season 2 without feeling that missing the opening weeks has permanently placed them behind everyone else.
Why Catching Up Is Actually Worth Your Time
Prey is no longer simply a pleasant distraction involving tracking monsters through the countryside and discovering that the monster has brought several friends. Season 2 expanded the system with new Coiled Isle targets, Nightmare encounters and additional rewards, making it a more substantial part of Midnight's outdoor progression.
Completing the Journey unlocks rewards including housing decorations, while higher-difficulty hunts can contribute to equipment progression. Blizzard specifically highlights the connection between Prey, Delves and Hero-track gear as one reason for accelerating the catch-up process.
There is an important distinction here, however. Receiving additional Journey progress does not automatically place Hero equipment in your inventory. Players still need to complete the appropriate activities and reward chains.
One of the best examples is our previously covered three Nightmare Hunts route to Hero-track gear. The weekly quest A Nightmarish Task rewards a Scalebound Herald's Flute, which can be used to summon Azta'rec inside a Delve. Defeating him provides a Trovehunter's Bounty, which can then lead to Hero-track loot from an eligible Tier 8 or higher Delve.
It requires a little more work than simply completing three hunts and opening a chest, but it gives returning players a useful path toward better equipment without immediately joining the Mythic+ treadmill.
The Best Way to Catch Up This Week
If your Prey Journey is below Rank 4, begin with ordinary hunts and take advantage of the new 4,000-point catch-up reward. Once you reach Rank 4 and satisfy the required unlock conditions, you can begin looking at Nightmare difficulty and the additional Season 2 opportunities it provides.
For players already between Ranks 4 and 9, prioritize your first four weekly hunts to benefit from the improved 2,000-point rewards. If you are also planning to complete A Nightmarish Task, combining your Journey progression with three Nightmare Hunts is a sensible way to make those activities contribute toward more than one objective.
And if the Coiled Isle is part of your route, remember our earlier discovery of the convenient portal from Silvermoon City. Azeroth may require you to hunt enormous poisonous creatures, but there is no reason to waste additional time commuting to them.
One other patch change is worth remembering. Afflicted Souls and Tormented Souls can no longer be used during an active hunt. Blizzard now requires players to use them between hunts, so take care of those preparations before beginning your next pursuit.
Prey Finally Feels More Welcoming to Returning Players
What makes this change interesting is not simply the amount of progress being awarded. It is Blizzard's growing willingness to admit that an enjoyable activity can become considerably less enjoyable when players feel compelled to repeat it for weeks just to reach the interesting parts.
We have already seen the developers make several improvements to the original Prey experience, reducing restrictions and making the hunting system more flexible. The new catch-up rules continue that process, allowing latecomers to participate without treating their absence as a financial debt that must be repaid in monster corpses.
There is still plenty to do in Midnight Season 2. Raids, Delves, Mythic+, weekly activities and increasingly elaborate equipment upgrades are not going anywhere. But Prey has become a much more reasonable place to begin if you have fallen behind.
And sometimes that is exactly what World of Warcraft needs: not another enormous reward, another currency or another system to master, but simply permission to come back and enjoy the game.
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