One of World of Warcraft’s most famous pieces of cut content, the Karazhan Crypts, is finally playable today as dungeon. The new piece of endgame content is part of WoW’s more experimental Season of Discovery servers.
WoW is filled with unused areas or places that were never fully fleshed out, and vanilla WoW’s Karazhan Crypts are one of them. It’s a dark, moody area below the tower of Karazhan (which itself wouldn’t actually become a raid until the game’s first expansion) in the original version of WoW that has long captured the imagination of players. Now, as part of a new content phase for WoW Classic’s current seasonal servers, the Karazhan Crypts have been transformed into a five-man dungeon for players to explore.
As detailed by WoW Youtuber WillIE (in partnership with Blizzard), the dungeon itself is unlike others players may be used to. Inspired by classic dungeon-crawling RPGs, the Karazhan Crypts are shrouded in a darkness that can only be dispelled with a magical torch. There’s no mini-map to rely on, so players will need to stick together as they explore the dark reaches of the crypt and encounter new horrors. In keeping with the “discovery” aspect of the season, players will want to keep an eye out for secrets inside the dungeon that may aid their adventuring party.
It’s a dungeon designed for players who have already acquired some endgame gear, and the new loot found within the crypts will be comparable to gear earned from raids like Blackwing Lair and the Temple of Ahn’ Qiraj. Because of how powerful the gear found in the dungeon is, the Karazhan Crypts will be on a 24-hour lockout, allowing players to run it once per day.
Blizzard originally teased the addition of the Karazhan Crypts back when Season of Discovery was first announced at BlizzCon 2023. However, it’s not the first new dungeon added to vanilla WoW as part of the season. Blizzard previously added Demon Fall Canyon, another mostly unused area of the game’s world, as a dungeon–one where players face off against the phantom of Grommash Hellscream himself.
In addition to the new dungeon, Season of Discovery’s new content phase additionally revamps its infamous Naxxramas raid. Blizzard is already teasing another new piece of endgame content as well in the form of what looks to be a Scarlet Crusade-themed raid, though players will have to wait for more details.
As for the modern version of WoW, its next big update will be focused on the goblins of Undermine, all while Blizzard works on the new player housing feature announced to be coming as part of the game’s next expansion.