26 October 2026
By Roger Kennedy
roger@TheCork.ie

Entertainment

The Great Vault is the one reward in World of Warcraft that every endgame player touches once a week, whether they raid, run Mythic+ dungeons or spend their evenings in the open world and Delves. It turns the content you completed during the week into a menu of items, and lets you take one. Understanding how that menu is built is the difference between a vault that feels random and one that reliably fills your weakest slot.

Because the dungeon row in particular rewards key level so sharply, it shapes how many players plan their week, and it is a big part of why interest in a mythic boost tends to follow the vault’s breakpoints rather than any single dungeon. Most of the value, though, comes from knowing the rules and choosing well.

This explainer walks through the three vault rows in Midnight Season 2, the +10 breakpoint, how many activities each slot usually takes, and how to pick the right item once the vault opens after the weekly reset.

The three rows

The vault has three rows, each tied to a different type of content. Progress on each row is tracked separately during the week, and every slot you unlock adds one option to the menu.

At the weekly reset (Tuesday in North America, Wednesday in Europe) the vault locks in last week’s progress and opens for you to choose. You pick one item from all the options across all three rows, not one per row.

How many runs each slot takes

Each row has three slots. The usual structure across recent expansions, which Midnight follows, looks like this:

Treat the exact counts as the standard pattern rather than a promise; the in-game vault window always shows your current progress toward each slot. The key point is the shape: the first slot of each row is cheap, the second takes steady play, and the third is aimed at players who put in many hours.

For dungeons, the reward for each slot is based on the key level of the runs that fill it. In the usual system, the first slot uses your highest run of the week, the second slot uses your fourth-highest, and the third uses your eighth-highest. That is why one strong key and several weak ones still give you a single good option rather than three.

The +10 breakpoint

The most important number on the dungeon row is +10. A +10 run fills a vault slot with a Myth-track item at Myth 1/6, item level 318. By comparison, the end-of-dungeon reward from a +10 is roughly Hero track, so the vault is where Mythic+ players get their steady supply of Myth-track gear.

Keys below +10 still fill vault slots, but at a lower track. For a player whose goal is Myth gear, the practical target is simple:

• One +10 a week gives one Myth 1/6 option.
• Four +10s a week give two Myth 1/6 options.
• Eight +10s a week give three Myth 1/6 options.

More options do not mean more items (you still take one), but they do mean a better chance that one of the choices is the slot or stat you actually want.

The raid and world rows

The raid row works on the same idea with boss kills. Its options match the difficulty of the bosses you killed, so a week of Heroic kills offers Hero-track choices and a week of Mythic kills offers Myth-track ones. For reference, The Unbinding of Kith’ix, the single-boss raid added in Patch 12.1.5 The Promise of Tomorrow (13 October 2026 in North America, 14 October in Europe), drops item level 324 (Myth 3/6) on Mythic. As a single boss it adds only one kill per difficulty, so it works best combined with Venomous Abyss for filling the row.

The world row is the most flexible for players who prefer solo or small-group content. Delves and outdoor activities count, with higher tiers giving better rewards. It is often the easiest row for a busy player to fill.

Choosing well

When the vault opens, the temptation is to pick the highest item level on offer. That is not always the right move.

A few more habits help:

1. Check before picking. Compare each option against what you are wearing, not just its item level.
2. Think about upgrades. A Myth 1/6 piece can be raised with crests, and after the crest cap is removed in the week of 20 October 2026, upgrading becomes much faster.
3. Plan around Ascendant Venomstones. They unlock in the same week and improve fully upgraded Hero or Myth weapons, trinkets and necklaces, so a vault weapon or trinket can become a long-term piece.

Common vault mistakes

A handful of mistakes come up again and again. The first is running many keys just below +10 when one step up would have changed the whole row; it is usually better to do fewer runs at the breakpoint than many just under it. The second is ignoring the world row entirely, which throws away an easy extra option for players who already spend time in Delves. The third is forgetting that the vault looks at last week’s progress: runs completed after the reset count toward the next vault, not the one you are opening. Keeping those three in mind is enough to get noticeably more out of the same amount of play.

Making the vault part of your week

The vault rewards consistency over intensity. A player who does one +10, kills a couple of raid bosses and finishes a few Delves each week ends up with several options every reset, and over a season that adds up to a reliable stream of gear. Treat the vault as the backbone of your weekly plan, pick with your weakest slot in mind, and it will do more for your character than any single lucky drop.