WoW 12.1: Flat 20-Crest Gear Upgrade Cost Guide

The WoW Midnight Season 2 gear upgrade system briefly went sideways on the PTR. Blizzard re-introduced scaling crest costs: each upgrade rank costing progressively more, up to 35 crests for the final step. The community collectively had opinions. Loud ones. Blizzard fixed it within 24 hours and called it a bug. Sure.

The fix confirmed: every rank costs 20 crests, no exceptions. Six ranks. 120 crests per item. Same math as Midnight Season 1. Write it on your hand.

Blizzard Official Fix

Fixed an issue where upgrading gear had scaling upgrade costs. Gear now has flat costs to upgrade each track like in Midnight Season 1.

Crest Costs at a Glance

Five Midnight crest upgrade tracks, five crest types, one cost. The elegance is depressing.

Valorstones are gone. Upgrades cost crests plus a small gold fee. The WoW Midnight upgrade currency system is finally something a functioning adult can track without a spreadsheet.

Weekly Crest Cap and What It Actually Means

The weekly cap is 100 crests, up from 90 in The War Within. At 20 crests per rank, that is exactly five upgrades per week with nothing left over. Blizzard loves round numbers. So do accountants.

The WoW Season 2 weekly crest cap means fully upgrading a single item takes just over two weeks of capped farming. Outfit your whole character? Do math.

Important Rules

• You cannot use lower-track crests on higher-track gear. Hero gear needs Hero Mistcrests. Period.
• Crafted gear costs 80 crests to craft: four upgrade ranks worth. That is not a typo.
• Hero track items upgrade for free from 1/6 to 5/6 if you hold a higher-level piece. Do not skip on this.

Alt Discount: The One Generous Thing

Alts get a 50% crest discount: up from 33% last expansion. A rank that costs your main 20 crests costs your alt 10. The WoW alt gearing efficiency Season 2 is the best it has ever been, which means Blizzard expects you to play multiple characters and is making sure you know it.

Net result

At the 50% discount, alts can effectively complete ten upgrade ranks per week within the 100-crest cap. Gear them faster than your main. Feel nothing.

Raid Loot Changes and Why Raiders Are Briefly Happy

Flat crest costs land alongside some of the biggest patch 12.1 endgame gearing changes in recent memory. Heroic raid Great Vault rewards now come in at Myth 1/6. Mythic Vault rewards default to Myth 6/6. The penultimate and final bosses drop items at Myth 9 regardless of source.

Players were right to panic when scaling costs appeared: raid loot already got stronger, and expensive upgrades would have made raid-sourced gear even more dominant. Blizzard caught it. Crisis averted. This time.

Bonus rolls now cost 1 coin instead of 2. They are available as a direct Vault option from Season 2's opening, with the standard roll supply arriving around week 8. The Midnight Season 2 bonus roll system is the most player-friendly implementation since the original coins launched in Mists of Pandaria. Nobody will acknowledge this until it is removed.

Where Crests Come From

How to farm crests in WoW Midnight is the question 40% of the player base asks every season as if the answer changed. It did not.

• Mythic+ dungeons: still the fastest. Always has been. Accept it.
• Raids: viable now that Vault rewards are actually worth something.
• Delves (Tier 4+): Adventurer Mistcrests. For the people who insist on playing alone.
• Open-world blue air sparks: supplemental. Do not plan your week around this.
• Weekly quests and activities: bonus crests, check your map.

Warning

Track specificity is mandatory. Hero Mistcrests cannot upgrade Champion gear. There is no workaround. Farming the wrong track is a week wasted.

Catalyst Change Nobody Is Talking About Enough

The WoW Catalyst system Midnight Season 2 got a meaningful update: items now retain their secondary stat spread when catalyzed, plus any cantrip effects from the original piece. Previously, converting to tier gear meant losing your stats entirely and praying to RNG. That is fixed. Your crafted piece with good secondaries can now become a set item without becoming garbage.

What to Actually Do With Your Crests

Upgrade best in slot gear priority WoW Midnight first. Not the piece you like. The piece the sim says.

1. Identify your highest-impact slots (weapon, trinkets, tier pieces).
2. Upgrade Hero track before Myth track if crests are limited: free upgrades 1-5 exist on Hero.
3. Save Myth Mistcrests for Myth track items only. Do not waste them on Hero.
4. Let the weekly Vault give you Myth-tier pieces before spending crests on Hero gear you will replace.
5. Alts: use the 50% discount aggressively in the first four weeks. Catch-up systems will not save you later.