How to find Redeemed Souls in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

Upgrading the new World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Covenant Sanctum needs WoW Redeemed Souls. Upon reaching max level, players can choose to join one of four Covenant Sanctums, which you can then level for additional benefits. However, upgrading your Covenant Sanctum is only possible if you have enough Redeemed Souls. There is a limited amount of Souls you can get each week, so it’s a good idea to start collecting them as soon as possible. Although there is no shortcut available, this is how you quickly unlock, earn and use your Redeemed Souls. 

Why collect Redeemed Souls?

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Before we get to the collecting part though, let’s look at the reasons why you should want Redeemed Souls. The Souls are basically Shadowlands’ endgame currency. Together with Anima (which is far easier to collect), Redeemed Souls are used to upgrade the Covenant Sanctum, which consists of four different parts:

  • Transport Network: upgrade this for easier movement around your Covenant’s region and to travel to new locations.
  • Anima Conductor: this will give you a special task, ranging from treasure hunting to fighting an elite enemy (refreshing daily). Upgrading with Redeemed Souls will grant you more challenging tasks with better rewards.
  • Adventures Upgrades: unlock the Adventure mini challenges, upgrade your adventurer’s healing abilities, and decrease the time they need to complete a challenge.
  • Covenant activity: this is a special ability that may, for example, allow you to create special constructs, or make useful consumables (depending on your choice of Covenant).

So, if you don’t want to miss out on new abilities, new ways to discover the Shadowlands and lots of new looks and mounts for your character, you are going to need some Souls.

How to get your first Redeemed Souls

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If you are wondering why you haven’t encountered any Redeemed Souls yet, you probably haven’t finished the Shadowlands storyline. To sum up, every Champion needs to enter the Shadowlands at level 50, play through the story, reach the maximum level of 60 and choose a Covenant before unlocking the Sanctum Upgrades and gaining access to Redeemed Souls. 

However, once you have reached that point with your first character, every new character can join a Covenant at level 50, without the need to play through the story first. If you decide to do the latter, be careful not to miss out on the first five Redeemed Souls (more about this below).

After choosing one of the four Covenants, the first chapter of your chosen Covenant’s campaign will start. Follow the quests until the chapter completes. You will then automatically receive your first five Redeemed Souls. 

It is important to know that this is the only time you’re awarded with Redeemed Souls during the campaign. There is just one other way to get them after that; by doing a weekly quest. 

The Return Lost Souls weekly quest

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The weekly ‘Return Lost Souls’ quest became available on December 1, when Shadowlands entered its second week. The player’s task is simple; go to the Maw and save five of the souls trapped there. In return, the player gets gold, an Emblem of Renown, and, of course, five Redeemed Souls. 

To find and accept the quest, talk to your Soul Warden in the Covenant Sanctum. You then need to go to the Maw, which you can reach through the Ring of Transference on Oribos. But beware; the quest marker’s location is misleading. The best places to find Souls are west and northwest of Ve’nari’s Refuge.

Once you’re there, you can begin to rescue Imprisoned Souls, Caged Souls, Wailing Souls, or Aimless Souls. As some of them are further up north, the easiest option is to go for the Imprisoned Souls. There are plenty of them trapped in Stone Prisons just west of Ve’nari’s Refuge (see the red area in the picture). 

You can see the exact locations of the Stone Prisons on your mini map. The Stone Prisons look like piles of rock. Just hit them until they break, and the Soul (a silvery-grey human form) will be freed. Don’t forget to click on the Soul before you move on though! This will start the ‘rescue soul’ action, after which the Soul will follow you.

By going to the right location, this quest should not take longer than 5-10 minutes to complete. Once you are done, go back to your Soul Warden to complete the quest and collect the Redeemed Souls. Just repeat this process every week to increase your Souls collection.

Soulkeeper upgrades & Renown

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(Image credit: Blizzard)

Earning only five Redeemed Souls a week may seem like a very slow process, but you can speed it up by upgrading your Covenant’s Soulkeeper. There are three upgrades in total. Once you have them all, the weekly Return Lost Souls quest will be rewarded with 20 Redeemed Souls instead of just 5. Although it will take you a bit more time to complete the quest itself, this will significantly increase the rate by which you collect Redeemed Souls.

However, it is important to keep in mind that the Soulkeeper upgrades become available at Renown levels 15, 24, and 32. Your Renown level is comparable to a reputation system for your Covenant. So, to get more Redeemed Souls at a faster rate, be sure to increase it! 

There are three ways to increase your Renown. The first way is by doing the Return Lost Souls weekly quest, which you need for Redeemed Souls anyway. The second is by completing chapters of your chosen Covenant’s campaign, and the third is by doing the ‘Replenish the Reservoir’ weekly quest. To complete Replenish the Reservoir, you need to collect Anima by doing world quests and defeating elite enemies.

Missing Redeemed Souls Hotfix

Unfortunately, some players found themselves without any Redeemed Souls after skipping the tutorial quests and switching Covenants with their alt characters. As said in an update on November 25, Blizzard has now fixed the issue. If this situation applies to you, you should be able to get the five Redeemed Souls the next time you visit the Covenant Sanctum.

Now you know everything there is to know about Redeemed Souls. High time for a visit to the Maw!

Marloes Valentina Stella

I’m a freelance journalist who (surprise!) kind of has a thing for videogames. When I’m not working on guides for GamesRadar, you can probably find me somewhere in Teyvat, Novigrad, or Whiterun. Unless I’m feeling competitive, in which case you should try Erangel. You can also find my words on PCGamesN, Fanbyte, PCGamer, Polygon, Esports Insider, and Game Rant.