Achievements were added to World of Warcraft with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and players continue to struggle through the hardest ones, including one that took a player 9 years to unlock. World of Warcraft achievements are tied to a wide variety of in-game activities that range in difficulty from acquiring a pet for the first time to completing every quest, but this player has highlighted another lengthy grind.
Though some World of Warcraft achievements have been lost to time and have become legacy markers due to the capability of completing them, others have stuck around from one expansion to the next. Each expansion adds more content for World of Warcraft players to explore, with even more achievements added to the MMORPG with Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands, and the freshly released Dragonflight. Some of these achievements are tied to reputation grinds for the various factions that players will discover along their journeys, including one that took this player 9 years to complete.
Reddit user EndlessIrony has garnered over 1,000 upvotes on a World of Warcraft screenshot spotlighting the conclusion of a long journey they had begun nearly a decade ago. EndlessIrony's image shows the "100 exalted reputations" achievement that yields the coveted Pureheart Courser Mount and the matching Esteemed title which accompanies the player's display name. Although the achievement didn't exist in World of Warcraft until the Battle for Azeroth expansion, EndlessIrony's progress towards it began with the introduction of the profile points system and the reputation rewards that were offered at the time.
Concluding their World of Warcraft reputation grind brought EndlessIrony up to 17,440 achievement points, with each sub-achievement rewarding 10 points and the final one hitting a whopping 180. These points and achievements can be observed by other World of Warcraft players which provides bragging rights beyond the Pureheart Courser mount and Esteemed title. Despite how rare this achievement is for World of Warcraft players, EndlessIrony has confirmed that their efforts were primarily to acquire the Pureheart Courser Mount as they are self-proclaimed mount hunters.
As few players have reached this milestone, EndlessIrony may be the only player on their server to finish exalting with the game's many factions which is a list that will likely get longer with the next World of Warcraft expansion. Given that another achievement beyond the one attained by EndlessIrony may be added, the World of Warcraft fan could have upwards of a 9-year head start on fresh players.
World of Warcraft is available now for Mac and PC.