World of Warcraft: Forever player found a mysterious island on the horizon and an underwater portal – it turned out to be the site of a future dungeon

A beta tester for World of Warcraft: Forever going by Havoctha spotted a mysterious island out in the sea off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms. Ruins with clearly troll-built architecture appeared on the horizon during a flight from Stormwind to Booty Bay with max draw distance turned on.

At first the player figured this was a hint at a new zone. Other players quickly worked out that the island ties into one of the announced dungeons, with a portal sitting underwater right next to it.

That dungeon is the Drowned City. Story-wise, it is an ancient troll settlement that sank to the ocean floor long ago and has now resurfaced near the coast of Stranglethorn Vale. Murlocs and naga live inside, along with the giant enraged trolls familiar from the Temple of Atal'Hakkar.

The dungeon targets characters level 35–40, a range Blizzard confirmed in its updated dungeon list. Besides the trolls and naga, a pirate ship has crashed straight into the ruins.

The Drowned City isn't accessible in the current beta build. Only BlizzCon attendees got to play it, running through the dungeon on pre-made characters Blizzard set up for the demo. Footage from the show suggests the dungeon starts out linear before opening into a large area where groups choose their own path, including diving underwater to reach certain bosses.

How players will actually enter the dungeon after launch is still unknown. Blizzard hasn't published entrance coordinates or a route map.

The island itself apparently rings a bell for veteran players. Some believe it's Gilijim Isle, one of the locations from the original World of Warcraft that never got finished, a spot that stayed unreachable on the map for years while players stared at it from a distance.

Swimming out to the ruins isn't easy. Far enough from shore, characters get hit with "Exhaustion" and die shortly after, but the community has already found several workarounds:

• drink a swim speed potion and equip the swim speed cloak from Wailing Caverns, then resurrect through "Spirit of Redemption" after dying, since "Exhaustion" resets while out of body

• use a shaman "Ankh: Rebirth", which works on the same principle

• roll out as a level 1-2 priest, since "Exhaustion" damage scales with a percentage of health and is easy to out-heal at low levels

• grab "Water Walking" from a shaman at level 28, which is already possible under the beta current level cap of 30

Scouting from a distance is trickier. Hunter "Eagle Eye" doesn't work outside zone borders and cuts out during layer and phase transitions, so getting a close look at the island that way is off the table.

The discovery is part of a bigger wave of beta exploration going on right now. Players have also been checking out Gilneas through shaman "Far Sight" and found it closely matches the Cataclysm version, though an aggressive shark keeps them from actually swimming there.

Part of the community immediately jumped to theorizing that a new class is hiding on the island. Some point out that a bard showed up as an option in a recent Blizzard survey, though the studio hasn't announced anything of the sort.

The Drowned City will be one of nine new dungeons in Forever built into the 1-60 leveling experience. They sit in spots Classic players have walked past for years without knowing what was there, including under Ironforge, behind the Dalaran barrier, and on the flooded island off Stranglethorn Vale.

The World of Warcraft: Forever beta runs through October 21, 2026. Launch is set for November 4.