A new exploit in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has led to players spawning an army of glowing bears. A glitch currently available to perform in World of Warcraft allows fans to take advantage of game mechanics with a bear horde.
World of Warcraft is one of the most popular MMORPGs, with millions of gamers leveling up characters and exploring a massive world. From grinding enemies for currency and experience to taking down challenging raids with allies, Blizzard's MMO has it all. Typically, this process requires a vast amount of time and energy to make significant progress. Thanks to this recent bear glitch, fans were blowing through the grind easily.
Discovered by content creator Archvaldor, the exploit is fairly easy to complete. It requires waiting until a specific quest is available, Wrath of Aliothe. First, players need to head over to the Garden of Night in Ardenweald to start the mission. The NPC who assigns the quest, Aliothe, gives the player an ability to become her avatar. This massive shining blue bear is necessary for cleansing the Garden of Spriggans. Users need to locate the edge of the mission zone, turn into the bear, and move out of the boundary. The bear stays active as one of World of Warcraft's pets, rather than despawning as it should.
Of course, this was only the beginning of the bear shenanigans awaiting Archvaldor. With a posse of blue bears in tow, the creator could immensely speed up the gold grind. By commanding the bear patrol, Archvaldor could take out roaming wildlife much quicker. According to the video, he was able to acquire between 50k and 100k worth of the currency every hour. But that is not all, and once the glitch spread other players found different uses. For example, one user created 150 bears just to take out a difficult world boss in one shot.
While adorable and hilarious, it is likely that the glowing bear exploit will not last long. In fact, it is possible that Blizzard will fix the problem before the specific quest even becomes available again for players. Keep in mind, breaking the game can also have negative effects if the team decides to punish cheaters. If too many blue bears are spawned, the server can suffer from lag and Blizzard might even penalize the player's account with a ban.
Though all things considered, this glitch is pretty benign. It is not damaging other player's accounts or ruining areas of the world, so a hotfix is probably the only real recourse. With World of Warcraft having been out for close to two decades, it is surprising to see bugs like this appear. It would be one thing if it was random, but this is not the first glitch that has appeared after Shadowlands. Whatever the case may be, those looking for some grizzly action with an army of glowing bears will want to check out Archvaldor's video.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is available on PC.