Horde Leveling Route 1–20: Valley of Trials to the Barrens

Twenty levels on the Horde side is a long walk with a short shopping list. Done right, it ends with a bag of quest greens, four flight paths and enough silver for real bags. This horde leveling route takes an orc or troll from the Valley of Trials through Sen'jin Village, Razor Hill and Orgrimmar, over the Southfury River to the Crossroads, and down the Gold Road to Camp Taurajo, with a grind spot named wherever the quest log runs dry. It is written for vanilla-era realms such as WoW Forever, where quests alone will not carry you and the gaps are filled with mobs.

Where and what you need

Race and class. Orcs and trolls share the Valley of Trials, so the route is the same for both. Tauren and undead can join at the Crossroads around level 10–11; stops 5 to 9 work for them too. A hunter or warlock runs a level ahead of the numbers below; a lone warrior or rogue lags a level behind in the Barrens. The other side of the same stretch is the Alliance leveling route 1–20.

Levels. Each stop lists the level to reach before leaving; arrive early and you grind the named spot before taking its quests.

Gear and supplies. Quest rewards carry you; take a weapon whenever one is offered, because kill speed is everything here. Carry food, water if you have a mana bar, and move your hearthstone to each new inn: Razor Hill, the Crossroads, Camp Taurajo.

Bags and professions. Two extra bags by Razor Hill and four by the Crossroads is the comfortable minimum. Skinning is the easiest money, since almost everything here has a hide; Mining and Herbalism find copper, Peacebloom and Silverleaf along the roads, then tin, Mageroyal and Briarthorn in the Barrens. Learn First Aid in Orgrimmar; bandages save more downtime than any other skill before 20.

The route

The numbers match the map; each stop names the levels it covers and the grind spot for when the quest log runs out.

1. Valley of Trials (levels 1–6). Do every quest in the canyon: boars and scorpids in the grass, the cultists in the cave on the northern wall, and the errand that sends you up the ramp into Durotar. Train your skills, buy food and leave at 6. Grind: the scorpids and boars south of the camp, which respawn fast.
2. Sen'jin Village and the Echo Isles (6–8). The troll village on the coast sends you onto the Echo Isles, where tigers, crabs and hostile trolls stand close together and die fast; swim between the islands. Grind: the tigers on the first island.
3. Razor Hill (8–11). Durotar's main hub. Take everything: quilboar at the Razormane grounds, harpies in the hills, thunder lizards in the north-west, and the humans holed up in Tiragarde Keep on the coast. Near quests first, the keep last. Grind: the keep's humans stand packed together, drop linen and silver, and keep a level 9–11 character busy for an hour.
4. Orgrimmar (10–11). Train your level 10 skills, do the class quest if you have one, learn First Aid and gathering, buy bags and take the flight path. Nothing to grind here; Ragefire Chasm in the Cleft of Shadow is a 13–18 group run to come back for.
5. The Crossroads (11–14). West from Razor Hill, over the Southfury bridge, to the Barrens' central hub. It hands out a dozen quests at once: plainstriders and zhevra on the savanna, raptors to the south, harpies in the Dry Hills, centaur camps in several directions. Do the near ones in a circle and bank the rest. Grind: plainstriders and zhevra outside the gates, which are everywhere, hit softly and skin well.
6. Lushwater Oasis and the Wailing Caverns hill (13–15). South-west of town, the oasis sits under the hill that holds the Wailing Caverns entrance, a 17–24 group run for later. Raptors and centaur around the water clear several Crossroads quests at once. Grind: the raptors on the slope between the oasis and the cave mouth.
7. Ratchet and the Merchant Coast (14–16). East along the road to the goblin port: flight path, vendors, and quests for the pirates on the beach to the south and the bandits in the hills behind. Grind: the pirates along the coast drop coin, linen and the first wool, and come in neat groups of two and three.
8. The Stagnant Oasis (16–18). South-west of Ratchet, the second oasis. The Kolkar centaur camps around it are the heart of several Crossroads chains. Turn everything in at the Crossroads, then head south down the Gold Road. Grind: the centaur camps, one pull at a time.
9. Camp Taurajo and the south (17–20). The tauren camp on the Gold Road is the last hub before 20. Its quests cover the dwarven dig site to the west, the silithid in the Field of Giants to the south-east and the Bristleback quilboar near Razorfen. Finish at 20 with the camp's flight path. Grind: the quilboar camps along the southern road, which leave hides and linen behind.

What you get

	Rough total by level 20
Coin	3–6 gold if you sell every gray and every green you cannot use
Linen Cloth	10–15 stacks, enough for First Aid to 75
Light Leather (Skinning)	8–12 stacks from boars, raptors, plainstriders and zhevra
Ore (Mining)	3–5 stacks of copper, a little tin south of the Crossroads
Herbs (Herbalism)	Peacebloom, Silverleaf and Earthroot, then Mageroyal and Briarthorn
Flight paths	Orgrimmar, the Crossroads, Ratchet and Camp Taurajo
Gear	A full set of quest greens and two or three weapon upgrades

Time it takes

Honest numbers for a first run with no help: roughly 1–2 hours in the Valley of Trials, 2–3 hours for Sen'jin and Razor Hill together, half an hour in Orgrimmar, 4–6 hours from the Crossroads to level 16, and another 4–6 hours for the Stagnant Oasis and Camp Taurajo. Call it roughly 12–18 hours played from 1 to 20. Logging out in an inn shaves a few hours off through rested experience; a warrior or rogue running alone adds some back in downtime.

Tips

• Turn in quests in bundles: take every Crossroads quest, do one full circle, come back once.
• Log out in an inn. Rested experience doubles kill experience, the biggest free boost a vanilla realm offers.
• Skin everything. Light Leather sells reliably and the skill levels itself on this route.
• Carry bandages. First Aid makes solo play in the Barrens far faster than eating after every second fight.
• Pull one centaur at a time at the oases. Two Kolkar at once is a long corpse run at 16.

Running it with ForeverBot

Open the Leveling section and leave Pick guide by level and zone checked: the addon starts in the Valley of Trials and switches to the Barrens guide once you cross the bridge. Set the Quests sliders From 1 and To 20, keep Accept on from guide so the navigator skips side errands, and leave Turn in quests automatically, Choose reward and Equip upgrades on so quest weapons go straight into your hands. With Use flight paths on, the Orgrimmar-to-Crossroads flight is used as soon as both are known.

In Combat and rest, a class without heals does well with Eat below HP around 45% and Drink below mana around 35%; Remind me to rest stops you pulling a second centaur on a sliver of health. Under Extra, keep Repair at vendors, Buy food and water, Sell junk and Hearthstone checked, and if corpse runs pile up, switch Route mode in Settings to safest. Press Start, watch Current status for the guide step and XP/hour, and keep the setup with Save profile. Plans and prices are at /#pricing; the first-run setup guide covers installation.

FAQ

Can a tauren or undead character use this route?

From stop 5 onward, yes. Tauren walk east out of Mulgore and up the Gold Road to the Crossroads at around level 10; undead take the zeppelin from the Undercity to Orgrimmar and join at stop 4. The Durotar half is orc and troll content.

Should I run Ragefire Chasm and the Wailing Caverns?

If a group is easy to find, yes. Ragefire Chasm is short, sits inside Orgrimmar and fits levels 13–16; the Wailing Caverns is long and belongs to the 17–22 bracket. Neither is required: the route finishes on quests and grinding alone.

Where do I go after level 20?

Three roads leave the Barrens: the Great Lift south of Camp Taurajo into Thousand Needles, best from 24 or so; the road north-west of the Crossroads into Stonetalon Mountains; the north road through the Mor'shan Rampart into Ashenvale. Stonetalon or Ashenvale at 20, then Thousand Needles at 25, is the usual Horde order.