The Tarnished takes place in Shadowvale, a ruined corner of Silverpine Forest overrun by hostile cultists. The objectives are simple, but the named target is tucked away inside a building that is easy to walk past, and the approach is guarded well enough that pulling carelessly will get you killed on the doorstep.
Quick answer: Travel to Shadowvale in Silverpine Forest, kill Tarnished Drudges and Tarnished Zealots, then take down Rudolph Gelhardt on the second floor of the dilapidated house to loot his head.
Shadowvale location in Silverpine Forest
Shadowvale sits in the Whispering Forest area of Silverpine Forest, southwest of The Sepulcher. Open your map and look for the marker there rather than following the roads out of the town, since the quest area is off to the side and surrounded by trees. Everything you need for the quest is inside that small pocket of the zone, so there is no travel between subzones once you arrive.
The Tarnished objectives and enemies
Two enemy types fill the area, and both count toward the kill objectives. They patrol in loose groups around the ruins and near the house, so it pays to pull one at a time from the edges instead of walking into the middle of the camp.
- Tarnished Drudge — the common melee enemy, found across Shadowvale and stacked outside the house.
- Tarnished Zealot — spread through the ruins and also placed on the ground floor of the house.
- Rudolph Gelhardt — the named target, waiting upstairs. He drops Rudolph Gelhardt’s Head.
How to complete The Tarnished
If your kill counters are not full when Rudolph goes down, head back outside and finish off the remaining Drudges and Zealots around the ruins — they respawn steadily, so there is no need to leave the area.
How to confirm the quest is complete
Rudolph Gelhardt’s Head registers in your quest log as 1/1 the moment you loot it, and the tracker on the right side of your screen updates at the same time. Once that line and both enemy counters show as complete, every objective for The Tarnished has been met and you can turn it in.
Other Tarnished quests and items in World of Warcraft
Several unrelated objectives share the Tarnished name, and it is easy to land on the wrong one. The table below separates them by where they appear.
| Name | Where | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Tarnished Compass | Hallowfall | Level 80 memento turn-in |
| Tarnished Bronze Scale | Blackwing Lair (Season of Discovery) | Priest trinket chain starter |
| Tarnished Locket | Stormsong Valley | Quest object for A Reason to Stay |
Tarnished Compass in Hallowfall
Tarnished Compass is a neutral level 80 quest added in patch 11.0.2 that both starts and ends at the Grave Offering Location in Hallowfall. It follows Time Lost in the memento chain and pays out 2 gold 34 silver plus 1,450 experience. Turning it in also counts toward Lost and Found, the achievement for returning every lost Hallowfall memento found with Maera Ashyld, which awards Sandy Quotidian Wear.
The compass itself is a drop from mobs in the Stagnant Mire, and the rates are low enough that you should expect a farming session.
| Source | Drop rate |
|---|---|
| Mirehat Sporedancer | 1.6% |
| Mirehat Fungalmancer | 1.5% |
| Sludgeborn Shambler | 1.1% |
| Cultivated Mireshroom | 0.3% |
| Darkcap Tain | 0.12% |
Tarnished Bronze Scale and Cassandra’s Tome
If you apply a rune to the incorrect book, an enemy appears and must be defeated. Only one old rune may be in your bags at once, and Grimy Runes will stop dropping until it is no longer there.
Anyone hunting the Silverpine version should keep it simple: Shadowvale is a compact camp, Rudolph Gelhardt never moves from the upper floor of that one house, and the surrounding Drudges and Zealots respawn quickly enough to top off any counter you are short on.
