WoW Midnight Housing Early Access: Beginner Guide

Early Access for Housing is already live, and most players quickly hit a wall: you place a few items, and the house still feels empty. Although the system has many tools, such as modes, catalog filters, sources, crafting and more, none of these help if you don’t have a basic plan. This guide gives you a simple, first-session plan to help you create the perfect house before the Midnight expansion is released on 2 March. Follow the steps in order and you'll finish your first session with a clean layout, a starter set that instantly improves the atmosphere, and a routine that will keep your house leveling up without making playing World of Warcraft feel like a second job.

Before you do anything: make sure you can actually start

If you own the Midnight expansion, you can access the Housing feature. To do so, join a neighborhood, claim a house, decorate it, collect decorations, craft items and start leveling up your home!

If you don't yet own Midnight, you can still visit neighborhoods and start collecting housing items via activities such as quests from NPCs in Orgrimmar, Stormwind and Dornogal, as well as from vendors throughout Azeroth. However, you won't be able to claim a home or join a neighborhood until you have the Midnight expansion.

But don’t worry, because even if you don’t have an expansion, your efforts won't be wasted: collecting items will still contribute to your collection progress. This will apply once you have a home after an expansion is released.

Start the right way: do the Housing Tutorial first

Blizzard directs eligible players to a housing tutorial quest, which teaches the basics of setting up and decorating your home.

The recommended flow after the tutorial is as follows:

1)Join a neighborhood, public or guild.
2)Then, scout the neighborhood for a location and claim a house. Place it on your property. 
3)Then, decorate in basic or advanced mode. 
4)Press H to open the Housing Dashboard and view the Decor catalog to see where items can be found, how much they cost and what the requirements are.

Follow the Housing Tutorial quest flow. Then choose your neighborhood type before spending time decorating.

Choose your neighborhood: Public vs Guild 

During Housing Early Access it offers two types of neighborhood: Public and Guild.

Public Neighborhood 

We recommend it because it for a first home. Public home is good when you want the fastest start for the next 3 reasons 

• Anyone can join.
   
• No coordination required.
   
• Great for solo players, alts, and people who just want to start building today.
   

Guild Neighborhood. Pick this if you want community vibes with your guild and a themed street for the 2 main reasons.

• Created for your guild through the Steward.
   
• Requires at least 10 recently active players for the last 30 days

If you don’t meet the requirement you can start Public neighborhood early  because you’re not losing progress by starting early.

Pick your zone: Founder’s Point vs Razorwind Shores

Early Access provides only two neighborhood zones:

• Founder’s Point for Alliance
   
• Razorwind Shores for Horde
   

Blizzard describes neighborhoods as large zones with around dozens of plots with different plot feels (quiet hermit spots, cul-de-sacs, clustered streets), plus varied biomes and a dynamic central hub.

Practical advice: pick the zone whose background you’ll be happy seeing every day. Your exterior view matters more than you think.
 

Claim your house: what to do in the first 15 minutes

The process is simple. Start with scoutingt a plot; then, you claim a house; next, you place it on your property; and finally, you start customising.

The mistake most people make is trying to achieve perfection immediately. Your first house should be functional and have a theme, rather than being flawless and designed to impress.

A better approach:

1. Walk the neighborhood and pick a plot that feels right to you.
2. Claim the house and place it.
3. Inside your home, do a layout blockout before you chase rare decor.

Basic Mode first & Advanced Mode Main Differences 

Housing supports two decorating modes: Basic and Advanced, and you can switch between them while decorating with no problem.

Basic Mode: use it for your layout and 80% of your house

Basic Mode let’s you build a clean home quickly:

• Rotation snapping helps alignment with a 15-degree increments.
   
• Collision or alignment help keep items “sane” (no accidental clipping into walls).
   
• Grid or snapping keep furniture readable.
   
• The parenting option allows small items, such as books on shelves and mugs on tables, to stick to larger pieces of furniture. This means that you can move the furniture around without having to rebuild the scene.

Basic Mode features:

1. Define the main walkway through the room and don’t block the center.
    
2. Create three zones:
    
   • Entry zone
      
   • Main zone
      
   • Focal zone
      
3. Place only big items first: table, seating, shelf or bookcase, one wall piece.
    
4. Add lighting.

Advanced Mode features:

• No collision lets you layer or clip creatively.
   
• Gimbals allow movement and rotation on multiple axes including floating objects, plus scaling within limits.
   

Rule: choose one spot like a fireplace wall, trophy corner, dining table set-piece and detail only that area first. When you make one corner amazing, the whole house feels better instantly.

A 12-piece plan that makes any house feel finished

Blizzard states that you can collect 600+ housing items and track items or sources via the Housing Dashboard use the hotkey H for that and the Decor Catalog.

Instead of randomly collecting you can build a starter kit that works with any theme. Here’s the exact set:

Starter Kit or 12 pieces by category

• Lighting (3): 1 main overhead + 2 warm side lights
   
• Surfaces (2): table + shelf/bookcase
   
• Seating (2): chair + bench/couch
   
• Wall decor (2): banner/painting + wall shelf/hooks
   
• Soft items (2): rug + plant/curtains
   
• Centerpiece (1): fireplace/statue/trophy/signature object

Where to get decor quickly 

A) Your fastest early way to get stuff are Neighborhood vendors

Neighborhood vendors are designed to give a quick start and are generally inexpensive.

Even one exterior piece can make the property look intentional.

B) City NPC quests

Stormwind, Orgrimmar and Dornogal are good sources for housing items via NPC quests.
These are typically your lowest friction upgrades: you can do them early to build a usable base set.

C) Vendors throughout Azeroth

If you’re missing specific basics like rugs, lights or neutral furniture, vendor runs are the fastest way to fill your gaps in furniture.

Vendor sources are perfect for completing your Starter Kit without grinding.

D) Dungeon & Raid trophy decor 

Some decorations are assigned to dungeon and raid bosses and are the best 'flex' items. When a decoration is assigned to a boss, there is a 100% drop chance for one piece per kill.

IMPORTANT: Multiple copies require multiple runs.

Dungeon and raid décor items are your trophy hall: you choose the content you enjoy and farm it with purpose.

If you'd rather spend your time building than grinding through countless clears, our WoW boosting service can provide a quick and easy solution.

E) Professions: craft and sell decor 

Blizzard says that you can use professions to craft decor for your home and make old mats useful again or sell them to other players. They also say that reagents from across WoW's eras – even Classic-era mats – can matter again.

Simple crafting plan:

1. Open the catalog (H key) and filter toward your theme.
    
2. Pick 3 to 5 craftable pieces that fill your Starter Kit (lighting/surfaces/walls).
    
3. Craft in batches.

Your extended plan 

First you do your layout blockout

• Basic Mode
   
• Main walkway + three zones
   
• Big items only (table/seating/shelf/wall)
   

Then you complete the Starter Kit

• Dashboard (H) → list the 12 categories
   
• Neighborhood vendors first 
   
• Fill missing basics via city quests or vendors
   

Finish your house and build one hero scene

Choose one of the following: a fireplace wall, a trophy corner or a dining table set-piece.

Switch to Advanced Mode and make that area really stand out.

When one area looks amazing, it makes your whole home feel better immediately.

The weekly routine to keep leveling your home without burnout

With Housing Early Access, you can get a head start on Midnight. You can start building your home before launch. Use your first session to claim a plot, designate three zones and install lighting. Use your subsequent sessions to complete the starter kit of 12 items, upgrading one zone at a time. Stick to the loop. Collection day: Trophy day. Build day. You will see a change every week.

If you need assistance with repeated dungeon or raid clears for decorative items, take a look at our wow boosting service. Keep your own time for layout and design.

Thanks for reading. If you have any further questions, please refer to the FAQs below.