If you’ve ever hit max level in Shadowlands and stared at your empty covenant sanctum reservoir wondering how you’ll ever afford upgrades, mounts, or transmog rewards, you’re not alone. Anima is the core currency for all Shadowlands endgame content, and a lot of new players waste dozens of hours on low-yield activities that barely move the needle. This guide breaks down exactly how to get anima in world of warcraft efficiently, with tips I’ve tested across 4 different covenant playthroughs and hundreds of hours of farming. You won’t find any weird exploits or grind-heavy routines here, just realistic methods that fit every playstyle from casual to hardcore.
How to Get Anima in World of Warcraft: High-Yield Daily Activities You Can Knock Out in 30 Minutes
You don’t need to spend all day playing to build a steady anima income, especially if you prioritize the right daily tasks first. Callings give 3-5x more anima than regular world quests, so always pick up your 3 daily callings from your covenant sanctum before you do anything else. Most callings take 5-10 minutes to complete, and reward 150-250 anima each, plus extra gear or covenant renown if you’re still leveling that up. If you’re still learning how to get anima in World of Warcraft, starting with these daily activities will give you a consistent stream of currency without feeling like a chore.
The daily maw quest from your covenant sanctum is another non-negotiable if you have 10 minutes free. It rewards 200 anima plus extra stygia for Ve’nari upgrades, and you can usually finish it while you’re completing other callings in the area. You can also pick up world quests that reward 75+ anima while you’re traveling between calling objectives, just skip the ones that only give 30 anima for 10 minutes of work, they’re not worth your time.
Repeatable Weekly Sources for Massive Anima Rewards
Once you’ve knocked out your daily tasks, focusing on weekly activities will give you the biggest chunks of anima for the least amount of time invested. Normal, heroic and mythic raid bosses each drop 250 anima per kill, so even if you only run LFR, you can rack up 2,000+ anima per week just by clearing the full raid. Mythic+ runs are another great option, especially if you’re already running them for gear or weekly vault rewards.
If you’re not sure which weekly activities to prioritize, stick to this list of the highest-yield options:
- Covenant Assaults (1,500 anima per completed assault, 2 available per week across Shadowlands zones)
- Mythic+ dungeon runs (200 anima per run, plus 1,500 extra for completing your weekly keystone master quest)
- World Boss kills (500 anima per kill, 1 new world boss available per week per character)
- Torghast Twisting Corridors full clears (3,000 anima per full 8-layer clear, with new rotations available every week)
One pro tip most players miss: once your covenant sanctum is upgraded to level 3, you unlock the ability to transfer anima between characters on the same account. That means you can farm anima on alts and send all of it to your main, so you don’t have to grind all your weekly activities on a single character. If you have 2-3 alts at max level, you can easily get 10,000+ anima a week without extra effort.
Little-Known Anima Sources Most Players Miss
If you want to speed up your anima farming even more, there are dozens of hidden sources most players never take advantage of. Rare spawns in Korthia and Zereth Mortis drop 100-200 anima each, and they respawn every 15-30 minutes, so if you have 10 minutes free between dungeon queues, you can hop around and farm 3-4 of them for easy extra anima. There are also hundreds of hidden treasures scattered across all Shadowlands zones, most of which reward 50-150 anima and take 30 seconds to open if you know where they are.
Your covenant mission table is another passive anima source that requires zero active play once you set it up. Level up your followers to level 60, send them on anima reward missions, and you can get 500-1,000 anima a day just by logging in to collect rewards. These hidden sources are perfect if you want to supplement your regular farming and speed up how fast you can get anima in World of Warcraft. You can also pick up extra anima from limited time holiday events, so check your in-game calendar regularly for events that offer anima as a reward for completing simple quests.
If you’re still working through your covenant campaign, make that a top priority too. Each chapter of the covenant campaign gives 500-1,000 anima, plus you unlock permanent sanctum upgrades that give you extra anima bonuses for all future activities. It’s the fastest way to get your first 10,000 anima to upgrade your sanctum to level 2, which unlocks better mission table rewards and the anima transfer feature later on.
Common Anima Farming Mistakes to Avoid
Even if you’re hitting all the high-yield activities, small mistakes can slow down your anima farming by a lot. You don’t need to farm anima on every alt if you have the transfer feature unlocked, so don’t burn out doing callings on 5 alts every single day. Just pick 1-2 alts you enjoy playing, farm your weekly activities on those, and send all the anima to your main. You’ll get the same amount of anima with half the effort.
Another common mistake is spending anima on cosmetic items or pets before you upgrade your sanctum. Higher sanctum levels unlock better anima rewards, bonus renown, and other perks that make farming anima faster long-term, so it’s always a better investment to upgrade your sanctum first before you spend anima on fun items. You should also avoid skipping Torghast runs just because you think they’re too hard. Even layer 8 of regular Torghast gives 500 anima per wing, which is way more than you’d get doing 10 low-yield world quests in the same amount of time.
Don’t be afraid to ask your guild for help too. A lot of guilds have spare anima in the guild bank that members donate, especially if they’ve been playing since Shadowlands launched and have more anima than they need. Most guild leaders are happy to give out anima to newer players who are working on sanctum upgrades, so it’s worth asking if you’re stuck a few hundred anima short of an upgrade you want.
Anima farming doesn’t have to be a boring, hours-long grind if you prioritize the right activities and avoid common mistakes. You can pick methods that fit your playstyle, whether you love raiding, running mythic+, or just doing casual daily quests for 30 minutes a day. Once you know how to get anima in world of warcraft efficiently, you can unlock all the covenant mounts, transmogs, sanctum upgrades, and other endgame rewards without wasting time on low-value tasks. I used to spend 2 hours a day farming anima when I first started playing Shadowlands, and now I spend 30 minutes a day and have more than 100,000 anima saved up. Test out the methods that sound the most fun to you, and you’ll be filling up your reservoir in no time.
