Prey Hunt Gold Guide: WoW Midnight Season 2

Prey is the smallest big system in Midnight. A table in the capital, a target picked on the world map, a hunt that takes minutes, and a payout sheet that quietly touches every currency in Season 2: gold, gear, crests, Voidlight Marl, Journey progress, and since October 20, Ascendant Venomstones. It is also the only venomstone source that is fully solo, on your schedule, with no group and no key requirement.

This guide is the payout sheet, difficulty by difficulty, and where Prey sits in the wider gold economy of the Season 2 farm ranking.

How the system is shaped

The Prey table offers hunts across all four Midnight zones. For each zone you get one hunt per difficulty, and there are three difficulties: Normal, Hard and Nightmare. Clearing hunts pays out and moves the Preyseeker's Journey track, the season-long progression that unlocks the bonuses below.

The payout rule that matters: your first two hunts per difficulty each week pay gear chests; everything after that pays gold and profession reagents. The weekly structure rewards showing up twice on each difficulty, then lets you keep hunting for the repeatable rewards.

What each difficulty pays

Difficulty	Hunt gear	Great Vault slot	Crests
Normal	266 Adventurer	279 Veteran	10 Mistcrests
Hard	279 Veteran	292 Champion	10 Mistcrests
Nightmare	292 Champion	305 Hero	10 plus 5 Mistcrests

Every hunt also drops a Preyseeker's Adventurer Chest with a chance at Voidlight Marl, crests, and a rare material, on top of raw gold. The Voidlight Marl drop is why Prey belongs in the same conversation as the Marl farming guide: hunts are one of the steady weekly Marl sources, stacked on top of gear and gold.

The Nightmare economy

Nightmare is where Prey stops being a garnish. The first two Nightmare hunts each week award the Preyhunter's Champion Chest, and each of those chests contains one Ascendant Venomstone: the 12.1.5 upgrade item that lifts a fully upgraded weapon, trinket or necklace past its item level cap. Ten stones upgrade one item, and Prey alone can supply four per week once the Journey track is working for you:

Two from the first two Nightmare hunts' Champion chests.
One from an Afflicted Soul, unlocked at Journey rank 4 and found in Tier 6 and above Bountiful Delve trunks. It instantly completes your next Nightmare hunt and adds a bonus Champion chest.
One from a Tormented Soul, the rank 9 version of the same idea with a Hero track chest attached.

Four per week, solo, on content measured in minutes. Compare the alternatives in the Ascendant Venomstones guide: Mythic+ at 10 or above is the repeatable farm but needs a group and the rating to time keys, Heroic and Mythic raid bosses are locked out weekly, and Tier 11 Bountiful Delves and the Labyrinth both eat Restored Coffer Keys. Prey is the floor under all of it. If you do nothing else in a week, do four Nightmare hunts.

The 12.1.5 catch-up, if you are behind

The mid-season patch made the Journey forgiving on purpose. Players between ranks 4 and 9 now receive 2,000 Journey progress from each of their first four hunts a week, which is a dramatic acceleration toward exactly the ranks that matter for the soul economy. If you ignored Prey all season, this is the patch that pays you to stop ignoring it, and the same logic runs through the whole system: the catch-up is designed to hand latecomers the Afflicted Soul mechanics before the season ends.

The collectibles that ride along

The Nightmare Prey boss Ral'kala drops Corrosive Souls, the currency that adds combat effects to bracers and belts, plus housing decor, the Pale Hexscale pet, and on rare occasions the Hexflame Reaver mount. Clearing every Prey boss on Nightmare difficulty awards the Preyseeker's Nightmare mana-wyrm through the Nightmare Mode achievement chain. None of this is gold, exactly. All of it is value that would otherwise cost gold or Marl, which is how the Marl guide prices vendor purchases in the first place.

Where Prey fits in the weekly plan

The efficient week, in order of payment per minute:

Four to eight hunts across difficulties, front-loading the two-per-difficulty gear chests. Twenty minutes for gear, crests, Marl and Journey.
Four Nightmare hunts' worth of venomstone income once your Journey rank supports it, soul-powered where possible.
Everything else in the gold farm ranking, because Prey is a floor, not a ceiling.

What Prey is not is an hourly farm. The repeatable hunts after the weekly chests pay gold and reagents at a modest rate, worth doing while queued for something else, not worth building an evening around. The floor is the product.

FAQ

How many Prey hunts can I do per week?

One per difficulty per zone, twelve potential hunts a week across four zones and three difficulties. Only the first two per difficulty award gear chests; later hunts pay gold and reagents.

How many Ascendant Venomstones come from Prey each week?

Up to four with the Journey track unlocked: two from the first two Nightmare hunts' Champion chests, plus one each from an Afflicted Soul at rank 4 and a Tormented Soul at rank 9, which instantly complete bonus hunts with extra chests.

Do Prey hunts give Voidlight Marl?

Yes, the Adventurer Chest at the end of each hunt can contain it, making hunts one of the steady weekly Marl sources alongside world quests, delves and Prey's own Journey rewards.

Is Prey worth it for gold alone?

The repeatable hunts pay modest gold plus reagents. The real payout is the weekly gear chests, crest flow, Marl chances and venomstones. Treat it as a floor under the week, not a farm.

What is Preyseeker's Journey?

The season-long track currency earned from hunts. Ranks unlock the Afflicted and Tormented Souls that automate Nightmare hunts, and 12.1.5 added a catch-up granting 2,000 progress from each of your first four weekly hunts between ranks 4 and 9.