World of Warcraft’s next major patch lets you drive a car "4 to 5 times faster" than a regular ground mount while learning more about goblin culture.

As announced during the Warcraft 30-year celebration stream, World of Warcraft will get its next major update -- Patch 11.1 -- early next year. This update, dubbed Undermine(d), will take you deep underground to the centre of goblins' OSHA violating trade empire.

Ion Hazzikostas is the game director of World of Warcraft. He says, "We'll be learning more about goblin cultures than ever before... beyond the humour." "There's going to be a lot more explosions, but let's be clear about that." Phew.

The city will be home to all of the major goblin companies, including Steamwheedle and Blackwater. Bilgewater and The Venture Co. will also make an appearance. You can earn faction rewards from the company store you choose, since they are all competing against each other. Who cares about goblin political machinations (actually, I might if I wrote it out)? World of Warcraft is drifting baby!

An expansion on the dragonriding/skyriding tech developed in Dragonflight, the patch, Undermine(d), will feature a new customisable ground mount. It's a car. You can play with the paint job, but you also have control over its grip, acceleration, and drift characteristics.

Mark Kelada, assistant lead quest designer, explained to Tyler Colp of PC Gamer: "It moves on base, I believe, about four to five time faster than your standard mount." When people say "no skyriding", I would reply, "wait until you get in this car."

The design team is still experimenting with the specifics, but for now, "we're playing around with the mechanic that the longer you hold the drift the more boost you get." Sick. Kelada says you will be able "to change the turbo/boost... do you wish it to be efficient so it uses less metres, or do you wish it to use high-speed so you can press that button and be gone?" He says that there may be an option to have an NPC passenger lend a helping hand.

You can use it to tear through Undermine's streets which were designed with cars in mind. There will also be skyriding races and timed quests. Kelada says, "It all made sense the moment I saw the concepts for Undermine." He's talking about the fact that you'll be allowed to Tokyo drift within World of Warcraft. It was like, "Oh, we can have explosives and just go wild on this. And it really fits the vibe"... it was a slam-dunk."

Oh, yes--there are more features in this update. Undermine(d), will also include Operation Floodgate. You and your party will race to stop goblins from blowing a dam. This is a Saturday morning cartoon-level evil villain plot, for these little maniacs. It will also be tucked into the Mythic+ rotation for the season, alongside four dungeons of the war within and the usual dash legacy dungeons, including, obviously, Battle for Azeroth’s goblin brawl The Motherlode.

The zone will have two new delves and an 8-boss attack called the Liberation of Undermine. This raid takes you through the streets and into a massive mansion that is "brimming in colour and extravagance" and also hides its owner's dark secrets, the one-and-only Gallywix. It looks like we're going to be shaking hands with the trade king. PvPers are also getting a new map.

Ion Hazzikostas told PC Gamer, "Undermine was an idea that existed before Hallowfall or Ringing Deeps or many other places. When we announced that we would be making an underground expansion two years ago, we asked ourselves: What are the known locations we can visit? It was like 'okay before this story ends, we need go there.'

Blizzard has also revealed the new season's roadmap, which is shown above. Before we get Undermine (d), we'll be stomping through The Siren Isle. This in-between patch is similar to Dragonflight Forbidden Reach, which is already on the PTR. It will arrive fully-formed on December 10. The roadmap says that Undermine(d) will be released before Spring 2025.