World of Warcraft: Forever (WoW: Forever for short), a new version of World of Warcraft, adds nine new dungeons, for levels 13 to 60. Blizzard, the company that makes the game, posted a dungeon guide on 20 October with each one's level range and where to find it. Six sit in the Eastern Kingdoms and three in Kalimdor, two of the game's continents.

A dungeon is a private copy of a place, built for a group of five players to fight through together. A level is a number that rises as a character plays, and each dungeon is made for a band of levels. Blizzard says each of the nine brings new threats, quests and adventures, rooted in the original game. A quest is a task a character takes on for a reward. Our dungeons and raids table lists the dungeons and raids the beta (the test version people can play before release) has on its own list so far, with a checklist. A raid is a bigger dungeon for a larger group.

Which new dungeons are in WoW: Forever, and at what level?

Here are all nine, lowest level first, in one list.

Every place in the Where column is a zone, a region of the world map, or a spot in one. Blackmaw Hold and Shaper's Terrace both reach level 60, the top of Blizzard's range. Blizzard calls Blackmaw Hold a "substantial max-level adventure". Max level is the highest level a character can reach.

Which ones mean a trip across the map for the Alliance or the Horde?

The Alliance and the Horde are the game's two factions, the sides every character picks between. Blizzard flags two of the new dungeons as easy for one side to reach and a journey for the other. Hall of Thanes is beneath Ironforge, an Alliance capital city, so Alliance players can reach it easily from inside it. Horde groups have to travel into Alliance land to get there.

Ruins of Lordaeron is the mirror image. It sits above the Undercity, and Blizzard says Horde players can reach it easily from there, while Alliance groups have to go into Horde land. Our take: a dungeon you reach by marching through the other side's country is the old school kind of trip, and we like it.

How do you get into the City of Dalaran dungeon?

City of Dalaran needs an attunement first, a chain of quests that unlocks the way in. Blizzard's guide gives a step like this for no other dungeon of the nine.

Alliance players start with the quest "An Alarming Request" from Emissary Jacques, a character in the game, in Southshore. Horde players start with "Key to the City" and "Prison Break-In" from Magus Wordeen Voidglare, another character in the game, in Tarren Mill. Southshore and Tarren Mill are two of the game's towns.

Once the Kirin Tor, a group of mages, trust you, your group goes in through the sewers. Inside, spells are going wrong and magic machines are running loose. Blizzard says you pick between several paths and fights on the way to the cause.

What is inside the other dungeons?

Blizzard gives each one a short story. In our words:

• Hall of Thanes is the burial hall of dwarf rulers under Ironforge. Intruders have broken in, and Blizzard says they are thought to be Dark Iron dwarves, a clan of dwarves.
• Ruins of Lordaeron is a ruined city the Forsaken, a people of the undead, are trying to win back. A necromancer, a magic user who raises the dead, is said to be gathering power there.
• Excavation Site lies past a dig site in the Wetlands, in a place that seems frozen in time. Stray titan machines and wild animals guard it. The titans are a race of ancient builders in the game's story.
• The Drowned City is a set of old ruins of the trolls, one of the game's peoples, that has risen out of the sea. You dive underwater to find the way in. It is open to the sky, and the weather builds from mist and rain to a full storm before the last fight.
• Krol'dok Stronghold is a big ogre fortress. Its raiders have been kidnapping travellers and robbing towns across the Riverglades.
• Alcaz Prison has long been rumoured to hold important prisoners, King Varian Wrynn among them. He is a king in the game's story. Inside, the Defias Brotherhood, a gang of outlaws, is fighting the naga, a race of snake-like sea people.
• Blackmaw Hold is a furbolg city behind a gate in Azshara that has been shut for a long time. Furbolgs are a bear-like people. The Blackmaw clan is fighting a corruption spreading through its woods and tunnels, and the dungeon has several routes and bosses, the toughest enemies in it.
• Shaper's Terrace is an old titan site high above Un'Goro Crater, with dinosaurs, tar pits and crystals. You bring power crystals you find around Un'Goro and use them on consoles inside.

Compared: Blizzard's list and the beta, so far

Four of the nine are already on the beta client's own group finder list, the list of dungeons and raids the game can put a group together for. The client is the game program players install, and our dungeons and raids table reads that list. The four are Hall of Thanes, Ruins of Lordaeron, Excavation Site and City of Dalaran.

The client calls the third one Excavation Site: Wetlands. The other five, from The Drowned City to Shaper's Terrace, are not on that list in build 1.60.1.70450 (a build is one version of the test game), the newest our table has read. So the table tags four dungeons as new, not nine.

Excavation Site's numbers also differ between two of Blizzard's posts. Blizzard's notes for the 1 October beta build listed the new dungeon with "(26-31)" beside its name, which we read as levels 26 to 31. The 20 October guide says levels 24 to 29, two lower at both ends, and does not say why. Our reading is that Blizzard changed the range during the beta.