Soulbinds are the “borrowed power” system of World of Warcraft Shadowlands, and there is no “infinite” grind attached to them. Soulbinds are at the heart of their customizable talent trees, though your choice of Alliance will impact which three you'll have access to. However, it's not just about choosing a Covenant and placing Conduits.
Soulbinds in Shadowlands are unlocked shortly after choosing a Covenant, and you'll need to increase your Renown to take full advantage of them.
Soulbinds are tied to covenants in Shadowlands, so you won't have access to them until you choose one. If you upgrade an alt through Threads of Fate, you will also need to reach level 60. Soulbinds are not unlocked immediately after choosing your Covenant, but after completing a few quests in the first chapter of the campaign of your Covenant. You will be introduced to fame first, as much of the Soulbind system is locked behind your fame rank.
Once you've completed the first handful of quests (like farming 1000 Anima for your Covenant's tank), you'll receive a quest to unlock your first Soulbind. The quest will have you meet your Soulbind NPC, and after fusing the spirits, you will gain access to the Soulbind table (AKA the Forge of Souls). It's the blue diamond on your map in your Covenant Sanctuary.
You will notice one of two things when you first open the interface. First, you need to unlock two additional Soulbinds, but these are locked behind the Renown Ranks. Second, there are 8 lines for each Soulbind, but you will only have access to the first two of your starting Soulbind. Additional rows are also locked behind your fame rank. If you're looking to take full advantage of your Soulbinds in Shadowlands, you'll want to keep your Renown Rank.
I'll post the Renown Rankings for the unlocks a little further down below, but let's get some basics out of the way first. Each Soulbind has unique preset traits, and between these are slots for Conduits. Conduits are soulbind traits that you collect as gear and they can be found in dungeons, as rewards from world quests, purchased with honor from PvP vendors, and elsewhere. They have item levels and their stats will increase with each ladder climb. Simply interact with your Forge of Souls to store and use them in your Soulbind. They are permanently unlocked thereafter, and if you take a Conduit from a higher item tier, it will override the lower tier.
Conduits fall into one of three categories, represented by icons on your Soulbind tree. Power Conduits are pretty much tied to your damage, Stamina to your survivability, and Finesse Conduits provide additional utility. You can only place a Conduit in a matching slot, and it will cost you 1 Conduit Energy per Conduit you want to install or swap. Conduit Energy is represented by the blue crystals in the bottom right of the Forge interface, and you have ten to spend. You regain one charge per day on the daily reset, so you'll want to think about your changes before applying them.
Soulbinds have branches that lead to different preset traits and conduits, and you can only have one path active at a time. You can freely change this path in any area where you can exchange talents, so rest areas. Simply bring up your Covenant Sanctum UI through the icon at the bottom left of your minimap and select your Soulbind NPC to bring up the Forge of Souls UI.
Below are the Renown Ranks needed to unlock the different Soulbinds and their rows in Shadowlands. Soulbinds and Conduits will be tweaked and balanced during major patches, so if you're not on the cutting edge of progression, you shouldn't stress your choice too much.
- Reputation 1-2: First Soulbind
- Fame 3 – Row 3
- Fame 7 – Row 4
- Fame 10 – Row 5
- Fame 21 – Row 6
- Fame 25 – Row 7
- Fame 30 – Row 8
- Renown 5 – Second Soulbind (via completing the Covenant Campaign Chapter unlocked at this rank)
- Fame 9 – Row 4
- Fame 13 – Row 5
- Fame 18 – Row 6
- Fame 28 – Row 7
- Fame 34 – Row 8
- Renown 22 – Third Soulbind (via completion of the final Covenant Campaign chapter unlocked at this rank)
- Fame 29 – Row 7
- Fame 31 – Row 8
