The experience boosts in World of Warcraft: Forever are rested experience, the Leatherworking Camp Tent (which adds rested experience worth 5% of a level), the Well Rested Legacy perk, and crafted food that grants a small experience bonus. There is no paid boost, and the campfire’s own one-hour buffs raise your stats, not your experience.
That surprises a lot of players who sit at a fire expecting an XP buff. Below is every boost that does exist, how to get each one, whether rested experience is worth planning around, and the dungeon and group rules that change how much experience you earn. Checked against Blizzard’s camping post, deep dive recap and Legacy system overview on November 7, three days after launch.
Every XP Buff at a Glance
| Boost | What it does | How to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Rested experience | Extra experience from monster kills until the pool runs out | Log out or rest in an inn or a capital city |
| Camp Tent | Adds rested experience worth 5% of a level | Sit at a camp where a Leatherworker has placed one |
| Well Rested (Legacy perk) | Raises the rested cap and fills it faster | Spend Legacy Points in the Adventure tree |
| Crafted food | A small experience bonus plus stats | Eat upgraded food made with Cooking |
| Gourmand (Legacy perk) | Longer food buffs | Spend Legacy Points in the Resourcefulness tree |
Rested Experience
Rested experience builds up while you are logged out or resting in an inn or a capital city, and it makes monster kills give extra experience until the bonus runs out, as in the original game. Your experience bar shows it as a second shade ahead of your current progress. Innkeepers can also bind your Hearthstone, and Blizzard’s new player’s starter guide suggests binding it to an inn so you can return there later.
Is rested XP worth it? Yes. It is free experience for logging out where you should anyway. End every session in an inn or a city, and you start the next one with a head start. It matters most on alts, which spend more time logged out.
The Camp Tent: Rested Experience in the Wild
Blizzard’s camping post lists the Leatherworking Camp Tent as a camp feature that “allows you and others sitting nearby to increase Rested experience by 5% of a level.” Its fine print matters: it has “no effect if Rested experience already exceeds that value.”
- Find a camp with a tent, or level Leatherworking to 20 and place your own beside a Basic Campfire.
- Sit for at least a minute. Blizzard says players sitting or crafting at a campsite for one minute gain the benefits of its camp features.
- Do it when your rested bar is empty, since the tent only tops you up to 5% of a level.
Camp features share a one-hour cooldown, so a tent is a quick top-up between quest hubs rather than a farm. Our camping guide covers every camp feature, and our guide to how to sit by the campfire covers the sitting itself.
Campfire Buffs Are Not XP Buffs
If you sat at a fire and saw no experience boost, nothing is broken. A Basic Campfire “allows cooking and the placement of up to 3 additional camp features,” and those features give one-hour buffs such as Stamina, Strength, Spirit or critical strike chance. Only the Camp Tent touches experience. The campfire buffs still speed you up indirectly, since stronger stats mean faster kills and less downtime, but they are not experience bonuses. Blizzard also notes the camp buffs are variants of class buffs and do not stack with them.
The Well Rested Legacy Perk
Blizzard’s Legacy system overview says Well Rested “increases the rested experience cap and allows rested experience to accumulate faster.” It is the only Legacy perk that affects experience directly. You need the Legacy system unlocked first, which usually means one character at level 25, so Well Rested is mostly an alt perk. Our guide to getting Legacy Points explains how to unlock it, and it is worth dropping at 60, as our guide to respecing Legacy Points explains.
Food That Gives Experience
Blizzard’s deep dive recap says Forever adds “adjusted crafted food that can grant a small experience bonus and stat boosts.” Blizzard has not published which recipes carry the bonus or how big it is, so read the buff on the food’s tooltip before you rely on it. Cooking it yourself is the cheapest route; our guide to how to cook covers the profession. The Gourmand Legacy perk “increases the duration of buffs from eating food,” which stretches any food buff further.
Rules That Change How Much XP You Earn
- Group experience is your own. Blizzard’s October 8 development notes restored the original rule: “only the individual’s level matters” for experience from a kill, unless a party member is vastly higher than the monster, in which case nobody earns any.
- Dungeons pay more than they did in testing. The same notes raised experience from dungeon monsters by about 20%. Our dungeon level ranges show when each one fits.
- No level scaling. Monsters keep their level, so stay in zones that match yours; our zone level ranges list them all.
- No paid boosts. Blizzard’s Classic team said at BlizzCon that it has no plans for paid character boosts in Forever, and none are on sale.
Every WoW Forever guide we have is on our World of Warcraft hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the campfire give an XP buff in WoW Forever? No. A Basic Campfire hosts camp features that give stat buffs. Only the Leatherworking Camp Tent adds experience, as rested experience worth 5% of a level.
Is rested XP worth it in WoW Forever? Yes. It costs nothing, and logging out in an inn or a city builds it while you are away.
Is there an XP food buff? Yes. Blizzard says some crafted food grants a small experience bonus along with stats. Check the food’s tooltip.
Why am I not getting the camp tent bonus? Either you already have more rested experience than the tent’s 5% of a level, or you have not sat at the camp for a full minute.
Is there an XP boost you can buy? No. Blizzard has no paid character boost for WoW Forever, so experience comes from playing, resting and the boosts above.