Grow into a raid

1. Learn to lead. You begin alone. The Basics teaches companion control and grows your group to 4 by level 14. Fill those places with companions, other players, or a mix.
2. Develop your roster. At max level, raid licenses unlock stronger hired companions one tier at a time. Each level 60 character can become a legacy companion and adds up to 5 companions to your account’s power. Regular companions gain gear through licenses; you gear your legacy characters yourself.
3. Build toward clearing Vanilla raids. A player guild is optional. A full raid takes at least 8 level 60 characters on one account, or multiboxing. This strength is earned through progression: keep gearing your characters, developing your companions and learning to control the group. A full raid is not available at character creation.

Make it your adventure

• Play in your own way. Solo, duo, players-only and mixed groups each have their own rewards and benefits. Companions can fill missing tank, healer and damage roles; playing with other people adds bonus rewards.
• Choose your setup. Multiboxing is allowed. Building a single account is also a supported route to a powerful roster. Your progress and the party you develop matter whichever company you choose.

• The content is already here. The Vanilla journey reaches all the way to Naxxramas. Nothing is held back for a future phase or release schedule.
• Earn each raid’s access. Available content still has progression requirements. Each character unlocks raids through recognition quests, working through them in release order.
• Keep exploring Azeroth. Earlier zones, dungeons and raids keep a purpose as you develop your account. The progression systems give you reasons to return and explore more of the world.
• Turn up the challenge. Dungeons can be run on heroic for double experience and better loot. Choose the difficulty that suits the party you have built.

• Development keeps going. Microbot is actively developed, with fixes and improvements continuing. The changelog records published changes.
• Reports reach the developer. The bugs you report go straight to the person writing the code. Share what happened through the community channels; clear, constructive reports help the project improve.
• Player ideas become features. The project is community driven. Many of its systems began as player suggestions, and constructive feedback helps guide what comes next.

The journey ahead

• Vanilla is live. Vanilla is feature complete and is the starting point of the intended journey through the expansions in order.
• The Burning Crusade is in development. The current character-copy bridge supports taking a Vanilla character into TBC.
• Wrath of the Lich King is planned. Its place in the journey does not mean character transfers to it are available today.

Copying your character forward

• Meet the requirements. Vanilla → TBC copying requires level 60 and the T5R raid license. The website’s copy dialog shows the current eligibility, mode and replacement warning before you agree.
• Keep your original character. Copying forward does not delete the source character. You can continue playing it in its original expansion.
• Review the copy mode. Release transfers are limited to once per character per expansion. TBC testing copies can be repeated when enabled; a repeat replaces the previous TBC copy. Read the agreement carefully before copying.

• Your progress is built to stay. There has never been a server wipe. No wipes is the server’s commitment to your characters, the things you earn and the account power and legacy you build.
• Take a break without starting over. Characters are not deleted for inactivity. Return to the characters and achievements you already developed.
• Keep building your story. There are no seasonal resets, forced fresh starts or hardcore character deletion. Your character name, decisions and lasting achievements are yours to build over time.

• Play and beat the entire game for free. Progression does not require spending money. You can complete the game without making a purchase.
• Support the project if you choose. Optional shop items offer quality of life conveniences and help support the server’s development. Microbot is a passion project supported by its community.
• Trade with other players. All shop items can be traded in game with other players.

Getting started

• Hire at a friendly inn. Choose the class and role you need, or take a quick hire by role and let the server choose the class. Review the hiring price before confirming.
• Start for a copper. At level one, your first companion costs one copper.

Growing the roster

• Start with one, grow to four. The Basics II, III and IV unlock your second, third and fourth companion slot at levels 10, 12 and 14, when you hand them in.
• Fill a raid. Build a larger group by hiring for your other characters too. Each uses its own companion slots, licenses and level.

Costs and lifetime

• Know the price. The starting price follows the level of the character you hire for and how many companions it already has. At level 60, a higher license tier raises it too. Every price is in the Wiki.
• Combine discounts. Discounts add together. Quick hire, your enabled Legacy discount and Winter Veil can reduce the price. A hire never costs less than one copper.
• Check the character you hire for. Exalted reputation with the companion’s race, an equipped Paragon or Paragon Maestro shirt, and earned PvP rank 14 add their discounts. These conditions apply to the character you hire for.
• They wait for you. After you log out, they wait up to an hour for you to return. After that, or after a server restart, you need to hire again.

• Start with the manual. Your character receives a manual at creation that explains companion commands. Learning the essentials helps you get the most from your party.
• Let them assist, then take control. Companions can assist naturally while you quest. Challenging content rewards learning when and how to direct the group.
• Choose controls that suit you. The Companions Control Panel gives you an easy interface for issuing the same commands. Create customized macros when you want precise controls of your own.

Make them your company

• Choose how they speak. Pick one of four conversation modes: immersive, advisor, storyteller or colloquial. Each changes the feel of the conversation.
• Give them a personality. Choose a style such as cheerful, gruff or deadpan. Write their persona, tell them about yourself and save the result as a preset to use again; make room for the quirks and jokes you enjoy.
• Keep the conversation comfortable. Configure their personality and how they speak, or tell them to be quiet when you prefer a peaceful run.

A party that notices

• Talk about the adventure. Companions answer in character, with awareness of where you are, what you are fighting and what just happened.
• Hear from them along the way. They can speak up at a level-up, a rare sighting, a good drop, a wipe or your first visit to a city.
• Return to familiar company. They welcome you back after an absence and may talk to one another when the road is quiet.

Bring your hero

1. Reach level 60. Every character you develop to level 60 can be hired as a legacy companion: a copy of your own character fighting beside you.
2. Build the character you want beside you. Gear and enchant the source character. Its companion brings its equipped gear and permanent enchants, talents, spells, professions, reputation, pet and mount. An equipped legendary comes with it too.
3. Hire your legacy copy. Your own character’s legacy copy does not take one of your regular hired companion slots, so you can bring it alongside those hires. Its strength comes from the source character.

• Make an alt part of every adventure. The time you spend gearing, enchanting or earning a legendary on an alt develops a hero you can bring into future groups.

Stronger starting gear

• Progress one tier at a time. From level 60, licenses unlock better starting equipment for hired companions, with sets selected for every class. Higher tiers are stronger and cost more to hire.
• Keep growing before licenses. Non-licensed companions upgrade their equipment automatically based on the items you pick up.
• Separate gear from raid access. Licenses govern the companions’ equipment. Recognition quests open the raids themselves.

Earn the next tier

• Master the dungeons. Dungeon bosses drop Tokens of Mastery. Use them for dungeon licenses, with each tier asking for more tokens.
• Complete the raids in order. Upgrade raid licenses with the token from each raid’s final boss. The order is Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Temple of Ahn’Qiraj, then Naxxramas.
• Plan the party you can afford. Hire the equipment tier you have unlocked and balance its extra strength against its higher hiring price.

Your preparation helps the party

• Share suitable enchants. Enchant an item and companions receive an appropriate enchant on the same slot, chosen for their class, role and specialization. They keep a better enchant they already carry.
• Use your own supplies. Nearby companions use the best suitable equivalents of your consumables, and their pets benefit too. The system covers permanent and temporary enchants, Alchemy and Cooking consumables, and Engineering bombs.

Keep the buffs running

• Build up charges. Each consumable you use gives companions one charge. They keep reusing it while a charge remains, and each death removes one charge. A clean run keeps the party supplied.
• Check what they have left. Open the Companions Control Panel to see unlocked consumables and remaining charges.

Loot and repairs

• Keep control of the drops. A companion joining switches the group to free-for-all loot. Companions never roll against you, loot a corpse or become the group looter.
• Share gold and experience. Both are shared with companions as with other group members.
• Leave their repairs to them. Companions repair their own gear for free; it never costs you a copper.

Services on the road

• Travel with a mage. Mages conjure food and water and open portals to the cities. Portals have fees and limited charges.
• Prepare with a warlock. Warlocks provide healthstones, summon your friends and place soulstones before a difficult pull. Summons have fees and limited charges.
• Stay supplied with a hunter. Hunters provide ammunition as long as you carry a bow or crossbow.
• Bring a rogue to the lock. Rogues open lockboxes, locked chests and doors.

Choose and configure

• Choose their pet. Pick a hunter pet such as a wolf or cat, or a warlock’s imp, voidwalker, felhunter or succubus.
• Use the world together. Companions can interact with warlock portals and altars such as the one in Uldaman.
• Set the support you need. Tell healers what to dispel and when to heal, choose paladin blessings and set which shaman totems to drop.

• Meet adventurers around the world. They walk city streets and leveling zones. Each place draws from its own race mix, so the crowd feels at home there.
• Watch them go about their day. Adventurers follow real routes and stop where a player might. They talk to vendors with dialogue generated on the spot, and some pause to fish or play emotes.
• Recruit someone you meet. Wandering adventurers can join your group as companions for a price.
• See ordinary companions return home. Dismissed ordinary companions return to their racial city. Upgraded and legacy companions leave directly.

Working as a party

• Fill the roles you need. Companions cover tank, healer, melee and ranged roles. Each class and specialization has its own rotation, built from player guides.
• Give the tank room to work. Companions watch their threat and hold back to help avoid pulling a boss off the tank.
• Coordinate the important casts. They interrupt, crowd-control, dispel and taunt when needed, checking what others are already doing to avoid wasting the same cast.
• Account for healing in flight. Healers consider healing already on its way to a target when deciding where their next cast is needed.

Preparation and control

• Use the class toolkit. Companions use trinkets, cooldowns, bandages and drinks, and can fall back to a wand when mana runs out. Talented buffs take priority over ordinary versions.
• Find the right position. Positioning is class-specific, including hunters moving out of their dead zone.
• Tune the party yourself. Use settings and commands to adjust roles, specializations, healing, dispels, buffs, formation and gear.

A plan for each encounter

• Fight with encounter-specific support. Vanilla raid bosses have dedicated companion logic, including Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Ahn’Qiraj and Naxxramas. Each encounter sets positions, targets and reactions; class AI handles the fighting.
• Use positions chosen for the fight. Hand-placed positions define where the boss is tanked and where ranged companions stand. Companions follow kite paths and react to phase changes.
• Let the tank settle the pull. Companions hold their damage at the start so the tank can establish the boss.

Lead your raid

• Bring players and companions together. Players participate in the same encounter plan, so companions can fill empty places in a mixed group.
• Prepare for the next boss. Companions support every Vanilla raid while you develop, control and lead the party. Use the strategy guides to learn each encounter and work toward clearing the raids.

• Practice a matchup. Duel your own companions to test a specialization or learn how to fight their class.
• Face a different combat style. Duels use dedicated PvP behavior rather than the rotation a companion uses in your group.
• Expect class-specific openings. A warrior may move back to charge range, while a rogue can stealth away and choose poisons for your class.
• Fight around the flag. Companions kite around the duel flag to stay within the duel area.

• Keep the teams moving. AI skirmishers join the queue when you do and fill battleground teams, stepping aside when real players arrive.
• Play all three battlegrounds. Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley are supported.
• Face PvP-ready opponents. Skirmishers have PvP talents, gear and enchants chosen for their rank.
• Follow the match objectives. They run real routes, take graveyards and keep moving while carrying the flag. Their logic is simpler than a hired companion’s and focuses on the objectives.
• Play beyond peak hours. Skirmishers help battlegrounds run at different hours, giving you more chances to queue and progress through the ranks.

Build your raid progression

1. Open the raid. Complete its recognition quest to unlock access for your character. Raids do not need a companion license of their own: raid access and companion strength have separate requirements.
2. Earn the next companion tier. Turn in the token from the raid’s final boss to upgrade your raid license. The license sets the tier of raid companions you can hire.
3. Continue the journey. License progression follows Molten Core → Blackwing Lair → Temple of Ahn’Qiraj → Naxxramas. Earlier raids stay relevant as you build the party for the next challenge.

Unlock each raid

• The Seat of Power. Opens Molten Core and Onyxia.
• Fire and Brimstone. Opens Blackwing Lair.
• In the Shadow of the Mountain. This recognition quest, or the matching dungeon quest, opens Zul’Gurub and Ahn’Qiraj.
• What Lies Dormant. Opens Naxxramas.

• Choose the challenge. Every dungeon offers heroic difficulty. Onyxia, Zul’Gurub and Molten Core also have heroic modes. Set the difficulty before you go inside.
• Prepare for stronger enemies. They hit harder and last longer, with increases ranging from about half again as much to more than double.
• Earn more from the run. Heroic rewards you with double experience and a large loot bonus.

• Use your class’s full rotation. The debuff limit is removed. You no longer need to sacrifice an ability or count a tiny list of slots to make room for the rest of the raid.
• Build a more varied party. The change opens up damage options, a wider range of class and specialization combinations, and more viable raid strategies. Leading and controlling your group remains part of the challenge.

• Turn in a head again. World-buff quests are repeatable, so a head can be turned in more than once.
• Keep scrolls for later. Dire Maul and Songflower buffs come as scrolls. Keep them in your bags and use them when you choose.
• Buy buffs when eligible. Gold purchases require level 60, at least 10 in your group, and a tier 3 license or better. Buying buffs with gold has a 2-hour cooldown.

• Gain more experience from kills. Every point of Spirit above your natural amount adds kill experience, up to a cap of double kill experience. Only the extra Spirit counts toward this bonus.
• Get back into the adventure. Spirit also makes you move faster in ghost form and shortens the resurrection sickness you return with.
• Choose whether to use it. Talk to a Spirit Healer to switch the whole system on or off.

• Bring other players. More players in your group mean more loot and reputation. Players-only and mixed groups can enjoy the rewards for playing together.
• Keep your experience. Experience is shared with companions, but is not split with other players. Gold is still shared by the whole group.
• Share access to tokens. In a players-only group, every player can loot dungeon and raid tokens. This access for everyone requires a players-only run; a larger group may also receive a bonus token.

• Learn your trades. Each character can learn all 12 professions, without the usual two-profession restriction. Crafting skill can grow faster, with up to 10 points from a single craft.
• Build a master crafter. A character with all 12 professions at 300 qualifies for crafting Legacy bonuses. Its progress helps your other characters gain skill and craft faster.
• Share discoveries. Learned recipes are shared across the account. Another character receives a recipe when its own profession skill reaches that recipe’s requirement. Profession skill is developed per character, so each new crafter still needs its own training.

• Find new stories. Custom quests are written in the world’s own voice. Companions help you tackle the adventures and finish places you might otherwise have skipped.
• Finish a zone whenever you return. Quests keep their full experience and reputation rewards even after you outlevel them. A zone you come back to late is still worth finishing.
• Listen as you play. The optional Voice Over addon can read quest text aloud if you prefer to listen.

• Compete throughout the year. Monthly leaderboards carry prizes. There is no sign-up or separate registration: playing enters you.
• Big Spender. Compete by spending the most gold hiring companions. The Wiki explains leaderboard rules and prizes.
• Player Only Runs. Race for the fastest players-only dungeon clears.
• Receive your rewards automatically. Monthly prizes are mailed at the first restart of the new month. Open the boards to see current standings and results.

• Build a community across faction lines. Alliance and Horde can group, trade, talk, share a guild and use the same auction house.
• PvP still has a place. Faction cooperation does not remove battlegrounds or city attacks. You can still fight the other side there.
• Hire across factions when eligible. Companions from the other faction can join you under the appropriate conditions. This hiring has its own eligibility requirements.

• Choose when to fight. This is a PvE realm. Flag up, defend a city or join a battleground when you want combat.
• Play the familiar battlegrounds. Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley run with AI skirmishers helping fill the teams.
• Earn the classic ranks and rewards. Honor uses the original ranking system and rewards. Dishonorable kills still count against you, so civilians are off limits.
• Protect your city. Defending your own city can earn the City Protector title.
• Make the highest rank count. Reaching it earns a permanent companion hiring discount.
• Practice with your own party. Duel your companions to practice a class matchup or try a specialization.

• Keep your roster together. The Companions Control Panel shows every character on your account and their companions in one interface.
• Review the price before hiring. Choose a class and role, and see what that companion will cost before you commit.
• Inspect your companions. Open a companion to see its gear, unlocked consumables and remaining charges.
• Find the setting you need. Issue commands and adjust companion settings through the interface, with a search box to find an option when its name escapes you.
• See what your account can do. Review your Legacy bonuses and compare stats in the stats window.
• Use the controls you prefer. Typed commands remain available alongside the interface, so you can use either without having to memorize every command.

• Share your standing. All characters of the same faction on your account share the reputation you earn.
• Unlock new companion races. Your own race is available from the start. Reach Friendly with another city to hire companions of its race.
• Earn a better hiring price. At Exalted, companions of that city’s race cost 10% less to hire.

• Learn each recipe once. A recipe learned by one character is shared with the other characters on the same account.
• Meet the skill requirement. The shared recipe appears when another character reaches the profession skill required for it. Each character still needs to develop its own profession skill.
• Keep your Eternal discoveries. Eternal recipes are shared too. Find each one once for the account, then use it on characters with the required skill.

Griznak’s stock

• Find the Black Market Trader. Griznak can usually be found at the tailor in Booty Bay.
• Browse the unusual. His stock includes curiosities, oddities, illusions such as Invisible Shoulders and consumables ordinary vendors do not carry.
• Bring raid essences. Essences drop from the end of raids. Spend them on his goods, or hand them in to raise your Black Market reputation.

Raid lockout resets

• Give the raid another try. Griznak also sells raid lockout resets, giving your group another raid attempt.
• Expect the price to rise. Each reset increases the next price. The cost uses the group member who has reset that raid most.
• Leave the instance first. A reset cannot be bought while someone is still inside the raid.

• Choose an appearance in the city. Change how your gear looks through the transmog NPC at the mage tower in Stormwind or Orgrimmar.
• Check the item’s value. The transmog cost depends on the value of the item.
• Style your companions too. Companions can be transmogged as well. Match the whole group, or let each hero keep its own style.

• Change more than your hair. The barber changes your whole appearance. Find one at the guild master’s house in Stormwind or Orgrimmar.
• Save your favorite looks. Keep appearance presets and switch between them in a click.
• Make each companion your own. Customize and rename your companions, and save appearance presets for them too.

• Use it again after the cooldown. Eternals are reusable versions of familiar consumables. They are never used up, in exchange for a long cooldown.
• Discover recipes as you craft. Crafting a supported ordinary version can teach its Eternal recipe when you have a discovery bonus from qualifying Legacy crafters, Lucky Charm or Grilled Spirit. Without a discovery bonus, crafting alone does not discover one.
• Improve your discovery chance. Legacy bonuses, Lucky Charm and Grilled Spirit buffs increase the chance of discovering an Eternal recipe.
• Learn from an Eternal Wisdom. These items teach a random Eternal recipe directly, offering another route to a lasting discovery.
• Share the recipe with your crafters. Eternal recipes are shared across your account, but each character still needs the required profession skill to use them.

Building your Legacy

• Grow your account’s bonuses. Characters at level 60 add Legacy bonuses to experience, reputation, companion hiring and Hearthstone cooldown. The table shows what each qualifying character adds and the results or limits.
• Count fully trained crafters. Crafting bonuses count characters with all 12 professions at 300, rather than simply counting level 60 characters. They improve skill points, yellow and green skill-up chances, and crafting speed.

Discoveries and choices

• Carry your discoveries forward. Flight paths pass to characters of the same faction. Explored map areas are shared with all characters; areas revealed this way award exploration experience to characters still leveling.
• Keep the bonuses you want. Enable or disable each Legacy bonus individually through the Control Panel.

• Post an eligible auction. Choose a 24-hour listing and an asking price no higher than double the vendor price.
• Watch the final hour. The Marketer may buy an eligible auction in its last hour before expiry. He pays your asking price, but a sale is not guaranteed.
• Browse what he resells. He flips the goods he buys, and his resale prices change with demand. Keep an eye on his stock.

• Let one pet loot for everyone. An auto-loot pet collects drops for your whole group, taking the repetitive work out of looting.
• Find them in players-only content. Most auto-loot pets come from players-only content.
• Give an ordinary pet the same convenience. Petopia is an item that gives ordinary pets this ability; most pets qualify, but not every pet.

• Cast once to begin. Your character keeps fishing automatically after the first cast.
• Leave room for the catch. Watch your available bag space as you fish. A run of Groupers can fill your bags faster than you expect.

• Return to the rank you earned. PvP rank does not decay. Take a week off or a month, and you return at the rank you left.
• Keep working toward Rank 14. Consistent battleground play lets you continue the climb without a decay-driven schedule.
• Respect the honor rules. The original honor ranks and rewards still apply. Removing passive rank decay does not remove penalties for dishonorable kills.