Who needs to carry what

A WoW: Forever campsite starts with one fire, and only the player who lights it has to carry the makings. Blizzard describes the Basic Campfire as Cooking's old Cooking Fire, reimagined, and Zockify's Cooking recipe data shows the Basic Campfire recipe turning Simple Wood into a Basic Campfire Kit. If you don't cook, or a friend is already setting up, you can leave the wood behind.

Everyone else at the fire is optional cargo. A Basic Campfire takes up to three crafted objects, one per nearby player, and the first object for any profession is learned at skill 20 from a camping NPC or a trainer. Below skill 20 there is nothing profession-related to pack at all: sit at someone else's fire and enjoy whatever they have placed.

Hand-inked illustration of a green rucksack with a blue bedroll strapped across the top and a hammer and two wooden stakes tucked behind it, with a coin pouch and a coin on the ground under the words Keep a budget.
The fire's makings ride with whoever lights it; everyone else packs one object at most.

What one early player carried

The clearest bag-space account so far comes from a level 8 player on Blizzard's forums in September. They listed Simple Wood, Flint and Steel, and their profession's camp tool, said that even with a reagent bag they had four camping-related items in their inventory, and pointed out that the game teaches camping through a quest at level 6, before most characters have a spare bag. Their idea that Simple Wood should drop from enemies or chests is a suggestion, not a current feature.

That is one player's report from an early beta session, not a price list. It still shows what to plan around: a stack of wood, a fire-starting tool and one object take real slots on a character still waiting for its first bag drop.

A first-camp checklist

Work out which of these describes your character before you spend silver on camping gear.

  1. Learning Cooking: keep Simple Wood for the Basic Campfire Kit, plus the fire-starting tool the player above lists as Flint and Steel.
  2. Any profession at skill 20 or higher: carry the one camp object you learned from the camping NPC or your trainer. You can only add one per camp anyway.
  3. Below skill 20 in everything: pack nothing extra and use other players' fires.
  4. An upgraded campfire learned early: Zockify lists the Journeyman Campfire as learned at Cooking 90 but usable at 140, and the Expert Campfire as learned at 200 but usable at 220. Leave those items in the bank until your skill reaches the usable number.

Before you sit down

Camp objects share a one-hour cooldown, so placing one is a commitment, not a test. Zockify's Cooking guide says players who sit or craft near the fire for one minute pick up the surrounding objects' benefits; Blizzard's own wording is just 'a few moments'.

Since the October 1 beta notes, campfires no longer damage characters below level 5, and they deal reduced damage to anyone under 90% health. That matters most to the fresh characters this checklist is written for.

Further ahead, Blizzard's Legacy article says the Resourcefulness perk Reagent Economy makes tier 1 camping features need no materials to craft. That is a Legacy purchase for later characters rather than something a level 6 camper can lean on, and Blizzard doesn't spell out which features count as tier 1.

Still to come

Not yet settled by our sources or tested in game:

  • Current vendor prices for Simple Wood and the fire-starting tool.
  • Whether the fire-starting tool is used up when you light a fire or stays in your bags, and how many Simple Wood one Basic Campfire Kit takes.
  • Whether Simple Wood, campfire kits and profession camp objects fit the reagent-bag slot.

Sources

Beta notes are dated because Forever is still changing.