# What Polestar is

> One addon for the whole of WoW: Forever: 222 guides, a waypoint arrow that walks real paths, and the tools around them.

Page: https://polestar.guide/docs/players/what-it-is (Polestar docs > Players)

## What it is

Polestar is one addon for the whole of WoW: Forever. It carries 222 guides:
57 leveling guides that take both factions from 1 to 60 from every race's
starting zone (Zephras Isle for the Skyborne included), 66 class guides for
every class's quest chains, the twelve professions from 1 to 300, 17
reputations, 7 exploration guides, the Legacy challenges and 60 collectible
guides, one per mount and per pet. Around the guides it adds a 3D waypoint
arrow that walks real paths (on Polestar's walking maps, with a router that
started from Shortest Path Forever's by Cillian Berragan) and a travel planner, quest
markers on the map, an upgrade indicator on item tooltips, a search for where
any item, mount or pet comes from, a dungeon quest journal, rare alerts and
the quality-of-life helpers a long leveling session needs. Its interface and
its guides read in English, German, French, Spanish (Spain and Latin
America), Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Korean and Chinese (simplified and
traditional).

The leveling routes are not hand-picked. A simulator models every quest
Forever offers a faction, plays millions of complete 1-60 routes for each
start, and keeps the one that reaches 60 soonest under its model; the guides
are written from that route and scored under the same model
([How the routes are made](https://polestar.guide/docs/players/how-routes-are-made)).

Other people can publish their own guides for Polestar as community
addons: separate addons, made and supported by their authors
([Community guides](https://polestar.guide/docs/players/community-guides)). Each new character's first login opens a short
welcome: a hello and what Polestar does; on the account's first character,
quest automation, the guide at login and the color scheme, then the route
style (Fastest, Balanced or Roads, with a line on what each does); then the
guide Polestar suggests for that character, the Discord and community guides
(`/polestar welcome` shows it again).

> **Note:**
> **Beta.** Every guide compiles, lints and plays to the end in a simulator
> for every race and class it serves, but nothing has been play-tested on
> Forever yet. Forever's new 30-60 content (Riverglades, Shen'dralas, Mount
> Hyjal) is not in any data yet; the routes take it in at launch.

## A look inside

Screenshots from the game: World of Warcraft: Forever (beta client) with
Polestar 0.1.0 at its default settings. Click a picture for full size.

*(Image: The Polestar hub on its Guides section: the section rail (Guides, Lookup, Dungeons, Rares, Options), guide categories with Leveling selected, the Horde leveling guides by level band with The Barrens (19-24) selected, and its details: a painting of the zone, levels, progress in tab 1, steps, quests, zones, the next guide and a Continue button)*

**The hub.** Guides, Lookup, Dungeons and Rares on one rail, Options at its foot. Here the Horde leveling guides by level band, and the selected guide's zone, progress, quests and the guide after it.

*(Image: The guide window on step 5 of 60 of The Barrens: Northwatch Hold, collect the Theramore Medal, kill Captain Fairmount and two cannoneers with a 4/10 counter, then Gilthares Firebough, 3620 XP per hour and 6 h 52 m to level)*

**The guide window.** The step's goals with their counters, who comes next, XP per hour and the time to level.

*(Image: The same guide window in transparent mode: no background, outlined text over the grass of the Barrens)*

**Transparent mode.** Outlined text straight on the world; the controls appear under the cursor.

*(Image: The 3D waypoint arrow over the sea: 34 yd, Collect Theramore Medal)*

**The arrow.** Distance and the goal it leads to.

*(Image: Lookup searching for Swift: 119 results across guides, mounts, items, recipes, quests, NPCs and rares, with the Swift Ram guide selected)*

**Lookup.** One search over guides, mounts, items, recipes, quests, NPCs and rares, each with where it comes from.

*(Image: The Dungeons section: 34 dungeons by level band on painted cards, with their levels, zone, quest count and a Your level mark)*

**Dungeons.** Every dungeon by level, its quests counted for your faction, the ones for your level marked.

*(Image: The Wailing Caverns page: Show on map, Guide me to the entrance and Pick up the quests buttons, and its quests with who starts and ends them and their chains)*

**A dungeon's page.** Who starts and ends each quest and its chain; one button guides you round to pick them all up.

*(Image: Wailing Caverns quests with their objectives and rewards: item choices with icons, experience and money)*

**Objectives and rewards.** The items to choose from with their icons, the experience and the money.

*(Image: The Rares section: a list of rares with their levels, and Aean Swiftriver selected with its drop, where it spawns and how far away, when it was last seen, and Mute alerts, Look up and Set waypoint buttons)*

**Rares.** Every rare and treasure, its drops, where it spawns and how far, and when you last met it.

*(Image: Options on the Appearance page: accent color, class color, color scheme, background color, brightness, background opacity, font set to Game font, and reduce motion)*

**Options.** Every setting as one row, applied as you change it; here Appearance.

Lookup, Dungeons and Rares read the Codex, a data pack that ships in the
release as `Polestar_Codex` ([Lookup, Dungeons and
Rares](https://polestar.guide/docs/players/features#lookup-dungeons-and-rares)). Not pictured yet: the rare alert, the
upgrade marks on the quest reward panel and the quest markers on the world
map. Renders of every window and state, drawn without the game, are in
[docs/preview](https://github.com/fitzforge/polestar/tree/next/docs/preview).

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Next page: [Features](https://polestar.guide/docs/players/features.md) · Every docs page: https://polestar.guide/llms.txt · All docs in one file: https://polestar.guide/llms-full.txt
