# 0.2.6

> What changed in Polestar 0.2.6, released October 19, 2026.

Page: https://polestar.guide/docs/reference/changelog/0-2-6 (Polestar docs > Reference > Changelog)

## For players

- On a quest's "Complete" line with no place of its own, the arrow no longer
  goes blank: it stays on the spot the step sent you to, or on the quest's
  giver, until the quest is done (#256).
- The arrow no longer jerks left and right at every little bend of a road: it
  looks up to 30 yards ahead along the path and only turns for corners that
  leave a 10 yard corridor, still turning at real corners and never past a
  floor change or a lift (thanks AURUM and Hotline from the Polestar Discord)
- Ashenvale: Alonso's Dragonslayer quests at Mystral Lake no longer hold a
  character he does not offer them to. Both guides lead everyone to him; take
  the quests if he offers them, else carry on (thanks Zerkness and Ioney;
  first fix by c0njure).
- Ashenvale (Alliance): Elemental Bracers counts the five Intact Elemental
  Bracers before the Divined Scroll, so the target button finds the Befouled
  Water Elementals (thanks Tazul, #391).
- Items in your bags that are an upgrade for your spec now carry the same
  green arrow as quest rewards, in the game's bags and in Baganator (Options,
  Questing, Rewards & gear: Upgrade arrows in bags). The tooltip already said
  so; now the bag shows it at a glance (thanks Leducia).
- Guide window: a new "Bar at the bottom" option puts the tabs and the step
  bar at the bottom edge when the window grows upward, next to where it is
  pinned, so they stay in one place as steps get longer. Off by default
  (thanks thmastin, and the player on Discord who asked for it, #386).
- The Barrens: the Savannah Lion Hide arrow stays in the Dry Hills, where the
  Sprung Traps of the same step are, instead of wandering off to the
  Matriarchs by Ratchet (thanks Fitz; fix by thmastin).
- With "Skip grey quests" on (Options), a guide opened on a character who
  already did part of the route catches up: the guide window goes over every
  step already done, faster and faster, while the arrow turns an hourglass
  over, and stops where you are. Green quests behind your progress that you
  have not taken are left out too, unless a later quest needs them. With no
  guide open, or from Start guide, a guide you are past hands over to the
  next one; the first time, the guides go by from your race's first one. A
  guide you open yourself stays open where you are. Item, mount, reputation,
  profession and class guides do every step.
- Chinese and Russian clients now translate missing transport-wait and option
  labels and the Library Books guide title (thanks HershelW).
- A dungeon's pick-up and hand-in guides route to a quest giver standing in
  a capital without walking you out of the city and back in. Argent Guard
  Manados, Mathiel and Varimathras are each recorded both in their city and
  on the zone map around it, and the page named the zone, so the journey
  planned its way out and back for an NPC a few yards away (thanks Visur,
  Rawbowke and Annie, #382, #368, #350).
- Names in Chinese or Korean (yours on the welcome page, other players') show
  in the game's font for that script instead of empty boxes when the game is
  set to another language (thanks Alx)
- After Polestar accepts or turns in a quest, the quest window the game opens
  next at that NPC (the next quest in the chain, or the NPC's other quests)
  closes by itself when the guide skips those quests, so it no longer looks as
  if something went wrong. A window you open yourself, or one with a quest the
  guide wants, stays open; hold Shift to keep it, or turn it off in Options,
  Guide, Automation ("Close offers the guide skips") (thanks AurumTitanos).
- Darkshore: The Blackwood Corrupted fills the Empty Cleansing Bowl at the
  Auberdine Moonwell, then gathers the Blackwood Nut, Fruit and Grain Samples
  at the northern Blackwood camp and uses the bowl by the bonfire to summon
  Xabraxxis, so the Talisman of Corruption can be had; the guide used to send
  you to the Demon Bag with nothing to summon him (#302, thanks XooVe).
- When your ghost starts at a graveyard in another zone, the arrow now leads
  to your corpse in the zone it lies in, instead of routing you through the
  graveyard's zone (thanks Gets, #270).
- Dun Morogh from Coldridge Valley to Brewnall Village follows recorded runs
  on Forever: Sten's, Balir's and the class letter before going into Anvilmar
  once, Bring Back the Mug before Felix, Kharanos done outside first with
  class training last in the distillery, Camping 101: Cooking and its lesson
  on the return with the ribs, when the copper is there for it, Rumbleshot's
  Ammo beside Beldin and looted by Gretchen's camp before the walk back,
  Gretchen first and one trip through the Grizzled Den, Frosthowl from Gretta
  on the dock first, Brewnall's quests before Frostmane Hold so the bears,
  boars and leopards on the way count for Rejold, and the arrow at the mouths
  of the Grizzled Den and Frostmane Hold before the caves.
- Dun Morogh from Brewnall Village to the tram follows a recorded run on
  Forever: The Reports taken from Senir and handed to Senator Barin Redstone
  on the way to the tram, Evershine's and Rime's Wrath's kills counted on the
  way, with Rime's Wrath finished at the small lake west of the refuge,
  Rejold's New Brew dropped as Shimmer Stout closes it, Farsen's and Mehr's
  quests taken on the walk east to the South Gate, a tip for slipping past
  Old Icebeard, and for Paladins the stairs to Tiza and Muiredon and a flight
  back to Ironforge from Thelsamar with Honor Students.
- Dungeons: a chip beside a dungeon's name says how far its quests take you,
  or the level recommended for its quests; hovering it shows the XP, a bar of the
  levels it spans and which quests were counted (thanks Max).
- 18 dungeon quests count the XP Forever gives, not the old Classic amount:
  Wailing Caverns (Deviate Hides 3,100, Trouble at the Docks, Smart Drinks,
  Deviate Eradication and three more), Shadowfang Keep, The Stockade and
  Gnomeregan, each checked against the game after the 1 October change to
  dungeon quest XP (thanks MgM and mcclaskiem, #394).
- Dungeons: "Pick up the quests" no longer sends you to a lead-in quest
  (Klockmort's Essentials, Castpipe's Task and the other breadcrumbs on the
  dungeon pages) once you have turned in the quest it leads to or have it in
  your log, since the giver no longer offers it. The Hillsbrad Foothills guide
  likewise skips An Alarming Request once Heart of Disruption is taken (thanks
  Rawbowke).
- Durotar: at Tiragarde Keep, a player who already took The Admiral's Orders
  is no longer sent to kill Lieutenant Benedict again for his key; the step
  lets go once the quest is in the log (thanks defect).
- Durotar: Encroachment (the Razormane quilboar) is now taken after Tiragarde
  Keep and the Sen'jin and Echo Isles loop and done on the way to Fizzle
  Darkstorm, at about level 11 instead of 7 (thanks tor).
- Durotar: the arrow for the Raider's Bow (For Honor) leads to where the bow
  lies at Tiragarde Keep, not 120 yards south-west of it (thanks Lyngtoft).
- Durotar: Rezlak and Thunder Ridge, Securing the Lines among them, come
  after Sen'jin, the Echo Isles and Kolkar Crag, on the way to Fizzle
  Darkstorm on the same ridge, so a level 11 quest is no longer handed out at
  8 while the south's level 8 quests wait until 11 (thanks tor, #352).
- Guide window: with Match EllesmereUI font on, the step's name, its place and
  the Then: line are no longer blank after logging in; a reload was needed to
  show them (thanks thmastin, #448).
- Elwynn Forest: An Enticing Offer counts the Duskweed Petals and the Vials of
  Animal Blood on their own lines, no longer each other's (thanks Bashidian
  Twotao).
- Escort quests say so in the guide window: under the quest's accept, and then
  under the goal to complete it, a line reads "Escort: if the NPC is not
  there, wait for it to respawn", so an empty spot means someone else is on
  the escort, not a wrong place. It covers the 39 escorts the guides route
  (thanks Gray).
- A flight or hearth you landed stays done when you walk out of the town you
  landed in, or through Rut'theran Village's portal into Darnassus, and across
  a reload, so the arrow no longer sends you back to the flight master while
  the rest of the step is open (thanks AurumTitanos).
- Flight map: the destination the guide flies to is easier to spot. A bobbing
  arrow points at the node with its name above it, and a ring on the node
  sends out a slow ripple, each with a dark rim so the gold reads on the
  parchment. With Reduce motion on, the mark stands still.
- A follow-up is taken from the giver you just handed its quest to, before the
  guide sends you to someone else and back: Skirmish at Echo Ridge, Report to
  Goldshire and The Adventurer from Marshal McBride in Northshire (#310),
  Coldridge Valley Mail Delivery from Sten Stoutarm and Bring Back the Mug
  from Durnan Furcutter in Coldridge Valley, The Red Messenger from Executor
  Arren in Deathknell, At War With The Scarlet Crusade from Executor Zygand in
  Brill, Reagents for Reclaimers Inc. at Nijel's Point and Further Mysteries
  from Prospector Stormpike in Ironforge. Paladins hand Continue Your Training
  to Shari Stilwell when they train in Brill (thanks Zepheriel).
- WoW Forever skin: the guide window's active tab is lit like the selected row
  in the game's Settings, instead of a lone line where the tab's outline ran
  into the window's edge (thanks Smuve and imp)
- WoW Forever skin: guide window bronze border no longer has an inner glow
  over the content; progress bar fill now visible; hover art no longer blanks
  button icons (thanks imp and Fitz's testing)
- The WoW Forever skin is hidden for now while we fix its border and progress
  bar; players who chose it see the default skin until it returns.
- German: the newest strings and the Recorder read in natural German, reviewed
  by a German player, with the German client's names for the Paladin talents
  and the Blackrock dungeons (thanks thecodingcortex).
- Getting a flight path now points the arrow at the flight master: "get the
  flight path" steps that named only their town, such as Ratchet in the Orc
  and Troll Barrens guide, Sentinel Hill, Auberdine or Lakeshire, now lead to
  the flight master of your faction there (thanks defect). One Moonglade step
  in the druids' Bear Form guide, with a flight master per faction, still has
  no arrow.
- Lookup: Nat's Measuring Tape (Zul'Gurub) starts at the Battered Tackle Box,
  not from the tape itself, and Dokimi and Marcy Baker both give A Sealed
  Crate (91901), as they already did the other crate quests.
- Guide menu: a leveling guide's details say how far it takes you from your
  level, counting its quests and an estimate of the kills it asks for; below
  the guide's level the chip shows its recommended level. Hovering the
  chip shows the XP, a bar of the levels it spans and what was counted, in
  your chosen font, skin and colours (thanks Max).
- With Shortest Path Forever guiding, Polestar no longer draws its own line to
  a target on the same continent on the map and minimap, so only one route
  shows (thanks Rawbowke, #398).
- The guide window can hide in dungeons and raids and come back when you leave
  (Options, Guide, Window, In dungeons; off by default). /polestar, the key
  binding or the minimap button still opens it there until you leave (thanks
  InfinityYoel).
- Import strings: hardened against fill blow-up, route-planner blow-up, direct
  turn-in abuse, control characters, bad frames and coordinates; added
  /polestar import clear and /polestar import delete.
- Import strings: a small guide someone shares as one line of text (a quest
  chain, an item, a mount, an errand) now goes in without installing anything.
  Paste it on the new Import page, at the foot of the hub's left rail above
  Options (/polestar import): Polestar shows what the guide is before saving
  it, says why when it refuses a string, offers Update for a newer version and
  keeps your progress, and lists your imported guides with Delete. They appear
  in the guide menu under Community guides, Imported, credited to their
  author, and are never suggested on their own. Strings are read as data only.
  (#261, thanks Yendi)
- New option, Quality of Life > Travel > Hearthstone: "Set your home at the
  guide's inn". When the step sets your home and you talk to the innkeeper it
  names, Polestar picks the bind option and confirms it; never at another inn.
  Off by default; hold Shift to skip it once (thanks CDVolvik)
- A quest that starts from an item no longer holds its step once you have
  taken it: accepting uses the item up, so a player who met Ursangous
  (Ashenvale, Horde) before the guide got there was told to kill him again for
  a paw already used (thanks Bill, #309).
- Hillsbrad Foothills (Alliance) and Azshara (Horde): Greater Friend of the
  Library and The Apothecary's Metaphysical Primer are optional, as the
  librarian offers them only for library books, which the leveling route does
  not collect (thanks b7216309-jpg, #307).
- Lock arrow and buttons (Options, Guide, Window; off by default): a stray
  drag no longer moves the arrow, the quest item, target and Hearthstone
  buttons or the flight and instance timers. Shift-drag still moves them
  (thanks Severd8 and fur).
- Guides played before level 40 no longer tell you to ride somewhere before
  you can have a mount: their tips say head, walk or fly instead (riding a
  boat, zeppelin, tram or lift is unchanged) (thanks Pynte).
- An option under Questing > Buttons, Mark what they target, off by default:
  the target button and the step key put a raid icon on the mob and the NPC
  they target, a skull and a star unless you pick others, and leave an icon
  alone that is already there. Either can be "A new one each press", so the
  last few NPCs keep theirs. Out of combat, a press that finds neither clears
  your target, so nothing else gets the icon. Your party sees the icons; in a raid only the
  leader and assistants can set them (thanks Turesh and Petllama).
- New Miscellaneous category in the guide menu, for side chains that fit
  nowhere else. Its first guide is the Cozy Sleeping Bag: the six hidden notes
  from Westfall or the Barrens through Stonetalon, Loch Modan and Thoradin's
  Wall, with the 12-slot Old Toolbox on the way (level 14 and up, both
  factions).
- Miscellaneous: a Library Books guide. It visits every lost book your faction
  can find (27 for the Alliance, 25 for the Horde), from Elwynn and Westfall
  to Tanaris and the Blasted Lands, then hands them in one by one to Garion
  Wendell in Stormwind or Owen Thadd in the Undercity, with the Friend of the
  Library rewards when they are offered. The Mo'grosh ogres guarding Runes of
  the Sorcerer-Kings are marked as elite (thanks b7216309-jpg, #307).
- Nameplate icons show your progress beside the quest icon: "3/10" over a
  Kobold Vermin you still have to kill, "3/10 · 1/8" when the mob counts for
  two quests (killed for one, dropping an item for the other). The count
  moves as you kill or loot, a finished objective drops out, and the icon
  and its count go once the mob is no longer needed. A one-kill or one-item
  objective keeps the icon alone. It comes with the Nameplate icons option
  (Questing → Quests, off by default).
- Walking routes now go into Brill's town hall through its side door to
  Magistrate Sevren, instead of stopping outside the wall, and a walk from
  inside the hall no longer leads you out first (thanks Onrevax).
- The guide window's header has a Nearby services button, between Skip and
  the menu: it lists the vendor, repair, innkeeper, flight master, class
  trainer, a trainer for each of your professions, a weapon master (pick
  the weapon to learn: the ones your class can use, those you already have
  and polearms before level 20 said and off), reagents, bank, auction
  house and stable master, and a click points the arrow at the nearest one,
  as `/polestar near` does. Once you get there, the arrow is back on the
  guide's step; on the way, a banner in the guide window and the top of the
  button's list offer Back to the guide. Off in combat; Options, Guide,
  Arrow & routes hides it.
- About 80 kill and collect steps that did not say how many you need now do
  ("Collect 10 ..."), and their farming time counts that many.
- A kill or collect goal counts and ticks the objective it names, even when
  the game lists the quest's objectives in another order than the guide: in
  Slimy Menace, killing Murlocs no longer counts up the Murloc Streamrunner
  line, and An Enticing Offer's Duskweed Petals no longer show the Vials of
  Animal Blood's count (#223, #279, #335, #410, thanks Syfin, Bashidian Twotao,
  poundofhash and zeike). Party members' counts follow too.
- On OpenMap's seamless world map, the trail dots carry on across zone borders
  and show on the whole-world view, and OpenMap's menu has a Polestar trail
  dots switch.
- Options > Questing > Buttons has a Target name position setting: the target
  button's name can sit to the right of the button (as before), to the left,
  above or below (thanks @inversedad, #330).
- The Wailing Caverns pick-up page sends you to Nalpak for Deviate Hides
  instead of a mailbox in Orgrimmar, and Poor Old Blanchy no longer lists a
  Stormwind mailbox as a giver. 124 quests now start and end where Forever's
  quest data says, without the extra or wrong givers our data had (thanks MgM,
  and mcclaskiem for spotting the community quest database shows the same mailbox).
- The target button and the step key work on a step where an NPC hands you the
  item: the three Patience reports in Tirisfal Glades target Deathguard
  Dillinger, Deathguard Kristof and Gordo, and the Warsong updates in
  Ashenvale the scout, runner and outrider who give them (thanks Onrevax;
  fix by XrayAlpha, #337).
- Portuguese (Brazil): the Spirit Healer, your corpse, Release Spirit,
  summons, raid lockouts, World drop and Shift-click read as the Brazilian
  client writes them (Anjo da Cura, cadáver, Libertar, evocação, vínculos,
  Espólio do Mundo, Shift+clique).
- Portuguese (Brazil): a setting that is on or off reads ativado or
  desativado, as in the client's own options, in Polestar and the Recorder.
- Alchemy, Enchanting, Engineering, Leatherworking and Tailoring: a recipe a
  vendor sells in limited stock no longer sends you to the Auction House when
  it binds when picked up on Forever, as Recipe: Holy Protection Potion does
  (thanks Conjure).
- Quest objective markers: mobs to kill or loot now show the game's skull
  icon; items picked up from objects or the ground show the gear icon.
  Nameplate quest icons also use the skull and no longer show a duplicate
  progress count beside the icon (thanks Fitz).
- The community quest database captions: a planned turn-in caption that the community quest database's tracker skipped
  because it had just redrawn is drawn again a moment later, once, and still
  waits for the end of combat (thanks AurumTitanos)
- A Rare button comes up under the Target button when Polestar spots a rare
  nearby, and targets it by name (several rares: each click moves to the
  next). It goes when the rare dies or is out of sight. Options > Questing >
  Buttons > Rare button turns it off, and it is bindable under Key Bindings >
  AddOns (thanks Tazul, #333).
- Redridge Mountains: the Battleworn Axes are collected in the Blackrock
  camps at the south end of Galardell Valley, east of Stonewatch Keep, about
  forty orcs with no elites among them, instead of the handful east of
  Alther's Mill (thanks Tazul | Robin).
- Redridge Mountains: the arrow for the Battleworn Axes (Blackrock Menace)
  leads to the Blackrock orcs on the east side of Alther's Mill, not into the
  tarantulas 70 yards west of them (thanks Tazul). The same slip is fixed for
  the Spool of Light Chartreuse Silk Thread in Stormwind (Duskwood guide) and
  Broodmother Valraxx's Bloody Parchment at Gloomrise (Horde Ashenvale guide).
- Redridge Mountains: Iron Pike and Iron Rivet lead to the Redridge Brutes and
  the other gnolls in the northern hills that drop them, not to the Mongrels'
  camp where the rare Ribchaser stands, and the Dire Condor and Great Goretusk
  goals after them follow from there (thanks Avtom).
- Redridge Mountains: Making Do is optional at the Stormwind stop. Baros
  Alexston offers it only to players who brought him Expanding Horizons from
  Darkshore, so nobody else is held there or at its Auberdine turn-in
  (thanks Nittepitte).
- The report window shows how to report in the Polestar Discord: "Copy
  report", then post it in #bugs, where a bot files it for the developers
  and tells you in your thread when it's fixed. "Get the invite" is there if
  you're not in the Discord yet. The report now lists your other addons too,
  and waits until you say what went wrong.
  Have a GitHub account? "Open on GitHub" gives a link that opens a new
  issue with your report, its title, your Polestar version and your other
  addons already filled in.
- "Mark the right spot" in the report window: walk to where the step should
  have sent you and press Mark here, and the spot goes in your report, at
  the top where it is seen first, and in the GitHub issue's "The right spot"
  field. Your report is kept while you walk, and "Clear mark" takes the
  spot back out.
- Death helper: resurrection sickness is the ten minutes Forever gives from
  level 11, or the length the game last gave you at your level, so it no
  longer sends you to the Spirit Healer when running back is quicker (thanks
  Gee)
- On a Russian client the separators between fields no longer show as empty
  boxes: Polestar uses Fira Sans there instead of the game font, which has no
  middle dot. If you pick "the game's" font in Options, you still get it.
  Thanks to XooVe (#296).
- Spanish (Spain): Skip, Reload UI, Hardcore and Companion read as the Spanish
  client writes them (Saltar, Reiniciar IU, Hardcore, Mascota).
- Spanish (Spain): guide tips that tell you to skip a step say Sáltate, the
  same verb as the Skip button.
- Route lines can sparkle: the gear beside Route lines (Options, Guide, Arrow
  & routes) picks dots or loot-gold sparkles that drift toward the goal on the
  minimap and world map, OpenMap's too, with intensity, density, subtlety,
  size, flow, colour and presets.
- With Shortest Path Forever installed and TomTom not, the arrow and pins no
  longer flicker and the game no longer slows down: Polestar stopped putting
  its waypoint into Shortest Path Forever's TomTom stand-in, which started a
  journey Polestar then stepped aside for, over and over (#306, thanks imp).
- Stonetalon Mountains & Ashenvale (Horde): the Kadrak step waits until a
  Warsong Report is in your bags, so you open the Bundle of Reports before
  setting off: the Warsong Scout, Runner and Outrider each give their update
  for one (thanks Hotline, and PRDesrochers for the idea).
- Talent plans keep only your own class's plans once loaded, so the other
  classes' plans take up no memory while you play (thanks jnickles85-bit).
- Talent plans for Druids: Balance, Feral Combat and Restoration, from level
  10 to 60, following ForeverDB's leveling builds to level 30 and checked
  against Forever's tree (thanks jnickles85-bit).
- Talent plans for Hunters: Beast Mastery, Marksmanship and Survival, from
  level 10 to 60. Beast Mastery and Marksmanship follow ForeverDB's builds to
  level 20; after that, and for Survival throughout, they are written for
  Polestar on Forever's tree, built around its new talents (Careful Aim,
  Sniper Shot, Lacerating Strikes) and checked against it. Every class now has
  talent plans (thanks jnickles85-bit).
- Talent plans for Mages: Arcane, Fire and Frost, from level 10 to 60.
  ForeverDB has no Mage builds yet, so these are written for Polestar on
  Forever's tree, built around its changed talents and checked against it
  (thanks jnickles85-bit).
- Talent plans for Priests: Discipline, Holy and Shadow, from level 10 to 60.
  ForeverDB has no Priest builds yet, so these are written for Polestar on
  Forever's tree, built around its new talents (Penance, Mind Flay's upgrade,
  Prayer of Mending) and checked against it (thanks jnickles85-bit).
- Talent plans for Rogues: Assassination, Combat and Subtlety, each an ordered
  list of picks from level 10 to 60 with short notes, the same marks on the
  talent frame as the Paladin plans, and nothing spent for you. Picks are
  adapted from ForeverDB's leveling builds to level 30 and checked against
  Forever's own talent trees (thanks jnickles85-bit).
- Talent plans for Shamans: Elemental, Enhancement and Restoration, from level
  10 to 60. ForeverDB has no Shaman builds yet, so these are written for
  Polestar on Forever's tree, built around its new talents (Mental Dexterity,
  Maelstrom Weapon, Lava Burst) and checked against it (thanks
  jnickles85-bit).
- Talent plans for Warlocks: Affliction, Demonology and Destruction, from
  level 10 to 60, following ForeverDB's leveling builds to level 30 and
  checked against Forever's tree (thanks jnickles85-bit).
- Talent plans for Warriors: Arms, Fury and Protection, each an ordered list
  of picks from level 10 to 60 with short notes, the same marks on the talent
  frame as the Paladin plans, and nothing spent for you. Picks are adapted
  from ForeverDB's leveling builds to level 30 and checked against Forever's
  own talent trees (thanks jnickles85-bit).
- The target button and the step key pass over corpses: a dead mob nearer
  than a living one no longer stays selected, and the next name is tried
  instead. Out of combat a press starts from nothing, so whatever you had
  selected -- a quest giver, a mob you clicked -- no longer stops it; in a
  fight your target is left alone, so your swings are not cut
  (thanks AurumTitanos, #355).
- The target button names the creatures the arrow leads to for a `collect`
  goal, rather than the item's best droppers anywhere in the world:
  collecting Small Spider Leg in Teldrassil offered Mother Fang, two Loch
  Modan lurkers and two Silverpine spiders, and never the Webwood Lurkers
  the guide sends you to (thanks AurumTitanos, #356).
- Teldrassil: the arrow now leads to the real mouths of Fel Rock and the
  Shadowthread Cave, not into the hillside beside them (thanks Pynte).
- Teldrassil: Escaping Ban'ethil is taken once the relics and The Sleeping
  Druid's chain are done, so Lynessa no longer sets off before the rest of
  Ban'ethil Barrow Den (thanks Pynte, #334).
- Teldrassil: Flight to Auberdine now takes Vesprystus' free flight to
  Auberdine instead of the boat, learns the Auberdine flight path on landing,
  and adds Return to Nessa (1050 XP) on a short flight back to Rut'theran
  (Druids hand it in on their Bear Form trip) (thanks Pynte).
- Fixed a lift detour when walking to the nearby Thunder Bluff flight master
  (thanks risco).
- Timberling Seeds leads to the Timberlings round Denalan, not the Elder
  Timberlings across Teldrassil: a collect no longer follows mobs 3 or more
  levels above its quest that drop the item more often when mobs near the
  quest's level drop it too. The same moves Bloodpetal Poison's Gorishi Stings
  off the Hive Queen onto the Gorishi round the hive, adds the rest of
  Hillsbrad's townsfolk to Souvenirs of Death, and keeps three Green Hills
  pages at the Venture Co. camp you are already in instead of sending you
  after Lord Sakrasis and Garr Salthoof. Pirate Hats Ahoy! counts every
  Southsea pirate instead of the Southsea Kidnapper, who does not drop the
  hats (thanks Pynte, #327; diagnosis and tests by XrayAlpha).
- The Argent Emissary now points to Deathguard Terrence's correct location
  (thanks Pledge-Resupply).
- Tirisfal Glades: every class takes its class letter from Sarvis together
  with Rattling the Rattlecages, so Warlocks no longer miss Tainted Scroll and
  Piercing the Veil. A Warlock's Rattlecage Skulls now show in the Rattlecage
  step. A Light in the Darkness is taken from Aramis once The Damned is handed
  in, and no longer holds the guide at him before then (thanks an3vilmonk3y
  and Onrevax).
- Tirisfal Glades: back in Brill for The Chill of Death, the guide sends you
  to Abigail Shiel for the Coarse Thread first if you have none, instead of
  straight to Gretchen Dedmar (thanks Onrevax).
- Tirisfal Glades: Paladins take As Above, So Below and The One That Got
  Away after handing A Righteous Cause to Leonid, when they are level 10 and
  Hilda and Ephram offer them, instead of on an earlier visit where they
  don't (thanks MadReign_Ltd).
- Tirisfal Glades (Paladins): Rediscovering the Light now has a step to heal
  five Injured Deathguard around the church with Holy Light, instead of going
  straight to the turn-in (thanks Hotline, #408).
- Tirisfal Glades: That Shadowvale Green Elixir, and the Paladins' bones and
  crystal, lead to the way down into the basement under Shadowvale's ruined
  house first, and the tips say the bottles, Lurchers and Mystics are down
  there, not on the ground above (thanks Onrevax).
- Showing item source tooltips no longer causes a hitch (#346, #354, thanks
  Stout and poundofhash).
- Translations: German, Latin American Spanish, Spanish, French, Korean,
  Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese
  now have the Along the way label, the hearthstone bind and quest-window
  close options, talent plan descriptions for all classes, and the updated
  Elwynn Forest and Westfall guide tips. AI-generated; a review by native
  speakers is welcome.
- Boats, zeppelins, the tram and lifts nobody has timed yet show their average
  wait ("Boat: average wait 2:14", "average wait 2:14 · ride 1:08" in the
  journey) instead of a "Next boat in about 2:14" that looked like a countdown
  stuck in place; "Next boat in" and "leaves in" now only count down a
  departure Polestar has timed (#364, thanks AurumTitanos)
- "Up next" on a finished guide names where Polestar would go on: the route
  you chose or the only one that fits you, instead of always the guide's first
  option.
- Walks between Duskwood and Westfall or Elwynn Forest no longer go round by a
  far road crossing: from Sven's camp the route swims the river to Sentinel
  Hill instead of using your Hearthstone, and walks from Eastvale to Darkshire
  cross straight into Duskwood instead of going round through Redridge
  Mountains (#371, #421, thanks Ioney).
- The walk to the Deeprun Tram ends at the tram's entrance instead of on the
  roof above it, and the walks to the zeppelin towers at Orgrimmar and
  Grom'gol end on top of the tower instead of at its foot (thanks Tazul).
- Walks inside the Undercity reach the Royal Quarter (Varimathras, Sylvanas,
  Sharlindra) through the city instead of climbing out to the ruins and ending
  in a straight line (thanks Annie).
- Horde Warlock incubus: Hearts of the Lovers tracks Avelina's Heart and
  Isaac's Heart on their own lines, so the guide no longer skips the Ratchet
  step once you have the Silverpine heart (thanks Phyz).
- Westfall: the Gnoll Paws arrow now leads to the level 11-13 gnolls in the
  northern hills instead of searching every gnoll camp down to the level
  16-19 ones in the south. Quest drops elsewhere that also come from
  higher-level mobs now point at the low ones the step means: Westfall's
  north coast murlocs, Darkshore's crawlers and threshers below Auberdine,
  the Barrens' plainstriders by the Crossroads, Silverpine's worgs and
  murlocs by the Yoricks' house, and Hillsbrad's bears and lions west of
  Tarren Mill (thanks Bashidian Twotao).
- Westfall: the Molsen Farm step no longer waits for a Precessive
  Autocognition Assembly. It drops about once in 900 kills, so Harvesting the
  Harvesters is optional: take it if one drops, and hand it in to Ozwin at
  Saldean's Farm (thanks Smuve).
- Westfall: you now take the Furlbrows' and Saldeans' quests and Report to
  Gryan Stoutmantle on the walk in from Elwynn, then reach Sentinel Hill with
  them, instead of going to the hill first and back north. Elwynn ends at
  Deputy Rainer on the Westfall road (thanks Pynte).
- The game's XP bar now marks the level the guide wants you to reach before it
  moves on: a small tick at the end of the bar with "Guide: 12", or "Guide: 14
  (4 levels)" when it is further away (Options, Quality of Life, Trackers:
  Guide level on the XP bar) (thanks CDVolvik).
- The XP tracker tooltip no longer shows a quests-to-level count: the figure
  divided remaining XP by the average of the last ten quests this session, so
  one or two quests in it was rarely meaningful (thanks MgM).
- Zephras Isle (Horde): The Broken Construct now sends you for the Enchanted
  Gyrozephyr, south-west of Windsong Lake, before you hand it in to Riaani
  (thanks 𝔄𝔫𝔫𝔦𝔢).
- Zephras Isle: at the start you climb the watchtower first for The Anchors of
  Zephras and Falling With Style, then glide down with Walk on Air and hand
  Harmony in Balance and Falling With Style to Rorian on one visit (thanks
  Alx-Ryan).
- Zephras Isle (Alliance): The Wounds of Betrayal now has an arrow into the
  Nightfang Den, to the injured druids and Jorel Windsinger, and Standing Our
  Ground points at Aamelia and Ferauu the Bludgeon (thanks Phear).
- On Zephras Isle, "Train" steps and the class training reminder send you to
  the nearest trainer of your class, in Shen'dar or Valanaar too, not always
  back to the starting village: the isle's other trainers, and its other
  vendors and innkeepers for "nearest" steps, were left out (#299, #281, #367,
  thanks MrBackus, Phear and Feverish). On the isle, the Galestrider mount
  guides and the other maps Forever added, the shaded spawn areas and quest
  markers now cover the whole camp: they were measured as if the map were half
  its size, so they were drawn too small and far-apart camps ran together.

## For guide authors

- `category Miscellaneous` is a documented guide category.
- `collect <item> npc <id>` names the NPC who hands an item over, for an item
  nothing drops and no data links to anyone, so the target button has someone
  to target (docs/GUIDE_FORMAT.md, `collect`; thanks XrayAlpha, #337).
- On the maps Forever added (Zephras Isle, Riverglades, Mount Hyjal,
  Shen'dralas), route drafts measure distances in the map's own yards instead
  of a 1000-yard square, and `collect <item> xN nearest` finds farm spots on
  Riverglades, Mount Hyjal and Shen'dralas as contested zones, clustered in
  their own yards (#422).
- Guides: a `loop` line in a step makes its `goto` points the places to
  search, in order, for the step's kill, collect and interact goals, instead
  of a path to walk (docs/GUIDE_FORMAT.md, "Spawn areas"). (thanks petllama,
  #455; after #46)
- polestar export <file.guide> prints one guide of your pack as an import
  string, after linting it: one guide of at most 60 steps, with your pack's
  license; the guide's version decides Import or Update in game. The
  playground's Copy import string gives the same. docs/GUIDE_PACKS.md, "Import
  strings", and docs/PACK_FORMAT.md describe it; LICENSE-EXCEPTION.md now
  covers strings too. (#261, thanks Yendi)
- A `level` goal can stop inside a level: `level 12.5` is halfway through
  level 12 and `level 12+2500` is 2500 XP into it (to whole percent). The
  guide window reads "Reach level 12 (50%)" and the goal is done once the XP
  bar gets there. `when level` takes the same form (`when level<12.5`). A pack
  using either needs Polestar 0.2.6 (pack format 4) (thanks petllama, #455;
  after #45).
- Lint warns on a turn-in whose quest needs an item (a drop, an object, a
  vendor buy) that no earlier goal gets, and on a `complete` with no place of
  its own on a quest whose objectives have places, where the arrow has nowhere
  to point (#424).
- A guide can hand over depending on the character: `next <id> when
<predicate>` offers that guide only while the predicate (any of a step's
`when` predicates) holds when the guide ends, and `next` lines now add up.
An option whose condition fails is left out of "Choose your path", the guide
menu's "Next" line and `/polestar path`; with one option left Polestar goes
on to it without asking, with none the guide ends there. A pack using it is
written in pack format 4 (GUIDE_FORMAT.md, "Conditional hand-offs") (thanks
petllama, #455; after #44).
- A step can be done along the way: `along` lets the route go straight on, and
its goals ("kill 8 boars", "collect 5 candles") stay listed under the
current step, "Along the way" in the guide window, until they are done, or
with `along until <label>` until the route reaches the step carrying `label
`. Clicking one points the arrow at it. A pack using `along` or
`label` is written in pack format 4, which needs Polestar 0.2.6
(GUIDE_FORMAT.md, "Along the way"; thanks petllama, #455, after #42).
- A step can show a picture under its tip with the new `image <path>
[<w>x<h>]` line, for a spot that is hard to find such as a cave mouth: a
.tga or .blp file in the pack folder, copied into the addon by `compile`
(thanks CDVolvik).
- A step can depend on the character's state when the route reaches it: `when
level<6`, `when onquest 788`, `when !has 159 x5`, `when zone "Durotar"` and
more (GUIDE_FORMAT.md, "Conditions checked during play"). Once the route has
passed the step the outcome stays; a step passed because its condition
failed counts as skipped, so the player can unskip it. A `when onquest`
step can hand in a quest picked up elsewhere. A pack using `when` is written
in pack format 4, which needs Polestar 0.2.6 (thanks jfuglas, #376; the
login and hand-in guards after petllama's #47).

## For contributors

- The pull request template now asks AI-assisted contributors to name the
  exact model and version and the tool they used; the review rubric notes
  that work from smaller or unnamed models is re-verified before merge.
- Closing a Discord report as a duplicate now tells the reporter where the
  earlier issue stands (fixed, released, not planned, or still open, with any
  fix in progress) and quotes the maintainer's explanation, also when it was
  closed as not planned with a "Duplicate of #M" comment. When a release ships
  the earlier issue's fix, the duplicate's thread hears it too, once. The
  triage skill closes duplicates with gh issue close --duplicate-of and labels
  not-planned closes with their resolution.
- The Discord bug bot reads Chinese reports: their full-width colons and
  brackets no longer lose the guide, step, client build and place from the
  issue, or leave the bold lead-in in the title.
- The bug bot copies every player's message in a tracked #bugs thread to its
  issue, not only the reporter's: another player's confirmation, fix or
  screenshot is context for whoever triages it. The reporter's comments say
  "(the reporter)", and the bot's "Tracked as" reply says that replies in the
  thread go to the issue.
- English-on-screen checks recognize exact author-credit names while
  continuing to check their label and surrounding prose, recognize the
  Baganator product name, and retire a stale Chinese NPC baseline entry
  (thanks HershelW).
- CI no longer cancels a run on next, main or a hotfix branch when another
  merge lands, so every merge commit gets a test result; a pull request's
  newer push still replaces its older run.
- Small changes are small: edit the source, run its tests, open a PR; the
  maintainers regenerate compiled files.
- `data build` no longer hangs when a quest XP site stops answering: each
  lookup gives up after 30 seconds and is listed as a warning, and the next
  build retries it.
- The guide pack's memory test loads the pack by its TOC, like the other pack
  tests, so a file added to the pack is measured; chainNeeds names a goal's
  pre and preAll instead of walking a table literal per accept of every guide
  down the chain.
- Contributing is lighter: run the tests for what you changed; CI runs the
  rest.
- On Windows, whole numbers above 2^31 (step hashes, for one) come through
  intact from Lua 5.1 in the tools, the test client and the playtest driver:
  Lua 5.1 there formats `%d` through a 32-bit long. A pack update test and the
  Ashenvale walk test failed on Windows because of it, and a playtest after a
  guide recompile could lose its check-offs.
- `data build` works with LuaJIT, the Lua the setup steps suggest on Windows
  and macOS: LuaJIT allows one function 65536 constants, fewer than the Era quest database's
  `db/units.lua` holds, and the loader now splits such a file so it loads.
  When a file still cannot load, the error says to set `LUA` to a Lua 5.1
  interpreter, as it does for a file the split would cut inside a long
  string (thanks b7216309-jpg for that guard).
- Buying for buy goals reads the merchant's goods through
  `C_MerchantFrame.GetItemInfo` where the client has it, with
  `GetMerchantItemInfo` as the fallback. Forever has both today, but the old
  call is missing from the client's API lists and was the one client call
  Polestar made without a check (thanks RamosJoaquim, who found it while
  testing Polestar on another client, #153).
- Every pull request now goes to next, guide fixes included. A fix players
  need in the coming patch gets the backport label after it merges, and its
  patch pull request opens on its own; the Base branch check turns away other
  pull requests into a hotfix branch.
- `data build` fills the quest objective counts the community quest database and the Era quest database lack
  from the server database quest_template (cached as quest_counts.json beside
  the dump), so about 1,100 more quests have every count known.
- Performance checks account for the Lua clock's measured resolution, capped at one millisecond, and use a longer calibration sample so whole-millisecond Windows clocks do not falsely reject sub-millisecond frames.
- Every issue now shows which pull requests are fixing it: one comment, kept
  up to date, and the label has-pr (fix-merged once a fix is merged and waits
  for its release). A pull request whose issue already has another open one
  gets the label overlap and a comment naming it. A Discord reporter is told
  in their thread when the first fix for their report opens, and is asked the
  maintainer's question there when the issue is labelled needs-info.
  CONTRIBUTING.md has a new section, "Before you start", and the agent skills
  check for open pull requests before starting a fix.
- The quest-giver sweep from Forever's quest data keeps the NPCs that data
  leaves out on shared or multi-trainer quests: Veyric Thunderhame ends Storm,
  Earth, and Fire next to Rau Cliffrunner, Lago Blackwrench gives Seeking
  Strahad and Torm Ragetotem gives A Troubled Spirit.
- The simulator scores a guide at the quest giver and turn-in it names when a
  quest has several (`sim compare`, `sim bench`): the world kept only the
  first one the data lists, so Horde guides were charged a walk to the
  Steamwheedle Port poster for the two Tanaris wanted quests they take in
  Gadgetzan, and class guides a trip to another city's trainer. About 0.1 h
  to 60 for most starts, up to 0.9 h for Horde Warriors; the route search is
  unchanged.
- Simulator: `--param key=value` (repeatable) sets any model parameter for sim
  run/robust/compare/consensus after the objective's preset, and `--tag
<name>` gives such a variant its own result files
(horde-orc-any-smooth-g6.json).
- Simulator: `sim run/robust/compare/consensus --objective smooth` searches
for smoother routes (fewer zone switches, returns into zones left earlier
and returns to spots already worked; results in their own `-smooth` files)
while reported times stay real; kills now count for every active quest on
the same mob camp, the quest log holds 40 as in Forever's client across
the whole route (a full log waits for a turn-in or gives up a quest 6+
levels below the character), and results report zone changes, zone and
spot returns, shared kills, the quest log peak and the quests accepted but
never turned in.
- `sim walks` routes the simulator's walks with the walking router the arrow
uses, into `data/sim/walks-<faction>.json` (about 10 minutes per faction),
and `sim run`, `robust`, `compare`, `bench` and `consensus` then walk round
cliffs, mountains and water instead of the straight line × detour, which
priced Silithus to Feralas at 1,785 yd for a 13,807 yd walk. Guides score
0.4-1.0 h slower to 60, and the search finds routes 0.9-2.8 h faster on
real walking (Orc, Human; give it `--paths 3000000`). Without the file, or
with `--no-walks`, nothing changes.
- Talent plans are now checked against Forever's client build 1.60.1.70450
(was 1.60.1.70374). Forever changed the Mage, Priest, Shaman and Warlock
trees in that build; plans for those classes need to be checked against it.
- Addon tests can load temporary fixture files on another Windows drive
(thanks HershelW).

---

Next page: [0.2.5](https://polestar.guide/docs/reference/changelog/0-2-5.md) · Every docs page: https://polestar.guide/llms.txt · All docs in one file: https://polestar.guide/llms-full.txt