Why RestedXP is not banned in WoW Forever (and what Blizzard really says)

« RestedXP banned in WoW Forever, stop the promo! » I get this message regularly, almost always without a source, from players who followed a rumor without checking. It all started on Saturday, October 17, 2026: the Forever Open qualifiers aired live on Twitch and YouTube. It is a $100,000 dueling tournament played on the WoW Forever beta. A leveling add-on with a paid part showed up on screen, and that same evening a player opened a thread on the US forum. That message does not hold up. As of October 24, 2026, Blizzard has neither banned it nor sanctioned it.

The add-on downloads for free, Forever levels 1 to 20 are free, and only the guide is sold separately. This model is what lets RestedXP stay outside Blizzard’s rule 1, as it reads it. Blizzard has never confirmed it, but has never sanctioned it either, in seventeen years of guides sold next to free add-ons, from Zygor to RestedXP. The US thread has 1,011 posts and 5,500 views a week later, with no reply from a Blizzard employee.

I am a RestedXP partner, and that is one more reason to lay out both sides of the case here. Here are the texts, the precedents and the arguments of each camp.

What Blizzard’s rule says, word for word

I start with the text, because many people argue on the forums without having opened it. Blizzard published its add-on development policy (UI Add-On Development Policy) on March 20, 2009. It has applied since May 19, 2009, after a 60-day grace period. It was republished on the forums in November 2018: by a Community Manager on November 14 on the European side, and by Kaivax, also a Community Manager, for the US version.

The preamble sets the tone. Not following these rules « may result in measures up to and including taking formal legal action ». It is written at the very top, before any rule.

Then comes rule 1, the one everyone talks about:

« All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create “premium” versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on. »

In plain terms: the add-on itself must be free, and so must anything you would need to pay for to download it or use it.

Three other rules matter for what follows. Rule 4 forbids using an add-on to advertise goods or services. Rule 5 keeps donation requests on the add-on’s website, never in the game. Rule 8 lets Blizzard disable any feature of an add-on, at its sole discretion.

Note that the text never uses the words « guide » or « data ». The whole debate rests on two expressions: « services related to the add-on » and « access an add-on ». Depending on how you read them, a leveling guide sold separately is either an outside product or a related service. Those who shout « RestedXP banned » pick the second reading; Blizzard has never picked.

The RestedXP model: free add-on, paid route

The RestedXP add-on downloads for free on CurseForge. What is sold is the route: the Forever leveling guides, at about $30 per faction or $45 for both, according to the prices reported by WoWSoD and by guide sites. Forever levels 1 to 20 stay free, so you can install the add-on and play the start of the game without paying anything. I detail what the product contains in our presentation of the RestedXP guide for Forever.

It is not alone in this niche. WoWSoD cites Journey, which works the same way: free add-on, levels 1 to 30 free, paid guide at $25 per faction until December 4, then $30.

Defenders of the model argue that you are not buying the add-on but information, like the paper guides of the past. Zygor has sold its guides for years with no known sanction. As for quest knowledge, it already circulates for free, with Questie or Wowhead.

The other camp replies that beyond the free levels, the add-on without the guide is almost useless, and that it points to the shop. Blizzard’s rule 1 targets exactly the « services related to the add-on » and « access » to it. That is the reading of those who judge the model contrary to the text.

If RestedXP is not banned to this day, it is thanks to this setup: free add-on, free levels 1 to 20, guide sold separately. That is exactly what it relies on to stay outside rule 1 as it reads it. And to my knowledge, this model has never been sanctioned. WoWSoD sums it up this way: « That is tolerance, not permission ».

Seventeen years of tolerance, and a few warning shots

First case: Carbonite, a leveling add-on that sold a full version. When the rule came out, its authors chose the free route, funded by donations. Engadget told the story on March 30, 2009.

In 2010, it was the turn of TourGuide, a free add-on by Tekkub. It went under exclusive license to Zygor, which sells paid guides, and disappeared from download sites.

A year later, in 2011, the column The Lawbringer, published by WoW Insider and written by Mathew McCurley on September 30, asks the question head on. Its author judges that selling the data that feeds an add-on remains a related service, and that this bypasses the spirit of the rule. He also recalls that Blizzard had contacted the creators of Tukui about a paid beta version. He asks the publisher to clarify. No clarification has come since.

In 2020, Mythic Dungeon Tools put dungeon data behind a subscription, which Wowhead relayed on December 30, 2020. I do not know what came next. No reliable source I found documents what Blizzard did. One player mentions a formal notice on a forum, without any proof: I disregard it.

My conclusion fits in a few words. Blizzard acted against premium add-ons, meaning the paid version of the add-on itself. Against the « free add-on, guide sold separately » model, I found no public action in seventeen years. Nothing in this history has made RestedXP banned.

In China, Blizzard ruled on September 24

On September 24, 2026, the WoW operations team in China published on its official site a notice titled « Announcement on the handling of paid add-ons and their non-compliant commercialization ». Sina Tech relayed it, as did 17173, then Icy Veins in the West.

The notice relies on two documents: the add-on policy I detailed above, and the Battle.net license agreement.

The list of targeted practices is precise:

• « advanced » or « VIP » versions, purchase, subscription and pay-per-use, whether for the add-on itself or for services linked to accessing it;
• paid WeakAuras (WeakAuras is an add-on that shows custom alerts on screen, set up with small scripts) and paid sharing of configurations;
• advertising in add-ons and in-game donation requests.

Tips remain tolerated as long as they give access to nothing, which is how 17173 reads it. On sanctions, Blizzard announces the removal of non-compliant add-ons and the disabling of features. It also reserves civil, administrative or criminal proceedings against authors and platforms.

Two nuances matter for what follows. First, even this notice does not make RestedXP banned: it targets no player who uses these add-ons, and names no paid leveling guide. Second, it is the Chinese operator that acts. The worldwide rule has not changed, but it rests on exactly the same text as in Europe.

One player claims on the US forum that China « closed accounts ». I reread the notice: it says nothing of the sort. So I do not repeat that claim.

Forever Open: anger spills onto the forums

On October 9, 2026, a player opened the thread « Paid Add-ons In Forever. Banned, Right? (RestedXP and Others) » on the European forum. He relies on rule 1 of the add-on policy and hopes Blizzard will crack down on any add-on behind a paywall (paid access). The thread has 104 posts and 2,200 views.

Eight days later, on October 17, the dueling tournament lit the fuse. On the US forum, the thread « Paid addon being promoted during the dueling tournament » opens with this sentence: « a leveling addon that has features locked behind a 25-30 dollar paywall is being heavily promoted ». The « RestedXP banned » slogan comes from there. Its author invokes the notice published in China on September 24. The thread now has 1,011 posts.

The heart of the anger is a promise. Forever presents itself as a version where money does not buy progress. For these players, a paid guide that speeds up leveling damages that idea, even when the add-on downloads for free.

Defenders have no shortage of arguments. Guide authors deserve to be paid for their work. Questie stays free for anyone who wants help without pulling out a credit card. A guide saves time, it gives no item and no power. As a longtime player, I understand both camps: Forever’s promise matters, and so does the time saved. If the pace of leveling interests you, our guide on the race to level 60 sets the scene.

As of October 24, 2026, no Blizzard employee has replied in these threads to confirm the idea of a RestedXP banned, and no statement has come out elsewhere.

What French law says

No French law forbids selling a game guide or a quest route. It is information, and copyright does not protect information as such. The real difficulty lies elsewhere, and to understand it you need to tell a law from a contract.

A law applies to everyone, and the State enforces it. A contract is a private agreement: it only binds the people who accepted it, and the other party reacts if it is broken. Blizzard’s add-on policy and its license agreement, revised on March 21, 2024, are contracts between Blizzard and its players, add-on authors included. Breaking them is therefore not a crime. Even if Blizzard one day judged RestedXP banned under its rule, it would be a matter of contract, not law. Possible consequences: a sanction on the account, a request to stop, possibly a civil action by Blizzard against the author. The State does not step in.

In Europe, this contract is concluded with Activision Blizzard UK Limited and designates US law. European law still guarantees French consumers the mandatory protections of their country. The text forbids unauthorized third-party software that modifies the game, but add-ons go through the official interface Blizzard built for them.

Here is what it changes, depending on who you are:

• For the player: I found no documented sanction against RestedXP users, not in Europe, not in the United States, not even in China.
• For the add-on author: the risk is contractual. It concerns compliance with Blizzard’s rules, not a breach of French law.
• For a creator who promotes it: promoting a legal product is permitted. French law no. 2023-451 of 9 June 2023 on commercial influence does require a partnership to be flagged visibly, with the mention « Advertising » or « Commercial partnership ». That is the purpose of the line under the button at the top of this page, and of the box at the bottom: I am a RestedXP partner.

This is not legal advice.

What could get RestedXP banned tomorrow

Rule 8 of Blizzard’s add-on policy lets the studio disable any feature of an add-on, at its sole discretion. No lawsuit needed: a patch is enough. Blizzard has never acted publicly against the « free add-on, guide sold separately » model, but the text is there.

The Chinese precedent shows this text can be enforced overnight: the notice of September 24, 2026 rests on the same policy as the one that applies in Europe.

Here is what I am watching, and what you can watch too:

• an official post from a Community Manager on paid guides;
• an update to the policy that names guides;
• a change of model at RestedXP, Zygor or Journey.

If one of these signals lands, the guides would become free or disappear. Players who bought them would not be at fault: the rule targets those who sell, not those who use. I do not know when this will happen, or whether it will.

As of October 24, 2026, Blizzard has said nothing.