World of Warcraft: Forever gives every account a Legacy System, and Blizzard says every perk in it can be unlocked on a single character. Blizzard's post of 23 September says each character can spend up to 16 Legacy Points at launch. It also says one character can earn up to 29.

A few names first. WoW, the usual short name for World of Warcraft, is how we'll write it, and Forever is a new version of it. Legacy Points are the system's account-wide points: earn one on any character and all your characters can use it, except in Hardcore (a mode where death carries lasting consequences, covered below). An alt is a second character on the same account.

How do you earn Legacy Points?

You finish Legacy Challenges, which work like achievements tied to how a character grows. Each one is worth one point, and there are 65 in six groups. Your first point switches the system on. For most players that's reaching level 25. Taking a primary crafting profession to 150, or exploring the whole world map, also does it. Then open it from the shield icon on the menu, or press Y, the default key.

Group	Points	What earns them
Classes (the character types you pick from)	27	Reach level 25, 45 and 60 with each class
Tradeskills	18	Take each primary crafting profession to 150, 225 and 300 skill
PvP (player versus player)	12	Five PvP ranks (5), Exalted with each Battleground reputation (4), and three Field of Honor season quests (3)
Adventure	2	Explore the whole world map on one character, and finish the Lord Valthalak dungeon set questline
Dungeons	3	Beat the last boss of every dungeon in three level bands: 15 to 25, 26 to 45 and 46 to 60
Raids	3	Beat Onyxia, all 13 bosses of Hyjal Summit, and all 8 of the Barrow Deeps

Some of those need a gloss. A tradeskill is a trade skill, professions included, and only primary professions, the main trades a character learns, count here if they aren't gathering ones. PvP means player versus player, where players fight each other rather than the game. A Battleground, a team match where players fight each other, has its own reputation to build, and Exalted is one of the game's reputation levels. The five PvP ranks, levels of standing in player versus player, are ranks 3, 7, 10, 13 and 14. The three season quests are the ones for weeks 4, 7 and 10 of the Field of Honor PvP season's quest track.

A dungeon is a short adventure for a small group. Onyxia is a boss in a raid (a dungeon built for a large group), and Hyjal Summit and the Barrow Deeps are raids.

Can one character reach the 16-point cap?

Yes, but how you play decides how. Each character can spend at most 16 points at launch, however many your account holds. Blizzard gives two reasons. New players won't be too far behind to catch up, and 16 is reachable on one character, so alts aren't required.

Blizzard's own tally for one character is 3 from levelling, up to 6 from tradeskills, 12 from PvP, 2 from Adventure and 6 from dungeons and raids. That makes 29. Our reading is that the 6 means two primary crafting professions taken to 300, since each is worth 3.

Our maths, from that tally, for a one-character player:

How you play	Points	Reaches 16?
Level to 60, two crafting professions to 300, both Adventure challenges, all three dungeon bands	14	No, 2 short
The same, plus 2 of the 3 raid challenges	16	Yes, exactly
The same, plus all 3 raid challenges	17	Yes, 1 spare
Level to 60 and all 12 PvP challenges	15	No, 1 short. Add any one more
Level to 60, one crafting and one gathering profession, all dungeons, raids and Adventure	14	No, 2 short. Only PvP is left to fill it

Our maths also says this: skip PvP and the most one character can collect is 17, so you can miss only one point. Miss a raid and every other challenge becomes a must. If you love PvP, it covers most of the cap by itself. If our two-profession reading holds, we'd make both professions crafting ones, because a gathering one earns nothing here.

What can you spend Legacy Points on?

Perks, sorted into three trees, the branching menus you spend points in. The points belong to your account, and each character spends up to 16 of them on its own perks, independently of your other characters. Blizzard's post doesn't list what each perk costs. Wowhead, the big community database, has a guide and a Legacy calculator for planning a build.

Tree	Perk	What it does
Professions	Working Overtime	Better odds of a skill point in every tradeskill, including skills only some classes have, like Lockpicking
Professions	Bountiful Harvest	Helps you find extra Scarce resources while mining, gathering herbs or skinning
Professions	Bartering	Vendor items cost less gold
Professions	Performance bonus	Sometimes more Merchant's Favor from the two new trade factions
Professions	Master Chef	A chance for cooking recipes to make extra
Professions	Luremaster	A chance to catch extra fish
Professions	Dedicated Study	A daily boost to level tradeskills faster, or free Elemental Essences once all are at 300
Adventure	Well Rested	A higher cap on rested experience, and it builds faster
Adventure	Thrill of Adventure	A little health and mana back after each kill that isn't trivial
Adventure	High Alert	Better stealth detection outside Battlegrounds
Adventure	Field Guide	Cuts the one-hour wait between placing camping features
Adventure	Field Medicine	Shortens Recently Bandaged, the wait between bandages, except in dungeons, raids and Battlegrounds
Adventure	Talented	Unlock talent points up to 5 levels lower than normal
Adventure	Frequent Flier	Cheaper, faster flights
Resourcefulness	Gourmand	Food buffs last longer
Resourcefulness	The Quick and the Dead	Dead players run back to their body faster, and group buffs cost nothing after you're revived
Resourcefulness	Reinforce	Less durability damage to your gear when you die
Resourcefulness	For Great Honor	More Honor from PvP
Resourcefulness	Permanence	Party, raid and camping buffs last longer
Resourcefulness	Diplomat	More reputation gained
Resourcefulness	Reagent Economy	Class abilities stop needing purchasable reagents, and tier 1 camping features need no materials to craft

A few terms from that table. Merchant's Favor comes from the Azeroth Commerce Authority and Durotar Supply and Logistics (Azeroth is the world the game is set in). Blizzard calls them two new Alliance and Horde factions, groups you build standing with. The Alliance and the Horde are the game's two sides. A buff is a temporary boost, and rested experience is bonus experience a character builds up while resting. Honor is what PvP pays out. Reagents are items some class abilities use up.

Talents are upgrades a character buys with talent points as it levels. Our talent calculator doesn't include the Talented perk. With it, our reading is that a build can come up to 5 levels sooner than the level the calculator shows.

What are Legacy Rewards?

Account unlocks. Legacy Points build up across your whole account, and the total unlocks toys and cosmetic items. There are four at launch, and Blizzard plans more with each content update:

• Replica Ironforge Air Rifle, a toy gun that stuns other players and keeps score.
• Spectral Bear Cub, a pet, which Blizzard says was inspired by the Dwarven Hunter, a character in Forever's cinematic, and his companion.
• Spectral Bear Tabard, a tabard, the cloth worn over armour.
• Reins of the Spectral Bear, a mount, the animal you ride.

How does Hardcore change it?

Hardcore, a mode where death carries lasting consequences, is one of Forever's rulesets, the kinds of world a character can live in, and it isn't there at launch. When it comes, challenges you finished elsewhere won't show up in it. A challenge finished in Hardcore counts in every other ruleset too. PvP challenges can't be done there, so Blizzard says Hardcore will launch with 12 challenges of its own.

Our rulesets piece covers all four rulesets.

Our take: earned by playing, and capped

We like this. Every point in Blizzard's post comes from playing: levelling, crafting, fighting, exploring. Nothing in the post mentions buying one. Blizzard says the 16-point cap keeps new players from falling too far behind to catch up. Our reading is that it's the right call, because a veteran with a dozen alts still can't spend more than 16 on any one character at launch.

We read the perks as modest, though Blizzard gives a size for only one of them, Talented's 5 levels. Cheaper flights, longer food buffs, no more buying reagents for class abilities. We'd call that respect for a player's time rather than a power race. Blizzard plans new challenges and perks with each content release, and new trees later. Whether future perks stay this modest is the open question. For the launch date, see our release date piece.