World of Warcraft: Forever players may have searched its beta with a fine-toothed comb, but Blizzard said there are still plenty of secrets waiting to be found come launch and beyond.
In a new WoW: Forever Podcast dedicated to the end of the beta, Blizzard made clear it's keeping many of the game's surprises close to its chest. Senior game designer Josh Greenfield said Blizzard had disabled some items and secrets for the beta. He gave an example of a new torch item that was originally turned off for the beta's first week, but later enabled to test out Forever's new lighting and fog tech. He said players can expect more of those types of surprises.
"There's definitely some secrets and stuff that we had turned off," Greenfield said when asked about still to be discovered secrets in the level 1-30 zones. "There's going to be things to discover that we didn't surface, suffice to say that."
Forever's beta had a maximum level of 30, meaning there is still a huge chunk of the game, including new zones, quests, dungeons, and raids, players haven't fully explored yet. When asked about items like a newly discovered sword in the beta that could potentially enable new playstyles, like a melee-focused "Battle Mage", Greenfield opted not to elaborate further.
"It's hard to talk about secret stuff," Greenfield said. "It's secret, right? We want people to find it. There's some really, really, really cool, and really, really, really well-buried stuff out there that's probably going to take people a long time to find. If we tip our hats to it too much, it's just going to take the fun away."
Unlike in past WoW releases, most of the items on Forever's beta were hidden from dataminers using a new system that hides an item's name and stats until it's discovered by the community. At the start of the beta, over 12,500 items were kept hidden. As a result, players don't know what items drop from dungeon bosses or what some of the best quest rewards are. The game is still a mystery, something Greenfield said is cool to experience "organically" for those who know WoW Classic like the back of their hand.
Blizzard did give some more concrete teases towards the end of the podcast. Lead encounter designer Michael Nuthals said Blizzard is already laying the groundwork for Forever's future, and as such players may find examples of places that could be future dungeons already in the game.
"There might be some homes, some manors, out there that folks have found that might be something interesting in the future," Nuthals said, seemingly referencing the new Manor Mistmantle in the game's Duskwood zone. "You might have seen some instance portals hiding in some inconspicuous spots. There are some things coming in the future and we're really excited to share those as we get there."
A roadmap released during BlizzCon 2026 shows Blizzard is planning to release new dungeons and raids for Forever next year.
WoW: Forever launches November 4. In other Forever news, Blizzard announced a new server ruleset that will make PvP players happy. As for where Forever will take players in the future, Blizzard said in an interview with GameSpot that while the team is committed to staying on Azeroth, it's open to exploring places players may have already seen before in other WoW expansions. Meanwhile, a leaked survey revealed 11 new classes that could potentially come to Blizzard's old-school MMO.