single-player server · 3.3.5a
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Guides › Bots

Playing with bots

Where bots come from

Bots come from the Playerbots package. There are three kinds:

Kind What it is
Random bots Characters on separate bot accounts that the server creates for you. They level, quest, travel and use the dungeon finder on their own.
Altbots Your own characters, logged in by the server and controlled by you while you play another one.
Addclass bots Ready characters of a chosen class from a reserved pool, brought to your level when they join you.

Every bot you control answers chat commands. Bots in your group follow you, fight what you fight, heal, loot and eat on their own; the commands below change what they do.

Invite a random bot

Random bots of your faction are everywhere: in towns, on quest hubs, on the roads.

  1. Find a bot and invite it the usual way: right-click its portrait and choose Invite, or type /invite Name.
  2. The bot accepts and is brought to you. From now on it follows you and takes your orders.

With the default settings a random bot turns you down if it is more than 5 levels above you ("You are too low level"). It also says no while it is queued for a battleground or is in someone else's group, and bots of the other faction never join you. To send a bot away, remove it from the group.

Add your own characters (altbots)

Your other characters on the same account can play alongside you. Type in the chat window:

.playerbots bot add Name

The character logs in, greets you and joins your group (the party turns into a raid if it is full). Several names can be given at once, separated by commas: .playerbots bot add Anna,Bern.

Command What it does
.playerbots bot add Name Logs your character in as a bot and invites it.
.playerbots bot remove Name Logs the bot out (rm and logout work too).
.playerbots bot list Lists the characters of your account; bots that are online are marked.
.playerbots bot addclass warrior Logs in an addclass bot of that class (warrior, paladin, hunter, rogue, priest, shaman, mage, warlock, druid, dk). Add male or female to choose.

An altbot keeps its own level, gear and talents; everything it earns stays with that character. An addclass bot whose level differs from yours by more than 3 is rebuilt at your level with fitting gear when it joins. A death knight addclass bot needs you to be at least level 55.

How many bots you may control at once is the Bots a player controls at once setting (default 40).

Talk to your bots

Bots listen to two chat channels:

  • Party or raid chat (/p follow, /ra follow): every bot in the group obeys.
  • A whisper (/w Name follow): only that bot obeys.

To reach only part of the group in party chat, start the message with a filter: @tank, @heal, @dps, @melee, @ranged or a class such as @priest. For example /p @heal drink makes only the healers drink.

Bots answer in chat ("Following", "Staying", "You have no target"...), so you see at once whether an order worked.

Everyday orders

Command What the bots do
follow Follow you. Also cancels stay, flee and grind.
stay Stay where they are.
attack Attack your current target.
flee Run after you without attacking anything (passive). Say follow to make them fight again.
grind Hunt monsters around them on their own. follow brings them back.
summon Teleport the bot to you. A dead bot is revived when you are alive and out of combat.
release A dead bot releases its spirit.
revive A ghost bot goes to the graveyard and is resurrected by the spirit healer.
drink Sit down and drink.
add all loot Loot the corpses around them.
ll normal Set what the bot picks up; the modes are listed in Bot commands.
maintenance Free service: repair, restock food, ammo, reagents and potions, learn class spells and place talent points.
autogear Pick better gear for the bot, up to rare quality with the default settings.
trainer learn With a trainer targeted, learn everything it teaches the bot (the bot pays).
reset botAI Reset the bot's strategies and settings to their defaults.
leave Leave the group.
logout Log out (only your altbots and addclass bots).

The full list, with strategies, gear, quest and pet commands, is in Bot commands.

A party window instead of chat

With the Bot tactics package you get a party window (/bt) with buttons for these orders, your roster, bags, talents and per-bot rules. See Bot tactics. MultiBot is another button bar for the same commands.

Random bots in the world

The setup wizard asks how many random bots you want (0, 100, 500 or 1000). Everything else is in the launcher: open Settings, group Bots. The changes take effect after a server restart.

Setting What it does
Bots enabled Turns the whole bot system on or off.
Random bots, minimum / maximum How many random bots live in the world. Each one costs about 5 MB of memory and some CPU.
Bot level, from / to Level range of random bots.
Maps for bots Where they live: all continents, classic only, classic and Outland, or Northrend only.
Active away from players, % Roughly what share of the bots far from you are active at a time. Bots near you, in groups or in fights are always active. This is the main lever for CPU load.
Bots a player controls at once How many altbots and addclass bots you may control at once.
Bots use the dungeon finder Random bots queue for dungeons.
Bots join battlegrounds Random bots queue for battlegrounds and arenas.
Guildmates' characters as bots Lets you add characters of your guild's members from other accounts as your own bots (.playerbots bot add).

The setup wizard, run again, changes the number of random bots only if you change it there. Bots move much better with movement maps; see Game data. The launcher's Commands tab has ready cards for bot statistics and a bot reset: Console and commands.

Next steps