The hidden library's book rewards were re-tuned, and the first tier lost half its stats

The library is one of the stranger things in WoW Forever’s files: 40 readable books with no locations attached, and a set of jewellery handed out for turning them in. We wrote it up as a collection guide from the September 24 build. Re-reading the same tables in the current build, the rewards are still there and the numbers are not the same.

Datamined from an unfinished build. Reward stats in a beta are tuning values and move between builds, which is exactly what happened here.

What changed

Tier	Item	Then (build 69977)	Now (build 70205)
10 books	Scholarly Pendant	6 Stamina, 4 Spirit	3 Stamina, 2 Spirit
10 books	Erudite’s Amulet	6 Stamina, 4 Agility	3 Stamina, 2 Agility
20 books	Philanthropist’s Ring	6 Intellect, 10 Spell Power	5 Intellect, 10 Spell Power
20 books	Field Researcher’s Loop	7 Stamina, 7 Agility, 7 Strength	7 Stamina, 7 Agility

The tier item levels came down with them: the first pair sits at 23 rather than 25, and the rings at 35 rather than 40.

That first tier is the real cut. A neck with 3 Stamina and 2 Spirit is an ordinary quest reward, not a prize for finding ten hidden books across several zones. Both pieces are still uncommon quality, which they were before.

The top tier is now two groups

The September files read as one large final tier of five items. The current tables split it into two separate reward groups, both at tier item level 58, which suggests two different turn-in counts rather than one:

• Group one, both necks: Museum Keeper’s Chain, now 10 Stamina, 10 Intellect and 11 Spell Power, and Artifact Seeker’s Pendant, rebuilt from an even 10/10/10 spread into 14 Stamina, 9 Strength, 8 Agility.
• Group two, the off-hand and the shields: Researcher’s Night Light is now 12 Stamina and 7 Fire Spell Damage at item level 45, where it previously carried Intellect. Antique Bulwark is 13 Stamina and 8 Defense. Crest of Elucidation went from Spirit and Intellect to 12 Spirit, 11 Healing and 4 Spell Damage at item level 45.

The pattern is the same one running through the rest of Forever’s gear: round Classic stat blocks replaced with the combat ratings the item is actually for. A healer’s shield now says healing on it. This matches the broader re-itemization pass visible across the files.

What the files still will not say

Three gaps are unchanged, and they are the reason this is a guide rather than a walkthrough:

1. No locations. The client places none of the 40 books. Every location anyone has came from walking the world.
2. No turn-in counts for the top groups. The quests that hand them over are server side. Ten and twenty are visible; the rest is not.
3. The list may be short. A book nobody has turned in yet would still be sitting unread in the table.

The count itself has not moved: 40 titles, none of them new since the last sweep. They read like a catalogue rather than quest items, from Archmage Antonidas’ autobiography to Basilisks: Should Petrification be Feared?

What to do with this

If you are collecting books at level 30 for the first tier, know that the payout is now modest. The rings at twenty books are still worth the walk, and the item level 58 groups remain the interesting part, because they fill slots that are otherwise hard to cover before raiding.

We have updated the hidden library guide with the current numbers, and the rest of the found-in-the-world material lives in Secrets & Discoveries.