Rested XP: A Detailed Overview

The Rested XP system is designed to reward you for returning to the game after you have been away for a while. It is a bar that adds to your Experience bar while you are offline, and it increases the XP you gain from killing mobs until the bar is depleted. The Rested XP bar grows up to 150% of your level or 15 "bubbles" of XP on the default UI. The bar grows much quicker if you log off in an Inn or a Capital City, so you should always try to log out in either of those places to get the most benefit.

Rested XP is gained at a rate of 5% per 8 hours when you are in a Capital City or Inn. If you are outside one of these locations, it is gained at a rate of 1.25% per 8 hours.

You can tell that you are Resting if your Character Portrait (in the default UI) has a special 'zzz' speech bubble on it.

This means that it takes 10 days of resting in a Capital City or Inn to get a full Rested XP bar, or 40 days outside of one. A "bar" or "bubble" of Rested XP is based on your current level. In other words, the 150% of Rested XP that you get will always be equivalent of 150% of the XP needed to surpass your current level in full.

Pandaren players get a racial passive called Inner Peace, which causes them to gain Rested XP at double the speed of other races and allows them to stack their Rested XP bonus up to 300% of their current level.

The question of whether it is worth returning to an Inn or Capital City to accelerate Rested XP gain depends on how long you are planning to stay offline for, and how much travel time would be added to your leveling path by going to an Inn or back.

Generally speaking, we recommend always setting your Hearthstone to new quest hubs when you reach them. This way, you can Hearthstone and immediately log out at any time and gain full Rested XP.

If you find yourself far away from a quest hub and you are only intending to be away from the game for a few hours, then we do not recommend walking back. The leveling speed increase of Rested XP is modest and not worth the extra travel time if you are only expecting to gain a 'bubble' or two of Rested XP.