Hidden, datamined or confirmed: WoW Forever item data
What the three stages on the Codex's 19,335 WoW Forever item pages mean, why a datamined item can still be in the game, and which items we leave out.
Every item on the Codex now has a page, and each page says how sure we are of it: hidden, datamined or confirmed in game. The item records come straight from the Forever game client, build 1.60.1.70124, and from the cache the game keeps of what Blizzard's servers send it. The stage says which of those an item's record came from.
Confirmed in game
An item is confirmed when Blizzard's server has sent its record to a game. The game only asks the server about an item it meets, for example by looting it, seeing it on a vendor or in someone's link. So a confirmed item is in play, with the stats shown. 3,444 items are confirmed so far, Rockslicer from the Deadmines and Beaststalker's Tunic among them.
Datamined
A datamined item's record ships in the game files. That covers 15,484 items, and most of the everyday ones: Linen Cloth and Refreshing Spring Water are datamined too. The game already has their records, so it never needs to ask the server about them, and they stay datamined however often players pick them up.
So datamined does not mean unreleased. It means the Codex read the item from the files and has not seen the server confirm it. An item that is only in the files could still change before it reaches players, or never reach them.
Hidden
Forever leaves some items out of its files. Blizzard's server knows them, but the client gets nothing about them until a game meets one. We know 407 of these from Wowhead's Forever database, which lists them, and their pages show Wowhead's card. Most are dungeon loot that no game here has met yet: Blackrock Depths has 56 of them, Scarlet Monastery 44 and Maraudon 28. Onyxia's Lair has 16, among them tier helms such as Bloodfang Hood and Helm of Wrath, and the raid only opens on December 9.
What we leave out
The Forever client still carries items that are not part of Forever. Season of Discovery items are in its files, and Blizzard's own test and placeholder items are too, with names like "Monster - Mace". Items the game marks as PTR only are the third group. None of them are listed on the Codex.
Where the stages matter
The BiS lists on each class page only recommend confirmed items and items we know a source for. A datamined item with no known source could be one Blizzard never hands out, so it does not show up there. You can browse every item by slot and check the stage on any item's page.
