Forget every item you know. Survive Azeroth like it is 2004 again.

You know the name. You know the icon. You know exactly where it drops and whether it is best-in-slot before it touches the ground.

BlindGear takes that knowledge away.

Equippable item identities and recognizable artwork become anonymous item types. Instead of consulting a hidden best-in-slot oracle, you make a Hardcore decision across offense, survival, sustain, and unknown special effects.

Why BlindGear?

Feel genuine uncertainty when a weapon or quest reward appears.
Recognize what kind of item dropped without recognizing the item itself.
Make survival tradeoffs instead of following a single green arrow.
Discover equipment through actual attacks, danger, resource use, on-use activation, and cautiously observed effects.
Preserve a visual journal of the run - and reveal the truth when it ends.

Three ways to forget

BlindGear: immediate qualitative comparisons, anonymous identities. Ideal for the original experience.

Explorer: directions first; qualitative weapon behavior unlocks by equipping.

Amnesiac: safety first; dimensions unlock through equipment and knowledge is earned through meaningful field evidence and mastery. Survival-loss warnings always remain.

Built for Hardcore decisions

BlindGear separates every comparison into offense, survival, sustain, unknown effects, and confidence. It never gives an overall upgrade, downgrade, or sidegrade verdict: the decision belongs to you. The automatic profile reads your class and dominant talent tree while keeping Survival as the no-talent Hardcore baseline. Manual and custom emphasis profiles are available, and every profile is explained in the client: Survival prioritizes staying alive; Balanced gives offense and survival equal voice; Damage prioritizes relevant weapons and combat stats; Healing prioritizes mana and throughput; Custom exposes three separate Offense, Survival, and Sustain controls. A known survival loss is never hidden. For rings, trinkets, and one-hand weapons, you can also choose the first or second equipped comparison context yourself instead of leaving it automatic.

Information barriers

BlindGear anonymizes Blizzard tooltips, type-preserving icons, bags, equipped gear, bank, inspect, loot, Need/Greed, Loot History, loot confirmations, quest rewards, merchants, the Classic auction house, mail, trade, and chat links. Character-sheet totals are masked so equip/de-equip cannot be used as a manual item scanner. Appearance Veil conceals supported character, inspect, and dressing-room equipment previews.

Source Veil hides selected quest and merchant source labels only when protected equipment is present. It deliberately leaves objectives, controls, prices, stock, world visuals, and player-entered auction searches intact, so mystery never blocks normal play.

The native Classic Era Trade Skill and Craft panels also hide protected equipment outputs, output icons, and output descriptions while preserving reagents, requirements, quantities, and create controls.

Raw damage, DPS, speed, armor, resistance, and attribute values remain hidden in every mode, including after mastery.

Safety information remains visible: equip restrictions, required level, durability, binding, uniqueness, armor/weapon type, rarity, and survival losses.

The run remembers

Field Notes record discoveries, actual use, observed effect categories, personal judgments, closest call, final equipment, death level, and death location. An optional Run Covenant remembers the chosen rules and marks later amendments. Optional death/level-60 reveal restores actual identities.

BlindParty (optional)

BlindParty defaults off and is an intentionally tiny social layer: a character can explicitly announce generic presence to the current party or raid, then explicitly share one generic epitaph after a sealed run. It transmits no gear, links, stats, discoveries, location, profile, or automatic death data. Received signals are session-only.

Start

Open Settings -> AddOns -> BlindGear, or type /blindgear as a shortcut. Explorer with the automatic profile is the recommended first run and the default for new installations. The optional First Expedition tab explains the contract and lets you sign a Run Covenant. Experience covers discovery modes, Comparison covers explained profiles, and Privacy & Run covers leak protection, Source and Appearance Veils, optional BlindParty controls, completed-run reveals, Field Notes, and diagnostics.

If something looks wrong, run /blindgear doctor and include its output in a bug report.

BlindGear does not automate gameplay and does not use an external item database. It cannot prevent deliberate external lookup or every third-party addon from revealing item information. /blindgear leaks reports known conflicts and an honest Classic Era coverage matrix, including partial profession coverage and in-world visual/context clues.