Campfire timing: the one-minute rule is official, the burn time is not

Sit or craft at a campsite for a minute and you gain the benefits of its camp features. That half of the timing question has an official answer. The other half, how long the fire keeps burning, does not yet.

What Blizzard’s guide says

Blizzard’s camping guide, published on 21 October, explains that Camping expands the Cooking profession’s simple Cooking Fire into a Basic Campfire, which creates a shared campsite. A Basic Campfire supports up to three additional camp features crafted by nearby players, and each player can add one.

The timing rule is stated plainly: players sitting or crafting at a campsite for at least one minute gain the benefits from other camp features. The guide frames it as sitting by the fire briefly and becoming rested before moving on.

The hour that is not a burn time

The guide also says all Camping features require a campfire nearby and share a cooldown of one hour. That is a cooldown shared by the features, not how long a fire stays lit. The only buff duration the guide gives is the Sharpening Wheel’s Strength bonus, which lasts an hour.

How long it burns

How long a Basic Campfire lasts, and whether resting there or adding features extends it, is not in the guide we reviewed.

A player suggestion on the European forums on 22 October shows why it matters. The poster asks for a camp’s timer and its added benefits to reset to a minimum whenever someone rests there, so a camp does not disappear one second before you would get the buffs, and for adding a feature to reset it to a longer minimum. Those are one player’s proposals, and the minutes in the post are the poster’s suggestions, not current values.

Still unknown

• How long a Basic Campfire lasts from placement.
• Whether resting at it, or adding a feature, changes that.

Until those are established, sit down for the full minute and do not count on a camp lasting. Our camping guide lists the features each profession can add.