How to recruit your friends into WoW for big bonuses

Update: This article has been updated to remove references to the now-defunct Scroll of Resurrection program and remove mentions of holiday sale pricing for World of Warcraft.

If you're looking to bring your friends in to World of Warcraft, Blizzard is eager to lend you a hand with Recruit A Friend (for bringing in new players) and Scroll of Resurrection (for bringing back old players). Both programs offer bonuses for both you and whomever you're inviting to play with you -- you get cool mounts, and they get easier leveling options. So if you have a friend who might enjoy the game, taking advantage of one of these programs will help out both of you. And if you're looking to get into the game, it's worth your while to find a friend who can recruit you.

But just what do these programs do and how can you -- and your friends -- take advantage of them? We'll lay out all the details below.

Recruit your friends into WoW
The Recruit A Friend program is only for helping brand new players get into the game -- though if you or your friend is starting over with a new account or getting a second account you can also make use of Recruit A Friend bonuses. The rewards on offer definitely make this appealing -- but before we get carried away, let's delve in to how the program works.

When you recruit a friend or a friend recruits you, both of you get some big leveling bonuses up to level 85. If both of you start new characters -- which we strongly recommend -- each of those characters will gain triple experience so long as they're grouped and nearby one another. This pushes leveling through Azeroth -- already pretty speedy -- into overdrive, so you could both wind up reaching max level pretty quickly. Seriously, those levels will fly by at a ridiculous rate, especially if one or both of you is taking advantage of heirlooms or other leveling bonuses at the same time. Additionally, for every two levels the recruited account gains, they can grant one level to any character on the recruiter's account, making this a very zippy way to buff up your alt collection. Characters on these two accounts can also summon one another every half hour, which makes staying together for that experience bonus extra easy.

Here's where the rewards come in: if the recruited account pays for a month of gametime, the recruiter gets a free month for themselves. And if the recruited account pays for a second month of gametime, the recruiter gets to select one exclusive Recruit A Friend mount or pet from a selection of eight, including the Emerald Hippogryph, Heart of the Nightwing, and X-53 Touring Rocket.

To get started, the recruiting account must send an invitation from the in-game friends menu by clicking Recruit A Friend in the upper right. The player-to-be will receive an email with account creation instructions to follow in order to get started.

Now that you've invited all of your friends to play with you, there's nothing to do but kick back and wait for your sweet, sweet rewards to kick in. And maybe decide on a new alt to level. Have fun!

Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't bring your A-game to World of Warcraft! Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from the seven things every newbie ought to know to how to get started as a healer or as a tank.