Guild Wars 2 News

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The sweetest and most sinister of all the festival currencies, candy corn spills across Tyria once more. Gather trick-or-treat bags, trade your sweets, and claim the spoils of the season. This year's celebration brings a host of chilling new rewards for the brave and the bold.

Complete the (Annual) Halloween Rituals meta-achievement to earn the Lunatic Jester's Trousers, a one-of-a-kind armor piece perfect for those who dare to dance in moonlit chaos. Complete the weekly and meta-achievements to gain the new Unchained weapon set, forged with the restless energy of the Mad Realm. Finally, you can visit the candy corn vendor to purchase your very own Plush Zhaia Backpack or a Mini Candy Core Golem powered by pure sweetness.

Decorators of the macabre, your time has come. Transform your guild hall or homestead with unsettling new décor: the Festive Fall Tent, Ominous Fortress Ruins (right and left), and Ominous Fortress Buttress. Visit Deft Lahar in Lion's Arch to secure these spectral touches.







The path to the Mad King's domain begins with a letter from Magister Tassi. Check your in-game mail for an Invitation to the Mad Realm. Use this to travel between the mortal world and the twisted realm of Mad King Thorn.

Lion's Arch serves as the heart of Halloween festivities in Tyria. You'll find portals to Lion's Arch in every major city for players level 35 and above or for anyone who owns a Guild Wars 2 expansion.

For those who can't access Lion's Arch directly, fear not! You can still find haunted doors in locations like the Village of Shaemoor or the Village of Smokestead. These spooky portals are guarded by Lunatic Boatmasters who will happily ferry you to the Mad Realm's horrors. Don't forget to explore the haunted doors scattered throughout Kessex Hills and Gendarran Fields—trick-or-treating opportunities await!







Mad King Thorn's laughter rattles through every shadowed corner, daring mortals to dance to his tune. Embrace the eerie with activities both beloved and bizarre!

Lion's Arch:  The city is transformed into a nightmarish vision filled with ghoulish decorations and a haunted atmosphere. Every two hours, Mad King Thorn himself will challenge players to a twisted game—obey his commands (but only when he says "Your Mad King says…") and win keys to unlock his treasures!

Mad King's Labyrinth: Explore the dark and winding maze of the Mad King's Labyrinth, battling hordes of twisted creatures, racing your mounts, and trick-or-treating for bags stuffed with ghoulish goodies. Be wary, though—dreadful enemies like the Grand High Viscount of Candy Corn and the terrifying Labyrinthine Horror stalk these shadowy halls.

Mad King's Clock Tower: For thrill-seekers, the original heart-pounding jumping puzzle returns. Race against the rising miasma below! Or, if you prefer a slower pace, test your skills on the Stopped Clock Tower variant.

Ascent to Madness: Ready for the ultimate showdown? Face Mad King Thorn himself in this spine-chilling dungeon encounter, available to players of all skill levels.

Mad King's Raceway: Race through creepy courses on your mounts in time trials or head-to-head races. Rental mounts are available if you don't have your own.
Minigames: Speak to a Lunatic Boatmaster to jump into the frenzied chaos of Reaper's Rumble or the survival horror of Lunatic Inquisition.







We hope you enjoy the season of spookiness and all we have in store for the community this month, including the release of our sixth expansion, Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™ on October 28!

Be sure to also check out today's gem store blog for some new haunted items like the Graveyard Homestead Pack and the Witch Cauldron Chair!

A supernatural mist comes this way; October is the awakening of the most ghostly season. Build a foggy cemetery to honor the fallen—or just decorate your homestead for Halloween! The Graveyard Homestead Pack includes one of each decoration and will unlock their recipes so you can craft more! This pack is available for 800 gems and contains the following decorative pieces:

• Graveyard Charrgoyle
  
• Graveyard Fog
  
• Graveyard Fence
  
• Graveyard Gate
  
• Graveyard Column
  
• Graveyard Tombstone
  
• Graveyard Straight Stone Path
  
• Graveyard Curved Stone Path

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Inside each chest, you're guaranteed to find a redeemable Black Lion Statuette, the Evon Gnashblade Trick-or-Treat Bag, and two common items. You also have a chance to find something rarer in the fifth slot, including special items, glyphs, and skins from the Foefire Weapon Collection and the Paladin's Decree Weapon Collection.

Exclusive Item: Witch Cauldron Chair

Prepare a frightful concoction under the moonlight's foggy gaze. This cauldron is bubbling with green spirits and a secret recipe that'll make your guests glimpse the afterlife. While sitting before your bubbly brew, press a skill to toss in a ghastly ingredient. The Witch Cauldron Chair is a new, exclusive drop from Black Lion Chests.







On Friday, October 10, we are shaking up our stock! Infinite gathering tools will rotate in with a 20% discount until October 24. Here are some of our favorite items from this batch: Infinite Sweet Treat Gathering Tools, Infinite Volatile Magic Gathering Tools, Shifting Sands Mining Pick, Cosmic Logging Tool, and the Glitter Bomb Harvesting Tool.

Returning This Week

Various items are hot with a discount this week! Stock up on what you need for your adventures. From today until October 14, the Copper-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, Silver-Fed Salvage-o-Matic, and Runecrafter's Salvage-o-Matic and Equipment Template Expansions are 20% off and Build Template Expansions are 40% off.


Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

Hey, folks! This is Bryan Yarrow, Combat Systems Lead on Guild Wars 2®, and I'm here to talk to you about something really exciting that's coming with the first major update to Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity™ early next year. As we announced in July, we're merging the Strike Mission and the raid game modes into a single game mode, which will just be called raids. We'll be releasing another blog on this topic in the coming months with more granular details, but today I want to focus on why we're doing this and how we got here.



Strike Missions were originally designed to help players transition from open-world content into raid content. They were intended to be quicker to complete than a full raid wing and have slightly less complicated mechanics as well. Over time, our data indicated that Strike Missions weren't performing as the content bridge we were hoping for. When we dug into the details of why this was happening, we found a number of reasons that we believed were all contributing factors, and we've been attempting to address these over our past few expansions.





When we looked at who was playing Strike Missions and why, we discovered that inexperienced players had low engagement with Strike Missions. Furthermore, players who wanted to raid still felt blocked due to difficulty concerns and challenges in finding a group to run them with. Strike Missions simply weren't being viewed as the stepping stone to raids that we originally intended.

Since then, we've tried to reframe and clarify how difficulty levels work in our group-instanced content across both Strike Mission and raid game modes. Normal mode should be able to be completed by anyone interested in learning the content, while challenge mode is aimed toward our hardcore audience. We also have some plans, which we'll tease below, that will further clarify the intended difficulty levels of raids for players.







As we made plans to improve Strike Mission engagement, we came to realize that strikes and raids didn't need to be separate game modes at all. They were both squad-based instanced content with similar levels of complexity. Raid wings were just longer and tended to have a bit more complexity per encounter than Strike Missions did. We were also paying some hidden costs by separating them, such as each mode having its own separate reward system that didn't incentivize cross-engagement. Not to mention that it was confusing for new players!
Strike Missions will be known as raid encounters going forward and will be siblings with the current raid wings within the larger raids game mode. This should make it easier for newer players to understand and approach.







Combining these game modes offers us the opportunity to do much more than making things simpler to understand. In our first major update for Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity, we'll also be adding the following to raids:

• A new raid UI with quality-of-life improvements (see screenshot below).
  
  
  
  • A list of all raid wings and raid encounters will allow you to go directly to the boss you want to tackle.
    
  • The list includes encounter difficulty ratings to inform players.
    
  
  
  
• Quickplay mode to assist players in finding a group for easier raid encounters.
  
• A merged reward system for strikes and raid wings.
  
• A new Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity raid encounter with a challenge mode (a second raid encounter, a challenge mode, and a legendary mode will come in subsequent updates).
  

These features will allow us to better communicate difficulty levels for raids and address the significant quality-of-life issues that depress engagement. And, as many of you have correctly surmised, the quickplay mode feature that we debuted in beta form for the Fractal Incursion bonus event will indeed be added to raids next year to help players find groups for the easiest raid encounters. We're very excited to see how the community engages with our merged raid game mode, and we'll share more details on how this will all work in the coming months. Happy gaming!

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With an honorable heart and a sword in hand, all you'll need to join the knighthood of Tyria is an ensemble that shows your noble intentions. This helm skin and cape are crafted with the finest materials the land can offer; you will be ready to withstand long journeys and the heat of battle alike. The Traveling Knight's Cape and Hood Combo is available for 800 gems.







Commander, there is only one week left to pick up this offer! Make haste if this parcel of items will enhance your performance. This bundle can be purchased twice per account until October 7 and is worth 400 gems. It includes the following items:

• Bag Slot Expansion
  
• 28 Slot Black Lion Satchel

The cozy autumn is just starting, and with it comes amazing discounts on our titles, including Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™! Head over to our sale blog for all the details, and be sure to grab what you're missing before these sales expire on October 6 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7).



On Friday, October 3, we are shuffling the Gem Store's stock with shelves full of miscellaneous discounted items! From emote tomes to armor skins, there's a little bit of everything, available at a 20% discount until October 17. Here are some of our favorite items:

• Fashion Poses Emote Tome
  
• Sea Raider Homestead Pack
  
• Flamekissed Light Armor Skin
  
• Flamewalker Medium Armor Skin
  
• Flamewrath Heavy Armor Skin

Returning This Week

Breathe life into a veteran character with our discounts this week! From today until October 7, Transmutation Charges, Total Makeover Kits, Self-Style Hair Kits, and Name Change Contracts are available at a 20% discount.






Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

It's time to celebrate the change of seasons with the autumn Guild Wars® franchise sale! Delve into past adventures and experience the latest expansion, Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™, now on sale. Or jump into Guild Wars and discover the storied history of the magical lands of Tyria!

From September 29 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) to October 6 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7), you can take advantage of special deals on games in the Guild Wars franchise. Invite a friend to join your adventures or expand your account with a new expansion's features. With absolutely no subscription fees, it's always the perfect time to start your journey!

Guild Wars 2 Expansion Sales

The following discounted items are available now on the official Guild Wars 2 website, with some of the same exciting deals on Steam! For those looking to add the Living World™ series to your collection, you can find them on sale for 30% off in the in-game store.





[h3]Expansion 5: Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds[/h3]

Head north to the wilderness of Janthir—a dangerous land that was once home to the strange mursaat and their White Mantle sycophants. Befriend the lowland kodan who reside there and learn the secrets of wielding a spear on every profession. Your journeys will lead you to own your own homestead, engage in a challenging new raid, and forge a bond with a warclaw mount with new abilities!

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds expansion are now available at a 20% discount.*





[h3]Expansion 4: Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™[/h3]

In a world finally safe from the Elder Dragons' corruption, new threats rise to seek power. Embark on an epic journey and uncover the mysteries of the Wizard's Tower as you defend the skies against incursions from the Mists. Unlock access to weapons that were previously exclusive to elite specializations for each profession and an updated path to unlocking your skyscale mount.

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure expansion are now available at a 30% discount.*





[h3]Expansion 3: Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons®[/h3]

The future of Cantha is now. The dragon cycle that has sustained and blighted Tyria for ages is collapsing. Mortal hearts and choices will define this moment in history—and echo into the future forever. Unlock new elite specializations, Masteries, and more, including access to fishing and skiffs.

Both Standard and Deluxe editions of the Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons® expansion are now available at a 40% discount!*





[h3]Guild Wars 2 Elder Dragon Saga—Complete Collection[/h3]

Experience the entire dragon cycle saga from beginning to end with Guild Wars 2—The Complete Collection. This bundle contains an entire decade's worth of content! Included Guild Wars 2 Living World® Seasons 2–5 and the first three expansions:

• Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns®
• Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire®
• Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons

You'll also get two Level-80 Boosts, allowing you to instantly level up two characters and jump straight into our latest content, with two Shared Inventory Slots to easily share items with every character on your account.

The Complete, Deluxe, and Standard editions of the Elder Dragon Saga Collection are discounted by 50% for the length of the sale. Note: only the Complete edition of the Elder Dragon Saga is available through the Steam store.





[h3]Expansions 1 and 2—Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns and Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire[/h3]

Unlock mounts, gliding, and more with the first two expansions for Guild Wars 2. This package grants you access to a new profession, the revenant, as well as eighteen elite specializations to change the way you play. Experience the joy of movement with the best mounts in MMOs.

This expansion bundle is available now at a 60% discount!





[h3]Guild Wars®[/h3]

Now is the perfect time to experience the game that started it all! The original Guild Wars and all its campaigns and editions are discounted by 50%. This includes the recent Guild Wars: The 20th Anniversary Masterpiece Collection, which includes all three campaigns (Prophecies™, Factions™, and Nightfall™), the Guild Wars : Eye of the North™ expansion, and the Bonus Mission Pack.

Premium items like Xunlai Storage Panes, costumes, unlock packs, and more are all available at a 50% discount as well. Head over to the original Guild Wars site to take advantage of the sale!

Fill your Hall of Monuments and unlock bonus items and titles that transfer to Guild Wars 2!

*Deluxe packages for Guild Wars 2 are not available through the Steam store.