Guild Wars 2 News

The River of Souls drains the life essence of all living beings who set foot in its stream, and the same applies to people who get smacked in the face with this hammer. Not that it really needed the enchantment to do that, mind you...

This item will permanently unlock a new hammer appearance in your account wardrobe.


Join in on the Lunar New Year celebrations with this beautifully embroidered silk scarf. This item will permanently unlock a new shoulder item appearance in your account wardrobe.


For the next two weeks, we're offering a 20% discount on Bank Tab Expansions. Each Bank Tab Expansion permanently increases the storage capacity of your account's bank by 30 slots. You can currently have up to 16 additional bank tabs, for a total of 510 slots accessible by any character on your account.


Starting this Friday, look for the following items to be added to the Gem Store at a 20% discount:

• Arcane Marksman Rifle
  
• Aspect Master's Greatsword
  
• Baleful Dragon Pistol Skin
  
• Devil-Rending Axe Skin
  
• Dragon Kama Skin
  
• Eir's Legacy Longbow
  
• Elegant Fan Focus Skin
  
• Hourglass Staff
  
• Infernal Roar Warhorn Skin
  
• Infused Blades Package
  
• Lord Caudecus's Pistol Skin
  
• Lord Caudecus's Sword Skin
  
• Shield of the Goddess
  
• Suntouched Scythe Staff Skin
  
• Wolfheart Shield Skin
  
• Wolfheart Sword Skin
  

Celebrate in style with a skiff perfect for the Lunar New Year!

This item will permanently unlock a new appearance for your skiff in your account wardrobe.


Feel your veins overflow with magmatic power. And watch your toes, maybe.

This item will permanently unlock a new torch appearance in your account wardrobe.


For the next two weeks, we're offering a 20% discount on the following items:

Storage Expanders
Pick up a Storage Expander to increase the size of your material storage by 250 items per slot.

Recharging Teleport to Friend
Instantly teleport to anyone in your party or squad with this infinite-use device. Just mind the 1-hour cooldown.

Black Lion Contract Boards
Add these contract boards to your home instance for daily deliveries of various crafting materials. These are permanent, account-wide unlocks.

Black Lion Garden Plot Deeds
Add up to two additional garden plots to your home instance. Each plot has four harvesting nodes that you can use to grow plants from seeds and harvest daily.


Starting this Friday, the following items will return to the Gem Store at a 20% discount:

• Defiant Glass Backpack Skin
  
• Dread Quiver Backpack
  
• Emblazoned Cape
  
• Glittering Wings Backpack
  
• Herald of Aurene Cape
  
• Rox's Quiver Set
  
• Sloth Backpack
  
• Tempest Cape
  

[h2]Available Now in the Gem Store![/h2]

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

I once heard a scholar propose the idea that Canthan moas and Elonian raptors share a common ancestor. Ridiculous! But then again, the way that crane roars… Hmm…

This item will permanently add a new appearance option for your raptor to your account wardrobe.



Now that trade and travel are once again open between Cantha and the rest of Tyria, we've been getting some interesting imports in. The Canthan New Year does seem to bring out the animal lovers in all of us!

You can use these items to apply a new appearance to your helm and boots. The skins will become permanently available in your account wardrobe and can be applied as many times as you wish with Transmutation Charges.


For the next two weeks, we're offering a 20% discount on Character Slot Expansions. This item will add one additional character slot to your account, allowing you to try out new playable races and professions.


[h2]Black Lion Exclusive: Fortunate Blossom Fishing Rod Skin[/h2]


At the end of the day, your fortune as a fisher is all you have to rely on. Of course, a bright dangly lantern with a hook on it helps, too.

This item will change the appearance of your fishing rod and permanently unlock this skin in your wardrobe.

[h2]Black Lion Guarantee: The Evon Gnashblade Lucky Envelope[/h2]
In every Black Lion Chest you open for the next three weeks, you'll find one Evon Gnashblade Lucky Envelope. This container is affected by your account's magic find attribute and is always guaranteed to contain at least one golden figurine, one Essence of Luck, and a Lunar New Year consumable item. The greater your magic find, the greater your chances of finding rare and valuable items in the envelope.


Starting this Friday, look for the following items to be added to the Gem Store at a 20% discount:

• Butterfly Harvesting Flute
  
• Consortium Harvesting Sickle
  
• Firefly Mining Flute
  
• Frost Wasp Logging Tool
  
• Fused Molten Logging Axe
  
• Fused Molten Sickle
  
• Jack-in-the-Box Scythe
  
• Molten Alliance Mining Pick
  
• Infinite Spirits of the Wild Gathering Tools
  
• Swarm Logging Flute

[h2]Available Now in the Gem Store![/h2]
Log into Guild Wars 2 and press 'O' to access the Black Lion Trading Company for these great offers and more!

The annual Lunar New Year festival is in full swing in Divinity's Reach! Tyrians are celebrating the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit with fireworks, games, delicious Canthan food, and prizes. This yearly festival is now live and will be available until January 31. You can check out all the details in the full release notes on our official forums.

This festival is accessible to players of any level. Even if you're brand new to the game, you can easily take part in our Lunar New Year activities and earn new cosmetic unlocks, utility items, and more! Read on for a quick rundown of the activities you can participate in during this festival and the rewards you can earn!



Lunar New Year activities will reward you with Essences of Luck, items that can either be consumed to permanently increase your account's magic find attribute or be used as a currency at Lunar New Year festival vendors at the Crown Pavilion in Divinity's Reach. You'll also earn other currencies—such as the Token of the Celestial Champion from the Celestial Challenge—that can be exchanged for Lucky Envelopes.

Lucky Envelopes are containers that are affected by your account's magic find attribute. Increase your magic find for chances at better rewards when opening them. Lucky Envelopes can contain additional Essences of Luck, valuable trophies that you can sell to vendors for cash, and a chance at rare weapons, armor, and more. This year, every Lucky Envelope has a chance to grant you the Lucky Rabbit Lantern. Get that magic find up and open as many envelopes as you can!

Completing daily and annual achievements will allow you to earn new weapons, armor, and more! Check the Achievements pane in your Hero panel and navigate to the Daily Lunar New Year and Festivals sections for more information.


The Crown Pavilion in Divinity's Reach is your hub for Lunar New Year festivities. Check your in-game mail for an Invitation to Lunar New Year and double-click the item to teleport instantly to Divinity's Reach.


[h2]Celestial Challenge[/h2]
Speak to the Celestial Challenge Attendant at the Crown Pavilion in Divinity's Reach to begin the Celestial Challenge, a series of activities that will require you to take down enemies, race through checkpoints, perform feats of jumping mastery, and more. The more activities you successfully complete during the event, the greater your rewards at the end.

[h2]Dragon Ball Arena[/h2]
Speak to Finola at the Crown Pavilion in Divinity's Reach to enter the Dragon Ball Arena. This dodgeball-like PvP game mode is a race to the finish, with the first team of five players to reach five hundred points claiming victory. Collect power-ups throughout the arena to gain access to new skills, zip around the arena with zip pads and jump pads, and master the art of the Dragon Sphere.

[h2]Mount Racing[/h2]
Race around Divinity's Reach! You don't need to have any mounts unlocked to take place in this race—a nearby rental service is available to rent a raptor for just 10 silver.

[h2]Firecracker Lighting[/h2]
Speak to the firecracker-lighting NPC at the Crown Pavilion in Divinity's Reach to start this seasonal adventure. Use your mastery of the world to quickly navigate through the streets of Divinity's Reach and light all the firecrackers! Gliding, mounts, anything goes—just don't use any waypoints, or your progress will be reset!

Hello, all,

As many of you know, we have been working on implementing and improving support for DirectX 11 in Guild Wars 2. Completing this upgrade will allow us to utilize more modern rendering features, improving both the graphical fidelity and performance of Guild Wars 2. We're happy to announce that we are now ready to remove the DirectX 9 renderer for Guild Wars 2 and migrate all players to the DirectX 11 renderer.

With this upgrade, we'll begin adjusting our minimum system requirements to include a DirectX 11-compatible GPU on February 6. This upgrade will roll out to all players over an eight-week period. We expect the process to be completed and all players to be migrated to the DirectX 11 client by April 18.

After the rollout has been completed, you will no longer be able to launch the game with DirectX 9. Players with systems that are not compatible with DirectX 11 will need to either upgrade their hardware to include a DirectX 11-compatible GPU or use a cloud gaming service such as NVIDIA GeForce NOW to continue playing Guild Wars 2.

DirectX 11 was originally released in 2009, and nearly any GPU released since then should support it. However, if you'd like to double-check your system for compatibility, doing so is simple:

1. In Windows, select Start and enter "dxdiag" into the search box on the taskbar.
   
2. Then, select dxdiag from the results.
   
3. Once the tool has opened, navigate to the "Display 1" section.
   
4. On the right side of this panel, under the "Drivers" section, check the "Feature Levels" listed for your display.
   
5. If your "Feature Levels" list contains "11_0" or higher, your GPU is DirectX 11-compatible.

Thank you,
—The Guild Wars 2 Team