50 Fun Facts About Guild Wars

Guild Wars' swappable eight-skill builds are often likened to decks in which collectible card game?

Magic: The Gathering is the usual comparison because skills, like cards, are picked from a huge pool to work together. A build is locked the moment a character leaves town, so choosing it is half the fight.

Guild Wars launched in 2005 without which charge that rivals such as World of Warcraft relied on?

A monthly subscription fee was the norm, but ArenaNet reasoned that nobody would pay one for every online game they played. Buying the box once gave unlimited game time.

Guild Wars studio ArenaNet was founded in 2000 by three veteran programmers from which company?

Blizzard Entertainment lost Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain to the new venture. The studio was called Triforge at first and took the name ArenaNet later.

In Guild Wars Prophecies, which race rains burning crystals on Ascalon in the Searing?

The Charr called down the firestorm with the Cauldron of Cataclysm, then poured over the Great Northern Wall. It turns the green tutorial kingdom into a wasteland that players can never walk back into.

Which little girl from pre-Searing Ascalon returns as an adult Guild Wars hero in Eye of the North?

Gwen tags along with new players almost anywhere and heals them now and then if they hand her a flute. The expansion's official short name, GW:EN, is widely read as a nod to her.

To complete Ascension at Augury Rock in Guild Wars, each player must defeat which opponent alone?

Their mirror image, the Doppelganger, copies the challenger's whole skill bar, so the trick is to bring skills its simple AI will misuse. The foe was named Mirror Self until a June 2005 update.

Which spirit visits Guild Wars towns each Halloween and kills players who disobey his commands?

Mad King Thorn hands Trick-or-Treat Bags to players who obey and strikes down those who don't, reviving them in time for his next order. Magical seals keep him out of Tyria for the rest of the year.

Which composer, best known for The Elder Scrolls series, scored all three original Guild Wars campaigns?

Jeremy Soule wrote the music for Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall and Eye of the North and is credited with the series' main theme. He has been described as the John Williams of video game music.

Which Eye of the North trophy room lets Guild Wars veterans unlock exclusive rewards in Guild Wars 2?

Hall of Monuments displays a character's armor, titles, companions and weapons, and each tribute adds reward points. Those points unlock sequel items that cannot be earned any other way.

Guild Wars characters stop levelling at which cap, after which experience earns skill points instead?

20 is the ceiling in every campaign, and characters made only for PvP start there. Each further cycle of experience pays out one skill point, spent on learning new skills from trainers.

Which Guild Wars heir of Ascalon dies holding off the Stone Summit so refugees can escape?

Rurik had been exiled by his own father for urging the people to abandon the kingdom and flee to Kryta. The campaign's undead villain later raises his corpse and forces him to fight his old comrades.

Which dragon, living inside a grain of sand, wrote Guild Wars' Flameseeker Prophecies?

Glint was said to be the first creature on Tyria, placed there by the gods as its guardian. She welcomes players who have Ascended as the Chosen, eight centuries after writing about them.

Which Guild Wars kingdom did Vizier Khilbron sink beneath the sea to destroy an invading army?

Orr vanished when the king's advisor read from a forbidden scroll, leaving only scattered islands roamed by the restless dead. The disaster is remembered as the Cataclysm.

Which floating spellcasters do Guild Wars' White Mantle worship as the Unseen Ones?

The Mursaat can hide from anyone who lacks the gift of True Sight, which is how they earned the name. A dying exile, Saul D'Alessio, took them for gods and founded the White Mantle to worship them.

Which bodyguard who murdered his own emperor returns as the villain of Guild Wars Factions?

Shiro Tagachi struck at the Harvest Temple after a demon disguised as a fortune teller told him the emperor meant to kill him. Two heroes are said to have nearly cut him in half with his own swords.

Guild Wars' Jade Wind made Cantha's sea solid jade and did what to the Echovald Forest?

Turned it to stone, along with every bird and deer inside, is what the dying wail of an emperor's killer did. The Kurzicks later carved homes and cathedrals into the fossil trunks.

In Guild Wars Factions, which seafaring clans of the Jade Sea are at constant war with the Kurzicks?

The Luxons were stranded when their ocean solidified, so they adapted their giant ships to sail it and began mining it. Their three clans are the Serpent, the Turtle and the Crab.

Guild Wars' Cantha draws on East Asia, while Nightfall's arid Elona is based on which region?

North Africa shaped Elona, a land joined to southern Tyria across a vast desert. Nightfall was the third campaign and the one that introduced customisable hero companions.

Which blinded Sunspear leader absorbs a dying god's power to become a goddess in Guild Wars Nightfall?

Kormir is the Spearmarshal who recruits the player, is left for dead early on and is later rescued, sightless, from a Kournan fortress. She takes the title Goddess of Truth.

Which fallen god of water and secrets is the final enemy of Guild Wars Nightfall?

Abaddon was struck down by his fellow gods in a blow that turned the Crystal Sea into a desert. One of his demons, posing as a fortune teller, also set the Factions villain on his path.

Which Guild Wars Nightfall profession swings a scythe and can take on the form of a god?

Dervish fighters descend from wandering ascetics who swapped the traveller's staff for a humbler weapon. Its broad sweep strikes several foes at once, so they head for the very heart of a battle.

Which Guild Wars Factions profession hoods its eyes to commune with spirits and uses urns of ashes?

Ritualist arts are older than magic itself in Tyria, drawn from ancestors who kept a link to their descendants. Their summoned spirits help allies and hinder enemies at once, which no other profession can do.

Which cancelled Guild Wars campaign, meant to follow Nightfall, had its ideas reused for Guild Wars 2?

Utopia was designed around quests whose outcomes the whole community would decide, but none of it ever reached a playable state. The team moved its plans into a new game and built Eye of the North as a bridge.

Which Guild Wars skill lets a player learn an elite skill from a boss they have just killed?

Signet of Capture is swapped for the chosen skill for good, and the boss must share one of the player's two professions. Bosses are easy to pick out by the glowing aura around them.

Which computer-controlled Guild Wars adventurers wait near town gates to fill out a party?

Henchmen take their share of the loot and experience like any other party member. Some players prefer to go it alone, leading a whole team of them through a campaign.

Which Guild Wars realm, home to the Eternals and the Shadow Army, is also called the Realm of War?

The Fissure of Woe is locked in a conflict that, its ghostly admiral says, will never end. Ascended parties reach it by paying a Champion of Balthazar at one of the god's statues.

Which diminutive race of underground inventors debuts in Guild Wars: Eye of the North?

The Asura had not been seen above ground for centuries, and many humans thought them a myth. They see the world as a magical machine, the Eternal Alchemy, and became playable in the sequel.

Which foe foretold in the dwarves' Tome of Rubicon is the villain of Guild Wars: Eye of the North?

The Great Destroyer leads swarms of creatures with hearts of flame and skin as hard as obsidian. Dwarven legend held that it would rise once its true name was read, yet it appeared without that.

Magni the Bison, final opponent of Guild Wars' Norn Fighting Tournament, nods to which game series?

Street Fighter gave the Norn champion his name, a play on its villain M. Bison. He is the last of six opponents, and winners can trade championship tokens for trophies such as crowns.

At Guild Wars' Wintersday finale, players side with Dwayna or which rival god of death and ice?

Grenth's supporters stand in his rings and bet candy cane shards against Dwayna's, and the winning god is said to dominate the coming year. Grenth took the Underworld by overthrowing an older god of the dead.

Which undead Scourge of Vabbi rules the Desolation from his Bone Palace in Guild Wars Nightfall?

Palawa Joko ruled Elona for two years until a Kournan general beat him in single combat and sealed him beneath the sands. He returns centuries later as a major villain of Guild Wars 2.

Which banking guild from Cantha runs the storage vaults found in nearly every Guild Wars town?

The Xunlai charge each character 50 gold to open an account, and the vault is then shared by every character the player owns. That makes their agents the easy way to pass gear between characters.

Which rare crafting material became Guild Wars players' substitute currency for big trades?

Glob of Ectoplasm, or ecto for short, is almost always used for deals worth more than 100,000 gold. The material itself goes into Obsidian armor and Chaos Gloves.

A Guild Wars character's first Birthday Present, 12 months after creation, holds which collectible?

A miniature is a small replica of a creature or character that trails after its owner. Presents keep arriving each year until a character's seventh birthday, with later ones adding everlasting tonics.

To which dwarven town do Guild Wars runners rush low-level characters from Beacon's Perch?

Droknar's Forge is normally reached by finishing the Dragon's Lair mission, so being run there skips a large slice of the campaign. It was once the seat of the united Deldrimor tribes.

Which Stone Summit mine, added free to Guild Wars in September 2005, introduced green unique items?

Sorrow's Furnace sits on land once sacred to the Deldrimor, stripped for its metals and worked by enslaved Dredge. Its boss drops with fixed stats set the pattern for every later campaign.

The rank names in Guild Wars' title track for maxing other titles quote which comedy film?

Anchorman lends every rank its name, beginning with the track's own, Kind of a Big Deal. The sixth and last rank needs 30 other title tracks completed.

Which Guild Wars collector trades gifts for a different item each week alongside his dolyak, Professor Yakkington?

Nicholas the Traveler turns up somewhere new every Monday and hands out up to five gifts per account at each stop. He and the dolyak met while huddling together through a Shiverpeaks snowstorm.

Guild Wars Reforged, the 2025 updates bundling all three campaigns, added support for which handheld?

Steam Deck play arrived with the first Reforged patch that December, alongside HD skill icons and a new quest tracker. Anyone who owned a single campaign was upgraded to all three for free.

Which colour of dye doubles as trading currency in Guild Wars' pre-Searing Ascalon?

Black dye stands in for the high-end trade goods that cannot be found in the tutorial kingdom. A common scam there is buying it cheaply from new players who have no idea what it is worth.

Guild Wars 2 is set how long after the original Guild Wars, a gap in which the Elder Dragons awoke?

250 years separate the two games, a gap bridged by a late run of storylines for the original called Guild Wars Beyond. It opens with War in Kryta, then Hearts of the North and Winds of Change.

Which Elder Dragon of shadow and death does the Pact unite to fight in the original Guild Wars 2?

Zhaitan is often called the Undead Dragon, and servants known as its Mouths devour magical artefacts to feed it. Its rise pushes the world's rival orders into a single alliance.

Which playable Guild Wars 2 race of plant-like humanoids awakens fully formed beneath the Pale Tree?

Sylvari have golden sap in their veins where blood would be, and they glow at night. Each one arrives already knowing things learned in a shared Dream before waking.

Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire, the 2017 Crystal Desert expansion, introduced which way of getting around?

Mounts each bring a trick of their own, such as leaping canyons, bounding up cliffs or skimming over quicksand. The raptor is the first one a player unlocks.

Which Guild Wars 2 game mode has three teams besiege each other's keeps and towers across five maps?

World versus World is known in the lore as the Mist War. Fighting there earns World Experience and a World Rank of its own in place of ordinary experience.

Which 8-bit game within a game did Guild Wars 2 launch as an April Fools' Day release in 2013?

Super Adventure Box strips away normal skills and gear so everyone starts equal, then sends players off to rescue a kidnapped princess. Baubles collected inside are traded to a character named Moto for rewards.

Which spell did King Adelbern unleash with his sword Magdaer, leaving Guild Wars 2's Ascalon haunted?

The Foefire ended the last battle for Ascalon City, destroying it and binding the spirits of its people to the land. A Guild Wars 2 PvP map, Legacy of the Foefire, takes its name from the spell.

Which Order of Whispers mentor sacrifices himself at Claw Island in Guild Wars 2's personal story?

Tybalt Leftpaw got his nickname after an explosion fused two fingers of his right hand. He spent six years on clerical work and designed the Chantry of Secrets' security before going into the field.

Which legendary Guild Wars 2 short bow fires galloping unicorns in place of arrows?

The Dreamer is made in the Mystic Forge from a precursor bow called The Lover. A neigh sounds with every shot, and engineers who wield it lob exploding unicorns.

Which Guild Wars profession uses the skill Charm Animal to tame a wild creature as a companion?

Ranger pets only travel with their owner while a pet skill sits on the skill bar, and the animal can be at most four levels above its tamer. Characters made for PvP skip the hunt and start with an Elder Wolf.