50 Fun Facts About Guild Wars 2

Which villain wrecked Lion's Arch with a giant drill called the Breachmaker at the end of Living World Season 1?

Scarlet Briar was killed in the battle, but her drill had already pierced a ley line and woken the jungle dragon Mordremoth, the enemy of the first expansion.

Which undead Elder Dragon, which raised the sunken kingdom of Orr, is the final enemy of Guild Wars 2's core story?

Zhaitan commands the Risen, an army of corpses raised from the drowned kingdom, and survives by feeding on magical energy.

Which traditional MMO role did Guild Wars 2 launch without, because its designers found requiring one too restrictive?

Dedicated healer classes were left out so any group of players could team up: every profession instead carries its own healing skill in the sixth slot of its skill bar.

Which plump, amphibious race in Guild Wars 2 seems gentle but bares hidden teeth and claws when angered or hurt?

Quaggans have beluga-like faces and tails like a manatee's, and a whole village raises its young together in shared nurseries.

Which retro 8-bit platformer, built as a game within a game, began as a Guild Wars 2 April Fools' Day release?

Super Adventure Box is hosted in-game by an asura named Moto, and it now returns every year as a festival of its own for solo players or groups of five.

Rytlock Brimstone returned from the Mists blindfolded, as which new profession added in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns?

Revenant fighters channel echoes of legendary heroes and villains from Tyria's past, and their arrival gave the game three professions in each armor class.

Which city in Kryta, called the last bastion of human glory, serves as the human capital in Guild Wars 2?

Divinity's Reach is laid out like a giant wheel: six high roads, each named for a god, divide the lower city into districts around the royal palace.

Which Bellevue, Washington studio, founded by three former Blizzard developers, created Guild Wars 2?

ArenaNet began life in 2000 under the name Triforge, and was bought by its publisher two years later, before it had released a single game.

Which system replaces traditional questing in Guild Wars 2, with outcomes that change a map when players win or lose?

Dynamic events run whether or not anyone turns up: if monsters win a raid they may occupy a fort, which players can then fight to retake.

Which composer, who also scored the original Guild Wars campaigns, wrote the launch soundtrack for Guild Wars 2?

Jeremy Soule wrote it around the same time as his score for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and he has composed for more than 60 games.

Which asura golemancer of Destiny's Edge died fighting the Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik in the Crystal Desert?

Snaff was the guild's peacemaker, forever pushing its quarrelling human and charr towards friendship, and his death broke the group apart for years.

Which norn ranger and sculptor led Destiny's Edge and fought beside her black dire wolf, Garm?

Eir Stegalkin carved statues for a living near Hoelbrak, and her death in the jungle during Heart of Thorns leaves her son Braham to take up her bow.

Which flaming sword, once carried by Prince Rurik of Ascalon, is wielded by the charr Rytlock Brimstone?

Sohothin was once the human war god's own blade, given to Ascalon's royal line as a gift of peace, and a brawl over who should own it once got Rytlock and Logan Thackeray arrested in Lion's Arch.

Which Grand Duchess of the Nightmare Court emerged from the Pale Tree with Caithe and was once her lover?

Faolain embraced a great darkness that Caithe pulled back from, and the two are finally forced to fight when the jungle dragon corrupts her in Heart of Thorns.

Which medium-armor profession does Caithe, the sylvari of Destiny's Edge, follow, fighting with a pair of daggers?

Thief looks like a successor to the assassins of the first Guild Wars, with its shadowsteps and knives, yet in the lore the two traditions are unrelated.

Which ruler did Logan Thackeray rush to defend at Ebonhawke, leaving Destiny's Edge one short against Kralkatorrik?

Queen Jennah later decided that the world needed her champion more than she did, and sent him out of Kryta to follow his own path.

Which sylvari term names a personal quest sent by the Dream, such as Caithe's calling to slay an Elder Dragon?

Wyld Hunt callings come to only a small share of sylvari, who are then known as Valiants and describe the pull as an itch that cannot be scratched until the task is done.

Which young crystal dragon did Caithe help rear, to atone for stealing the egg it hatched from?

Aurene grows from a hatchling in Living World Season 3 into the Elder Dragon who takes charge of the world's magic at the close of End of Dragons.

Which dragon champion betrayed Kralkatorrik, fought beside Destiny's Edge and was killed by her old master?

Glint had turned against her master in secret, and gathered his blood to make the Dragonsblood Spear that the guild carried into the battle.

Which actress, also seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural, voices the asura Zojja of Destiny's Edge?

Felicia Day created and starred in The Guild, a web series about online gamers that she based on her own years of playing World of Warcraft.

Which light-armor profession in Guild Wars 2 fights by creating clones of itself and shattering them at enemies?

Mesmer specializations added later let players bend time as chronomancers or trade the clones for psionic blades as virtuosos.

Which Guild Wars 2 mode, known in lore as the Mist War, pits three teams against each other over keeps and towers?

World versus World lets players build war machines to batter down gates and walls, and scales everyone who enters to level 80.

Which fast-travel points in Guild Wars 2 must be discovered by exploring before a character can teleport to them?

Waypoints can fall to enemies and become contested, which blocks travel to them until players win the area back.

Which Guild Wars 2 currency is bought with real money and can also be traded for in-game coin on the Currency Exchange?

Gems are spent in the Black Lion Trading Company's store, and because coin can be swapped for them, everything in the shop can be earned by playing.

Which crafting station in Lion's Arch, an entrance to the djinn Zommoros' realm, is used to create legendary weapons?

Mystic Forge recipes are never shown in the game, so players have to discover them, and every one calls for exactly four ingredients.

Which rat-like race in Guild Wars 2 grows smarter in large groups and is preoccupied with shiny objects?

Skritt chatter in near-ultrasonic chirps, so a big colony shares ideas fast enough to rival the asura, who see the whole species as a threat.

Which Path of Fire mount is unlocked after the story by collecting runestones and eggs across the Crystal Desert?

Griffon hunters must also buy ten items from renown heart merchants at 25 gold each, so the mount costs 250 gold before it ever leaves the ground.

Which movement feature did Heart of Thorns add so players could cross the vertical maps of the Maguuma jungle?

Gliding was confined to the jungle at first, then opened up across the rest of the world in a 2016 update.

End of Dragons returns to which continent, ruled by the Empire of the Dragon and last visited in Guild Wars Factions?

Cantha had cut its ties with the rest of the world, and its inventors had learned to turn the petrified Jade Sea into dragonjade, a magical fuel for their machines.

Which villain, once disguised as the mursaat Lazarus, tries to seize the Elder Dragons' power in Path of Fire?

Balthazar is the human god of war and fire, and partway through the story he kills the player's character, who then has to fight a way back from the realm of the dead.

Which sylvari scholar of Orr wields the greatsword Caladbolg and becomes the first Marshal of the Pact?

Trahearne is a necromancer, chosen to lead because he belonged to none of the three orders, and troubadours still sing a ballad about his deeds.

Which apple-loving Order of Whispers mentor sacrifices himself on Claw Island so the player's character can escape?

Tybalt Leftpaw spent six years on clerical work before he was trusted as a field agent, and his nickname comes from an explosion that mangled his right hand.

Which of the three orders in Guild Wars 2 is a society of scholars and archivists led by the asura Gixx?

Durmand Priory members work from a fortress carved into a mountain, which houses their archives and gave the order its founder's name.

Which undead lich king rules Elona with his Awakened army and is finally devoured by a dragon in Living World Season 4?

Palawa Joko gives himself titles such as Joko the Beloved and Joko the Inevitable, and he tried to unleash a plague on the world before he was eaten.

Which spirit, once a ruler of Kryta, returns to Lion's Arch every Halloween to play pranks and tell terrible jokes?

Mad King Thorn had eight wives in life and now bosses festival crowds through a game of commands; his own son, the Bloody Prince, is his great rival.

Which of the four charr High Legions was cast out for deceit and went to war with the other three?

Flame Legion shamans once dominated all charr, and since their treachery came out the group has been known as the traitor legion, or mockingly as the Gold Legion.

Which spell, unleashed by King Adelbern as the charr took Ascalon City, turned the kingdom's people into ghosts?

The Foefire was cast through the king's sacred sword Magdaer, and the ghosts it made still haunt the ruins that players fight through in the Ascalonian Catacombs.

Which asura capital in Guild Wars 2 takes the form of a giant floating cube built around ancient ruins?

Rata Sum began as a hasty outpost after the Great Destroyer drove the asura from their homes deep underground, and runs on geomystical generators.

Which undead dragon, a world boss in Sparkfly Fen, is fought with hylek turrets and a megalaser?

Tequatl the Sunless takes its name from a hylek word meaning the one in darkness, and it holds far more of its master's power than an ordinary dragon minion.

Which Guild Wars 2 dungeon is an array of mini-dungeons with a difficulty scale that climbs from 1 to 100?

Fractals of the Mists is hosted by an asura scientist named Dessa, and from scale 20 a damaging effect called Agony forces players to bring special resistance.

Which guild did the Pact Commander and Rytlock Brimstone found as the successor to Destiny's Edge?

Dragon's Watch grew out of the allies the player first gathered in Living World Season 1, among them Marjory Delaqua, Kasmeer Meade and Braham, and was formally founded years later.

Which South Korean company behind Lineage and Aion bought the Guild Wars studio in 2002 and published Guild Wars 2?

NCSoft, which has since shortened its name to NC, launched its first game, Lineage, in 1998 and later released City of Heroes and Blade & Soul.

Which ruined shrine in the Eye of the North lets deeds from the first Guild Wars unlock rewards in Guild Wars 2?

Hall of Monuments rewards unlock point by point, up to 30, once the two game accounts are linked, and include armor sets, miniatures and pets for rangers.

Which charr centurion, the son of Rytlock Brimstone, becomes Jormag's champion in The Icebrood Saga?

Ryland Steelcatcher led the Steel Warband and longed to step out of his famous parents' shadow; at the saga's end he is slain by his own father.

Which golden city hidden in the Maguuma jungle is guarded by the Exalted and holds a dragon egg in Heart of Thorns?

Tarir was built by the Forgotten some two hundred years earlier, and its Exalted guardians slept through the centuries until the egg drew near.

Which crafting discipline, added with Heart of Thorns, works from a guild hall and makes decorations and guild upgrades?

Scribe work is slower than other crafting: a finished schematic goes into the guild's assembly device, which needs time to turn it into the final item.

Which peace-loving elder planted the Pale Tree with a human named Ronan and carved the tablet that guides the sylvari?

Ventari was a centaur, once a proud warrior against humans, who came to hate the violence and fled south to found a sanctuary open to every race.

Which alphabet, promoted by scholars so every intelligent being could read, became the standard writing system of Tyria?

New Krytan was designed as a compromise between the Old Ascalonian and Old Krytan alphabets, and over two centuries it spread to the asura colleges and the norn.

Which champion of Jormag, a creature of living ice, was the first foe beaten by the united Destiny's Edge?

The Dragonspawn could corrupt minds: the men who marched against it came back as frozen Icebrood, and the women did not come back at all.

Which voice actress plays Caithe in Guild Wars 2, as well as Jessica in Rick and Morty and Haruko in FLCL?

Kari Wahlgren voices several other characters in the game as well, and FLCL, a six-episode series, was her debut in anime.