Greetings, Tyrians,

On August 28, we celebrated the 11th anniversary of Guild Wars 2‘s launch. Eleven years! And while any anniversary is cause for celebration, this year’s anniversary was made even more special by the launch of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™, our fourth expansion. It’s truly a privilege to be able to continue supporting Guild Wars 2 into its 11th year and beyond, and the strong support of our community makes that possible.

Not only did we launch Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure on August 22, but we also transitioned to a new approach for releasing expansion content that will help ensure we can deliver game updates more consistently, for more areas of the game. So far, things are going even better than expected. In fact, so many people turned up to play SotO on launch day that we had to quickly spin up more game servers than we’d anticipated needing to accommodate the influx of players!

The dust from the release has mostly settled, but we’re still focused on addressing lingering issues from the launch build and triaging feedback. We’ll have one more bug-fix build scheduled for September 26, then we’ll be turning our full attention to the next major quarterly release…which as of today is less than two months away.

But what happens between each major quarterly update?

As outlined in our August 22 launch blog, each of our annual expansions will be broken down into four major releases. In addition to the story, systems updates, and other content added in those four releases, each one will introduce a fresh set of Wizard’s Vault rewards and objectives. In the months between each update, we’ll release a profession balance update and a festival (or two, depending on the time of year) and run bonus events. We might also make updates to the core game (i.e., content not related to the latest expansion) in this period, but that may not always be the case.

We’ve run week-long bonus events before, and we’re excited for them to make a return in the periods between expansion updates. We’ll be updating some of our existing bonus events to reduce the amount of manual developer effort required to run them, which will make it easier to deploy them more regularly. We’re also carving out some dev time to add entirely new bonus events to the rotation in the future, with the goal of having bonus events occur much more regularly. If you have a cool idea for a bonus event—whether it’s focused on PvE, PvP, or WvW—please drop a comment on our forums.

The Fractal Rush bonus event is running right now and will be available through this coming Tuesday, September 19. During this time, complete Fractals of the Mists to progress bonus achievements and earn rewards. As a reminder, bonus event information is displayed in the in-game UI on the right-hand side of your screen, so you’ll always know when one is running.

Since 2021, the WvW team has spent most of their time working on the World Restructuring system, a WvW infrastructure overhaul intended to produce fairer and more engaging matchups for WvW. It’s a complicated system, which you can learn more about here.

Up until recently, we have been considering the Alliance management UI a required part of shipping the World Restructuring system, which means that players are not currently getting much value from all of the work we have already put in. Many of the backend functions for balance and matchmaking already work at the WvW guild level. It’s extremely valuable for us to get consistent live data from players about how it’s working for them, so getting that system permanently online is now our first priority.

With the reprioritizing, we will not be opening the Alliances system to beta testing this year. We will refocus on delivering an always-on version of World Restructuring to players as soon as possible. From there we want to evaluate the new player experience, collect your feature requests, and monitor live data to allow us to make World Restructuring the best system that it can be.

One major priority in the perpetually active version of World Restructuring is growing and tuning the various criteria we use for matchmaking to create our WvW teams. Our goal here is to build a system with enjoyable experiences across a variety of player types so matchups feel as rewarding as possible.

We don’t have a timeline to share now, but we’ll keep you updated.

We’ll share the dates for other bonus events as they draw near. The in-game Halloween festivities will run from October 17 to November 7. Sometime around then you can also expect to hear about the next major update for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure.

On a closing note, for a few years now, we have been—and will continue to be—a hybrid office, with many of our employees working entirely from home. There’s a lot we love about that, but we also really like having the opportunity to get together in person to learn and work together. A significant number of our studio employees will be doing just that next week, so we’ll be a little quieter here on our official channels as we take advantage of that time.

We’ll see you in Tyria!

The Guild Wars 2 Team

Note: Originally published at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on August 22, 2023.

Hey, everyone,

It’s a big day for Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet—we get to open the portal to Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™ and share the newest chapter in Tyria’s journey with you. When the expansion launches in just a few hours, you’ll begin the first major Guild Wars 2 story in which Tyria is not overshadowed by the threat of the Elder Dragons. You’ll catch up with old friends, make new ones, and together you’ll put your strength to the test against the invading Kryptis forces from the Mists. You’ll master new build combinations with the weapon access opened up by Weaponmaster Training and the relic system. You’ll soar in the skies above Tyria in two new zones that emphasize aerial exploration, with a streamlined method to acquire the skyscale mount and new Flight Training Masteries. You’ll fight alongside fellow players in the open world and in two new Strike Missions. And you’ll find new events, rewards, and challenges as you go about your adventures.

We’re so, so happy to be able to share this with you. In addition to taking the story of Tyria in a fresh direction, Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure represents a new model of expansion content delivery for us. The story that launches today will continue over the next three major releases (roughly one major release per quarter), joined by system updates, additional rewards, new weapon proficiencies, new instanced combat encounters, and more. This new model is meant to ensure that the next major story and content update is never more than a few months away and that the game is supported with a regular cadence of content. We’ve already started applying lessons from the development of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure to our fifth expansion, which we expect to be released next year.

Below is a high-level view of what’s going live today and our plans for what’s coming out over the next several months.

We’ll be talking about the content in each release as it draws nearer.

The launch of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure very nearly coincides with the game’s eleventh anniversary on August 28. We’re deeply grateful for the journey that has unfolded over the last eleven years—a journey that’s only been possible because of the Guild Wars 2 community and one that we’re excited to continue together. We’ll be commemorating the anniversary in the game with birthday presents (distributed according to character age, although some characters will receive birthday presents significantly earlier than August 28 thanks to the launch head-start weekend, leap years, and chronomancy) and Black Lion Trading Company sales.

We’ll also be celebrating the game and expansion with our fans on September 1 at Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, WA. You can learn more about that event here. This is a free, ticketed event—if tickets are all gone by the time you’re reading this, you can still show up for our standby line on the evening of the event.

As a last piece of celebratory news, we recently announced a new line of Guild Wars 2 merchandise, including the Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure Collectible Bundle. The bundle features the Shadow of Nayos Statue, made in the image of a member of Kryptis royalty who looms large in the events awaiting you in the expansion story. Take a tour of the current lineup, and be sure to check back for more items coming soon.

In addition to all of the content going live today, this quarter will also include a skills and balance update, the Halloween festival, a WvW update, and the return of bonus events similar to those we ran in the wake of Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons™. That’ll keep us busy through the end of October. Not long after that the next batch of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure content will drop, bringing with it a new map, a new season of Wizard’s Vault rewards, and more. We’re also planning to run a new weapon proficiency beta-event before the end of this year—we’ll share more information about that when it’s ready.

Thank you for being with us on this journey for eleven incredible years and taking the time to read all about what’s coming next. We wish you many joyful moments exploring Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, and please let us know what you think. Happy adventuring!

Originally held in France in 2013, Foostival is a Guild Wars 2 celebratory gathering organized by the community for the community. Foostival not only promises action-packed foostivities, but also the opportunity to get together with Guild Wars 2 content creators, like-minded people, guild members, and friends—both old and new.

The last Foostival took place in 2018, so there’s plenty of fun to make up for this year. What’s better than one Foostival? Two Foostivals, of course! Foostival 2023 will be held in both France and Germany on September 30.

Check out the official Foostival website or one of the organizing community websites. Keep in mind that the number of available tickets is limited, so please only get a ticket if you intend to go—and be sure to grab yours as soon as possible.

Read on or visit the website for more information.

Where:
Project HIVE e.V. – Nerdkultur Zentrum
Holzschuherstrasse 36-38
90439 Nuremberg, Germany

When:
September 30, 2023, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. CET

Ticket Information:
Price: 10€
Total available tickets: 150

Note on Admission: Admission starts at 9:00 a.m. CET. Have your cell phone or printed ticket ready to be scanned.

Where:
177 Rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris, France

When:
September 30, 2023, 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. CET

Ticket Information:
Price: 12.5€
Total available tickets: 80 (An optional 2023 Foostival T-shirt is available for an additional 10€.)

Note on Admission: Admission starts at 1:30 p.m. CET. Have your cell phone or printed ticket ready to be scanned.

Do you want to sit in incredible style and comfort while playing Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™? We’ve once again teamed up with DXRacer to offer a new Guild Wars 2 Edition of their Craft Series gaming chairs—and there’s a sweepstakes to win one!

Here are all the details:

DXRacer Craft Series Guild Wars 2 Edition
Price: 9.00

DXRacer is offering our fans 5% off when you order here and use the code GW2FAN5!

DXRacer is also running a sweepstakes (for both NA and EU) from now until August 24. Head on over to DXRacer’s Twitter for rules and information on how to enter!

Grand Prize (1 winner): DXRacer Craft Series Guild Wars 2 Edition

Second Prize (10 winners): Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure Standard Edition

Good luck!

The Wizard’s Vault is a reward system coming in Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™ that can point you toward content to play. Let’s dive into what that means, shall we?

The wizards are largely unknown to the denizens of Tyria. That’ll change—at least for you and the commander—next week, when Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure launches and you get to start on the new adventure we’ve been preparing for you.

As an ancient, arcane, and acquisitive lot, the wizards have amassed something of a treasure trove. For reasons best known to themselves (our guess: they don’t often leave their towers), the wizards have set up a system through which enterprising adventurers can earn astral acclaim by completing certain tasks and trade that acclaim in for rewards from their vault. They’ve even set it up so that the exchange works whether you can physically reach their location in skies above Tyria or not!

Behold:

By directing players to various parts of the game with regularly refreshed challenges and rewards, the Wizard’s Vault system functions similarly to a seasonal content pass in other games. But we tried to build the Wizard’s Vault from the ground up to be as player friendly as possible: exclusive cosmetics don’t go away at the end of a season, you can choose your reward order, and there’s no cost in gems or real money. Ultimately, our goal with the Wizard’s Vault is to help you find things to do in Guild Wars 2 and then reward you for doing those things. Some of the choices that we made about the foundations of the system mean that it is a substantially different experience from many seasonal passes:

• Reward choice: As you complete Wizard’s Vault objectives, you earn astral acclaim. Astral acclaim can be spent to buy specific items offered in the Wizard’s Vault shop. Rather than unlocking specific items at specific tiers of progression, you can choose which rewards you want to acquire.
• Reward longevity: The rewards in the Wizard’s Vault rotate every few months, but any cosmetic rewards introduced through the Wizard’s Vault will remain available. When they’re no longer part of the most recently updated offerings, those rewards will go into a legacy tab of the reward shop, where they’ll remain available for purchase for astral acclaim (although at a higher price). Our goal in doing this is to alleviate player anxiety about timed rewards—if something comes into the vault when it’s not a good time for you to be playing much, it’ll still be there for you later.
• Rewards for gameplay: We do not have a premium tier of the Wizard’s Vault that has additional rewards, and players cannot buy astral acclaim with gems or real money.

For this first round of exclusive cosmetic rewards we have the Enchanted Owl Griffon Skin, a new weapon skin collection, and three unique armor pieces. Other items in the Wizard’s Vault shop—in-game currencies, crafting components, and more—will be available through gameplay. One item bundle we’re debuting is a legendary starter kit, meant to provide a new inroad to the legendary crafting system. These starter kits are a way to turn your playtime into progress toward a specific legendary. We’re introducing starter kits for four legendaries in this first round of offerings and intend to rotate in others in the future; we’ll be watching feedback and usage to inform future iterations of the starter kits.

One of the goals for the Wizard’s Vault as a system is to give suggestions to players looking for something to do in the game. To that end, we have daily, weekly, and special objectives related to PvE, WvW, and PvP. Those three categories are presented as checkbox options so you can choose from one, two, or all three categories. In addition to the daily and weekly objective refreshes, special objectives are refreshed each season when the Wizard’s Vault rewards cycle.

The Wizard’s Vault replaces the existing daily login rewards and daily achievements—specifically the generic Daily category. Other categories (like Daily Fractals, Daily End of Dragons, etc.) will still be around in the achievements panel. You’ll continue to receive progress toward Daily Completionist by completing Wizard’s Vault daily objectives and achievement points from the Wizard’s Vault Daily Completionist achievement.

Once one of your characters reaches level 80, the Wizard’s Vault UI will be accessible to all characters on your account, regardless of which expansions you own. If you do not have Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure registered on your account, some rewards will be locked, and you will be unable to visit the in-game location of the Wizard’s Vault. The system will be fundamentally the same for you otherwise. We’ll be keeping an eye on feedback for what we can do in the future to continue to improve the system and bring fun new rewards and experiences to you.

Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure launches on August 22, and you’ll be able to check out the Wizard’s Vault, conquer the sky with your skyscale and Flight Training Masteries, hunt down the demonic Kryptis, and more. If you haven’t had a chance yet, there’s still time to prepurchase so you’re ready to see it all when the expansion comes out!