This guide covers essential information for both returning and new players of Guild Wars 1. Written by Valkyrie sane on Discord

For Returning Players Birthday Gifts: Before opening your birthday gifts, consider their potential value. While mini-pet value has decreased, older gifts (especially year seven tonics/rare pets) can still yield high returns, but it’s a gamble due to market saturation. White mini-pets are surprisingly more valuable than purple ones.

Old Green Weapons: Your old green weapons may be worthless or surprisingly valuable (up to 100x ecto-10arms). Their worth varies greatly. (This depends on something called Pre-nerf where an items Colour or stat layout changed during the release of Nightfall, Gwlegacy has a guide with the most complete info.)

For Both – Money Related:
• E = Ecto (6-9k) crafting material used to overcome the 100k character and 1,000k storage limit. (Current Pre Holiday prices are much higher)
• A = ‘Arms’ (30-45 ectos) each, used as a higher-end item in trades.

Sometimes you’ll get lucky and people will be too lazy to deal with gold and offer a higher-priced item. Ecto can be exchanged into gold at the vendor in a rush, but 15=100k roughly to other players (6.5k per) while arms need to be traded to people for ecto – down to cash in order to get ingame money.

Every WEEK there is an NPC who collects collector items (1-5 per “gift”, 5 gifts per week per account). The items are often fairly easy to farm in a few hours and selling the gifts for 4-5 ecto each (20-25 for a 5x). This is the easiest way of earning some quick cash. You do need to be able to reach him; he’ll appear in each of the core and expansion areas. The wiki will give you all the details; it covers almost everything (bar pricing). Pricing for items most of it is better for Q9/Q8 (Requires X profession stat 8/9) and for “mods” “Axe – +30hp, 20/20 sundering, 10/10 furious (There are many you will be better looking up)

For Both – Build Related
If you do not have access to much of the game, builds can be quite limited. Prophecies can take the longest (if you don’t get a run which many guildies may offer) before you can access the PvP area.

You can do PvP content; it rewards ‘faction’ for different groups. For BAL faction, you can exchange 1k for a skill to ‘unlock on your account’, 3k for an elite skill (besides PvE skills – see below). These won’t be usable by your character until you buy them at a vendor, or use a skillbook.

Normal skill books are fairly cheap; elite’s are two ecto, but for a build you do only need one. The major benefit to this is unlocked skills work with HEROES – new players mostly, some returning info about newer expansions: When playing alone – or without three to seven other players – you engage with the Henchmen system in each expansion.

In Nightfall/Elona and Eye of the North, they introduced Heroes, which are at FIRST worse than henchmen, but can be micro-managed better. You can edit their builds entirely (using unlocked skills! the benefit to unlocking them – buying them or earning them via quest also unlocks – or capturing elites). You also buy their runes and supply them with weapons, so it can require funding before they become ‘the best’ option for new/returning players.

However, once done, you can have a powerful group “Mesmerway” using many mesmers to spike damage and kill mobs quickly; however, there are only three Mesmer heroes in the game, two requiring hours of gameplay to get and one you can unlock very quickly.

Unlocking Heroes

If you start in Elona/Nightfall, you’ll get these as you do the story, and up until you leave the first island, you cannot gain any others. Once you do, you join reaching LA in Prophecies and leaving the Shing Jeaisland in factions with access to Eye of the North. A short intro quest will give you access to a Monk and Elementalist with very little work. 5 minutes travel and a small cutscene will give you another (Gwen/mesmer). There is also MOX outside major cities, and a quest in the consulate docks for a necromancer and assassin. There are others; the wiki or asking in-guild can reveal.

A Recommendation of Elite Skills (from me) And we need more input from others for this list:
• Energy Surge (Mesmer best hero skill)
• Aura of the Lich(Necro minion master)
• Blood is Power(Support healing necro)
• Signet of Spirits(Ritualist)
• Soul Twisting(Ritualist)
• Xinrae’s Weapon(Ritualist)
• “Incoming!” (Paragon)
• Ether Renewal(Mage for a healing build)
• Zealous Benediction(Monk powerful healing spell)
• Word of Healing(Monk another profession healing spell)

Also a PSA

Survivor has been changed; you do not need to make a character and achieve the complete title without dying. You CAN die; it will reset your progress. Then you will need to earn the amount you had to see the title tracking change, but /deaths will give you info, and you can earn the full title but spending that much exp without dying (see wiki for ways to do that).

Legendary Defender of Ascalon can only be earned in Prophecies and requires a LOT of grinding. You can only earn it in the ‘starter’ zone, which has its own system of trade where Black dyes are used like ectos, and weird things are worth more. Check the wiki for more info!

Quick hero unlocks! Eye of the north gives you the quickest way to unlock heroes at level 20, for the lowest player level, with Monk/Ele for the intro, Mesmer for a few more minutes, Xandra in the fighting torn (and a Derv) Livia (nec) and Hayda? (Para) if you run over to Gadd’s emcampment and do a quick couple of quests/a dungeon. Then Olias(Nec) and a Sin you can get at level 15 by having access to Elona(nightfall) doing the quick intro there will give you some of the starting heroes there also, Monk x2 Warrior/Dev and an Ele, because the Ranger is not a good choice imo Second mesmer is six or more missions into Elona/Nightfall campaign, and the 3rd mesmer is at the end (Razah can have his profession changed at will, but mesmers are the one you need the most of) There is also a second Rit you can get from hardmode content – but its pretty far in so most people if they want a second Rit would use a merc 3 pack for 2 mesmers 1 rit, allowing you to build 5 mesmers team, or 4 and 2 rit (which enables some more healing)