Day 1 Tips and Tricks

I think by now most of us have gotten a taste of the game through beta weekends and stress tests, but I know there are a few of you out there who are still pristine GW2 virgins, nervously awaiting your wedding day on the 25^th. Fear not ye newb, for I shall impart upon you some of the things I wish I had known when I first entered Tyria.

Harvesting is easily overlooked, but you should definitely make it a priority. It gives a ridiculous amount of experience and supplies you with essential items to use for crafting or to sell on the broker. Even if you’re like me and think crafting is the genital wart of MMO’s, you’ll want to pursue harvesting. On day one, you’ll need to buy a sickle, pick and axe to start harvesting at the three different node types. These are really cheap and can be bought from a vendor right in your starting area. Once you have these, keep an eye on the mini-map for harvest locations which show up as little leaves for gathering, rocks for mining, or wood piles for lumber harvesting. Right about now you’re probably thinking that you could have figured all this shit out yourself, but I’m about to give you a true nugget of “lesson learned” gold. One very easy mistake to make is to walk away after you’ve done your harvest without picking up the items. I played the game for days and days without realizing that I was actually leaving all those awesome materials sitting on the ground after I harvested them. Make sure to either turn “auto-loot” on in your options, or alternatively click to pick up all the materials in the “unclaimed loot” window after your harvest is complete.

Bag space will quickly become a problem if you are looting downed enemies like you should be. There is a neat trick to free up bag space quickly without destroying valuable materials. Open your bags and click the bag option cog, then select “Deposit all Collectibles”. This will move all the craft skill mats you’ve been pick up into your bank vault for easy access later on when your manhood dissolves and you decided to become a crafter. Another good way to free up space when you’re not in town is to break down unneeded gear with a salvage kit. These kits start with 25 charges and can break down weapons and armor into crafting mats which can then be shipped back to your bank with the afore mentioned Deposit Collectibles feature.

Jumping puzzles are spread randomly throughout Tyria and usually offer up nice rewards. You can try to find these yourself if you’re feeling adventurous, or you can simply follow in the footsteps of greater men and read this wiki to learn their locations. These puzzles can be quite challenging, especially for those of us who haven’t played a platform game since Super Mario 3.

Leveling in Guild Wars 2 honestly happens quite naturally while you are enjoying the game. Don’t worry about finding a grind spot to kill the same creature over and over, or a boring repeatable quest to do until you can’t stand it any more. Keep an eye out for NPC’s who will be shouting out at you offering quests, or just look for orange circles on your mini-map indicating area events. Also be sure to keep moving through your personal story quest line which is delineated on your map by a green star. After you’ve achieved weapon swapping at level 7, don’t be afraid to sack up and hit World vs. World PvP. You’ll get auto-leveled up to 80 and have enough basic skills to stand your ground against the rest of the rabble.