Guild Wars 2 Celebrates 9th Anniversary, Reveals Fall-Winter Roadmap, And Unlocks New Free Episode
Guild Wars 2 is celebrating its 9th anniversary this week along with some of the oldest characters in the game. For their 9th birthday, these grizzled adventurers will be receiving a Committed Anniversary Achievement Box containing two anniversary weapon packs, a guaranteed wardrobe unlock, a birthday dye, and a birthday cake that gives a 30-minute boost to XP gains, attributes, karma gains, and magic find.
ArenaNet has also released a few relevant stats, touting over 16 million accounts created, more than 1.9 billion hours of playtime, and an impressive 99.9% server uptime over the course of nine years.
Meanwhile, the team’s fall and winter 2021 roadmap confirms that the Cantha-themed Festival of the Four Winds will be returning to Tyria on August 31st to bring a taste of the Canthan culture ahead of the End of Dragons expansion release next year. The festival will be followed by the start of the Shadow of the Mad King Halloween event on October 5th, Wintersday festivities on December 14th, and Lunar New Year celebrations on January 25, 2022.
The roadmap also reveals the schedule for the Elite Spec beta tests, with the next round kicking off on September 21st.
And lastly, ArenaNet resumes its Return to Living World campaign with Season 4’s first free episode: Daybreak. As with previous free episode unlocks, Daybreak can be claimed from the in-game mail or from the Story Journal tab from now until August 29. Do note that the Path of Fire expansion is required to play through the free episode and unlock the new achievements that come with it.
There’s also a new End of Dragons preview video about Skiffs and Fishing, two new features that will be coming to the game when the expansion comes out in February 2022. You’ll find that embedded just after the break.
More information can be found on the Guild Wars 2 official site.
