GW2 Purchasing Help
- Last updated: April 18, 2021
From B2P to F2P, buying all releases or just the one, Guild Wars 2’s business model has gone through many iterations over the years. In this guide we’ll help you figure out which release or releases you have to purchase in order to be up to date.
F.A.Q.
Which GW2 Expansion To Buy?
Path of Fire, which is the latest expansion. Purchasing PoF now also includes the previous expansion, Heart of Thorns so you don’t need to buy them separately.
Which Edition To Get?
GW2 expansions have 3 editions:
- Standard: removes all F2P restrictions, unlocks all expansion content.
- Deluxe: Standard + another character slot and some cosmetic/convenience items
- Ultimate: Deluxe + 2000 gems at a discount price.
In short, going with the cheapest option (Standard) is perfectly fine. You won’t be at any disadvantage and should you change your mind, you can upgrade to Deluxe anytime through the store. Ultimate is just Deluxe with some extra gems.
What’s “Living World” And Does PoF Unlock It?
Living World (or more recently, Sagas) is primarily open world/story content released every few months between expansions. These consist of seasons, and seasons are broken into chapters.
Purchasing PoF does make you eligible to play current and future episodes for free, but not previous ones. Let me explain.
If you log in while a chapter is current content, it is forever unlocked for your account for FREE. Should you miss a chapter however, you’ll have to buy it from the store. Every chapter released before the creation of your account will have to be bought for gems.
Technically you can even buy chapters with gold you earn by playing the game, if you convert the gold to gems via the ingame currency exchange.
Editions
Standard
This is the most basic version of the game that you could buy, and should do the trick for most players. Unlocks all the expansion content and removes F2P restrictions. You even get a max level character boost!
Unless you are also interested in buying gems, you don’t miss out on any one-time deals.
Deluxe
A tier above standard, this includes a couple of extras like a character slot and a VIP pass but costs almost double the price. If you can’t decide whether you want Standard or Deluxe, the good thing is, you don’t have to!
A Deluxe upgrade is sold on the gem store so if you buy the standard edition you may still change your mind later and upgrade whenever you want.
Compared to the Standard, Deluxe offers:
- Additional character slot.
- Identity Repair Kit
- Sunspear Outfit
- Lily of the Elon Permanent Pass
- Character Slot
- Identity Repair Kit
- Sunspear Outfit
- VIP Pass
Additional Character Slot
Value: 800 gems
You'll almost certainly have to buy a couple of them later on if you're interested in multiclassing. Overall a good thing to have if the base 5 slots aren't enough for you.
Identity Repair Kit
Value: 1,000 gems
A combination of 2 items, the Total Makeover Kit and the Name Change Contract. This item can be used to completely redesign your character, all the way from gender to their name.
It's unlikely that you'd end up using these in your first weeks or even months of playing.
Sunspear Outfit
Value: Deluxe exclusive, no gem store price
Created in the image of the ancient peacekeepers of Elona, the Sunspear Outfit is a unique armor skin set that can be used on all your characters and isn't obtainable outside the Deluxe and Ultimate purchases. Purely a cosmetic thing.
Lily of the Elon Permanent Pass
Value: 800 gems (estimated), Deluxe exclusive
A VIP pass, these usually go for ~800 gems on the store and provide access to a densely packed service hubs you can teleport to from anywhere in the world.
Certainly a good buy, but not an essential one.
Ultimate
Deluxe + 4,000 gems for the price of ~2,000 gems, which is pretty much the best discount you could hope for. Overall this is worth it if you were to buy gems for real money at any point, but otherwise it’s not that big of a deal.
Of course if you have the money or simply want to support the developer studio for making a great game then go for it, it’s good value!
With 4k gems you could buy everything from our list of recommended gem store purchases, which would be a nice quality of life upgrade.
Living World Seasons
Season 2-4 and the Icebrood Saga are sold for gems. Season 1 was temporary content and is no longer available.
While sometimes bundles containing all chapters of a season are available in the store, that’s not always the case. You can however buy all the individual chapters one by one through the story journal anytime.
Some of the most important chapters we’d like to recommend are both in Season 4:
- Episode 3, War Eternal is required for unlocking the Roller Beetle, the fastest ground mount in the game.
- Episode 6, Long Live the Lich is required for unlocking the Skyscale, a flying mount.
Official Retailers
It’s important that you buy your GW2 code from a trusted and approved source, else you may even risk getting your account banned! You can choose to buy the game straight from ArenaNet or look for official retailers in your country.