Guild Wars 2: Bazaar of the Four Winds Preview

ZAM gets an early look at all the fun things in the new Guild Wars 2 content patch

The Celestial recipes that players get are crafting rank 400 to create level 80 exotic pieces. The recipes include the crafting component (jewel, insignia and inscription) as well as a recipe for each individual piece of weapons, armor and jewelry. This means that the crafting components will not be used in crafting discovery but require a recipe for the 40 different gear types in the game. Luckily  the recipes can be traded in the likely chance you get duplicates or don’t want to play the RNG game.

The ingredients required for the Celestial items are the same as any other level 80 crafted exotic gear. The fine material used in creation of the jewel, insignia and inscription is Charged Quartz Crystals. Players will obtain normal quartz crystals through mining nodes on the new map and as rewards from the race and Zephyr Sanctum Supply Boxes. Players can then charge these quartz at places of power located throughout the game.

These places of power are skill challenges that players commune with, commonly seen as a white glowing orb. Players can interact with a place of power once a day on an account to convert 25 quartz crystals into a single charged quartz crystal, so only one charged quartz crystal can be created by players any single day while most of the recipes require five of these for a single piece of gear. Quartz may only be charged at skill points already acquired, so if the player does not already have the skill point he/she must first acquire it then interact with the point again to charge quartz. This is also only at places of power skill points. Skill points that involve fighting NPCs or mobs cannot be used to charge the quartz.

The Kite Fortunes can be obtained from Zephyr Sanctum Supply Boxes, Kite baskets and as a random drop from any mob in the game. These boxes will give the player a random boost and a random amount of kite scraps. These kite scraps may be traded at an NPC next to the material traders for a new combat helm skin, the three aspect back pieces or more Zephyr Sanctum Supply Boxes. They additionally have the chance to give a rare golden scrap which allows players to immediately obtain these skins instead of having to save up normal kite scraps. In total there are twelve skins: the three aspects across heavy, medium and light armor helms and the back pieces.

Kite baskets can be found throughout the world similar to the holographic minion spawners seen during the Dragon Bash content. There is an achievement for searching 60 of these kites, but players apparently will only need to actually find 30 of these kites marked on the map. Interacting with a kite will drop two bags of kite supplies that players can loot. It is looting these kite supply bags that will progress the Parachute Pilferer achievement.

Not everyone in Tyria was in a sharing mood, however, as some of the denizens of Tyria stole some kite baskets for themselves. Players are tasked with hunting down these baskets which are located in jumping puzzles and mini-dungeons similar to the Aetherblade caches. There are seven total, with a meta achievement for finding all seven, including one that is again hidden in the Eternal Battleground jumping puzzle (located on top of the dome) and one that is in the Cliffside Fractal.

Completing 16 of the Bazaar of the Four Winds achievements will complete the Bazaar Ambassador meta achievement. This achievement awards players with the Gift of Quartz item, which when used will add a quartz node to the player’s home instance!

The quartz node is not the only thing being added to the home instances. Along with the content is a new permanent activity called Belcher’s Bluff. Part of the new activity is going and challenging NPCs located in each of the home instances. After defeating each of these belching bosses, players will obtain a special skill that may be used during the activity. Additionally, defeating them all allows players to challenge the grandmaster Poyaqui who is located in the new map and will presumably be gone when the Bazaar of the Four Winds content is removed from the game. Defeating Poyaqui will award the living world achievement Grandmaster of Om in addition to another Belcher’s Bluff special skill.

Players will also be able to challenge other players through the use of Belcher Bluff Kits. These kits may be purchased from any barkeep in Tyria at the cost of 5 silver for a one-time use kit or 100 gold for an unlimited use kit. When used, a Belcher’s Bluff table will fall from the sky and allow an opponent to step up for the challenge. The player who uses the kit may select to forfeit the game before a challenger accepts to be refunded the kit. Note that teleporting or leaving an instance will not refund the kit and that the player who uses the kit is automatically locked in as one of the two players for the mini-game.

Since this a permanent activity, Belcher’s Bluff also comes with its own set of achievements located under the Activity tab of the new achievement UI. You can check out ZAM’s overview of the new achievement UI and rewards here. The rewards from the new achievement are given at every 500 total achievement points in addition to a starting reward given at 100 achievement points.

I was able to earn the 100 achievement award on the press server, which rewarded me with 1 gold, 1 laurel and an achievement chest that included a Sip of Liquid Karma, Copper Harvesting Sickle, Copper Logging Axe, Copper Mining Pick, 10 slot Leather Bag, Bank Access Express, Revive Orb, Instant Repair Canister, Experience Booster, Crafting Booster, Karma Booster and a Magic Find Booster. All for just the 100 achievement point reward. The first weapon skins become available at the 1,000 point marker where players can select to unlock one of the weapon skins. The new skins are unlocks not individual rewards. After unlocking the skin players may withdraw an unlimited amount of skins on the account similar to how the Hall of Monument skins work.

Check out all of this content as well as the new sPvP map Skyhammer!

Matt "Mattsta" Adams

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