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GW2 Gold Farming - in-depth Guide for Guild Wars 2

GW2 Gold Farming - in-depth Guide for Guild Wars 2

Find out what are the best and the most efficient ways to farm Gold in Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 Gold Farming Guide

Introduction

The Guild Wars 2 provides players with some unique ways of making gold, ranging from simple daily’s farm to more sophisticated methods, like Trading Post Flipping. Despite this abundance of methods, many players still struggle to make a worthwhile profit or spend hours upon hours making it. The farming efficiency is, in our opinion, the most important thing when it comes to making an in-game profit; after all, if you have 4 hours to spare, and want to make 100g, making it in 2 hours will save you half of your free time. We hope that this guide will help you optimize your Gold earning activities so that you have more time to spare for other in-game endeavors and adventures. For better evaluation of the certain Gold-farming methods, we have devised a 0 to 10 point system, which will come in handy when choosing a gold earning activity that is best suited for you.

Point system explanation

We have awarded a maximum of 10 points to every described farming activity in each of the following categories: Time Consumption, Fun Factor, Risk Level, Potential Profits, and Initial and Sustained Investment Needed. You can check the table below for categories explanation (scoring system in some categories may feel unintuitive or reversed, but this is necessary in order to make the Total Score straightforward).

Also, please keep in mind that awarded scores are subjective and might vary substantially from your own experience or/and opinion!

Time Consumption - A higher number means LESS time needed for the activity (this includes setup time needed, and the minimal time investment needed for an activity to make it profitable, more flexible activities, e.g. those that don’t require spending 3+ hours straight doing them, will get higher scores).
Fun Factor - A higher number equals MORE Fun to be had while performing said activity (this is probably the most subjective category, and your opinion may vary greatly. You can modify this score according to your own experience, to make Total Score more relevant to you).
Risk Level -  A higher number means LOWER risk associated with the said activity (by risk we mean the probability of losing money or not making a profit/making a profit that is not worth the time invested while performing the said activity).
Potential Profits - A higher number means HIGHER potential profits (a Gold/hour invested is also taken into account; this category may be a bit subjective because the profitability of most activities depends on player’s experience in performing said activities).
Initial and Sustained Investment Needed - A higher number means that LOWER initial investment is needed (this represents the amount of Gold and Time that have to be sunk to start and maintain an Activity; the Gold could be saved with more time investment in some cases. More investment-heavy activities will also be riskier in general).
Total Score - This shows how easy and profitable said activity is overall, the HIGHER the number, the better (please take this number with a pinch of salt, because there are a lot of factors that just can’t be simply evaluated. We recommend that you try out all of the described activities in order to find the one that suits your play style the best).

How to earn Gold


1. Trading Post Flipping
Time Consumption 10 / 10
Fun Factor 6 / 10
Risk Level 5 / 10
Potential Profits 10 / 10
Initial and Sustained Investment Needed 2 / 10
Total Score 33 / 50
Description - Trading Post is a great place to make a profit. Reselling items and manipulating prices is the way to go. This is quite difficult and can get risky, leading to Gold loss if not thoroughly thought out, however.

General Strategy - Your goal is to buy stuff cheaply and resell it for a profit. Good knowledge of Item prices and quite high initial investment are necessary to do this. First of all, you have to find out what items are most popular at the moment and what pieces of gear are regarded as the best, and therefore most searched for. Then, you have to analyze the prices of those most wanted items in order to make a profit out of reselling them. It is better to start slowly, and get the grasp of the Trading Post over time, than rushing your purchases, and getting stuck with too many items, that will potentially make you a profit, but are not in a high demand; research never ends when Flipping The Trading post, always collect new information, and do not risk if you don’t know the approximate odds of making high (and fast) profit. A word of warning: Trading Post behaves like a living creature, it responds to player needs, and prices are very fluid because of that; this could lead to increased profits or to a great loss of money.

Tips and Tricks
  1. Be patient! Posting up items costs a fee, so reposting your auctions will consume quite a bit of your hard-earned money. Sometimes it is better to wait a bit, before deciding to re-post.
  2. Don’t panic! Market prices tend to fluctuate (monthly, weekly or even daily); if you bought something for 25 silver each, and now it is worth 24, wait – there is a good chance that price will go back up in the foreseeable future (just let the Demand-Supply correlation work its magic).
  3. Don’t flood the Trading Post with all your items of a said type, store some of them instead and post them up gradually as they get sold out; this will let you save substantial amounts of money on auction fees over time.
  4. Use Trading Post tools and statistics provided by specialized Guild Wars 2 Trading Post related websites (for example the gw2spidy, and the gw2bltc). They will provide you with a lot of precious information, which in turn will increase your profits.
  5. Take notes of what sells well and what doesn’t, and focus on the most demanded items.

 


2. Silverwastes Gold Farm
Time Consumption 5 / 10
Fun Factor 5 / 10
Risk Level 8 / 10
Potential Profits 6 / 10
Initial and Sustained Investment Needed 8 / 10
Total Score 32 / 50
Description - Silverwastes is a location available for all players. Doing Meta Events here will earn you access to the reward chests.
General Strategy -  You don’t need any specific builds and good gear to participate in the Silverwastes Gold Farm, mount or a class with good mobility is preferable, however, as there will be a lot of running around, and you don’t want to fall behind too much. Firstly, look for a group advertisement in LFG under the Silverwastes tab. When you get added, and make your way to the place (via Teleport to Friend for example) your group will start running around the map while briefly participating in Meta Events using the RIBA pattern (RIBA stands for Red>Indigo>Blue>Amber, and relates to the order of the rotation used by groups; that is why most of the advertisements will contain this abbreviation). After completing this phase, the Breach phase happens, during which each base will spawn a boss that your group has to kill in order to get a reward (there is a time limit for doing it, but this should not pose a problem). The last phase starts after the bosses are defeated, and takes place in the Vinewrath Tangle. There are three paths that lead to the Vinewrath Tangle, and they have to be cleared in order: South > Mid > North. You should pick one of them (or go to the one that you were assigned to), and kill the corresponding Boss. After all three lanes are cleared, the Vinewrath will get defeated, and the reward chests will spawn for everyone who took part in the Event. After that, the Group Commander will lead the “chest train” around the map during a 15-minute time-out segment of the Meta, just follow him, and collect your rewards. After the time out phase ends, the Events reset, and you do them all over again; one cycle takes about 1 hour. Keep in mind that your profits from Silverwastes depend on your drops, and therefore are RNG dependant.
Tips and Tricks
  1. If you don’t know the Meta Rotation, just follow the Group Commander.
  2. Learn the boss fights to avoid unpleasant surprises.
  3. Don’t forget to bring extra Keys (they also drop during Meta Events, but you may get too few) in order to open all chests.
  4. Do the Tangled Labyrinth (the entrance is located at the Hidden Depths Waypoint) during the timeouts, this will earn you some extra loot (the chest at the end of the Labyrinth requires the Key of Greater Nightmares, and you can open it multiple times as long as you have keys for it, so clear out your bag space if you have collected a lot of them); if you have problems completing it, just ask for help in the chat, someone will respond for sure.

 


3. 
Istan Gold Farm
Time Consumption 4 / 10
Fun Factor 6 / 10
Risk Level 8 / 10
Potential Profits 5 / 10
Initial and Sustained Investment Needed 8 / 10
Total Score 31 / 50
Description - Istan is an easily accessible location, that doesn’t require much skill or gold to farm in. The Path of Fire and unlocking Living World Season 4 Ep 1 are necessary for gaining access.
General Strategy - After gaining access to Istan, what you have to do is to find a Tag (use the LFG, farming squads are usually advertised there) that runs the Istan Gold Farm. There are no specific gear or skill requirements, and the whole process is even easier than the Silverwastes farm. Mount or a high mobility class would be beneficial for this because you don’t want to get left behind. The simple strategy is: you run around following your Group Commander while tagging as many mobs and champions as possible, and basically doing what you are told to do. The go-to Istan events are: Clear the Awakened from the Graveyard, Defend Akili while he recalibrates mirrors around the Astralarium, The Palawadan meta event chain, and The Great Hall meta event chain. Don’t forget to open all the chests in the area after the Event is finished, or you will lose a part of your loot (there is a cap of 30 Chests looted per character, per one Meta event).
Tips and Tricks
  1. After you have finished all Metas available on your current map, and there is nothing else to do, try to swap Instances (you can do it by Joining and leaving a PvP lobby or by reclogging for example) to find a fresh map with Meta events still happening. This will allow you to avoid Downtime when farming, and in turn, increase your money gained per hour.
  2. Don’t fall behind; follow your Group Commander to not miss out on anything. Mobile classes, like Druids, are preferable for farming.
  3. Don’t salvage unidentified gear that you have looted, just sell it on the Trading Post for more profit.

 


4. T4 Daily Fractals
Time Consumption 7 / 10
Fun Factor 7 / 10
Risk Level 8 / 10
Potential Profits 3 / 10
Initial and Sustained Investment Needed 4 / 10
Total Score 29 / 50
Description - Daily Fractals can be a good additional source of income, they require good gear, skill, and encounter knowledge, however. They are one time per day deal but offer a high influx of gold for small time investment.
General Strategy - This will require a strong (well geared, skilled and experienced) 5-man group to run. You will also need Agony Resistances. If you have never done Fractals before, start at the lower Tier and make your way up to Tier 4, you will gain the necessary knowledge and experience that way. When your group is assembled, and you are experienced and geared enough it is the time to start running Daily Fractals. Your goal is to complete 3 Fractals that are a part of a T4 Daily Achievement; this normally takes about 30 to 60 minutes. You can try running those in the Challenge mode, for better loot, if you feel strong and experienced enough. Completing Daily Fractals will earn you Ascended Gear (as possible loot from chests), Fractal Encryptions that could be opened or sold at the Trading Post, and Stabilizing Matrixes. Running a Daily Fractals, as the name suggests, is a once-per-day thing, but you can also farm Fractals after you have completed the Daily in order to get even more Fractal Encryptions, this, however, is not as profitable per hour, as completing the Daily itself.
Tips and Tricks
  1. You can buy 30 Deeply Discounted Fractal Encryption Keys per day from the BUY-4373. Do it, as those are needed to open Fractal Encryptions.
  2. You can check the corresponding Fractal completion guides in order to get in grips with the encounter mechanics, and tactics in general.
  3. Run the challenge mode while in a strong group, as it will earn you bonus rewards.
  4. Invest in the Recursive Resourcing mastery, as it will grant you bonus rewards from opening Fractal Encryptions.

 

END NOTE

Guild Wars 2 provides its players with lots of opportunities that could result in gold added to your pocket, and it is up to you to seize them. Activities described above are just a small portion of the possibilities that the game presents when it comes to Gold earning. Please remember that the most important thing is to have fun while playing, so if you get bored or exhausted while farming just take a break, or you will get burned out.

Please do note that this is an early version of our guide, and we will be happy to receive constructive criticism, that will help us improve it, so leave your suggestions in the comments section below. We also plan to add further Money-making activities to the list in the foreseeable future, so stay tuned.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of ArenaNet.