Guild Wars 2: Major Updates Every Two Weeks

If you’re addicted to Guild Wars 2, don’t expect the desire to wane anytime soon. Today, developer ArenaNet announced plans to move to a “two-week major release cadence” – basically, you’re getting new content every 14 days.

The plans starts July 9th with Bazaar of the Four Winds, an update where “the mystical flying Zephyr Sanctum has landed, bringing magical crystals and amazing movement skills to traders and adventurers alike.” In bullet point form, ArenaNet says that means…

New Events

• Belcher’s Bluff Mini-game: Players can put their Omnomberry Juice drinking skills to the test in this new, permanent mini-game, and challenge their friends in PvP mode.
• Sanctum Sprint Race: Navigate a dizzying obstacle course in this competitive race that will send players leaping over barriers and flying through the air.
• Lessons from the Sky Scavenger Hunt: Players will need to show their mastery of wind, sun and lightning as they search for Sky Crystals and explore hard-to-reach places in the Labyrinthine Cliffs.

New Rewards

• Aspect Back Items: Players can compete in the Sanctum Sprint for a chance to earn one of three special back items representing the aspects of wind, sun and lightning.
• Personal Quartz Node: Once players complete the meta achievement for this release, their home instance will have a daily resource node, allowing the harvesting of quartz – a new material being introduced in this release for crafting new recipes.
• Zephyr Sanctum Model: Players who complete the Lessons from the Sky achievement will be awarded a miniature model of the Zephyr Sanctum, allowing them to view the ship at any time, even after it has flown away.

New Features

• Account Achievement Reward System: Starting with this release, players can unlock rewards like exclusive new armor skins, weapon skins and permanent account bonuses as they earn achievement points. They can also earn laurels, gems, gold, powerful items, and PvP and WvW rewards as achievement scores grow.
• New PvP Map – Skyhammer: Players can battle for control of three capture points in the new Skyhammer map, a high-tech Asura lab packed with jump pads, shattering floor panels and a gigantic, mega cannon.

From there, the 14-day schedule promises “new features, events, rewards and storylines.” What questions do you have for ArenaNet? Leave them in the comments below, and we’ll get them answered by the developers next week.

Greg is an executive editor at IGN, cohost of Podcast Beyond and host of Up at Noon. Follow IGN on Twitter, and keep track of Greg's shenanigans on IGN and Twitter. Beyond!

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