Game updates/January 2025

January 2025 updates
Tuesday, 28 January 2025 Wednesday, 15 January 2025 Tuesday, 14 January 2025
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Update - January 28, 2025

Note to users of third-party programs: The game may not launch or work properly after we release a new build if you use a third-party program, due to possible incompatibilities. ArenaNet cannot offer support if a third-party modification breaks, interferes with, or prevents you from playing Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2. Our policy regarding third-party programs can be found here.

Lunar New Year

Another new year dawns on Tyria—join the festivities in Divinity's Reach! The Year of the Snake is once more upon us, and the Lunar New Year festival returns with new rewards. Collect and open lucky envelopes to earn essences of luck, delicious foods, fireworks, valuable items, and a chance to find the new Lucky Snake Lantern and Lucky Great Snake Lantern backpacks!

• The Lunar New Year annual meta-achievement, Lunar New Year Customs, has been updated with a new reward, the Snaketail Breeches! Last year's meta-achievement reward, the Dragon Descendant's Helm, can now be purchased from the Lunar New Year rewards vendors.
• The new Lantern weapon set is now available! You'll receive your choice of a weapon by progressing the (Annual) Lunar New Year Customs meta-achievement, as well as the (Weekly) Lunar Festivities achievement.
  • The Fortunate weapon set is now available from the weekly Lunar New Year vendors.
• Three new Jade Serpent weapons are now available as a rare drop from Divine Lucky Envelopes. They can also be purchased from Sparking Stone in Divinity's Reach.
• Lucky envelope rewards have been updated with new items for the Year of the Snake, including a new backpack to celebrate the Year of the Snake in style.
• A new mini, the long-awaited Mini Snake, has been added to the festival reward vendors.
• Deft Lahar is visiting Divinity's Reach for the festival and has a variety of homestead recipes for your favorite Lunar New Year decorations.
• New guild decorations have been added to commemorate the Year of the Snake:
  • Snake Statue
  • Golden Snake Statue
  • Plain Red Lantern
  • Plain White Lantern
• The offseason Lunar New Year vendor in Hooligan's Route now stocks a greater amount of Lunar New Year items to enjoy throughout the new year, including the recipes for homestead decorations.
• Special objectives are available in the Wizard's Vault to earn extra astral acclaim as you enjoy the festival.
• The area to light each firecracker during Firecracker Lighting adventures has been adjusted to more accurately reflect the firecracker's position and reliably detect players.

Celestial Challenge Updates

• Using Lucky Aura to open extra treasure chests now also advances the (Weekly) Lunar Festivities achievement.
• Added several jump platforms to make it easier to navigate up to terraces.
• Improved the responsiveness of the race checkpoints in the "Horse's Challenge: Race to the gates!" and "Rabbit's Challenge: Race to the gates!" events.
• Updated bundle skill names and icons in the "Boar's Challenge: Deliver the celestial tributes!" and "Rat's Challenge: Deliver the celestial tributes!" events.
• Attempting to pick up a second bundle while already carrying one during Boar's and Rat's challenges will now cancel the attempt rather than consuming the second bundle.
• Fixed an animation issue with the Monkey's Firework skill and shortened its cooldown.
• The Ox's March skill now pulls enemies toward the player in addition to its current effects.
• Extended the Ram's Advance dash to better match its marker and increased its damage to targets.
• The Snake Tunnel skill no longer requires a path, enabling teleportation up to the terraces. It now also grants superspeed after use.

Lunar New Year will be active until February 18 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8). See you in Divinity's Reach!

General

• Improved the precision of frame-timing calculations for the Frame Limiter graphics option.
• Added 120 and 144 FPS options to the Frame Limiter graphics options.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the deadeye Malice user interface from rendering correctly in some environments.
• Fixed UI interactivity while mouse-looking and zooming.
• Updated the days remaining in the Wizard's Vault Special Objectives tab.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• Build: 174,313
• The World Selection panel was removed and replaced by a Region Selection panel, featuring only America and Europe as choices.
• The Mini Amnytas Stormscale's rarity was changed from rare to exotic.
• The description for Memories of the Zodiac was changed to correctly state that crafting using them requires masterwork Essences of Luck instead of fine Essences of Luck.
• The Vagabond's Shoulder Skin was renamed to Vagabond's Shoulders Skin.
• Harvesting home instance nodes manually has been re-enabled.
• The recipe for the Silver Deimos Trophy homestead decoration got fixed, and now it requires Fragments of Saul's Burden instead of Sabetha Flamethrower Fragment Pieces.
• Upon mounting up, you now need to wait 1 second before using any of the dismount skills, including Bond of Faith.

Update - January 15, 2025

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a texture error on the medium human female Vagabond's Hood and Vagabond's Shoulders skins.
• Fixed a server crash.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the Bloodstone Boogie emote's sound to overlap.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

•  Spreading Ice: A typo was corrected in this skill's description.
• Build: 173,767

Late Notes - January 14, 2025

Necromancer

• Fixed an issue that prevented the scythe visual effect from being properly displayed if it was stowed while in Reaper Shroud.

Update - January 14, 2025

General

• Fixed a terrain issue in Lowland Shore that prevented some wisps in the Tales of the Lowland Wisps collection from reaching their destination, blocking progress.
• Fixed an issue in Lowland Shore that prevented some wisps in the Tales of the Lowland Wisps collection from being interacted with when their objective was unlocked but still incomplete, blocking progress.

Dragon Response Missions

Dragon Response missions have been updated in preparation for the Return to Icebrood Saga bonus event. These changes allow the preparation phase objective to scale properly for group size; the number of objectives to clear the phase for a group of five players will be slightly reduced from the previous state, while the number for solo players will be greatly reduced.

• Removed the five-minute timer for the preparation phase events and replaced it with a progress objective that fills as players participate in the event's subobjectives. Progress is still gained if the individual subobjective has been completed. Morale boosts can still be gained if the three subobjectives are completed; the requirements for these objectives do not scale and have been significantly lowered.
• Fixed various pathing issues that could leave characters in awkward positions.
• Cleaned up a number of marker display issues and inaccurate skill text for events.
• Fixed a number of small NPC issues to improve event performance.

Guild Wars 2 Wiki Notes

• The Tiny Royal Crown Helm Skin and its associated skins were renamed to Tiny Royal Crown Skin and Tiny Royal Crown respectively.
• Build: 173,646