Siege Turtle

“The Luxon Armada’s descendants have raised and trained these massive turtles for over two hundred years. Each mount can bear two riders: one to handle the turtle, and another to operate the weapons strapped to its shell. Raise your own walking war machine and take a friend out for combat adventures!
— Official description
The Siege Turtle is a combat mount that can be used by two players at once: a driver and a gunner. It can be exclusively unlocked through End of Dragons, and can be freely borrowed during multiple events within the expansion maps. This mount, along with an upgraded skimmer, is the only one that can be also used underwater.
Upgrades to the turtle mount increase its health, improve combat efficiency and grant additional health to other unlocked mounts.
Unlocking[edit]
- First, acquire a Turtle Egg by either completing the Dragon's End meta event The Battle for the Jade Sea, or by buying it from Peddler for 200 Writs of Dragon's End. This will reward you with a turtle egg (not an inventory item) that unlocks the Stomping Around achievement.
- You will be prompted to talk to Rota in Arborstone. This will unlock the first collection Turtle Unlock: Starting Small, complete it by trading in the required items to Fidget.
- Talk to Rota again to unlock the second collection Turtle Unlock: Getting Stronger. Complete it the same way as previous one.
- Talk to Rota again to unlock the third and final collection Turtle Unlock: Suiting Up, which will take you around Cantha gathering items from events and vendors.
- Complete the collection and gain your Siege Turtle by talking to Rota again.
Unlock achievements[edit]
Cantha: Stomping Around — Unlock the siege turtle by completing siege turtle collections. (5
)
Cantha: Turtle Unlock: Starting Small — Collect turtle food to help your little friend grow. (5
)
Cantha: Turtle Unlock: Getting Stronger — Feed your turtle various fish fillets. (5
)
Cantha: Turtle Unlock: Suiting Up — Collect parts to construct a turtle saddle and turrets. (5
)
Mechanics[edit]
The driver controls movement and can attack with the Slam skill. The passenger can trigger Overdrive and controls the siege attacks.
“You've received siege turtle ammo. Ammo is usable by the passenger for siege attacks and is accrued over time. Ammo generation can be accelerated through high-speed movement.
— in-game hint
“Your passenger has triggered Overdrive. The siege turtle's speed, acceleration, and handling are improved for a short period of time.
— in-game hint
Related masteries[edit]
Mastery | XP required | Points | Description |
---|---|---|---|
![]() |
381,000 | 2 | Bond with your turtle to increase its health by 50%. |
![]() |
635,000 | 3 | Learn how to generate ammo after successfully hitting a target with Slam. |
![]() |
1,016,000 | 4 | Learn how to get your turtle to make the most of its jump jets. |
![]() |
1,524,000 | 5 | Master your skill as a gunner, learning to convert incoming damage into ammo. |
![]() |
2,159,000 | 6 | Learn how to teach the turtle health boost to all your other mounts. |
Total | 5,715,000 | 20 |
- gain increased damage when using an engage skill from Ravenous Discipline
- gain decreased fall damage from Masterful Descent
- gain boons when using an engage skill or being knocked off your mount from Nimble Recovery
- gain evasion while using endurance from the Enhanced Evasion
- gain maximum mount health from the Sharing Is Caring
- gain skills from Crystal Champion masteries
List of siege turtle skills[edit]
Siege Turtle Driver[edit]
# | Skill | ![]() |
![]() |
Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Turtle | Summon and mount your turtle. Cooldown increases by 1 second per 2% health lost. | |||
1 | ![]() |
4 | ½Leap and knock nearby foes back. | |
5 | ![]() |
Hold to hover using the turtle's jump jets. Applies burning to nearby enemies. | ||
6 | ![]() |
180 | Temporarily grant your mount the use of your own health pool at the risk of being downed in your mount's place. | |
7 | ![]() |
60 | Increase your mount's endurance regeneration. | |
8 | ![]() |
30 | Launch off of your mount! | |
9 | ![]() |
30 | Grants stealth to you and your mount. | |
![]() |
Dismount your mount |
# | Skill | ![]() |
![]() |
Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
F1 | Open Access | 1 | Click to allow anyone to mount your turtle in the passenger slot. | |
F1 | ![]() |
1 | Click to restrict your mount passenger slot to party or squad members only. |
Siege Turtle Gunner[edit]
# | Skill | ![]() |
![]() |
Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Turtle Siege | Launch a siege attack that explodes on impact, damaging and burning foes. Turtle movement accelerates siege ammo acquisition. | ||
3 | Hunker Down | 25 | Empower your turtle with a shell of energy, converting incoming damage to ammo and incoming conditons to boons | |
5 | Overdrive | 25 | Boost the turtle's acceleration, max speed, and turning ability. | |
Bond of Faith | 30 | Launch off of your mount! |
- Notes: NPC version Siege Turtle will not have Bond of Faith.
Related equipment[edit]
Jade Bot equipment that improve this mechanic[edit]
- Mount Energy Booster 1 - Boosts mount energy regeneration by 10%.
- Mount Energy Booster 2 - Boosts mount energy regeneration by 20%.
- Mount Energy Booster 3 - Boosts mount energy regeneration by 30%.
- Turtle Pilot Booster 1 - Reduces siege turtle hover energy consumption by 10%, and the Slam Mastery now generates 30% of an artillery shot per enemy struck.
- Turtle Pilot Booster 2 - Reduces siege turtle hover energy consumption by 20%, and the upgraded Slam Mastery now generates 35% of an artillery shot per enemy struck.
- Turtle Pilot Booster 3 - Reduces siege turtle hover energy consumption by 30%, and the upgraded Slam Mastery now generates 40% of an artillery shot per enemy struck.
- Turtle Siege Enhancer 1 - Increases the damage of the Turtle Siege skill by 10%.
- Turtle Siege Enhancer 2 - Increases the damage of the Turtle Siege skill by 15%.
- Turtle Siege Enhancer 3 - Increases the damage of the Turtle Siege skill by 20%.
List of Siege Turtle skins[edit]
- See also: Gallery of Siege Turtle skins
(*) The mounts in the marked rows either don't appear in API:2/account/mounts/skins and API:2/mounts/skins and/or don't have an ID set. Therefore it cannot be checked if they have been unlocked.
Lore[edit]
History[edit]
Specifically a breed simply called Giant Turtle, in the past, Siege Turtles were the staple of the Luxon Armada in their war against the Kurzicks. Tamed and raised by the Turtle Clan, they were cared for in hatcheries, the largest of which being Gyala Hatchery that was used for other aquatic life as well. The Luxons had mounted cannons atop of the turtles' shells via scaffolding, and used magical jade as ammunition, trained at the Leviathan Pits[1][2] to fire at smoke cannister signals.[3] Not all of the turtle breed were trained for warfare, however, as some Hauler Turtles were instead trained to move heavy shipments, such as large piles of jade out of quarries. These turtles were also used by the Turtle Clan as opposed to Luxon Leviathan ships, which the other two clans, Crab and Serpent, preferred using to move around the solidified Jade Sea.[4]
Modern times[edit]
Siege Turtles are still used by Canthans today as mounts, though equipped with higher technology, and a second cannon.
Gallery[edit]
- Screenshots
- Concept art and renders
Guild Wars concept art.
New Canthan for "Siege Turtle"
Baby siege turtle; see this link for the full animation.
Art by Zhengyi Wang.
Notes[edit]
- A Siege Turtle has 40,000 health.
- Using a Waypoint as a Siege Turtle Driver will transport both the Driver and the Gunner to the new location (so long as that location allows for mounts), but only the driver has to pay the waypoint fee. Both will remain mounted. Volunteering to move to a different map will not affect the gunner, who will be dismounted. The same happens when using a Waypoint in a different zone (assuming the driver is the forward most character).
- Using a Mesmer Portal or other Portal while mounted as a Siege Turtle Driver will port both driver and the Gunner to the portal exit.
- The Siege Turtle Gunner is unable to open loot bags or consume items.
- If two players manage to win a Mount Race in a Siege Turtle, the Driver is awarded First Place and the Gunner is awarded Second Place (assuming the driver is the forward most character).
- The gunner and driver body movements are symmetrical.
Trivia[edit]
- If you toggle the walk animation, the speed of the mount is almost the same as the walk speed of real life turtles.[5]
- The siege turtles walking speed is ~28 in/sec (= ~71.12 cm/sec).
- Siege Turtles like to eat carrots and fish. [6]
- This mount is simply refered to as Turtle in at least, but probably not limited to, the mount selection menu, the skill used to summon them and the API.
External links[edit]
![]() |
The Guild Wars Wiki has an article on Siege Turtle. |
- Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons - Siege Turtle
- Guild Wars 2's new Siege Turtle could be the best MMO mount yet, pcgamer.com
References[edit]
- ^ Endre
- ^ Arion
- ^ Gyala Hatchery
- ^ An Empire Divided
- ^ End of Dragons First Look
- Brian Walter: If you actually toggle the walk animation in game, it kinda maps out to more or less a turtle's walk speed. I actually did the calculations and it was like, oh my gosh. That's like the exact speed.
- ^ Guild Chat Episode 115 - Siege Turtle Preview