Snowball Mayhem

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Wintersday achievement.png This content was introduced in Wintersday: The Wondrous Workshop of Toymaker Tixx and is subsequently only available during Wintersday.

Snowball Mayhem

Snowball Mayhem map.jpg
Map of Snowball Mayhem

Type
Activity
Region
Wintersday Celebration

Winter Wonderland loading screen.jpg
Loading screen

Image(s)

Snowball Mayhem.jpg

Click to enlarge.

“
  • First team to 500 points wins.
  • Bring Wintersday Gifts back to your base to score points.
  • Pick a weapon and start fighting: heavy rifle, scout's slingshot, or supporter's staff.
  • Check your skill bar to change weapons while in your base.
  • Incapacitate enemies to earn bonus points.

— In-game description

Snowball Mayhem is a capture the flag style activity only available during Wintersday. The game revolves around gathering presents and bringing them back to a home base. Players must choose between 3 combat professions: Supporter, Scout, and Heavy Gunner.

Getting there[edit]

Mechanics[edit]

The objective of Snowball Mayhem is to be the first team to achieve 500 points. Points are scored by retrieving Wintersday gifts and returning them to your base. Bonus points are scored by defeating other players with unique snowball fight skills.

Scoring[edit]

Points are earned by killing players or by recovering the present and bringing it back to your base.

Killing Enemies: Players will earn three points per kill, while their team gains five points.

Recovering Presents: Players will earn ten points per recovery, while their team gains 100 points.

  • The Black Lion Trading Company gifting icon.png Wintersday Gift is found in the middle of the map.
    • When picked up, the icon will change color based on the team Snowball Mayhem red gift.png Snowball Mayhem blue gift.png
  • The location where you need to bring the gift is near the base, marked with these icons:
    • Snowball Mayhem red base gift.png Red base
    • Snowball Mayhem blue base gift.png Blue base

Power-ups[edit]

Map of power-ups and objectives.

Peppermint.png Power-ups are scattered around the map and can be used to gain additional buffs.

An example of a power-up.

Skills[edit]

Your weapon skills are determined by your choice of combat profession. You also have an additional utility skill that is based on your profession.

Supporter
# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
1  Fire Snowball.png Throw Snowball 0.75¾ Throw a snowball at your target.
2  Cold Wind.png Healing Breeze 10.25¼ 8 Heal allies in a cone in front of you, including yourself. Allies gain 5 seconds of regeneration.
2  Icy Ground.png Icy Ground 1 12 Coat the target area in ice, causing enemies to slip.
4  Snow Barrier.png Ice Wall 1 25 Create an ice wall to block enemies and their snowballs.
5  Snowroll.png Snowroll 1 30 Roll yourself into a ball of snow to knock your foes around.
Heavy Gunner
  •  Defensive Bubble.png Pick Profession: Heavy Gunner — Heavy Gunners give and take a lot of punishment. While your gun is drawn you will move slower, but will regenerate health and can't be knocked down.
# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
 Draw Rifle.png Draw Rifle Draw your rifle and start fighting. Having your rifle drawn makes you move slower and regenerate health.
Redirect Arrow.png Fire Snowball.png Fire Snowball 0.75¾ Fire a snowball at your target.
# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
 Fire Snowball.png Fire Snowball 0.75¾ Fire a snowball at your target.
Redirect Arrow.png Fire Snowball.png Fire Snowball 0.5½ Fire a snowball at your target.
 Draw Rifle.png Powder Spray 20.25¼ 6 Spray a cone of snow in front of you.
 Jump Shot (Snowball Mayhem).png Jump Shot 0.25¼ 15 Blast the ground, damaging nearby foes and leaping to your target.
 Snowball Trap.png Overcharged Shot 18 Fire a giant snowball with enough force to knock back your target.
 Defensive Bubble.png Defensive Bubble 20.5½ 20 Create a dome around you that pushes foes back and reflects projectiles.
Scout
# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
 Fire Snowball.png Quick Shot Throw a snowball at your target.
 Evasive Shot.png Evasive Shot 0.25¼ 4 Fire a quick shot in an evasive retreat.
 Snow Barrage.png Rapid Fire 20.5½ 10 Fire multiple snowballs at your foe.
 Sniper Shot.png Sniper Shot 30.75¾ 12 Fire a long range shot. The longer you charge the shot, the farther and faster it will fly.
 Snowblind.png Snowblind 1 20 Vanish in a flurry of snow, blinding nearby enemies.
Profession-specific skills

These skills appear in the 6th skill bar slot.

# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
Guardian icon small.png  Slingshot of Understanding.png Slingshot of Understanding 10.5½ 45 Summon an arcane slingshot to aid you in battle.
Redirect Arrow.png Command (slingshot).png Command 10 Command the Slingshot of Understanding to fire a barrage of snowballs on its target. This destroys the slingshot.
Revenant icon small.png  Vengeful Snowballs.png Vengeful Snowballs 45 Invoke snowballs to circle around you, damaging and chilling foes.
Warrior icon small.png  Rush (Snowball Mayhem).png Rush 2 45 Knock your foe down with a headlong charge. Reflect snowballs while running.
Engineer icon small.png  Build Snowman.png Snowman Turret 10.5½ 20 Build a snowman turret that throws snowballs at foes.
Redirect Arrow.png Detonate Net Turret.png Detonate Snowman Turret Detonate your snowman turret.
Ranger icon small.png  Snowball Trap.png Snowball Trap 0.5½ 45 Set a trap that will launch a barrage of snowballs at your foe when triggered.
Thief icon small.png  Freeze Beam.png Ice Wurm Venom Trap 0.5½ 45 Set a trap that freezes enemies with ice wurm venom when triggered.
Elementalist icon small.png  Summon Ice Elemental.png Summon Ice Elemental 10.25¼ 45 Summon an ice elemental to help you fight.
Mesmer icon small.png  Clone (Snowball Mayhem).png Clone 10.5½ 40 Summon a clone of yourself.
Necromancer icon small.png  Frostmark.png Frostmark 0.75¾ 45 Inscribe a mark that chills foes when triggered and chains to nearby foes.
Base skills
# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
7  Snowroll.png Pick Profession: Supporter Supporters keep allies alive and control areas with icy spells.
8  Defensive Bubble.png Pick Profession: Heavy Gunner Heavy Gunners give and take a lot of punishment. While your gun is drawn you will move slower, but will regenerate health and can't be knocked down.
9  Sniper Shot.png Pick Profession: Scout Scouts excel at movement and quick strikes. They infiltrate and eliminate.
0  Lightning Flash.png Return to Base 10.75¾ 60 Return to your base to change profession.
Downed skills
# Skill Activation time Recharge time Description
1  Fire Snowball.png Throw Snowball 0.25¼ Throw a snowball at your target.
2  Icy Ground.png Icy Ground 0.5½ 10 Freeze the ground around youself.
3  Freeze Beam.png Freeze Beam 3 10 Freeze your foe with a beam of energy.
4  Bandage.png Bandage 490.25¼ 5 Call your allies for help. Restores health while you channel it.

Tips and Tricks[edit]

  • Supporter: If you just downed someone, activate Snowroll and repeatedly run over the downed enemy. The snowball does a lot of damage to downed players and can finish them off quickly.
  • Supporter: A good strategy is to stick to your gift carrier and heal him with Healing Breeze, use Ice Wall behind him to block incoming fire and cast Icy Ground near him to keep enemies at bay.
  • Heavy Gunner: A good strategy is to stick to your gift carrier and use Defensive Bubble to reflect incoming fire and Overcharged Shot to keep enemies at bay.
  • Heavy Gunner: It is often a good idea to save Powder Spray until after you have downed a player, as it is the quickest and safest way to finish someone off. Even if you are interrupted, you will still do some damage.
  • Scout: You can activate your Snowblind ability near the gift carrier of your team. This will stealth both you and the gift carrier for a few seconds and give you both swiftness.
  • Scout: Scout is the quickest class and the easiest to get the gift. Just activate Snowblind at the start as this will give you swiftness. Then use that to get the swiftness power up. Once you reach the gift, use Snowblind again before picking the gift up.
  • Scout: You can camp near the enemy base and if you see an enemy gift carrier coming, activate Sniper Shot as soon as the gift carrier is in range. In order to deal all of the damage Sniper Shot you need to hold down the key and wait for all the bars to fill before realeasing the key. If you get Sniper Shot channeled for the whole duration, this will hit the enemy for 80% of his HP. Activating Snowblind before Sniper Shot can help you channel it without being seen from enemies. This is an easy method to complete the Gift Stopper achievement.
  • Thief/Ranger:Well placed traps can really help your team when returning a gift to your base. Try to set traps along the path that leads up to your base, as the gift carrier and the enemies chasing him will most likely follow that path and the enemies will have a much higher chance of detonating the traps.
  • Warrior/Mesmer:Warriors and Mesmers can be very good gift carriers. The Warrior's Rush skill is a running skill and can be used to quickly cover distance or escape out of a sticky situation. The Mesmer's Clone skill can be used when carrying a gift, to trick your enemies into attacking your clones. The clones will be seen carrying a gift if Clone was used when the player had the gift.
  • Warrior: Rush also makes Warriors extremely effective as Heavy Gunners. It helps compensate for your reduced movement speed, gives you a second way to reflect snowballs, and can be followed up with Powder Spray for a deadly combo attack.
  • A good strategy is to use your defensive skills right before picking up the gift. If the skills have recharged and you are still carrying the gift, then drop the gift, quickly use a defensive skill and pick it up again. This is much better than simply running with the gift and taking free damage from your enemies. Knowing the cooldown of your skills is very important in doing this.
  • You can also drop the gift and let an ally pick it up instead of you if you are crippled, chilled or have very little health left. Be careful not to drop the gift near a lot of enemies, as the enemy might pick it up before you do and steal it.
  • Attacking the enemy gift carrier or staying close to an ally gift carrier to support him is the best thing to do. However, not every player of your team should be near the gift carrier. Leaving a scout to camp at the center of the map, where the new gift appears, is a very good tactic to quickly score a gift for your team.

Rewards[edit]

  • Every gift brought to your base grants the whole team one Wintersday Gift.pngWintersday Gift
  • Unlike in PvP, Volunteering to switch teams during Auto-Balance does not give an automatic win.
Victory
Defeat
Historical rewards

Achievements[edit]

Current achievements

The following achievements are available:

Achievements
This achievement rewards items. Daily Bonus Rewards: Snowball Mayhem Wintersday Daily 0Achievement points
Win a round of Snowball Mayhem.
Rewards:
  • Tier
 1:  Mote of Candied Karma.png Mote of Candied Karma
  • Tier
 2:  Mote of Candied Karma.png Mote of Candied Karma
  • Tier
 3:  Mote of Candied Karma.png Mote of Candied Karma
 1 Won a Round of Snowball Mayhem 0Achievement points
2 Won a Round of Snowball Mayhem 0Achievement points
3 Won a Round of Snowball Mayhem 0Achievement points
This achievement rewards items. Snowball Mayhem Wintersday Daily 0Achievement points
Win a round of Snowball Mayhem.Celebrate one of Tyria's oldest winter traditions.
Reward: Personalized Wintersday Gift.pngPersonalized Wintersday Gift
Won a Round of Snowball Mayhem 0Achievement points
This achievement rewards items. Wintersday Snowball Slinger Wintersday Daily 0Achievement points
Hit 3 players with snowballs during Wintersday.Give players a cold welcome with a snowball.
Reward: Personalized Wintersday Gift.pngPersonalized Wintersday Gift
3 Players Hit with Snowballs 0Achievement points
This achievement is repeatable infinitely and does not contribute to a meta achievement.This achievement rewards items. Snowball Mayhem Participant Wintersday Traditions 0Achievement points
Complete 30 rounds of Snowball Mayhem.Your hands must be freezing by now.
Reward: Wintersday Gift.pngWintersday Gift (3)
 30 Rounds Complete 0Achievement points
This achievement rewards items. Snowball Fight! Winter's Presence 3Achievement points
Claim victory in the Snowball Mayhem activity 3 times during Wintersday.
Reward: Champion's Snowball.pngChampion's Snowball
Won 1 Round of Snowball Mayhem 1Achievement points
Won 2 Rounds of Snowball Mayhem 1Achievement points
Won 3 Rounds of Snowball Mayhem 1Achievement points
Historical achievements

The following achievements were obtainable during Wintersday 2015:

The following achievements were obtainable during Wintersday 2014:

The following achievements were obtainable during Wintersday 2013:

The following achievements were obtainable during Wintersday: The Wondrous Workshop of Toymaker Tixx (2012):

Objects[edit]

Notes[edit]

Bug Bugs:
  • Unlike in PvP, Volunteering to switch teams during Auto-Balance does not give an automatic win despite tooltip stating so.
  • Sometimes your class is changed arbitrarily as you drop from spawn.

Trivia[edit]

Activity (map icon).png Activities
Daily activities
Historical

Festival activities

Lunar New Year Vendor map icon.png Lunar New Year
Hot Air Balloon.png Festival of the Four Winds
Event pumpkin (map icon).png Halloween
Event Wintersday.png Wintersday
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