User:Aralicia/Guide : Making Gold

Gold, or Coin, is the most used currency in Guild Wars 2. Most methods of obtaining gear, mounts, skins and other cosmetics will include some measure of gold somewhere in the process. Because of that, an often asked question is how to make gold.

This guide focuses on listing an detailing common (and less common) methods to make gold. It does not go into details about which method is most efficient (for questions like that, websites such as [fast] Farming Community and PEU Research Center are more appropriate). Its goals is to give varied methods appropriate for every kind of player, and explain how they work.

Gold-making Basics

The following subjects are common to many gold-making methods, and should be understood by anyone seeking to make for some gold.

Junk, Materials and Currencies

Most gold farms will not reward gold directly, instead their rewards will generally be in the form of junk items, materials, or other currencies.

• Junk items are a kind of trophy with inherent value other than to be sold to a NPC. While most junk items sells for only a few copper, some can give a reasonable amount of silver (Shiny Bauble) or even gold (Refined Alchemical Precipitate).
• Materials are crafting materials, many for which are looked for by other players wanting to craft unique equipment, ascended food, legendary gear, and more. Even low tier materials can be necessary for some higher tier recipes, so even as a new player, selling those materials on the Trading Post can be a good way to make a few coins.
• Currencies are often used in place or in combination with gold to acquire some unique items that can be sold to other players through the Trading Post.

Unidentified Gear

Many events throughout the game will reward players with Unidentified gear. While you can identify them in the hope of obtaining good level 80 gear, they are also a great source of extra gold. You have two recommended ways to earn extra gold out of your unidentified gear.

• The first method is to directly sell the gear, unidentified, to the Trading Post. This method has the advantage of being quick, easy, and giving a stable income, at the cost of a lower return.
• The second method is to identify the gear, and salvage the result; this will give you many materials, including valuable Globs of Ectoplasm, as well as a lot of Essence of Luck. The materials can then be sold on the Trading Post. There is a also a very small chance that the gear identified will be a Precursor weapon, used to craft legendary items, and that can be sold on the Trading Post for more than 100 .

I personally recommend the second option because while it takes some more time, it has a chance for a better payoff, and the Essence of Luck will let you improve your Luck, and as a result your Magic Find.

A third option exists that is highly discouraged : salvaging Unidentified gear without identifying. This is discouraged because identifying gear has a chance to reveal a piece of gear of a higher quality than originally shown; As a result, salvaging without identifying will result in lesser quality materials compared to identifying then salvaging.

Salvaging

Salvage items and most gear can be salvaged in order to obtain crafting materials out of it. The quality of the materials obtained depends on the item's quality and level, and the quality of the Salvage kit used. Deciding which kit to use for each item can become complicated, but here are some simple rules that will give good results for all items :

• Salvage items, regardless of level or rarity, should be salvaged with the Basic Salvage Kit.
• All gear under level 68, regardless of rarity, should be salvaged with a Basic Salvage Kit.
• BBasic, CFine and DMasterwork gear should be salvaged with a Basic Salvage Kit.
• ERare gear should be salvaged with a Master's Salvage Kit.
• FExotic gear should be salvaged with a Black Lion Salvage Kit if it contains a valuable Rune or Sigil, or a Master's Salvage Kit otherwise.
  • If an FExotic weapon indicates it it's description that it is used to craft a Legendary Weapon, it shouldn't be salvaged; instead either keep it for the future, or sell it on the Trading Post.

If you have a lot of items that you need to salvage at once, you can use the mass salvage options available when you right-click on a salvage kit. The Salvage All by rarity can be particularly usefull.

The Trading Post

The Trading Post is the place were players trade with each other gear, materials, consumables and other items in exchange for gold. Since many of the gold farming methods works by selling unidentified bags or materials to other players, having a good understanding of the way the Trading Post works is essential.

You can sell items on the trading post by listing them at a price of your choosing. The items will then be held by the Trading Post until another player buys it at the chosen price; your money will then be held into the Trading Post's delivery box until you talk to a Black Lion Trader. You can also decide to sell at the asking price of a buyer (called Instant Sell), to receive money immediately. I highly recommend that you List your items instead of using instant selling, since the price difference can often be quite noticeable.

The Trading Post applies two fees on a transaction :

• A listing fee of 5% of the listing price is paid by the seller at the moment you list the item. You do not recover this money if you decide to cancel a listing. This fee also applies if you use instant sell.
• An exchange fee of 10% of the listing price is cut out of the profit of the transaction when it occurs.

In total, the profit of a transaction will be reduced by 15%. You can see the value of both fees in the listing window; and the estimated profit by hovering your cursor on the Total Price when listing items.

Inventory Tips

Most farming methods will result in a large amount of items. Here are some tips to help with managing your inventory.

• Use All. Many bags and containers, including unidentified gear, can be opened en masse. To do so, you can right-click on a stack of containers and select the "use all" option. The game will then open the containers until the inventory is full; or until you close the inventory window.
• Deposit All Materials. On the top-right of the inventory, the Deposit All Materials button will automatically deposit in your material storage all the materials that you have in your inventory, at any time and from anywhere. This is a great way to quickly clear out part of your inventory. You can access your material storage from a bank or a crafting station.
• Compact. Also on the top-right of the inventory, the Compact button will automatically sort your inventory by moving all your items to the first available space. This is a good way to reduce cluttering your inventory window.
• Sell Junk. When talking with a vendor, at the bottom right of the Sell table, the Sell Junk button will sell all your junk items at once.
• Invisible Bags. Invisible bags are a special kind of bags whose content will not be sorted, sold to vendors, automatically salvaged nor deposed into the Material storage. They are very useful to store gear, consumables, and materials that you want to keep in your inventory without risking mixing them up with the items you intend to salvage or sell. I recommend having one or two invisible bags on any character that you intend to farm with.

Short Methods

The following options will give you some coin while taking little play time, the drawback being that most of them can be done only once per day. If you want a regular income for little effort, consider adding one or two of those options into your daily routine.

Login Rewards

Available to : Any non-f2p player
Time Taken : A few seconds each day + a few minutes once a month
Repeatable : Once per day
Reward types : Materials and Currencies
Reward value : 40 to 50 per month

The most simple way to gain coins is simply to log in every day. This is because Guild Wars 2's Login rewards are pretty generous. Most of the gold value of those rewards are from the Mystic Coins and Laurels you obtain regularly while logging in.

Mystic Coins are high value materials for crafting Legendary items, and can be sold on the Trading Post for more than 1 each.

Laurels can be used to buy various bags of materials at a Laurel Merchant. You can find such a merchant in every capital city as well as Lion's Arch and a few other locations; they are recognizable by a laurel icon above their head and on the map. The bags of materials can be then opened, and the materials be sold on the Trading Post. If you wish to know which is the best choice of material bag currently, check out this page. It is recommended to keep some amount of laurels on hand, as they can be necessary for buying some specific gear, recipes, or other items.

After 28 days of log in, you will receive a Chest of Loyalty, which will let you chose between various rewards. The choice with a highest potential value is the Chest of Plentiful Laurels; however, if you are currently seeking to craft ascended or legendary items, the corresponding choices are great options.

Daily Achievements

Available to : Everyone
Time Taken : Usually between 10 and 20 minutes
Repeatable : Once per day
Reward types : Direct gold
Reward value : 2 per day

Guild Hall Nodes

Available to : Any member of an upgraded guild
Time Taken : A few minutes
Repeatable : Once per day
Reward types : Materials
Reward value : Variable

Home Instance Nodes

Available to : Everyone
Time Taken : A few minutes
Repeatable : Once per day
Reward types : Materials
Reward value : ~50 per day

Alt-Parking

Available to : Any player with an unplayed character
Time Taken : A few seconds to a few minutes
Repeatable : Once per day
Reward types : Usually Unidentified gear or Materials
Reward value : Variable