Waypoint

Example of a waypoint

A waypoint, or a magi-matter-transportive device, is a mini-gate that players can instantly travel to by using the map. Before a character can use a particular waypoint for map travel, it must be discovered through exploration. Undiscovered waypoints will be displayed on the compass and map, and approaching the waypoint will unlock it for that character.

Map travel within a city is free (except for travel from the home instance), but traveling to waypoints in other parts of the world costs a fee in coin based on the distance between the character's current location and the destination waypoint, as well as the character's non-scaled level.

During and after dynamic events, waypoints can become contested if the area is taken over by enemies. These waypoints will be unavailable for map travel until they have been liberated. Contested waypoints are not shown as contested when viewed from a different map; attempting to travel to a contested waypoint will take you to the nearest available one, for the original cost.

A normal zone in the base game typically has between 10 and 20 waypoints, while expansion content generally has less than 10 in a zone, following player feedback that waypoints were too numerous.

Waypoints cannot be used while in combat. Defeated players can choose to be revived at a waypoint for the same fee as regular map travel. If a character is defeated with no coin, they can be revived for free at the nearest waypoint.

Along with points of interest, Shift-clicking or Ctrl-clicking on a discovered waypoint on the compass or map creates a clickable link in chat. Double-clicking on a discovered waypoint allows to bypass confirmation window.

Lore

According to Technician Penn, waypoints are magical matter-transportive devices devised by the asura to make it easier to travel long distances.

During the events of Season 2 of the Living Story, it is revealed that waypoints will only function if placed on a ley-line. If a waypoint was not placed on a ley-line, it would eventually fail, and the asura would remove it in order to ensure the waypoint network remained stable. Therefore, the asura have unknowingly mapped the location of ley-lines all over Tyria. This discovery by Scarlet Briar allowed her to locate the massive leyline hub under Lion's Arch, disrupt it, and awaken Mordremoth.

Shortly after, Mordremoth's vines started entangling waypoints, even destroying some like at Fort Marriner. Taimi deduced Mordremoth's vines were attracted to the waypoints' magical resonance and developed a machine that could tap into the waypoint network and retune waypoints to a different frequency that was less attractive to the Mordrem. There was some inconsistency in the Living Story as to what frequency would be less attractive to the Mordrem. In The Machine, Taimi says they needed a higher frequency, but in Recalibrating the Waypoints she says they needed to vibrate at a slower rate.

Taimi's machine was commandeered by Councillor Phlunt when it was found to work, and since then, vines have no longer been seen attacking waypoints. The implications of this machine are that the waypoint network can be "hacked", and that waypoints are somewhat programmable.

Map icons

Available/unlocked

Locked

Contested

New players

Each new player starts with one waypoint unlocked in each of the starter maps of the 5 races:

Race	Waypoint
Asura	Soren Draa Waypoint — loading…
Charr	Smokestead Waypoint — loading…
Human	Shaemoor Waypoint — loading…
Norn	Horncall Waypoint — loading…
Sylvari	Astorea Waypoint — loading…

This allows characters of different races to play together and explore each others' starter zones.

Personal Waypoint

Players can use (Left-ALT+Left-click on the map to place a permanent marker (white star) that is visible to others in the party as a blue star. These are called personal waypoints. What you see: , what party members see:

When you mouseover another party-member's personal waypoint a popup displays the character's name and your distance from the waypoint.

Your Waypoint	Party Member Waypoint

These markers can be moved by repeating the above key-mouse combination in a new location or removed with a Left-click at the waypoint's current position. It will remain in its place until moved or removed even between map changes or gaming sessions. It is character-based, each character on an account may have a different one.

Although called "personal waypoint" they are just markers. They do not behave like actual waypoints, you cannot use them to teleport your character to another location.

Cost

In brief, the cost of using a waypoint increases with both character level and distance.

Reducing travel costs

Guild upgrades

• Guilds can build upgrades to permanently reduce waypoint costs by 5%, 10% and then 15% for representing members.
• Constructing a guild portal permits free travel to the PvP lobby, Lion's Arch, the Aerodrome, and the weekly destinations of the Guild Challenge, Race, and Puzzle.

Travel through the mists to reach Lion's Arch

You can reduce the fees paid for fast travel primarily by going through the mists to get to Lion's Arch:

• Open the PvP panel, click Enter PvP Lobby and take the asura gate near Portal to Lion's Arch waypoint.
• Open the World versus World panel (shortcut: B) and enter any of the four maps or the Edge of the Mists; take the asura gate to Lion's Arch.

Travel to other cities via Lion's Arch

• From Lion's Arch, you can travel to any other city for free via the asura gates at Gate Hub Plaza Waypoint.
• You can travel back to Lion's Arch using the gate located at your arrival point from Lion's Arch.

Travel via guild hall

• Two of the currently available guild halls (Lost Precipice and Gilded Hollow) are located in the Heart of Maguuma area, this significantly reduces the travel cost to zones in that area as well as The Silverwastes and Dry Top.
• The third guild hall, Windswept Haven, lies in the Crystal Desert and can thus reduce the travel cost to zones in that area. Travel to guild halls is free (Guild Hall button on the Guild panel).

Teleportation devices

You can use various teleportation devices such as Portal Scrolls, Lounge passes, Home Portal Stone or World Boss Portal Device to teleport to a specific location.

• Lounge passes can be used as a quick means of transport to the zone in which the lounge is located.
  • From the lounge hub, you can travel to any other city for free via portal gates or portal managers. ( - Teleportation services as displayed on the map)
  • Some of the lounges feature ability to return to your exact previous location.
• Home Portal Stone can be used to fast travel to your race's home instance.
  • Double-click the stone or select the "exit" button in the lower right corner of your screen to return to your previous location.
  • You can use free waypoints inside your race's city to leave the home instance without returning to the original location where you used the stone.
  • It is possible to manually exit through your home instance's portal.
• World Boss Portal Device and Maguuma Pact Operation Portal Device will teleport characters to the nearest waypoint for an active, imminent, or approaching threat.
• Sandswept Isles Portal Scroll can be used while defeated and after teleport you will be instantly revived for free by two Olmakhan Earthstalkers.

Teleportation device does not consume any coin, in contrast to using a waypoint to get to the same location.

Other free waypoints

• Inside each of the major cities.
• Inside dungeons.
• Inside World versus World. (Contains Merchants, Banks, Trading Posts, and once left will return you to your original location in PvE).

Other tips and notes

• To travel to Fort Trinity in Orr, you can use the asura gate in your chosen order's headquarters; this is unlocked during your personal story.
• Pearl Islet in Southsun Cove may be reached via Asura Gate in the Eastern Ward of Lion's Arch.
• Stronghold of Ebonhawke can be reached by using the Asura gate at Rurikton in Divinity's Reach.
• When defeated you can always travel to the nearest waypoint.
  • If you have insufficient coins to pay the normal waypoint fee, then the fee will be reduced the maximum that you can afford.
  • If the waypoint is contested, you will have to wait to travel (or have someone mail you the cost to travel to the next nearest waypoint).
  • You cannot travel to the mists while defeated.

Formula

Waypoint cost versus level for travel from the Cornucopian Fields to Vigil Keep waypoints (41,573 units)

The total cost of traveling to a waypoint depends on your level and the distance traveled , and can be determined as follows:

Waypoint cost = C1 * [ 0.78 + max(0, (0.0003 / 24) * (Distance - 14400)) ] + C2

There are two level dependent constants, C1 and C2, which are determined by a lookup table:

• C1 scales linearly between levels 0 and 80 from 4  to 50 .
• C2 is zero up to level 30, and scales linearly between levels 31 and 80 from 0  to 1 .

The distance for this equation is measured in the unit that appears when hovering over markers on the minimap or in skill descriptions, i.e. inches.

Base fee

Character Level	Base Fee
1	3
2	4
3	5
4	5
5	5
6	6
7	6
8	7
9	8
10	8
11	9
12	9
13	9
14	9
15	10
16	11
17	11
18	12
19	12
20	12

Character Level	Base Fee
21	12
22	13
23	13
24	14
25	15
26	15
27	16
28	16
29	16
30	16
31	19
32	22
33	24
34	27
35	29
36	32
37	34
38	36
39	38
40	41

Character Level	Base Fee
41	44
42	46
43	49
44	51
45	53
46	55
47	58
48	61
49	63
50	66
51	68
52	71
53	73
54	75
55	77
56	80
57	83
58	85
59	88
60	90

Character Level	Base Fee
61	92
62	94
63	97
64	1  0
65	1  2
66	1  5
67	1  7
68	1  10
69	1  12
70	1  14
71	1  16
72	1  19
73	1  22
74	1  24
75	1  26
76	1  29
77	1  31
78	1  33
79	1  36
80	1  39

Map completion

• There are 486 waypoints that count towards map completion.
  • Waypoints in dungeons, WvW, PvP areas, and in zones added after the game's launch (such as Southsun Cove, The Silverwastes, and the Heart of Maguuma zones) do not count.

Trivia

• Initially at release, the cost of waypoints were considered expensive. But with the cost reduction when Captain Ellen Kiel was elected to the Lion's Arch Captain's Council, the amount of gold in the economy and ways to obtain it, there should never be a worry that waypoints are too expensive to use.
• Some waypoints were destroyed during Living World Season 2 and have yet to be repaired. While they are still needed for map completion, and can be selected as travel destinations from the world map, they are shown in each map as permanently contested even if no foes are around.

Addition of waypoints

The number of waypoints required for map completion has changed over time, from 477 during the first Beta Weekend event to 503 when the game launched. Since then, other waypoints have been added, and the WvW waypoints, along with all WvW Vistas, POI's, and Skill Points have been removed from the map completion requirement. All of these ARE still available, and the WvW Skill Points are still added to the character's totals.

Update	Added	New total
Game launch	-	503
28 January 2013	6	509
26 February 2013	2	511
26 March 2013	1	512
15 October 2013	1	513
18 November 2014	-29	484

Notes

Bug:

Traveling to a waypoint is unsuccessful if attempted in the midst of losing a connection to the server, or if attempting to waypoint to another map with a different build number from the one you're on. You will still be charged for the waypoint cost, and unfortunately there is no refund.

See also

• Asura gate
• Chat link format/0x04 codes