INTRODUCTION

Guild missions (GM's for short) offer a classic semi-casual gaming experience to help bring guild members together. All the content exists in the core game areas, so no expansions are required to join. Any level character can participate, however some GM's involve combat in higher level areas, and this may be difficult on a lower level character. Additionally, while some GM's are accessible through the convenient guild portal located in the guild hall, others require you to already have unlocked access to specific parts of the map. Because of this, it's advised to bring your character that has the most map completion. We form up in a squad for GM's, so make sure you have a chat tab that can view squad chat, and use the /d chat channel to type. Use of discord is required for GM's.

TYPES OF MISSIONS

There are 5 types of (PvE) missions to choose from. Each week, guilds are given a random assortment of missions to do. This means that sometimes we might have several of the same type on any given week. There are also a variety of PvP and WvW missions, but we tend to focus primarily on the PvE ones, as they offer content unique to this game mode.

BOUNTY

Bounties require us to track down an NPC mini-boss, on one of several given maps. These NPC's follow a predetermined route around the map, and appear friendly at first, with a sheriff's badge symbol above their head. Higher level bounty missions will require us to track down several targets at once, which means we will often be splitting up into several smaller groups. When you arrive on the map, split up to cover more ground and follow the bounty route backwards (in the opposite direction the target walks) to track it down quickly. Resources such as wiki, Dulfy, and TacO are great for finding bounty route locations. Bounties are not accessible via the guild portal, so pay close attention to any locations pinged by your guildmates.

RACE

The race missions are more like obstacle courses rather than races. While there is a time limit, you should have plenty of time to cross the finish line. All the races require you to turn into some sort of critter at the starting point. The race critters have a limited selection of skills, which usually allow you to do things like detect traps, gain boons, protect yourself, and heal. Most races contain 2 types of traps: small spike traps and large falling boulder traps. Both these traps will be invisible to you unless you use the trap detection skill which is common to all but one of the races. This skill causes red circles to appear around the traps and has limited range, so pause for a few seconds and recast your detection skill if you don't see any red circles nearby. Placing this skill on autocast can be very helpful (ctrl + right click). Patience is super important because dying will force you to restart the race. The race route is marked by blue flags on the minimap, and ends with a golden flag. You must pass through all the flags in order, otherwise it will not count your progress.

Currently, race rewards are given to the entire party once someone has crossed the finish line, so if you're having trouble just stick around and you will still get a reward. Please make sure that all party members have at least started the race by transforming, before you cross the finish line. Otherwise they may be ineligible for rewards. We understand that someone may finish quickly, so we allow everyone else to try at the race for as long as they want. We usually do a squad ready check once someone has finished, so once you have had enough, just set your status as ready to let us know that you want to move on (press P or click on yourself in the squad window to ready up).

PUZZLE

Puzzles take place inside a private guild instance, in a unique part of the world. Once inside, we have to complete a series of tasks ranging from jumping puzzles to matching games to fetch tasks. The entire puzzle mission is timed, and consists of several rooms which each have a timed task which must be completed to move on to the next room. If you die inside a puzzle, it will prompt you to respawn. Please don't do this, as it will send you back to the start. Instead, wait for somebody to res you. Additionally, do not waypoint out, since the content is inside an instance and you will again be trapped outside. If you are having trouble doing the jumping portions of the puzzles, we will have mesmers on hand to portal you to the end. Coordination is important, so make sure you're listening and vocal on discord.

CHALLENGE

Challenges are similar to puzzles in that we group up in a private guild instance to overcome a task. Challenges however are generally more combat focused and usually involve either defending areas from waves of enemies, or coordinating to kill multiple targets at the same time. We will often split the squad up into subgroups, so make sure you stay with your squad leader to help complete your designated task. Careful attention on discord is once again requested.

TREK

Treks are the simplest of GM's. We are given a screenshot of a certain area in the game, and are tasked at sending someone to that area to activate a glowing mark on the ground. While the clues given are often cryptic, use of a wiki or Dulfy guide makes treks a walk in the park. In order to gain credit for a trek, all you need to do is stand on one of the glowing marks while someone else activates it. Since treks aren't very interactive, we generally try to go through them quickly by sending everyone to one location to get credit there. It's super important that you stand away from the mark and do NOT interact with it until everyone is nearby. Once we're all there, we will move together onto the mark, and an officer will activate it. Treks are not accessible via the guild portal.

REWARDS

GM's offer a unique currency called Guild Commendations, in addition to a good amount of rare items and silver. Commendations are most notably used to purchase Ascended-rarity accessories with access to a wide selection of core-game stat combos. They can also be used to purchase a variety of items including ascended recipes, minipets, materials, decorations, and more. There are 2 different merchants found in the guild hall that will accept commendations: the guild commendation trader located near the spawn point, and the guild trader located in the market, who has a daily rotating selection of items for sale.

GM's also reward the guild itself with a currency called Favor, which is used to purchase guild upgrades. The threshold for earning favor is higher than the one for earning personal credit for a GM. For instance, a player can receive personal credit from doing one Trek target, whereas the guild needs all Trek targets to be completed to earn favor. As another example, races reward all players once one player crosses the finish line, however for guild credit to be achieved, the finish line must be crossed at least 15 times. We are often capped on the amount of favor we can hold, so we usually don't worry about trying to get the guild credit for favor.