Factions Preview Event FAQ

The FPE is a weekend event that gives gamers a sneak peek at the wonders of Cantha, the featured land of Guild Wars Factions, and invites them experience some of the new gameplay options. Players will have the opportunity to explore part of this large new game world, to try out new gameplay mechanics, to learn a bit about the story of Factions, to see some of the diverse new creatures and monsters, to play the two new professions—The Assassin and the Ritualist—and to experience some of the immersive new missions and quests.

The FPE will begin at 12:01 a.m. PST on Friday morning, March 24, and will end at 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday night, March 26.

The pre-order will hit store shelves in the United States on February 28. Players in Europe and certain other locations will be able to acquire a downloadable version of the preorder at around the same date. Details will follow as they become available.

Players will be able to create new characters, including Assassins and Ritualists, on the new continent of Cantha. For beta testing purposes these new characters will start at a high level, with high-level weapons and armor, and will jump right into the middle of the Factions Campaign, where they will be able to play through four of the missions.

Players will also be able to create Assassin and Ritualist PvP characters, and unlock Assassin and Ritualist skills onto their accounts.

Although such travel will be accessible after the release of Guild Wars Factions, during this beta testing weekend, we will not be supporting character travel between the continents of Tyria and Cantha, or between the Battle Isles and Cantha. Also, there will be no vault storage agents available on Cantha, so there will be no way to transfer items between characters.

Any skills or item upgrades you unlock for your PvP characters during the weekend will remain permanently unlocked on your account. However, new characters that you create on the continent of Cantha will be reset, and their inventories wiped, prior to the release of Guild Wars Factions.

All existing Guild Wars retail accounts in good standing will automatically be able to access the Factions beta content during the weekend of the FPE.

If you haven't purchased Guild Wars yet but you'd like to try the FPE, you can gain access in one of the following ways.

For customers in America:

• You can preorder Guild Wars Factions at your local retail store, and use the access key provided in the preorder box to make an account for FPE.
   
• You can ask a friend who owns Guild Wars to invite you into the FPE, in which case you will be emailed an access key that you can use to make an account for FPE.

For players in Europe:

• You can preorder Factions through an online retailer. We will provide a list of the participating retailers very soon.
   
• You can ask a friend who owns Guild Wars to invite you into the FPE, in which case you will be emailed an access key that you can use to make an account for FPE.

For customers in Korea, Japan and Taiwan:

• Please visit your local Guild Wars website for more information.

Each Guild Wars account holder can send up to three invitations.

Simply use the interface option available upon logging into your Guild Wars account, and we'll handle the rest. An invitation will be emailed to your friend with a unique access key, and with just a few easy steps, your friend will be setup and ready to play on March 24th.

No, but if you want more character slots during the FPE weekend then you can send yourself an invitation, then use that invitation to make a new account just for testing. But remember to unlock skills and item upgrades on the account that you intend to use in the future, and not on a temporary account.

Yes, competitive ladder play will continue uninterrupted. If you choose to play in guild battles during that weekend, please be aware that the competitive environment will be very different than that to which you're accustomed.

If you are a Guild Wars account holder, than yes, of course you're invited to the FPE!

If you do not have a retail Guild Wars account, we recommend that you contact a friend who is a Guild Wars player, and ask him or her to share an FPE Invitation with you. The free demo account that you created for the last Factions event won't automatically have access to the FPE, but you can use a FPE Invitation access key to give your demo account access to the FPE.

Yes, you will need to complete them when you play the retail version.

Yes, the characters will remain on your account in order to preserve the name and appearance. However, each will be a starting-level character, and will have no gold, inventory, or skills.

Yes, absolutely! You can add a retail access key at any time and continue to play on that account. Your skill unlocks and item upgrades remain on your account, ready for you to activate them with a retail key.

We're putting all our focus into the March 24-26 Factions Preview Event, and do not anticipate that we will have additional events prior to the release of Guild Wars Factions.