Intro Guide to Crafting

Newly created characters in Guild Wars 2 are able to begin crafting immediately following the brief intro instance for each race, though you may want to wait until you’ve got at least a few levels under your belt before diving in. As you’ll learn in this guide, this is due to needing some materials to craft with, and enough coin to purchase various components from NPC crafting vendors.

Getting Started with Crafting

You can actively train a total of two (2) crafting disciplines at any given time. To select a new discipline to train, you will need to speak to the associated NPC trainer. All major cities have an area where crafting trainers, vendors, and workstations can be found, but they can also be found in a number of towns and villages in the explorable zones.

For example, the starting zones for each race (level 1-15 zones) contain a town or outpost where you will be able to train and craft. These are located in areas with content for around level 10 which can be a good time to start crafting, and allows you to do so without having to travel back to a major city to do so.

To find any such areas, open your map [M] and any crafting areas will be clearly marked with the icons shown here to the right. To make it easier to see the crafting icons on the map, you can also click on the small eye shaped icon found on the bottom left corner of the map. This will bring up a list of display options that can be toggled, with a category dedicated to crafting.

In major cities, don’t forget that you can toggle between the different “layers” of the city on the map. To do so, click on any of the various layers for that particular map on the bottom right corner.

Once you’ve located the NPC trainers, interact with them using the default [F] key, and begin a conversation. As shown below, each one will provide you with some basic information about what that discipline is able to produce, types of materials you will need, and other important info specific to that discipline.

The Eight Crafting Disciplines

There are a total of eight (8) crafting disciplines in Guild Wars 2. These are outlined below, including notes on the types of items each one produces, and a list of any suggested professions.

The Crafting Interface

Once you’ve chosen a crafting discipline, you can immediately begin crafting provided you have the necessary components. To do so, walk up to the appropriate crafting station and interact with it using the default [F] key. This will bring up the main crafting window which has a number of different tabs and interactions. We’ll take a look at each of these views below, along with some basic notes and tips for each.

Note: click on any of the images below for a larger view of the interface

The Discovery Tab

In this tab you can drag components from your inventory on the left of the screen into the four boxes found in the center of the interface to "discover" new items. This will be your primary method of learning new recipes for all disciplines, though you will learn some automatically as you unlock new tiers. In general, you will also earn more crafting XP through discovery than general production.

The Production Tab

This is the default view when you begin crafting. Any recipes you currently know will be listed on the left. Clicking on them will display the necessary components in the main view on the right of the window, and if you have them in your inventory you can craft the item. You will start out with a number of basic recipes already unlocked, but can learn more through advancement and discovery.

The Bank Tab

This tab will allow you to access your account vault which can be very handy while crafting. While most crafting components can be stored in the collections tab, certain items such as Insignias used in the discovery process can only be stored in the main bank. Since you can access this tab from any crafting station, it can allow you to access the bank from any explorable zones where crafting stations are located.

The Collections Tab

Here you will be able to access any of your stored crafting materials. Like the default bank space, collection storage is account wide, so this can be an incredibly handy way to share gathered and dropped crafting materials between your characters on the same account. Note that you can also store basic vendor-bought crafting items here, such as linen thread used in many disciplines.

Once you've selected to train in any of the crafting disciplines, you will also be able to view a version of the Production tab shown above via the main Hero window [H] by clicking on the Crafting tab. Keep in mind, however, that you will only be able to view a list of any known recipes and their required components via the Hero window. To actually produce any of the items you will need to be near the appropriate crafting station.

Salvage Kits and Gathering Tools

The bulk of your crafting materials will come from gathering while out in the explorable zones, or breaking dropped items down using salvage kits depending on which crafting disciplines you choose to train. Both methods will require you to purchase and use associated consumable items that can be found on all crafting NPCs, and many NPC vendors throughout the world.

Salvage Kits

Salvage kits will allow you to break certain items down into crafting materials, and have a chance of returning any upgrade items slotted in any armors, weapons, or accessories you salvage. The kits are a stackable item that's stored in your normal inventory, with one kit consumed each time you salvage an item.

Beyond any equippable items dropped by creatures, many also have a chance to drop items labled as Salvage Item. These will return a number of components, but unlike armor, weapons, and accessories, they will not provide you with any item upgrades when salvaged.

There are currently five (5) types of common salvage kits that can be purchased from vendors, or may be earned as rewards from certain activities such as personal story missions. As a general rule, the more expensive the kit, the better chance you have of yielding rarer components or salvaging upgrades from items.

• Crude Salvage Kit - 32c per stack of 15
• Basic Salvage Kit - 88c per stack of 25
• Fine Salvage Kit - 2s 88c per stack of 25
• Journeyman's Salvage Kit - 8s per stack of 25
• Master's Salvage Kit - 15s 36c per stack of 25

There are also two additional types of salvage kits to be aware of:

• Black Lion Salvage Kit - these are purchased primarily through the gem store, though you may occasionally obtain them from reward chests or very rarely as drops. They differ from common kits in that you are guaranteed to retain any upgrades when salvaging gear.
• PvP Salvage Kits - These are purchased with glory from vendors in the MIsts, and are used to break down any unwanted PvP rewards you accumulate. Instead of returning normal crafting materials, salvaged PvP items will return a number of components used in the Mystic Forge instead.

Gathering Tools

Before you can begin gathering from any metals, wood, or plants, you will need to have the proper gathering tools equipped. Gathering tools are consumable items commonly found on NPC vendors and all crafting trainers.

Unlike salvage kits, gathering tools will not take up inventory space, but instead can be equipped in your Hero [H] window, or by right-clicking and selecting to "equip item". As you can see in the image to the right, there are also different tiers of gathering tools, with each allowing you to gather metal, wood, or plants from progressively higher level zones:

• Rough - used for gathering in the level 1-15 maps, no level requirement
• Iron - used for gathering on maps up to level 30, requires level 10
• Steel - used on maps up to level 45, requires level 25
• Darksteel - used on maps up to level 45, requires level 40
• Mithril - used on maps up to level 60, requires level 55
• Orichalcum - used on maps up to level 80, requires level 70