HAPPYcat's GW2 Achievement Primer

[Bella]

You can, of course, find the original article here.

Guild Wars 2 Achievement Primer
By: HAPPYcat | Apr 7, 2012 | Crafting,GW2 News,PvE,PvP,Video
In Guild Wars 1, titles provided an easy and effective way for players to track, complete and show their achievements throughout the game. Through the hero panel, a player could show which campaigns they completed, how much of the world they explored, how many rare items they identified and much more.


A similar panel in Guild Wars 2 seeks to do the same thing, but the use of titles and associated achievements has been expanded significantly to include over 150 achievement or title tracks as of the most recent press beta. So how do you get these achievements? What do they look like?
In most cases, achievements are earned through just playing the game. Fortunately, no matter what you are doing, there are achievements that give you an idea of how much content you’ve completed, how many things you have crafted, how many dungeons you’ve explored, how many kills you’ve registered with specific weapon types, and even achievements for specific storyline elements. Because many of these achievements can only be completed by specific professions or races, non-daily or monthly achievements are obtained account-wide. So feasibly, two sword-wielding characters will contribute to the same achievement line.
Most achievements have a number of tiers. For example, species-specific slayer tracks have a first tier of 10 kills, a second tier of 100 kills, a third tier of 500, and so forth. Reportedly, the number of tiers can vary from 3 to 8. Some achievements have no tiers at all.
Several achievements also offer bonus rewards, which appear in the form of chests on the ground that give players items, coin or experience.
Getting achievements grant you achievement points that can be displayed and shown off to other players. Other rewards, such as titles that can be displayed on your character, are also earned through achievements.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS

Daily Kills​

Daily Kill Variety​

Daily Gatherer​

Daily PvP Victory​

Daily Trader​

Most achievements are unending and have no limits to how long you can work on them, but others have a particular time limit to them. Daily achievements, when completed, also give you a bonus chest containing items, experience and more. With things like getting 10 kills, or killing five different types of enemies, these achievements are tailored more towards playing the game for an hour or so and getting a quick, easy boost in experience. In a way, this acts similar to being rested in World of Warcraft.
MONTHLY ACHIEVEMENTS

WvW Kills​

Event Participation​

Trading Post Sales​

Experience Survivor​

Monthly achievements are a bit different, in that they are longer-term tracks that more reward extended play than they do frequent, daily play. Given that the press has only had access to two community betas that each lasted for three days, it is tough to gauge how these work beyond what we already know: They reset once a month, and when that reset takes place, new achievements are provided. All we have for this is four examples, and these were the achievements in both beta events.
COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENTS

No One Left Behind​

Active Guild Member​

Mini-Pets Collection​

Thirst Slayer​

All You Can Eat​

Achievements falling under the Community tab tend to have a more social application. Reviving players is a combat-focused achievements, but it involves interacting with other players. The other four achievements in this tab deal with guild influence, the number of minipets you have, how many consumable shots you’ve consumed, and how many food items you’ve eaten.
FASHION ACHIEVEMENTS

Asuran Specialty Armor​

Charr Specialty Armor​

Human Specialty Armor​

Norn Specialty Armor​

Sylvari Specialty Armor​

There are also five achievements for collecting specialty armors, with one set of armor for each of Tyria’s five playable races. At the moment, there is very little information about these specialty armors, and a quick search through the Guild Wars 2 wiki suggests that we only know these exist because of the achievements.
PVP ACHIEVEMENTS

Gladiator​

Conqueror​

Professional Assassin​

Legendary​

Realm Avenger​

Realm Defender​

Six player versus player achievements, with two for each of the game’s three PvP formats, are also available. In each category, there is an achievement for kills. For regular PvP battles and tournament matches, there are also achievements for wins, while in World versus World PvP, there is an achievement for using supply.
HERO ACHIEVEMENTS

Skillful​

Local Hero​

Emergency Response Hero​

Been There, Done That​

Hero achievements track your progress through the explorable game world. Through them, you can track and display your progress in capturing skills, completing NPC-offered hearts and completing dynamic events. There is also a separate track that includes the percentage of the game completed by your character with the most content completed. Additionally, the panel includes 24 achievements tied to the personal story that we did not display here for spoiler reasons.
SLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS

Indiscriminate​

Bandit​

Bat​

Centaur​

Devourer​

Drake​

Dredge​

Elemental​

Ettin​

Fish​

Flame Legion​

Ghost Buster​

Giant​

Grawl​

Griffon​

Harpy​

Hylek​

Imp​

Inquest​

Insect​

Jotun​

Krait​

Minotaur​

Nightmare Court​

Ogre​

Ooze​

Pirate​

Plant​

Raptor​

Shell​

Skale​

Skelk​

Skritt​

Son of Svanir​

Spider​

Troll​

Wind Rider​

​

Zhaitan​

The category with the most achievements – a whopping 38 in total – charts kills in the explorable world. In these cases, you are rewarded for killing creatures of a specific species, all of which are listed here. There are also some achievements that don’t reference a species, but instead a type of enemy – like Indiscriminate Slayer, which rewards players for killing harmless, low-level creatures in the world. Tracks for Flame Legion, Nightmare Court and Son of Svanir also reward players for killing members of factions you fight against in the game.
WEAPON ACHIEVEMENTS

​

Magic Master​

Melee Master​

Ranged Master​

Siege Master​

Axe Master​

Dagger Master​

Focus Master​

Great Sword Master​

Hammer Master​

Harpoon Master​

Longbow Master​

Mace Master​

Pistol Master​

Rifle Master​

Scepter Master​

Shield Master​

Shortbow Master​

Speargun Master​

Staff Master​

Sword Master​

Torch Master​

Trident Master​

Warhorn Master​

In the Weapon Master category, players will track their abilities in using different types of weapons. Players will need to use multiple characters for these achievements since certain weapons can only be used by specific professions. First, there are four achievements for tracking the most damage a player has dealt in one attack – using spells, melee attacks, ranged attacks or siege attacks. Then, there are weapon master tracks for killing blows with each weapon type.
TRADESMAN ACHIEVEMENTS

Armorsmith​

Artificer​

Cook​

Huntsman​

Jeweler​

Leatherworker​

Tailor​

Weaponsmith​

Salvage Master​

Agent of Entropy​

Hunter Gatherer​

Combat Mechanic​

Tinkerer​

Mystic Forge Master​

Master Crafter​

Trade Supplier​

Trade Consumer​

Gold Hoarder​

Tradesman achievements focus on the creation of items and trading with other players. Through these achievements, every part of item creation – salvaging, gathering, crafting, transmutation and upgrading – are covered. Each crafting discipline – such as cooking and armorsmithing – also have achievement tracks that follow how many items have been created by the player.
EXPLORER ACHIEVEMENTS

Ascalon Explorer​

Krytan Explorer​

Maguuma Explorer​

Mist Explorer​

Orr Explorer​

Shiverpeak Explorer​

Legendary Collector​

Dungeon Explorer​

Hobby Dungeon Explorer​

Treasure Hunter​

Hobby Treasure Hunter​

​

The explorer achievements work to track your progress through Tyria’s explorable areas, dungeons and more. Like the explorer title tracks in the first Guild Wars, six tracks in Guild Wars 2 reward players for discovering entire regions available in the game. There are also two hobby titles that require you unlock other achievements on the panel first.
HALL OF MONUMENTS ACHIEVEMENTS

Traveler​

Guild Warrior​

Rift Warden​

Chosen​

Ascendant​

Closer to the Stars​

Ghostly Hero​

Flameseeker​

Legend of the Mists​

Champion of the Gods​

The last set of achievements available in Guild Wars 2 is probably the one that matters the most for the time being – the Hall of Monuments. These achievements each offer title rewards tied to your progress in the Hall of Monuments from the first Guild Wars.
Most of these achievements work the same way they did in Guild Wars 1. They’re easily attainable by playing the game, but they offer higher tiers for players who want to grind out the rest of that one slayer achievement track or hit the top tier in order to get a wearable title. In either case, it’s an added bonus to Guild Wars 2 on top of everything else the game already provides.

Huge thanks go out to HAPPYcat for getting this all together into an easy-to-understand article. Thanks HAPPYcat!!!