Guild Wars 2 Beginner's Guide: What to Do in Your First 20 Levels

Guild Wars 2 throws the whole world at you almost right away, and that's part of why new players get a little lost. There's no single quest line dragging you forward. You get a map full of hearts, events popping off everywhere, and a personal story that only nudges you every ten levels. So it helps to know what's actually worth your time in those first 20 levels.

The early game is forgiving on purpose. You can't really mess a character up badly, the combat teaches itself as you go, and almost everything you do hands you experience. Picking a good profession, spending hero points without stressing over them, and pacing the personal story all beat grinding random mobs. Here's how to spend those first hours well.

Choosing Your First Profession and Race

Race is mostly flavor, and that's the short version. There are five of them: human, norn, asura, charr, and sylvari. Each one drops you into its own 1-15 starter zone and capital city after a short tutorial instance. Human lands you in Queensdale outside Divinity's Reach. Norn start in Wayfarer Foothills near Hoelbrak. Asura get Metrica Province and Rata Sum. Charr begin in Plains of Ashford by the Black Citadel. Sylvari wake up in Caledon Forest around the Grove.

Races don't change how strong you are

Here's the thing that trips people up. Your race doesn't gate your profession, it doesn't change your stats, and it doesn't lock you out of anything important later. You get a couple of racial skills, but they're weak and mostly there for fun. So pick whichever one looks coolest to you.

The only real difference is where you start. (You can hop over to any other race's starter zone whenever you want, by the way. They're all scaled for new characters, and you start with one waypoint in each.) Pick the starter area that appeals to you and move on. Don't overthink this part.

The nine professions, ranked by friendliness

This is the choice that actually matters. Guild Wars 2 has nine professions, split across three armor weights. Soldiers wear heavy armor, adventurers wear medium, and scholars wear light. Each profession shows a complexity rating on the selection screen, one filled circle meaning easy and three meaning tough. Here's the whole lineup.

| Profession | Armor | Friendliness | What they feel like | |---|---|---|---| | Guardian | Heavy | Easy | Defensive melee that hands out group buffs | | Warrior | Heavy | Easy | Tough weaponsmaster fueled by adrenaline | | Ranger | Medium | Easy | Ranged fighter with a pet that soaks hits | | Necromancer | Light | Easy | Minions plus a Death Shroud form | | Revenant | Heavy | Medium | Channels old legends, runs on energy | | Thief | Medium | Medium | Stealth and quick bursts, spends initiative | | Mesmer | Light | Medium | Clones and illusions that confuse enemies | | Engineer | Medium | Hard | Kits, turrets, and gadgets everywhere | | Elementalist | Light | Hard | Swaps between four elemental attunements |

One catch worth knowing. Revenant needs you to own an expansion (Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, or End of Dragons). If you're on the free trial, it won't show up. The other eight are open from the start.

Picks for a brand-new player

If you've never touched the game, lean toward the easy ones. Guardian and Warrior are forgiving because heavy armor soaks up mistakes, and both hit hard with very little setup. Ranger is the classic beginner pick for one simple reason: your pet holds aggro and takes hits for you, so you can stand back and figure the combat out. Necromancer is the friendly scholar pick, since minions do a lot of the work and Death Shroud is basically a second health bar when things go sideways.

Hold off on Elementalist and Engineer until you've got a feel for the game. Elementalist juggles four attunements, which is a lot to track when you're still learning to dodge. Engineer dumps a toolbelt full of extra skills on you. They're not bad, just busy. Mesmer and Thief sit in the middle. Fun, but they reward a little practice.

Understanding Levels, Hero Points, and Skill Unlocks

The first 20 levels are where the game hands you your toolkit one piece at a time. Levels fly by at this stage. You'll outlevel the starter zone before you know it. Two systems do the heavy lifting here: your level (which feeds you new skills and slots on a set schedule) and hero points (the currency you spend on the rest). Neither one is worth stressing over.

Levels, and why downscaling keeps things fun

Your level just goes up as you play. Walk near something, finish a heart, gather a node, tag an event, all of it feeds experience. The max level is 80, and the early stretch moves quick.

Here's the neat part. If you wander into a zone below your level, the game scales you down to roughly match it. So a level 30 character back in a level 10 area still gets meaningful experience and relevant loot, not one-shot kills for nothing. That keeps old zones alive and means you can always play with lower-level friends. There's no penalty for being "over level" somewhere either. It just keeps the content interesting.

Your skill bar, one slot at a time

Skills 1 through 5 on your bar come from whatever weapon you're holding. Main-hand weapons cover skills 1, 2, and 3. Off-hand weapons cover 4 and 5. A two-handed weapon gives you all five. Swap weapons and those five slots change completely, which becomes a big deal later on.

The right side of the bar fills in differently. Skill 6 is your heal, 7 through 9 are utility skills, and 0 is your elite. You buy those with hero points. The F1 key (and sometimes F2 and beyond) is your profession mechanic, the thing that makes your class feel like itself.

The game doles these out on a schedule as you level:

• Level 2: second weapon skill
• Level 4: third weapon skill
• Level 5: your first profession skill, on F1
• Level 6: fourth weapon skill, and the off-hand weapon slot opens up
• Level 11: hero challenges unlock, and hero points start coming in
• Level 21: specializations unlock, which is where your build really takes shape

So the first ten levels are basically the game teaching you the bar, slot by slot. By the time hero points show up at 11, you'll know what your weapon does and what's missing.

Hero points: what they buy, and how many you get

Hero points are the currency for everything on the right side of your bar, plus your traits. You get them two ways: as a reward for leveling, and from hero challenges scattered around the map (those blue chevron markers). Core Tyria challenges hand out one point each. Expansion ones are beefier at ten points apiece, which is why people grind them for elite specs later.

Leveling a character to 80 gives you 398 hero points, which happens to be the exact amount you need to unlock every core skill and trait. A few reference numbers so it feels less abstract:

• All your core skills: 98 points
• All five core specializations' traits: 300 points (60 each)
• One elite specialization, later on: another 250 points

The early trickle looks small, and that's fine. It adds up fast. By level 11 you've got 5. By 17 you're sitting at 20. The pace picks up as you go.

| Level | Points earned | Running total | |---|---|---| | 11 | 5 | 5 | | 13 | 5 | 10 | | 15 | 5 | 15 | | 17 | 5 | 20 | | 19 | 6 | 26 |

Where to spend them first

Don't hoard these. Spend them. A safe opener for almost any profession is your heal skill on slot 6, because a second way to recover health keeps you alive while you're still learning to dodge. After that, grab a utility skill or two that fits how you play. If you like hitting hard, pick a damage skill. If you keep dying, grab a stun break or a defensive skill.

There's no wrong order in the first 20 levels, and nothing you buy now is wasted. You'll eventually afford everything core. So go with your gut, swap skills freely, and stop worrying about a perfect build. There isn't one this early.

Personal Story Pacing Through the Early Chapters

Your personal story is the closest thing Guild Wars 2 has to a main quest, and it's told in chapters. Each chapter is a short instanced mission, often with a choice or two that bends the plot. The story is personal in another sense too: other players can come help you, but only you make the calls. The instances also scale up if more people join, which is a nice touch.

Chapters unlock every ten levels

This is the part people don't expect. The story doesn't run continuously. It unlocks in steps tied to your level, one chapter every ten levels:

• Chapter 1: level 10
• Chapter 2: level 20
• Chapter 3: level 30
• Chapter 4 (joining an Order): level 40

And so on, all the way to Chapter 8 at level 80. So in your first 20 levels you'll see exactly two story beats after the tutorial. That's on purpose. The game wants you out in the world doing hearts, events, and poking around, not parked in instances.

Chapter 1 lands at level 10

The tutorial is the bit right after character creation. Each race has its own: humans defend Shaemoor, norn go on the Great Hunt, asura show off an invention, charr sort out warband business, and sylvari fight off the Nightmare. That feeds straight into Chapter 1 at level 10, which introduces your race's mentor (one of the Destiny's Edge heroes) and a renegade faction tied to your race and one of your biography choices. It's short, it's voiced, and it sets the tone.

Chapter 2 at level 20

Chapter 2 picks up the same thread at level 20 and starts pulling the different racial stories toward a shared path. By the end of the early chapters you'll be choosing one of three Orders to join: the Vigil (who like to fight problems head on), the Durmand Priory (who lean on knowledge and old tech), and the Order of Whispers (who prefer sneaking and subversion). That choice rolls around level 30, but Chapter 2 plants the seeds for it.

Don't binge it, and don't skip it either

Two temptations show up here, and both are worth resisting. The first is rushing the story the second a chapter unlocks. You'll often hit level 10 fast, do Chapter 1, and then feel stuck waiting for level 20. That's normal. Go clear some hearts, do events, finish the starter zone.

The second temptation is ignoring the story entirely because it feels slow. Don't sleep on it. The personal story hands out decent experience, gear, and a chunk of karma, and it's the only place you'll meet some of the characters who matter way later. Treat it like a treat every ten levels rather than a chore or a sprint. A good rhythm is to hit the level for a chapter, knock that chapter out, then get back to the open world.

Waypoints, Karma, and Early Gearing Tips

Three things tie the early game together: how you get around, the currency you'll swim in, and what you put on your body. Get these sorted and the first 20 levels get a lot smoother.

Waypoints: cheap now, pricier later

Waypoints are the blue fast-travel markers, and they're how you move around Tyria. Click one on your map and you teleport there for a small coin fee. Two things set the price: how far you're going, and your level. The fee is tiny at low levels, just a few copper. It climbs as you level up and as you cover more ground, so by the time you're near 80, jumping clear across the map can run about a silver. Even standing right next to a waypoint costs a little more once you're high level.

One big freebie. Travel between waypoints inside a city is free. So moving around Divinity's Reach or Lion's Arch costs nothing. Use waypoints freely in the first 20 levels. The fees are basically nothing this early, and walking everywhere just wastes your time.

Karma: the heart currency

Karma is a special currency you can't trade to anyone else, and it piles up fast in the early game. You earn it two main ways: finishing renown hearts (those heart-shaped tasks on the map) and completing dynamic events (the orange markers that pop up around you). A heart at level 2 pays about 90 karma, and it ticks up roughly seven or eight more per level after that.

Here's the neat trick. Every heart you finish unlocks that heart's NPC as a karma vendor. They sell gear, recipes, and consumables for karma instead of coin. For a new character that's a steady source of gear you don't have to spend gold on. Stockpile karma early and you can kit yourself out from heart vendors as you go. You'll blow through mountains of it later, so don't feel bad about spending some now.

Gearing in the first 20 levels: keep it simple

You do not need to buy gear for gold right now. Seriously. Between heart vendors (karma), event rewards, random drops, and the level-up rewards the game mails you, you'll stay geared up for free. Every few levels, glance at your hero panel and swap in anything with a higher level and better stats. That's the whole routine.

A couple of plain pointers:

• Stats that matter early: Power (more damage), Vitality (more health), and Toughness (less incoming damage). For most new players, Power keeps things moving fastest.
• You can equip Fine (green) gear starting at level 6, which is a small step up from basic stuff. Don't chase it, just use what drops.
• Don't sweat upgrade components like runes and sigils yet. Slap on what you find and move on.

If a piece falls ten or more levels behind, that's when you actually want to replace it. Otherwise the game keeps pace with you on its own.

Salvage, gather, and bank everything

Your bags will fill up fast, and this is where a lot of new players fumble. Grab a salvage kit from any vendor (cheap, a few copper). Use it on gear you don't need to break it down into crafting materials. Then hit the "Deposit Materials" button in your inventory to instantly ship all those materials to your bank from anywhere. It clears bag space and builds a crafting stash for later.

Gather every node you walk past, too. Mining ore, chopping wood, and foraging plants all give experience, and the materials sell or craft into useful stuff later. Nodes are per-character, not first-come, so you're never stealing from anyone. Gathering while you level is basically free experience with a side of materials.

Common New Player Mistakes to Avoid

Most early-game pain comes from a handful of habits that are easy to fix. Here's the short list, and what to do instead.

Selling gear to NPC vendors. Vendors pay peanuts. List sellable gear on the Trading Post instead, where the same item often goes for several times more. Vendor the true junk, Trading Post the rest.

Skipping the salvage and deposit loop. If your bags are full and you're deleting things, you're losing money. Salvage unwanted gear, deposit the materials, and repeat. It takes ten seconds and pays off forever.

Grinding mobs for experience. Guild Wars 2 does not reward standing in one spot killing the same enemies. You'll level way faster by clearing hearts, jumping into events, gathering nodes, and working toward map completion. Mobs are a side dish, not the meal.

Ignoring the dodge. The dodge roll (V key, or double-tap a direction) makes you briefly invulnerable, and it's the single most important survival tool in the game. Orange circles on the ground mean an attack is coming. Roll out of them. Watch your yellow endurance bar so you know when you can dodge again.

Sticking to one weapon. Once you can carry two weapon sets, swap between them. Different weapons give you different skills 1 through 5, and mixing them covers more situations. A ranged set for tough foes and a melee set for cleanup is a classic combo.

Hoarding hero points. Some new players save every point "for later" and end up with an empty right side of the skill bar. Spend them. You'll get enough to buy everything core by 80, and a half-built bar just makes you weaker now.

Buying gear with gold. Covered above, but worth repeating. Gold is precious and gear is free from hearts and drops this early. Save your coin for bag slots, salvage kits, and the bigger purchases waiting at endgame.

Not using the wiki. The Guild Wars 2 wiki is genuinely one of the best in gaming, and there's a built-in shortcut. Type /wiki followed by anything in chat and it opens the right page in your browser. Stuck on an item, a quest step, or a stat? /wiki it.

Boosting to 80 before learning your class. If you have a level 80 boost sitting around, the temptation is real. But a boosted character dumps dozens of skills and mechanics on you with zero practice. Play at least the first 20 levels normally so the combat clicks first. Then, if you want, boost an alt.

Ignoring events. Hearts are fine, but dynamic events are where the real experience and karma live. When an orange marker pops up nearby, go help. Chains of events often roll into bigger payoffs, and a lot of the world's flavor lives in them.

Keep these in mind and the first 20 levels go from "what do I even do" to "oh, this is clicking." A solid beginner profession, hero points spent instead of saved, the personal story as a treat every ten levels, free gear from hearts, and a habit of salvaging and gathering. That's the whole game plan for the early stretch. Do that, and you'll walk into the later levels with a character you actually understand.