With 5 days on the clock to Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend, it’s time we prepare all members with a check list. Recently we had an increase in new members joining us (we have a whooping 90 members now!), and for some this is their first time playing Guild Wars 2. But whatever it is, here’s a check list for all members!

1. Yakisoba Guild’s rollcall. All members, make sure you sign up on our rollcall if you have bought Guild Wars 2 and will be rolling with Yakisoba.

2. Yakisoba will be playing on Scavenger’s Causeway Gate of Madness server for this beta weekend. Please transfer over if you want to join us. Usually each Beta Weekend comes with free gems for you to do so, so make sure you take advantage of that. For new players playing Guild Wars 2 for the first time, make sure you select Scavenger’s Causeway as your homeserver. Do note that in GW2 your account is binded to a server, unlike other MMO where you can create multiple accounts in different servers.

NOTE: In the event that our homeserver is full, you can join other servers and we can still add you to our guild. Guilds in GW2 are cross-server. You won’t be able to play with us, but you can still chat with members.

3. Get mumble. Yakisoba Guild uses Mumble for our VOIP communication is we expect all members to use it while playing. When BWE3 goes live, come to Mumble and look for Tsubaki or Shader to request us to invite you to the guild. We will only accept you by this way. This is our bare requirement to the guild. If you can’t make the effort, then we certainly don’t want you to be part of our family. Link to our mumble server on the side of our blog.

4. BWE3 schedule: Friday, July 20, at noon PDT (GMT -7) and ends Sunday, July 22, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT -7). Which means for us GMT +8 users, the 3rd and final Beta Weekend 3 will be from Saturday 3am to Monday 3pm. Plan your schedule according, there is much so much more to test and experiment in the last BWE3.

5. Store up snacks and drinks. Tips for snacks: Get snacks where you won’t dirty your hands, so you can eat and play all the way. Wang Wang makes a great choice.

6. Try Asura and/or Sylvari. Finally, the last 2 races is now available and it’s time to explore the hell out of their maps.

7. WvW with the guild. We will probably do a huge organized WvW session during the BWE. Look out for it and do join us! Even if you don’t have a headset, you should still be on mumble to listen to instructions. Let’s show other players how an organized guild fights!

General GW2 tips:

Guild Wars 2 is a very very different game. Whatever past MMOs have taught you, it’s time to unlearn. Leveling in GW2 is easy and fun. Do your personal story quests, renown heart quests and their fame dynamic events for your main chunk of exp. But don’t neglect gathering and crafting while leveling in Tyria. The exp you get is huge, and it’s not something you should miss out, even if you may not enjoy crafting. Getting 100% map completion nets in a hell lot of exp/gold/great loots. Oh and remember to buy gathering tools axe/sickle/picks to gather the different mats.

Even if you outlevel a map, it’s proven that it’s still worth clearing the area for exp. For example, if you start of as a Human, you can always do the other 4 races Lv1-10 maps before moving up to the next level tier maps. Guild Wars 2 has a down-leveling feature that will bring your level down to the area’s level, this way you can never outlevel and clear content super quickly. Everywhere you go will always be challenging! Which is why it’s always said there is no end-game in Guild Wars 2. The game is the end game.

Items in Guild Wars 2 are differently labelled. The color rarity works differently here. Gray (Junk) < White (Common) < Blue (Fine) < Green (Masterwork) < Yellow (Rare) < Orange (Exotic) < Red (Legendary) < Purple (Mystic). Don’t think your green items are lousier than your blue, they are in fact better.

Always salvage stuff you don’t want for mats. Buy basic salvage kits from NPC.  It’s better that NPC-ing them away. Also, you can gamble items at the Mystic Forge. 4 of the same rarity for 1 random item.

Enjoy your time in Tyria! It’s a beautiful world.