. : Shades of Silence : . -- Walkthroughs (GuildWars

Is this game free?/Where can I download this game?/Other general pre-getting started info

This game is known as "free to play." This does NOT mean you don't have to pay ever. You can download the game for free at the bottom of this page, and there is no monthly fee, but you DO have to buy a game account. So basically it's like buying a console game (one-time fee), cept you play this online with other people.

Once you have an account (check out the first How to Play page for instructions on setting up your account) and login to the game and create/choose a character, the game will start a huge long download (I'm not talking about when you downloaded the game client earlier). What it's downloading is your .dat file. This will take a decent length of time, regardless of your connection, and it still won't download all of the files you'll need, so you will end up having to wait for an area to download each time you enter a new area. The alternative that most people use instead is this: after you create a character, exit the game client. Now, find the GuildWars shortcut (not the actual .exe file, it MUST be a shortcut), which is usually on your desktop, and create another copy of it, also on your desktop. Name this new shortcut something like "GuildWars image" (or anything other than just "GuildWars"). You will NOT be able to use this new shortcut to play the game after you finish doing what I'm about to tell you to do, which is why I had you make a copy. Now, right-click the new shortcut and press R (or click on Properties). Click on the "Shortcut" tab at the top, if it's not there already. Look for the "Target" field in this tab. It should say the physical location of your actual .exe file (so, something like "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe"). At the very end of that location, add (space)-image (where "(space)" is an actual space, not the word space) so that it looks something like this: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image

Click Apply, then OK. Now, you'll want to open this shortcut and leave it on overnight or something, because what you just did will force the game to download all of the current files in the game, thus reducing your wait time when entering new areas drastically. Of course, any new game updates released after you do this won't be included, but that should be obvious. At the time of writing this (Oct. 13.2009), the entire complete .dat file is slightly over 3.78GB in size, so it would take ~6 hours to fully download, depending on your connection (hence me saying leave it running while you're sleeping so it doesn't steal your bandwith when you're actually using the internet). Obviously, this won't work so well if you're on a timed connection, like on a university connection or something, but the good thing about it is that you can just close the download at any given time and restart it again later without losing the previously-downloaded files. It will just pick back up from where it left off. The other good thing about it is that it automatically closes once all of the files are downloaded (which is why I said you won't be able to use this shortcut to actually play the game. It is purely for downloading purposes only). I highly suggest backing up your .dat file somewhere when you're down downloading it all so that if your computer explodes or something you won't have to go through this process again (it also helps if you get a new computer or want to install GWs on another computer and don't want to wait that long).

Can I, and how do I travel from Prophecies/Factions/whatever to Factions/Nightfall/whatever?

First, you need to have the campaigns you want to travel to unlocked on your account (duh?). Now, travel to GW:EN (Eye of the North expansion) is a special case in that you have to be a specific level (10) before you can even acquire the quest to travel there. Traveling to any other campaign does not require a specific level, you just need to have reached the city where the quests are (or, in the case of traveling FROM Nightfall to another campaign, you need to have reached a specific point in the storyline). *Note: As long as you have the campaign, you can get whichever "to GW:EN" quest you want. It doesn't necessarily have to be the one from the campaign your char was born in. So, say, you created a character in Prophecies, but you really really hate undead because they're annoying, and you've already been to Kamadan in Nightfall on that character for whatever reason, you can take the "to GW:EN" quest in Kamadan instead of Lion's Arch. Also, the quests all behave like Hard Mode in the sense that any of these enemies on the quest have the potential to drop lockpicks (even if you're NOT actually in Hard Mode). So.... why not just beat up the lv 3 corsairs in Hole of Istan for lockpicks instead of hassling with lv 14-ish undead or lv 20 Am Fah?

Travel to GW:EN

First things first: quest map! Yeah, in case you somehow manage to get lost ^O__o^;; Also, the map is the same no matter what campaign you started in; however, the enemies you encounter will be different.

From Prophecies: Reach the city of Lion's Arch in the region of Kryta and (after reaching lv 10) speak to Len Caldoron near the fountain (to the northeast). He will give you the What Lies Beneath quest.

From Factions: Reach the city of Kaineng Center on the Canthan Mainland and (after reaching lv 10) speak to That Dude With the Really Long Name (Minister of Maintenance Raiugyon). He is up some stairs, near the portal to Raisu Pavillion, and will give you a quest with an equally excessively-long name: I Feel the Earth Move Under Cantha's Feet.

From Nightfall: After reaching level 10, speak to Bendah (near storage/Sun Docks portal) and obtain the Hole of Istan quest.

How to do the quest: They may have different names, but they're all exactly the same (except for the enemies you encounter during them). The Istan one has low-lv corsairs, the Kryta one has mid-level undead, and the Factions one has lv 20 Am Fah. Make your way through the first part, killing off the enemies as you go. When you see some dwarves up ahead (holding down the left Alt key brings up nearby NPC names), get ready, cause there's a cutscene coming up. After the movie, press X once to do an about-face, and hold down the Alt key again and click on Kodan. Now, press Spacebar, and DO NOT STOP FOR ANYTHING!! I don't care if your hench/best friend/puppy just got pwnt by the lv 28 evil thingies of DOOM that keep spawning and chasing after you, KEEEEEEEEP GOINGGGGGG!!!! As long as one real player makes it to the end, you all get credit for the quest. Also, I'm having you click-spacebar Kodan cause he's a cowardly dwarf who NEVER fails to make it to the end, so therefore you will too if you just keep following him. Just don't forget that once he goes through the portal at the end, he disappears and you will automatically stop running, so you need to make yourself go through the portal after Kodan leaves (see, toldya he's a coward). The only times I've seen Kodan die is when I've used run skills like Sprint and whatnot to get through this quest, but if you already know where to go, why are you reading this? ^O__o^;;
Travel to Factions

From Prophecies: Reach the city of Lion's Arch in the region of Kryta and speak to Firstwatch Sergio [Skills]. You do not need a party for this quest, unless you are a paranoid person who's going for the Survivor title. You'll see why soon enough. Take the Mhenlo's Request quest, go through the portal that leads outside, speak to Mhenlo (he's right outside), go back inside, head straight south to the beach, and speak to Jiaju Tai to "book" a passage to Cantha (no, it won't actually cost you any money, surprisingly enough, considering Jiaju Tai's reputation as a jackal...). Speak to one of the dudes on the docks after your cutscene, then make your way to Mhenlo and his friends (you can click on one of their names in the party window and press the Spacebar to autofollow, as lots of places in Factions seem to have been built by a madman whose insanity warps normal Euclidian geometry). Be careful when you get near them, as there are two enemies (yes, only two) that will spawn at the stairs further down. Sometimes they do not spawn until you are almost on top of them, so be careful if you are going for Survivor. But, as I said, you do not really need a party for this, because Mhenlo and Co. are more than a match for the two lone enemies, despite them being lv 20. So if they don't spawn before you reach Mhenlo's crew, run towards the stairs, and then be prepared to run quickly back behind the NPCs so that they kill the monsters and you don't die. Then, just enter the portal after the stairs to reach Kaineng Center.

From Nightfall: Since Nightfall's "port city" (i.e., the city that has all of the campaign travel quests) is the one Nightfall characters start out in (after the tutorial and tutorial-mission), Nightfall is special in that just getting to the port city will not allow you to travel to another campaign. You must have completed the primary quest The Time is Nigh before you can acquire the travel quests. This annoys people because this quest happens to be the one that lets you access the mission that takes you off "n00b island" (i.e., Istan), so generally you will be at or near lv 20 by the time you finish this quest, and many people like to travel to other campaigns before that, for various reasons. There is a way around this, however... If you stand around Kamadan long enough, you will see people advertising "FERRY TO DOCKS" or something similar. If they ferry you, you will not only reach the aforementioned mission's outpost (the one that takes you off n00b island) (please note that, even if you enter this outpost, you CANNOT do the mission to get off the island unless you have finished the Time is Nigh quest yourself. Someone ferrying you doesn't count), but there is also max armour there that you can buy (very helpful!), AND, while you can't get the travel quests yourself despite being here, you CAN do two other things besides buy armour: 1) you can now acquire the quests to get extra heroes that are linked to Prophecies/Factions (while yes, Proph and Factions do not normally give you heroes, if you have Nightfall you can get extra heroes if you have Proph and/or Factions. Yes, this is confusing. If you do NOT have Nightfall, you CANNOT get these two heroes, even if you have Proph/Factions) if you have the relevant campaign(s), and 2) you can catch yet another ferry from here to either Prophecies (advertised as "ferry to LA" generally) or Factions (a.k.a., "ferry to Kaineng/KC"). Please note that "ferries" are from actual players, not NPC's, so if no one is advertising a ferry, you can't get one.

If you decide to do all this campaign travel stuff the "right" way from Nightfall, once you reach Consulate Docks, go back to Kamadan and find First Spear Dehvad. Don't talk to him though, he's just a reference point. Go east from his location to find a bridge. Cross this bridge and talk to Funwa Shento there and take the Plague in Cantha quest. Now, go back to Consulate Docks (gah!), talk to Mhenlo there to hear a summary about the situation in Cantha, and then he will take you there.
Travel to Nightfall

From Prophecies: Reach the city of Lion's Arch in the region of Kryta and speak to Lionguard Figo (he is on the docks on the beach in the south part of the city) to get the Sunspears in Kryta quest. Now, be prepared for a rather evil quest. If you are lv 20, this CAN be done with only the hench from Lion's Arch, but even with four lv 20's it still has the potential to be a real pain in the arse, depending on the enemy spawns. Follow your arrow and talk to the gate guard dude, then once you load, talk to Kormir. You will now be taken back to Lion's Arch... aaaahhhh! It's full of evil things! ^@__@^;; OK, what follows is the route I take when doing this quest. It involves a lot of backtracking, but trust me, it's worth taking a bit more time to finish the quest than having to start over because you got yourself killed from doing the Rurik-rush. Alright, as soon as you load, take a couple of seconds to see what the first group is composed of. You will have a bunch of NPC Lionguard following you around but they're mostly cannon fodder and easily killed. Use the left Ctrl key to bring up nearby enemy names. Enemies to watch out for: Torment Claws and Wrathful Storms. Torment Claws do not move from their spawn point, so as long as you keep your distance from them, they are pretty much no problem (unless you've got melee professions in your party). If you do get close to them, there is a strong possibility you will die in one hit from these things, so try not to? Wrathful Storms are fire casters, with Meteor Shower. You do NOT want to get hit with Meteor Shower, which is why you must take your time in this quest to avoid aggroing two groups (cause if there's anything worse than one Meteor Shower raining down on your heads, it's TWO). If there is a Wrathful Storm in the mob you are attacking, make him your priority target before he wipes your entire party.

Anyway. The goal in this quest is to close the torment rifts (purple and black portal-looking things hanging in midair). You do NOT have to kill all of the enemies in the area to accomplish this (and if you're really reckless/confident in your mad skillz, you can just run to all of the portals and just stand in them to close them all without killing anything, but again, you need skillz for this, probably mad tanking skillz, who knows. Cause obviously the enemies are still gonna attack you). Destroy the first group (2-3 enemies), then ignore the first rift for now, because you are making a pre-emptive strike on the next group a bit further south (they are probably occupied with killing NPC's at first, but after the NPC's are dead, they will move towards you, which is bad if you're unprepared). Once the second group is dead, stand in the rift to close it (there will be a gauge on the left side of your screen that will go down once you're in the right place. Also, the more people standing in the rift (up to four people, IIRC), the faster the gauge will go down). Once the rift is closed, you'll get a message on your screen that states the rift has closed and how many still remain open. Go east now up the short flight of steps. Ignore the stationary mobs on the hills on either side of you and go after the patrol that wanders about near the fountain (usually a group of two, but sometimes the NPC's have killed one or two of them by the time you get there. Yay!). The second portal is on the other side of the fountain. Close that, then return to where the first portal was and go south. You will see the third portal, but don't go to it yet. Go to the right of it and up some stairs. Wait at the top of the stairs for two enemies to come to you (do not go to them! There is another group that wanders nearby sometimes and you don't want to aggro them yet). Destroy those, then go down to where the third portal is. The aforementioned "other group" will wander along the water's edge that you can see from your position. When they get as far right as they'll go (you can close the third portal while you're observing them), attack! There is another group that patrols around on the bridge over your head so you have to strike quickly. Watch the red dots on your compass, and don't feel bad about running back to where the third portal is if you see any other groups approaching your position. Remember: even if they're above your head, that doesn't keep them from aggroing. Now, go back to where the second portal was, by the fountain (see, lots of backtracking). If you go south, but not down the corridor where the merchant/rune trader/dye trader usually are, there's a little hill-type thing to the right that leads up. Go up that, then go left and attack the group that I talked about that patrol the bridge that was over your head before. Now, continue left to destroy the very last group and close the last rift. After the cutscene, talk to BOTH NPC's in the area where you load before going through the portal, or you will NOT be able to acquire heroes. Enter Kamadan, make sure you have at least six empty slots in your inventory (you'll see why soon), then go through the portal to Plains of Jarin. Find Kormir on your right, talk to her, and she will not only give you your heroes, but upgraded weapons for them (this is why you needed those free slots. Once you return to town you can add your new heroes to your party and replace their crappy starter weapons with the upgraded ones, and throw the old ones away) Just don't forget to keep going forward while still on the Plains of Jarin to battle the Zaishen (the other quest you got at the Sun Docks) and get your new quest to get yet another hero (Acolyte Sousuke or Acolyte Jin. Please note that you don't get upgraded weapons for them). I won't walk you through the quest to get the Acolytes though, since that's part of the Nightfall walkthrough.

From Factions: You can acquire this quest (Sunspears in Cantha) from Imperial Guardsman Linro near the fountain. This one is VERY similar to the one from Prophecies, so review that section for relevant information. You will be closing portals in this one, as well, and will be battling the same types of enemies. There will just be a hell of a lot more of them here than there, so if you can take the one in Lion's Arch (i.e., you have access to Prophecies, regardless of being an assassin or ritualist) do that one instead as this one is a real pain. Not that it's undoable, but the other one is infinately easier.
Travel to Prophecies

From Factions: Talk to Guardsman Chienpo near the fountain in the port city of Kaineng Center and take the Chaos in Kryta quest. You don't have to fight anything in this quest, so just follow your quest arrow and the quest log (L menu) instructions.

From Nightfall: See the information in the "Travel to Factions (from Nightfall)" section above, except you will speak to Deras Tenderloin, er, I mean Deras Tenderlin, instead of Funwa Shento (they're right next to eachother in Kamadan).

What does pre/pre-searing/post/post-searing/n00b island/starter island/mainland mean?

The different campaigns have different starting, or tutorial, areas. In the Prophecies campaign, this starter area is called "pre" or "pre-searing." To avoid potential spoilers, I'll just say that this is the area where dying does not incur a death penalty ever, you can't go to your guildhall, there is no storage or any other vendor NPC's besides a weapons crafter, merchants, and collectors, and very few skills. After you do the Ascalon Academy thing, you arrive in "post-searing" (abbreviated "post") which occurs two years after the events in pre-searing, and therefore you can never go back to pre. Ever. Well, unless you make a new character, but that's besides the point... In the Factions and Nightfall campaigns, you don't get this self-contained area when you start a new character. Instead, you start off on an island (which is what people refer to as the starter or n00b island. Their official names are Shing Jea Island in Factions, and Istan in NF) with relatively low-level enemies (depending on what area of the island you go to), and the only way off the island is by following the storyline. Once you get off the island, you reach the "mainland," where most of the enemies are lv 20 or higher (so it is highly advised that you do a decent amount of leveling before going there).

What does "ascended" mean/What does "favor" mean?

If you've tried to get into FoW/UW (what FoW and UW are is explained in the next section) and gotten a "you must be ascended to enter" message, or heard talk about ascension around town, this explanation is for you. Being "ascended" is a basic requirement to enter FoW or UW and is an essential part of the storyline of any of the campaigns (I mean ascension is an important part of the storyline, not FoW or UW). Other than getting into FoW/UW, ascension only matters if you wish to change your secondary profession (you can't do so unless you've ascended). But since the parts of the campaigns that ascend you generally come before you come across a profession changer in the storyline, it doesn't really matter (I say "generally," because there is a Profession Changer NPC in the Great Temple of Balthazar, which you can pretty much reach at any given point in time, although for some reason sometimes he won't change your secondary unless you've done the ascension quests anyway. I guess sometimes he's just cranky. ^O__o^ ). In Prophecies, being ascended means having fought your doppelganger in the Augury Rock solo mission (which is only available after having done the other three missions in the desert) and won. In Factions, "ascension" refers to becoming Weh no Su ("Closer to the Stars") and is achieved after beating the Nahpui Quarter mission. In Nightfall, there is no life-altering trial equal to that of ascension in the other campaigns, but if you have completed the primary quest "Hunted!" then you are considered "ascended" by the game.

"Favor" refers to that green server message you see sometimes, like (Player Name) has achieved the title (name of title here). 6 more achievements will earn the favor of the gods. or something similar. Basically, people on your server can only enter FoW/UW when your server has favour, unless you have a scroll to FoW or UW. What FoW and UW refer to is explained in the next section.

What is FoW/UW/DoA/The Deep/Urgoz and how do I get there?

First off, all of these areas are what are known as "elite areas." What that means is that generally parties who are going into these areas expect you to at least know what you're doing in there, and tend to only take experienced people. How does anyone learn how to do them, then? That's a very good question. It often helps to have an alliance that goes into these areas often who are willing to teach you, otherwise you either don't get to go ever, or you can lie about your "vast knowledge" of these places and have lots of people get very angry with you when you mess up. Or you can be the luckiest person on earth and just pretend to know what you're doing, be good at following directions, and end up not screwing everything up. Also, henchmen are not allowed in any of these areas (in fact, most of the outposts for these areas don't even have henches), although heroes are. Anyway...

DoA is short for The Domain of Anguish. It is the elite area for the Nightfall campaign, and can only be accessed once you've beaten the campaign. Once you do that, go to the Chantry of Secrets in Vabbi, talk to the Whispers dude standing in front of a very large gate and agree with whatever he says (something about wanting to see the new statue). You get transported to the other side of the gate (if you wish to get back to the first side, you can talk to the other Whispers dude on this side of the gate). Follow the path to the end to find a statue that's much different from all of the other statues of the gods you've come across (for those who've not played the NF campaign, I won't mention anything else about the particulars of this statue. No spoilers for you!). Kneel in front of this statue like you would any other to summon the avatar. Talk to it and you'll be transported to the Gate of Anguish (in the Realm of Torment). There are several different portals in this outpost, but they all lead to some area of the Domain of Anguish (there are four, and they all connect to eachother as well as this outpost). You can farm for "gems" of random worth here (at least 1k/ea, and others up to around 5k+/ea). You can also trade in 15 of each gem for an Armbrace of Truth at a collector which spawns once you do all of the quests in one of the areas in one go (i.e., finish all of the quests in Ravenheart Gloom and kill the boss to spawn the Spirit of Truth [collector]). This Armbrace does nothing special on its own, but you can trade that to the Deacon of Whispers back in town for a Tormented Weapon. Tormented Weapons are one out of only ~~two~~ THREE (*grumble grumble Anet changing stuff grumble*) special types of weapons that can be displayed in your Hall of Monuments in the Eye of the North expansion. You can also trade one set of gems to the Keeper of Whispers for a Coffer of Whispers. Opening a coffer will net you something random from the following list: five of one type of gem, five demonic keys, five diamonds, five rubies, five sapphires, five Elixirs of Valor, five Scrolls of the Lightbringer, one Primeval Armor Remnant, a Miniature Mallyx, or one Armbrace of Truth. Completing all four areas of DoA (with the Mallyx the Unyielding quest active) will allow you to enter The Ebony Citadel (another area) where Mallyx the Unyielding resides. Killing him will spawn a Citadel Chest and also allow you to display the Eternal Conqueror of the Domain of Anguish statue in your Hall of Monuments in GW:EN.
The Deep is one of the elite areas in the Factions campaign. Unlike DoA, you don't need to have beaten the Factions campaign to travel there. The Deep can be reached from Cavalon. To get there, you must either be a member of the alliance that controls Cavalon (the Braveheart World Xi [any] alliance had pretty much controlled Cavalon since Factions came into existance (2006) until very recently (late 2009). I'm leaving this note in here for historical purposes, even though [any] apparently just disbanded a couple of months ago...) and then speak to Eurayle, or get ferried there by someone who is in the owning alliance, OR acquire a Passage Scroll to The Deep (random drop in HM, also sold by scroll trader NPC's) and use it in Cavalon. The Deep has a max party size of 12, and is composed of thirteen areas of varying sizes. You can find the much-coveted Zodiac weapons as drops from enemies or chests in The Deep. The last area contains the end boss for The Deep, the evil known as Kanaxai. Killing him will spawn a Kanaxai's Chest and allow you to display the Eternal Conqueror of The Deep statue in your Hall of Monuments (pictured right).
Urgoz's Warren is the other elite area in the Factions campaign. Like The Deep, you don't need to have beaten the Factions campaign to travel there. Urgoz's Warren can be reached from House zu Heltzer (HzH). To get there, you must either be a member of the alliance that controls HzH, and then speak to Vash, or get ferried there by someone who is in the owning alliance, OR acquire a Passage Scroll to Urgoz's Warren (random drop in HM, also sold by scroll trader NPC's) and use it in HzH. Urgoz's Warren has a max party size of 12, and is composed of eleven areas of varying sizes. You can find the much-coveted Zodiac weapons as drops from enemies or chests in Urgoz's Warren. The last area contains the end boss for Urgoz's Warren, appropriately named Urgoz. Killing him will spawn an Urgoz's Chest and allow you to display the Eternal Conqueror of Urgoz's Warren statue in your Hall of Monuments (pictured right).
FoW is short for The Fissure of Woe. It is one of two elite areas that is shared by all of the campaigns. It can be accessed by kneeling at a Statue of Balthazar in one of three locations (The Temple of the Ages in Prophecies, Zin Ku Corridor in Factions, and The Chantry of Secrets in Nightfall) and paying the avatar that pops up 1k "to the Service of Balthazar." The only requirements to enter FoW is to be level 20 and ascended (ascension was explained in the previous question). Your server also needs to have favour (also explained in the previous question) OR you need to use a "Passage Scroll to the Fissure of Woe" (random drop in HM, also sold by scroll trader NPC's) in one of the three previously-mentioned towns. The expensive rare material Obsidian Shard has a chance of dropping from most of the enemies in FoW, and is used to craft the most expensive armour in the game (Obsidian ("obby"), or "FoW" armour). This armour can only be crafted inside the Fissure of Woe, and only after you do several quests. Unlike the previously-mentioned elite areas, there is no "end boss." To spawn the end chest, you must complete all eleven quests in the Fissure of Woe. This will also allow you to display the Eternal Conqueror of the Fissure of Woe statue in your HoM (pictured right). Click here for my guide to clearing FoW.
UW is short for The Underworld, and can be accessed and has the same requirements as FoW, except which statue you use. Instead of paying 1k to the service of Balthazar, kneel at the Statue of Grenth in one of the appropriate three cities and pay 1k "to the Service of Grenth." (Random note: There is another Statue of Grenth in the Prophecies campaign that will take you to UW if you pay 1k. It's not in a town, though, and thus is rarely (if ever) used. It's in the explorable area in Prophecies called Lornar's Pass) The very expensive rare material Glob of Ectoplasm (ectos) has a chance of dropping from most of the enemies in UW, and is used to craft the previously-mentioned Obsidian armour. Again, this armour can only be crafted in FoW (hence sometimes being called "FoW armour"), so if you're gonna get it, you'll have to venture into FoW at some point. UW is also the only place in any part of GuildWars where you can tame the black widow pet (pictured right) (Click here for my guide to spider-capping). Just like FoW, there is no "end boss" in UW, and the end chest will only spawn after you finish all ten quests in UW. Doing all of them will also allow you to display the Eternal Conqueror of The Underworld statue in your HoM (pictured right).

What does NM/HM/vanq mean?

NM means Normal Mode. If you've not beaten the campaign you're playing in yet, this is the mode you will be playing it in. Once you beat a campaign, HM (or Hard Mode) becomes unlocked for all of your lv 20's on that account (but only for the campaign you beat. So therefore, beating Prophecies will not unlock HM in NF or anything else, and vice-versa). HM makes all the enemies in the explorable area you enter become hostile to you (as opposed to NM where some enemies will ignore you unless you attack them first), and they are all lv 20+, even in generally low-level areas. Vanq(uishing) means killing every single enemy in that area in HM. When you enter an explorable area in HM, a red helmet icon shows up where your morale or DP icon would show up (default upper-left corner of the screen) and the number 0 in white in the corner of the icon (icon pictured to the left). Every time you kill something, the white number goes up, and the bar at the bottom of the icon fills up more. When you kill everything in the area, the icon will turn gold and you will get a certain amount of EXP and gold (depending on how many enemies you killed). If your entire party happens to get 60 DP while vanquishing, you will get booted out of the area and get no extra EXP or gold. There are also two HM-specific titles you can work on: the Vanquisher titles, and the Guardian titles. The Vanq titles are obviously progressed by vanq'ing explorable areas in the campaign you want the title for. The Guardian titles are obtained by doing the co-op missions in HM.

What does Luxon/Kurzick mean, and who's better?

This is going to be a quick summary of some of the Factions campaign story/backstory. If you want more information on the Factions campaign, please see the Factions walkthrough. The Factions campaign is named that because a large part of the campaign has to do with opposing factions. The word "faction" as a war term basically refers to a side in a battle. Cantha, the region of the world in which the Factions campaign takes place, is ruled by the Empire of the Dragon, which bases itself in Kaineng Center. Cantha is generally divided into three areas (not including the "n00b island" of Shing Jea): Kaineng, the Jade Sea, and the Echovald Forest. The Jade Sea is occupied by the Luxon people, who are mostly nomadic in nature due to the fact that they were basically a nation of sailors before the Jade Wind turned the sea to jade, and nobody can sail on jade (although one wonders why they don't take a cue from the Deldrimor dwarves in Prophecies who use iceships to sail on ice). The Echovald Forest is occupied by the Kurzicks, who value art (songs, poetry, etc.) and religion above all else, and carved their cathedrals out of the petrified forest after the Jade Wind turned the forests to stone.

The Luxons and the Kurzicks have been at war with eachother for years upon decades upon centuries (and possibly upon millenia). What the original quarrel was about, neither side remembers now. They did band together once in the past, when Shiro Tagachi the Betrayer murdered the Emperor. The great champions of the people, Saint Viktor (Kurzick) and Archemorus (Luxon), struck Shiro down, but were in turn struck down by Shiro's death wail (the Jade Wind). The current point of contention between the Luxons and Kurzicks seems to be whose champion actually delivered the killing blow (evidenced by both sides tending to speak of the event as if only their champion was present at the time, and the other off drinking rice wine somewhere or something).

During the Factions storyline, you basically choose to become either a Luxon or Kurzick, which is a branch in the main storyline (although you can technically complete both branches of the storyline on one character). This has nothing to do with whether your guild/alliance itself is allied with the Luxons or Kurzicks, so if you're in, say, a Luxon guild and wish to follow the Kurzick branch on your character, you can. The only real differece that matters between players is your guild/alliance's allegiance, not which branch you chose during PvE Factions play. There have been (and still are) numerous idiotic flame wars between "Suxons" and "Kurdicks" because obviously an arbitrary choice in a GAME is a very important thing to hate someone over. ^9__9^;;

Anyway, your guild/alliance can choose to side with the Luxons or Kurzicks in PvP (so again, what you choose in the storyline has no bearing on this), so anyone who chooses to AB (Alliance Battle, a form of PvP) from, say, a Kurzick guild, will fight for the Kurzick side in AB (unless they get a guest invite to a Luxon guild and go AB from that guild's guildhall). And no, neither side is better than the other. They are both composed of good players, bad players, average players, n00bs, and experts in relatively equal numbers.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)