Adventures are a new type of content in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. The developers explain how they work and present two examples.
Adventures – the small competitions among players
The first Guild Wars 2 expansion, Heart of Thorns, also aims to provide a lot of content for solo players that they can engage with in between. One approach is the adventures, which run through the entire Maguuma Jungle and are meant to offer entertaining challenges time and again. In terms of their basic structure, they are very similar to the challenges from WildStar: Often, the adventures are integrated into the familiar game world and require small jumping tasks or the collection of certain objects.
Depending on the performance, there are different ratings (Bronze, Silver, Gold) and an entry in the leaderboard – by the way, this can be compared not only with the server but also with friends and guild members, allowing players to inspire and surpass each other.
Masteries are important – otherwise equal chances for all
“Surpassing” is also an important keyword here. Although each adventure can be completed without masteries, they are a must for many top placements. Very often, it is important to glide from one platform to another or to draw additional information from the environment. Only then can you react quickly and achieve the best time or the highest score – which in turn also leads to the best rewards.
During the adventures, all players have the same HP value and the same abilities (aside from the masteries). This is to ensure that players achieve a top time because they are skilled and not because their class has an advantage.
An example: The floor is lava?
In the stream, the developers presented two different adventures that players can face in Heart of Thorns. The first is The Floor is Lava and is divided into several tasks. First, you have to collect various seeds in a jumping puzzle and throw them into a contaminated area. In that area, plants grow from these seeds, which you then have to collect – without touching the contaminated area.
If the player fails here and falls into the contaminated zone for too long, they die. The developers are particularly proud that each adventure adheres to the typical “easy to learn and hard to master” principle. Internally, they have certainly had a lot of fun and look forward to the players’ experiences.
Many variations – long motivation?
The adventures vary greatly in their tasks. While there are many short mini-games that require quick platforming, other adventures can be more complex or entertaining. Sometimes you take on the role of a robot and have to crush bugs, sometimes the character swings onto a motorcycle and must complete a course.
Whether the adventures deliver what they promise, namely motivating solo content, exciting races for high scores, and much communication among players, will only be seen over time.
