Wondering where is your home instance in GW2, and what is it for? Learn about the uses, history, and functionality of the player home instance, and find out how to get there.
Home Instance Mechanics
Your home instance is, as the name implies, an instanced location. Much like dungeons and other instances, this means that other players can only join you if they are A) in your party, and B) click to accept the “Join home instance” prompt soon enough after you enter.
Home Instance Uses
The home instance is a form of player housing. Historically, before guild halls were a thing, home instances were a good place to idle. The Gem Store sold a Home Instance Portal Device, which instantly transported you to your home instance from wherever you happened to be. When you left your home instance, you were returned to your original location. This was an excellent way to safely idle without having to run to the nearest city or waypoint.
These days it’s better to idle at your guild hall, since you can have merchants, repair stations, and a Scribe crafting station where you can access your bank.
The main use for home instance now involves home instance nodes. Much like the nodes in a guild hall, these let you gather various materials from your home instance once per day.
These nodes also let you easily complete certain dailies. For example, if Daily Krytan Gatherer is up, you can go to a home instance in Divinity’s Reach and gather plants from home instance nodes to complete the daily.
Chef Home Instance
If you are working towards Chef 500, several parts of the process happen in your home instance.
Home Instance Cats
There are currently 35 cats which can be unlocked for your home instance. Check out the Hungry Cat Scavenger Hunt wiki article for more information.
Home Instance Locations
Each of Tyria’s five racial capital cities has its own home instance. You can visit any home instance as any character race.
- Black Citadel: Hero’s Canton
- Divinity’s Reach: Salma District
- Hoelbrak:Hunter’s Hearth
- Rata Sum: Applied Development Lab
- The Grove:Dreamer’s Terrace
Joining Someone Else’s Home Instance
If another player has lots of nodes in their home instance, they may offer to let you come farm them. Join their party, go to the appropriate city, and click OK on the prompt when they enter. You will be able to gather from all of their nodes.
Note: You can only gather from one set of nodes per day. You can’t double up by farming another player’s home instance, then going back to farm your own.
How To Get Home Instance Nodes
There are a few different ways to get nodes for your home instance. Some can be earned by completing achievements. Others can only be purchased from the Gem Store. Some nodes can be found in Black Lion Chests. Many can be bought on the Trading Post, although they are quite expensive.
Here’s a full list of the available home instance nodes.
If you are thinking about buying a node, it’s worth doing the math to see if it’s worthwhile:
- Right now you can buy a Mithril Mining Node on the Trading Post for 102 gold.
- This node drops 3-6 Mithril ore per day.
- Mithril ore sells for 44 copper on the Trading Post.
- Let’s say you get the maximum amount of Mithril ore per day. That means you earn 2 silver 64 copper per day.
- At that rate, it would take approximately 105 years to earn back what you spent on the node.
