The annual GW2 Wintersday festival offers players a lot of limited-time achievements. Wondering which Wintersday achievements you should work on first? Feeling overwhelmed trying to decide what to do at Wintersday? Let us offer some pointers to help you prioritize your time.
Winter’s Presence
There’s an entire separate set of achievements for Winter’s Presence, the shoulders that create a snowfall effect around your character. If you want to unlock Winter’s Presence, work on these achievements first. If you’re not interested in this skin, ignore this category of achievements.
For help with these achievements, we recommend Dulfy’s Winter’s Presence guide.
Annual Achievements
If you’re not working on Winter’s Presence, the annual Wintersday achievements are the best place to start. You can find them in the Festivals > Wintersday Traditions section of your Achievements panel.
The seven annual Wintersday achievements are:
- Festival Automaton: Finish Tixx’s Infinirarium once.
- Holiday Musical: Play 1,000 correct notes in Bell Choir.
- Season’s Generosity: Donate 3 gold to Ho-Ho-Tron.
- Leaping Above the Snow: Finish the Winter Wonderland jumping puzzle 5 times.
- Frozen Footrace: Complete the race event in Divinity’s Reach once on foot in under 5 minutes.
- Snow Drifter: Complete the race event in Divinity’s Reach on a mount in under 3 minutes.
- Age of Toypocalypse: Finish Toypocalypse 3 times.
- Some Dissasembly Required: Destroy 500 toys in Tixx’s Infinirarium.
Most of these are straightforward. For a full guide to all the achievements, we recommend GuildJen’s Wintersday Festival Achievements Guide.
A few strategy tips and pointers:
Festive Winter Hood
Your reward for completing all seven annual achievements is 50 achievement points and a Festive Winter Hood. This cute pointy knit winter hat comes complete with earmuffs.
Frozen Footrace and Snow Drifter
You don’t have to wait for the race event to do these achievements. You can do the time trial at any time, and it counts for these achievements.
To start the race, speak to the race organizer or time trial organizer on the north side of the Crown Pavilion in Divinity’s Reach.
If you haven’t unlocked a mount, you can rent one from the mount rental NPC nearby.
Leaping Above the Snow
The Winter Wonderland Wintersday jumping puzzle was once notorious as one of the hardest jumping puzzles in the game. However, an update split the jumping puzzle into three different difficulty paths:
- Quaggan Route (easiest). Head right from the loading zone.
- Snowman Route (average). The loading zone.
- Gingerbread Route (hard). Head left from the loading zone.
All three routes reward the same amount of XP and Karma. You get more Wintersday Gifts for the harder routes, but ask yourself… is it worth it? For many players (myself included) the answer is no.
- Quaggan Route: 8 Wintersday Gifts
- Snowman Route: 10 Wintersday Gifts
- Gingerbread Route: 12 Wintersday Gifts
The easiest route (Quaggan) still counts for the achievements. This route still presents a challenge, especially the first few times you do it. However, the more you practice, the better you get at it.
Wintersday Dailies
It’s worth doing the easiest Wintersday Dailies every day. In addition to the rewards you get for the dailies, every 5 times you complete a Wintersday Daily you get 10 AP and your choice of one of the Wrapped weapon skins.
NOTE: This achievement is capped at 100 AP.
If you’re in it for karma, we also recommend completing the optional Daily Bonus Rewards Wintersday Dailies. Each of these rewards you with a Mote of Candied Karma in one of three tiers.
Repeatable Wintersday Achievements
The rest of the Wintersday achievements are repeatable. We particularly recommend the following:
Ulla’s Rival
Every three times you complete the race event in Divinity’s Reach you earn 5 AP. You can repeat this achievement 5 times (15 races) for a total of 25 AP.
Winter’s Wonderland Mastery
Every three times you finish the Winter Wonderland jumping puzzle you earn 5 AP. You can repeat this achievement 5 times (15 jumping puzzles) for a total of 25 AP.
Dauntless Donator
Every day you can donate gifts to up to 30 orphans in Divinity’s Reach. You can repeat this achievement up to 5 times (150 orphans) for a total of 25 AP.
See our article on earning karma from orphans for more information.
The Bells of Wintersday
Every time you finish 20 songs in Bell Choir you earn 5 AP. You can repeat this achievement up to 5 times (100 songs) for a total of 25 AP.
See our Bell Choir strategy guide for more information.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash