Guild Wars 2 can be a brutal game to learn the basics of. There’s so much to do in this popular MMORPG that it can be overwhelming at times. And due to the sheer size of the world, there’s a lot to explore. Exploring is also better with friends, as it usually is in MMOs. The game groups players together in shared shards for open-world and PvP content aplenty. When wandering around a server, you will see all the players in your region connected to that server.
But what happens if you don’t have any friends or guildmates on the server you made your toon on? After all, most of the fun in MMOs is playing together with your pals. Fear not, even if you made a character on a server that doesn’t have any of your friends on it, you can easily move them around. There are a few things to know about ahead of time, though, which is where this guide comes in. Here’s everything you need to know about the process of changing servers in Guild Wars 2.
First, let’s talk about how to actually do the transfer. Once you’ve logged in via the GW2 launcher, you’re ready to begin.
How To Change Servers in Guild Wars 2
To change servers in Guild Wars 2, start from the Character Select screen. There will be an option in the bottom-left of the UI to open the server browser, marked as World Selection.
There are two options here when selecting a server: Guest or Transfer. Guest means you would visit the server, but your account would still be linked to your original Home Server.
The servers listed here are locked by region, so players on NA will normally be shown other NA servers. EU players will want to prioritize EU servers for better network performance. Servers are listed here in descending order of population. Full servers are located at the bottom, and can only accept Guest transfers. Guest transfers will allow you to group in PvE content with players on that new server, but not WvW content.
Choosing a server to visit or move to is entirely based on your own goals when playing. When choosing a Guild to join in GW2, you need to take into account what server they’re on. The Home Server will impact your ability to interact with players in your guild in several mechanics, most notably WvW. if you plan to engage in the large-scale PvP mode, you need to pick a guild that’s on the server you wish to make your Home. The ongoing work on the WvW revamp made this even more critical as well, so choose your server and guild carefully.
Select the world you wish to transfer to and press Transfer. You will be asked to pay the transfer fee.
Cost to Change Servers in Guild Wars 2
The cost to permanently move to a new server varies based on the population of the destination server. You will need to pay the cost in Gems listed below to complete the transfer.
- Transferring to a Medium population world: 500 gems
- Transferring to a High population world: 1000 gems
- Transferring to a Very High population world: 1800 gems
So why do all this? You can move to any server that’s open for transfers to play with friends, that’s a perfectly valid reason. Why would you transfer your Home server if not to play with friends? There’s one other common reason, WvW.
When looking at the WvW panel, you will see your own team listed and the two competing teams. Your current team in WvW battles is dependent on which servers are currently linked together. Linked servers change every two months and will be based on the Tier of your server. Tier 1 is the highest, and often the most competitive bracket for WvW. If you find yourself not having fun playing on a server that consistently loses in WvW, consider moving to a new server.
Another thing to note about WvW is that you’re restricted from earning Reward Track pips when you transfer for some time. Two weekly resets must occur before you earn Reward Track progress post-transfer. So you will have to wait two full weeks before you can begin to earn rewards in this mode after a transfer. This is to prevent characters abusing the transfer system for easy rewards by farming low-pop servers.
