Chosing Faction

I just got into Cantha today and I was wondering how do you side with one of the two factions? If there are different ways for each, then I would prefer to know about how to join the Kurz.

For strictly PvE purposes, you side with Kurzicks by having more Kurzick than Luxon faction (hit H in game to see what you have.) Progress through the storyline and you'll come to a crossroads where you'll have to pick a side to work with (actually, that's the way the story makes it sound, but you can do both sides.)

If you're in a guild, your guild leader can make your guild either Kurzick or Luxon. This determines which side you fight for in the PvP alliance battles, but it doesn't stop you from exploring either side.

Basically, just follow the PvE storyline. You'll see the crossroads when you get to it.

Have fun!
Luny

Okay thanks and it is mainly for my guild. One more quick question, how far away is the crossroads, just wondering?

about 5 missions away if you just started i think... you can choose a side one you reach cavalon (luxon) and kouse zu heltler (kurzick)

Well, if you want spoilers, wiki is your friend!

Cheers,
Luny

I was wondering about this. I've already completed Factions and went Luxon. Also made the Guild Luxon but I've started with another char and was wondering if I could go Kurzich this time without ballsing everying up? Is that right? The guild will still be Luxon?

I don't think anything short of the guild leader changing the guild's declared allegiance would affect that. You should be able to take characters around the Kurzick side without concern for your Luxon guild.

FWIW, I did all of Factions (protector and 100% map) on a single character while in a Kurzick guild. If you're in a guild and you like to AB, you will (or at least would) have a lot easier time gaining the faction for your guild's side through AB rewards. AB is not required, though; there's plenty of PvE things you can do to gain any faction you require. There's nothing in the PvE areas that you'll be locked out of based on your guild's declared allegiance (except for a few areas in towns which are reserved for members of that town's controlling alliance, but those areas are insignificant to the main storyline.) In fact, there's nothing in the PvE areas that you absolutely must have to complete the quests and map if you're currently not carrying a majority of the correct faction.

If you go to a Luxon-controlled area while you have more Kurzick than Luxon faction on your account, you'll be able to talk with quest npc's and collectors, but you won't be able to use the merchants, traders, etc. there. If you don't get all into the whole Luxons vs. Kurzicks thing, this is just annoying and requires trips to areas with merchants that will talk to you, like the guild hall or the KC areas or the other side.

The only real gating factor is the two "Befriending" quests that require you to accumulate 10k faction per side before you may continue down the path's storyline (access the side's mission and maps beyond.) Again, your guild's declared allegiance has nothing to do with it. But note that Luxon and Kurzick faction is based on your account, not each character. I strongly suggest that once you've gained 10k faction for one side, you get all your characters to that point in the storyline (Cavalon or House zu Heltzer) to accept the quest reward for the the "Befriending the whoever" quest. If you don't do this, then you'll need to gather that 10k faction over again if you want to take another character down that side later. I know for a fact that you can get all the Cantha-specific elites for Mesmer, Monk, and Necro without having to do Befriending the Luxons. (You can figure these things out on the handy little skills by locations tables at wiki. ) It's not as strong a suggestion, but I'd also suggest that while gathering faction for one side, you avoid faction from the other side. This is for two reasons:

• When you turn the faction in, either to your guild/alliance or to the NPC's that give jadeite or amber, you lose a corresponding amount of the opposing side's faction;
• Since the merchant-type NPCs in towns decide to talk to you based on which side you have more faction for.

If you don't really care one way or another for the donation or the crafting materials, you could just accumulate 10k for each side at the same time and be on your way. However you'll have to basically give one up without reward in order to cash in the other. Also, I found it hard to manage having a large amount of one side's faction that I didn't want to lose when I wanted the convenience of using the other side's trader npcs and res shrines (without paying a fee.) The easiest way I found to deal with all the faction <insert expletive noun(s) of choice here> while making my way through Cantha was to gather the required 10k for one side, get all my characters to the befriending quest, repeat for the other side, then keep a very small amount of faction for either side at a time. This way, it was never so much on either side that I worried over losing, and a quick repeatable quest or bribing of a shrine priest would shift the balance of my faction totals and make me look friendly to either side at will.

If you found all the above <insert expletive noun(s) of choice here> confusing, I'm sorry. I did, too, when making my way through Cantha. I'm trying to be objective and help the people with questions, but (I'm sure) it's hard to hide the fact I was less than amused by the way the split in Cantha works. Perhaps someone that liked the Factions PvE storyline more than I did could explain all this better.

Have fun!
Luny

Woah, great answers guys.

That's a great tip. Thanks.

Thank-you too. I don't know if I missed it (don't think it was brought up), but once I choose a side (Kruz) does that make my guild that faction too, or do you have to do something else? While we are at it let me through one more question out, once I do get my guild alligned with a side, is my alliance automatically made and I start inviting guilds, or do you have to register one (like a guild)? Thank-you for your help.

In order to make your whole guild kurzick aligned, you must get your character to House zu Heltzer and talk to the allegiance NPC there. It costs around 500g to do this, and your guild will get 5k in start up kurzick faction that will deplete 10% per day. This choice isn't permanent, if you want to go luxon, just get to Cavalon and talk to the luxon allegiance NPC to switch sides, which costs 500g to get the startup luxon faction.

In PvE, you just need more kurzick faction than luxon faction and you will be friendly to all kurzick NPCs, no matter what your guild allegiance is. I know this because I'm in a kurzick guild but since I have more luxon faction than kurzick faction, the kurzick NPCs dont like me but i can talk to the luxon NPCs. Those two forms of allegiance are completely separate.

Once you align yourself, you can start an alliance immediately, you don't need to register one like you needed to do to start the guild. The alliance name takes your guild name as its name unless you join one already started.

Okay. Thank-you everyone that helped, I think I got enough info about what to do, thank-you.

Apperently I need a little more help. I finished the Kruz mission (Abadore or whatever) and was headed on to the house so that I can allign with them, but it won't let me go there because it says I am not alligned, what am I missing?

you won't choose a side until fairly late in the game. at that point it'll be based on faction gaining quest. in order to do both sides you have to either sacrafice or spend any faction you have for the opposing force.

Was going to ask what mission that was, but figured it out. Not too much farther from where I am, but sadly my ten hour trial is just about up (about 15 minutes left).