--== Complete Guide to the Guild Wars Second Birthday Celebration ==--

Table of Contents:

• General Event Information
• Can Tyrian Characters join in with the Event?
• My character is not from Cantha, how do I reach Shing Jea Monastery and the Shing Jea Boardwalk?
• Features of the Event
• 2nd Birthday Gift - New Mini-pets

- White (Common) Minipets:

Fire Imp
Kurzick Juggernaut
Wind Rider
Stoneaxe Heket
Mandragor Imp
Harpy Ranger
Bladed Aatxe
Thorn Wolf

- Purple (Uncommon) Minipets:

Palawo Joko
Koss
Wintersday Elf

- Gold (Rare) Minipets:

The Undead Lich
Water Djinn

- Green (Unique) Minipets:

Gwen

• Fireworks Displays!
• Collectable Item - Birthday Cupcakes
• Collectable Item - Victory Tokens
• Shing Jea Boardwalk Games of Chance

- Rings of Fortune
- Nine Rings
- Dragon Nest

• Dragon Arena 6x6 (Dodgeball)
• Rollerbeetle Mini-Game Guide
• Updates
• Contributors

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General Event Information:

Happy Birthday to you,
Your toon's turning two,
If you've been with us since the beginning,
We have something special for you.

April 28 marks the two-year anniversary of Guild Wars (original Prophecies campaign) as well as the one-year anniversary of Guild Wars Factions

The event begins on Friday April 27th Noon Pacific and running through 11:59 PM Pacific on Sunday, April 29th

Time Conversion Tool:
http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc




Can Tyrian Characters join in with the Event?

Yes they can. However in order to access the Shing Jea Boardwalk,you must have access to Cantha, which requires you to have Factions added to your account.

The Dragon Arena and Rollerbeetle Racing will still be accessible from Shing Jea Monastery and from the Great Temple of Balthazar.




My character is not from Cantha, how do I reach Shing Jea Monastery and the Shing Jea Boardwalk?

Canthan born characters start at the Shing Jea Monastery. Characters of other campaigns must travel there first by speaking to First Mate Xiang at the Kaineng Docks. You will end up in Seitung Harbor, travel west through Saoshang Trail and Linnok Courtyard.

To access the Boardwalk, talk to the Monastery Keeper NPC at Shing Jea Monastery and you will be sent to the festival area. Talk to the Monastery Keeper on the other side of the gate to return to the Monastery.




Features of the Event:

Features include:

• Shing Jea Boardwalk will be reopened for mapping and games
• Rollerbeetle Racing Returns!
• Dragon Arena will be reopened.
• Fireworks Displays!
• Brand new mini-pets - See list below - Pictures included

2nd Birthday Gift - New Mini-pets:

As of 28th April - 12:01 AM PST, players who have characters turning two years old will find a gift in their inventories which looks like this:



The gifts contain one of a new set of miniatures created especially for this birthday celebration. The list of mini-pets is as follows:

Note: Remember that birthday gifts are given all year round, and you will receive your gift on the personal birthday (creation date) of each character on your account.


- White (Common) Minipets:

Fire Imp:


Thanks to 0siris for image

Kurzick Juggernaut:


Thanks to Enko for image

Wind Rider:


Thanks to Enko for image

Stoneaxe Heket:


Thanks to omens for image

Mandragor Imp:


Thanks to Enko for image

Harpy Ranger:


Thanks to WetWookie for image

Bladed Aatxe:



Thorn Wolf:






- Purple (Uncommon) Minipets:

Palawo Joko:


Thanks to Enko for image

Koss:


Thanks to omens for image

Wintersday Elf:






- Gold (Rare) Minipets:

The Undead Lich:


Thanks to omens for image



Fireworks Displays!:

Fireworks displays will commence in Kamadan - Jewel of Istan, Shing Jea Monastery, and Lion's Arch every three hours starting at 12:01 AM PST on April 28th.





Collectable Item - Victory Tokens:



Victory tokens are one of several items that can be obtained by opening a Boardwalk Prize. You also receive 3 tokens for a win in the Dragon Arena, as well as winning tokens in rollerbeetle races.

The tokens can be redeemed for a variety of items from Sheng Yi and Seiji, who are located near the Xunlai in the Shing Jea Monastery, or from Zaishen Supply Masters in Lion's Arch, Kamadan, Jewel of Istan and the Great Temple of Balthazar.


For 10 Victory Tokens you can get:

• Bottle of Rice Wine (Sheng Yi only)
• Red Bean Cake (Sheng Yi only)
• Flask of Firewater
• Crème Brûlée
• Scroll of Adventurer's Insight
• Scroll of Rampager's Insight
• Scroll of Hunter's Insight
• Birthday Cupcake (during Guild Wars Birthday weekend, April 27-29, 2007)

Collectors that hand out the prizes will disappear shortly after the end of each event. Victory Tokens that have not been redeemed may be saved and exchanged during the next event when the Shing Jea Boardwalk is open.




Shing Jea Boardwalk Games of Chance:

All games require Festival Tickets that may be purchased for 15 gold a piece. Tickets can be purchased from NPCs on the Shing Jea Boardwalk:

• Rings of Fortune:

Costs 2 tickets to play, which are taken from you each round automatically when you stand in one of the 16 stone rings. Each round, the NPC called Pan counts down - 3... 2... 1... and then one of the stone rings is randomly chosen. An orange glow appears in that ring, and anyone standing in it receives 12 tickets. Horizontally/vertically adjacent rings to the one chosen emit a white glow, and anyone standing in them receives 3 tickets.

• Nine Rings:

Costs 10 tickets to play, which are taken from you each round automatically when you stand in one of the 9 stone rings. Each round, the NPC called Teilah counts down - 3... 2... 1... and then one of the stone rings is randomly chosen. An orange glow appears in that rings, and anyone standing in it receives an amount of tickets decided by which ring it is. Corner rings give 55, side rings give 40 and the middle ring gives 25. Horizontally/vertically adjacent rings to the one chosen emit a white glow, and anyone standing in them receives 15 tickets.

• Dragon Nest:

Costs 1 ticket to play, which is taken from you when you enter the playing area (talk to Ki Leung to do so). Up to 8 players can participate in each game which takes 4 minutes. The aim is to get as many points as possible by 'tagging' hatchlings (simply touching them). Black hatchlings give you 1 point. White hatchlings give you 2 points and cripple other adjacent players. Red hatchlings give you 0 points and knock you down on touching. There are 4 rounds in this game, and in the last round points are doubled.

Tip: When you play this game, you can select and tag the nearest hatchling by pressing 'v space'. Keep in mind that both normal and red hatchlings are called 'Hatchling', so you will need to take a look at what you're heading to before you get carried away with v-spacing.

Dragon Arena 6v6 (Dodgeball):

To travel to the Dragon Arena invisible outpost, simply speak to Captain Li Sah in the middle courtyard of Shing Jea Monastery. Captain Li Sah can also be found in the middle circle in the Great Temple of Balthazar.

You can also access the Dragon Arena from Lion's Arch and Kamadan, Jewel of Istan.

Arena Rules:

In this arena, two randomly formed teams of 6 battle against each other. The first team to reach 20 kills wins. When you enter a battle in the Dragon Arena, you have 'Spirit of the Festival' on you.

This takes your health to 100 and your Armor to 60. All your attributes are set to 0 and you cannot attack.

Dead players are resurrected at their team's shrine every minute, unless resurrected by other team members.

Skills:

Once you join the arena every player has the same 8 skills on their skillbar. The skills are as follows:

1. Dragon Blast: No cost. Casting time = 1 second. Recharge time = 5 seconds.Skill. Send out a projectile that kills target foe if it hits.

This skill deals typically 1000 damage. However, it has been spotted doing 995 damage, leading to the conclusion that some types of armor may be resistant to it. This could have been attributed to "Luck of the Draw" inscriptions which prevent 5 damage 20% of the time.

2. Imperial Majesty: No cost. Casting time = 3/4 second. Recharge time = 10 seconds. Skill. Target touched foe kowtows before you and takes 50 damage. (Target is knocked down and takes damage)

3. Trade Winds: No cost. Casting time = 3/4 second. Recharge time = 5 seconds. Skill. For 10 seconds, you move with the swiftness of the Canthan fleet. (Best guess is +33% speed)

4-8. Five Resurrection Signets - They take 3 seconds to Resurrect a fallen party member. Use them well, but be careful to make sure they won't be killed again soon after.

General Tactic:

It's Dodgeball. Strafe while under the Trade Winds skill (Speed Boost). Stop just long enough to cast your one-shot kill on a good target. Kiting is the key to success.

Recommended Tactic:

The following is a working tactic for this arena:

The best tactic is to stand back and pick a target, then use Trade Winds to rush in and Dragon Blast them, and run out again. At this point you will be able to resurrect any dead allies, but consider their position. It is easy for an enemy to Dragon Blast the resurrected person before they can do much. Imperial Majesty can be useful when you are close to an enemy. Very often in the Dragon Arena you will experience lag after being hit by Dragon Blast (your death will be delayed by a few seconds but you will be stuck).

Dead players are resurrected at their team's shrine every minute.

Rewards:

• 5 Gamer Points per win
• 3 Victory Tokens per win

Rollerbeetle Mini-Game Guide - by Feathermoore Rep:


Basic Info:

The Rollerbeetle Racing Arena can be accessed from Shing Jea, Kamadan, and Lion’s Arch by talking to the “Rollerbeetle Trainer” NPC.
Once inside the arena there are many NPCs that you can talk to about Rollerbeetle Racing. The most notable NPCs are:

Kokusai [Beetle Designs]: For 100gold, you can change the main design of your beetle. The possible options are:

• Plain
• Racing Stripe
• Flames
• Peace Love and Harmony
• Tiger Stripes
• Wing
• Eyeball.

Note: That this does not change the color of your beetle. The color of your beetle is randomly chosen when you load into the arena or into a race. The random colors include: green, blue, cyan, yellow, purple/pink, and red.

Eldrid the Ancient [Records]: This NPC lists all the daily, monthly, and quarterly records.

Rollerbeetle Master [Rollerbeetle Racing]: Takes you back to the city you entered from.


Skills

The normal skillbar is replaced with the fixed skillset below:

1. Rollerbeetle Dash: For 5 seconds you move extremely fast.
2. Harden Shell: For 4 seconds, you can not be knockdown.
3. Ram: Skill, For 2 seconds, all adjacent foes are knocked down. (You also get a minor speed boost while using this)
4. Distracting Lunge: All of target Rollerbeetle's Skills are temporarily disabled for 5 seconds.
5. Spit Rocks: You spit (3) rocks at target Rollerbeetle. If they hit, that target is knocked down.
6. Rollerbeetle Echo: For 20 seconds, this Skill is replaced with the next skill that you use. Rollerbeetle Echo acts as this skill for 30 seconds.
7. Rollerbeetle Blast: Target Rollerbeetle is knocked down.
8. Super Rollerbeetle: For 10 seconds, you move extremely fast and can not be knocked down.

Skill Notes:

• To use the skill Spit Rock, you must be able to see your target. If not you will get the obstructed message and your attack will have missed.
• If you use Rollerbeetle Echo and run over an additional box, there is a chance that you may randomly get Echo again. However, Echo will not be refreshed. Also if you have used Echo completely and run over another box or enter a checkpoint, the Echo'd skill will not recharge. (This will require some further testing to double check.)
• Ram also gives you a minor speed boost, so use it even when other players aren't near by.

Racing Basics:

• In the race, you compete against 5 other players until everyone finished or time runs out. The time limit on the match is 3 minutes.
• Each player starts out with 600,000 points and the points decrease by 1,000 every second.
• At the start of the race, everyone has the skills Rollerbeetle Dash, Harden Shell, and Ram available. Once these 3 skills have been used, they will not be recharged until the next checkpoint.
• Overall there are 7 check points during the course of the race.
• During the race there are boxes marked with a (?). Running over these boxes randomly unlock one of the other 5 skills for a one time use. After the box has been run over, the box will re-spawn approximately a second later. Note: If you hit already have one of the extra 5 skills and run over another box and nothing happens, its not a glitch. What happened was that the box randomly gave you the same skill you already had. (No, sadly you don’t get to use it twice).

Map and Box locations

The Starting Gates:





Box Locations: I have marked the locations of 19 boxes that I have found on the map:



Rewards:

• First place receives 7 Gamer points and 50 Balthazar Faction +50 Balthazar Faction for a "Flawless Victory" + 50 Balthazar Faction for every 5 wins in a row.
• Second place receives 5 Gamer points.
• Third place receives 3 Gamer points.Fourth place receives 2 Gamer points.

Gamer points are also rewarded for each race. The amount of Gamer points earned is equaled to the amount of Lunar Tokens won.

Sadly, Winning more than 10 in a row does not give glad points or anything special. However, you do earn Balthazar faction for Consecutive Wins and your, by default, Flawless Victory.


Tips and Tricks

• Roll around in the starting gate before the start of the race. This help generate a small amount of momentum to help your beetle get moving.
• To avoid getting knocked down at the start, put up Harden Shell as soon as you exit, or even a few seconds after, the starting gate. Also if your looking to get that holeshot, use Ram or Rollerbeetle Dash combined with Harden Shell, to put yourself in the front.
• Conserve your skills. Don't always use that Dash as soon as it recharges. Sometimes, its better to use your speed boosts at strategic times, like after a knockdown or at the bottom of a hill.
• If you are lucky enough to get Super Rollerbeetle or Rollerbeetle Blast, don't use them immediately, wait to use them at specific points, specifically at the final stretch of the track as they can change the outcome of races very easily.
• Be wary of other players. The "c" button and "tab" are your friend. These buttons allow you target the other players to see what skills they use. For example, if someone is on your tail, target then to make sure they don't sneak up and use Ram while you don't have Harden Shell up.

I wanted to get this guide out ASAP, so I will be working on it and updating it as I go. As well, please feel free to submit any tips and tricks that you have for better times.

Rollerbeetle Guide Credit: Feathermoore Rep and GWaddit