The many currencies of Guild Wars 2. Saving gold by knowing the currencies.

A common mistake that players make when referencing making gold in Guild Wars 2 is that all they need to do is make gold--or coin.  In fact, depending on what part of the game you play, there are 6 currencies.  All of them are important to your character in making it as powerful as it can be.  Do not be fooled either, having a powerful character is important in making gold because it makes things like farming and even questing much easier.  In this post I want to go over the 6 currencies of Guild Wars 2 and how you can go about obtaining them.  For some of you this is pretty basic information; however, I do want to help out those players that are just coming to the game and haven't been fanatics about it for years prior to this.  So bare with me for today if this is old news to you.

1. Gold - Gold is the most common and the most important currency.  Gold is going to be your greatest asset when getting into markets, crafting or utilizing the games way point traveling system.  Gold is obtained through just about all activities in the game.  If you are going to be a fan of this site your primary incomes will be generated by way of crafting and the trading post.  The other ways to make gold are by just playing the game--so, leveling, dynamic events, exploring, selling loot and raiding.  Gold is broken down into three different coins.  Gold, Silver and Copper.  100 Copper = 1 Silver, 100 Silver = 1 Gold.  Gold is also traded for the next currency too!
2. Gems - Gems can be purchased with cold hard cash.  We're talking real currency or more commonly known as real-money transaction (RMT).  Gems are going to be a market driven item--more so than the crafting materials will be due to them being introduced into the market by players spending money.  Gems are used to purchase mostly cosmetic upgrades or account services.  The whole mantra of ArenaNet was that they didn't want people who spent real money to have an unfair advantage over those who haven't and because of that the biggest benefits to purchasing gems are based around saving time.  As I mentioned in step one you can also purchase these with in game gold.  This is where the market comes into play.  There may be times when the price of gems are worth next to nothing.  In that case you will buy.  When players stop buying them and the market is dry they will be worth a ton and then you would sell for a huge profit margin.
3. Influence - This is a guild oriented currency.  It is spent primarily at the guild panel and is used to purchase things like buffs, guild emblems, guild vanity items or even special buffs that will increase your influence gained.  So how to you gain influence?  You can get it in two ways.  The first is through participating in PvE or PvP.  So basically just by way of experiencing the games content with your guild.  The second way is with gold.  As of writing this, and according to the Guild Wars 2 wiki, you can purchase 10 influence for 10 silver.  When spending your influence there are 4 different categories  of items that can be bought.  They are--politics, art of war, economy and architecture.  Each will reward different buffs
4. Karma - Next to gold this is one of my favorite currencies.  Karma is gained almost exclusively by being a good player.  Being a good player entails completing dynamic events, heart tasks, assisting other players and completing personal story quests.  Karma cannot be traded.  Karma is used to purchase some of the better gear in Tyria.  Much of the gear can also be purchased with gold too, but karma is obtained through playing the game and can be a massive money saver.
5. Tokens - Tokens are obtained by completing one of the games many dungeons.  There really isn't a whole lot of juicy knowledge for this except that they are used to purchased weapons and armor from the games dungeon vendors.  What makes tokens worth obtaining is the way they are spent.  From what we know right now participating in dungeons grants you tokens instead of gear.  This doesn't sound that glamorous, but when you dig deeper its actually an awesome system.  Do you remember those old MMO's you used to play where you had to farm a dungeon for a certain piece of gear?  Those days are gone.  Now you can run a dungeon and collect the tokens.  When you've gotten enough you can go purchase whatever piece of gear you need.  This has been praised highly by the Guild Wars 2 community.
6. Glory - Glory is obtained through the games PvP.  It is important to note that it is through the sanctioned PvP events and not ganking so all of you bullies out there are out of luck.  Glory cannot be traded either.  Glory is a currency because it can be spent, but it is also a tier system for purchasing gear.  You collect it as currency and spend it as currency, but it also tracks how much you've obtained and you are allowed to purchase better gear based on how much you've earned.  Those persons who purchase the games Digital Deluxe Edition are given a special item called the Chalace of Glory.  It is a single use item that grants you a set amount of glory when you use it.  At this point we don't know how much that will be, but I wouldn't get too excited over it because they aren't going to give you an unfair advantage.  Each kill in PvP grants you 5 Glory and each time you land a hit with a trebuchet you're granted 3.  There are a total of 12 tiers for glory.

Those are the major currencies in Guild Wars 2.  The reason they are important to know for gold making is mostly for saving money.  It also opens up different options for trading in the game when you're dealing with gems.  Knowing that gems can be traded for gold or that influence can be purchased will make gaining influence buffs easier.  When you are able to buy influence because you have a financial stockpile it will be easier to have constant influence buffs.  Those too are important as well; especially those coming from the economy section.  I will cover the importance of economic buffs in Monday's post.  Until then--have a fantastic weekend everyone!  


Thank you for visiting Guild Wars Gold Guide. Come back again soon. In the meantime you can Sign up for our email list!