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The Super Adventure Box is the first festival to hit Guild Wars 2 since the events in Cantha. There is no better way to celebrate saving the world than to jump into an 8-bit game inside an MMORPG.
If all of that piques your interest and you want to go old school, this comprehensive guide to the event is here to show you the ropes. And who knows, maybe you will get that Glitched weapon skin before I do.
What is this Super Adventure Box?
The Super Adventure Box started as an April Fool's Event back in 2013. It was such a success that it has become a staple ever since.
The Super Adventure Box, or SAB, is an 8-bit platforming game that exists in the world of Guild Wars 2. It's a world created by an NPC and is available for all players to participate in. It's a bit meta in that sense, but it works out, trust me.
SAB takes inspiration from titles like Mario, Zelda, and Sonic in terms of world-building, with recognizable features such as King Toad being a direct reference to Wart from Super Mario Bros 2. On the other side of the coin, the Tribulation Mode of SAB is inspired by torture platformers such as Cat Mario and I Wanna Be the Guy.
Tribulation mode lives up to the name and the aforementioned inspirations as anything can be lethal unless one knows the proper route. And for the rest of the players, Normal and Infantile mode exists to offer much more relaxed gameplay with fewer rewards.
Here's what you need to do in Super Adventure Box
As we've mentioned already, SAB is mainly a platforming game with a few interlaced combat sections. The event is divided into two worlds with three zones each, and each zone ends with a boss fight and a bonus encounter.
Each zone has unique challenges, enemies, and jumping puzzle designs. And in true retro fashion, each zone is littered with hidden areas, mini-puzzles, and special enemies to find. Clearing each zone in Normal and/or Tribulation mode will give rewards specific to that zone.
If you're tired of running around in World 1 and World 2, Super Adventure Box's hub world has a few races and adventures to ease the pace a little. These mini-events run on a timer and offer a substantial amount of baubles in a pinch.
Beware that there are no classes, no boosters, and no enhancements inside SAB. Nothing carries over from your normal Guild Wars 2 experience. Every player gets a stick to beat enemies, three hearts which represent their hp pool, and two dodges.
It's up to you and your skills to see through this arduous adventure. If you're dead, then you'll be met with a game over-screen where you can spend your Continue Coins to resume from a checkpoint.
What are these baubles you speak of?
The Super Adventure Box has a linear reward structure and the Baubles are at the base of it. Enemies you kill, zones you clear, and secrets you uncover will award you with baubles. Baubles can be used as currency for shops found in zones and the same currency can be used as ammunition for certain special weapons.
If you're not keen on throwing money, Baubles can be turned into Bauble Bubbles. Bauble Bubbles are used to buy weekly rewards and specific Super Adventure Box-themed skins and weapons.
Alongside these cheesy rewards, each zone completion in the Tribulation mode awards a token of sorts. For example, clearing World 1-Zone 1 in Tribulation gives players a token called King Toad Z-1.
Upon collecting three tokens from World 1 and combining them with a weapon design, it awards a unique King Toad weapon skin. This also works for World 2 and those tokens can be used to craft Storm Wizard weapon skins.
Since we're talking about skins, a recent addition to the Super Adventure Box is called 'Glitches'. A few crystals are strewn about in each of the worlds and activating them opens a secret path to a glitch. These glitches are the only way to get Glitched weapon skins which are extremely rare.
These are but a few potential and guaranteed rewards that can be gleaned from running the Super Adventure Box daily. Not only that, but the event also rewards weekly progressions handsomely, so it's as good a time as any to jump into the game inside the game.
This retro-painscape will run until April 19
Super Adventure Box, like Lunar New Year and every other Guild Wars 2 festival, runs for three weeks. If you're looking to get your hands on some 8-bit fun, you'll need to start today.
Each year, ArenaNet tries to introduce new things to their annual events and this will be true for this year's Super Adventure Box as well. There's bound to be more new skins for all the hoarders.
Tribulation junkies may run into new challenges. And as far as MMORPG events go, the Super Adventure Box is truly one of a kind.
