6 crucial quality-of-life changes coming to Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds - Absolution

ArenaNet, the studio behind Guild Wars 2 and its acclaimed Janthir Wilds expansion, has announced a plethora of quality-of-life changes to the game with the upcoming launch of the Absolution chapter. The changes are primarily centered around freeing up inventory space with a special focus given on gizmos and resources that players generally store in Shared Inventory Slots or alternate characters.

Gizmos in Guild Wars 2 can serve multiple purposes, all the way from teleporting to a specific town, or spawning a particular crafting station, to consuming a specific material and giving special boons. These gizmos are obtained from either overcoming certain difficult endgame challenges or from completing lengthy collection quests, usually tied to the lore of said Gizmo.

As these Gizmos are singular items with specific usage, they can take up a lot of inventory space, sometimes necessitating creating an alternate character to store them.

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Guild Wars 2 will wrap up Janthir Wilds with the Absolution update, with many QoL additions

As we've mentioned above, the QoL features are primarily aimed at easing the inventory space burden for players who have acquired a lot of endgame Gizmos and resources. Let's begin with the biggest one:

1) Wizard's Portal Tome

Portal Scrolls and Tomes are a one-stop item for easier fast traveling (Image via ArenaNet)

The Wizard's Portal Tome will allow players to store their teleportation-related Gizmos into a single, unified Tome of infinite uses. Players will be able to use this Tome to open a list of destinations available based on their collected Portal Scrolls, Stones, and Keys. At launch, the Wizard's Portal Tome can host over 30 separate teleportation Gizmos, potentially including the Festival hub teleportation scrolls, Arborstone Portal Scroll, and Wizard's Tower Portal Scroll.

The caveat is that this Portal Tome won't be free. Once the Absolution update drops, players will need to visit Astral Ward Medic Miyrna to obtain a new Side Story called Work Hard for Now. Completing this story will reward players with the Tome, after which a special Collection will unlock to obtain all of the Gizmos. Miyrna will be stationed in the Bloodcoast Ward of Lion's Arch, as well as somewhere in the upcoming Bava Nissos zone.

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2) The Wizard’s Gobbler

Gobblers are used to trade excess materials for usable items (Image via ArenaNet)

The name might sound silly, but The Wizard's Gobbler will help veteran Guild Wars 2 players tremendously by consolidating every material gobbler into one place, making daily tasks much easier. Like the aforementioned Portal Tomes, Gobblers are unique Gizmos obtained by defeating bosses or completing Collections.

These consume a specified amount of a select material and reward unique reward pouches. These reward pouches can contain a long list of items, ranging from trash to rare trinkets that sell for a pretty penny.

The method to obtain The Wizard's Gobbler is slightly different from the Wizard's Portal Tome, as there is no Side Story to complete to get this Gizmo, that we know of. Players can simply go to Gharr Leadclaw in Hooligan's Route in Lion's Arch and purchase The Wizard's Gobbler to start another Collection to track every Gobbler that can be unified.

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3) Simplifying Rift Essence

When the update drops, you can just double click and make these currencies (Image via ArenaNet)

Rift Essences are a currency introduced in 2023 with Guild Wars 2's Secrets of the Obscure expansion, and have since become a staple in Janthir Wilds crafting recipes and a key component in making the Legendary Obsidian Armour. These are obtained from engaging in Rift Hunting and Convergences, and come in Fine, Masterwork, and Rare variants.

Since their introduction, these materials have been a constant pressure on the inventories, considering prospective Legendary Armour crafters have to amass well over 4,800 Essences. This becomes a problem because materials in Guild Wars 2 can stack up to 250, and each stack takes up one inventory slot.

When Absolution launches, Guild Wars 2 players will be able to convert them into a Wallet currency with a much higher cap. Players will either have to consume existing Rift Essences or take them to Rift Researcher Adam, who will bulk-convert for free. Adam can be found in Moon Camp Covert in Lowland Shore or the Rift Hunter Lounge in the Wizard’s Tower.

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4) Easier Research Notes

Research Notes can put a dent in your wallet if you're not careful (Image via ArenaNet)

Guild Wars 2 Janthir Wilds' Absolution chapter is set to make another crafting material much easier to obtain than before. Research Notes were introduced with the End of Dragons expansion, and just like Rift Essences, have become an integral part in many crafting recipes, including the Elder Dragon series of Legendary Weapons. Research Notes are primarily obtained by salvaging crafted items with a Research Kit, with the quality of the salvage determining the outcome.

With the launch of Absolution, ArenaNet will introduce a new crafting recipe for all crafting disciplines that will allow Guild Wars 2 players to create the Peer Reviewed Research item. This item will add 150 Research Notes to the player's Wallet instantly. The Peer Reviewed Research boasts the second-highest bulk amount of Research Notes, behind the Mountain of Research that grants 500 Notes. There is no crafting rating for this therefore anyone can make this regardless of their crafting level.

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5) Faction Provisioner gets an inventory boost

These guys are pretty stingy about their daily offerings (Image via ArenaNet)

Faction Provisioners are special vendors first introduced with Guild Wars 2's Heart of Thorns expansion. These vendors only accept specific crafted Weapons and Armours and reward players with Provisioner Tokens. These Tokens are used to craft various Legendary items. Additional Faction Provisioners were added to the major cities in 2019, and more have joined with Guild Wars 2's Secrets of the Obscure and Janthir Wilds expansions.

The Faction Provisioners in Central Tyria (base game's major cities) and Heart of Maguuma (Heart of Thorns) have a daily limit on how many items they can trade. With Absolution, these daily limits are being changed to a weekly cap, reducing the bloat and busywork.

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6) Spicing up the Hero's Choice rewards

End of Meta event chests are getting a facelift (Image via ArenaNet)

Guild Wars 2's daily gameplay loop involves participating in large-scale map-wide Meta events. Other than being incredibly fun and oftentimes challenging, these reward players with gold and a once-a-day reward chest called the Hero's Choice Chest. Guild Wars 2 Players can obtain up to 20 unique Hero's Choice Chests daily, and these chests contain one guaranteed and one selectable reward.

ArenaNet is introducing a new reward structure for players with an abundance of Hero's Choice Chests with Absolution. After the update arrives, Guild Wars 2 players will be able to trade their excess Chests and a bit of Karma to specific vendors in each expansion's central hub to obtain the Commander's Choice Chest. This new Chest will always reward the guaranteed item and offer a larger bulk size of all the selectable items.

The following zones will house the Commander's Choice Chest vendor once Absolution launches:

• Dragon’s Stand - Heart of Thorns expansion-related Hero's Choice Chests.
• Eye of the North - potentially for Path of Fire expansion-related Hero's Choice Chests.
• Arborstone - End of Dragons expansion-related Hero's Choice Chests.
• Wizard’s Tower - Secrets of the Obscure expansion-related Hero's Choice Chests. Additionally, the player will need the Wayfinder Mastery for this vendor.
• Lowland Shore - Janthir Wilds expansion-related Hero's Choice Chests.

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That's about all the important quality-of-life features coming with the Absolution chapter of the Guild Wars 2 Janthir Wilds expansion. The new chapter comes out on June 3, after which the studio will focus on their new expansion, set to be unveiled in July 2025.

Check out our other Guild Wars 2 articles and guides:

• Homestead won't be locked behind Collections
• 5 ways to farm gold
• Janthir Wilds Lowland Shores Mastery Points
• Janthir Wilds meta event guide: Of Mists and Monsters