Survivor

Survivor is a prestige title earned by avoiding death. Those who accumulate 1,337,500 consecutive points of experience without dying can display a statue in the Hall of Monuments.

Acquisition
This title measures your greatest amount of consecutive experience gained without dying.
 * The special command "/deaths" shows the amount of experience since your last death.
 * The Hero Panel (default key, [H]) shows the greatest continuous amount of experience gained without dying.
 * If you die, the number in the hero panel will remain the same until your current progress surpasses the amount shown on the bar.
 * After you reach the first tier (140,600), you have the option of displaying the title underneath the character's name.

This title is often dubbed as "the second Lucky title" because of the possibility that the character might die due to lag, loss of network connection, or computer crashes.

Types of deaths
Only deaths that increase the /deaths counter will halt progress in the Survivor title track.

Deaths that do not reset progress
These type of deaths do not reset Survivor progress.


 * Programmed deaths:
 * Cinematic deaths.
 * Triggered deaths during the Factions and Nightfall tutorial quests.
 * Instant death mechanics (e.g. due to crushing traps, the Sulfurous Haze, boulders, and skill triggers like Death Pact Signet).


 * Ending or exiting deaths:
 * Deaths due to mission failure (i.e. due to loss of mission-critical NPCs or locations)
 * Resignation (using /resign).


 * Some special event deaths:
 * Dying in towns and outposts (i.e. non-instanced areas) (e.g. during the Halloween finale or during mini-events, such as the Mursaat Rally).
 * Dying in certain special event PvP contests, such as the Dragon Arena.
 * Deaths which occur during festival quests offered by the Rift Warden and first 2 Halloween quests in The Underworld from Mad King's Steward.


 * Special situations
 * Losing all health while brawling (however, you will die if you fail to STAND UP or resign before passing out).
 * Deaths incurred during missions from the Bonus Mission Pack.

Deaths that always reset progress
These type of deaths will reset Survivor progress:


 * Typical deaths:
 * Losing all health due to damage, degeneration, or sacrifice; counts both in PvE and PvP
 * This includes deaths from damage caused by an interactive object (for example, a trebuchet in the Fort Ranik mission or a flame geyser in the Catacombs).
 * This also includes dying during the PvP portion of Ascalon Academy (after leaving pre-Searing Ascalon, but before meeting up with Rurik). You can avoid this by logging out before the match begins.
 * The Junundu you are in loses all health.


 * Deaths in certain mini-games and special events, including those due to losses:
 * Dying or losing a round in a Snowball Dominance match.
 * Losing a round in a Polymock match.
 * Failing to use STAND UP! in time when knocked out while brawling.


 * Death while in a state of disconnection (when connection is lost, but you are still logged in).

Planning

 * After deciding that you want to pursue this title, plan your progression to optimize your gain of experience points.
 * Identify critical missions, skills, quests, and areas that you will need. Do these before beginning to work on the title.
 * Avoid high-risk areas, missions, and quests.
 * If you start before L20, avoid claiming quests until later: their experience value is the same whether you are L1 or L20, but the experience gained by killing foes starts to decrease.
 * Complete the Augury Rock mission in Tyria before completing Nahpui Quarter in Cantha or Hunted! in Elona &mdash; you will only receive 50,000 XP for completing Augury Rock if it is your first Ascension-equivalent accomplishment.
 * Use caution in Eye of the North locations while under the Journey to the North effect: although your low-level Survivor-candidate will have health, energy, and attributes of an L20 character, the areas in EotN are riskier.
 * Consider waiting to claim the rewards for your quests until you have made substantial progress in the title. By amassing tens of thousands of experience points, you can avoid most of the risk and the stress that comes towards the end of the title. For specific quests, see Where to find XP (below) or Category:High XP Reward.

Escaping death
Always have an escape plan ready and execute it whenever you feel threatened; if you wait until things are dire, you could lose the title due to lag.

Fast, but subject to lag
Two common techniques are subject to lag, but are safer than running away.


 * Warp out: either to Guild Hall (default key: [G]) or to an outpost. (Guild Hall is slightly faster, if for no other reason than you don't have to search for a destination).
 * Log out your character (default key: [F12]): possibly faster than warping, but some believe you can continue to suffer degeneration until you re-enter the game.

Dangerous
These methods are worse than any of the others:
 * Disconnecting
 * Exiting the game.

In both cases, Guild Wars will wait 15 minutes for you to reconnect, allowing foes and degeneration to finish you off.

Adventuring strategies

 * Pull enemies to you using a bow; this gives your team the initiative and wastes some of your opponent's preparatory actions (e.g. setting traps).
 * Target the most serious threats to your safety (e.g. nearby warriors) rather than exposing your team by rushing towards the enemy's backline (e.g. monks).
 * Take fewer risks. Avoid rushing for master's rewards, pull back and regroup if your party is taking too much damage.

Character builds

 * A running skill helps you to move out of danger quickly and also to pull mobs towards your heroes.
 * Include an emergency skill to protect you long enough to map out, make you a less attractive target, or help you escape the immediate danger. Good choices include Shadow Form, Vow of Silence, or Death's Retreat.
 * Always include a self-heal of some form; do not rely entirely on your healers (who might be dead or otherwise occupied).
 * Use runes and insignias to give your character as much health as possible, e.g. Runes of Vigor and Vitae and five Survivor's insignias. High health improves your general survivability and makes you less likely to be targeted by the enemy AI.
 * Bring a high-health weapon set and switch to it whenever there is the slightest risk of death.
 * Consider bring Protective Bond to prevent spike damage; even at rank zero, the health saved outweighs the energy cost for a survivor. Ideally, have another player (or hero) cast it.
 * Air of Superiority gives you a 20% chance to double experience gained from killing foes.

Party tactics

 * General tips
 * Consider using Henchmen and Heroes over joining a Pick-up Group (PUG) &mdash; as the only human player, you will be free to use any escape method at any given time.
 * Be more defensive than aggressive; this gives you more time to react, allowing you a chance to escape, exit, or turn the tide of battle.
 * Use a Summoning Stone to reduce the risk to you.


 * Adventuring with others
 * Give the party a chance to decide if they want a survivor in the group; not every group is willing to chance someone exiting at a key moment.
 * Frequently remind the team of your status.
 * Ask your friends to help out. Guild and alliance members are more likely to be supportive.
 * Choose PUGs very carefully:
 * Some players might lack good team work or might be unwilling (or unable) to put in the effort to protect you.
 * Unfortunately, some people will deliberately try to get you killed to foil your attempt at the title.

Using heroes and henchmen

 * Learn to control them.
 * Use them to acquire initial aggro.
 * Use them to pull enemies.
 * Call targets, but remain out of the frontline as the AI tends to attack the caller.
 * When fighting AoE-heavy enemies, spread your heroes around using the flags.

Maximizing your runs

 * Use XP gained from monster kills to your advantage. Every point counts no matter how little it gives you. Use XP scrolls in areas where monsters are plentiful.
 * Capture elite skills after you reach Level 20 to maximize the experience gained at 5,000.
 * Similarly, hold off on claiming experience rewards from quests until you reach L20 so that you maximize the gains from killing lower level foes.
 * In Nightfall, use bounties to get double experience from kills (and, as a bonus, you also progress in Sunspear or Lightbringer titles).

Death during cinematics
You can die during certain mission cinematics, most notably the one at the end of Vizunah Square, during which time any party minions become unbound and then attack team members.
 * To avoid such deaths, skip a cinematic the moment you see you are being attacked by minions (or other foes).
 * If someone in your group fails to skip, close Guild Wars immediately.
 * Similarly, Prophecies, you can logout of the PvP arena that is part of leaving the pre-Searing area. Once you log back in, you will return to the cooperative part of the journey and can safely hang back wait for your party members to complete the area.

Experience farms
These XP farms are currently popular for maximizing the title quickly.


 * High-risk, high-yield farms
 * (EotN) Farming Spectral Vaettir in Jaga Moraine takes about three minutes and yields ~18,000 XP per hard mode run. (See: this Guild Wars Guru discussion for details.)
 * (EotN) Farming raptors outside Rata Sum yields approximately 10,000 XP per minute.
 * (Core) Completing all quests in the Fissure of Woe yields 100,000 XP (in addition to the experience gained from killing foes). Can be easily managed using 7 heroes and/or consumables.
 * (Prophecies) Escorting Courier Falken will provide you 5k XP for less than 10 min per run. Without counting experience from killing foes, this yields about 30kXP per hour. Recommended for experienced players.
 * (Prophecies/EotN) The Hearts of the North mini-missions are repeatable and yield 5,000 XP each (among other rewards). Any deaths while disguised as Keiran Thackeray will stop progress in the title.


 * Eye of the North
 * Kilroy Stonekin's Punch-Out Extravaganza!: 8,400xp each round (~51,000 xp per hour), without using XP scrolls. In Hard mode, this increases to 20,000 XP/run or up to 44,000 XP/run using +300% experience scrolls. These are safe for survivors provided you STAND UP! after getting knocked out. If you think you might not get back up in time, travel to an outpost to avoid dying.
 * Hammers of Kathandrax: purchase or farm them on your own ahead of time; they yield 7,500 XP each for completing Kathandrax's Crusher.
 * Snow Wurms outside Boreal Station: There are 12-15 Snow Wurms, which provide nearly 400 XP each for solo characters (800 with XP scrolls). This farm is popular because of its low risk especially when using a summoning stone. It takes about 5-10 minutes to earn around 5k XP for the run, allowing players to earn approximately 30,000 XP per one hour run (60-120k with XP scrolls). This farm also combines well with chest farming, allowing progress on Wisdom and Treasure Hunter titles.


 * Factions
 * The Jade Arena in Archipelagos, southeast of Breaker Hollow, provides about 40,000 experience per hour.
 * Unwaking Waters outside of Harvest Temple. Use seven heroes to kill the first group of foes (composed of five physical attackers) using anti-attack skills such as Empathy and Spiteful Spirit. Rezone and repeat. Each hard mode run yields 250 xp in 40 seconds or 22,500 xp per hour.


 * Beyond
 * Cantha Courier Crisis provides ~135,000 experience per hour through foe deaths, using experience scrolls in normal mode. (The quest is not repeatable, so it much be abandoned and retaken.)

Other high yield rewards

 * See also: Category:High XP Reward and List of high xp reward quests


 * Core
 * 5,000 XP/elite skill: Capture elite skills after reaching level 20. Gain 10,000 XP per elite during a double XP for captures weekend event, which take place in February, June, and November.
 * 50,000 XP: Zinn's Task, requires M.O.X. and each of the main campaigns.
 * Combine with other titles or with farming, such as faction farming, e.g. for Sunspear ranks.
 * Storybooks yield substantial amounts of XP and gold, especially if you were planning on completing each game story.
 * Collect multiple copies of the same book; the number of copies depends on the book, ranging from 11 to over 30. (see [http://www.guildwiki.org/User_talk:Rose_Of_Kali this comparison of the time spent).
 * Save the books as you go through each campaign and every dungeon, for over 750 kXP.
 * Save a few books to help you top off the last nerve-wracking 100–300 kXP.


 * Zaishen Missions, Zaishen Bounties, and Zaishen Vanquishes yield thousands of additional experience points.


 * Prophecies
 * Farming (low level characters only): Visit an empty D'Alessio Seaboard (outpost) district. Gain the aggro of the L11 undead outside the outpost and let the NPCs kill them.
 * 130,000 XP: the post-end-game titan sequence, Defend Droknar's Forge → The Last Day Dawns → Defend North Kryta Province → Defend Denravi → The Titan Source.
 * Granite farming Old Ascalon's hulking stone elementals in Hard mode with Experience scrolls can yield 30-50k exp a run, provided you know the route and are highly experienced with farming builds designed for it.
 * 30,000 XP: The Villainy of Galrath (Hard mode)


 * Factions (10,000 XP each)
 * Befriending the Luxons and Befriending the Kurzicks
 * Raze the Roost (requires no effort if outposts are unlocked and you have )


 * Eye of the North
 * 15,000 XP each:
 * Deeprunner's Map has zero risk. Gather the map pieces from other players (or characters).
 * Haunted (from Magni the Bison, after unlocking Xandra).
 * Nornhood (after unlocking Kahmu)
 * The Great Norn Alemoot, an easy solo-quest.
 * Unlocking Hayda (via Frogstomp and Give Peace a Chance).
 * Worthy Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap), from Sif in Sifhalla. (If you equip a Signet of Capture, you can gain an additional 5,000 XP after killing each of the bosses.)
 * 50,000 XP: Justiciar Naveed's full quest chain (also offers other modest rewards).


 * Event-driven
 * Every Bit Helps is a repeatable Halloween quest that rewards 10,000 XP and presents no risk. (The skeletons should be collected beforehand by a non-survivor, since that pre-requisite is very dangerous.)

Trivia

 * The first four numbers of the maximum rank in the title are 1337, which is the Leetspeak term for elite.


 * The March 3, 2011 update changed the title from counting experience starting when the character was first created to counting starting from the last death.
 * This was among the more frustrating and nerve-wracking titles to pursue, as you had to accumulate all 1,337,500 experience points without any deaths.
 * This change also made it possible to obtain both Survivor and Defender of Ascalon; previously, the titles were mutually exclusive since the only way to reach level 20 (in pre-Searing) had been through death leveling.