Guild Wars Eye of the North



Guild Wars Eye of the North, sometimes abbreviated to EotN or GW:EN, is the fourth purchasable installment in the original Guild Wars game. It is intended to tie the Guild Wars storyline with that of Guild Wars 2. Instead of using a campaign format used by Guild Wars Factions and Guild Wars Nightfall, Eye of the North is a traditional expansion on any of the existing campaigns, rather than a standalone game. Players cannot create characters based on the expansion; there is no tutorial area or additional professions. Eye of the North was released on August 31st, 2007.

The setting for the expansion is in part subterranean and spread through the continent of Tyria, which has already been introduced by the original campaign. Players may explore the homeland of the Charr, meet the Asura and Norn, and witness the birth of the Sylvari. The Charr, Norn, Asura and Sylvari will be playable races in Guild Wars 2.

Story
The main story involves the Dwarves and introduces the Destroyers, Asura, the Norn and the Ebon Vanguard, and concludes with the battle against the Great Destroyer. Apart from the start of the journey and the ending battles, players will spend most of their time in the individual story arcs for the new Asura and Norn races as well as the Ebon Vanguard. These can be done in any order.

Eye of the North is rich in many side quests, mini missions or other activities not directly tied into the story. Foremost among these are the dungeons (some of which are visited by the main story, but most are not), which combine high end difficulty with precious rewards.

System Requirements
The minimum system requirements for playing Guild Wars: Eye of the North are:
 * Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7
 * Intel Pentium III 1 GHz or equivalent
 * 512 MB RAM
 * DVD-ROM Drive
 * 3 GB Available HDD Space
 * ATI Radeon 8500 or NVIDIA GeForce 3 Series Video Card with 64 MB of VRAM
 * 16-bit Sound Card
 * Internet connection
 * Keyboard and mouse
 * DirectX 8

The recommended system requirements for playing Guild Wars: Eye of the North are:
 * Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7
 * Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or equivalent
 * 1 GB RAM
 * DVD-ROM Drive
 * 4 GB Available HDD Space
 * ATI Radeon 9600 or NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 series video card or above
 * 16-bit Sound Card
 * Internet connection
 * Keyboard and mouse
 * DirectX 9

Features
The expansion introduces:
 * 40 new armor sets, including rare, stand-alone pieces
 * 100 new profession-specific skills (10 per profession, none of which are elite)
 * 50 new PvE only skills including 3 elite skills
 * 10 new heroes
 * 18 Dungeons
 * 124 new quests
 * The Hall of Monuments, a place which allows you to obtain unique titles, companions, armor and miniatures in Guild Wars 2 based on your achievements in the original Guild Wars. The Hall of Monuments does not support the transfer of characters or gold.

Actions have more consequences. For example, if you lose NPCs that help you, you can choose to continue without them (and their help) instead of being forced to try again (although you may start over with a clean slate by going back to town). Similarly, if you rescue NPCs, they may join you and help you.

More than the previous campaigns, Eye of the North is full of easter eggs and "hidden" quests, which are not immediately accessible.

4 new regions

 * Charr Homelands
 * The green homeland of the Charr, north of Ascalon and east to the Far Shiverpeaks.
 * Depths of Tyria
 * An immense interconnected underground complex of natural caves and excavated areas underneath Tyria.
 * Far Shiverpeaks
 * A desolate mountain range to the north of the Shiverpeak Mountains we know. It is home to the Norn and the Ebon Vanguard.
 * Tarnished Coast
 * An area of high magical energy, and home to the Asura.

GW:EN Retail Package
The retail version of Guild Wars Eye of the North contains the following items:
 * Guild Wars Client DVD
 * Access Key Booklet
 * 16-page Mini Manual
 * Map Poster (11 in x 17 in NA; 600 mm x 360 mm Europe)

Also available for new players is a Guild Wars Platinum Edition containing both the original Guild Wars Prophecies campaign and the Guild Wars Eye of the North expansion.

Pre-release
There was a preview pack for Eye of the North. This included: Access to the Sneak Peak Weekend that ran from August 24th–26th, 2007, three exclusive pre-order weapons (Glacial Blade, Hourglass Staff and Darksteel Longbow), and a 10 hour/ 14-day pass to the current trilogy. pre-orders also got early free access to the bonus mission pack.

Access
Access to GW:EN is via quests given by:
 * Len Caldoron in Lion's Arch
 * Minister of Maintenance Raiugyon in Kaineng Center
 * Bendah in Kamadan

Trivia

 * Guild Wars Eye of the North can be abbreviated as GWEN, which is an assumed intentional allusion to the pre-Searing character Gwen.
 * Parts of Eye of the North were originally in the planned fourth campaign named Guild Wars Utopia. The campaign idea was dropped in preference for Guild Wars 2 and this expansion was released in the interim to transition existing players into Guild Wars 2.

Related articles

 * Guild Wars Eye of the North Prerelease Bonus Pack
 * List of Eye of the North skills
 * Visit Eye of the North for the Holidays
 * List of Eye of the North primary quests