Survivor

This article is about the title for experience gained without death. For the health-boosting armor upgrade, see Survivor Insignia.

Survivor
Campaign	Core
Title type	Character

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

Tier	Title	Experience gained between deaths
1	Survivor	140,600
2	Indomitable Survivor	587,500
3	Legendary Survivor	1,337,500

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, bugs 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, during mini-events, or due to PvP Flux effects).
  • 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).
• Deaths during the Hearts of the North missions, even though you're playing as Keiran Thackeray.

Useful tips

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 — the 50,000 XP bonus is available only if you use Prophecies for your first Ascension-equivalent accomplishment.
  • Use caution while under the Journey to the North effect: although your low-level Survivor-candidate will have health, energy, and attributes of an L20 character, Eye of the North areas 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.

Strategy

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) — 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.

Where to find XP

Experience farms

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

High-risk, high-yield farms

• (Nightfall) Farming titans during Gate of Madness yields approximately 4,000 XP/minute in hard mode using experience scrolls or about less than five hours to maximize the title.
• (EotN) Farming Spectral Vaettir in Jaga Moraine takes about three minutes and yields ~18,000 XP per run in hard mode.
• (EotN) Farming raptors outside Rata Sum yields approximately 10,000 XP/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.

Eye of the North

• Kilroy Stonekin's Punch-Out Extravaganza!: 8,400xp each round (~51,000 XP/hour), in normal mode without scrolls. In Hard mode, this increases to 20,000 XP per run without scrolls; or up to 44,000 XP per 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.
• Snow Wurms outside Boreal Station: 1,300 XP/solo run (9,750 XP/hour for 9 min. runs) in normal mode without scrolls; up to 10,500 XP per run (126,000 XP/hour for 5 min. runs) in hard mode using scrolls. This farm is popular due to its low risk and because it combines well with the Treasure and Wisdom titles.
• There are two quest items that can be farmed in advance (or purchased from other players).
  • Hammer of Kathandrax: 7,500 XP each for completing Kathandrax's Crusher in Catacombs of Kathandrax. (When you are ready to claim the experience, have someone run you to the dungeon, exit to claim the reward, and repeat until you run out of the item.)
  • Prismatic Gelatinous Material: 5,000 XP each for completing Watch it Jiggle in Ooze Pit. (The quest giver is just outside Doomlore Shrine.)

Factions

• The Jade Arena in Archipelagos, southeast of Breaker Hollow, provides about 40,000 XP/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/hour.

Beyond

• (War in Kryta) Escorting Courier Falken will provide you 5k XP for less than 10 min per run. Without counting experience from killing foes, this yields about 30k XP/hour. (Recommended for experienced players.)
• (Hearts of the North) Rise is repeatable and yields 5,000 XP each (among other rewards). Any deaths while disguised as Keiran Thackeray will stop progress in the title.
• (Winds of Change) Cantha Courier Crisis provides ~135,000 XP/hour through foe deaths, using experience scrolls in normal mode. (Recommended for experienced players. The quest is not repeatable, so it must 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).
• 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 (you need between 11 to 30, depending on the book; see this comparison of the time spent).
  • Save the books as you go through each campaign and every dungeon, for over 750k XP.
  • Save a few books to help you top off the last nerve-wracking 100–300k XP.

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

Prophecies

• 405,000 XP: cumulative rewards for the post-end-game Titan quest sequence: Defend Droknar's Forge (Hard mode) → The Last Day Dawns (Hard mode) → Defend North Kryta Province (Hard mode) → Defend Denravi (Hard mode) → The Titan Source (Hard mode).
• 30-50,000 XP: farming granite in Hard Mode in Old Ascalon (depends on having a strong build, experience scrolls, and familiarity with the route).
• 34,000 XP: The Villainy of Galrath (Hard mode)

Factions

• 472,000 XP: cumulative rewards for the Beyond: Winds of Change quest sequence.
• 10,000 XP: Befriending the Luxons and Befriending the Kurzicks
• 10,000 XP: Raze the Roost (requires no effort if outposts are unlocked and you have 2 )
• Various: A number of high-yield quests in Kaineng City can be completed with little to no danger, especially if you exploit the quest Seek out Brother Tosai to turn all Am Fah into allies.

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) & Anything You Can Do, from Sif of 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

In addition to experience, these repeatable quests also reward substantial amounts of gold and seasonal items.

• During Halloween:
  • Every Bit Helps rewards 10,000 XP/run and presents no risk. The title can be maxed by capturing 402 skeletons ahead of time. (However, use caution: many players find the prerequisite quest to be deadly.)
• During Wintersday:
  • Snowball Dominance can be completed with a hero. It takes 268 runs to max the Survivor title (approximately 9 to 12 hours, depending on your primary profession).
  • Fighting in a Winter Wonderland in Hard Mode yields 7,500 XP/run, which an experienced group of eight players can finish in 3.5 minutes or less; pick-up groups are easy to find during the event. It takes 179 runs to maximize the title, or around 10 hours at peak efficiency.

Notes

• You will earn approximately 190 skill points over the course of maximizing this title.
• Adventuring with a Mercenary Hero with the same name as a survivor candidate has no effect on the status of that character; the fact that the names are the same is a coincidence (arranged by the player).

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.

“

Previously, the Survivor title tracked how much experience a player earned until their first death. When that character died, his progress was frozen. If the title was not maxed, the player needed to start an entirely new character in order to try again. If a character died, it often led to some very unfortunate circumstances beyond a player's control. A lag spike, a power outage, or an impromptu conga line could invalidate countless hours or days of work. There were also vast legions of characters who existed and were well established in the world long before this title was implemented; they almost certainly never obtained it.

With that in mind, we made some changes to the functionality of the title. In the new version, the title tracks the experience that characters gain until they die. In the event of their untimely passing, your title will maintain its current rank; to progress it further, you'll need to start over. For example, let's say that your character achieves the second rank of the Survivor title before dying. Your title-track progress will still display second rank as your current best. To achieve third rank, however, you'll be starting over again from zero experience. This lets you try again without throwing away a character that you've already put so much into. The amount of experience required to achieve the max rank of the Survivor title has not changed.

— Developer updates

External Links

External guides

• Guide to using storybooks to maximize the title
• Guide to AFK Legendary Survivor at the Gate of Madness

Farming videos

• Harvest Temple.
• Kilroy Stonekin's Punch-Out Extravaganza!

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