Item rarity
From Guild Wars Wiki
Items available in Guild Wars use colors to indicate the quality or rarity of the item. The actual meaning depends on the item (details provided below). As a general guide, white indicates that the item is very common and without modifiers, blue indicates that it has some minor modifiers, purple that it is an uncommon item which may have adequate modifiers, gold that the item's modifiers are of high quality and/or rare, and green is used to identify a unique item.
Note, for example, that an item in gold is not necessarily superior to an item in purple. The actual value depends on the current in-game trading environment.
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[edit] Armor
White
- Gives no bonuses other than additional Energy.
Blue
- Gives bonuses other than additional Energy.
[edit] Miniatures
White or Common
- Common miniatures are white.
Purple or Uncommon
- Uncommon miniatures are purple.
- In some cases, promotional miniatures are also purple.
Gold or Rare
- Rare miniatures are gold.
- In some cases, promotional miniatures are also gold.
- In some cases, common miniatures such as the Pig are also gold.
Green or Unique
- Generally, the rarest miniatures in the game are green.
[edit] Salvage items
White or Common
- Only contains crafting materials.
- Salvaging all upgrade components from a blue, purple, or gold salvage item will sometimes turn the salvage item white.
Blue or Common
- Contains (or originally contained) a minor Rune and/or an Insignia.
Purple or Uncommon
- Contains (or originally contained) a major Rune and/or an Insignia.
- Bloodstained Insignia have only been observed in purple and gold salvage items.
Gold or Rare
- Contains (or originally contained) a superior Rune and/or an Insignia.
- Lieutenant's Insignia have only been observed in gold salvage items.
[edit] Weapons and offhand items
White or Common
- No bonuses or inscription slots.
- If a white item has an upgrade component applied to it, the item will become blue.
- A blue, purple or gold item with all bonuses salvaged from it will generally retain its original color instead of becoming white.
Blue or Common
- Initially has at least one bonus.
- On items obtained as loot, all variable bonuses have values within the lower half of the variable's range.
- All crafted weapons, PvP items, as well as most collector's items and all bonus items are blue. Unlike blue items obtained as loot, these items can, and often do, have bonuses with the highest possible variable.
Purple or Uncommon
- Initially has at least one bonus.
- Values for variable bonuses are within the second highest quarter of their range, rounded up, which means that bonuses with narrow ranges can be found on purple items.
Gold or Rare
- In most cases, initially has at least one bonus.
- Values for variable bonuses are within the top quarter of their range, rounded up, which means that bonuses with narrow ranges can be found on rare items.
- Vampiric and Zealous prefix upgrades, the "I Have the Power!" Inscription and the +5 Energy inherent bonuses are only available on gold items (this is not entirely true; the inscription "I Have The Power" has but very rarely been found on blue or purple weapons but is a very rare occurence).
- Available almost exclusively as loot, the only exceptions are Tormented items, Destroyer weapons, Deldrimor weapons, Wintergreen items, Bonus Mission Pack reward items and some Eye of the North quests rewards.
Green or Unique
- Generally have an attribute requirement of 9 and the maximum number of bonuses, each of which has the maximum value. The only exceptions are unique items obtained on Shing Jea Island and Istan, the Ogre-Slaying Knife, Shiro's Sword and Shiro's Blades.
- Generally obtained as loot from bosses, although some non-boss monsters can drop unique items.
- Can be obtained from collectors in Divine Path in exchange for an Amulet of the Mists, in Throne of Secrets in exchange for a Book of Secrets, in Droknar's Forge in exchange for a Deldrimor Talisman and in Epilogue in exchange for a Droknar's Key.
- Cannot be modified, salvaged and, with the exception of Straw Effigies, cannot be dyed.
Red or PvP
- Purchased from Tolkano with Tournament Reward Points.
- All red items have inscription slots, max stats and attribute requirements of 9.
[edit] Other
White or Common
- Skill Tomes
- Other items including both common and rare crafting materials are generally white.
Gold or Rare
Green or Unique
- The following collector items are green: Deldrimor Talisman; Amulet of the Mists; Book of Secrets; Droknar's Key; Armbrace of Truth.
- The first four can be exchanged for a unique item in Droknar's Forge, Divine Path, Throne of Secrets, and Epilogue respectively, while an Armbrace of Truth can be exchanged for a gold Tormented weapon.
- The following Hero armor upgrades are green: Ancient Armor Remnants; Mysterious Armor Piece; Primeval Armor Remnants; Stolen Sunspear Armor; Deldrimor Armor Remnant; Cloth of the Brotherhood.

