Costume Brawl
- This article is about the minigame. For the outpost, see Costume Brawl (outpost).
Costume Brawl is a PvP minigame introduced during Halloween 2007. Players fight in the guise of famous characters from the Guild Wars story, using that character's special equipment and custom set of skills.
To enter, speak with NPC—Bobby [Costume Brawl]—in the towns of Lion's Arch, Kamadan, Droknar's Forge, and the Great Temple of Balthazar. You will enter the Costume Brawl outpost already dressed in your disguise, with your skills selected and your weapons equipped. Each gender and profession has corresponding characters. From there, you will join the combat in one of several brawl arenas.
Game mechanics[edit]
Two randomly-grouped teams of 5 take on the guises of henchmen, heroes, and villains of their respective professions and compete to be the first to reach 20 points. At the end of a match, every player on the winning team will receive a prize.
- Scoring
- You score one point for each kill you achieve.
- If neither team has scored 20 points within 10 minutes, the team with the highest score wins.
- If the teams are tied at the end of 10 minutes, the first team to score a kill wins.
- Shrines
- Any non-Morale shrine adds 1 pip to the morale bar's progress rate, while a Morale shrine adds two pips.
- Morale shrines handicaps with 10% less healing, but allows your party to deal 10% more damage.
- Health shrines raise your party members' health by 120 each.
- Energy shrines lower cost of your party's skills by 20%.
- Battle Cry shrines raise movement speed by 25%, attack speed by 15%, and skills recharge 15% faster.
- Fighting at the Resurrection Shrines grants Base Protection to the team that resurrects at the shrine: deal 50% more damage and take 50% less damage.
- Rounds
- There is no Death Penalty.
- Disguises are assigned randomly each round.
- Winning teams' members are sent back into the queue for entering battle.
- Modifiers
- Regardless of item bonuses, player health is set to 600. Energy and attributes are fixed for every profession. Armor rating[verification requested] and weapon upgrades that do not affect maximum health, energy or attributes keep their effect. Costume Brawl overrides any existing modifiers (e.g. health, energy, armor rating,[verification requested] or attributes), including:
- Runes and insignias
- Weakness
- Skills or effects that boost attributes, e.g. in 2011, Aura of the Lich and the November Flux effect Hidden Talent did not boost attributes.
Combat Costumes disguises[edit]
- All players are under the effects of Combat Costume - which changes skills and attributes, depending on the primary profession, to the following.
- You can view the disguises from the years prior to 2012 on this page.
Weapons[edit]
While the skills are fixed in the disguise, the inventory and the equipped weapons stay with the character. For every character a related weapon will drop on the ground when you enter the arena. So either bring appropriate weapons along or pick up the dropped weapon. Any weapon not picked up by the start of the battle will disappear.
Arenas[edit]
- Kysten Shore
- One Center Shrine (Morale Shrine)
- One Battle Cry Shrine
- One Energy Shrine
- Whitefury Rapids
- Two Morale Shrines
- Two Health Shrines
- One Battle Cry Shrine
- Plikkup Works
- One Center Shrine (Morale Shrine)
- Two Health Shrines
- One Battle Cry Shrine
- One Energy Shrine
- Deepway Ruins
- Two Morale Shrines
- One Battle Cry Shrine
Rewards[edit]
Each team member receives:
- 40 Balthazar faction per unique kill
- 20 Balthazar faction per point scored
- 5 Balthazar faction for each point on final scoreboard, 30 Gamer points, and 5 Trick-or-Treat Bags in a team win. For example, if the opposing team resigns while the scoreboard shows 18 points, the victors receive 90 Balthazar faction.
Tips[edit]
There are two ways to victory:
- Kill enemy players
- Keep shrines to gain morale
There are no tactics that ensure a win every time. Winning depends on your players' skill, profession composition and enemy team behavior.
- As a general rule, don't fight when severely outnumbered and especially when the opponent has the Battle Cry shrine. Chances are you will give the opposing team a point with your death before you can finish off one of them. Run away and regroup. If you are lucky, only one or two of the opposing players will chase you, and your team will have the numeric advantage in the skirmish. Draw enemies to your Resurrection Shrine if possible because your damage is boosted and the enemy's is reduced. Conversely, avoid fighting in the opposing team's resurrection shrine.
- In Whitefury Rapids, there are many different tactics. One is to split 2-1-2: two players get the Battle Cry Shrine, two get the Health Shrine and one stays to get the Morale Shrine. The one at the Morale Shrine moves on to the Health Shrine split or directly over the bridge to the other Morale Shrine. Try to encounter the enemy splits in even numbers or, if you know you can handle them, take on the enemy so that you can still win. Once your team has all shrines, repeatedly kill the enemy players at or in their base.
- Be ready at the gate(s) or portal at the start of the game.
- Work out which shrine(s) to capture at the start.
- Coordinate battles and communicate. Call targets instead of letting damage spread out over several opponents. Direct teammates to control points or away from opponents.
- When it is November and the October Flux, Minion Apocalypse, is no longer in effect, Necromancers have seven (instead of eight) usable skills, since there will be no minions to use Verata's Gaze on.
Notes[edit]
- If you win a game with a full inventory, you will get the "Your inventory is full." message instead of "You receive 5 Trick-or-treat bags.", and gain no bags.
- Since every character gets a weapon for these matches, newly created characters may obtain max-stat weapons by participating in these events, although they will have high attribute requirements.
- While it is possible to adjust your skill bar and reorder your skills while in the waiting area, it will be reset to its default upon entering. After entering, you may change your skill bar to suit your needs, although this may become tiresome after many matches
Trivia[edit]
- It is possible to go behind the waterfalls in the Costume Brawl. A video on how to get in can be seen here.
- It used to be possible to get stuck in the Costume Brawl with no way to map out.
- Before 2008, this game awarded 7 Gamer points per win. From 2008 to 2009, the Gamer points awarded was 9+(number of consecutive victories up to 41). Before 2012, 15 Gamer points were awarded per win.
- Before 2010, each profession and gender had only one disguise available.
- Before 2011, all disguises had a unique name and skill description in the effects monitor. In 2011, all disguises appear with the generic Combat Costume name and skill description in the effects monitor.
- Before 2013, disguises had different attributes and skills each year.
See also[edit]
Minigames |
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Halloween: Costume Brawl Wintersday: Dwayna Vs Grenth • Snowball Dominance • Fighting in a Winter Wonderland • The Great Snowball Fight of the Gods Shing Jea Boardwalk: Dragon Arena • Nine Rings • Rings of Fortune • Dragon Nest • Rollerbeetle Racing Canthan New Year: Rock-Paper-Scissors Pre-Searing: The bear hunters • The Prize Winning Hogs Eye of the North: Dwarven brawling • Kilroy Stonekin • Polymock • The Leadfoot Race • The Norn Fighting Tournament Beyond: Courier Falken |
Disguises |
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Obtained through tonics |
Disguised • Avatar of Holiday Cheer • Avatar of Sweetness • Beetle Metamorphosis • Sinister Golem Form • Yeti Form |
Obtained through polymock pieces |
Aloe Seed Form • Bone Dragon Form • Charr Flamecaller Form • Charr Shaman Form • Dolyak Rider Form • Dredge Form • Dwarven Arcanist Form • Earth Elemental Form • Fire Elemental Form • Fire Imp Form • Gaki Form • Gargoyle Form • Ice Elemental Form • Ice Imp Form • Kappa Form • Mantis Dreamweaver Form • Mergoyle Form • Mirage Iboga Form • Mursaat Elementalist Form • Naga Shaman Form • Ruby Djinn Form • Skale Form • Skeletal Mage Form • Smoke Wraith Form • Stone Rain Form • Titan Form • Wind Rider Form |
Obtained during missions |
Corsair • Dastardly • Gwen • Jade Brotherhood • Keiran Thackeray • Kournan Guardsman • Saul D'Alessio • Togo • Turai Ossa |
Obtained in explorable areas |
Desert Wurm • Spirit Form |
Obtained during holiday events |
G.O.L.E.M. • Going Commando • Rollerbeetle Racer • Snowman Form Canthan New Year disguises: Pig Form • Rat Form • Ox Form • Tiger Form • Rabbit Form • Dragon Form • Snake Form • Horse Form • Sheep Form • Monkey Form • Rooster Form • Dog Form Halloween disguises: Agent of the Mad King • Candy Corn Infantry • Combat Costume • Mad King's Influence |
Cannot be obtained by characters |
Lose your Head • Rolling Start • Rudi's Red Nose • Stone Dwarf Transformation • Test Buff |