Last Updated: January 2018.
Check out the new additions at the bottom.
I’ve been seeing one question repeated over and over again in Facebook groups the last couple of weeks. How do you make gold quickly? The truth is that there are a few different ways and everyone seems to think their way is best. Find which one you like best and do that one. Here’s are seven ways to earn gold quickly in Guild Wars 2.
The Little Things
There are a few little things you should be doing every single day to keep your gold going up. They aren’t worth a lot of gold, but if you only have 10 minutes to spare in a day you can still get them done. They are to log in and do your daily. Login rewards include laurels. Laurels can be used to buy T6 materials (more on those further down). Doing your daily will guarantee you 2g for very little work. The PvE daily tasks are always incredibly easy to do and only take a couple of minutes. Do them every day so your account keeps going up even on days when you can’t really play. Though while you’re logged in…
Farming Map Rewards
When you take part in events in the world you get points towards map rewards. These map rewards change every week and some are more valuable than others. The most valuable ones contain T6 materials. The Guild Wars 2 wiki has a couple of fantastic charts to make farming map rewards easy and incredibly rewarding.
The first is a chart that shows you the exact rewards you’ll get in every map and it updates itself every week. This is nice to let you know what you should be selling as you’re going along.
But the most important chart is the bonus reward profit chart. This will show you which zone you should be playing in to get the most profitable outcome every week. The amounts listed change all the time as the market fluctuates, but the most profitable zones typically remain the same. You can find which week we’re currently in by looking for the one that is highlighted in Yellow.
How Map Rewards Work
When you complete an event or do a jumping puzzle you are rewarded 100 points. You can’t see these points anywhere, there is no user interface for this system, just know that without using any bonuses you’re earning 100 points if you get gold on the event. It’s less if you don’t get gold. Every 200 points you get a map reward. This continues up to 8,000 points when you’ve completed the reward track. After 8,000 the track restarts and you’re back at the beginning. So the idea is to farm events. Do any event chain you can and make sure you always earn gold.
Get More for Your Time
If your guild has put in enough work you can get the Map Bonus Rate Increase in your guild hall. This increases the rate you earn points anywhere from 3-10% depending on how much your guild has done.
There is one more thing you can do to increase your rewards. If you have unlocked the third level of the Pact Commander Mastery you have access to a network of Karma vendors called the Pact Supply Network Agents. There are six merchants scattered around the world who change locations every day. From each of those merchants, you can buy Pact Scout’s Mapping Materials for 5,250 karma. Each of these is worth 200 map reward points for whatever map you’re on when you eat them. So, as part of your daily login visit each of the 6 vendors and get the mapping materials from each one. That’s 1,200 points every day! You can choose to use them right away, but saving them is the most rewarding.
As an example, I had 2 days worth of Pact Scout’s Mapping Materials saved up, took them to the most valuable zone for week 5 and just selling some of the map rewards I got I made 11g. I didn’t even sell all the map rewards as I decided to keep the lodestones which were worth more than a gold each. I could have easily made 15g if I had sold everything.
For the best results save your mapping materials until the week the profit chart is at its best. Currently, that is Week 5 and sometimes Week 2 as the market fluctuates.
To locate the Pact Supply Network Agents once again the wiki has a fantastic chart that you can copy and paste into chat, giving you links to all their locations.
Silverwastes Farming
Most people when you ask what the fastest way to earn gold is will tell you to do the Silverwastes. The zone is incredibly rewarding and has been since it first released. Grind Coven, an EU guild recently released a fantastic, deeply researched look into the Silverwastes and offers up a way to earn up to 2,800 gold in 2 weeks! There’s a whole lot of math in the data but that just goes to show how well researched it is.
The basic idea though is just to play the Silverwastes. Keep all your bags, get as many rewards as possible. Then open the bags on lower level characters. The Grind Coven research includes a chart that shows you which level is best. Collecting Crests so you can buy keys is a vital part of this farm.
Farm Fractal Level 40
Farming Fractal Level 40 is no longer a good way to earn gold quickly. While there have been some people saying that the Mai Trin Fractals are an ok substitute, they don't appear to be popular. This is possibly because there are easier ways to earn the gold. If you are interested in trying this out Mai Trin fractals are levels 18, 42, 73, and 95.
If you’ve put a lot of work into doing Fractals then farming Fractal Level 40 can be quite rewarding. It’s a very quick fractal to complete. You can potentially earn up to 40g per hour if you’re good and lucky. This is all about opening a lot of Fractal Encryptions and selling the contents. But it does require repeating the fractal which can get pretty mind-numbing.
Sell T6 Materials
Selling crafting materials is always a good way to get easy money. Of course, some are more profitable than others. The ones that are easy to get are worth the least. This is why T6 materials are the most valuable. They have a pretty low drop rate and they are used in just about everything at the end game. When we talk about T6 materials we’re talking about Ancient Bone, Vicious Claw, Pile of Crystalline Dust, Vicious Fang, Armored Scale, Elaborate Totem, Powerful Venom Sac, and Vial of Powerful Blood.
These can be earned many, many ways. Two ways I’ve already mentioned are using Laurels and Map Rewards. Laurels do have other very good uses so make sure you don’t want anything else before you purchase the Heavy Crafting Bags which contain T6 materials.
Of course, it needs to be said that if you are working on a legendary weapon do not sell your T6 materials. You will need them.
Bonus since Path of Fire: Lower teir materials have become more valuable since the launch of Path of Fire. I wouldn't recommend trying to farm for them as T6 is still the most valuable, but if you have a large stockpile you may want to check out how much they're worth.
Ecto Gamble
If you don’t mind gambling then the Ecto gamble might be for you. In Lion’s Arch, you can find a Skritt who will sell you Destabilized Ectoplasm that contains random junk that may or may not be valuable. It can be a very expensive addiction, but if you know when to quit it can be quite rewarding. If you gamble away all your gold don’t come crying to me. I warned you.
Buy Gems
The final way to get gold quickly in Guild Wars 2 is, of course, to buy it with real-world cash. No, you can’t buy gold directly. But you can buy gems which can be converted into gold. Is it worth it? That’s for you to decide. I would never do it but I know plenty of people who have.
NEW - Istan Meta Events
If you have Path of Fire there's a new way to get a lot of rewards in two repeatable meta events. These events are the raid on Palawadan and the Great Hall. Both events take you through a region of the map as a large group where you face off against a greater concentration of enemies than you'd normally find. As you defeat certain enemies as a group a chest will appear nearby. Grab the loot and try to keep up. After the events have completed you'll have some time afterward to roam and get even more chests that are scattered about the area. These events are incredibly rewarding because of the chests so make sure you get them all.
Both of these events are incredibly popular so it is advised that you get to them early and start looking for a squad in LFG. You can usually start finding them coming together 10-15 minutes before the event begins. These events run every two hours. The schedule for which can be found on just about any Guild Wars 2 event timer.
NEW - Park Your Alts
This is by no means a new idea, but it is new to this article. If you have alts there are some places you can park them that if you log in every day can be quite lucrative. The best alts to use for this are level 80s because they'll be able to access more of the world. But if you have an alt who is level 21-35 park them at the end of a jumping puzzle at the chest. This is the best way for you to get silver doubloons, which as of writing this in January 2018 are nearly 1 gold each.
If you have Path of Fire park one of your level 80s at the end of the Jackal jumping puzzle in the Crystal Oasis. This is the one on the bottom right of the map with the ruins and the Djinn. There are three large chests here that you can open. Also, leave an alt at the Tomb of Primeval Kings in the Desert Highlands. There are several small chests here that you can collect from.
If you have Heart of Thorns you'll want to leave a character two sitting at a flax farm. The most famous one is in Verdant Brink, however, the one in Draconis Mons is a better farm. It's also more dangerous though so be careful of the surrounding area.
The tree farm in Malchor's leap is always a popular option. You have a lot of nodes in a very small area. Though if you're looking to sell the wood instead of keeping it for yourself there are better options.
Bitterfrost Frontier is a good place to park 2 characters for berry harvesting. The reason you go with two is because once you've harvested you can alt and do it all again. These berries are a great source of last season's currency so you can buy ascended gear without spending any gold.
Back to earning gold, there are 12 permanent rich iron nodes scattered throughout the world. You can, if you like go on a tour of them all. Doing so would, at current market prices get you nearly 2 gold. But, being realistic that isn't going to be something you want to do every day. So pick one and stay there. You'll still be getting 17 silver worth of materials which adds up. Plus there's a very good chance if you're building anything you need iron. The Guild Wars 2 wiki can show you the permanent nodes or you can use GW2Efficiency, a site I highly recommend for all GW2 players.
There are a few other options for parking your characters like the Rich Quartz node in Crystal Oasis, or the Hidden Garden if you've completed creating Kudzu.
There are of course many other ways to earn gold, but these are the easiest. If they don’t appeal you could try flipping the market, selling crafting materials, selling crafted items, and much more. After Path of Fire releases, this article may get an update as new ways to earn gold are hopefully introduced. Which way is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.
