Raid

“

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™, introduces the ultimate challenge: our first raid, which is made up of three distinct raid wings. Raids are 10-player, instanced, elite dungeon content that's a challenge unlike anything we've previously released in Guild Wars 2. These raids are meant to put you and your teammates to the test and challenge you to grow your skills as Guild Wars 2 players. Raids are our answer to what skilled PvE players have to look forward to at endgame—the ultimate test to overcome and defeat.

— Official website

“

Raids offer the ultimate challenge for you and nine of your friends.

— Level 80 rewards.

Portal to enter a raid.

Raids, or raid encounters, are 10-player squad-based PvE instances for level 80 characters. Raid wings are a sequence of boss and non-boss raid encounters.

Each encounter typically involves multiple phases with unique mechanics to test squad coordination, damage output, positioning, and player builds. Encounters may also include an enrage timer where the encounter either fails or incoming damage greatly increases when time expires.

Certain masteries are required to participate in, complete, or simplify some encounters (see table notes). Downed allies can be revived or rally, but defeated allies cannot be revived during the encounters. Unlike fractals, Revive Orbs are disabled, along with other similar consumables such as boosters.

Special rewards for finishing each encounter are limited to once per week, with a weekly reset at Monday 07:30. Raid encounters can be accessed and completed in any order via the raid join UI. There are no waypoints inside raids; instead, they use a checkpoint system which players can use to revive themselves and which most of the time resets skill recharges when everyone is defeated. The /gg command or one of its alternatives can be used to restart an encounter faster.

The first raid, Forsaken Thicket, was split into three different wings, with the first one released on November 17, 2015. While the corresponding wings originally told a progressing story in a specific order, each wing could be entered and completed independently. After the third wing was released, future raids were released as singular wings rather than multi-wing instances. Forsaken Thicket also introduced the first challenge mode boss encounter, a harder version with more punishing mechanics. The Temple of Febe raid encounter from Secrets of the Obscure introduced a new pinnacle difficulty setting with the legendary mode. Strike Missions (single boss encounters) were merged with raids and were renamed as raid encounters on February 3, 2026.

Accessing raids

Raid selection interface

Raiding is intended to require certain amount of time and dedication to learn and overcome each boss's unique mechanics, but in return it offers a large variety of rewards.

Many solo players begin their raiding journeys by joining raid-training guilds or groups, learning mechanics via quickplay raids, or by joining dedicated training groups listed in the LFG tool (under Raids (Training)) in order to learn the basics of each encounter and accrue kill proof.

The Special Forces Training Area offers a personal instance to practice and test your abilities. It allows customizing effects to mimic a raid environment, and will uniquely show you your DPS.

Availability

• Quickplay mode is available regardless of expansion ownership.
• Festive raid encounters can only be accessed during their respective festival.
• Old Lion's Court is available to all players and automatically unlocked account-wide regardless of story completion.
• All other raids require their specific expansion to access.
  • Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire raids are automatically unlocked upon owning the expansion.
  • End of Dragons, Secrets of the Obscure, and Visions of Eternity encounters require completing respective story missions to open, but you can still join instances opened by others.

Getting there

Entrances providing access to all raids

• Raid — Combined, a portal in Lion's Arch Aerodrome ( Aerodrome Waypoint — ).
  • The Aerodrome also contains individual portals to each raid wing.
• Raid Rally Points, objects in various deluxe lounges.
• Join via the pop-up box when the raid instance is opened.
  • While inside a raid instance, a different raid can be opened via the lower-right door icon → Select New.

Entrances for specific raids

• Core Game:
  • Secret Lair of the Snowmen — Portal in Divinity's Reach, only available during Wintersday.
  • Old Lion's Court — The scrying stone in Lion's Arch and Arborstone.
• Heart of Thorns — Respective portals in Verdant Brink (wing 1, 2, 3) and Bloodstone Fen (wing 4).
• Path of Fire — Respective portals in Lornar's Pass (wing 5) and Domain of Vabbi (wing 7).
  • Icebrood Saga (requires Path of Fire) — The Ancient Gate in the Eye of the North, or their respective portals in Grothmar Valley and Bjora Marches.
• End of Dragons — The scrying stone in Arborstone, or their respective scrying stone in the open world.
• Secrets of the Obscure — The Strike Missions portal in The Wizard's Tower.
• Janthir Wilds — The portal in Janthir Syntri.
• Visions of Eternity — Their respective portals in the open world.

Difficulty tiers

Challenge mode activates a more difficult version of the encounter

“

Base Difficulty

Some raids have challenge and legendary modes that will increase difficulty.

— Raid selection

• Quickplay mode: Accessed through the Looking for Group → Raids → Raids (Training) and automatically pairs players to play a random raid encounter from a curated list. Player power is also increased.
• Normal mode: Standard difficulty.
  • Emboldened mode: An opt-out effect that increases player durability and power per failed attempt. Active in a different raid wing each week.
• Challenge mode (CM): Additional mechanics.
• Legendary mode (LM): Additional mechanics, additional boss health.

List of raid encounters

• Emboldened is active / Call of the Mists is active for the marked raid of the week.

Name	Boss/Event	Mastery Requirements	Notes
Core Game
Requires Wintersday  Secret Lair of the Snowmen	Freezie		Release date: December 11, 2018 (original release) December 17, 2019 (first labeled as a strike mission)
Old Lion's Court	Watchknight Triumvirate Prototype Vermilion Prototype Arsenite Prototype Indigo		Achievements:  End of Dragons Release date: November 8, 2022 November 29, 2022 (challenge mode release)
Heart of Thorns
1: Spirit Vale	Vale Guardian Spirit Woods Gorseval the Multifarious Sabetha the Saboteur	Glider Basics (required) Updraft Use (required)	Achievements:  Spirit Vale  Envoy Armor I: Experimental Armor Release date: November 17, 2015
2: Salvation Pass	Slothasor Prison Camp Matthias Gabrel	Updraft Use (required) Bouncing Mushrooms (required) Forsaken Thicket Waters	Achievements:  Salvation Pass  Envoy Armor I: Experimental Armor Release date: March 8, 2016
3: Stronghold of the Faithful	Siege the Stronghold Keep Construct Twisted Castle Xera	Ley Line Gliding (required) Bouncing Mushrooms (required) Forsaken Thicket Waters Forsaken Magic	Achievements:  Stronghold of the Faithful  Envoy Armor I: Experimental Armor Release date: June 14, 2016
4: Bastion of the Penitent	Cairn the Indomitable Mursaat Overseer Samarog Deimos	Glider Basics (required)	Achievements:  Bastion of the Penitent  Envoy Armor II: Refined Armor Release date: February 8, 2017
Path of Fire
5: Hall of Chains	Soulless Horror River of Souls Statues of Grenth Dhuum	Raptor (with Canyon Jumping) Springer (with High Vault)	Achievements:  Hall of Chains  Coalescence I: Unbridled Release date: November 28, 2017
6: Mythwright Gambit	Conjured Amalgamate Twin Largos Qadim	Jackal (with Shifting Sands) Glider Basics	Achievements:  Mythwright Gambit  Coalescence II: The Gift  Ultra Shiny Release date: September 18, 2018
7: The Key of Ahdashim	Gates of Ahdashim Cardinal Sabir Cardinal Adina Qadim the Peerless	Glider Basics Updraft Use (recommended)	Achievements:  The Key of Ahdashim  Coalescence III: Culmination Release date: June 11, 2019
The Icebrood Saga (Requires Path of Fire)
Shiverpeaks Pass	Legendary Icebrood Construct	Glider Basics	Achievements:  Prologue: Bound by Blood Release date: September 17, 2019
Voice of the Fallen and Claw of the Fallen	The Voice and the Claw Voice of the Fallen Claw of the Fallen	Essence of Vigilance Tier 2	Achievements:  Whisper in the Dark  Shadow in the Ice Release date: November 19, 2019
Fraenir of Jormag	Fraenir of Jormag Icebrood Construct	Essence of Valor Tier 2	Achievements:  Whisper in the Dark  Shadow in the Ice Release date: November 19, 2019 November 26, 2019 (first time active in rotation)
Boneskinner	Boneskinner	Essence of Resilience Tier 2	Achievements:  Whisper in the Dark  Shadow in the Ice Release date: November 19, 2019 December 3, 2019 (first time active in rotation)
Whisper of Jormag	Whisper of Jormag		Achievements:  Shadow in the Ice Release date: January 28, 2020
Forging Steel	Ancient Forgeman		Achievements:  Visions of the Past: Steel and Fire Release date: March 17, 2020
Cold War	Minister of Morale		Achievements:  Morale Breaker Release date: May 26, 2020
End of Dragons
Aetherblade Hideout	Mai Trin Echo of Scarlet Briar		Achievements:  End of Dragons Release date: February 28, 2022 April 19, 2022 (challenge mode release)
Xunlai Jade Junkyard	Ankka		Achievements:  End of Dragons Release date: February 28, 2022 May 10, 2022 (challenge mode release)
Kaineng Overlook	Minister Li The Enforcer The Ritualist The Mindblade The Mech Rider The Sniper		Achievements:  End of Dragons Release date: February 28, 2022 May 24, 2022 (challenge mode release)
Harvest Temple	The Dragonvoid		Achievements:  End of Dragons Release date: February 28, 2022 June 28, 2022 (challenge mode release)
Secrets of the Obscure
Cosmic Observatory	Dagda		Achievements:  Secrets of the Obscure Release date: August 22, 2023 November 7, 2023 (challenge mode release)
Temple of Febe	Cerus	Glider Basics	Achievements:  Secrets of the Obscure Release date: August 22, 2023 February 27, 2024 (challenge mode release)
Janthir Wilds
8: Mount Balrior	Greer, the Blightbringer Decima, the Stormsinger Ura, the Steamshrieker	Warclaw (recommended for better experiences)	Achievements:  Mount Balrior Release date: November 19, 2024 March 11, 2025 (challenge mode release) March 25, 2025 (Ura's legendary mode release)
Visions of Eternity
Guardian's Glade	Kela, Seneschal of Waves		Achievements:  Guardian's Glade Release date: February 3, 2026 February 24, 2026 (challenge mode release)
TBA	TBA		Release date: Quarterly Update 3

Quickplay mode

“

Entering quickplay will match your team with other players automatically for a quickplay raid. All quickplay raids are available regardless of expansion ownership.

— In-game description

Quickplay mode is accessed through the Looking for Group → Raids → Raids (Training) and automatically pairs players to play a random encounter. The quickplay LFG tool can be used whether a player is solo, in a partial group seeking additional allies, or already partied with friends and looking for adventure. Players are affected by  Quickplay Morale boosting their combat stats. Quickplay raids are selected from a curated list:

• Aetherblade Hideout
• Whisper of Jormag
• Boneskinner
• Cosmic Observatory
• Temple of Febe
• Xunlai Jade Junkyard
• Old Lion's Court
• Kaineng Overlook

Non-quickplay achievements cannot be completed from quickplay raid encounters, examples include:

• Bosses don't count towards the Daily Raid Bounties achievements.
• Bosses don't count towards the Weekly Raid Encounters achievement.
• Completion doesn't count toward Vigil Emissary Chest.
• Kaineng Overlook: Thruster Control Unit does not drop for the Siege Turtle collection Turtle Unlock: Suiting Up.

Daily Raid Bounties

Primary article: Daily Raid Bounties

Daily Raid Bounties is a category of daily achievements for completing specific daily raid and raid encounter bosses. The progress in these achievements resets each day with the server reset. Completing a daily raid bounty will reward players with a boss coffer.

Boss 1
1	Raid Bounty: Shiverpeaks Pass
2	Raid Bounty: Voice and Claw of the Fallen
3	Raid Bounty: Fraenir of Jormag
4	Raid Bounty: Gorseval
5	Raid Bounty: Cairn
6	Raid Bounty: Mursaat Overseer

Boss 2
1	Raid Bounty: Aetherblade Hideout
2	Raid Bounty: Cardinal Sabir
3	Raid Bounty: Whisper of Jormag
4	Raid Bounty: Vale Guardian
5	Raid Bounty: Cosmic Observatory
6	Raid Bounty: Cold War
7	Raid Bounty: Boneskinner
8	Raid Bounty: Sabetha
9	Raid Bounty: Xunlai Jade Junkyard
10	Raid Bounty: Temple of Febe
11	Raid Bounty: Keep Construct
12	Raid Bounty: Kela

Boss 3
1	Raid Bounty: Slothasor
2	Raid Bounty: Matthias
3	Raid Bounty: Xera
4	Raid Bounty: Samarog
5	Raid Bounty: Conjured Amalgamate
6	Raid Bounty: Twin Largos
7	Raid Bounty: Decima
8	Raid Bounty: Cardinal Adina
9	Raid Bounty: Old Lion's Court
10	Raid Bounty: Ura
11	Raid Bounty: Kaineng Overlook
12	Raid Bounty: Deimos

Boss 4
1	Raid Bounty: Qadim
2	Raid Bounty: Qadim the Peerless
3	Raid Bounty: Soulless Horror
4	Raid Bounty: Harvest Temple
5	Raid Bounty: Dhuum
6	Raid Bounty: Greer

Click here to purge the server cache, this forces the server to update the contents.

Effects of the week

Each week, two raid wings are assigned special effects. These rotate among the raid wings in order every week at Monday 08:30, effectively changing one hour after the raid rewards reset.

Emboldened mode

Primary article: Emboldened

Icon displayed above raid wing portals denoting that the Emboldened effect is active in that wing.

“

Emboldened is active. Reduced difficulty with stacking effect on loss. Players can vote to disable by interacting with the Emboldened mote.

— Raid selection

 Emboldened is an effect that becomes active in a new raid wing each week, effectively reducing the difficulty of each encounter by negating the heavy reliance on damage and healing. This gives players the chance to familiarise themselves with each boss's mechanics. This effect is automatically applied but can be deactivated by interacting with the Emboldened Mote near the entrance of each wing. Rewards are unaffected by Emboldened mode.

Upon entering a raid wing, players gain their first stack of Emboldened, which grants additional health, damage output, and improved healing to aid in their battle against each encounter. Each failed boss encounter attempt adds a stack of Emboldened (max 5), providing up to 100% additional health, 50% increased damage, and 50% increased healing output. This resets to 1 stack upon successfully completing the boss encounter.

Raid	Next up
Spirit Vale	July 6, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Salvation Pass	July 13, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Stronghold of the Faithful	July 20, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Bastion of the Penitent	Active
Hall of Chains	June 8, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Mythwright Gambit	June 15, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
The Key of Ahdashim	June 22, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Mount Balrior	June 29, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00

The effect rotates among the raids every week on Monday 08:30, effectively changing one hour after raid rewards reset.
Click here to purge the server cache, this forces the server to update the contents.

Call of the Mists

Primary article: Call of the Mists (raid effect)

Icon displayed above raid wing portals denoting that the Call of the Mists effect is active in that wing.

“

Call of the Mists is active. Doubles the amount of gold and experience gained from this raid.

— Raid selection

 Call of the Mists is an effect that doubles the amount of gold and experience gained from raid boss kills, rotating every week between each raid wing in order of release date.

Raid	Next up
Spirit Vale	June 29, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Salvation Pass	July 6, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Stronghold of the Faithful	July 13, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Bastion of the Penitent	July 20, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Hall of Chains	Active
Mythwright Gambit	June 8, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
The Key of Ahdashim	June 15, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00
Mount Balrior	June 22, 2026 08:30 UTC+00:00

The effect rotates among the raids every week on Monday 08:30, effectively changing one hour after raid rewards reset.
Click here to purge the server cache, this forces the server to update the contents.

Rewards

Currencies

• Magnetite Shards are rewarded on every completion, amount depends on encounter difficulty and length.
  • A couple may also be awarded upon failure, depending on progress.
  • No Reward — If the currency cap (800) has been reached that week, killing a boss will award this instead of a currency.
  • Gaeting Crystals are instead awarded from the most recent expansion's encounters.

Quickplay mode

Once per week per encounter:

• 5,000 
• 48,006−66,675 

Anomaly:

Accounts lacking the normally required expansion for the content may earn no experience.

Normal mode

Once per week per encounter:

• 2  (doubled with  Call of the Mists active)
• 10,000 
• 200,025 
• Compendium of Knowledge (with  Call of the Mists active)
• One random FExotic weapon or armor piece
• Coffer containing:
  • Legendary Insight for crafting PvE legendary armor and Coalescence.
  • Piece of Rare Unidentified Gear
  • Decoration tokens (commonly used as kill proof)
• Chance for rewards unique to each encounter:
  • Ascended equipment, Raid weapons with unique skins
  • Miniatures

Anomalies:

• Raid encounters (previously called Strike Missions) reward other amounts of experience.
• Icebrood Saga raid encounters reward other drops of equipment instead of an FExotic.
• Voice of the Fallen and Claw of the Fallen rewards 1 .
• Kaineng Overlook, Harvest Temple, and Temple of Febe rewards 4 .

Challenge mode

In addition to normal mode rewards, once per boss per week:

• 2 
• Magnetite Shard (10)
• 133,350 
• One random FExotic weapon or armor piece
• Raid encounters introduced in End of Dragons also reward an Antique Summoning Stone
• End of Dragons and later encounters also reward their respective Magnificent Coffer

Common Terms and Abbreviations

• Encounter — Refers to one boss or event.
  • "Raid Encounter" — The single-encounter instances previously called Strike Missions were renamed when unified with raids, but in some aspects of the game such as Wizard's Vault weekly objectives, specifying "Raid Encounter" still differentiates these from "Raid".
  • "IBS3", "IBS5", "EoD4" — Groups of raid encounters commonly done together. See IBS5.
• Wing — Used to connect the multiple bosses and events of a specific instance.
  • While technically only the Forsaken Thicket was split into 3 wings, the term is unanimously used for other raids.
    • It was eventually collectively used to describe all raids that existed prior to the unification of Raids and Strike Missions.
  • "w1", "w2", etc. — Wings are commonly shortened to w# with # being the number of the raid in release order, as shown in the list above.
  • "fc" — "Full Clear", meaning clearing every boss starting from first boss/event in that particular wing.

LFG requirements

In addition to the specific raid, groups in the LFG tool often advertise in shorthand the requirements of the players they seek. Common codes include:

• "kp" — Players with "kill proof", items that can only be looted by someone who has defeated the boss, to prove they've already beaten it. This can include decoration tokens received from its coffer, specific titles, or any of the gear (such as raid weapons) that can only be acquired by defeating the boss.
• "xx li" — Players with at least that many Legendary Insights, to indicate raiding experience. The currency itself requires external tools to prove, but crafted items such as Perfected Envoy armor can be linked in chat.
• aheal , qdps, etc. — Which general roles are needed. See abbreviations for more terms.
  • tank, tower, pylon, etc. — Roles requiring specialized builds for certain encounters.

Other

• "/gg", "/qq", "/ff" — Aliases for "/resign", chat commands used to concede defeat faster to reset the encounter.
• 2 up 3 down, 2 circle 3 arrow, etc. — Assignments for which squad subgroup goes where during the encounter.
• 1-3, 4, and other numbers — (Order of) players doing mechanics, such as Sabetha cannons or Slothasor mushrooms.

Related achievements

• Community: Carry the Creator — Complete a raid boss with an ArenaNet employee. (0)
• Weekly Raids: Top-Tiered Terror Toppler — Complete five unique challenge mode raid encounters. (0)

Notes

• Race specific damage bonuses on slaying sigils, e.g. the 7% bonus on Superior Sigil of Demon Slaying, do not apply to raid bosses. Slaying potions, e.g. Powerful Potion of Demon Slaying, get removed upon entering the raid and cannot be applied once inside.
• Many raid bosses have different lore and mechanical races, e.g. Vale Guardian is mechanically considered a plant.
• At this time players cannot use transformation tonics or potions whilst in raids.
• If the instance is held open after completion, it is possible invite other players to let them complete various achievements such as Loot Finder, Piecing It Together or My Hero!.
  • It is no longer possible to re-open a cleared instance after it has been left.
  • Many Hidden Chests can also be reached by opening an instance with the final boss of the wing chosen in the Raid Select UI.

Version history

Patch	Changes
February 05, 2026	Fixed an issue that incorrectly prevented players from entering quickplay raid encounters if they did not own the corresponding expansion. Fixed an issue that could cause challenge motes to become available in quickplay raid encounters after all players were defeated. Quickplay raid encounter squads will no longer automatically search for additional players while the party is in combat inside the encounter. This will mitigate cases that prevented players who were defeated when joining an in-progress quickplay raid encounter from having an opportunity to be revived. Fixed an issue that caused some quickplay raid encounter achievements and Wizard's Vault special objectives from properly progressing.
February 04, 2026	Fixed incorrect pricing on the Raid Expert's Portable Magnetite Shard Exchange. Updated the Mount Balrior vendor to use Magnetite Shards instead of Gaeting Crystals. Updated the Mount Balrior Raid Mentor achievements for any player who had partial progress to match the new progress requirements. Fixed an issue that prevented the Large Chest of Vigilance in the Whisper of Jormag raid encounter from being opened.
February 03, 2026	A new raid encounter has been added, allowing squads of players to challenge Kela, Seneschal of Waves. This encounter can be accessed from the Lion's Arch Aerodrome. Strike Missions have been renamed and are now raid encounters. Raid encounter rewards are now on weekly cadence to match raid wing rewards. The Daily Strike Mission achievement category has been replaced with a daily raid boss bounty, which includes raid bosses from both encounters and wings. Raid encounter rewards have been updated to better reflect raid wing rewards. Prophet Shards will be converted to Magnetite Shards when first logging in after the new update, and all sources of Prophet Shards will now award Magnetite Shards. Raid boss Magnetite Shard values have been standardized to award one of five values depending on the commitment (difficulty and length of the encounter) across all raid bosses. Challenge modes will continue to reward 10 Magnetite Shards for all encounters. The weekly Magnetite Shard cap has been raised to 800. A new Weekly Raids achievement category is available in the Raids section for all of the eight raid wings as well as for all raid encounters and quickplay raids. New first-time completion achievements have been added for each raid wing, including a unique title for each wing. Raid Mentor achievements have been added for wings 1 through 7. Incrementing mentor achievements can now be completed by either raiding with players who have never defeated the boss or who have not cleared it that week for a smaller amount. Undefeated raid achievements have been added for wings 2 through 7. New No Downed State achievements have been added for each raid wing. A new Raid General category is available in the Raid section to help track new raid achievements that are not unique to any single raid wing or encounter. A Raid Mentor meta-achievement has been added to this category. A No Downed State meta-achievement has been added to this category. A new Raid God achievement has been added to this category. A new achievement for earning relics through quickplay raids has been added to this category. Several new unique raid rewards have been added that can only be obtained as extremely rare drops from their challenge mode encounters: Kenut and Nikare combat tonics Demonic Infusion Dhuumscale skyscale skin A new merchant has been added to the Lion's Arch Aerodrome that will offer one-time and weekly purchases for raid currencies. (Undocumented) Story progress is no longer required to self-open the End of Dragons and Secrets of the Obscure raid encounters (previously account-locked) and Forging Steel raid encounter (previously character-locked).
February 14, 2023	Fixed an issue that prevented encounters from resetting and raid enrage timers from appearing.
October 04, 2022	Fixed an issue that caused Emboldened mode to reactivate after defeating challenge mode bosses, preventing some players from receiving the correct rewards for the encounter.
July 20, 2022	Fixed a bug that prevented players from receiving credit for defeating challenge mode raid bosses if the Emboldened effect was removed by activating challenge mode.
July 19, 2022	Completing any raid encounter with challenge mode active now awards a bonus event chest containing 2 , 10 Magnetite Shards, 2 Provisioner Tokens, bonus experience, and a random Fexotic item. This reward can be obtained once per week per encounter. The weekly achievement for completing 5 unique challenge mode raid encounters, Top-Tiered Terror Toppler, has been removed. Players will need to manually disable Emboldened from the new Emboldened mote or they will not receive Challenge Mode rewards. We are working on a fix for this and will update as soon as the fix is live. Gaeting Crystals have been retired and players will automatically have any Gaeting Crystals in their possession exchanged for an equal amount of Magnetite Shards. The weekly Magnetite Shard currency cap has been doubled. Raids and achievement rewards that previously awarded Gaeting Crystals now award Magnetite Shards. Merchants who previously traded items for Gaeting Crystals now accept Magnetite Shards in their place. The Portable Gaeting Crystal Exchange item has been renamed Qadim's Portable Magnetite Shard Exchange. Legendary Divinations have been retired and replaced by Legendary Insights. You can consume your existing Legendary Divinations from your inventory to exchange them for Legendary Insights. Legendary Insights will now be added directly to your wallet. You can add your existing Legendary Insights to your wallet by consuming them from your inventory. Scholar Glenna now sells Gifts of Prowess and Gifts of Compassion, which you can purchase for the same number of wallet-based Legendary Insights used in their Mystic Forge recipes.
June 28, 2022	Emboldened Mode Each week, one of the seven existing raid wings will be set to Emboldened mode. Upon entry, raid members will gain their first stack of Emboldened, which grants additional health, damage output, and improved healing to aid in their battle against each encounter. Each time the raid group fails a boss encounter, they’ll receive another stack of  Emboldened, granting players up to 100% additional health, 50% increased damage, and 50% increased healing output. Upon successfully completing the boss encounter, the stacks of Emboldened will reset. Players may vote to disable Emboldened by interacting with the Emboldened mote inside each raid. Activating challenge mode will disable the Emboldened effect. General Call of the Mists is no longer permanently active in the Key of Ahdashim raid. Call of the Mists now rotates on a weekly cadence. The Raid categories in the Looking for Group tab have been updated: Raids (Training): This group is for players looking to learn or teach raid encounters. Raids (Experienced): This group is for players looking for other experienced individuals to clear and tackle more challenging encounters. Both categories now only accept listings from players in a squad.
March 29, 2022	The catalyst's jade sphere energy is now set to maximum when engaging a raid or strike boss.
March 15, 2022	Glenna's Mystic Clover weekly trade has now also been added to the Exchanges tab on the Basic Magnetite Exchange Operative in the Lion's Arch Aerodrome.
February 28, 2022	End of Dragons release: Magnetite Shards may now be spent to purchase up to 10 Mystic Clovers per week, at a cost of 30 Magnetite Shards, 2 Mystic Coins, 2 Glob of Ectoplasm, and 2 Spirit Shards each.
October 05, 2021	As of September 21, the effect reset that occurs when players begin a raid or strike removes the same effects as the reset that occurs when players change traits or templates. When engaging a raid or strike boss, the druid's Celestial Energy resource is automatically set to 100%.
September 15, 2020	A new achievement category,  Weekly Raids, has been added to the Raids achievement category. A weekly raid challenge mode achievement, Top-Tiered Terror Toppler, has been added. Players must complete five challenge-mote based raid encounters on the achievement's objective list.
March 31, 2020	Fixed a bug that caused several gathering tools to fail to gather materials in raids or Strike Missions.
August 28, 2019	Ascended feasts can now be used in raids.
June 11, 2019	The Mute Player Alerts sound option will now mute the alert chime accompanying some targeted skills (mostly found in raids and story instances) and the alert chime that accompanies the application of many special action skills. (Undocumented) Raid bosses now award 10,000 each when killed for the first time that week. (Undocumented) Raid boss rewards have been moved to bonus chests and no longer require players to represent a guild to get decorations.
May 14, 2019	Fixed a bug that allowed continued access to the Glyph of Empowerment effect.
September 18, 2018	Path of Fire™ raids have a new currency: Legendary Divinations. Path of Fire raids will use Legendary Divinations for its components instead of Legendary Insights. Players who have participated in completing at least one Path of Fire raid encounter prior to this patch will be able to trade in a limited number of Legendary Insights for Legendary Divinations. All toy chairs can now be used in raid locations where mounts can also be used.
March 28, 2018	Raids: Mesmer and necromancer portals will now correctly detonate when an encounter begins.
March 06, 2018	Updated the Call of the Mists marker in the Lion's Arch Aerodrome.
February 06, 2018	New stolen skills for thieves have been added to all encounters:   Unstable Artifact: Shadowstep to an area and deliver a large immobilizing strike. If a downed ally is in your targeted area, you will instead shadowstep that ally to your location and partially revive them.   Detonate Plasma: Activate this skill to apply many boons to nearby allies.   Soul Stone Venom: Use a corrupted soul stone to immediately remove all conditions from nearby allies, converting each unique condition removed into an instance of Soul Stone Venom on that ally. When attacking while this venom is active, an additional strike that's sourced from the applying thief will be applied to all of your successful hits.   Magnetic Bomb: Throw a magnetic bomb that continuously damages and pulls enemies to a point.
January 09, 2018	Call of the Mists will now persist indefinitely in the most recent raid release. Additionally, Call of the Mists will now rotate every two weeks between all the previous raids.
December 15, 2017	Fixed a bug that prevented players from reviving in raids and fractals.
November 28, 2017	The Raid Mastery track, if locked, will now be hidden. This has been done to allow players who do not participate in raids to gain experience toward Spirit Shards. Completing any encounter inside of a Heart of Thorns™ raid will unlock and make visible the Raid Mastery track. Various bosses now apply  Revealed directly to fixated targets and high-toughness targets through attacks. Boons, barriers, and mounts are now removed more expediently when an event starts. Event failure now refills astral force for   Celestial Avatar and life force for   Death Shroud. The Rift Traveler Mastery has been renamed Rift Forger. Travel via Ley Rifts is now available to all players, and the Rift Forger Mastery will allow players to repair their armor. All bosses are no longer immune to weakness. Boss encounters had incongruent toughness values across the board. With a few exceptions, all encounters have had their toughness normalized. Vale Guardian, Keep Construct, and McLeod the Silent remain unchanged.
July 25, 2017	Added a new achievement for acquiring legendary armor pieces.
June 22, 2017	Fixed an issue that prevented players from receiving loot from raid encounters.
March 28, 2017	(Undocumented) Raid boss tokens (e.g. Vale Guardian Fragment) can now be consumed to automatically add to your guild.
February 22, 2017	Added confirmation windows to the Exchanges tab on all raid vendors. Fixed a bug that prevented Magnetite Shards from being awarded when salvaging some infused and attuned raid reward rings.
August 09, 2016	Fixed a bug in which hostile creatures could become invulnerable during raids.
July 26, 2016	Added a new chat command to assist squads in conceding defeat faster. The command instantly applies your currently equipped finisher to yourself. It can only be used in raids. English: /surrender /concede /forfeit /resign Spanish: /rendirse /renunciar /capitular German: /kapitulieren /resignieren /ergeben /aufgeben French: /capituler /abandonner /renoncer /concéder Added a new "Mute Dynamic Combat Music" option to the Sound Options tab. When enabled, this option will suppress the nonscripted combat music system that plays when players are in combat and below a certain health threshold. Combat music that is specifically tied to content such as quests, dungeons, raids, events, and fractals will not be affected by this option.
April 26, 2016	Fixed a bug that prevented party-member and squad-member health bars from displaying in PvP, WvW, and raids.
April 19, 2016	Added Lion's Arch Aerodrome and Special Forces Training Area as a raid lobby and training instance, respectively. Fixed a bug that caused map streaming UI to incorrectly appear when players attempted to enter a raid instance while in the defeated state.
February 23, 2016	The Captain's Airship Pass and Royal Terrace Pass can now be used from the PvP lobby, WvW, dungeons, and raids. Using these passes will cause you to lose your progress in those instances.
January 26, 2016	Update 3: When each player in a raid enters combat, their boon prioritization will be locked in based on the composition of the subgroup they are currently in. That prioritization will not change until the player has left combat, even if their subgroup composition changes while they are in combat.
December 15, 2015	It's no longer necessary to leave a raid to activate Experience Boosts, Item Boosts, or Heroic Boosts.

External links

• Raids in Guild Wars 2
• Designing Challenging Content
• Raid Rewards in Guild Wars 2
• Community-ran Raid Training Guilds

References

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Instanced PvE content

Party (5 players)

Story • Dungeons • Fractals of the Mists • Dragon Response Missions

Squad

Raids (10 players) • Public instances (50-80 players)

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Raids