Guild Wars 2 Gems - Are They Worth Buying?

Guild Wars 2 Gems – Are They Worth It?

Many MMORPGs, especially the free to play ones, feature some sorts of premium content, available to the players for real money. Sometimes it comes in the form of an optional subscription; in other cases, there's a possibility of exchanging real money for a currency that you can spend in the game store. The economy of premium items is unique in every MMORPG. Almost always, players can buy some cosmetics and quality of life upgrades. Some titles allow you to purchase sheer extra power or at least significantly accelerate your progression.

Gems are the premium currency in Guild Wars 2. They're used to buy multiple cosmetic items, utility-focused consumables and some useful, convenient items that unlock additional functions to your account, without necessarily providing extra power. Some of them are temporary, others are permanent. Of course, there are also multiple packs and bundles – each of them contains a few skins and other stuff.

How Do GW2 Gems Work?

The main source of Guild Wars 2 Gems is the ArenaNet Gem Store that you can find in-game, under the Black Lion Trading Company tab (under the lion icon or the O key). You just have to choose the right amount, pay for the order, and they'll instantly show up on your account. Unfortunately, GW2 Gems are account bound – there's no way of directly transferring them to another player. At the same time, your stock of Gems is accessible to all the characters on your account. You don't have to worry about shopping for the currency specifically on your main.

Moreover, there are some ways of acquiring Gems without having to spend real money. Every time you collect 5,000 Achievement Points, you will receive the prize of 400 Gems. Finally, the Black Lion Trading Company platform has a currency exchange option. You can use it to trade Gems for gold and vice versa. However, the option to exchange the main currency for Gems is not available to free accounts – you need to own at least one of the Guild Wars 2 expansions.

As you probably know – GW2 gold can be traded between accounts freely. It would mean that you can buy Gems on one account, exchange them for gold, send it to another one, and then trade it back for Gems, right? Well, not exactly. In essence, such transfer of Gems with a few extra steps is possible, but you will lose a lot of value along the way. Unsurprisingly, the exchange ratios are not identical, and the game takes a cut from all these transactions.

At the moment we're writing this text, the multi-step transfer of 1000 Gems would look like this: 1000 Gems are exchanged for 234 gold and 60 silver coins. The coins are then moved to another account. After that, you can trade the 234 gold and 60 silver for 699 Gems. That leaves us with 301 Gems wasted. It's slightly over 30% lost value - a really high price to pay, sacrificing so much of the profit is not exactly smart. Beyond that, the Gem-to-gold ratio changes based on the state of Guild Wars 2 economy.

How Can I Buy Guild Wars 2 Gems?

As we mentioned, in order to purchase Gems, you have to enter the Black Lion Trading Company tab. After you press the Buy Gems option, you will get to choose the amount that you want out of five options: 800, 1600, 2800, 4000, and 8000. As it's often the case, the bigger bundles are slightly more beneficial. After that, select the one you want from the available payment methods (credit card, PayPal, or Paysafe) and finalize your order. You can pay in USD, EUR or GBP. You can see your current stock of Gems in the upper left corner of the Gem Store.

GW2 Gems can also be purchased from other stores in the form of Gem Cards. If you received one of those, you can get your premium currency by selecting the Redeem Code option. Just type the Gem Card code in the textbox and enjoy your newly acquired capital!   

No matter which Gem purchase method you eventually chose (or if you got them for gold or achievement points) – you can spend this premium currency on all the great items available in the store. Use it for whatever you please!

What Can I Get for GW2 Gems?

As we mentioned, you can get a lot of useful or beautiful items in the Gem Store. Let's take a closer look at all the possibilities. We're not going to present the full list. Instead, we're going to focus on some of the most valuable and interesting options that can be found within the game. 

Cosmetics

The item skins allow you to change the appearance of your equipment. The skins for whole armor sets unlock the new look for each of the six elements that you can later mix and match with other sets.  For 800 Gems, you can get a skin for a full armor set. There's an Aetherblade Armor skin for every one of the three categories. Furthermore, Scholar professions can get the Incarnate Light Armor, Adventurers have access to the Strider's Medium Armor, and Soldiers can purchase the Rampart Heavy Armor.

There also are multiple skins for a single armor slot. For example, you can get Storm Gloves or Txoc Gloves to change the looks of your gauntlets. You can also wear items like Mask of the Silent or Mask of the Crown in your helmet slot. You have the option of getting a cape or a backpack skin too. Moreover, there are multiple less serious options like reading glasses, sunglasses, wizard hats, bunny ears, and so on. You can also get some skins for your glider, weapons, and mounts.

At some point in time, ArenaNet stopped producing the full armor sets and focused on outfits (also called costumes) instead. There's a single main difference between an armor set skin and an outfit. The players are unable to combine elements of multiple costumes freely. You either wear the whole thing or none of it. Most major game updates add some new outfits to Guild Wars 2. Currently, 25 unique types of that product are available in the store, each one costs 700 Gems. GW2 costumes are beautifully designed, and you might want to take a look at them if you're willing to spend some money on your character's looks.   

Last, but not least, there's also the option to buy miniature pets, travel toys (items that alter your movement animation but don't provide any extra speed or possibilities), musical instruments, and some other reusable toy items (the only reason to buy them is to show them off).

Functional Items

We already covered the cosmetics - now, let's talk about all the useful and convenient items available on any date in the Gem Store. 

You can buy boosters that increase the amount of experience and reward track progress that you receive as well as the chance of looting high-quality items. There's also the possibility of getting Transmutation Charges (to change your item's appearance), Mystic Forge Stones (used in the most valuable crafting recipes), and an Upgrade Extractor that allows for removing upgrades components from items, without destroying either of them. There's also an option to get unlimited, indestructible gathering tools for all types of materials that you can find in Tyria. Besides, you can get Black Lion Chest Keys. 

You can get items that temporarily allow you to access multiple great services from anywhere in the game. Take items out of your bank without having to go there, summon a Black Lion Merchant, instantly repair gear, and more! If you want to alter your character's hair or facial hair, buy a Self-Style Hair Kit. You can change much more with a slightly more expensive Total Makeover Kit that enables you to switch your character's height, weight, skin color, physique, and even gender.

There's a possibility of getting an item that allows you to teleport to a party member (it has a 1-hour cooldown, though). You can also get a World Boss Portal Device that lets you teleport to world bosses. What's more, you may spend your gems on the consumable Revive Orbs that can sometimes save your next raid or a fractal run. Revive your team and continue clearing, instead of giving up.

Gem Store offers a few options to upgrade your account permanently. Additional Crafting License is a consumable that increases the number of crafting disciplines that you can have active on your characters – it applies to every character on the account. The base number is 2, but you can increase it to 4 with two of these licenses. 

There's an option of buying a Bank Tab expansion – you can have up to 17 tabs (including the base one). You can also get more slots to build templates with a Build Storage Expansion. Similarly, a Character Slot Expansion gives you room to create another character on your account. Shared Inventory Slot and Storage Expander work the same way.  You can also upgrade your game expansions to the Digital Deluxe edition to get extra miniatures, skins, et cetera.

There's another similar category of Gem Store items – character upgrades. They only have an effect on the character that uses them. You can get extra bag slots, build and equipment template slots, name change items, and the ability to unlock all waypoints in a single region. Beyond that, there are finishers, mail carriers as well as multiple packs and bundles.

Finally, we have to come back and include the currency exchange tab. Technically, you can buy as many Gems as you want for real money and use this service to trade them for Guild Wars 2 gold. That being said, you can get a lot more bang for your buck if you buy GW2 gold directly on our site! Check the Sellers and Friends Guild Wars 2 tab and get the much better prices as well as fast delivery! Don't overpay and become our customer!

GW2 Gems

Guild Wars 2 Gem system opens up a ton of good possibilities in front of the players. As you can see, using them can provide a lot of value, not only in terms of cosmetics but also in the comfort and convenience of playing the game. The gemstore items can still net you significant help, without providing an unfair advantage. 

Things like Additional Crafting Licenses, expansions of bank and storage, or extra character slots might be really valuable to a lot of the Guild Wars 2 players. Others might be more interested in the beautifully designed skins and outfits. If you see yourself in any of these groups, you might be interested in buying some Gems. That being said, they're in no way necessary to play the game, even on the highest levels. The Gem Store items don't provide any advantages in terms of actual combat abilities of your characters.

GW2 is an incredibly successful MMO, especially in Europe and the United States. After its release date in 2012, it received a number of positive reviews and spawned a large following as well as a great community of players. Currently, the base version of the game is free-to-play - you can simply download it and give it a try. Test it out first, before spending any money. If you're interested in more content associated with the most popular, top MMO games, make sure to check out other articles posted on our blog. Don't forget to come back to our page and search for new content once for a while! 

FAQ

Are GW2 Gemstones and Gems the same thing?

No, Guild Wars 2 gemstones are the materials used by the Jeweler crafting discipline, and Gems are the global premium currency that's available in-game for real money purchases.

Can you change your character name in GW2?

Yes, you can do it with a Name Change Contract that's available in the Gem Store for 800 Gems or with the Identity Repair Kit that costs 1000 Gems. It's important to note that the name change is instant. 

How can I get free Gems in Guild Wars 2?

Guild Wars 2 rewards its playes with 400 Gems, every time they are able to get 5,000 Achievement Points.

Can I trade GW2 Gems through the Trading Post?

Unfortunately, no. Guild Wars 2 doesn't support any option to directly transfer bought Gems from one account to another. These deals are impossible for users. You can find more information about the reasoning on the GW2 official website.

Can I gift GW2 Gems to another player?

You can't send Gems from your account to someone else's, but you can buy and send the official GW2 gift cards, as long as they're available in your country. The receiver will just have to enter the Gem Store and redeem their Gem Codes to get the currency delivered.