Eye of the North minigames - Dwarven boxing

Eye of the North introduces several new minigames. In a series of blog posts, we'll have a look at them, starting with Dwarven Boxing.

To start on your boxing career, you need to talk to Kilroy Stonekin in Gunnar's Hold. He will initially give you a set of Brass Knuckles to equip, and you can then enter a boxing arena and compete against NPCs opponents from around Tyria.

As well as the Brass Knuckles you'll find your skills have been replaced with Boxing skills. As your adrenaline increases, you'll find extra skills becoming available.

Kilroy will give you a series of quests as well as random opponents. Towards the end of the quests you will be given Thunderfist's Brass Knuckles, a rare pair of inscribable daggers.

Some quick boxing strategies for you to try:

• Brawling Block is a very useful skill, don't waste this on a regular attack. This skill can be useful in blocking more harmful attacks, such as Dismember and Cleave.
  
• When using Brawling Straight Right, avoid using it as a damage dealer. This skill is very useful in interrupting self heals, such as Healing Signet and Lion's Comfort.
  
• Brawling Combo Punch should be used right before you are about to get knocked out. This is useful, because as soon as you get back up, Brawling Combo Punch is recharged.
  

We'll cover some of the other Eye of the North mini-games in other blog postings.

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Great Eye of the North video

This great Eye of the North video from Nekkara is really well done - the music meshes well with the scenery walkthroughs and battles:



Hopefully this gives you a good idea of the gorgeous explorable environments in Eye of the North.

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Eye of the North introduces the Norn

The second new race to be introduced in Eye of the North is the Norn. As the Norn mission track was the only one you could play during the Sneak Peek weekend, we'll look at them first.

When exploring Far Shiverpeaks you'll find NPCs that give bonuses next to a resurrection shrine. Initially, you have no reputation with the Norn, and they are suspicious and distrustful. When you meet a new Norn, you won't be able to talk to them until you've defeated them in combat.

The Norn have a special skill that gives them the ability to transform into giant bears, yet still keep their weapons and casting abilities. The transformation skill takes a few seconds to cast which gives you a good opportunity to get a few quick hits off.

Once you defeat your Norn opponent you'll gain some Norn Reputation - if you check in your Hero window you'll see the new Norn Title Track.

Once you've beaten the first Norn in an explorable area you'll be given the Norn Hunting Party bonus. For each creature you kill in that area, you gain one Norn reputation point.

For each 25 creatures you kill, you recieve an extra 15 Norn reputation points as a bonus. If you go back to each Norn you've met in the explorable area who hasn't given you a bonus, they will now give you a random number of Norn points - usually 15 or 20.

For each multiple of 25 creatures you kill, any Norn who haven't given you a bonus become more likely to not just give Reputation Points, but also a skill bonus.

The main one is Strength of the Norn, which is an enchantment spell lasting for 60 seconds. When active you recieve +100 health, and after the 60 seconds are up, you're healed for 100 health.

You may also be given extra levels of the Norn Hunting Party blessing, which add an extra amount of points per kill. For example, Norn Hunting Party Level 3 adds an extra 3 Reputation Points per kill.

With diligent exploring and careful planning these bonuses can quickly stack up, giving you a rapid and massive increase in your Norn Title Track. On some of the larger explorable areas it is possible to get over 300 creature kills.

As has been seen with previous race-specific titles from Guild Wars: Factions (the Kurzick and Luxon Title Tracks) you can't interact with any racial NPCs until you have gained some reputation and progress on the Title Track.

In Eye of the North you need to achieve at least level 3 to start talking to the Norn NPCs in towns.

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Eye of the North - getting started details

You can purchase the Eye of the North expansion from within your Guild Wars client by clicking on the Guild Wars Store icon - this will take effect immediately, allowing you to instantly explore the new content in Guild Wars: Eye of the North.

Each main town from the three existing Guild Wars chapters will have a new NPC - you'll need to talk to them to receive a mission which takes you to Eye of the North:

Characters from the original Guild Wars Prophecies campaign wishing to travel to the Far Shiverpeaks for the first time should seek out Len Caldoron in Lion’s Arch and accept the “What Lies Beneath” quest.

Characters from Guild Wars: Factions wishing to travel to the Far Shiverpeaks for the first time should seek out Minister of Maintenance Raiugyon in Kaineng Center and accept the “I Feel the Earth Move Under Cantha’s Feet” quest.

Characters from Guild Wars: Nightfall wishing to travel to the Far Shiverpeaks for the first time should seek out Bendah in Kamadan and accept the “Hole of Istan” quest.

Once you have completed these missions you will find yourself in Boreal Station. You will also notice new purple Asura Gates have appeared on the map - these can be used to transport you direct to Boreal Station in the Eye of the North at any time.

Details have been released by ArenaNet for the 4 new Title Tracks - Asura, Deldrimor, Ebon Vanguard, and Norn - detailing what each level will give you access to:

Rank 3: Access to a special item crafter. Each group has a single item crafter who provides unique and powerful items. You must spend a Skill Point to have these items crafted for you.

Rank 4: Access to an exclusive weapon crafter. Each group has a single weapon crafter who provides unique weapons, such as the Raven Scythe and the Charrslayer Axe.

Rank 5: Access to an exclusive armor crafter. Each group has a single armor crafter who provides single unique armor pieces, such as the Dread Mask or the Magma Gauntlets.

All ranks: The 50 PvE-only skills and passive bonuses provided by these groups become more powerful with each title rank.

Hopefully this information should be enough to help you get started on your way in the Eye of the North.

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Eye of the North - travelling to the Far Shiverpeaks

This is a quick walk through showing how to travel the new area in Eye of the North.

We'll be starting from Kamadan (the main city in Elona, from the Guild Wars: Nightfall campaign). You'll need to find and speak to the NPC Bendah. He gives you a new mission - you need to travel to the cliffs behind Kamadan and investigate a strange new fissure that has opened up.

Once you've spoken to Bendah, an earthquake starts to rock the city, and it continues with rats and ooze appearing and running around. Although in missions these would be monsters, inside the city they behave like normal NPCs and can't be attacked.

Leaving the main gates of Kamadan, you need to head to the left and down to the side and rear of the city. After a minute or so you'll come across a glowing hole in the cliff, labelled Fissure.

Clicking on this will bring up the message "Before you is a massive crak in the ground that leads deep into the earth." Click on the 'Explore the fissure' option to enter the mission, Caverns below Kamdan.

The caverns are very similar to the Catacombs in pre-searing Ascalon (from the first Guild Wars: Prophecies chapter). You'll come across several groups of low-level Corsairs and scouts wandering about, with a few camps. After exploring for a while you should find a group of dwarves, who are led by Ogden Stonehealer.

A short cut scene plays, where it transpires the dwarves are trying to escape from something called The Destroyers, along with their Asura friend. You'll now get a new mission goal, which is to escape through a different portal and flee the Destroyers.

This is timed mission, giving you 3 minutes to escape to the other gate. The Destroyers that are chasing you resemble the Elite Covenant from Halo. As enemies they are quite high level and very fast - if you engage in combat you'll quickly get swarmed and die, and need to restart the mission.

Your only option is to quickly run and follow Ogden and Vekk the Asura. After some frantic running - avoiding the many groups of Destroyers who will appear at random - you should make it to the gate, with around 45 seconds to a minute spare.

Having escaped through the portal, there's a short cut scene where Ogden introduces the Nornthe second new race in Eye of the North. The Norn you meet drop some hints about trouble in the northern lands, and you will then find yourself transported to Boreal Station in the Far Shiverpeaks.

You should find that Ogden Stonehealer has been unlocked as a level 20 Monk Hero. If you examine your map you'll see that next to each main city in each chapter (Lion's Gate, Kaineng and Kamadan) is a special purple town, called the Asura Gate. This allows you to transport straight back to Boreal Station.

You're now in the Eye of the North and ready to start fully exploring this new Guild Wars expansion.

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Eye of the North number 1 in European sales charts

Eye of the North, the first expansion in the award winning Guild Wars series, has had a big take up in Europe, soaring to the top of the PC sales charts in Germany, France, Spain and Sweden in its first week of launch on the 31st August.

Geoff Heath, CEO of NCSoft Europe, said “We are absolutely delighted that Eye of the North, the first true expansion pack in the Guild Wars franchise, has hit such a chord with our fans. It once again proves that ArenaNet’s mix of compelling story, innovative content and subscription-free gameplay is a hit with online gamers around the world.”

On top of this Guild Wars: Eye of the North has reached the number two sales position in Germany's all formats sales chart.

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Eye of the North map and manual

Eye of the North is now live, but before the launch date ArenaNet had a preview - the Sneak Peek weekend.

For all those who bought the pre-release bonus pack, and were able to play in the Sneak Peek weekend, or those who have downloaded Eye of the North direct from the online store, ArenaNet have made available both a map and manual for Eye of the North.

The manual is in PDF format and can be downloaded from http://eu.guildwars.com/images/manual/GWEN/manual-en.pdf

The map is pretty interesting, as previous maps had just shown the area north of the Shiverpeaks, whereas with this final map you can see you will be able to travel to the Maguuma Jungles and the Krytan coast again.

The Eye of the North map, which comes as a poster in the boxed game, can be downloaded from http://eu.guildwars.com/images/uploads/gwen-mapposter.jpg

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