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The Shadow of the Mad King is one of Guild Wars 2's tentpole festival events, where players engage in Halloween-themed activities and obtain cool and spooky rewards. Centered around the game's central city of Lion's Arch, Shadow of the Mad King event activities reach far and wide across Tyria, and even into other worlds.
This guide will outline the new events available during Shadow of the Mad King, how to get festive resources, craft thematic gear, and more.
When, where, and how to participate in Shadow of the Mad King
Shadow of the Mad King event begins on October 15, 2024, and will continue until November 5, 2024, so players will have plenty of time to complete all the achievements.
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The event mostly centers around Lion's Arch but sporadic events can be found around Tyria. For the duration of the festivities, Lion's Arch will be decorated with various Halloween-themed items, with disembodied voices and Halloween creatures walking about. The iconic Mystic Forge will be turned into a witch's cauldron, Carving Pumpkins will be scattered around the city and must be carved for daily and weekly rewards.
While Lion's Arch is a hub for event activities, Mad King Thorn appears inside the city for a world event every two hours. This is a funny take on the "Simon Says" children's game, where players follow Mad King's orders. Lion's Arch also hosts portals to other event spaces that host different activities.
One such portal leads to the Mad King's Clock Tower. This is a jumping puzzle, which is one of Guild Wars 2's specialties. Scaling this crumbling clock tower while avoiding the rising maelstrom of souls will grant players Trick-or-Treat Bags and other loot.
Another portal will lead to the Ascent to Madness, an event-exclusive dungeon where five players can fight Mad King Thorn himself.
The Mad King's Raceway is a relatively new addition, where players can race against time as well as other players. Mounts like the Roller Beetle, Jackal, and Springer can be rented to participate, but players can use their other mounts too.
PvP is not excluded, as Reaper's Rumble and Lunatic Inquisition also come online with Shadow of the Mad King. The former is a MOBA-esque mode where you obtain points for kills and beneficial actions, and destroy the other team's mausoleum while protecting yours.
Lunatic Inquisition is essentially a hybrid game of tag and zombie, where one player starts as a Lunatic Courtier and has to find others disguised as villagers within six minutes. World vs World players can also pursue the Halloween Reward Track, although there isn't much to do in the borderlands beyond this.
The flagship event is called the Mad King's Labyrinth. It is a rectangular maze with many hostile creatures, Carving Pumpkins, harvestable Candy Corn nodes, and most importantly, Haunted Doors.
There are two types of doors inside the Labyrinth. The green doors spawn waves of enemies, while the purple ones spawn one of four bosses. This is a persistent space where players spend most of their time, as it is great for farming XP and loot.
The Labyrinth hides one major surprise. Every twenty minutes, a greatsword-wielding giant skeleton spawns from one of the four maze walls. Called the Labyrinthine Horror or the more affectionate name of Steve by the playerbase, this skeleton relentlessly chases players and is one of the event's highlights.
What rewards can you expect from the Shadow of the Mad King event in Guild Wars 2?
The reward structure of the Shadow of the Mad King is broken into items and resources. The main resources of the Halloween event are pieces of Candy Corn, Plastic Fangs, Chattering Skulls, and Nougat Centers. These resources are further used in various Mad King-related items and food crafting.
The other activity reward is the Trick-or-Treat reward bag, which can be opened or sold for gold. Opening these bags will reward players with the aforementioned resources, gag items like Toilet Paper and Rotten Eggs, Essences of Luck, limited-time finishers, and more.
Trick-or-Treat reward bags also have a chance at dropping high-value items such as Ember and Phospholuminescent Infusions, Exotic weapons with unique art and animation like Touch of Madness, or crafting gifts like Gift of Spiders and Gift of Souls which are used to craft rarer Halloween items.
New players can use the Shadow of the Mad King event to boost their gear chase. The Lunatic Wardrobe achievement grants a full suite of stat-selectable and weight-selectable Exotic armor. Afterward, players can buy the rest of the armor recipes from the Lunatic Alchemist and craft high quality at their behest.
What is different about the Shadow of the Mad King event in 2024?
This year's Shadow of the Mad King is the first annual event in Guild Wars 2, after Janthir Wilds's launch. Keeping that in mind, the developer has included many new items and baked-in features with current activities.
The Wizard's Vault will also feature Shadow of the Mad King-themed challenges for Astral Acclaim. Launched with Secrets of the Obscure, Wizard's Vault has been judiciously used to boost the gains from various events. This extra acclaim will help players pick up an extra Ascended Gear box or a few Mystic Clovers.
The weekly Halloween Festivities achievement and the Halloween Rituals meta-achievement will award players the new Candy Core weapon set. Furthermore, the Trick-or-Treat bags will have a chance at dropping three new Sanguine weapons.
Shadow of the Mad King is one of the most enjoyable events in Guild Wars 2, where you don't need to chase down meta events or push through dangerous dungeons for loot. It is meant for players to wind down, have fun, and maybe make some gold on the side. Just don't forget to pay Droobert some pieces of Candy Corn.
