Guild Wars 2: Festival of the Four Winds event guide

Festival of the Four Winds has finally returned to Tyria, replete with new goodies. Previously introduced as a one-time event to celebrate Guild Wars 2's release in China and to bridge the gap between Living World Seasons 1 and 2, it has taken a life of its own, returning as an annual event since 2018.

This celebration primarily takes place in a completely new zone: the Labyrinthine Cliffs, where players can engage activities like races, fishing, treasure hunting, and occasionally staving off a giant flaming effigy. The other part of the festivities takes place in a separate location of Divinity's Reach, where players can find more combat-oriented activities, such as Boss Blitz and Queen's Gauntlet.

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Everything you can do and obtain in Guild Wars 2: Festival of the Four Winds 2025

As mentioned, a multitude of activities across two zones comprise the gameplay-oriented aspect of the Festival of the Four Winds. Unlike other Guild Wars 2 festivals, this one has two large-scale activities for players to indulge in, three if you count the optional and voluntary Gauntlet. Let's look at the event structure in a zone-wise fashion.

Crown Pavilion

Six zones to rule it all (Image via ArenaNet)

The Crown Pavilion is the hub of almost every combat-related activity, with only one non-combat event and adventure. The pinnacle meta activity is called Boss Blitz, which is a six-way boss battle with a small caveat where each defeated boss grants their abilities to the remaining ones who are still alive. The last boss turns into a deadly combatant who throws you around. Each arena has an environmental hazard like lava or invulnerable Centaur herds that trample players.

The Boss Blitz has specific activation states where event progression is granted by killing enemies in the arenas, completing a lap in the Pavilion Pursuit event, and donating Gold. Donation is the quickest method, where players pay 20 Gold to start the event. The rewards are a handful of Queen Gauntlet Entrance Tickets, Festival Tokens, and a chest that contains various rewards based on the overall time taken to kill all bosses.

Other activities in the Crown Pavilion are the Pavilion Pursuit race and adventure, which is just your bog-standard lap around the entire map, while ignoring all the enemies and environmental hazards. Finally, we get to Queen's Gauntlet, which is an optional activity where you set up specific boss fights. You can adjust fight difficulty and zone-oriented modifiers to acquire special achievements.

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Labyrinthine Cliffs

Truly one of the most vibrant areas in the game, shame it's only seasonal (Image via ArenaNet)

The second area that opens up during the Festival of the Four Winds is the Labyrinthine Cliffs. As the name suggests, the area consists of sheer cliffs, plunging waterfalls, and a small archipelago with a ship docked in the harbour that serves as a one-stop shop for all players. There are multiple ways to traverse the zone: mounts, Zephyrite Crystals, gliders, or simply walking and taking in the views.

This area's events are oriented toward exploration and have a calmer experience compared to those of Crown Pavilion. There are multiple mount races to take part in, and if you don't have the mounts, you can rent one to complete your daily objectives. There's also the fishing activity, added after the launch of the End of Dragons expansion.

The main activity for Labyrinthine Cliffs that players should target is the treasure collection event that takes place every two hours. There are three stages of this event, which progress once players collect a certain amount of Treasure collectively. Once players complete the third tier, a bonus event spawns where they must douse a flame effigy with water balloons at the top of Labyrinthine Cliffs.

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Rewards

A new festive season equals new goodies to snag (Image via ArenaNet)

There are plenty of rewards to reap in the Festival of the Four Winds, given the event still contains rewards from years ago, which have accrued some value thanks to their rarity. This event is also one of the largest sources of Quartz Crystals, which are used in various crafting recipes, including Legendary items. Festival of the Four Winds is also a source of many Zephyrite-themed elemental skins.

For the 2025 edition of Festival of the Four Winds, players will be able to snag the following:

• Cloud Cuirass body armour
• Leviathan Bone weapon set
• Seashell Shield
• Seashell Focus
• Seashell Staff
• Mini Garenhoff Coon Cat (pet)
• Homestead Decorations: Lightning, Sun, and Wind Aspect Crystals, the Zephyrite Display Stand, and the Siege Turtle Rental Post

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That's a brief but comprehensive rundown of everything that arrived with Festival of the Four Winds in 2025. The event is currently live and will continue for three weeks. It will end on August 26. Keep in mind that the upcoming Visions of Eternity expansion is also on the horizon, with an Elite Specialization beta event scheduled to start on August 20.

Edited by Angad Sharma