GW2 Crystal Oasis Preview Weekend Guide

A guide to the Crystal Oasis Map during the Preview Weekend running from Aug 11 to 14.

Activities

Raptor Racing

Raptor racing is a semi regular event that occurs just east of the Amnoon waypoint. You register with the NPC that spawns 5 minutes before the race starts and then race through a course with other players. There is an achievement for getting top 3 in the race. You can use the jump ability on your raptor to move faster but make sure to not over jump as you will need the energy to jump over gaps in the course. If you have trouble placing top 3, you can try to find a less populated map as you will be most racing against much slower NPCs than players.

Bounty Board

There are bounty boards inside the city of Amnoon. Each board has certain bounty posted on it unless the target is recently killed (it will just display as Bounty Board or empty if this happens). Interact with the board to acquire a bounty and it will be marked on your map. These bounties require a small group of players to take down (or a larger group for legendary bounties). Legendary bounties are on the board to the left usually.

You don’t need to interact with the bounty board to get credit for the bounty, it just make it easier to locate bounty targets. You can get the full rewards by just killing them.

Casino Blitz

Casino Blitz is a event that starts at the casino and lasts for 20 minutes with several stages. During each stage you will need to collect Casino Coins that are scattered over the marked area (be sure to look on the roof tops as well). Collected Casino Coins can be used to purchase a mini for 50 Casino Coins or consumed for Mastery XP.

Ecto Gambling

If you like to gamble, you can try the ecto gambling at the casino. You can purchase different tiers of boxes that give you some ectos and gold back. Purchasing the most expensive Sandstorm Orb have a chance to give you Superior Rune of Holding that is used to craft bigger bags (bigger than 20 slot).

Refugee Supply Run (Adventure)

Refugee Supply Run is an adventure that time you as you retrieve six supplies from edges of the map. To get gold you will need to complete it in a minimum of 5:30. Bronze and silver are 7:00 and 6:00 respectively. The optimal path I have found is to go from 1-> 6 as marked on the map. Getting gold definitely require you to have a good handling of your raptor mount with very little room for misjumps. Make sure to bring or trait for stunbreakers as you will need it at several places on the map since falling from too high of a distance with your raptor dismounts and stuns you temporarily.

Trade Crates

Trade Crates are caches that are semi hidden throughout the map. They require a Trader’s Key to open. Trader’s Key can be found as rewards from events but more reliably from heart vendors after you have completed a heart. Each heart vendor sell 5x Trader’s Key per day for Karma and Trade Contracts (a currency you get for completing events or from trade crates). Each cache give you various crafting mats.

Treasure Chests

You can find treasure chests in two ways. First is via Treasure Hunting Kit rewarded for events and activities. These lead you to a chest using a the special action key. Check on the map first to see the general area (look for the giant blue circle).

Additionally, on top of Pyramids and other hard to reach places, you will sometimes find a Glorious Elonian chest containing more treasures. Both of these types of treasures can give you Silvers of Twitching Forgemetal, which is used to craft Warbeast armor set.

Mastery Insights

There are 5 Mastery Insights obtainable with the current preview map. Three are pretty easily to get but the other two are a bit more tricky since they are designed with other masteries in mind. These two can be accessed via some tricks.

Imed’s Grotto Mastery Insight

Sifuri Quicksand Mastery Insight

Two way to get to it. One is bit longer but easier to do while the other is shorter but can be a bit tricky.

Quicker Method

Longer Method