Explore new lands, wield a spear in combat, and test yourself in challenging encounters in Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds. The newest advent...
Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds is an expansion for ArenaNet's buy-to-play MMORPG Guild Wars 2, released on August 20, 2025. It takes players to the Janthir region, a northern wilderness area with frontier environments and deep roots in Guild Wars 1 lore, introducing two major new systems alongside new zones and story.
The expansion's two defining features are the Allied Companions system, which bonds players with a permanent NPC companion that fights alongside them in open-world and story content, and the Spear weapon, now available as a full land weapon for all nine professions rather than being limited to underwater combat.
Allied Companions are the headline addition of Janthir Wilds. Players form a permanent bond with an NPC companion who accompanies them in open-world exploration and story missions. Companions can be equipped with customised gear and trained with different abilities to complement the player's own build and playstyle.
This system marks a significant departure from Guild Wars 2's traditional solo design, which has always placed full emphasis on player skill. Allied Companions give solo players a meaningful partner for exploring the Janthir wilderness and tackling open-world content without requiring a premade group.
The Spear was previously restricted to underwater combat in Guild Wars 2. Janthir Wilds makes it a universal land weapon available to all nine professions, each receiving a unique five-skill set designed around that profession's combat role. A Necromancer's Spear skills differ completely from a Warrior's or an Elementalist's.
The addition refreshes build options for every existing character. Players who have invested heavily in a single profession now have a new weapon mastery track to explore, with new synergies to discover within their existing trait and elite specialisation setup.
The Janthir region features two launch zones: Lowland Shore and Janthir Syntri, with dense forests, regional wildlife, and lore tied to the Mursaat, a faction from the original Guild Wars. The story continues from Visions of Eternity and draws on a significant thread from the Guild Wars 1 narrative.
New challenging encounters and strike missions provide endgame objectives for group players, building on the unified Strike Mission and raid content cadence introduced in earlier Guild Wars 2 updates.
Players new to Guild Wars 2 should start with the Guild Wars 2 base game to understand core systems before purchasing Janthir Wilds, or explore Path of Fire for the essential mount system introduced in an earlier expansion.