Announcing Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity
by The Guild Wars 2 Team on July 15, 2025
Today we’re thrilled to announce our next expansion, Guild Wars 2®: Visions of Eternity™ and its release date! Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity launches on October 28, 2025, and, like the previous two expansions, will bring with it a year of story chapters and three major content updates. You can get an overview of what to expect from our sixth expansion on the official page, and we’ll be sharing tons of additional details between now and launch.
Adventure on an Unknown Island
Tyria’s leaders are anxious about rumors of covert Inquest voyages launched in search of Castora, an island so remote that it’s long been thought to be inaccessible—or even nonexistent. The risks involved prevent all but the most tenacious (and perhaps foolhardy) of pursuers from investigating the Inquest’s plan.
Your race to discover the Inquest’s plot will lead you across two new open-world regions at launch, each filled with magical energies and strange creatures. Two additional maps will open as the story continues over the course of a year. For Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity, we’ll be releasing story chapters differently than we’ve done for the previous two expansions. To read about this and other insights, see our Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds™ retrospective blog from last week.
New Elite Specializations
Elite specializations are back! Influences from members of the Tyrian Alliance bring new ways to play each of our nine professions. In Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity, you’ll experience new trait lines, profession mechanics, and healing, utility, and elite skills, adding many new ways to play your characters.
From August 20 to 27, we’re holding an in-game preview week for you to beta test all of the elite specializations. When that preview arrives, we’ll ask for your feedback to help us take each elite specialization through the polish phase and into launch. All players with a Guild Wars 2 account in good standing may participate in the preview.
We’ll be back next week to kick off a series of blogs and livestreams to talk about the elite specializations in great detail. Stay tuned!
In Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity, the skimmer mount will be featured with new and updated mechanics. Hover, dive, and soar faster than ever before as you explore the dangerous and beautiful environments of Castora!
In 2026, raids and strikes will be unified under the same structure, improving access for new players and streamlining rewards. We’re also investing in systems that help facilitate group content, which we’ll talk about more in the future.
Two new raid encounters (including challenge modes and a legendary mode) will be added in the major updates to Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity next year. In addition, a new Convergence and fractal with challenge mode will also release in the final expansion update next year, giving players lots of obstacles to tackle and overcome!
Over the course of the expansion and its subsequent content updates, players can pursue six new legendary items: three new weapons, a ring, an accessory, and the long-requested aquabreather!
Players who own both Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds and Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity will get to unlock a whole new homestead map! You’ll also be able to save your decoration layout and freely swap between the Janthiri and Castoran maps with the new layouts feature. We’ll share more information about the new homestead and layouts in the coming months.
The Wizard’s Vault will continue to offer new seasonal rewards for players to earn as they play through the expansion. New relics will bring players more options for their builds and combat capabilities. And, of course, you’ll also be able to earn new armor, weapons, recipes, emotes, and more!
Prepurchase Bonuses Available Now
Prepurchasing any edition of Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity before the expansion launches at approximately 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on October 28, 2025, comes with three rewards: the exclusive Plumed Commodore’s Hat helm skin, the exclusive “Eternal Alchemist” title, and a box with your choice of one Chromatic Resin weapon skin.
Visit the official store page for full details on the Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate editions. You can prepurchase the expansion through the official store or from the in-game store, Steam, EGS, or official retailers.
We have one final feature that will launch in one of the major updates to Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity next year and will be available to all players regardless of expansion ownership: fashion templates!
Fashion templates function similarly to build and equipment templates, allowing players to save a template of the aesthetic features for their armor, trinkets, back item, and infusions. We’ll share more information here in the future about fashion templates—and all the other features coming with Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity!
You can read more details about the full contents of Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity on the product page. It’ll be a busy summer as we prepare to set sail for Castora, so stay tuned for more information!
