Guild Wars 2 offers quite a few unique mechanics and one of those can be found in how the game handles normal questing and rewards. Instead of hordes of NPCs with question marks floating over their heads, Guild Wars 2 has a more centralized system of questing known as Renown with rewards in the form of Karma. To fully explain these mechanics, Guild Wars 2 Hub offers this intro guide to Renown and Karma.

Renown

We’re all used to the standard MMO fare of grabbing quests from multitudes of NPCs in an area and then running off to do them. Guild Wars 2 handles this aspect in a different way. Instead of multiple NPCs that give quests, there are a handful of fixed locations in every zone that are known as Renown Hearts.

These are marked by heart-shaped icons on your map and will be highlighted by any scouts (people marked with the telescope icon) you interact with, along with what is need to complete each Renown Heart and its level. Each Renown Heart is associated with a specific NPC (those with hearts floating over them), and those NPCs will ask the players to help them. However, a player does not need to talk to the NPC to get the quest as just moving into the area will have it automatically show up on your screen.

To help a Renown NPC in Guild Wars 2, the player will need to perform a variety of tasks. Being able to fulfill a quest by different means is a refreshing change from the typical MMO. In the image below, you can see that I’m involved in helping Farmer Diah. The various ways that I can help her are shown along with a bar showing how much I’ve completed for this Renown task.

Instead of running willy-nilly all over a zone looking for quests, you automatically know where to go, what you need to do, and what level the challenge is for the Renown tasks. Wasting time is irritating and Guild Wars 2 really keeps that to a minimum. Now get out there and start making those hearts glow!