Guild Wars 2 currencies: what all of that in your wallet is

Open your wallet at level 80 and there are two dozen rows. Half the names mean nothing, and it is unclear which of it is valuable.

One rule first: currencies barely convert into one another. Gold does not buy karma, karma does not buy Fractal Relics. Each is earned by its own content and spent in its own place, so “save up something universal” does not apply here.

Coin

1 gold = 100 silver = 10,000 copper.

The only currency you can hand to another player, and the only one the Trading Post deals in. It takes 15% of every sale (how that arithmetic works).

Karma

Account bound, shared across every character since 2013.

Where it comes from:

Source	How much
Events	20–378 depending on the event’s level
Renown hearts	90–675 depending on level
Fractals	0–3,400
Raid boss chests	10,000 each
Festivals and consumables	fixed amounts

Where it goes: karma merchants around the world, the NPCs behind renown hearts, and master craftsmen for higher-quality recipes, which run from 1 to 3,000 karma apiece.

Karma accumulates on its own and mostly sits unspent. It earns its keep on recipes gold cannot buy and on gear while levelling.

Astral Acclaim

The Wizard’s Vault currency, from daily and weekly objectives (how the system works).

🔴 It caps at 1,300. Past that, new rewards stop being credited, so hoarding does not work.

For a new player the best buy is a chest of ascended gear.

Expansion currencies

Trade Contracts come from Crystal Desert hearts and buy the Path of Fire mounts: 50 for a Springer, 50 for a Skimmer, 200 for a Jackal (where the vendors are).

Writs of Dragon’s End from End of Dragons. Two hundred of them trade for a Turtle Egg, which is how you avoid the hardest meta in the game (details).

Volatile Magic, Kralkatite Ore, Difluorite Crystal, Inscribed Shard, Lump of Mistonium, Branded Mass, Mistborn Motes are Season 4 map currencies. All account bound, none of them on the Trading Post, and all needed for the long Skyscale route.

Game-mode currencies

Badges of Honor drop from WvW fighting (what that mode is).

WvW Skirmish Claim Tickets also come from WvW, through the passive reward track, and feed legendary equipment.

Fractal Relics pay 5 to 19 per run depending on scale and are spent in the Mistlock Observatory (where to start).

Legendary Insights come from raids and are the only route to legendary PvE armour (what legendaries buy you).

Gems

Bought with real money or exchanged for gold in game. The exchange runs both ways with a spread, so converting there and back loses money (the current rate).

This is the single bridge between real money and the in-game economy, and no combat advantage sits on the other side of it.

Two unofficial currencies

Formally items, in practice the money of the upper market:

Mystic Coin and Glob of Ectoplasm. Large purchases get priced in them, legendaries eat them by the stack, and they are liquid enough to hold savings in. Their current prices are at the foot of this page.

What to do with all this

Do not hoard what you never spend. Astral Acclaim is capped, and expansion currencies are meaningless outside their expansion.

Do hoard Mystic Coins and ectoplasm. They are the one thing you will want almost regardless of where you end up going.

Do not convert gold to gems hoping to profit. The spread works against you in both directions.