Are any mount skins obtainable without buying them?

Before you just read the title and decide to reply -- Yes it still counts if I have to scrape together all my gold to convert it to gems just to buy one skin.

I bailed after the disaster of the mount skin gambling after playing since the closed beta 5 years ago, because that felt like the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I'm tired of microtransactions. Anyway, it's been a few months, and I thought I'd come back and see if anything has changed. I saw dozens of mount skins that could be unlocked, but not a single one seems to be obtainable by doing an achievement or something. Maybe I missed them? It looked like they were all gem store only. Not a single one that doesn't cost money?

PoF felt like a good expac to me, but left a bad taste in my mouth when every new thing after it launched had to be bought from the gem store. I had hoped that would change after a few months.

Sorry, no. Skins other than the default ones are only available from the gem store.

Basically you can either buy the quarterly releases that have a suite of Mounts designed around a Holiday such as Halloween or Wintersday. Or what ever fancy pants skin is in rotation currently which atm is the Lion Faced Griffon, each option is roughly 2,000 gems depending on sales. I think the last time I converted Gold to gems it was roughly 100g per 400 Gems (which fluctuates by the day and second) so save up 500g give or take per option.

@kharmin.7683 said:Sorry, no. Skins other than the default ones are only available from the gem store.

He said converting Gold to Gems counts.

That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

You receive gold when u play, you can turn gold into gems, with gems you buy skins.

You can easily get 50 golds (= 200gems) per day easily by making events in Istan 1 time + daily fractals (for example). In 2 months you will have the 30 available skins without paying anything. (I do not think you need the 30)

Where do you see the problem?

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

Yeah, that wasn't an option with heart of thorns gliders either. They're all gem store too (apart from the one you get for the deluxe edition which is basically gem store too). At least the default mounts aren't as ugly as the default glider.

The money you spend on the expansion gets you the basic skin, every other skin must be purchased through the gem store. I think we can confidently predict that this pattern will continue with whatever the skin based hook for the next expansion is.

@Pifil.5193 said:

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

Almost correct. There’s 2 gliders you can earn in game. Warbringer and The Ascension.

**I’m not counting the Ugly Wool Glider as it requires a gemstore purchase and the topic is what you can get without spending gems.

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:Almost correct. There’s 2 gliders you can earn in game. Warbringer and The Ascension.

cough Ad Infinitum would make that 3.

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

Nothing happened. This isn't a big change from how ANet handles cosmetics generally.

• There also aren't any gliders obtained outside the gem shop, unless you pursue one of the legendary backpacks.
• Similarly, there are only two outfits with origins outside the gem shop (the Endless Common Tonic was given to anyone with a character created before the wardrobe existed; the Hexed outfit costs 3 candy corn cobs). (The outfits currently available on the TP all started as gem-shop-purchased town clothes, converted to tonics when the Wardrobe launched, and are now free-to-convert to outfits, which can be resold on the TP.)

I don't have an opinion about whether it's good or bad, whether it's fair or unfair. I just think we shouldn't be surprised that there aren't any Mountfits™ available outside the gem store.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

• There also aren't any gliders obtained outside the gem shop, unless you pursue one of the legendary backpacks.
• Similarly, there are only two outfits with origins outside the gem shop (the Endless Common Tonic was given to anyone with a character created before the wardrobe existed; the Hexed outfit costs 3 candy corn cobs). (The outfits currently available on the TP all started as gem-shop-purchased town clothes, converted to tonics when the Wardrobe launched, and are now free-to-convert to outfits, which can be resold on the TP.)

Arena Net could perfectly put skins to unlock through collections or achievements, instead put a mount, with its own abilities, animations, entirely new, the Griffon, obtainable in a way that in other mmorpg would give you a simple skin.

They are different ways, each one that decides what is better or worse, what is clear is that it is not necessary to spend money to buy skins since they are economical enough to get them just by playing.

No, there are no skins outside the gemstore (yet).That said, gliders have a handfull of (expensive) skins,So its not that far of a stretch we’ll maybe get an obtainable set of skins one day.Although i’m on the fence of how it’ll work since the glider’s are the result of legendary backpacks

@Haleydawn.3764 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:Almost correct. There’s 2 gliders you can earn in game. Warbringer and The Ascension.

ARTHUR: Right! One... two... five!

GALAHAD: Three sir.

ARTHUR: Three!

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

I don’t mind. It’s not a bad thing. The difference is that the default glider is ugly, but the standard mount skins are beautifull.

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

@Pifil.5193 said:

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

Ah, of course, I completely forgot the legendary backpack gliders! Thanks for the correction.

I somehow doubt that we'll be seeing a legendary mount though. I'd be happy to be wrong though!

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

• There also aren't any gliders obtained outside the gem shop, unless you pursue one of the legendary backpacks.
• Similarly, there are only two outfits with origins outside the gem shop (the Endless Common Tonic was given to anyone with a character created before the wardrobe existed; the Hexed outfit costs 3 candy corn cobs). (The outfits currently available on the TP all started as gem-shop-purchased town clothes, converted to tonics when the Wardrobe launched, and are now free-to-convert to outfits, which can be resold on the TP.)

I forget what it is called, but there was that Outfit given to all veterans of the game 2 or 3 years ago, as well. The one with the plume on the helmet?

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"SmirkDog.3160" said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

• There also aren't any gliders obtained outside the gem shop, unless you pursue one of the legendary backpacks.
• Similarly, there are only two outfits with origins outside the gem shop (the Endless Common Tonic was given to anyone with a character created before the wardrobe existed; the Hexed outfit costs 3 candy corn cobs). (The outfits currently available on the TP all started as gem-shop-purchased town clothes, converted to tonics when the Wardrobe launched, and are now free-to-convert to outfits, which can be resold on the TP.)

Ah, thanks, Greener. You da best! :p

@"SmirkDog.3160" said:Before you just read the title and decide to reply -- Yes it still counts if I have to scrape together all my gold to convert it to gems just to buy one skin.

I bailed after the disaster of the mount skin gambling after playing since the closed beta 5 years ago, because that felt like the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I'm tired of microtransactions. Anyway, it's been a few months, and I thought I'd come back and see if anything has changed. I saw dozens of mount skins that could be unlocked, but not a single one seems to be obtainable by doing an achievement or something. Maybe I missed them? It looked like they were all gem store only. Not a single one that doesn't cost money?

PoF felt like a good expac to me, but left a bad taste in my mouth when every new thing after it launched had to be bought from the gem store. I had hoped that would change after a few months.

Winning the corrupted system of Loot boxxes (400 gems - 35 min x3 days playtime on Fractal(dungeon) - random - 9600 total cost gems - no dublicate) is preaty huge deal althought

@Wilk.2965 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

• There also aren't any gliders obtained outside the gem shop, unless you pursue one of the legendary backpacks.
• Similarly, there are only two outfits with origins outside the gem shop (the Endless Common Tonic was given to anyone with a character created before the wardrobe existed; the Hexed outfit costs 3 candy corn cobs). (The outfits currently available on the TP all started as gem-shop-purchased town clothes, converted to tonics when the Wardrobe launched, and are now free-to-convert to outfits, which can be resold on the TP.)

Oh I agree with you: they could have done that. I'm just not surprised that they didn't; it's consistent with how they've handled things in the past.

You can get bl keys and receive the bl statues and 50= one of the mount skins that were on sale in the gem store. Map comp or key farm for keys. Free mount skins!

@Drecien.4508 said:You can get bl keys and receive the bl statues and 50= one of the mount skins that were on sale in the gem store. Map comp or key farm for keys. Free mount skins!

I just spent 50 Statuettes, and I didn't see any Mountfits (Mount skins). Could you be thinking of the Mount Miniatures on offer?

@SmirkDog.3160 said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

Mount skins are monetization el dorado in any mmo. If anyone believed they won't by 99-100% gemstore skins, they're naive.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"SmirkDog.3160" said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

• There also aren't any gliders obtained outside the gem shop, unless you pursue one of the legendary backpacks.That's a big "unless". basically, it means there
  are
  exceptions you can pursue.

• Similarly, there are only two outfits with origins outside the gem shop (the Endless Common Tonic was given to anyone with a character created before the wardrobe existed; the Hexed outfit costs 3 candy corn cobs). (The outfits currently available on the TP all started as gem-shop-purchased town clothes, converted to tonics when the Wardrobe launched, and are now free-to-convert to outfits, which can be resold on the TP.)Wasn't there also a free outfit given out to veterans at some point? I'm pretty sure there was something like that (edit: royal guard outfit, already menioned in this thread). Also, again, it means there
  are
  exceptions. Although i agree, in the case of outfits those exceptions are even smaller, and (unlike with gliders) we can't really expect for any new ones to eventually show up.

In case of mounts however there is not even a single exception. And that's on top of pricing strategy for mount skins being much less player-friendly than in case of outfits and gliders.

Basically, in previous cases, Anet was giving us options, and didn't try to make the gemshop option a painful one. In case of mounts however, they just plain want to rip players off for as much as they can, as fast as they can. That last change to pricing strategy is worrying, because it's used primarily in games that don't expect high player retention.

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"SmirkDog.3160" said:That........... sucks. I understand having some fancy shmancy skins for sale but like........ not even one? Every skin my character is wearing except for one is obtained by playing. What ever happened to that?

• There also aren't any gliders obtained outside the gem shop, unless you pursue one of the legendary backpacks.That's a big "unless". basically, it means there
  are
  exceptions you can pursue.

• Similarly, there are only two outfits with origins outside the gem shop (the Endless Common Tonic was given to anyone with a character created before the wardrobe existed; the Hexed outfit costs 3 candy corn cobs). (The outfits currently available on the TP all started as gem-shop-purchased town clothes, converted to tonics when the Wardrobe launched, and are now free-to-convert to outfits, which can be resold on the TP.)Wasn't there also a free outfit given out to veterans at some point? I'm pretty sure there was something like that (edit: royal guard outfit, already menioned in this thread). Also, again, it means there
  are
  exceptions. Although i agree, in the case of outfits those exceptions are even smaller, and (unlike with gliders) we can't really expect for any new ones to eventually show up.

That's because mounts are "whale friendly". I wouldn't be too excited about legendary gliders as big exception. It's all tied to legendary status of new backpacks. Can't imagine what functionality legendary mount would bring.