Free to play

so i purchased guild wars 2 when it came out, but now it is free to play, so i was wondering if there are any differences between my account, that doesn’t have hot or pof , and the free to play accounts. i don’t really care i’m just curious

If you actually bought the core. Free accounts can not use whisper, or map chat. And I think free accounts can not convert gold to gems. So since you bought the game, you get those advantages. But there are more. I just don’t have them all in my head. The thing I think you can only not do is raids since it’s (hot) content. But I think you can still do fractals, dungeons, pvp etc. and I think instead of 2 character for free account, you get 5 character slots.

https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/230165307-Guild-Wars-2-Account-Types-Free-Core-HoT-PoF

That site shows the differences between each type of account (free, core, HoT, and PoF).

You still own everything u did when u bought the game, not sure exactly when u bought if it was b4 fractals, but if not then that's included, what u don't have is any access/content to the expansion areas and ur free from all the f2p restrictions.

There's quite a few differences.

The most important ones for me are that free accounts cannot use map chat, only get 2 character slots, can't enter cities before level 10 and Lion's Arch before level 35, can't convert gold to gems (and are excluded from most free items in the gem store) and can only buy or sell a small number of items on the Trading Post. Those are the ones that bother me most when I'm playing on my free account rather than my paid account. The lack of map chat is probably the most annoying for me even though it seems like a very minor thing.

The majority of the restrictions are designed to make free accounts useless to gold sellers and spammers/banned players. But I don't think it's a coincidence that they also get more annoying as you progress through the game so most people who want to keep playing are likely to also want to buy the game.

I have a question since you guys and gals bring up all these differences between f2p and non f2p core gw2 account. Let's say if you decide to play gw2 on a f2p account and you decide you really really like the game and buy either hot or PoF does your f2p account for core gw2 also get upgraded to the non f2p account with all functions a core gw2 account has? (way back when gw2 was buy to play and doesnt have the restrictions that f2p have.) thanks, really curious about this.

@AncientYs.8613 said:I have a question since you guys and gals bring up all these differences between f2p and non f2p core gw2 account. Let's say if you decide to play gw2 on a f2p account and you decide you really really like the game and buy either hot or PoF does your f2p account for core gw2 also get upgraded to the non f2p account with all functions a core gw2 account has? (way back when gw2 was buy to play and doesnt have the restrictions that f2p have.) thanks, really curious about this.

Yes, buying an extension grants you all the thing from that expansion plus all the core non-f2p stuff like unlimited TP, map chat, whispers, etc

@DamiVlad.2689 said:

@AncientYs.8613 said:I have a question since you guys and gals bring up all these differences between f2p and non f2p core gw2 account. Let's say if you decide to play gw2 on a f2p account and you decide you really really like the game and buy either hot or PoF does your f2p account for core gw2 also get upgraded to the non f2p account with all functions a core gw2 account has? (way back when gw2 was buy to play and doesnt have the restrictions that f2p have.) thanks, really curious about this.

Very nice! Thanks for clearing that up for me~

Also ftp accounts can't post on the forums (there may be an exception for the account and technical support subforum)

I have my main account with both expansions, a second paid for core account and a free to play account, and the f2p does seem very limited compared to the core account.

For me the main limits were that you can't change gold to gems, you only got 2 character slots, the number of items on the trading post that are locked (I can sell iron ore, but not iron bar for example), no daily log in reward, and the limits on accessing cities, wvw etc. you also can't access the guild bank if you are in a guild that has a bank. I am also fairly certain there are tight limits on sending in game mail.

However it is possible to get to level 80 and do most of the core content if you don't mind the limitations which is more than can be said for most games trial options.

@"Oenanthe.6549" said:However it is possible to get to level 80 and do most of the core content if you don't mind the limitations which is more than can be said for most games trial options.

Heck, free to play accounts could conceivably craft Gen 1 Legendaries and get up to Fractal 100 challenge mote. I say "conceivably" because they would have to either do PvP/WvW reward tracks or buy mystic coins off the TP for the clovers, but it can be done. Not many trials that let you do the non-expansion endgame.

@AncientYs.8613 said:I have a question since you guys and gals bring up all these differences between f2p and non f2p core gw2 account. Let's say if you decide to play gw2 on a f2p account and you decide you really really like the game and buy either hot or PoF does your f2p account for core gw2 also get upgraded to the non f2p account with all functions a core gw2 account has? (way back when gw2 was buy to play and doesnt have the restrictions that f2p have.) thanks, really curious about this.

Not only does it work, this is the only practical way to remove the f2p restrictions. It might be possible to find an old copy of the base game sold somewhere, but it will probably cost the same as PoF/HoT or maybe even more (I know there's some very optimistic Amazon sellers out there).

Basically a paid version of the base game comes bundled with each expansion. So you can either use the account key to create a new account with the base game + the expansion/s you purchased, or you can use it to upgrade a free account which also means you're not starting over from scratch. (Although some people might want to do that.)