Skyscale for a NEW Account

[Kariella.5046]

If you have a brand new account... what is the cost to get a Skyscale... I mean if you never played GW2 before then you do not have the Living Story unlocks to get a Skyscale so its more than just farming some gold and mats and doing some "FedEx" missions (go here pick this up and deliver it to me lol)...

So has anyone figured out how a new account can get a skyscale short of paying a lotta RWD for the LS?

[Rasimir.6239]

@Kariella.5046 said:So has anyone figured out how a new account can get a skyscale short of paying a lotta RWD for the LS?There's no shortcut to this. You'll have to unlock season 4 (gold to gem conversion is the most direct way if you don't want to buy it straight out, since it's highly unlikely that they'll give it away for free again like they did in the weeks running up to the ep6 release), then play a lot more to gather all of the map currency and other resources you'll ultimately need.

[Dayra.7405]

If you have patience (need 50 days) you need only pof & ls4.6 (to start it) & 4.4 (the Sun's Refuge to continue it) as you can buy all Ls4 map currencies (5 per day) in 4.6 for a total of 420 volatile magic per day.

And till last Tuesday (when ls5 startet) 4.6 was even free, now it’s 200 gems per episode (or a bit less in mean for all) = 400 gems.

Did you needed anything else from the other maps? I think no, but I may forgot something from all these collections.

[Danikat.8537]

@Dayra.7405 said:If you have patience (need 50 days) you need only pof & ls4.6 as you can buy all Ls4 map currencies (5 per day) in 4.6 for a total of 420 volatile magic per day.

And till last Tuesday (when ls5 startet) this was even free, now it’s 200 gems.

Did you needed anything else from the other maps? I think no, but I may forgot something from all these collections.

You still need all the episodes, because the merchants who sell the skyscale saddle parts are in those maps.

If you're starting a brand new account and want the skyscale you need to buy PoF, buy all the episodes in Season 4 (the cheapest option is to get the complete pack from the gem store for 960 gems). In the UK that's a total cost of £36.19, although you can only buy 800 or 1600 gems. The collections themselves are relatively cheap in terms of unavoidable gold costs. There's only 41g of unavoidable costs (6g for the toys, 35g for saddle components), which at the moment is about 145 gems. (So you could buy a 1,600 gem pack to get Season 4, convert some into gold and still have about 500 gems left over to buy something else.)

But a new account won't have any charged quartz or a character with chef levelled, and presumably anyone asking this question will want to complete the collections as quickly as possible, so then you're looking at buying 12 pieces of skyscale food and a grow lamp which costs about 75g. If you want to buy the skyscale treats to skip the jumping puzzles that's another 121g. Then you need 5,390 karma, 1700 volatile magic, 520 trade contracts and 250 of each Season 4 map currency and I don't think there's a way to get all that with gold, and it's still going to be a long process.

So if someone wanted to start a new account and unlock the skyscale as quickly as possible my advice would be:

1. Buy PoF
2. Buy a 1,600 gem pack
3. Buy Season 4 complete pack
4. Convert the remaining gems into gold
5. Use your level 80 boost on a profession you're familiar with*
6. Play the PoF story at least enough to unlock the raptor and springer (try to avoid spending any trade contracts)
7. Play each episode of Season 4 at least enough to unlock the map
8. Start farming map currency and volatile magic from each Season 4 map daily
9. Complete War Eternal to unlock the skyscale collection
10. Complete the skyscale collection. This will take you at least 4 days and may require extra time for farming map currencies, depending on how long it's taken you to reach this point. I think the gold from converting gems, plus gold earned along the way should cover the gold costs even when buying skyscale treats (especially if you sell materials and other drops for gold), but if you can do as many of the jumping puzzle steps as possible without using treats to skip them that will make it much cheaper.

*If you're brand new to the game and wouldn't know what profession to choose then my advice is don't do this. Learn the basics before you start worrying about complicated long-term goals for veteran players.

Total real money cost: £42.99 (or whatever PoF and a 1,600 gem pack costs in your currency).Total time: somewhere between 5 days and 2 months (that's based on how long it took me to do the skyscale collection)

But you could drop the real money cost to £25.99 (or less if you can find a cheap copy of PoF) by spending more time to farm gold to buy the episodes, and by gathering stuff yourself instead of buying items from the TP.

[kharmin.7683]

It's a legendary mount. It's not supposed to be obtained quickly.

[Kariella.5046]

Thanks thats perfect just what I was looking for... and I get its not supposed to be obtained quickly... just looking to get this in the least expensive way :)

[knite.1542]

@kharmin.7683 said:It's a legendary mount. It's not supposed to be obtained quickly.

Did you even read his question?

So has anyone figured out how a new account can get a skyscale short of paying a lotta RWD for the LS?

[Westenev.5289]

Hmm... The biggest costs to a new player trying to get the skyscale, or any player getting the skyscale, IMO:

~ 940 gems for LS4.~ 250 of each LS4 map currency (takes a day or two to farm, but you get plenty if you play story/achievements/gather as intended).~ 23 Charged Quartz Crystals: 23 days of charging a quartz once a day at any place of power hero point. Subtract 10 charged quartz if you're willing to buy a grow lamp (38g)~ A whole lot of time completing LS4, associated sky scale achievements and waiting for artificial timgatess.

I think that about covers it...

EDIT: The wiki has a good guide on the requirements of the skyscale, and how long it'll take to get it. You can find that here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skyscale

[Weindrasi.3805]

Others have explained the requirements, but I will say this.... 5 days to 2 months is an extremely low estimate of time. If you have a lot of free time that's accurate--but if you have a job and/or school and/or family responsibilities--you're probably looking at 6 months to a year.

[Danikat.8537]

@Weindrasi.3805 said:Others have explained the requirements, but I will say this.... 5 days to 2 months is an extremely low estimate of time. If you have a lot of free time that's accurate--but if you have a job and/or school and/or family responsibilities--you're probably looking at 6 months to a year.

The 5 days - 2 months estimate was specifically for the skyscale collection, not any of the other stuff you have to do first.

The 5 day minimum is based on the Wiki saying the time gates mean it takes a minimum of 3 days and 8 hours, and then I added a day to allow for additional delays.

2 months is based on how long it took me to do it, with a job and family commitments. I started War Eternal on 15th May and unlocked the skyscale on 27th June. I already had the charged quartz but would have been able to create it all in that time anyway. I had almost none of the map currencies so I set myself a goal to get 50 per day (50 total, not 50 of each currency or 50 per character, just 50 of a map currency). Some days I had to miss because I couldn't be online but then I was able to catch up on other days when I had more time.

I did almost nothing else when playing GW2 but wasn't playing more than usual - about 1-2 hours per day. The most time consuming part (other than gathering map currency) was actually finding the scales, eggs and sick sky scales because I chose not to use a guide.

I considered giving a time estimate for the whole process but there's too many variables. I've seen people claim it's possible to complete an entire expansion in a week but I don't know how realistic that is.

[kharmin.7683]

@knite.1542 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:It's a legendary mount. It's not supposed to be obtained quickly.

Did you even read his question?

So has anyone figured out how a new account can get a skyscale short of paying a lotta RWD for the LS?

Yes, and I reject the premise.

[Lexi.1398]

@Danikat.8537 said:I considered giving a time estimate for the whole process but there's too many variables. I've seen people claim it's possible to complete an entire expansion in a week but I don't know how realistic that is.

It took me a week of no life-ing on PoF release to get griffon (2 day story, 5 day getting gold), but i wouldn't really say i've completed PoF over 2 years later....there's still a few easy AP and meaningful collections and little corners of the maps im finding now. Based on the no-life times it took me to get episode mastery, i'd guess a week of getting the skyscale from the ground up isn't too farfetched, maybe 1 and a half weeks, though one would have to /super/ maximise efficiency on the currency gathering considering the daily caps. (It took me 2 days to get exactly half of the currencies needed) and then spend every single non-currency gathering moment maximum efficiency gold farming.

Ofc, if you have a life, that's going to massively change depending on just how much time you devote to gw2 and how efficiently you play, though i loathe to say that phrase being as i personally wouldn't maximise time efficiency because i find that less fun.

[Weindrasi.3805]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@Weindrasi.3805 said:Others have explained the requirements, but I will say this.... 5 days to 2 months is an extremely low estimate of time. If you have a lot of free time that's accurate--but if you have a job and/or school and/or family responsibilities--you're probably looking at 6 months to a year.

The 5 days - 2 months estimate was specifically for the skyscale collection, not any of the other stuff you have to do first.

The 5 day minimum is based on the Wiki saying the time gates mean it takes a minimum of 3 days and 8 hours, and then I added a day to allow for additional delays.

2 months is based on how long it took me to do it, with a job and family commitments. I started War Eternal on 15th May and unlocked the skyscale on 27th June. I already had the charged quartz but would have been able to create it all in that time anyway. I had almost none of the map currencies so I set myself a goal to get 50 per day (50 total, not 50 of each currency or 50 per character, just 50 of a map currency). Some days I had to miss because I couldn't be online but then I was able to catch up on other days when I had more time.

I did almost nothing else when playing GW2 but wasn't playing more than usual - about 1-2 hours per day. The most time consuming part (other than gathering map currency) was actually finding the scales, eggs and sick sky scales because I chose not to use a guide.

I considered giving a time estimate for the whole process but there's too many variables. I've seen people claim it's possible to complete an entire expansion in a week but I don't know how realistic that is.

True, but everybody has a different pace. I didn't get the Skyscale until late July, because--although I had a great deal of free time those couple of months--I couldn't stand devoting all or most of my GW2 time to farming. Just 30-40 minutes in, and I'd be bored to tears & move on to an activity I enjoy. My dad has been working on Skyscale since War Eternal released, and still hasn't gotten it because work and family obligations only allow him to log on maybe once or twice a week. So it all depends.

If the OP can devote hours per day, and has the dedication of a hardcore WoW grind player, they'll have the Skyscale in no time. If the OP is more like the casual playerbase GW2 caters to, it's going to be quite a long process.

[JUN YANG.4328]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@Dayra.7405 said:If you have patience (need 50 days) you need only pof & ls4.6 as you can buy all Ls4 map currencies (5 per day) in 4.6 for a total of 420 volatile magic per day.

And till last Tuesday (when ls5 startet) this was even free, now it’s 200 gems.

Did you needed anything else from the other maps? I think no, but I may forgot something from all these collections.

You still need all the episodes, because the merchants who sell the skyscale saddle parts are in those maps.

If you're starting a brand new account and want the skyscale you need to buy PoF, buy all the episodes in Season 4 (the cheapest option is to get the complete pack from the gem store for 960 gems). In the UK that's a total cost of £36.19, although you can only buy 800 or 1600 gems. The collections themselves are relatively cheap in terms of unavoidable gold costs. There's only 41g of unavoidable costs (6g for the toys, 35g for saddle components), which at the moment is about 145 gems. (So you could buy a 1,600 gem pack to get Season 4, convert some into gold and still have about 500 gems left over to buy something else.)

But a new account won't have any charged quartz or a character with chef levelled, and presumably anyone asking this question will want to complete the collections as quickly as possible, so then you're looking at buying 12 pieces of skyscale food and a grow lamp which costs about 75g. If you want to buy the skyscale treats to skip the jumping puzzles that's another 121g. Then you need 5,390 karma, 1700 volatile magic, 520 trade contracts and 250 of each Season 4 map currency and I don't think there's a way to get all that with gold, and it's still going to be a long process.

So if someone wanted to start a new account and unlock the skyscale as quickly as possible my advice would be:

1. Buy PoF
2. Buy a 1,600 gem pack
3. Buy Season 4 complete pack
4. Convert the remaining gems into gold
5. Use your level 80 boost on a profession you're familiar with*
6. Play the PoF story at least enough to unlock the raptor and springer (try to avoid spending any trade contracts)
7. Play each episode of Season 4 at least enough to unlock the map
8. Start farming map currency and volatile magic from each Season 4 map daily
9. Complete War Eternal to unlock the skyscale collection
10. Complete the skyscale collection. This will take you at least 4 days and may require extra time for farming map currencies, depending on how long it's taken you to reach this point. I think the gold from converting gems, plus gold earned along the way should cover the gold costs even when buying skyscale treats (especially if you sell materials and other drops for gold), but if you can do as many of the jumping puzzle steps as possible without using treats to skip them that will make it much cheaper.

*If you're brand new to the game and wouldn't know what profession to choose then my advice is don't do this. Learn the basics before you start worrying about complicated long-term goals for veteran players.

Total real money cost: £42.99 (or whatever PoF and a 1,600 gem pack costs in your currency).Total time: somewhere between 5 days and 2 months (that's based on how long it took me to do the skyscale collection)

But you could drop the real money cost to £25.99 (or less if you can find a cheap copy of PoF) by spending more time to farm gold to buy the episodes, and by gathering stuff yourself instead of buying items from the TP.

also need to have Jackal to complete three of the JP. that is another 20gold and 200 trade contracts. unless if you have a good friend had skyscale use mesmer portal that you to it.