Guild Wars 2

I’ve done the tower successfully 8 times now; once on each of my toons (have 1 of each class)... I don’t even want to know how many unsuccessful attempts I made, lol...

Anywho, during my altoholic journey, I learned a few tricks that make the climb a bit easier.

First off, watch a successful run. If you want to experience it for the first time on your own toon - fine - but knowing the route before hand will save you from taking a wrong path (couple parts where it forks) or getting to what seems like a dead end, then dying. Here’s a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxX1u9NE-EY

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Second, go to Options > General Options > Camera.

Rotation Speed - slide that all the way to the right. This pretty much makes your camera more sensitive, allowing you to get more turn out of each drag-of-the-mouse. If you’re not used to the camera being that sensitive, it will take a few tried to get used to.

Position - Slide that to the middle. This option pretty much allows the camera to be angled from behind your toon’s left shoulder, head, or right shoulder. If its centered, its much easier to line up jumps.

Also regarding the mouse, if possible, find something to use as a mousepad that’s very wide... throughout the puzzle, you’ll be in a perpetual state of dragging the mouse to the right, so more room to drag it on helps. Take advantage of straight-aways to reposition your mouse.

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Music - The halloween themed music that plays during the ascent is great, but its tense. Probably the one thing that made me fail more than anything else was that I kept getting over-excited at my progress; causing me to do something stupid like turn too sharp or overshoot a jump. Turn the music off; play something relaxing in its place - you’ll be amazed how much this helps.

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Take breaks. If you’re getting frustrated, you’re not going to get to the top. Do something else in-game, or get off the computer for a bit. If you start getting frustrated when you come back; leave again.

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Race. I’ve completed the puzzle on each of the 5 races, and imo, from the most difficult to least, I’d rank it as: Charr, Norn, Human/Sylvari (tie), Asura

Charr are a pain in the kitten cuz they run on all fours; its difficult to judge when their model is actually on the edge of something or not.

Norn are massive, making it easy to fail at intricate movement... but atleast they stand on 2 feet, so you know where they actually are. In a sense, their size is actually helpful in this particular puzzle because you can actually see your toon within the zerg of other players.

Human/Sylvari - Much more manageable sized model; two feet. These aren’t too bad... only downside is that they tend to disappear in the zerg; I’d recommend giving yourself a very vibrant dye job to help with that.

Asura - Very easy... well, relative to the other races, anyway. Asura are very easy to place jumps with because of their small size... infact, sometimes lit looks like you’re going to undershoot a jump and smack the edge, and fall to your death... but you don’t... the asura’s toe nail or something manages to hit the edge, and that’s good enough to get you safely onto it. I actually died a few times with my asura because it looked so much like I wasn’t going to make a jump that I gave up that round before the jump was complete... then I watch in surprise as my asura completes the jump sucessfully, and stands there awaiting orders for a second before being swallowed by the green cloud of death... oops... Anywho, only problem with asura are, again, the zerg will swallow you, so dye your toon in a way that you stand out against the crowd.

If you’re placed in an instance which has a large amount of Norn/Charr players, you’ll probably want to leave; wait a minute; and reenter. Doing so will hopefully place you in a different overflow server that has a less obstructive zerg.

Aaaaaanywho, if you’re planning on doing the tower on multiple toons, do the easiest one first; once you finish successfully the first time, the attempts thereafter get much easier.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

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More tips from other posters:

Rez.8016:

The hardest part is getting a good chance to learn the route as a result of your view being restricted by others and the time pressure of the green cloud/slime.
To deal with this my advice is to willingly sacrifice some runs to learn parts well and get a good look at them.
The part of the puzzle just after the 1st pause/wait for the platforms to emerge is in a way the hardest to do very well. It is worth doing that part purposefully slowly a few times, and inevitably get caught by the cloud, in order to commit it to memory well and not just learn how to get through it but eventually figure out how to get through it fast.
If you can do the initial parts after the 1st wait very fast, you buy the necessary time to take small pauses where needed further up the tower.

cool, except i 90% of the time suffer from glitch time on the first jumps (where you wait explosion) and can’t freakin see where to jump or just stick with head at some boulder.

It’s just impossible to get past the first quarter as an asura when there are huge norns and charr blocking your view. The time limit is too narrow (1-2 seconds to land a jump) so this is where my halloween title hunt ends, just not worth the effort. I already put 4 frustrating hours into this

Just wanted to offer a tip because I was on the verge of asking for it (and I recently beat the puzzle).

That little square block right in front of an upward-slanted beam (before the big jump down)? If you’re having trouble getting up onto the beam, try jumping carefully from the highest corner of the block. I find that it works better than running jumps.

Uuni.3561:

It’s just impossible to get past the first quarter as an asura when there are huge norns and charr blocking your view. The time limit is too narrow (1-2 seconds to land a jump) so this is where my halloween title hunt ends, just not worth the effort. I already put 4 frustrating hours into this

The Clock Tower doesn’t count towards the title, just sayin.

The hardest part is getting a good chance to learn the route as a result of your view being restricted by others and the time pressure of the green cloud/slime.

To deal with this my advice is to willingly sacrifice some runs to learn parts well and get a good look at them.

The part of the puzzle just after the 1st pause/wait for the platforms to emerge is in a way the hardest to do very well. It is worth doing that part purposefully slowly a few times, and inevitably get caught by the cloud, in order to commit it to memory well and not just learn how to get through it but eventually figure out how to get through it fast.

If you can do the initial parts after the 1st wait very fast, you buy the necessary time to take small pauses where needed further up the tower.

When waiting for the rubble to form a path, be sure to jump early and go for the furthest platform (see first image). You can actually jump shortly after the screen shakes, even if it seems like you will miss it.

Avoid the first bar completely by jumping to the platform on the right (see second image)

(Second screenshot attached)

Edit: Wow, we both posted about the same thing at around the same time!

One strategy I found to help with not being able to see is going a different way at this particular point in the puzzle. I spent hours doing this over and over again, and very, very rarely did I ever see anyone going the route I took (pink) over this common route (white).

It’s not that much of a help as a whole, but this point is typically where most players start falling off.

Rez.8016:

The hardest part is getting a good chance to learn the route as a result of your view being restricted by others and the time pressure of the green cloud/slime.

To deal with this my advice is to willingly sacrifice some runs to learn parts well and get a good look at them.

The part of the puzzle just after the 1st pause/wait for the platforms to emerge is in a way the hardest to do very well. It is worth doing that part purposefully slowly a few times, and inevitably get caught by the cloud, in order to commit it to memory well and not just learn how to get through it but eventually figure out how to get through it fast.

If you can do the initial parts after the 1st wait very fast, you buy the necessary time to take small pauses where needed further up the tower.

Good call! Added that to the OP.

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XiaMae.9874,
That’s kinda funny… the route I took was right inbetween the two you illustrated. I ran up that piece of bar sticking up that leads to the chest.

Pretty much, the closer you are to the tower, the better – that will have you traveling less distance… but, I tend to stray to the left just a tad, just to avoid the zerg.

*added some more tips to the OP

Oddly enough I’d classify asura as the hardest to learn on if for no other reason than that opening rush out the gates. Its hard to see yourself at all in the crowd and reall easy to fall time after time even if you know the jumps. Once the crowd thins out I honestly bairly notice the difference between asura human and sylvari. Norn are just a tad clumsy and char are anoying due to the issues the OP listed.

Please folks be kind to the others around you and dont try and be funny by summoning a big pet elite in the last moment before the queue pops. That first set of jumps is hard enough with all the players doing the mad dash and putting a ghostly oakheart or an asuran golem in the mix just to be annoying is not nice.

If you’re struggling with the first jump because you can’t see your character, start from the small platform on the left side. This platform is a bit more challenging to use, since you have to time it properly to jump as the rubble is forming: go too quickly and you have nowhere to land; wait too long and you’ll be obstructed by a piece of rubble that forms in front of you.

guys u r great! i hate puzzle inventor and love u all!

but i have 1 prob. when i jump from the double stick down to the circle i always die. why!?

I see it is in the OP, but think it is not used enough: when you find yourself frustrated by the group (either due to chat or big norn/charr being present), go back to the lobby and enter a different overflow.

DIKIY.9507:

guys u r great! i hate puzzle inventor and love u all!

but i have 1 prob. when i jump from the double stick down to the circle i always die. why!?

You have to jump at the very end of the beam. If you just run off you will not make it to the platform.

DIKIY.9507:

guys u r great! i hate puzzle inventor and love u all!

but i have 1 prob. when i jump from the double stick down to the circle i always die. why!?

Are you dying from the fall damage or the green wave engulfing the platform as you land on it? If its the second its the same problem I had for a long time, you’re not fast enough through the first section of the puzzle and need to speed up by a couple of seconds. If you can get off that platform onto the half cog in time then you can take your time to get up to the top.

Good advice IMO. Constructive and well articulated. Thanks for this!