Guild Wars 2

So me being a silly billy as I can be at times went and rushed into picking my back piece thinking it was going to be per character not account. Logged in on my Asura as it was the last character I’d been on and got the Rata Sum back piece! Getting all giddy I then went onto my main Sylvari, looking forward to getting the Grove back piece which to my surprise, DIDN’T COME! Noooo!!!

<moment of silence please for the stupidity>

After reading it was from the achievement, I was gutted.

Here’s to hoping it’ll be available again next year (not hinting at anything OBVIOUSLY wink wink, nudge nudge)

You’ll get a chance at the others. As you’re 4th year I’m sure you have more toons made coming of age? I have 7 more with 4th years starting tomorrow etc and will be able to choose all the skins, you can get all the others as well and Happy Birthday. GAME ON

Tasida.4085:

You’ll get a chance at the others. As you’re 4th year I’m sure you have more toons made coming of age? I have 7 more with 4th years starting tomorrow etc and will be able to choose all the skins, you can get all the others as well and Happy Birthday. GAME ON

Glad I caught you now! I’ve got 5, 4 year old characters, you only get 1 back piece Don’t make the same mistake as me and a few of my friends did and choose the first 1 you come across. It’s an achievement reward, not a birthday reward

Oh man, thanks for the warning. I love three of the backpacks so much … how can they let us only ever get one for the account?

Ah cheers and no big deal really I wear Shatterer and Teq wings on all my toons so its groovy with me! GAME ON

Just take a look at this sorry image. The Sylvari that misses his home and appears to have traveled back from Rata Sum, mistakenly picking up the wrong backpack.

Hmm not cool, not cool! Gotta collect em all!

So to clarify:

The Backpack is a 4th Birthday Achievement?
So you get the achievement 1 time. Therefore 1 backpack?
Is it accountbound or soulbound?

What else is being given out?

Thanks

It’s a consumable item just like all other gear related items that you unlock to your wardrobe. It’s an achievement so not a birthday gift as such. Hope this helps you to not make the same mistake and have your player wearing the right piece

Thanks for the heads up. Seemed only natural and obvious to believe it was one choice per toon, seems crazy to perma lock you out of the others unless they intend to make the other packs obtainable another way.

Glad I saved my choice now!

Canis Mesomelas.8125:

It’s a consumable item just like all other gear related items that you unlock to your wardrobe. It’s an achievement so not a birthday gift as such. Hope this helps you to not make the same mistake and have your player wearing the right piece

Gotcha…so its a skin unlock, and you get one.

Maybe you get another one next year? Who knows…:)

Donari.5237:

Oh man, thanks for the warning. I love three of the backpacks so much … how can they let us only ever get one for the account?

Next birthday I bet. And the next. And the next. And the next.

If you choose the wrong one, contact support. I suspect they’ll be able to help (might take them a week or two, given that the rollback has probably created a backlog of issues that might be more urgent).

https://help.guildwars2.com/anonymous_requests/new

edit: accidentally …a word

I did pretty much the exact same thing and chose the divinity’s reach rucksack on one of my humans. I’m hoping support can help me out and I can exchange it, but if not at least I’ll have a feather in my cap.

I nearly made the same mistake, I’d heard it was part of the birthday gift so I was going to have my first 5 characters each pick their race’s backpack. Luckily someone in my guild warned me before I opened it.

I really hope they do make it a reoccuring gift, at least until we’ve got all 5. Otherwise it really sucks not just for people who make a mistake but people who like more than 1 and people who collect backpack skins.

I made the same mistake.

There could have been a warning.

I thought the bundle was part of the regular character gift and chose the Asura backpack on my Asura, since it was the first character with which I went online.

But if I had known that I could only choose one backpack per account, then I would have clearly chosen the Norn backpack.
I don’t even like the asuran backpack, I only chose it first because I thought that every 4 year character had a pick.

It is times like these that I really wonder why, after 4 dedicated years, as a veteran, we can’t have all 5 skins. Why, why, why? I mean, what would be the harm? We’ve been here, supporting the game for 4 years! Let us have all 5 skins.

That is all.

I admit I’m quite surprised you only get one. I mean I can understand you can only get 1 backpack with 1 character. But if you have 5 characters reaching 4 years of age, you should be able to get all 5 backpacks.

Not that I’m complaining, I’m very satisfied and grateful for my gift
I just hope we get to pick a backpack again during the 5th birthday.

That’s what I’m hoping for as well, to pick another next year

Canis Mesomelas.8125:

That’s what I’m hoping for as well, to pick another next year

That would be fine. Be a shame to wait a year to know though

A shame, but we never got a gift/reward for completing the Achievement before (just a Title), so it’s really a plus.

Sorry to be a little lost about this, but to get the back piece that you wanted, you would have had to have logged out with your Sylvari prior to getting it? Or just be sure to have the correct toon when you choose it? Lol sry for being a bit dense

Sensei Hoisen.9821:

Sorry to be a little lost about this, but to get the back piece that you wanted, you would have had to have logged out with your Sylvari prior to getting it? Or just be sure to have the correct toon when you choose it? Lol sry for being a bit dense

No it’s not that bad. You get a list which you can choose from and as such you can pick any pack, it does not have to match your race. I am assuming the op chose whichever he saw first and expected to be able to get the rest so the first pick didn’t mean too much. I did the same and simply chose the first on the list.

seabhac.5346:

It is times like these that I really wonder why, after 4 dedicated years, as a veteran, we can’t have all 5 skins. Why, why, why? I mean, what would be the harm? We’ve been here, supporting the game for 4 years! Let us have all 5 skins.

That is all.

Well you can have a four year old character and not be a dedicated veteran. Having a character at launch and leaving for four years gets you the same birthday present I get. Not everyone has played continuously in that time.

Having a four year old character doesn’t make you particularly loyal.

Edit: but there should have been some kind of warning anyway.

Paulytnz.7619:

Sensei Hoisen.9821:

Sorry to be a little lost about this, but to get the back piece that you wanted, you would have had to have logged out with your Sylvari prior to getting it? Or just be sure to have the correct toon when you choose it? Lol sry for being a bit dense

No it’s not that bad. You get a list which you can choose from and as such you can pick any pack, it does not have to match your race. I am assuming the op chose whichever he saw first and expected to be able to get the rest so the first pick didn’t mean too much. I did the same and simply chose the first on the list.

Ah ok, good to know, ty!

Same mistake here…

I also thought I was going to get them per toon, so I chose the Divinity (my least favourite), because I was on my human main… Seriously, there should have been some sort of warning. Would there be any point opening a ticket to get the choice box again?

Look’s like I’m far from being the only one with this misunderstanding then, maybe a ticket is a good idea???

Wait, the birthday thing is character age and not account age?

Yep… made the same mistake. There was no indication it was a once-per-account decision.

Dravyn.4671:

Wait, the birthday thing is character age and not account age?

Yes. Since GW1 it has always been based on each character. So if you delete your first toon, that can set you back

Randulf.7614:

Dravyn.4671:

Wait, the birthday thing is character age and not account age?

Yes. Since GW1 it has always been based on each character. So if you delete your first toon, that can set you back

Sucks for me I guess…i’ve been here since launch but I don’t have any characters that old due to a lot of rerolling.

Dravyn.4671:

Randulf.7614:

Dravyn.4671:

Wait, the birthday thing is character age and not account age?

Yes. Since GW1 it has always been based on each character. So if you delete your first toon, that can set you back

Sucks for me I guess…i’ve been here since launch but I don’t have any characters that old due to a lot of rerolling.

This topic also comes up every year. It took you 4 years to notice? O_o

Khisanth.2948:

Dravyn.4671:

Randulf.7614:

Dravyn.4671:

Wait, the birthday thing is character age and not account age?

Yes. Since GW1 it has always been based on each character. So if you delete your first toon, that can set you back

Sucks for me I guess…i’ve been here since launch but I don’t have any characters that old due to a lot of rerolling.

This topic also comes up every year. It took you 4 years to notice? O_o

Yea, I always thought they were account related. Why the hell would they be tied to a character?

Dravyn.4671:

Khisanth.2948:

Dravyn.4671:

Randulf.7614:

Dravyn.4671:

Wait, the birthday thing is character age and not account age?

Yes. Since GW1 it has always been based on each character. So if you delete your first toon, that can set you back

Sucks for me I guess…i’ve been here since launch but I don’t have any characters that old due to a lot of rerolling.

This topic also comes up every year. It took you 4 years to notice? O_o

Yea, I always thought they were account related. Why the hell would they be tied to a character?

Because each character gets an individual present. It made more sense in GW1 because getting minis was largely done via the birthday loot tables. The tradition has just carried through to GW2.

I did this too, and now I’m stuck with yet another “lumpy pile of assorted garbage” backpack. It’s ridiculous that after 10 years of every character getting every birthday present every year they’d suddenly change it up and make just one item account-wide.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

A shame, but we never got a gift/reward for completing the Achievement before (just a Title), so it’s really a plus.

The birthday-finisher last year was also part of/reward for the achievment

Was it!? Well, there you go. And this time, we got a choice. Likely, then, the Devs won’t have to come up with any new rewards for the Achievement for the next 4 years. Brings to mind other yearly reward choices from the franchise.

I’m sure, given time, the CS Team will exchange rewards for those unhappy with their choice.

Good luck.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Was it!? Well, there you go. And this time, we got a choice. Likely, then, the Devs won’t have to come up with any new rewards for the Achievement for the next 4 years. Brings to mind other yearly reward choices from the franchise.

I’m sure, given time, the CS Team will exchange rewards for those unhappy with their choice.

Good luck.

Hmm but they are apparently unable to remove skin unlocks so it would not be an exchange …

Good point. I had forgotten that.

In that case, I have no idea what the CS Team might be able to offer.

Felix Omni.3829:

I did this too, and now I’m stuck with yet another “lumpy pile of assorted garbage” backpack. It’s ridiculous that after 10 years of every character getting every birthday present every year they’d suddenly change it up and make just one item account-wide.

Contact support and they’ll help you out.

I think this may be an experiment. Plenty of posters said they wanted account gifts rather than multiples of the same thing for characters or losing out due to re-rolling alts, so ANet may be testing a way to acknowledge account age. I’m curious if people who don’t have any four year old alts but did make their account on day one of head start have gotten this backpack choice?

I may end up never picking a backpack at all just due to being so unsure which one to get. The Grove one exactly matches my main reaper’s current look (even the colors are exactly her dye scheme), but she changes appearance most of all of my characters. The DR one suits a currently highly RP’d alt. The Hoelbrak one fits both my scrapper and druid. The Rata Sum one doesn’t look like it would hold anything, but it’s just pretty as all get out … so yeah. The choice is out there, hovering.

Donari.5237:

I think this may be an experiment. Plenty of posters said they wanted account gifts rather than multiples of the same thing for characters or losing out due to re-rolling alts, so ANet may be testing a way to acknowledge account age. I’m curious if people who don’t have any four year old alts but did make their account on day one of head start have gotten this backpack choice?

I may end up never picking a backpack at all just due to being so unsure which one to get. The Grove one exactly matches my main reaper’s current look (even the colors are exactly her dye scheme), but she changes appearance most of all of my characters. The DR one suits a currently highly RP’d alt. The Hoelbrak one fits both my scrapper and druid. The Rata Sum one doesn’t look like it would hold anything, but it’s just pretty as all get out … so yeah. The choice is out there, hovering.

The Birthday Hero Achievements are based on character age, rather than account age; thus players with 4-year old accounts sans 4-year old characters would not be eligible for the reward.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero_

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

A shame, but we never got a gift/reward for completing the Achievement before (just a Title), so it’s really a plus.

Actually.. Finisher last year.
Mail delivery this year, the back should have gone to the per character thing.

Donari.5237:

I’m curious if people who don’t have any four year old alts but did make their account on day one of head start have gotten this backpack choice?

The achievement is triggered by opening the 4th birthday gift. If you don’t get the achievement then you don’t get the backpack.

Yes, I understood that part, I was just wondering if it was an account thing. Inculpatus cleared that up for me (thanks!) — I had not been able to find the achieve in my hero panel achieve tab so I couldn’t see the text which that wiki entry includes. I’d forgotten those earlier birthday achieves existed.

Well, maybe next year when we have 5 year old alts we’ll be able to choose another backpack and there’ll be another cool choice to make as well?

Surly the mail carrier should have been an achievement reward, and the back pack in the birthday gift, just saying.

BrotherBelial.3094:

Surly the mail carrier should have been an achievement reward, and the back pack in the birthday gift, just saying.

Could have been a “pick one but unlocks all” thing as well.

It’s an account-wide thing? Seriously??

Assuming you pick one per year, that means it’ll take 5 years to complete the whole set. Is that seriously their plan?… because that sounds really weird, unless there will be a way to get the rest of the set another way…

Ronan.9518:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

A shame, but we never got a gift/reward for completing the Achievement before (just a Title), so it’s really a plus.

The birthday-finisher last year was also part of/reward for the achievment

It was, but like the new birthday mail carrier there was only one option.

This is the first time they gave us a choice. I would not have been so hasty opening the package if I’d realized it came with an achievement and not the package. I think the grove one is cool, but I’m not sure I’d pick it as my one and only.

I too picked the first backpack on the first character to get the birthday presents. I too picked the wrong one. I contacted support to try to change to a different backpack, but as this is a skin, and it unlocks upon choosing it, there isn’t anything support can do to fix this. I really hope the others will be available in the coming years.