Guild Wars 2

Why do i have to pay 200 gems to play episode 3 of the living story?

Note: i was on vacation the two weeks it was on so it may have something to do with that.

Yep.
If you miss the window when an episode is available you will need to buy it for 200 gems to have access to it.

You could also join someone that does have it unlocked if you only want to see the story.

Unfortunately you missed the free window period.

But 200 gems is the equivalent of $2.50.

So basically it’s a Starbucks coffee (a cheap Starbucks coffee) to unlock them.

Draknar.5748:

Unfortunately you missed the free window period.

But 200 gems is the equivalent of $2.50.

So basically it’s a Starbucks coffee (a cheap Starbucks coffee) to unlock them.

Or around 25 ish gold. If you don’t want to spend real money.

OR FREE if you ask someone who have episode 3… You can travel in his story and repeat it again and again and again, until you get bored…

Biohazard.7523:

OR FREE if you ask someone who have episode 3… You can travel in his story and repeat it again and again and again, until you get bored…

unless you hunt achievement points.

To summarise ways to access Living Story content are:

1) Log in during the 2 week window and it will be unlocked for all your characters to play as many times as you want, whenever you want. This includes all the rewards and achievements.

2) If you missed the window of opportunity you can pay 200 gems (bought with real money or with gold) and unlock it, then it works exactly the same as above.

3) Form a party with someone who has it unlocked and you can play through the entire storyline for free but will not get any of the rewards or achievements.

Alternatively you can skip it. You don’t need to have played previous episodes to access the current and future ones. If you’re not interested in the items or achievements and you’re happy reading a summary of the story or watching it on Youtube (or even ignoring it completely) you can do that too.

Most of Episode 3 was open-world stuff anyways. So there’s few instances you actually miss. A grand total of 6 instances, and only 2 have any fighting in them, and 2 are insanely short with 0 exposition, the last 2 instances being short with exposition.