Guild Wars 2

Is it expensive in Guild Wars to change your appearance? I love the wide variety of armors and options in the Makeover Kits. But it seems like it costs $10 or more of real money to change your appearance. You need a transmute charge for every gear slot and then the makeover kit.

Is that right? If so, then I guess I am not supposed to frequently change my appearance but plan one out and stick with it.

Given all the amazing options in the game this makes me sad.

Am I missing something?

You’re missing a few things actually.

Firstly you only need transmutation charges if you want to combine 2 items into one. If you have one piece of gear with perfect stats and another with a skin you love (and they’re the same type – both axes or both light chest armor or whatever) then you can use a transmutation charge to combine them so you’ve got a skin you love AND good stats.

But it may be possible to find an item that comes with both already, and then there’s no need to transmute it – just equip it as normal. Or you could have a few different sets for different situations.

It’s also possible to get transmutation charges for free. It’s a guaranteed reward for exploring a city and fairly common from other places (completing other maps, daily and monthly achievements etc.) I’ve never bought any and I’ve got over 40, not counting ones I’ve spent.

And if you do need to buy them you can exchange gold for gems and get them that way instead of spending real money to do it.

Thank you!

Extra text to get me to 15 characters

To clarify, you need the skin unlocked in the Wardrobe, so you have to in some way bind the skin-item to you. So long as it remains tradeable to another player, you won’t have the skin.

Then you open your Wardrobe tab and click on the item you want to change while you have it equipped. You’ll see available skins at the panel’s left. Click one of those, you’ll see it change in the preview. At the upper right it will warn that making the change will use a charge, and show your total charges available. Confirm and poof, you have your new look!

Be advised the charges are account wide, not per character.

I don’t know if you are new to the game, so I’m not sure if this helps you.

If you reach certain milestones in Achievement Points, you get a free Total Makeover Kit (as well as 400 gems). I believe this is at every 5,000 Achievement Points.

Furthermore, you can buy gems for in-game gold (rather than real money). The exchange rate is volatile, and it’s not cheap, but it may be interesting for you if you accumulate enough gold.

Plus dailies very rarely give a hair kit and since you are leveling story line will give keys which open black lion chests which occasionally give kits.