Homesteads: What Can You Do with Your Own Home?
Homestead
At a glance
You receive a homestead during the Janthir Wilds story. Decorate as much as you like, and start using its resting bonus, bank access, and any gathering nodes you have unlocked.
What is a homestead?
A homestead is a personal instance introduced in Janthir Wilds. You can decorate your own space and use conveniences such as a resting bonus.
Do I need to work on it?
You do not need to spend lots of gold or time decorating. The JW story does include receiving your homestead and making a bed. After that, train the resting and gathering features you want, and decorate at your own pace. Buying certain legendary components requires mastery tier 5.
Home instances, homesteads, and guild halls
Home instance
- Account upgrades are shared across the instances in all five racial cities
- Enter directly from a racial city
- No freeform decorating
- Unlockable gathering nodes
- Available in the base game
Homestead
- Shared across your account, with one unlocked plot active at a time
- Enter through a Conjured Doorway on maps where the skill is allowed
- Freeform decorating, up to 2,000 placed decorations
- Gathering nodes, unlocked separately; collection boxes available
- Handiwork Workbench
- Resting bonus
- Requires Janthir Wilds
Guild hall
- Shared by guild members
- Press G, then click Guild Hall
- Decorate using Scribe
- Gathering nodes provided through guild upgrades
- No expansion needed to enter a hall your guild has claimed
The key difference: A home instance is a small area inside a racial city, while a homestead is a separate personal map. Gathering nodes unlocked for your home instance also appear in your homestead, sharing the same daily gathering allowance.
Unlocking and entering your homestead
Unlock requirements
| Homestead | Required expansions | How to unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Hearth's Glow: first plot | Janthir Wilds | Unlocked during the JW story chapter Home Sweet Home |
| Comosus Isle: second plot | Janthir Wilds + Visions of Eternity | After unlocking your JW homestead, ask a Homestead Master to change your plot |
If you own both JW and VoE, choose “change my active Homestead plot” at a Homestead Master. Switching removes the current arrangement and returns decorations to storage, so save your layout first.
Entering with a Conjured Doorway
Use Summon Conjured Doorway to place a doorway and enter your homestead. The skill unlocks during the JW story chapter Home Sweet Home.
Conjured Doorway basics
- Keybind: Right-click Summon Conjured Doorway in the Mastery Skill menu to select it, then press J. You can also assign a dedicated Conjured Doorway key in Options.
- Ground-targeted skill: places a doorway at the selected location
- 2-second recharge, 600 range
- The doorway disappears if you remain more than 1,000 units away for 10 seconds
Some areas block the skill. You cannot summon a Conjured Doorway inside guild halls, home instances, homesteads, story instances, dungeons including fractals, PvP, or WvW. You cannot enter a homestead while in a squad, or join a squad from inside. Visit alone or in a five-player party.
Use the instance exit button to return to the exact location you came from. Portals inside your homestead also lead to specific destinations.
Portal destinations
- Hearth's Glow: Lion's Arch, Lowland Shore, and The Wizard's Tower after completing Hell Breaks Loose
- Comosus Isle: Lion's Arch, Shipwreck Strand, and The Wizard's Tower after completing Hell Breaks Loose
Inviting friends and visiting
- Party members can enter together through the owner's doorway
- They can also right-click the owner in the party menu to join from any map
- Friends without the expansion can visit; Janthir Wilds is not required for guests
- The owner must be inside the homestead, and guests must play in the same region: NA or EU
What you can do in a homestead
Practical features come first here; decorating has its own section below.
Practical features
Gathering nodes: separate unlocks
- Nodes are not included by default; unlock them through gold purchases, achievements, the Gem Store, and other sources
- Try a friend or guildmate's nodes first. Compare individual unlock costs when you want the convenience of gathering in your own home
- Owners can gather connected nodes through collection boxes at mastery tier 4
Resting bonus
- Rest near the house for four hours to receive four hours of increased open-world experience and PvP/WvW reward track gain
- Higher mastery tiers improve the bonus
Crafting stations and bank access
- A Handiwork Workbench is provided. Unlock the Cooking Station by reaching Chef 425 and progressing Gourmet Training on that character
- Crafting stations provide access to your bank and material storage
Jade bot upgrades
- Craft and place a Jade Bot Workbench decoration to change modules
Return to your previous location
- Use the instance exit button to return to where you entered from
Other features
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Fishing | Available after unlocking fishing. Hearth's Glow has freshwater fish; Comosus Isle has Saltwater Tropical Fish. An unlocked skiff appears at the pier |
| Alt characters | Characters logged out in the homestead appear as NPCs. There is no limit to characters left there, but up to 30 are randomly selected to appear at once |
| Stable | Displays your unlocked mounts with their equipped skins |
| Cats | Cats adopted around the world appear in your homestead |
| Jukebox | Place a jukebox decoration to play collected game music |
| Café Console | Place a Café Console decoration to access the Cozy Café minigame |
Customization settings
Ask a Homestead Master about day/night, movement, wildlife, and skies. Shared decorating and layout saving are in the on-screen decoration settings menu, marked by a gear icon.
- Manually adjust day and night
- Toggle fall damage
- Allow or block mounts and gliding
- Show or hide wildlife
- Decoration settings: Enable Party Decoration allows party members to place, move, and erase decorations
- Decoration settings: Load/Save Layout uses local XML files. Enable Party Layout Saving lets guests save your layout
- Change the sky using Gem Store sky unlocks
Homesteading masteries
Homesteading is a Janthir Wilds mastery track with seven tiers. Completing it takes 28 mastery points and approximately 11.18 million experience.
| Tier | Name | MP | XP | Main unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Novice | 1 | 381,000 | Handiworker level 1 recipes, homestead expansion, and resting bonus |
| 2 | Initiate | 2 | 635,000 | Handiworker level 75, further expansion, and improved resting bonus |
| 3 | Apprentice | 3 | 1,016,000 | Handiworker level 150, further expansion, and improved resting bonus |
| 4 | Journeyman | 4 | 1,524,000 | Handiworker level 225 and collection boxes for bulk gathering |
| 5 | Adept | 5 | 2,032,000 | Handiworker level 300 and access to legendary component purchases |
| 6 | Master | 6 | 2,540,000 | Handiworker level 400 |
| 7 | Grandmaster | 7 | 3,048,000 | Handiworker level 500, +500 decoration capacity, and maximum resting bonus |
A practical mastery order
1
Tier 1: start crafting and resting MP 1
Unlock a new room, early crafting recipes, and a resting bonus. You can enter your homestead even before training this tier.
4
Train through tier 4 for collection boxes 10 MP in total
Owners can use each box to gather connected nodes in the mine, lumber mill, and farm. This becomes more useful as you unlock more nodes.
5+
Tier 5 and beyond: decorations and legendaries
Continue training if you want more decorations or need legendary crafting components.
Train the Homesteading mastery track to raise your Handiworker level.
Getting started with decorating
Enter decorating mode
Click the Decorating button on screen. In decorating mode, you can place, move, rotate, and remove decorations.
Decoration limits
| Limit or upgrade | Amount |
|---|---|
| Base placement limit | 1,000 |
| Maximum placement limit | 2,000 |
| Grandmaster mastery bonus | +500 |
| Purchased upgrades: Homestead Decoration Limit Increase | Five available, adding 100 each |
| Storage limit per decoration type | Usually 250; display cases, signs, and some other decorations have separate limits |
Cannot place another decoration? If the game says there are too many decorations in an area before you reach the overall limit, the local arrangement is too dense. Spread decorations farther apart.
The default plants and trees
Homesteads start with hundreds of placed decorations, such as plants and trees. Comosus Isle starts with 498 decorations of 128 types. You can remove them to return them to decoration storage. Clear the space you want to use.
Handiworker crafting
Handiworker is the crafting discipline used to make homestead decorations.
- It does not count toward your active crafting license limit, so you can use it alongside your existing disciplines
- Levels come from Homesteading masteries, rather than crafting items
- It is separate from Scribe: Scribe makes guild hall decorations, while Handiworker makes homestead decorations
Recipe sources
- Homestead Master NPC
- Lion's Arch Aerodrome Merchant
- Janthir renown heart vendors
- Cantha Research Merchant
- WvW Skirmish Merchant
- Story and achievement rewards
Your first decorating steps
1
Remove any default plants or trees you do not want
2
Check the recipes available at the Handiwork Workbench
3
Start with one area at a time instead of trying to decorate the entire map
4
Exchange basic materials for Refined Homestead Fiber, Wood, and Metal at the farm, lumber mill, and metal forge. Check your chosen decoration's recipe first.
Gathering nodes and collection boxes
Where nodes appear
The mine, lumber mill, and farm contain home gathering nodes unlocked on your account. Existing home instance nodes carry over. Unlock additional nodes through achievements, vendors, the Gem Store, and other sources; costs vary by node.
Cannot find the ore? Look inside the homestead's mine. The mine on Comosus Isle has reduced gravity.
Gathering rules
- Once per day per account, refreshed at daily reset
- Home instances and homesteads share gathering limits. Gathering a node in one prevents a second harvest of that node in the other
- You cannot place duplicate copies of a node type
- Visitors can gather the owner's nodes, even after the owner has gathered them; garden plots are an exception
Collection boxes: bulk gathering
Unlock these at Homesteading tier 4, Journeyman.
- The mine, lumber mill, and farm each have a collection box
- The owner can collect connected ore, wood, and plant nodes through the relevant box. Visitors gather nodes individually
- Collection boxes do not consume gathering tool charges
- Upgrade them with Material and Currency Gathering Glyphs
Try gathering in someone else's homestead first. You can use your account's daily gathering allowance in a friend or guildmate's homestead. When deciding whether to buy a node, compare its purchase cost and the materials it provides. The main benefit of owning nodes is being able to gather whenever you want. If you already have a homestead you can visit daily, you do not need to buy every node at the start.
Garden plots
- Speak to Gardener Morris to manage your garden
- Visitors should gather ordinary garden crops before the owner does. Varietal crops, used in ascended food, can only be gathered by the owner
Frequently asked questions
Are homesteads and home instances the same thing?
No. A home instance is a small area in a racial city, while a homestead is a separate personal map unlocked in Janthir Wilds. Your unlocked home gathering nodes appear in both and share their daily limits.
Will I fall behind if I skip homesteads?
Decorate and buy nodes as much or as little as you want. The JW story includes a homestead section, and certain legendary component purchases require mastery tier 5. For everyday use, start with the resting bonus and bank access at the workbench.
How do I get the resting bonus?
Check for the Resting effect near the house before logging out. Resting time continues while offline. After four hours, you receive a four-hour bonus. At tier 7, it grants +25% open-world experience and +10% PvP/WvW reward track gain.
What is the second homestead, Comosus Isle?
It is another plot available to owners of both Janthir Wilds and Visions of Eternity. Unlock your JW homestead, then ask a Homestead Master to change plots. It has a seaside theme, Saltwater Tropical Fish, and 498 initial decorations of 128 types. Save your current layout before switching.
How do I invite friends?
Enter your homestead, then party members can accept an invitation or right-click your name in the party menu to join. Guests do not need JW, but must play in the same region, NA or EU. You must remain inside your homestead, and visitors cannot be in a squad.
Decoration materials seem complicated. Where should I start?
You do not need to make advanced decorations immediately. Early Handiworker recipes use simpler materials, and you will collect many ingredients as you play. Take your time.
How is this different from a guild hall?
A guild hall is shared by guild members and decorated through Scribe. Your homestead is personal and uses Handiworker. They are separate systems.
Beginner tips
TIP 1
Aim for tier 4 if you have gathering nodes
Collection boxes at tier 4 make gathering your unlocked nodes faster. If you do not have nodes yet, prioritize the crafting recipes and resting bonuses you want.
TIP 2
Log out near your homestead's house
Enter through your doorway, check for the Resting effect near the house, then log out. Your bonus will be ready after four hours. Logging out at the outer edges of the map does not accumulate resting time.
TIP 3
You can remove default plants and trees
They return to storage, so you can place them again later.
TIP 4
Decorate one area at a time
Working on one area at a time is easier to manage. You will collect more materials as you play.