The Mastery System
Mastery System
With a released expansion on your account and a level 80 character, you can train masteries. Fill the track's experience bar, then spend Mastery Points from the same region to unlock its ability.
What are masteries?
Once a character reaches level 80 on an account with a released expansion, you can use experience to train masteries. The experience bar at the bottom of the screen shows progress on your selected mastery.
Hero Points develop one character; masteries develop your whole account. Your level does not increase further. Instead, you unlock permanent abilities such as gliding, mounts, and automatic looting.
Unlocked masteries are shared by characters on your account, so you do not need to train them again. Most work on low-level characters too, though exceptions such as Spectral Aid require level 80.
Each region offers more points than you need to learn all its masteries. The achievements vary in difficulty, however, and masteries cannot be reset. Start with frequently used abilities such as movement upgrades or automatic looting. The regional pages provide suggested priorities.
PvP and WvW have separate progression systems.
When do masteries unlock?
You need two things to unlock the system.
- A level 80 character: Any one character at level 80 is enough
- An expansion: Own at least one expansion, such as Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, or End of Dragons
You need to buy an expansion to use the mastery system.
A character raised with a Level-80 Boost can also train masteries. Expansion tracks open through their own requirements, such as story progress, unlocking a mount, or entering a particular map.
Why is the experience bar full but the mastery still locked?
Unlocking a mastery requires both experience and Mastery Points.
Step 1: fill the experience bar
Select a mastery track and earn experience in its region until the progress bar is full.
Step 2: spend Mastery Points (MP)
After filling the experience bar, spend Mastery Points to unlock the ability.
Filling the bar completes only the experience requirement.
If you switch to another mastery and return later, its earned experience is still there. You can change tracks as needed.
Mastery regions at a glance
Mastery experience and points are separate for each region.
| Region | MP required | MP available | Extra points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Tyria (core) | 49 | 84 | +35 |
| Heart of Thorns | 144 | 198 | +54 |
| Path of Fire | 110 | 130 | +20 |
| Icebrood Saga | 63 | 76 | +13 |
| End of Dragons | 89 | 115 | +26 |
| Secrets of the Obscure | 88 | 103 | +15 |
| Janthir Wilds | 90 | 115 | +25 |
| Visions of Eternity | 67 | 78 | +11 |
| Total | 700 | 899 | +199 |
Every region offers more points than you need to unlock all its masteries.
Start with insights and the story you are playing. If you need more, filter the achievement panel for that region's MP rewards and choose achievements that suit your equipment and playstyle. You do not need to complete every raid or difficult collection.
Which region receives this experience?
- Dungeons, fractals, Southsun Cove, and Living World Season 2 → Central Tyria
- Living World Season 3 → Heart of Thorns
- Living World Season 4 → Path of Fire
What should I train first?
Choose abilities you will use often in your current region. These priorities focus on easier movement and automatic looting.
🏔️ Central Tyria: prioritize automatic looting
Aim for Advanced Logistics, the final tier of Pact Commander. After unlocking it, enable Autoloot: Quick Interact in General Options to collect loot from defeated enemies automatically.
Completing Pact Commander costs 19 MP. It reduces the need to walk over to loot or press F, which is especially convenient in the open world.
| Order | Tier | MP for this tier | Total MP so far | Unlock |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pact Mentor | 1 | 1 | Mentor badge and city movement speed |
| 2 | Productive Downtime | 2 | 3 | Bonus crafting experience |
| 3 | Supply Line Management | 3 | 6 | Access to regional merchants |
| 4 | Noblesse Oblige | 5 | 11 | Faster reviving |
| 5 | Advanced Logistics | 8 | 19 | ⭐ Automatic looting |
Collect them through story and achievements as you play.
🌿 Heart of Thorns: gliding
Start with the Gliding track.
- Glider Basics (1 MP): Enables gliding, an essential way to travel through HoT maps.
- Updraft Use (2 MP): Lets you ride updrafts to gain height.
- Advanced Gliding: Ordinary gliding no longer drains endurance, letting you stay aloft longer. This tier costs 8 MP, or 19 MP in total from Glider Basics. Leaning to adjust your gliding speed still uses endurance.
Next, consider the first tier of Itzel Lore, Bouncing Mushrooms, to use the mushroom launch pads throughout HoT maps.
🐎 Path of Fire: mounts
With a released expansion, you can permanently unlock the raptor from level 10. Owning Path of Fire and reaching level 80 also lets you train its masteries. You can obtain the raptor through PoF's Sparking the Flame as well. After that, choose mounts for the movement abilities you need.
- Raptor: Long horizontal leaps. Canyon Jumping increases leap distance.
- Springer: Vertical jumps to reach high places
- Skimmer: Fast travel over water
Unlock a mount on one character and your other characters can ride it too.
Where do Mastery Points come from?
- Mastery Insights: Glowing points in the open world. Approach and commune with one to earn its point.
- Achievements: Most points are awarded for completing achievements.
- Story progress: Complete personal story, Living World, or expansion achievements marked with an MP reward.
- Adventures: Some silver and gold record achievements award MP. Check the rewards for that adventure.
- Raid bosses: Certain boss kills award Mastery Points
Heart of Thorns MP can only unlock HoT masteries. You cannot spend it in another region. The point colors help distinguish regions.
The Wiki's Mastery Point Unlocks page can use a GW2 API key to show which points your account has earned and which remain. It also lists where to earn each point and its associated achievement. To create a key, follow our API Key Guide.
Frequently asked questions
Q: I have not selected a track. Where is my experience going?
Press H, open the Masteries tab, and check the track for your current region. If you do not select one, the first available track trains automatically. If its bar is full, spend points to unlock it or select another track.
Q: Is excess mastery experience wasted?
Once the selected tier's bar is full, experience goes to another available track. When all unlocked tracks in that region have full experience bars, each further 254,000 XP earns one Spirit Shard. This includes fully trained tiers you have not yet purchased because you lack points.
Q: Can I earn mastery experience in WvW or PvP?
No. Masteries are a PvE system. WvW has its own ability system.
Q: I used a boost, but I cannot see masteries.
Confirm that you own a released expansion and the character is level 80, then open H → Masteries. For Central Tyria, unlock a track in another region or earn a core Tyria MP at level 80. Expansion tracks have individual story, mount, or map requirements.