I don’t often blog about games, or specific in-game details, but I felt compelled to blog a little about the map exploration in Guild Wars 2’s The Silverwastes. I couldn’t find a good map exploration guide after a quick Google search, so I decided I’d throw this together to help anyone who is stuck.
I’m not a comprehensive game guide maker like Dulfy, so forgive me if I leave out details or don’t cover everything. Part of the game is exploration, so to some degree, you should be able to do the basics on your own. This guide is mostly for those “hard to reach” areas and tricky spots where it’s easy to get hung up or waste a lot of time.
After doing my first quick pass at The Silverwastes map, I realized there were some key areas that I had missed. This included a cavernous area in the Northeastern Silverwastes zone that includes the SS Topsy-Turvy POI, the Drydock Grotto WP, and the Skritt Ledge skill point challenge.
While not necessary, it may be helpful to have an item like the Flames of Kryta, which is a toy you can equip to cast a small light around your character. This helps you see the ground and the walls a little better. In tough spots, you can even use AoE skills to help you see the outlines of the terrain as you drag the casting cursor around.
Getting to the Caves
The entrance to the entire underground Skritt area, underneath the Northeastern Silverwastes zone, is through a surface-level Skritt camp located where I’ve drawn the red circle in the map above. This area can become contested by bandits, and the bandits must be eliminated before you can proceed. Once the bandits are gone, a ramp on the right-side of the camp will open up that leads down under the ground.
Once inside, it’s very dark. Becareful not to fall off a ledge and die, at least near the entrance. Keep poking around and you will eventually find your way to the Drydock Grotto WP. Once in this area, it’s still tough to find your way around, and it’s easy to fall, but don’t worry, in this area, the Skritt will magically appear and revive you if you fall to your death.
The SS Topsy-Turvey POI is inside the big airship, very close to the Way Point.
Within the ship, there is a Golden Lost Badge. You have to carefully jump down through a hole in the ship to get it. Here’s a screenshot with mini-map to help you find it.
If you head deeper into the cave system, you’ll find a large opening once you’ve gotten past all of the speed boost fountains. There is a lost coin off to the left of this area. (Sorry, no screen shot as I found it before I started writing this post.)
The Skill Point
Now for that pesky skill point! It starts near the entrance of the cave system. You’ll find some junk piled up in a corner, and behind a sheet of metal is a path that goes up-up-up! See picture below.
You’ll climb up this, then about face, and follow a wooden rope ridge along the peaks and side of the cave system. Edge your way closer and closer to the skill point, which you should be able to see in the not-so-far distance. You’ll need to do a one-way jump down off the ledge, just be sure not to over do it. At the point of the little mini jumping puzzle… I’m not sure what is at the end of that, if anything. But for the skill point, just line up the jump down so you land on the bridge. You will die from the fall, but a skritt will revive you. Don’t forget the lost coin that is tucked into the wall right after you fall onto the bridge. You can then fight the Veteran and claim the skill point.The Dowsing Rod
Then, there is this whole Dowsing Rod thing. Gotta find 3 keys and the chest to get it. The Veteran Kri’chta who is standing on the top of the air ship will tell you the story. It looks like the main GW2 wiki has some notes on this, so I don’t need to say much about it. Link