Character

A character in Guild Wars primarily refers to the in-game avatar that the player controls and guides through the game. The term can also be used to refer to the non-player characters that are controlled by the game's AI.

Each game account comes with four initial character slots. As additional campaigns are purchased, the number of slots increases by two. For an owner of all three campaigns, that person will have eight character slots in total. Players can also acquire additional character slots from the Guild Wars Online Store for a fee. The current maximum slots purchasable is 26.

Creation

Character creation takes players through a sequence of options that determine the character's appearance and function. An empty character slot is required to undergo this process.

• PvP-only character or roleplaying character: Where the character will be able to play. PvP-only characters begin at maximum level, but are restricted from PvE.
• Campaign: Decides the character's lineage as well as their starting point in PvE.
• Primary Profession: This will determine the character's primary attribute and starting skills. For PvE, this also determines the beginning tutorials.
• Gender: Choose the character's sex. This will affect armor and appearance options.
• Appearance: Choose the face, skin tone, hair color, and hairstyle of the character.
• Height and Armor: Choose the height of the character, as well as the color(s) of their starting armor.
• Name: Choose a name. Names must follow ArenaNet's Naming Policy, not be currently in use, or be a single word.

After all of these choices have been made, the character will be created. PvP characters will begin at the Great Temple of Balthazar and PvE characters will begin at their respective campaign tutorial areas: Ascalon, Shing Jea Monastery, or Istan.

Modification

A character's physical features or appearance can be altered after the character's creation:

• Many different kinds of armor and weapons can be acquired by characters as they advance in the game.
• Gender, height and appearance can be changed by Anatomical Engineer Llye with Makeover and Extreme Makeover Credits.
• A character's name change can be purchased from the official Guild Wars Online Store.

Deletion

In order to delete a character, players must head to the character selection screen, select the character they would like to be deleted and press the "Delete" button (default hotkey "D"). To help prevent accidental deletion of a character, players are also required to enter the character's name into a dialogue box, and then press the "Delete" button (or "Enter" on the keyboard). Once a character has been deleted, their progress as well as all of their belongings that they were carrying (including that of their heroes) will also be deleted. Deletion is permanent and cannot be reversed.

Players are automatically given a name reservation lasting 24 hours after the character's deletion. This allows players to create a new character with the same name without someone else taking it in the process. This reservation ends early if the account fills all their open character slots. ^{[verification requested]}

Be aware that customized items are tied to the character themselves, and not the character's name. Deleting a character and then remaking it with the same name will not grant access to the previously deleted character's customized items.

Notes

Bug.Sometimes after making a PvE character and then logging out to the character selection menu, the character will not appear, although when you try to make a new one, it will come up with an error message. Logging out or playing on a different character will fix this error.

Bug.If you re-create a character with the same name as the predeceasing which had unspent attribute points and not clicked the message to spend them, a new message informing you have unspent attribute points will pop up although the new character cannot have any.