Special thanks[edit]

I have used the work of several other cartographers and they deserve a place somewhere:

Shadow Relyk
Enemy Crusher
Also a pretty nameless female ranger
And all those who made the research about jumpable portals on the other wiki
Lohaf
Infinite
aRTy (all about summoned merchant added thanks to him ! Also brought a lot of informations about minion trick)
Sandra Hasenfuss
Nichts Geht Mehr
Mala Gusar
Blue November (to whom I owe most of the old pvp arenas and TA)
Azura
and last but not least God Of Fissures of course, since the mod wouldn't even exist without him

I also thank Pyron Sy and the guild Mystical Chaos a lot ! I have used their mod to get my titles long ago, and their work was the basis to do the new one.

Cartography basics[edit]

Why cartography[edit]

unexplored map

explored map

When moving across an overworld explorable area or outpost in Guild Wars, the map will gradually change, from a blurry view to a detailled one.

In addition to having a cleaner map, cartographing the entirety of a continent is rewarded by four different titles, five if including Master of the North (although Master of the North requires other objectives to be filled).

It is a one of the classic steps towards the God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals title and filling the Hall of Monuments to 50/50. Cartography cannot be skipped for gwamm unless having at least 4 account-wide titles, which are notoriously very long to acquire (usually several years).

Obtaining the last % of a cartography title is tedious because the blur can sometimes be difficult to differentiate, or it may be hard to tell if a given area is part of the explorable area. One can always superpose one's map with a 100% explored map to find the differences, but it is tedious to do and so we have designed a mod, a tool that allows to do that in game in real time easily.

How cartography actually works[edit]

The fog on the map is actually divided in hundreds of unexplored small fog slivers, which permanently lift for a character when this character moves close enough to the sliver. At this moment the percentage tracked by the title increases, even if this does not show on the title track due to rounding.

There is a margin. It is possible to get 100% on the tracking bar (and therefore get the title) without having explored all slivers on a map. Cantha has the smallest margin, while Tyria has the biggest margin.

Texmod and the mod[edit]

Without texmod and the mod

Texmod is a Third-party program which uses mods (.tpf files) to change textures on the user interface.

With texmod and the mod

Cartography rises two main issues (see on the right) : 1) the borders of the fog are very unclear and 2) the explorable part of the map is hard to tell.

This mod allows to 1) better distinguish the fog and 2) know where the map can be explored 3) in real time and in game.

The mod does the following :

1) replaces the fog of war with a much more distinguishable texture,
2) blackens every non-explorable areas.
- There might be explorable areas among the black part. Colored part all can (or could) be explored.
3) adds informations about special conditions for mapping.

The cartography mod can be found here and downloaded here on Mega. The latest update is 1.3 and was released on the 24 of june 2017. See the talk page for possible errors or questions.

Important notes you should read[edit]

Areas contributing to the title[edit]

As a general rule, all underground areas and outposts are NOT explorable.

Exploration of JQ or FA is mandatory in Factions (unless you use map-breaking mechanics, in which case both can be skipped). Partial exploration of Dynastic Tombs is required in Nightfall.

Special areas (cannot be reached by "normally walking" in outposts, in explorable areas or during missions) that may contribute to the title include:
- PvP arenas and their respective outposts (Shing Jea arena, Sunspear arena, Ascalon arena and Shiverpeaks arena, JQ, FA);
- Special quests and/or event areas (The Final Confrontation, Annihilator, Shing Jea Boardwalk)
  - Note that if your character does not have these quests (notably The Final Confrontation), you can team up with another player to access the area.
- Cutscene "areas" while pressing movement keys randomly (Kodonur Crossroads intro, Pogahn Passage ending, Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood intro)
Some areas are not mappable anymore due to game updates:
- Death teleportation now requires a walkable path,
- The summoned merchant now stays close to the summoning player,
- The Undercity is now underground and thus does not count towards the title anymore.
- Amnoon arena, the Crag and Fort Koga are now closed.

It is possible, though not easy, for a foreign character to explore Vizunah Square (Local Quarter). Gate glitch may also work.

The mod is called "borderless" because it features areas that can only be reached by map-breaking mechanics (such as areas beyond a portal). These areas, although normally unexplorable, do contribute to the title. See more at Portal jump and Gate Glitch.

The mod is not perfect[edit]

There is a gate glitchable area in Yak's Bend. See the talk page for more.

There is probably a part north of Vasburg Armory that can be accessed by SaO chain from the Eternal Grove, and another, different one, that can be accessed by SaO chain from Morostav Trail.

Gandara's southeast Gate Glitch actually requires a second gate glitch.
- If your character is N, D or Rt you can autominion trick (AoTL+Blood Ritual+auto res lively was naomei or eternal aura). Otherwise you can flag your heroes and have them go through a portal using the minimap (U). In the worst case scenario you can still ask for help from another player.

The Ascalon Academy PvP arena (the PvP battle right before the mission and which is usually automatically skipped) is missing. The arena is actually pretty big and interesting, although it took me a lot of tries and allies to get in (we succeeded it circa 2017 so it's really possible to get in).

A tiny part of the FA map can only be explored by watching the cutscene and using keyboard(this spot).

Some of the old PvP outposts could probably be explored more.

Some areas have no map for some reason but can be explored (Raven's point, Slavers' exile, the Frost Gate notably).

The Arbor Bay north-western portal (to Riven Earth) jump area has an uncoverable sliver to the north. Can be obtained during Zinn's Trial.

The Magus stone also has a sliver that can be uncovered with wall hugging in a dead end east of the portal to Arachni's Haunt.

Yakk's bend has a big area found by Mala Gusar that requires portal jump + minion trick. Minion trick the barrier close to one of the dolyaks.

The battle for Lion's arch apparently uses a different layout that allows to unveil a spot. Thanks to Azura for finding this !

After the quest, the spot can still be accessed with the minion trick on a gate in Lion's Arch Keep.

Hard to reach areas[edit]

To avoid overwhelming information on the mod, I have not pinpointed the spots to unlock some hard to reach slivers (that require precise wall hugging). You will have to find them on your own. Here are a few of them :