Like many other MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2 has its own microtransactions store that has a gem currency. Mostly, the gem store, called Black Lion Trading Company, is filled with cosmetic upgrades because the game prides itself on steering away from "pay-to-win" practices. That doesn't mean it's entirely useless for those who don't care about cosmetics. Guild Wars 2's own gem store actually does have some useful items aimed at convenience.
At most, they reduce the amount of traveling or effort players need to peruse the in-game services, such as storage or salvaging. Suffice to say, it's recommended that players prioritize purchasing these items before splurging on those mouth-watering cosmetics. After all, gold takes a considerable grind to acquire in order to turn into gems so you might as well make the most out of them if you earned the gems that way.
Updated March 31, 2022, by Sid Natividad: Guild Wars 2 remains a strong MMORPG entry, and part of the reason why is due to its rather generous monetization scheme. There are no paid power advantages here and at most, there are some conveniences for sale in the Guild Wars 2 Gem Store.
Speaking of which, the best Gem Store items in GW2 are always those that will make a player's life easier. You might be tempted to purchase the cosmetics but you have to consider the utilities first. Guild Wars 2 has recently released its End of Dragons expansion and with it came some new GW2 Gem Store items. Many players will be diving in and returning again, so we've updated this list of GW2 best Gem Store items. Because the Guild Wars 2 Gem Store has gotten even more vast, it pays to know which of these items are the most valuable.
20 Gems
- Price: Fluctuates
- Purpose: Purchasing Gem Store items and story content
Obviously, the standard best item to purchase in the in-game store would be this premium currency. Guild Wars 2 Gems have always played an important role in keeping the game free-to-play while also turning it profitable for the developers and publishers.
Apart from spending real-life cash on Gems, players can also just convert their Gold into Gems. The price fluctuates quite a lot, so it might be best to wait for the Gem prices to become lower than usual for the best deal.
Gold price typically spikes up if there are lots of players converting the currency. This usually happens when there's a meta event that grants lots of gold.
19 Metabolic & Utility Primer
- Price: 150 for 1, 550 for 5, 2,625 for 25
- Purpose: Prolonging food and utility bonuses
Food and utility consumables in Guild Wars 2 have always been a part of the meta. It's important for min-maxing and a lot of players look for any boost they can, especially when participating in Raids of high-level Fractal Dungeons.
Too bad the food and utility buffs don't last that long, but when paired with the Metabolic or Utility Primer items, they can last as long as 12 hours. It's a convenience item more than anything but nevertheless great for those tired of cooking or buying food or utility.
18 Runecrafter's Salvage-o-Matic
- Price: 600
- Purpose: Removing Runes and Sigils intact
This is an awesome item that many players have been asking for even early in the game's lifespan. It's a permanent Upgrade Extractor except the item gets destroyed. Because some Runes and Sigils have high market value and are too expensive to keep buying in bulk, so players can swap them into other armor or weapons.
The Runecrafter's Salvage-o-Matic ensures a 100 percent salvage chance for any Rune or Sigil slotted into the armor or weapon. There's also a high chance of recovering rare crafting materials but that's just a bonus when compared to the upgrade recovery.
17 Bank Tab Expansion
- Price: 600
- Purpose: More storage for the Bank Tab
Bank Tabs a.k.a. the discount version of Share Inventory Slots, are rather limited as they are in Guild Wars 2. Sooner or later, you'll need more storage especially when swapping gear between characters. Other times, some precious dye kits will also need to be stored here.
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Hence, purchasing the Bank Tab Expansion can be a good quality of life improvement in Guild Wars 2. More slots mean more gear can be dumped, so you don't have to keep swapping out characters if you forget something that needed to be transferred.
16 Storage Expander
- Price: 800
- Purpose: More storage capacity for crafting materials
This Gem Store upgrade is a godsend for anyone in the process of building their legendary gear because the default 250-item storage capacity for crafting materials is rather low. Some crafting material slots fill up rather quickly and this leads to some of us storing the excess in the character inventory instead.
With the Storage Expander, that ordeal is alleviated a bit since it adds another 250-item storage slots on top of the default. The upgrade also makes it easier for you to have all the legendary crafting materials all in one place instead of distributed over several characters or wasted on mules.
15 Upgrade Extractor
- Price: 250 for 3, 700 for 10, 1,500 for 25
- Purpose: Extracting item upgrades without destroying anything
In the Guild Wars 2 endgame, sigils and runes are some of the most sought-after or even mandatory items if you want the best builds. Sadly, some of them can cost quite a lot of gold, and it can be daunting trying to purchase multiple sigils or runes across all weapons.
That's why you can use an Upgrade Extractor to remove the sigils or the runes. This won't destroy the sigil/rune or the item. Everything stays intact, and you get to keep either the sigil or rune and the item so you can use them later. The downside is that the extractors are single-use so just be wise about usage.
14 Transmutation Charge
- Price: 150 for 5, 270 for 10, 600 for 25
- Purpose: Transferring gear appearance
There are tons of items and gear in Guild Wars 2 and not all of them are aesthetically pleasing. Even the ascended armor or weapons appearance leaves quite a lot to be desired so many players end up changing them to match another item's aesthetics. The most important tool for this is the Transmutation Charge.
These let you transfer the physical appearance (not the stats) of certain gear to different gear. You can actually get charges for free when completing origin city maps but those can get tedious easily. If you have spare Gems, these don't have a high price tag.
13 Revive Orb
- Price: 250 for 1, 900 for 5
- Purpose: On-the-spot revival
Be it fractal runs or world boss fights, Revive Orbs are some of the handiest tools in the GW2 Gem Store. They have a simple and straightforward purpose: to let players revive on the spot without the need for other players' help.
This has tons of combat implications since reviving a dead player takes a while, especially during boss fights. At times, you can even treat this as a clutch move for when an assault goes sour and your whole team needs carrying. Besides, it beats running to and from the waypoints.
12 Shared Inventory Slot
- Price: 700 for 1, 1,890 for 3, 2,800 for 5
- Purpose: Shared inventory slots for easier gear or item access
This one is a little expensive given that it only grants one inventory slot but it's shared and it makes transferring items between your multiple characters painless. That's because Guild Wars 2's load times can be long even with an SSD and once you switch characters, you'll still have to run all the way to the bank and cycle the items.
That can get daunting really fast, especially if you need to switch characters urgently or if you suddenly need your teleporter Mesmer but all the Ascended or Legendary gear is on another character. With this, you can just put any item in the shared slot and they will appear for all characters to use.
11 Infinite Unbound Magic Gathering Tools
- Price: 2,700 Gems
- Purpose: Unlimited use of Unbound Magic Gathering Tools
Unbound Magic is a relatively new resource to Guild Wars 2 as it was only added during the Living World content. Even so, it remains an important currency for players looking to grab themselves some Ascended gear or new cosmetics from the latest maps.
In some situations, you can also use them to increase your Mastery or the endgame level in Guild Wars 2. Again, like any resource that you can gather, Unbound Magic requires finite tools. You can forego the tedium of limited gathering tools by getting yourself one of these Infinite Gathering Tools in the Guild Wars 2 Gem Store. It's a sound investment.
10 Copper-Fed Salvage-O-Matic
- Price: 800 Gems
- Purpose: Unlimited salvage at a cost
Salvaging loot is one of the most common methods of trying to earn gold from events. The trouble with that is that salvage kits are finite and take up considerable inventory space, especially when you need a lot of them while running meta events.
That's why the Copper-fed Salvage-o-Matic is a godsend, especially for players whose main source of gold is running meta events around maps. Each use does consume copper currency but that's negligible and is more worth it in the long run compared to purchasing finite salvage kits.
9 Banker Golem
- Price: 500 Gems
- Purpose: Two weeks of unlimited Bank access on the spot
Having lots of characters in Guild Wars 2 is likely mandatory come late game especially if you don't want to get bored or in case your main class gets nerfed. The problem with this is that banks or storages are located in Lion's Arch so transferring ascended or legendary equipment can get tedious when switching characters.
The Banker Golem mostly solves this problem as it lets players easily access banks wherever they are. The catch is that it's only available for two weeks so if players want something that's more available on-demand, then the Bank Access Express also works wonders.
8 Black Lion Salvage Kit
- Price: 300 Gems
- Purpose: Limited salvaging and retrieval of high-level crafting materials
Runes and sigils are some of the most important components of character building for Guild Wars 2 and the most optimal runes or most optimal items to slot them in change a lot depending on balance updates. Some runes or sigils are just too valuable to not recover when salvaging.
Hence, the Black Lion Salvage Kit is the best solution for this, assuming you don't want to spend several gold to get those Scholar runes or attack-boosting weapon sigil. They are rather precious but can be cheaper compared to bidding for top runes and sigils if you already have a slotted set of those.
7 Instant Repair Canister
- Price: 35 for 1; 150 for 5
- Purpose: Finite and instant on-the-spot repair for broken gear
Guild Wars 2 is quite lenient about dying since the only penalty is broken gear that can be easily repaired but their designated repair areas are never too near. Some players are simply too focused on events or dungeon enemies to mend their broken gear.
During such situations, it's better to have some Instant Repair Canisters so that it's faster to get back into the action especially once players forget to fix their gear until all pieces break and they become useless. These also help immensely in map events where groups are moving fast to care about those with broken gear.
6 Maguuma Pact Operation Portal Device
- Price: 400 Gems
- Purpose: Allows you to monitor ongoing Maguuma events and group trains
Speaking of maps with fast and unforgiving events, Maguuma and all the areas introduced in the Heart of Thorns expansion is rather hectic thanks in part to that one notorious underground maze map where everyone gets lost.
Tracking every event happening in Heart of Thorns maps is daunting. The Maguuma Pact Operation Portal device helps a ton in this regard. More than that, it lets players hop in on the action fast even if they get lost in all the chaos.
5 Tradesman's Package
- Price: 100 for 1; 800 for 10
- Purpose: Merchant, Bank, and Trading access on-the-spot
This gem store item is one of the most popular tools ever in meta events where players can't be bothered to teleport back to merchants or to civilization in order to empty their bags. The Tradesman's Package is a trifecta of services, namely an item merchant, a trading post merchant, and a bankrolled into one.
Anyone in the vicinity can select which of these three services they need to use eliminating the need for some tiring backtracking. This way, players can change world channels quicker and maximize their meta event farming time. The best part is that it can be shared with others.
4 World Boss Portal Device
- Price: 400 Gems
- Purpose: Lets you see ongoing World Boss events in-game and join the fight instantly
Similar to the Maguuma event portal device, this lovely gem from the gem store is less popular these days but still a good investment for anyone following the World Boss train. It's one of the oldest and most proven ways to earn gold while having fun in Guild Wars 2.
The problem is, the World Boss events can be quite inaccessible for anyone who hasn't fully explored the main map. The World Boss Portal Device assists players in keeping up with this event train and ensures that players get to participate.
3 Unlimited Use Tools
- Price: Usually 1,000 Gems per tool
- Purpose: Unlimited-use gathering and crafting tools
Harvesting, gathering, and mining are some of the most underrated activities in Guild Wars 2 that can yield a surprising amount of gold. Too bad they also require an investment of the appropriate tools for the job and these tools come in different tiers for different materials.
That can get annoying fast so anyone dealing with raw materials in Guild Wars 2 will want to invest in unlimited and universal tools instead. These allow for quick and easy material collection and they also free up a good amount of space in the inventory.
2 Self-Style Hair Kit
- Price: 250 for 1; 1,000 for 5
- Purpose: Changing the hairstyle for an existing character or accessing premium hairstyles
Fashion is one of the most popular late game activities in Guild Wars 2 and players will likely be bored of their characters' hairs after several hundreds of hours. Luckily, the game lets players change their characters' hairstyles.
All you need is a Self-style Hair Kit. It not only lets players change their hairstyle and color in-game but also gives access to premium and kit-only hair colors or styles. These get periodically released for the game.
1 Total Makeover Kit
- Price: 350 for 1; 1,400 for 5
- Purpose: Changing the hair and appearance for an existing character or accessing premium faces or hairstyles
Now, the Self-style Hair Kit might sound awesome but it's rather limited if players want to change their character's physical appearance, not just the hair. For such an endeavor, then the Total Makeover Kit might be better.
It's basically a mini-character creation kit minus the race, origin, and class change. It also gives players access to the premium hairstyles and also the premium face-types tucked away. Use it wisely.