Now that Heart of Thorns has been out for a while we thought it would be a good time to share some tips to help players get the most out of their HoT experience. Heart of Thorns has introduced new features and gameplay mechanics that present a significant learning curve, but we’ve got the information to help jump-start the process. Here are our top Heart of Thorns tips.

Gliding Tips

Hold Your Jump To Auto-deploy Glider

After you jump, continue holding the spacebar (or whatever your jump button is) to automatically deploy your glider after you jump. It’s easier than having to tap the space bar twice and might even prevent a few unfortunate gliding accidents (Hint: I’ve had more than a few gliding “accidents”). Holding down jumps will become second nature as you progress through Heart of Thorns. Just remember that gliding doesn’t work in Core Tyria if you leave Heart of Thorns!

Glider Skins Can Be Dyed

Your glider skin can be dyed from the hero panel dye tab listed below all of your other equipped wardrobe pieces. This is a nice feature even though the actual area of the glider that changes color when dyed is relatively small (the dye-able area of the glider is a small strip along its border).

 

Mastery Tips

Masteries Are Account-Wide

Masteries earned in Heart of Thorns are account-wide, meaning that progress is shared across all characters on your account. So if you start HoT with one character and earn 10 mastery points/traits, they will already be unlocked for all of your other characters.

Remember To Select The Next Mastery To Train

Once you max out your current mastery level, any additional XP earned will not count towards your next mastery level until you unlock the current mastery and select a new one to train. So make sure that when your XP bar fills up, you immediately unlock the next mastery level so that newly earned XP doesn’t go to waste.

Earn Mastery Points Through Achievements

The achievement system has been revamped, adding new HoT achievements and assigning mastery points to certain achievements. It may benefit you to look over the achievements before you dive into HoT or at least the main story, since many of the new achievements have specific mission requirements.

Main Story Mastery Requirements

Progressing the main story in Heart of Thorns requires attaining certain levels of Mastery. Here are the minimum Mastery levels required, in order of story progression:

1. Gliding (Level 1)
2. Itzel Lore (Level 1)
3. Exalted Lore (Level 1)
4. Gliding (Level 2)
5. Nuhoch Hunting (Level 1)
6. Itzel Lore (Level 4)*

*This requirement will soon be removed.

 

Leveling Tips

Complete Adventures For Experience

Participating in the many “Adventure” events in Heart of Thorns is a great way to earn experience points. It’s possible to receive over 100k XP for finishing an adventure with gold status. New adventures become available as you complete events in a particular map, and they are displayed by a banner in-game and by an icon on the map.

Purchase Experience Boosters For 1 Laurel

The laurel merchant sells experience boosters for one laurel a piece. Using them will allow you to level up much faster as you work towards obtaining your Heart of Thorns masteries. Although the booster description does not specifically mention that the 50% XP bonus counts towards leveling masteries, I can assure you it does.

 

General Heart of Thorns Tips

When In Doubt, Ask A Scout

Scout in HoT are indicated by an orange and grey map icon in the form of a Greek columned structure. If you talk to a scout when the top half of the icon is grey they will point you to the closest active event. If the icon is completely orange it means that the regions events are currently completed until the meta-event progresses.

Mistward Armor Is Soulbound

Since Mistward Armor is soulbound, make sure that you do not accept the bouncing reward box on the wrong character. Simply log out, switch to the desired character, and then accept. This way you can make sure that your Mistward Armor goes to the right character.

Take Advantage of Enemies’ Breakbars

Understanding the breakbar gives you an important tactical advantage. The breakbar is located directly beneath an enemy’s health bar and has two states, green and orange. Successfully draining the breakbar after it turns green makes the enemy vulnerable or prevents them from gaining power/flying away. The most effective way to drain the breakbar is by using crowd control (CC) skills like immobilize. In larger boss battles, CC coordination among the group is crucial to defeating the enemy target.

Harvest Gathering Nodes For Profit

Harvesting the gathering nodes (plants) in Heart of Thorns can yield a tidy profit since they are currently in such high demand. Flax Seeds in particular are common throughout the new maps, and very valuable. So harvesting these materials is a good idea if you want to make some extra gold.

Repeat Hero Challenges For A Daily Chest

Hero Challenges guarded by a Champion can completed once a day to receive a rewards chest. Rewards usually include map currency and random loot. It isn’t 100% confirmed, but so far it appears that the Hero Challenges with Champions are indicated by a “+” symbol next to their icons on the map, making them easier to locate.

Access Verdant Brink Canopy During The Day

Reaching the Verdant Brink Canopy at night is as simple as using one of the choppers at a rally point, but reaching the canopy during the day is not as obvious. Before attempting these methods it is important to note that they require the use of updrafts (Gliding level 2) and bouncing mushrooms (Itzel Lore level 1) in order to reach some parts of the canopy.

Here are two different methods of reaching the canopy during the day in Verdant Brink:

• Start from Mellaggan’s Valor Waypoint near the North-Central portion of the map. Head East and make your way to the top of the nearby spiral peak. Near the top you will find an updraft that you can glide into. Once you’re in the air, begin gliding South-West where you will see another updraft. Once you reach the second updraft, continue straight and land on top of the wreckage towards the right side where you can continue your ascent into the canopy depending on the direction you’re headed.
• Starting from the Ruins Waypoint in the South-Central portion of the map, head west and continue up the stairs until you reach the dust twisters at the open plateau area. Use the bouncing mushroom at the base of a short cliff straight ahead to reach the next area. Walk through this area until you see a large green vine to the left. Make your way to the vine by walking up the nearby slope. The vine will take you to a floating island where you can access the rest of the canopy.

Use Pact Crowbars to Find Airship Cargo

Double-clicking on Pact Crowbars activates a green trail leading to any Airship Cargo nearby, similar to how Silverwastes Shovels work. This “homing” feature can be used about once every minute. Sometimes, however, the green trail is faint and you have to be very close to the Airship Cargo in order for it to be detected.

Precursors May Be Cheaper To Buy

Although HoT introduces a new precursor crafting system, certain weapons are actually cheaper when purchased directly from the Trading Post. For example, the precursor “Dawn” costs 793 gold to craft but only 710 gold to purchase.

 

Final Thoughts

We hope these Heart of Thorns tips have been useful to you or that you at least learned something new. We’ll continue to post updates as new information and tips are discovered in Heart of Thorns. Now get out there and defeat the Mordrem!