Overview

The latest Living World update, Escape From Lions Arch,
sees the (almost) culmination of the Scarlett Briar story arc, resulting
in the antagonist attacking the capital city of Lions Arch alongside her
Aetherblades. 

For existing, returning or new players, it can be a confusing
event not only because the primary hub in the game been attacked, but a
once peaceful location is now burning and filled with combat events for
you to participate in. However, the main things you need to know is that
at the heart of all the goings on, its your job to rescue as many
survivors as you possibly can (to do this, you simply need to interact
with any Citizens that you encounter). 

It’s important to note that Escape from Lions Arch is a cyclical event
which means that it begins at a set time (around 4 minutes past the hour,
every hour) and concludes at around 50 minutes past. Alongside this, at
around the 40-45 minute mark, several events will trigger with these
appearing only once throughout the cycle.

Achievements

Entrance

There are a total of 3 entrance achievements available before the event
officially starts. At 4 minutes past the hour, as noted above, you should
stand outside one of the following Waypoints:

• Cornucopian Fields Waypoint (Gandarran Fields) - “The
  Northern Gambit” 
• Archen Foreland Waypoint (Bloodtide Coast) - “Breach From the
  Beach”
• Just South of Durmand Priory Waypoint (an Asuran Gate in Lornars Pass)
  - “Cold Comfort”

At 4 minutes past groups of Aetherblades will descend from the sky. It’s
your job to kill them and break their morale. Dependant on the number of
players with you, it takes around 3 minutes to complete and dependant on
which event you participate in, will provide you with one of the 3
achievements above. To obtain all 3, you’ll need to participate in 3
Escape from Lions Arch events. Once you’ve completed an event, you can now
enter Lions Arch. 

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Escorting NPC's

Once inside Lion’s Arch, it’s likely the first events you’ll encounter
are escort based, with 2 achievements available for completing them:

• “Please Follow Me to the Exit”
• “All Bets are Off”

For the “Please Follow Me to the Exit” achievement,
you need to complete the following escorts:

• Children
• Black Lion Dolyak
• Ogres
• Racing Moas
• Lighthouse Workers
• Lawson Marriner

It makes no difference as to which you complete first but you need to
complete all the escorts to obtain the achievement. It’s probably best to
start with the easiest, which tends to be the Children
and Dolyak, simply because that’s where most people
start from and so you have more people to help you. Both the Children and
Dolyak escorts begin from the Traders Forum.

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For the Ogres and the Lighthouse Workers,
you’ll need to head to the East and South West of the map (the Postern
Ward area and Lions Gate area, respectively). These are both more
difficult than the Children and Dolyak escorts because they move quicker
and as they’re further away from the entries into Lion’s Arch, there is
the likelihood of less players to help you out. 

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The Racing Moas and Lawson Marriner occur
towards the final minutes of the Escape from Lions Arch event (around
40-45 minutes past the hour). The Racing Moa occurs where the race track
used to be (east of Deverol Island) and Lawson Marriner occurs at
Commodore’s Manor. 

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Lastly, to achieve the “All Bets are Off” achievement,
you need to secure the safe passage of all 7 Moa.

Location Defending

There are 4 defensive based achievements available: 

• “Traders Forum Triumphant”
• “Fort Marriner Fighter”
• “Postern Ward Protector” 
• “Triple Play”

Throughout the Escape from Lions Arch event, various shield icons will
appear on the map around the Traders Forum, Fort Marriner or Postern Ward.
These typically means that the location is under attack (though they share
the same icon as escort!) and will happen around every 4 to 5 minutes.
Achievements are awarded for completing each defend event (at each
location) but you only need to participate in a single event at said
location to obtain the achievement, as long as they all succeed.

It should be noted that defend events will not begin if Scarlet's forces
are holding encampments, and if you see a set of crossed swords at any of
the three locations (Traders Forum, Fort Marriner or Postern Ward) that
denotes that a defend event has started and failed.

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To earn the “Triple Play” achievement all 3
location defending events need to succeed during an evacuation
cycle. 

Miasma Events

During the Escape from Lions Arch event, the 3 factions we’ve encountered
previously during Living World (Molten Alliance, Aetherblades and Krait)
will appear, across 3 areas of Lions Arch. When they arrive, they’ll
attempt to release a cannister of Miasma (poison to you and I). It’s your
job to stop them from doing this. The achievement you’re chasing here is “Triple
Threat”.

The 3 spawn locations for the factions tend to be:

• Aetherblades spawn near to Dermond’s Dig site and make their way
  towards the beach.
• Krait spawn near to Deverol Island and drop the Miasma in the middle
  of it.
• Molten Alliance tend to attack around Fort Marriner to the east and
  west of it.

They’re easily identified on the map by their crossed swords, underlined
by a chain.

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For best practice, It’s much more effective if you and small groups of
players take on these events due to Guild Wars 2’s scaling system. If too
many people flood the events, they become super difficult and you may run
out of time. Molten Miasma is without doubt the most difficult and it’s
primarily because of the area of effect fire rings, which can kill in
seconds. Completing all 3 events awards the “Triple Threat” achievement.

Bosses

As mentioned at the very beginning, at around 40-45 past the hour, bosses
will begin to spawn. Thankfully they always spawn in the same locations:

• Elite Aetherblades (Grand Pizza)
• Champion Molten Berserker (Fort Marinner)
• Champion Toxic Wurm (Postern Ward)

It’s likely you’ll have to participate in Escape from Lion’s Arch several
times to tag all 3 bosses. Doing so will grant you the following
achievements:

• “Aetherblade Broken” (Aetherblades killed)
• “Melted and Muted” (Molten Berserker killed)
• “Antitoxin” (Wurm killed)

Additional Achievements

“Memories in your Hands” is earned through locating 30
Heirlooms scattered around Lion’s Arch (in rubble piles). They either drop
from Scarlets troops or Bags of Alliance supplies. The quickest way is to
find the rubble, with 40 available in Lion’s Arch (see image). Please note
you can farm the rubble once daily.

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Tips and Strategy

• Completing events rewards you with citizen’s. It’s in your best
  interests to complete as many as possible, as quickly as possible.
• Triple Play provides +5 citizens per event, as well as a bonus of +35
  citizens.
• Each escort provides +5 citizens.
• Champion kills provide +10 citizens.
• There are a variety of “Procs” that you can earn around certain
  locations, which can be used alongside your standard food that provide a
  30 minute combat boost:
• Vigil Valiance is obtained by defending Trader’s Forum.
• Priory Aethershield is obtained by holding Postern Ward.
• Quickness of Whispers is obtained by securing Fort Marriner.
• Completing Escorts provides you with a variety of bonuses or benefits.
  For example, escorting Ogres will grant you a recipe for Utility Feast
  or if you rescue the Moa’s, you’ll gain a speed buff.
• Utilise the maps already in existence for Heirlooms and Citizens. Our
  Heirloom one is above, but Rainwhisper over on Reddit made a fantastic
  version for citizens.
• Utilise Potions of Slaying Scarlet’s Armies. They provide a boost
  against the enemies you’re facing and are as little as 4 copper on the
  Trading Post. 
• Leave Feasts and Banners at the 3 entrances into Lion’s Arch so
  players are well buffed
• If you have a Commander tag, make sure you use it and try to spread
  yourself away from the roaming groups - Escaping Lion’s Arch is better
  when players aren’t all congregated in one area.
• Try to locate all the Citizens - this is an easy boost for your total.
• Don’t create a too bigger group of players when completing the dynamic
  events as the enemies you face will scale in power and make your job
  much harder.
• Ensure you’ve got swiftness or speed buffs at the ready (these are
  also available in entrances) as you’ll need to quickly move around the
  map. You can also use several Waypoints within Lion’s Arch but these
  will cost you money.
• The number of citizens you can rescue (for maximum rewards) is 1,200 -
  you should aim for this for the best rewards.
• Earning 1,200 Citizens rescued gives you the Ultimate Citizens Rescued
  Bag, this has a chance to provide you with some of the following:

1. Jet Pack
2. Monacle
3. Rebreather
4. Dragon Coffers
5. Sentinel Armor

• If you’re part of a guild, try to help with the coordination and split
  your players so that they can cover different areas of Lion’s Arch.
• Remember that the Battle for Lion’s Arch can be repeated every hour,
  at 4 minutes past the hour. You will need to be outside of the city at
  one of the 3 Waypoint’s to get back in.