The Dragon Festival is an annual celebration that begins at the start of summer and marks the anniversary of the establishment of Shing Jea Island and the reconstruction of Cantha after the events of Shiro Tagachi. The events include four main quests, seven missions, a large final event, the Dragon Arena, Rollerbeetle Racing, and the minigames at the Shing Jea Boardwalk.

All of the events can be found at the Shing Jea Monastery, meaning that you will need Guild Wars: Factions in order to participate in the event. The main events are held within the city proper while you will need to teleport to the boardwalk in order to play Dragon Nest, Nine Rings, and Rings of Fortune.

Missions & Events

 There are a total of seven missions and one final event that makes up the bulk of the unique content for the Dragon Festival. The missions involve going out into the various areas on the island and taking on actors who play the role of various monsters from the first Dragon’s Festival in 2006.  Each mission is only available for 30 minutes.

The follow are the seven missions that become available. The times are in PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) and EDT (Eastern Daylight Time).

July 2, 2010

• Haiju Lagoon (4AM/7AM, 12 PM/3PM, 8PM/11PM) – Close the “chaos rifts” in Haiju Lagoon. There are eight rifts total.
• Jaya Bluffs (8AM/11AM, 4 PM/7PM, 12 AM/3AM) – Close the “chaos rifts” in Jaya Bluffs. There are eight rifts total here too.

July 3rd, 2010

• Tsumei Village (2 AM/5AM, 8AM/11AM, 2PM/5PM, 8PM/11PM) – Destroy all of the enemy forces. There are a total of 40 enemies and most of them are outside of the gate.
• Seitung Harbor (4AM/7AM, 10AM/1PM, 4PM/7PM, 10PM/1AM) – Destroy all of the enemy forces. There are a total of 40 enemies and most of them are outside of the gate.

July 4th, 2010

• Tsumei Village (1AM/4AM, 7AM/10AM, 1PM/4PM, 7PM/10PM) – Defend the village.
• Seitung Harbor (3AM/6AM, 9AM/12PM, 3PM/6PM, 9PM/12AM) – Defend the village.
• Shing Jea Monastery (5AM/8AM, 11AM/2PM, 5PM/8PM, 11PM/2AM) – Close the four rifts inside of the monastery.

The final event takes play on July 4th, 2010 and starts at 2 AM PDT and lasts until midnight. Every two hours the emperor shows up and exchanged 250 Victory Tokens for a new mask. Then Celestial Charges will drop down and will need to be picked up and taken to the Imperial Sorcerers. If you take enough charges to them in time everyone is saved and everyone gets a Festival Gift. If not the Grasps of Insanity (who are trying to steal the charges) will go crazy and kill everyone in town. There is an half hour refresh time.

Quests

There are a total of four quests, each one awarding a handsome amount of Victory Tokens. The quests are given by Imperial Guard Hanso.

• The Rampaging Yeti: Head south of Ran Musu Gardens and find Imperial Guard Musashi in Kinya Province. Head to the village west and defend it against the Yetis then head north to the cave where you’ll find a Lesser Grasp to slay. Awards 40 Victory Tokens.
• The Shrine of Maat: Head west out of the Monastery and speak with Musashi then head to the Srhine west in the mountains. Kill the Lesser Grasp who occupies it then speak with Brother Sitai to complete the quest. Awards 50 Victory Tokens.
• A Strange Request: Head west out of the monastery and talk with the Crimson Skull leader outside, then map to Ran Musu Gardens and run south to the Crimson Skull camp. There another Less Grasp awaits you. Defeat it then return for your reward, 60 Victory Tokens.          
• Darkness at Kaitan: Find Musashi this time south of Tsumei Village. Speak with him then kill 7 low level Naga groups. Talk with Farmer Lune and make your way to Raiyan Cave where you’ll find a large group of Lesser Grasps to kill.

Minigames

Dragon Arena

The Dragon Arena is a Guild Wars version of dodgeball. The goal is to hit other players with your “Dragon Blast” (which is equivalent to Lightning Orb) while avoiding other player’s Dragon Blast. It’s a simple game, but requires a large amount of skull and awareness to be excellent at. You will have three skills: Dragon Blast which is exactly like Lightening Orb, Imperial Majesty which is exactly like Shock, and Trade Winds is exactly like Windborne Speed. You’ll need to keep Trade Winds up as much as possible to aid in dodging the incoming Dragon Blasts (strafing is a very good for dodging) while trying to get the enemy.

You will win 40 Balthazar faction for each unique kill. If you win you’ll get 50 faction, 3 Victory Tokens, and 5 Gamer points. A flawless victory will give you 50 faction and you’ll gain an additional 50 faction for every five consecutive wins.

Rollerbeetle Racing

Rollerbeetle racing is perhaps the greatest minigame in all of Guild Wars.

Rollerbeetle Racing is exactly like Mario Kart. You’re given a Rollerbeetle which has its own set of skills and you run around a track collecting powerups (which enable certain super skills) against six other players. The terrain and abilities affect your RRPM (role rate per minute) which determines how fast you move. Your goal is to get to the finish line before everyone else. The following are your core abilities recharged at each checkpoint:

• Rollerbeetle Dash: A sprint.
• Harden Shell: Prevents knockdown, great to use at the start to avoid being knocked out right at the beginning.
• Ram: Knocks everyone around you down and gives you a speed boost. Another great skill to hit at the start to knock everyone down around you.

The rest of your abilities are grayed out until you hit a powerup box, at which point one of the five random abilities will become available:

• Distracting Lunge: Disables the skills of your opponent.
• Spit Rocks: Knocks down your opponent if they hit.
• Rollerbeetle Echo: Works exactly like Echo, great for double sprint or double ram.
• Rollerbeetle Blast: Knocks down an opponent and doesn’t require line of sight.
• Super Rollerbeetle: Max speed increase for 10 seconds in addition to immunity to knockdown.

First place will give you 7 Victory Tokens, 7 Gamer points, 50 Balthazar faction for winning, for a flawless victory, and for 5 consecutive wins. Second place gives you 5 Victory Tokens and 5 Gamer Points, third gives you 3 Victory Tokens and 2 Gamer Points, Fourth gives you 2 Tokens and 2 Gamer Points, and Fifth/Sixth place give you 1 Token and 1 Gamer Point.

Shing Jea Boardwalk

Minigames here require Festival Tickets which are purchasable for 15 gold each.

• Dragon Nest: Similar to Whac-A-Mole, your goal is to tag the black and white hatchlings to gain points while avoiding the red hatchlings, all for the simple cost of one ticket. There are four rounds, each one introduces new mechanics. The first round contains nothing but black hatchlings. The second round contain red hatchlings that knock you down. The third round has white hatchlings that give you more points and cripple nearby foes. The last round awards double points.
• Nine Rings: There are nine rings. It costs 10 tickets to play and one ring is selected and awarded tickets based on the location (25 in center, 40 in one of the edge rings, and 55 if they’re in the corner ring). You will win roughly the same amount of tickets you lose, but you’ll lose more games in the corner than in the center. Stand in the center to work toward the Lucky Title.
• Rings of Fortune: It costs 2 tickets to play. It works like Nine Rings, except there are 16 total rings. One ring is chosen as the winner and those standing on it receive 12 tickets. Any ring in the same row or column is awarded 3 tickets. This is a very slow way to max the Lucky Title and a decent way to max the Unlucky Title because it’s four times cheaper than Nine Rings.

That’s about it to the festival! Be sure to be ready on the 4th with 250 Victory Tokens to claim this year’s Dragon Mask as your prize. Want to talk about how awesome Rollerbeetle Racing is? Come to our community forums and share your thoughts, stories, and experiences with other Guild Wars fans.