Updating Your Wallet

by Matthew Pennebaker on June 10, 2015

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Hello, everyone! Matt Pennebaker here from the rewards team, and I want to talk about upcoming changes to the wallet. Let’s jump right in.

Where Is It?

Veteran wallet users know that if you want to check out your current stockpile of wealth, you head to the Hero panel and click on the wallet tab. There you can find all of your currencies laid out in a big grid. You can also navigate there from the little + button in the bottom of your inventory, but that results in opening two windows to view one piece of information. Neither of these options make the wallet easy to find or use, so we’ve moved the wallet to the Inventory panel. Clicking the Wallet button will now toggle your inventory to the wallet view.

What Does It Look Like?

The grid view of the old wallet, while nice to look at, took up a lot of space and didn’t leave much room to expand. Since the wallet is functionally a list of numbers, that’s what we decided to visually display. It’s now much more compact, with the option to filter it, and this makes future additions much easier. At the top of the wallet is a drop-down menu that will filter the wallet to display only the currency categories you want to see.
Hover your mouse over a currency to display its details—some of which you can click for extra functionality, indicated by an icon appearing to the far right. Gems and gold will take you to the Gem Store and Currency Exchange, respectively, while dungeon currencies show you where the entrances to their dungeons are.

As an added bonus, we’ve slightly changed how currencies display in the bottom of your inventory. Your gold will always be there, but the other visible currency will change based on where you are. For example, in World vs. World you’ll see badges of honor, and while in the Fractals of the Mists you’ll see fractal relics.

Did Someone Say Additions?

We’ve added more currencies to the wallet! When you log in after the update, the following items will be converted to currencies and stored in your wallet:

  • Pristine Fractal Relics
  • WvW Tournament Claim Tickets
  • Geodes
  • Bandit Crests

These items will be automatically converted to the new versions of the currencies when the character holding them logs in, so be sure to check each of your characters’ inventories.

What about Skill Points?

Previously, we told you that endless sources of skill points will reward a different currency instead. The new wallet will house the new currency, spirit shards.

Currently, there are two sources of skill points. The first are limited sources, such as skill-point challenges and the level-up guide. The second are endlessly repeatable, such as scrolls of knowledge and leveling up after 80. Skill points also had two uses: unlocking skills, and buying materials for the Mystic Forge.

What we had were two systems that should have been using two different currencies, and now they do. Every source that used to give scrolls of knowledge will now give spirit shards, which Miyani will accept for her materials. A few things will change to accommodate this split:

  • Tomes of knowledge will level you up if you are under level 80 and give one spirit shard if you’ve reached level 80.
  • Writs of experience can only be used if you’re under level 80, and they can be traded in to Miyani for a tome of knowledge at a rate of 20 writs per tome.
  • Leveling up after level 80 no longer grants skill points, but level 80 characters will be able to loot spirit shards off of monsters.
  • Any scrolls of knowledge that you have in your possession will automatically be converted to spirit shards, and any source that used to award scrolls of knowledge will now grant spirit shards.

The conversion of skill points to spirit shards will be automatic. This will happen on a per‑character basis, so make sure to log in on each character to receive your total count! I think you’ll be surprised at just how many spirit shards you have.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy the new wallet!