Guild Wars 2 releases new episode: Shadow in the Ice

Guild Wars 2 released its second episode of the fifth season of its Living World: Shadow in the Ice. As the first content update of 2020, the episode expands the zone of the Bjora Marches, which lies deep in the Far Shiverpeaks, an area that we had not yet explored before this season.

Beyond a door in the mountains lies a frozen lake remembered only in norn legend. Seek the source of the whispers plaguing the Far Shiverpeaks. The Icebrood Saga continues in #GuildWars2 January 28! pic.twitter.com/p3caPp4pKr

— Guild Wars 2 (@GuildWars2) January 21, 2020

New features in Shadow in the Ice

Besides the continuation of the story that began in the prologue back in September 2019 and continued with episode one in November, numerous new features were added with the update. The existing half of the Bjora Marches map was given a host of new events and secrets, which, of course, also means new achievements. Grothmar Valley, the map the prologue took place in, was also given a small update with three new Mastery Points to obtain. Then, of course, there is the fully new half of the Bjora Marches to explore as well.

General features and the gem store

The update also introduces several new general features, such as a new role-play tab in the Looking for Group panel. Unfortunately, the update comes years after the initial role-play community mostly left for different games that supported the way of playing better. Still, it’s a nice gesture, and time will to tell whether it’ll truly be used. Its previous iteration, a simpler version of the tabs, went completely unused.

But a Guild Wars 2 update wouldn’t be complete without new items added to the gem store, of course, and Shadow in the Ice is no different. A new, controversial Pegasus skin for the Griffon mount is available for 2000 gems (roughly $25 USD), along with a new glider and returning items that were removed from the rotation before.

And for those who don’t mind spoilers — or at least the non-story kind of spoilers that will just show us what kind of items and features are hidden beneath the surface of the update for later use — Reddit user /u/that_shaman regularly posts datamine posts to keep the hardcore fans excited about what’s next.