Jumping puzzles - a guide and discussion!

[dulfy]

Hey everyone, I am not sure if you have all noticed but there are 37 jumping puzzles (35 are distinct) in GW2 totaling to 38 achievements under the explorer section of your achievements tab. Some puzzles are simple 5 minutes quickies while others are more elaborate and take hours to complete (or days if you are bad like me). I finally managed to complete all the jumping puzzles with achievements (there are 4-5 puzzles without achievements called mini-puzzles that I havn't done yet) and I thought I would throw a guide up for those who are not aware of their existence.

What are Jumping Puzzles?
Think of them as elaborate hidden vistas - some of them are even part of certain vistas! You can find them in almost every leveling zone (there are some exceptions) and Lion's Arch. Certain zones like Caledon Forest (4 in one zone!), Diessa Plateau, Lion's Arch have more than one jumping puzzle.

Completing the puzzles reward you with an achievement and a chest (or 3 chests in the case of Scavenger's Chasm). This chest reset daily so you can come back the next day and get it again.

Jumping puzzle difficulty

Jumping puzzles vary in difficulty and length. Some are super simple and short while others are long and feature difficult jumps. If you are just starting with jumping puzzles, it is highly recommended that you start with the easier ones rather than banging your head on the more difficult ones right away! (Save those for later). As you do more jumping puzzles, you will get better and better. Soon enough, you will be able to gauge what distances your character can and cannot jump, how to make really long jumps, and improve your finger dexterity.

If you are really bad at those jumping puzzles, don't worry! I was absolutely terrible with them myself in the beginning and would fail every other jump. With enough practice and time, I was able to complete all 37 puzzles! I have compiled a list of the jumping puzzles sorted by difficulty at the bottom of this post. Keep in mind that difficulty is arbitrary, some people will have some puzzles easier than others so your experience may not agree with my.

Jumping Puzzle list & guides

All of the regular jumping puzzles are listed below. To not take the fun out of the discovering the puzzle by yourself, I included in the beginning of every guide a map location of the puzzle and a brief description of how to start the puzzle. This should be enough to get you started in most cases if you hate spoilers.

If you like a more guided approach, all of them have videos and most of them (there are a few where I got lazy) have written walkthroughs along w/ pictures if you don't like watching videos.

Holiday Specials

• Mad King's Clock Tower - Mad King's Labyrinth - 2012 Halloween special
• Winter Wonderland - Winter Wonderland - Medium to Hard Wintersday 2012 special

Southsun Cove

• Under New Management - Super Easy
• Skipping Stones - Hard, shortcut no longer works

Lion's Arch/WvW

• Troll's End - Lion's Arch (Trader's Forum) - Medium to hard (for tall races)
• Urmaug's Secret - Lion's Arch NE corner - easy puzzle
• Weyandt's Revenge - Lion's Arch SE corner - medium difficulty
• Obsidian Sanctum - Eternal battlegrounds - Hard (long and potential to get griefed)
• Sapphire, Garnet, Emerald Sanctum - Borderlands - Medium (potential to get griefed)

Ascalon

• Loreclaw Expanse - Plains of Ashford - SE corner, Loreclaw Expanse (easy to medium - some traps)
• Crimson Plateau - Diessa Plateau - South, north of Breached Wall (easy)
• Grendich Gamble - Diessa Plateau - Middle, Blasted Moors - Easy
• Wall Breach Blitz - Diessa Plateau - South, part of Breached Wall Vista -Easy
• Behem Gauntlet - Blazeridge Steppes - East end, Behem Gauntlet- Very Easy
• Branded Mine - Fields of Ruin- NW corner, south of Varim’s Run- Medium
• Craze's Folly - Blazeridge Steppes- NE corner, Terra Carorunda (easy to medium)
• Chaos Crystal Cavern - Iron Marches - SW corner, Old Piken Ruins Waypoint (easy to medium)
• Pig Iron Quarry - Fireheart Rise - SE portion, Pig Iron Mine - Easy to Medium
• Vexa's Lab - Foreheart Rise - East of Keeper's Sanctum - Mini dungeon/JP hybrid.

Kryta

• Demongrub Pits - Queensdale - SE corner - Easy (Chest room hard to solo)
• Collapsed Observatory - Kessex Hlls - South, Cereboth Canyon -Easy
• Swashbucker's Cove - Gendarran Fields SE corner- Medium (bring a friend)
• Fawcett's Bounty & Revenge - Harathi Hinterlands NW corner, east of Feral Dens - Medium (bring a friend)
• Professor Portmatt's Lab - Bloodtide Coast West, near Sorrowful Sound (Underwater) - No jumping

Maguuma Jungle

• Morgan's Leap - Caledon Forest - SE corner, Morgan’s Spiral- Easy to Medium
• Dark Reverie - Caeldon Forest SE corner, Morgan’s Spiral - Medium to hard (bring a friend)
• Spekk's Lab- Caeldon Forest - West end, Sandycove Beach -Medium (timed jumps)
• Spelunker's Delve - Caeldon Forest - SE corner, Sleive’s Inlet- Easy
• Goemm's Lab - Metrica Province- East end, south of Cuatl Waypoint- Medium to Hard
• Hexfoundry Unhinged - Sparkfly Fens - SE corner - Easy to Medium
• Conundrum Cubed - Mount Maelstrom - NW corner, Govoran’s Waypoint - Easy to medium
• Hidden Garden - Mount Maelstrom - 4 different access points - Easy to Medium

Shiverpeak Mountains

• Shaman's Rookery - Wayfarer Foothills West end, Osenfold Shear-Easy
• King Jalis's Refuge - Snowden Drifts- East end, near NE corner - Easy
• Griffonrook Run - Lornar’s Pass West end, near False Lake - Medium to Hard (if chest)
• Forsaken Fortune - Dredgehaunt Cliffs - NW corner - mini dungeon/JP hybrid.
• Tribulation Rift Scaffolding - Dredgehaunt Cliffs- SW corner (behind Vista) - Easy to Medium
• Tribulation Caverns - Dredgehaunt Cliffs - Cavern after Tribulation Rift - Medium
• Coddler's Cove - Timberline Falls - SE corner, Okarinoo Waypoint, Medium to Hard
• Only Zhul -Timberline Falls- NE, Foundation 86 Waypoint- Easy to Medium
• Shattered Ice Ruins - Frostgorge Sound- North, Shattered Ice Floe- Easy to Medium (lots of trash)

Ruins of Orr

• Vizier's Tower -Straits of Devastation -South end, part of Vista- Easy
• Antre of Adjournment - Malchor’s Leap - South end, east of Valley of Lyss - Easy to Medium
• Scavenger's Chasm - Malchor’s Leap - South end, east of Valley of Lyss- Hard (lengthy)
• Buried Archives - Cursed Shore SW corner, extension of Vista - Easy, chest hard to get

Purely arbitrary jumping puzzle difficulty list

YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary

Super easy ones – jumping puzzle 101

• Professor Portmatt’s Lab (Bloodtide Coast – no jumping involved, more of a brain puzzle)
• Under New Management (Southsun Cove – takes less than a minute to complete)
• Urmaug’s Secret (Lion’s Arch – safe environment to practice rock jumping)
• Shaman’s Rookery (Wayfarer Foothills – teaches you about dodging circles )
• King Jalis’ Refuge (Snowden Drifts)
• Behem Gauntlet (Blazeridge Steppes – teaches you about jumping down)
• Spelunker’s Delve (Caledon Forest – good puzzle to get hang of jumping)
• Demongrub Pits (Queensdale – some basic jumping involved but quite a few mobs in the final room)
• Crimson Plateau (Diessa Plateau)
• Buried Achieves (Cursed Shore, more of a climbing rather than jumping puzzle)

Mini Dunge/Jumping puzzle hybrid (bring friends)

• Forsaken Fortune (Dredgehaunt Cliffs)
• Vexa’s Lab (Fireheart Rise)

Fairly easy ones – may take a few tries

• Loreclaw Expanse (Plains of Ashford – trap dodging 101)
• Grenrich Gamble (Diessa Plateau – a few weird jumps)
• Wall Breach Blitz (Diessa Plateau – standard jumping puzzle, also required for vista/skill point)
• Collapsed Observatory (Kessex Hills – confusing at first until you know where to go. Some tricky jumps)
• Pig Iron Quarry (Fireheart Rise – Conqueror your fear of heights!)
• Vizier’s Tower (Straits of Devastation – required to get the vista/skill point).
• Conundrum Cubed (Mount Maelstrom – takes a bit of jumps to get used to this cubed environment)
• Tribulation Rift Scaffolding (Dredgehaunt Cliffs – required to get vista, a few tricky jumps).
• Hexfoundry Unhinged (Sparkfly Fens – no hard jumps once you know what to do)
• Hidden Garden (Mount Maelstrom – jumps are not hard but if you die for whatever reason, you need to revive outside)

Medium difficulty – Best to do them once you get a few jumps under your belt

• Troll’s End (Lion’s Arch – very annoying for tall races – i.e. Norn/Charr due to low ceiling)
• Branded Mine (Fields of Ruin – some jumps are a bit difficult, high chance of dying if you miss a jump)
• Craze’s Folly (Blazeridge Steppes – a bit long and some difficult jumps)
• Chaos Crystal Cavern ( Iron Marches- a bit of RNG dependent)
• Swashbucker’s Cove (Gendarran Fields - need to fight through quite a bit of mobs)
• Fawcett’s Bounty/Revenge (Harathi Hinterlands – lots of mobs to fight through, some hard jumps)
• Morgan’s Leap and Dark Reverie (Caledon Forest – failing Dark Reverie forces you to repeat Morgans’ Leap)
• Griffonrook Run (Lornar’s Pass – puzzle is not too bad if you don’t do it with the bomb)
• Only Zhul (Timberline Falls – quite a bit of trash and traps)
• Shattered Ice Ruins (Frostgorge Sound – annoying trash)
• Antre of Adjournment (Malchor’s Leap – some tricky jumps)
• Coddler’s Cove (Timberline Falls – tricky jumps, maybe take a lot of tries but thankfully short puzzle)
• Tribulation Caverns (Dredgehaunt Cliffs – if you die, you need to repeat Tribulation Rift Scaffolding)

Lengthy/Elaborate puzzles (prepare to have some time invested)

• Weyandt’s Revenge (Lion’s Arch- has a few parts but not too bad in terms of jumping)
• Obsidian Sanctum (Eternal Battlegrounds – very long puzzle, some difficult jumps, risk of grief from enemy players)
• Sapphire/Garnet/Emerald Sanctum (Borderlands – shorter and easier than Obsidian Sanctum but still risk for grief)
• Goemm’s Lab (Metrica Province – long puzzle with a few tricky bits)
• Scavenger’s Chasm (Malchor’s Leap - very long puzzle, Easter Egg hunt)
• Skipping Stones (Southsun Cove – a bit difficult, timed portion in the first part.

Timed Challenges

• Spekk’s Lab (Caledon Forest – platforms only exist for a short duration after you activate them but has checkpoints)
• Griffonrook Run w/ bomb (Lornar’s Pass – can be pretty annoying if you try it with bomb but not required for achievement).

My personal favorites

• Morgan's Leap - beautiful scenery (especially if you do it at day time) but too bad the fact that you have to repeat this if you fail Dark Reverie (without a friend to rez you) make me hate it.
• Pig Iron Quarry - This puzzle was very interesting if you have a fear of heights..
• Goemm's Lab - very beautiful scenery.

Be sure to share your experiences with the various puzzles, love to hear if a puzzle I had trouble with also stomped you etc!

[Valeron]

Very nice. One basic piece of advice, if you all haven't done it already, is make sure to take dodge off of double tap. When I first started doing the puzzles I still had it on and after a few deaths I learned to take it off.

[Fencers]

We did Scavenger's Chasm, the one in Timberline Falls and Antre of Adjournment today. The one with the Destroyers was awesome!

Scavenger's.... not awesome at all. The curses I uttered.

[Deleted]

this is amazing! i thank you sir!

[Deleted]

I have honestly never cursed so much in my life as I did completing all the jumping puzzles..... but great fun I must confess, I was a little relieved to finish them all. If anyone is struggling and finds they're not good at them, just keep going and you'll get there eventually.... and go with a group of friends if you can, because it's a LOT more fun, especially if you're not the only one falling down :P

[dulfy]

I must confess, I was a little relieved to finish them all.

Hehe same here! Saved Scavenger's Chasm and Goemm's Lab last but they weren't too bad once you done all the other jumping puzzles

[Shonough]

Very helpful. Thank you!

[Karizee]

I have honestly never cursed so much in my life as I did completing all the jumping puzzles..... but great fun I must confess, I was a little relieved to finish them all. If anyone is struggling and finds they're not good at them, just keep going and you'll get there eventually.... and go with a group of friends if you can, because it's a LOT more fun, especially if you're not the only one falling down :P

Make sure one of those friends is a mesmer

[Deleted]

Make sure one of those friends is a mesmer

I should have! Unfortunately all my friends seem to be warriors (or on a different server) /single tear.

[Triptych]

Thanks so much for these hints Dulfy.

I try really hard not to spoil myself, both with finding the puzzles, and with solving them, but sometimes I need a little nudge in the right direction ... good example is Goemm's Lab in the asura zone. I scoured the map for hours, looking for likely caves or ledges or tall buildings, but eventually gave up and asked for a hint in /mapchat. Once someone had pointed me to the right area, I then spent another 90 minutes completing it.

I'll keep your blog bookmarked for future reference!

PS: I agree with the other posters --- the puzzles are really good fun (the few that I've found and done so far), even with the frustrations of multiple attempts. If you like interesting challenges : check 'em out!

[Rivellana]

Bookmarked, and thank you for this guide.

I am notoriously a horrible jumper but I am becoming bored and running out of things to do so I figured I'd try this.

It'll be an interesting road, even the Lion's Arch puzzles having my pounding my desk out of frustration every time I fall.

[carnifex2005]

While some jumping puzzles are pretty frustrating, I do like them. You get a nice sense of accomplishment when completing one.

[ptwonline]

Great work! I am TERRIBLE at jumping puzzles, but I am trying to get all the different accomplishment things so I am eventually going to do them. Trying to reach the Vista, POI, and Skill Challenges stuff is enough to keep me busy for now.

Hopefully they aren't as bad as the SWTOR jumping puzzles. In that game I couldn't stand trying to do more than 1 per week, and eventually I gave up completely with only about half of them done.

[Valeron]

It'll be an interesting road, even the Lion's Arch puzzles having my pounding my desk out of frustration every time I fall.

I quite liked the Lions Arch puzzles. Trolls End puzzle was a bit of a pain though due to me being a Charr. I got it done but it would have been so much easier as an Asura (or with first person view, get er done Anet)

[Rivellana]

I quite liked the Lions Arch puzzles. Trolls End puzzle was a bit of a pain though due to me being a Charr. I got it done but it would have been so much easier as an Asura (or with first person view, get er done Anet)

Yeah I'm a human female but I had a male charr ahead of me the entire time I was in the puzzle and I couldn't see past him I ended up having to wait to continue with Troll's End and even then I still had some issues falling on my own. So frustrating. :P

[Svifnymr]

Great work! I am TERRIBLE at jumping puzzles, but I am trying to get all the different accomplishment things so I am eventually going to do them. Trying to reach the Vista, POI, and Skill Challenges stuff is enough to keep me busy for now.

Hopefully they aren't as bad as the SWTOR jumping puzzles. In that game I couldn't stand trying to do more than 1 per week, and eventually I gave up completely with only about half of them done.

Yeah, I love TOR but hate many of the datacron things.

But then, I'm generally horrible at these types of things, so won't assign too much blame.

In GW2, I haven't done any yet. I figured I'd wait until higher level, in case the rewards are scaling stuff based on the level when you do them. Of course since you can do them daily, that's a stupid theory I have, but whatever!

I started an Asura one but didn't get far, and just yesterday I stumbled on Shaman's Rookery. I wasn't even sure it was "jumping puzzle", but it was fantastically detailed. I never fell, though ravens hit me plenty I was positioned well. My issue was that my skills as a level 14 elementalist were not enough for the fights. I couldn't out damage the pair of wolfguys, but outran/jumped them, but the two leopard guys killed me dead.

Oh, and the revenge one in Lions Arch. I couldn't make it past the entrance mouth, to show how much I suck

[VibrantViolet]

I am bookmarking this! Thank you!

[Kaenroh]

Weyandt's Revenge is actually ridiculously easy other than the entrance. I can clear the entire thing before the 4 minute speed buff from the dude by the waypoint wears off, so long as I don't die to Chompy. (My term for dying to the terrible collision detection madness at the entrance to Sharkmaw Caverns.)

[Svifnymr]

Weyandt's Revenge is actually ridiculously easy other than the entrance. I can clear the entire thing before the 4 minute speed buff from the dude by the waypoint wears off, so long as I don't die to Chompy. (My term for dying to the terrible collision detection madness at the entrance to Sharkmaw Caverns.)

I took a friend there yesterday and we got it, it's all the entrance really. Inside was actually quite fun (though not challenging in itself, perhaps if the spikes did more damage or if healing wasn't so rapid) and amusing. I did Trolls End also, and it's sort of what I dislike in "action game" stuff, where you know where you have to go, you time it well, but it just doesn't land and you need to restart. Just sort of irksome, though it does make the actual completion of it more rewarding. (Especially given the chest gives me crap.)

---------- Post added 2012-10-12 at 04:18 PM ----------

Also, nothing lights up the dark like an engineers flamethrower!

[Deleted]

Loved it! Been looking for a few of these precious little treasure throughout the game!

Sweet guide