My wife, Samantha, had a disability that really got in the way when we encountered her first jumping puzzle. Scarring from epidermolysis bullosa fused her fingers together and curled them into fists, so pressing more than one key at a time, unless they were adjoining, was impossible... well, unless she used her nose, which she did do on some occasions. She never let anything in life stop her however, so when we discovered the Collapsed Observatory JP she was determined to get through it somehow. An early jump that required turning and jumping at the same time stalled her for hours as we tried to figure out an alternative path, or some keybinds that would work for her. At one point I was looking up foot buttons and head/eye tracking hardware, suggesting we could do something else till I could get and install some accessibility gear. She wouldn't stop though, and eventually discovered she could hold down both buttons on her mouse to move AND turn at the same time, leaving her left hand free to just do the jumping. Once she got used to that there was no stopping her and she became a jumping puzzle master. The Mad King's Clock Tower introduced a new challenge for Sam, however. Since she could not lift her mouse, the constant right hand turn had her running out of mouse mat. To get around this problem I taped the mouse to her hand and she made it to the top after only a few tries to figure out the path. She even did that JP for me our first year, since the holiday was about to run out and I was still struggling with it (the time pressure had me making a lot of mistakes). She did every JP in the game until she passed away in 2016, including Skip Up the Volcano aka Chalice of Tears (which took us a couple of days to figure out with no guide). We even built a simple jumping puzzle in our guild hall that went all the way to the sky box. I'm sure she'd have conquered Searing Ascent with me, even with the new twist of having to use Oakheart's Reach. She'd have enjoyed sailing through all the other later JPs too. Watching this vid brings back good memories of Sam and I climbing and hopping all over Tyria. Exploring was a huge part of the game for us, and finding and solving jumping puzzles was an added bonus to poking our little (usually Asura) noses in every nook and cranny of the maps. Thanks for sharing this list of your faves.👍
Thank you so, so much for sharing this! Comments like this really mean a lot to me. It is always a challenge with certain aspects of video games when it comes to certain disabilities. Where certain parts of games become incredibly difficult compared to what the average player ever even thinks about. It is always admirable when game companies are able to add in systems to support people who need those systems in order to have a more accessible way to play the game. Likewise it is always admirable when an individual is able to utilize their disability to an advantage to complete something, like a jumping puzzle. Similarly, it is always very admirable when somebody is incredibly supportive of someone in their various journeys. Thank you so much for sharing your and your wife's journeys.
I fell in love with the game through jumping puzzles. Specifically because of the two kind souls who found me struggling on Morgan's Leap (I was only days into the game) and patiently guided me through all the way to the end of Dark Reverie. No portals, just leading the way and encouragement. The image of them leaping off the edge at the end of the jp and gliding away in unison has never left me. Probably because I felt so much respect and awe. After that, I found I enjoyed and was actually pretty good at jumping puzzles. My favorite past time these days is doing the longer jump puzzles again for fun and of course helping others through them. Great list, video and commentary. Thank you for sharing!
I spent 11 hours on Not So Secret. Got to the chest relatively quick, but then went for the diving goggles achievement.... I got to the goggles and died 14 times trying to find the water. Though if I had to pick a favorite, Coddler's Cove was the first time I encountered a true jumping puzzle in the game. It was super serene with the chirps of frogs and occasionally the quaggan would say silly things. I'll never forget that place.
started gw2 4 days ago, found the ghost pirates cave jesterday but could not get past them pirates (im lvl 25, mobs in cave 37) asked a friend to kill about so i could finish the puzzle, had great fun. im not raptoring about much and i dont have a glider but i get ya when u say some classes make puzzles like these many times easier lol. the frosty portal puzzle test mainly tested my patience cause i did not have a debuff cleanser and id just impatiently jump onwards XD overall great stuff ^ ^
You sir are a savant. I enjoyed watching this video and enjoyed hearing your story. I too loved a great deal of what you spoke of. It is easy to feel alone in your love for something, feeling like you are in a niche 1 person large. But there you are! I'm mostly talking about Celedon Forest.
I once swore the chalice of tears would never collect even one tear from me. It took me about 3 moths to finally complete it on my own. No porting. I stil keep the flask of collected tears item from the final rewards chest. Just to remind myself😅
I LOVE Troll's Revenge. My best friend and I are BAD at jumping puzzles, but still love to do them. I'm not exaggerating when I say we spent 5 hours in this JP, and we only managed to complete it because my best friend made a Mesmer so we could use the portal just in case. Before most of the jumps, we would just wait for her skill to charge before attempting to jump. 😅 It was awful and rewarding at the same time. 😭❤️ We only have the Raptor because we were new to the game, and got a little sad when people passed us by on their mounts, but we persevered! Dark Reverie took us almost 2-3 hours. We would take turns on who should climb at the time, so if one of us fall to her death, the other one would be there to resurrect her. 😅 We were jelous of people with Gliders. 😭 We know we are very bad at Jumping Puzzles, but they are so fun to do when you have a friend tag alone! The screams, the fear, the mini heart attacks... they are the best when you laugh about them with a friend. ❤
Retrospective Runaround is a masterpiece in map design. It's huge, it crosses mostly all map, but you are so unaware of it being there unless you do it. Yet, when you do it, you see how woven into all of the map it is, how it was all designed to have all of those different layers. Chalice of Tears is really hard, but for me Searing Ascent is more frustrating. The combinations Oakheart's Reach and glidding are hard for me, and it is frustrating cause you only have 3 charges. So if you miss the placement of one Oakheart's Reach you need to go back to checkpoing even if you managed to not fall, and having to redo big chunks of JP when you didn't even fall is infuriating. JPs like Troll's Revenge or Hidden Gardens are mostly skippable with mounts nowadays, but I still wanted to do them the old way at least once so I feel like the achievement was earned. When I had to go back to Hidden Gardens just for collections I used mounts, but it's important for me to do them all without mounts or portals at least once.
Retrospective Runaround blew me away the first time I did it, although the last section was super frustrating! I'm one of those players who tries to figure out as much as I can by myself, but I had to consult the wiki quite a few times to get through it
The last part can definitely be pretty frustrating. I remember memorizing the exact route you had to go through back in the day, but going through it the other day for this video definitely made my head spin a little bit because I had forgotten which tunnel takes you where.
This is going to be a bit controversial, but I think the difficulty of Chalice of Tears is extremely overblown. The jumps are hard, but people talk about it taking them days to do it. My first time up took a couple hours. Of course it also has the reputation of being difficult to navigate, but from that standpoint, Searing Ascent is way more difficult while also having it's fair share of difficult jumps. However, neither of those is the hardest jumping puzzle in the game. That crown goes to Not so Secret. While Not so Secret is easier to navigate, the jumps are brutally difficult. Especially if you're trying to get to the diving goggles. I have thoroughly enjoyed every time I have gone up Chalice of Tears and I somewhat enjoy Searing Ascent as well. However, I won't do Not so Secret ever again unless a friend asks for help doing it. While it's a cool jumping puzzle thematically, I don't find it enjoyable.
Great thoughts! I think this is one of those things where certain puzzles or aspects of puzzles are more difficult for certain people. While Not So Secret is infamous for being difficult to complete, I've personally never had any issues with doing it and can complete it quickly without many falls (which has lead me to doing it many times to portal people, which makes it even easier for me as I get more practice). But I'm definitely in the minority for finding that puzzle easy, where I have a more difficult time doing Chalice of Tears and even Searing Ascent like you mentioned, I just personally struggle with those more while others do not.
For me, the "hardest" jumping puzzle I ever encountered was the Searing Ascent from Draconis Mons, as a core and HoT player. The jumping puzzle itself is more long than hard, with 3 checkpoints, a combination of glider and carefully used Oakheart's Reach to run around and a path I found pretty difficult and unintuitive to figure out yourself. The difficulty of it was than my laptop is too old for gw2, letting me play at a 8~15 fps at best with random spikes of 25 fps. It made the glider parts really hard because a misplaced Oak Reach or a late glider turn always made me start over. That's one of the few jumping puzzle I don't think I'll ever redo, at least as long as I play with this laptop.
That is definitely one of the hardest ones in the game. I like the vibes and the idea of it, it kind of feels like the game "A Story About My Uncle." But I just don't enjoy playing through this jp a lot.
Awesome video! whenever I'm really bored I'll put on a movie and do chalice of tears again, somehow its the most relaxing jp to me. I feel like somehow your game looks prettier than mine looks, maybe its the lack of UI.
I always find jumping puzzles super relaxing. Abaddon's Ascent, Retrospective Runaround, and a bunch of others are ones I like to do while watching a movie or whatever else. The lack of ui definitely helps to put a focus on the game's graphics.
Chalice is kinda fine, but then they made Ascent with even more blind jumps :P Abaddon's was refreshingly good. From the core ones, I really like Spekks's Lab and Loreclaw Expanse.
The problem with late game jump puzzles is the geometry doesn't work the same way every time you step on it, while getting snag on invisible edges. It is the fake difficulty instead of positional difficulty which was the end of jps. New stuff made since the asset-waste purge (at least PoF) has been back to core game form.
Every jumping puzzle,even the most complex one is only difficult for the gamers who don’t know the path and at their first time.What’s more,some people may suggest specific races (and of course classes such as mesmer) for jumping puzzles but believe me even a bulky Charr or Norn male warrior could do the job easily if you know the path and exact point to land after jumping which it will become your muscle memory in time.
No dierdre steps? I remember randomly beating the guardian in Mount Maelstrom and then teleporting to the hidden zone. One of my favourite moments in the game.
My wife, Samantha, had a disability that really got in the way when we encountered her first jumping puzzle. Scarring from epidermolysis bullosa fused her fingers together and curled them into fists, so pressing more than one key at a time, unless they were adjoining, was impossible... well, unless she used her nose, which she did do on some occasions. She never let anything in life stop her however, so when we discovered the Collapsed Observatory JP she was determined to get through it somehow. An early jump that required turning and jumping at the same time stalled her for hours as we tried to figure out an alternative path, or some keybinds that would work for her. At one point I was looking up foot buttons and head/eye tracking hardware, suggesting we could do something else till I could get and install some accessibility gear. She wouldn't stop though, and eventually discovered she could hold down both buttons on her mouse to move AND turn at the same time, leaving her left hand free to just do the jumping. Once she got used to that there was no stopping her and she became a jumping puzzle master.
The Mad King's Clock Tower introduced a new challenge for Sam, however. Since she could not lift her mouse, the constant right hand turn had her running out of mouse mat. To get around this problem I taped the mouse to her hand and she made it to the top after only a few tries to figure out the path. She even did that JP for me our first year, since the holiday was about to run out and I was still struggling with it (the time pressure had me making a lot of mistakes). She did every JP in the game until she passed away in 2016, including Skip Up the Volcano aka Chalice of Tears (which took us a couple of days to figure out with no guide). We even built a simple jumping puzzle in our guild hall that went all the way to the sky box. I'm sure she'd have conquered Searing Ascent with me, even with the new twist of having to use Oakheart's Reach. She'd have enjoyed sailing through all the other later JPs too.
Watching this vid brings back good memories of Sam and I climbing and hopping all over Tyria. Exploring was a huge part of the game for us, and finding and solving jumping puzzles was an added bonus to poking our little (usually Asura) noses in every nook and cranny of the maps. Thanks for sharing this list of your faves.👍
Thank you so, so much for sharing this! Comments like this really mean a lot to me.
It is always a challenge with certain aspects of video games when it comes to certain disabilities. Where certain parts of games become incredibly difficult compared to what the average player ever even thinks about. It is always admirable when game companies are able to add in systems to support people who need those systems in order to have a more accessible way to play the game. Likewise it is always admirable when an individual is able to utilize their disability to an advantage to complete something, like a jumping puzzle. Similarly, it is always very admirable when somebody is incredibly supportive of someone in their various journeys.
Thank you so much for sharing your and your wife's journeys.
I fell in love with the game through jumping puzzles. Specifically because of the two kind souls who found me struggling on Morgan's Leap (I was only days into the game) and patiently guided me through all the way to the end of Dark Reverie. No portals, just leading the way and encouragement. The image of them leaping off the edge at the end of the jp and gliding away in unison has never left me. Probably because I felt so much respect and awe. After that, I found I enjoyed and was actually pretty good at jumping puzzles. My favorite past time these days is doing the longer jump puzzles again for fun and of course helping others through them.
Great list, video and commentary. Thank you for sharing!
Just gonna throw this out there, "Chalice of Tears" may be the best name for a ridiculously hard puzzle in a game lmao.
I spent 11 hours on Not So Secret. Got to the chest relatively quick, but then went for the diving goggles achievement.... I got to the goggles and died 14 times trying to find the water.
Though if I had to pick a favorite, Coddler's Cove was the first time I encountered a true jumping puzzle in the game. It was super serene with the chirps of frogs and occasionally the quaggan would say silly things. I'll never forget that place.
started gw2 4 days ago, found the ghost pirates cave jesterday but could not get past them pirates (im lvl 25, mobs in cave 37) asked a friend to kill about so i could finish the puzzle, had great fun.
im not raptoring about much and i dont have a glider but i get ya when u say some classes make puzzles like these many times easier lol. the frosty portal puzzle test mainly tested my patience cause i did not have a debuff cleanser and id just impatiently jump onwards XD overall great stuff ^ ^
I bought the rewinder specifically for Chalice of Tears and how infuriated it made me lmao.
You sir are a savant. I enjoyed watching this video and enjoyed hearing your story. I too loved a great deal of what you spoke of. It is easy to feel alone in your love for something, feeling like you are in a niche 1 person large. But there you are!
I'm mostly talking about Celedon Forest.
I once swore the chalice of tears would never collect even one tear from me. It took me about 3 moths to finally complete it on my own. No porting. I stil keep the flask of collected tears item from the final rewards chest. Just to remind myself😅
I LOVE Troll's Revenge. My best friend and I are BAD at jumping puzzles, but still love to do them. I'm not exaggerating when I say we spent 5 hours in this JP, and we only managed to complete it because my best friend made a Mesmer so we could use the portal just in case. Before most of the jumps, we would just wait for her skill to charge before attempting to jump. 😅 It was awful and rewarding at the same time. 😭❤️ We only have the Raptor because we were new to the game, and got a little sad when people passed us by on their mounts, but we persevered!
Dark Reverie took us almost 2-3 hours. We would take turns on who should climb at the time, so if one of us fall to her death, the other one would be there to resurrect her. 😅 We were jelous of people with Gliders. 😭
We know we are very bad at Jumping Puzzles, but they are so fun to do when you have a friend tag alone! The screams, the fear, the mini heart attacks... they are the best when you laugh about them with a friend. ❤
Retrospective Runaround is a masterpiece in map design. It's huge, it crosses mostly all map, but you are so unaware of it being there unless you do it. Yet, when you do it, you see how woven into all of the map it is, how it was all designed to have all of those different layers.
Chalice of Tears is really hard, but for me Searing Ascent is more frustrating. The combinations Oakheart's Reach and glidding are hard for me, and it is frustrating cause you only have 3 charges. So if you miss the placement of one Oakheart's Reach you need to go back to checkpoing even if you managed to not fall, and having to redo big chunks of JP when you didn't even fall is infuriating.
JPs like Troll's Revenge or Hidden Gardens are mostly skippable with mounts nowadays, but I still wanted to do them the old way at least once so I feel like the achievement was earned. When I had to go back to Hidden Gardens just for collections I used mounts, but it's important for me to do them all without mounts or portals at least once.
It makes me sad there are no JPs in HoT's 3 base maps.
@@shiveringisles3509 _Last Gear_ in western Auric Basin.
Retrospective Runaround blew me away the first time I did it, although the last section was super frustrating! I'm one of those players who tries to figure out as much as I can by myself, but I had to consult the wiki quite a few times to get through it
The last part can definitely be pretty frustrating. I remember memorizing the exact route you had to go through back in the day, but going through it the other day for this video definitely made my head spin a little bit because I had forgotten which tunnel takes you where.
This is going to be a bit controversial, but I think the difficulty of Chalice of Tears is extremely overblown. The jumps are hard, but people talk about it taking them days to do it. My first time up took a couple hours. Of course it also has the reputation of being difficult to navigate, but from that standpoint, Searing Ascent is way more difficult while also having it's fair share of difficult jumps. However, neither of those is the hardest jumping puzzle in the game. That crown goes to Not so Secret. While Not so Secret is easier to navigate, the jumps are brutally difficult. Especially if you're trying to get to the diving goggles. I have thoroughly enjoyed every time I have gone up Chalice of Tears and I somewhat enjoy Searing Ascent as well. However, I won't do Not so Secret ever again unless a friend asks for help doing it. While it's a cool jumping puzzle thematically, I don't find it enjoyable.
Great thoughts! I think this is one of those things where certain puzzles or aspects of puzzles are more difficult for certain people. While Not So Secret is infamous for being difficult to complete, I've personally never had any issues with doing it and can complete it quickly without many falls (which has lead me to doing it many times to portal people, which makes it even easier for me as I get more practice). But I'm definitely in the minority for finding that puzzle easy, where I have a more difficult time doing Chalice of Tears and even Searing Ascent like you mentioned, I just personally struggle with those more while others do not.
For me, the "hardest" jumping puzzle I ever encountered was the Searing Ascent from Draconis Mons, as a core and HoT player. The jumping puzzle itself is more long than hard, with 3 checkpoints, a combination of glider and carefully used Oakheart's Reach to run around and a path I found pretty difficult and unintuitive to figure out yourself.
The difficulty of it was than my laptop is too old for gw2, letting me play at a 8~15 fps at best with random spikes of 25 fps. It made the glider parts really hard because a misplaced Oak Reach or a late glider turn always made me start over. That's one of the few jumping puzzle I don't think I'll ever redo, at least as long as I play with this laptop.
That is definitely one of the hardest ones in the game. I like the vibes and the idea of it, it kind of feels like the game "A Story About My Uncle." But I just don't enjoy playing through this jp a lot.
My favorite will always be Weyandt's Revenge.
Awesome video! whenever I'm really bored I'll put on a movie and do chalice of tears again, somehow its the most relaxing jp to me. I feel like somehow your game looks prettier than mine looks, maybe its the lack of UI.
I always find jumping puzzles super relaxing. Abaddon's Ascent, Retrospective Runaround, and a bunch of others are ones I like to do while watching a movie or whatever else.
The lack of ui definitely helps to put a focus on the game's graphics.
Chalice is kinda fine, but then they made Ascent with even more blind jumps :P
Abaddon's was refreshingly good. From the core ones, I really like Spekks's Lab and Loreclaw Expanse.
Thank Lyssa for the position rewinder
The problem with late game jump puzzles is the geometry doesn't work the same way every time you step on it, while getting snag on invisible edges. It is the fake difficulty instead of positional difficulty which was the end of jps. New stuff made since the asset-waste purge (at least PoF) has been back to core game form.
Except gryphonrook with the bombs, I love the jumping puzzles in this game.
Every jumping puzzle,even the most complex one is only difficult for the gamers who don’t know the path and at their first time.What’s more,some people may suggest specific races (and of course classes such as mesmer) for jumping puzzles but believe me even a bulky Charr or Norn male warrior could do the job easily if you know the path and exact point to land after jumping which it will become your muscle memory in time.
No dierdre steps? I remember randomly beating the guardian in Mount Maelstrom and then teleporting to the hidden zone. One of my favourite moments in the game.
I just comment to add the Plains of Ashford one and hidden garden
Both great jumping puzzles!
Dang, I could have sworn there were more jumping puzzles in EOD.
Sadly, only 2 proper ones. There are 4 mini-dungeons though!