Question about deleting a character

[RainbowGoblins.1578]

Hi dear all,

As title said, is there anything I should know before deleting a character? I never did that before.

Currently I have 12 characters in game, I think it's enough, and no more slot to create a new one.

Thank you all for the information.

[Ashen.2907]

Keep in mind that birthday rewards are based on when each individual character is created so you will lose progess on bday gifts for a character you delete...

 

Also, check to be sure you remove all desirable gear, trinkets, high capacity bags, equiped weapons, items in mail, etc before deleting a character. Also make sure to do something with any soulbound gear you might have in the bank.

[Epphyx.5078]

What to know ?

- You will lose your birthday for this character and the next one will start again from scratch.

- Everything on the character will disappear (might be a good thing if you want to delete some obnoxious items that resist deletion).

[Pifil.5193]

Well, when you delete a character you will lose everything the character had equipped (including harvesting tools) and everything in that character's inventory. So make sure you transfer any account bound equipment to other characters through your bank and that you don't leave any expensive items on the character. Salvage or sell all soulbound equipment.

 

Of course, you will also lose out on any birthday present for the deleted character.

[Danikat.8537]

I delete characters regularly (usually ones I've had for just a few hours, but some last months). My advice is this:

1) Unequip **everything** from the Equipment tab of the Hero Panel. Doesn't matter if you want it or not, remove it. (It's easier to check the tab is empty than to check the stuff left is what you don't want.)

2) Go through the inventory one by one and put anything you want to keep into the bank. (Note: soulbound equipment can't be used by other characters, even if they have the same name, so there's no point keeping it.)

3) Sell or salvage whatever you can of what's left in their inventory. Deposit the materials.

4) Keep going until you can fit everything into the Starter Backpack and then unequip the other bags (drag and drop them into an empty slot in the starter pack). Check whether you want to keep any of them and again whether you can sell or salvage anything, including the bags.

5) Double check the Equipment tab is empty.

 

That makes sure you're not deleting anything you want to keep along with your character.

 

Everything else is either saved automatically (like skins in the wardrobe, gold, karma, achievements etc.) or you can't keep it (like birthday gifts, crafting progress, level etc.)

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Here are the reasons I never delete characters:

* The birthday rewards add up over time. For example, as I type, the 6th year present includes an option to unlock a 400g dye, 5th year: 260g, 4th: 400g, 3rd: 130g.

* Character slots are one of the most efficient sources of increased account storage. At a cost of 180g (today) to 220g (most of the last 2 years), that amounts to around 5g per inventory slot, compared to 5.5g for new bank tabs or 6g for new bag slots.

* Spare characters can be parked in various locations to help defray those costs, e.g. parking at a rich iron node adds ~70g/year, a flax farm adds ~130-150g/year.

* Without build templates/loadouts, it's convenient for running different builds, such as Power Chrono on one, Condi Mirage on another.

* Good tools for managing the inventory you spread out include [GW2 Efficiency](https://gw2efficiency.com/) & [GW2 Timer](http://gw2timer.com/?page=Account).

 

There are decent reasons to limit the number of characters, too.

* Fewer slots on the account forces one to be efficient at inventory management.

* It costs less to gear up fewer toons.

* Keeping track of which characters have which builds can be distracting for some people.

[Tatwi.3562]

Any bag slots you have purchased for that character will be lost forever (according to the wiki).

Personally, I wasn't aware of the whole birthday thing until 2015 or 2016, so I happily deleted all my characters a number of times. Consiquently, it will be another year and half before I can get the "6 Year Anniversary" gifts, which makes no sense whatsoever - we're celebrating the game's birthday, not my account/character's... Anyway, don't delete your oldest character, even if you absolutely hate and never use it and would REALLY like to use that slot for something else...

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If we were "celebrating the game's birthday", anyone that created an account today, tomorrow, next week would receive the 6th Birthday rewards. I'm not sure that's what they had in mind. Account? - maybe...game? - I don't think so.

[Linken.6345]

> @"Tatwi.3562" said:

> Any bag slots you have purchased for that character will be lost forever (according to the wiki).

> Personally, I wasn't aware of the whole birthday thing until 2015 or 2016, so I happily deleted all my characters a number of times. Consiquently, it will be another year and half before I can get the "6 Year Anniversary" gifts, which makes no sense whatsoever - we're celebrating the game's birthday, not my account/character's... Anyway, don't delete your oldest character, even if you absolutely hate and never use it and would REALLY like to use that slot for something else...

 

Sad to say your wrong sir/mam we are not celebrating the games birthday its becouse alot of people have saved the chars from the very first day we all get presents when game turn 6 years but we are still celebrating each of their birth days not the game.

If everyone would have deleted their characters noone would have gotten their presents when the game turned 6 years.

[Hevoskuuri.3891]

We can all share our opinions about whether the birthday system should be character-bound or account-bound, but it's never going to change. Like Gaile Gray said, characters have birthdays because they sort of represent a living being, not accounts. Besides, I like the fact I get tons of birthday gifts every year from my multiple characters. Sure, all the actually valuable stuff only comes once per year per account, but it's nice to look forward to it nonetheless.

 

As for OP's question; don't delete the characters, especially old ones. Character slots are actually on sale right now (I think?) so better get more of those. Aside from all the gold-valuable items you won't get, you'll also miss exclusive account bound skins and titles and stuff like that you'll probably want.

[GenghisKhan.7842]

I would just create a new one !

I guess you should have plenty of tomes / scrolls so you can insta-80 them

I find parking characters in the game world strategically for quick Daily a sort of art

[Aerronix.9752]

When deleting a character, I always assure they are as they came into the virtual world, stripped down and bare to the world.....

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> 2) Go through the inventory one by one and put anything you want to keep into the bank. (Note: soulbound equipment can't be used by other characters, even if they have the same name, so there's no point keeping it.)

 

It's actually worse than "there's no point". If you leave an item that's soulbound to the deleted character in the bank, it's stuck in there forever since the only character who can remove it from the bank has been deleted.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"Aerronix.9752" said:

> When deleting a character, I always assure they are as they came into the virtual world, stripped down and bare to the world.....

 

That's odd. All of my characters appeared in the virtual world with a few pieces of paper masquerading as armour and a wet noodle instead of a weapon.

[Shikigami.4013]

> @"Steve The Cynic.3217" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > 2) Go through the inventory one by one and put anything you want to keep into the bank. (Note: soulbound equipment can't be used by other characters, even if they have the same name, so there's no point keeping it.)

>

> It's actually worse than "there's no point". If you leave an item that's soulbound to the deleted character in the bank, it's stuck in there forever since the only character who can remove it from the bank has been deleted.

 

As far as I remember I had an item in the bank that was soulbound to a deleted char and while no char could take it out of there, it was actually possible to just rightclick it while it was in the bank and choose "destroy".

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"Shikigami.4013" said:

> > @"Steve The Cynic.3217" said:

> > > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > > 2) Go through the inventory one by one and put anything you want to keep into the bank. (Note: soulbound equipment can't be used by other characters, even if they have the same name, so there's no point keeping it.)

> >

> > It's actually worse than "there's no point". If you leave an item that's soulbound to the deleted character in the bank, it's stuck in there forever since the only character who can remove it from the bank has been deleted.

>

> As far as I remember I had an item in the bank that was soulbound to a deleted char and while no char could take it out of there, it was actually possible to just rightclick it while it was in the bank and choose "destroy".

 

OK, I didn't know that. Thanks.

[Aesir.3192]

Hello,

 

What's happening to the account's total playtime when a character is deleted? Since it says "Across all characters" and not "Across the account", do you lose playtime as well?

[The Fear.3865]

> @"Aesir.3192" said:

> Hello,

>

> What's happening to the account's total playtime when a character is deleted? Since it says "Across all characters" and not "Across the account", do you lose playtime as well?

 

Nope nope.

[Chyanne Waters.8719]

Well with the make up kits you can change the look and gender of your character then get a name change for it. Be a whole new character to play.

[Brycar.2651]

I would keep it. Get to level 80 then Bank 250 hero points on it. Set it to the side. Then pull it back up when End Of Dragons launches. Use a complete makeover kit. And automatically have enough HPs for the new elite on that profession.

 

Then assumes we get new elites in EoD.

[Coelho Nat.4697]

People already pointed out the main issues. Just some more observations:

- Careful don´t delete a char where you bought extra bag slots. They don´t transfer to the new created char.

- Also don´t forget your bags. 20 slots or larger bags are not so cheap.

- In case you are going to delete this char many times (blc key farm or map completion), I would recommend equipping it with full ascend gear since it is account bound and you can transfer all the gear to the new char (of course if they are the same armor type and lv 80).

[Smoosh.2718]

The only characters Id honestly recommend deleting if you plan to delete them for what ever reason, are the following:

 

Characters you have invested very little time in and is NOT older than 1 year.

Characters you have not invested any real world money in for expansion of bags.

Characters which have not unlocked much of the world map (if you havent already done it and working towards a legendary).

Characters you create to do the level 1-20 human story for a key per week.

 

Before you delete any character, just make sure everything of value is taken off that character and placed into your bank/sold. Do note exoitic weapons which were equiped will be soulbound to that character, so ultimately become worthless unless extracted.