GW2 Arcane Preservation Achievement Guide

To complete the Arcane Preservation achievement in Guild Wars 2 and claim your three AP, you must successfully unfuse 20 animals in the Animal Apothecary on Artificer’s Islet. This takes place in the Eternity’s Garden map as part of the Visions of Eternity release. It is another relatively slow event grind, but understanding how the luring buff and the terminal minigame function will save you from failing the escort phase and wasting your time. Here is the exact process.

Event Location

You need to head to Artificer’s Islet within Eternity’s Garden and find the Animal Apothecary. Look for an NPC named Steward Cecco. The dynamic event you are looking for is called “Help Steward Cecco unfuse animals of their seer influence.” If the event is not active when you arrive, you will just have to stand near Cecco and wait for it to spawn.

The Escort Mechanic

Before you try interacting with any of the animals, you need to acquire a specific environmental buff. Look around the immediate area for a “Magic-Leaking Pipe” and stand inside it. This grants your character the “Ley Essence” buff, which lasts for exactly 45 seconds. This buff is mandatory for luring the creatures.

While you have the Ley Essence buff active, walk up to any of the friendly animals in the room. They will be marked with a shield icon on your UI and include the Transcended Boar, Transcended Spitter, and Transcended Stinger.

Standing next to one of these animals changes its status to “Entranced by Magic” and applies a “Lured” effect to it. Once it starts moving, you just need to walk alongside it and escort it to one of the three nearby platforms. You only have 45 seconds before your buff drops, so do not wander off or let the animal path away from you.

The Terminal Minigame

When the animal reaches the platform, an “Unfuse Animal” terminal will light up and become active. Interact with this terminal. Doing so will replace your standard weapon skills with a specific set of action skills on your skill bar.

You have to play a basic matching minigame to successfully unfuse the animal. Specific icons will appear on your screen, and you must press the corresponding button on your new skill bar to progress the bar.

The only real threat during this phase is hitting the wrong button. You must avoid pressing any buttons if an “Overpowered by Willpower” icon appears. Just match the correct prompt to your skill bar until the animal is fully unfused. Progress can be shared if multiple people are at the same terminal, but the terminal resets as soon as the first person finishes the minigame.

Efficiency Tips

You just repeat this process 20 times. The achievement progress carries over between different instances and event spawns, so you do not have to grind out all 20 animals in a single event phase if you have other things to do. I find it easiest to just camp the exact same pipe and platform rather than running all over the apothecary fighting other players for animal spawns.