How to Get the Free Legendary Gloves in Guild Wars 2

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Written by Syrma

Posted on September 9, 2026

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Guild Wars 2

The fastest way to get the free legendary gloves in Guild Wars 2 is to finish the Incursive Investigation achievement in your achievement panel. Completing its sub-achievements over three weeks unlocks Eikasia, Mists-Grasper at no extra cost.

I tested this event first-hand, checking the achievement steps and weapon aura interactions against the current live build documented on the official Guild Wars 2 site and ArenaNet’s official patch notes for the release.

How to Unlock Eikasia, Mists-Grasper

You unlock the free legendary gloves by completing the Incursive Investigation achievement in your achievement panel, under Bonus Events. Finishing its sub-achievements grants the meta reward, and only the gloves come free, the other two Fractal Incursion armor pieces cost the normal legendary price.

Open your achievement panel: Press your bound achievements key and select the Bonus Events category.
Find Incursive Investigation: It sits inside Bonus Events as its own meta-achievement line.
Track the meta: Right-click it and select Watch so its sub-achievements stay visible on screen.
Complete the sub-achievements: Most finish passively from normal fractal play, with fractal dust as the largest single requirement.
Wait out the weekly gate: New sections of the achievement unlock across the first three weeks of the event, so you cannot finish it in one sitting.
Claim Eikasia, Mists-Grasper: Once every sub-achievement is complete, open the meta reward box to collect the finished legendary gloves.

What you Need Before you Start

You need a level 80 character in Guild Wars 2 with access to Fractals of the Mists, which is core content and does not require an expansion. A working set of ascended trinkets or some agony resistance also helps once you move past the lowest fractal scales.

Fractals of the Mists access: Unlocked automatically at level 80, with no expansion purchase required.
Some agony resistance: Later fractal scales apply agony damage, so bring ascended trinkets or infused gear before queueing into higher tiers.
A Wizard’s Vault Astral Acclaim balance: Optional, but it lets you buy a cheap Exotic Omnipotion later to speed up the gloves’ weapon aura infusions.
Plan around the weekly gate: Log in for your usual fractal rotation each week instead of trying to bank the whole requirement in one sitting.

Why the Gloves are Time-gated

The Incursive Investigation achievement unlocks a new section every week for the first three weeks of the Fractal Incursion event, so you cannot claim the gloves in one sitting, even with a full stock of fractal dust. ArenaNet confirmed this staggered rollout in its official announcement of the event, describing a new section unlocking each week over the first three weeks.

Because the weekly gate, not your dust total, is the real bottleneck, there is no benefit to rushing it in the first few days. If the event window has already closed by the time you read this, open your achievement panel and start Incursive Investigation anyway, since it stays on the panel as a permanent addition rather than a limited-time offer.

Fastest Ways to Earn Fractal Dust

Fractal dust is the currency behind the Incursive Investigation meta, and nearly every form of fractal play feeds it. The table below breaks down each source so you can slot the ones that fit your schedule into your normal rotation.

Example scenario: Say you can only fit fractals in on weeknights after work. Clearing your weekly fractal achievements and one daily fractal incursion run each day, without any dedicated grind sessions, is enough to keep pace with the requirement across the three-week window.

Dust source	Frequency	Notes
Weekly fractal achievements	Once per week	Passive reward from fractals you would likely run anyway.
Daily fractal incursion	Once per day	A bonus reward available only during the event window.
Quick-play matchmaking	Repeatable	Main grind source, also feeds Fractal Incursion Champion tiers.
Open-world Fractal Incursion event	Hourly	Quick to clear, with a small dust and loot bonus.
Standard fractal reward track	Repeatable	Extra dust sometimes appears in your reward chest alongside your usual loot.

If your fractal reward track fills up mid-session, talk to the Mist Ranger in Mistlock Observatory to reset a used slot rather than logging out early.

Additional reading: Inventory Cleanup

Open-world Fractal Incursion Events

Alongside instanced fractals, a Fractal Incursion event spawns on the hour in one of several open-world maps, and the boss that appears there dies quickly. These hourly events feed the same achievement track, so they are worth a detour whenever you are already in one of the affected maps.

Find the current map: A portal near the Mistlock Observatory waypoint always leads to whichever affected map has an incursion active.
Check the timer first: The portal tells you how many minutes remain until the next spawn, so you can decide whether it is worth waiting.
Stack it with your commute: If you are already farming meta events on one of the affected maps, watch for the boss instead of making a dedicated trip for it.

Fractal Incursion Champion and the Universal Starter Kit

Fractal Incursion Champion is a separate, event-only reward track built around the same quick-play progress, and its higher tiers hand out exotic incursion armor, unique skins, and extra back item expansions. Its final tier grants a Legendary Weapon Starter Key, Universal, which ArenaNet’s official announcement of the event confirms can kickstart progress toward any first-generation legendary weapon.

Example scenario: Suppose you already own every fractal skin you care about but have never started a legendary weapon. Pushing extra quick-play runs for Fractal Incursion Champion tiers puts that Starter Key toward a weapon like Twilight or The Predator, on top of the free gloves you are already earning.

Because most Fractal Incursion Champion rewards are account bound the moment you claim them, spend your quick-play time on the tiers your own account actually wants rather than banking on trading them later.

Customizing the Gloves’ Weapon Aura

Eikasia, Mists-Grasper projects a magical aura around the tip of whichever weapon you have equipped, a first for legendary armor in Guild Wars 2 according to ArenaNet’s announcement of the event. You choose the aura’s color through Agony Lens infusions, and dual-wielded or two-weapon setups can show a different color on each hand.

Better infusions cost gold and their progress carries over between weapons, so treat the aura as an ongoing project you top up whenever you have spare gold, rather than a single purchase.

Farm gold through quick-play: Extra fractal runs fund the stronger Agony Lens tiers that unlock deeper aura colors.
Trade Exotic Omnipotions: A vendor accepts spare Wizard’s Vault Omnipotions toward infusion progress, worth doing once you already have some banked.
Compare tiers before committing: Check what each Agony Lens tier unlocks before spending gold on the next one up.

What your Free Legendary Gloves Unlock Next

With Eikasia, Mists-Grasper in your account’s Legendary Armory, every character on your account can equip it and swap stats or runes without paying for new armor each time you respec. The fractal habits that got you this far, weekly achievements, quick-play, and the daily incursion, keep paying into Fractal Incursion Champion even after the gloves are claimed, so stay in that rotation rather than dropping it once the meta is done.

From here, put that momentum toward finishing your first full legendary armor set, which leans heavily on Mystic Clovers as a crafting material, or spend the Universal Starter Kit on a legendary weapon you have been putting off. Use Event Timers to line up future incursion and fractal windows with your own schedule, treating its spawn windows as estimates rather than a guarantee since live events can still shift by a few minutes in practice.

FAQs

Can you preview Eikasia, Mists-Grasper before you earn it?

Yes, any legendary skin you have unlocked account-wide, or seen on another player, can be checked in the Wardrobe preview panel at a crafting station. Preview it there first so you can decide whether the grind is worth it to you before you start Incursive Investigation.

What happens if you stop playing partway through the three-week window?

Your progress on the Incursive Investigation achievement and your banked fractal dust are both saved, so stepping away does not reset anything. Log back in whenever you are ready and pick up where you left off, without needing to redo any earlier steps.

Do the bonus dust rates disappear once the event’s limited-time window ends?

The extra daily and weekly dust bonuses are tied to the event’s limited-time window, so they stop once that window closes. Front-load your heaviest fractal sessions while the event is still running, then finish up at the standard rate afterward if you need to.

Does the weapon aura work in PvP and WvW, or only in PvE?

The aura belongs to the legendary gloves themselves rather than a specific game mode, so it displays wherever your character and weapon are visible, including PvP and WvW. Equip whichever Agony Lens infusion you want that color to show before you head into a match.

Can you apply the Universal Starter Kit to a legendary weapon you already started?

Yes, the kit’s contents function as general legendary crafting progress rather than a reservation for one specific item, so nothing locks you into starting fresh. Put it toward whichever first-generation legendary weapon you already began, and it applies the same way it would to a new one.