Before Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire was released, every loot bag and enemy drop would give us equipment, and this would easily make inventory bags extremely cluttered. When Path of Fire was released, ArenaNet introduced Unidentified Gear to make inventory management a bit easier.
What is Unidentified Gear in Guild Wars 2?
Unidentified Gear is an item that comes in three rarities. Common (Blue), Masterwork (Green), and Rare (Yellow). They can be salvaged, sold, or opened, but doing the latter is the best course of action for reasons we will talk about in this guide.
Opening these items is not affected by Magic Find or your character’s level, and the items you get by opening them will always be from the same level 80 loot table.
Every Unidentified Gear has a high chance of giving you an item of the same rarity, and a slight chance of giving you an item of a higher rarity. Here is a breakdown.
| Item | Common | Masterwork | Rare | Exotic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piece of Common Unidentified Gear | 89% | 9.9% | 1% | 0.1% |
| Piece of Unidentified Gear | 0% | 96.4% | 3.4% | 0.2% |
| Piece of Rare Unidentified Gear | 0% | 0% | 98.7% | 1.3% |
How to get Unidentified Gear
Unidentified Gear can be obtained in so many ways, and getting the common one is easier than getting the rare ones, for obvious reasons.
However, you can get all three by opening loot bags, getting them from enemy drops, or as rewards from completing events.
Should I Salvage, Sell, or Open?
The short answer is to sell the Common Unidentified Gear and open and salvage the Masterwork and Rare ones. This way you will get the most bang for your buck.
The long answer is to open every single one of them and salvage them, then sell all the items you get out of them in the Trading Post. This is due to the fact that you can get higher rarities from each Piece of Unidentified Gear, and could end up making more gold.
Moreover, there is an extremely slight chance of getting a Precursor for Generation One Legendaries, and this will increase your profits by a long shot.
Just make sure to never salvage them straight up as this is the worst decision you can make.
What to do with Exotics
If you got an Exotic from any of three rarities, then you will be left with the question of whether you should sell it, or salvage it for more profits.
This will have to go back to the current market price because salvaging an exotic could potentially give you between 1 and 3 Globs of Ectoplasm and a Sigil if it was a weapon, or Rune if it was an armor. For this reason, you need to check the current value of Ectos and the Sigil / Rune you would get before making a decision on whether you should sell or salvage.
If you are a collector, then you can also salvage the exotic to unlock the Skin and then sell the result whether it was a profit or loss.
What Salvage Kit to Use
Again, there is a short and a long answer.
The short answer would be to use a Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic or basic salvage kit on Common and Masterwork, and a Silverfed Salvage-o-matic or Master’s Kit on Rares.
| Rarity | Salvage Kit |
|---|---|
| Common (Blue) | Copper-fed Salvage-o-matic or Basic Salvage Kit |
| Masterwork (Green) | Runecrafter’s Salvage-o-matic or Basic / Copper-fed |
| Rare (Yellow) | Silver-fed Salvage-o-matic or any yellow salvage kit |
The long answer would be to use Copper-fed or Basic Salvage Kits on Commons, Runecrafter’s salvage-o-matic on Masterworks, and if you do not have one, just use the Copper-fed, and Silver-fed, Mystic Salvage Kit or any yellow salvage kit on Rares.
If you have Black Lion Salvage Kits, don’t use them on Unidentified Gear, but rather use them on the Exotic items that you get in case you decide to salvage them. This will guarantee you a Rune / Sigil along with the Globs of Ectoplasm that you would get. Avoid buying a Black Lion Salvage Kit if you don’t already have one, and just use a rare one instead.
Where to Store them
Keeping Unidentified Gear in normal bags can lead you to salvage them by accident. For this reason, it’s best to store them somewhere safe like Shared Inventory Slots of Invisible Bags.
Each Shared Inventory Slot can cost you 800 gems, and you will need three of them, but an Invisible Bag can be purchased for a few gold, so the latter would be a better choice.
Moreover, if you are a hoarder, then you can create an alt, and give them a couple of 18 or 20-slot bags and place all the Unidentified Gear there. If you use all your alt’s inventory though, then you can also place them in your bank or create a guild to utilize its guild stash.
