GW2 Sky Pirates Achievement guide

GW2 Sky Pirates achievements guide with instructions and videos on completing every achievement as part of Sky Pirates of Tyria update.

Achievements overview & navigation

Sky Pirates achievements can be divided into roughly three categories: Kill achievements, cache achievements, and dungeon achievements.

Meta achievement: Against the Aetherblades

Kill achievements

1. Aetherblade Assassin

2. Ascalon Aetherblades

3. Kryta Aetherblades

4. Maguuma Aetherblades

5. Shiverpeak Aetherblades

Cache achievements

6. Vexing Cache

7. Weeping Cache

8. Troll Cache

9. Mad Cache

10. Cantle Cache

11. Shipshape Cache

12. Blackout Cache

Dungeon achievements

13. Equipment Failure

14. Faster than Light

15. Personal Space

16. Don’t be rude to the brute

17. Unfriendly Skies

18. Cornered, Caught, Collared

19. Questions for Mai.

Meta Achievement Against the Aetherblades

• Complete 12 of the 19 achievements below to finish up this meta achievement (Caching Out does not count towards this)
• Completing this meta achievement will grant you Mini First Mate Horrik (Rare, account bound)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzpm6H6ZM0U&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

Kill achievements

All of the kill achievements can be completed in one of two ways.

You can re-visit the hologram projectors you encountered all over the maps to spawn holographic mobs for the Dragon Bash achievement (So Lifelike). These hologram projectors now have a 50/50 chance to spawn four Aetherblade pirates when you run near them (if the hologram projector does not spawn any Aetherblades when you run near it, do not activate it as it will spawn holographic minions instead). This allow players to complete both the kill achievements for the Sky Pirates and also the So Lifelike achievement for those who are still catching up the Dragon Bash achievements.

If you don’t feel like running all over the maps to find these hologram projectors, you can farm the Aetherblades guarding the individual caches for the Cache achievements. These guys have a respawn timer of 1 minute and there are usually 2-3 Aetherblades guarding each so you can complete most of these achievements in ~15 minutes of camping their respawn with the added bonus of completing the Cache achievements at the same time.

1) Aetherblade Assassin – kill 250 Aetherblades

• Four tiers: 1)  1 2) 50  3) 150 4) 250
• Hunted down and killed members of Tyria’s newest pirate faction.
• You should not need to aim to complete this achievement as completing all the individual location specific Aetherblade achievements or running the dungeon will complete this one fairly quickly. Consider this a freebie.

2) Ascalon Aetherblades – kill 50 Aetherblades in Ascalon

• Three tiers: 1) 1 2) 25 3) 50
• Kill Aetherblades that spawn from hologram projectors in Ascalon at Plains of Ashford, Diessa Plateau, Fields of Ruin, Blazeridge Steppes, Iron Marches, and Fireheart Rise.
• Alternatively, you can farm the Aetherblades guarding the Vexxing Cache in Fireheart Rise.

3) Kryta Aetherblades – kill 50 Aetherblades in Kryta

• Three tiers: 1) 1 2) 25 3) 50
• Kill Aetherblades that spawn from hologram projectors in Queensdale, Kessex Hills, Gendarran Fields, Harathi Hinterlands, Bloodtide Coast, and Southsun Cove.
• Alternatively, you can farm the Aetherblades guarding the Shipshape Cache in Harathi Hinterlands.

4) Maguuma Aetherblades – kill 50 Aetherblade in Maguuma

• Three tiers: 1) 1 2) 25 3) 50
• Kill Aetherblades that spawn from hologram projectors in Caledon Forest, Metrica Province, Brisban Wildlands, Sparkfly Fen, and Mount Maelstrom.
• Alternatively, you can farm the Aetherblades guarding the Mad Cache in Metrica Province or Cantle Cache in Mount Maelstrom (Cantle Cache is much easier to reach if you don’t like jumping puzzles).

5) Shiverpeaks Aetherblades – kill 50 Aetherblades in Shiverpeaks

• Three tiers: 1) 1 2) 25 3) 50
• Kill Aetherblades that spawn from hologram projectors in Wayfayer Foothills, Snowden Drifts, Lornar’s Pass, Dredgehaunt Cliffs, Timberline Falls, and Frostforge Sound.
• Alternatively, you can farm the Aetherblades guarding the Troll Cache in Timberline Falls.

Cache Achievements

Cache achievements seeks to reuse existing jumping puzzles by adding in caches within the them that requires players to complete a portion or majority of the jumping puzzle/mini dungeon to reach them.

If you don’t like doing jumping puzzles, here is a list of cantles rearranged by their difficulty

Easy (very little jumping required)

7) Weeping Cache in Caledon Forest

8 ) Troll Cache in Timberline Falls

10) Cantle Cache in Mount Maelstrom

Medium (you are expected to do a bit but not all of the jumping puzzle)

6) Vexing Cache in Fireheart Rise

11) Shipshape Cache in Harathi Hinterlands

Hard (you will need to complete majority of the jumping puzzle)

9) Mad Cache in Metrica Province

12) Blackout Cache in Obsidian Sanctum

6) Vexing Cache – Find the cache in Vexa’s Lab in Fireheart Rise (Medium)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuSILkYluJk&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

Near the end of the instance before you fight the final boss you will find a couple of Aetherblades guarding the Aetherblade Cache that you will need for this achievement.

• The three Aetherblade pirates guarding this cache will also count towards 2) Ascalon Aetherblades achievement. These guys do respawn so you can farm them if you feel like it (1 minute respawn)

7) Weeping Cache – Find the cache in the Tears of Itlaocol in Caledon Forest (Easy)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATRzMLq3IDs&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

• To access Tears of Itlaocol mini dungeon, you will need to dispatch the nearby Hyleks and then use the Boulders on the ground to hit the gong to open the door.
• You can skip through everything along the way since the cache is all the way at the end of the dungeon after you have opened the door by placing rocks in the correct pattern.
• Three Aetherblade pirates guard the cache will count towards the Maguuma Aetherblades achievement with a respawn timer of 1 minute.

8 ) Troll Cache – Find the cache in Sector Zuhl in Timberline Falls (Easy)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixc4S_mmSDI&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

• This one is rather easy to get as it is located near the start of the Zuhl jumping puzzle and doesn’t require any jumping except running through some angry mobs.
• You will find two Aetherblade pirates guarding the cache. Killing them will count towards the Shiverpeak Aetherblades achievement and they have a respawn timer of 1 minute.

9) Mad Cache – Find the Cache in Goemm’s Lab in Metrica Province (Hard)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcLspLcZSJ4&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

• This cache can be a pain to get as you have to pretty much complete all of Goemm’s Lab which isn’t an easy jumping puzzle by any means. The cache is located in the last station near the end of the puzzle so you will need to atttune and pass through Windy Station, Stormy Station, and Chilly Station.
• Some tips on the actual jumping puzzle
• You will need to attune yourself before you can pass the gate that lead to the next station. You only need to attune once per station, as long you don’t die/log out etc.
• Once you get past the gate leading to the next station, you won’t need to have to repeat that station again as long you don’t die/log out.
• If you miss a jump and fall, you will be ported to the start of the jumping puzzle in most cases. You can talk to the Golem assistant near the portal to get ported to whatever station you were just in. There is no need to get attuned again to that station if you have already done so.
• If you need video above and the tips don’t help you,. try this written guide here.
• Cache is guarded by two Aetherblade pirates with a respawn timer of 1minute. Killing them counts towards the Maguuma Aetherblades achievement

10) Cantle Cache – Find the cache in the Hidden Garden in Mount Maelstrom (Easy)

• This cache can be accessed in the Hidden Garden jumping puzzle in Mount Maelstrom. Luckily you don’t have to do any jumping as the cache is actually on the ground floor and very easy to access.
• Remember that there are four entrances to the Hidden Garden. You will need to defeat one of the four keepers (not all of them are up) to open up a portal to Hidden Garden.
• Once you are inside Hidden Garden, go the SE corner and you should find the cache guarded by three Aetherblade pirates with ~1 minute respawn.

11) Shipshape Cache – Find the cache in Fawcett’s Bounty in Harathi Hinterlands (Medium)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V9l3hVzX5I&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

• The cache is inside Fawcett’s Bounty jumping puzzle but luckily you can skip about half of the jumping puzzle as the cache is not actually on the ship but on a slope nearby where you can simply swim to it.
• Once you reach the large body of water, swim through it towards the opposite end past the pirate ship. You will see a hill on the otherside with a  slope you can run up to grab the cache.

12) Blackout Cache – Find the cache in Obsidian Sanctum (WvW) (Medium)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQJQxhwmm2k&w=448&h=252&hd=1]

• The cache is right below the treasure chest at end of the jumping puzzle and will require you to pretty much complete the entire jumping puzzle to obtain it. You can of course have a mesmer porting people to the cache to get it.
• Recall that there are 3 entrances to the Obsidian Sanctum jumping puzzle.

Dungeon Achievements

These achievements are all related to the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon. Some are for simply completing the dungeon while others are rewarded for avoiding certain things within the dungeon or killing the final boss within a certain time limit.

13) Equipment Failure – Leave Frizz crushed in his lab

• This achievement is obtained for killing Frizz, the midboss in the dungeon. This is a guaranteed achievement that everyone will receive on their first run through the dungeon as long as they can make it to the mid-boss.

14) Faster than Light – Complete Kleptotronic Advanced Designs without being hit by lasers

• This is a skill based achievement, meaning that not everyone will be able to get it on their first run.
• This achievement is either for not getting hit by any of the laser beams/walls during the Frizz fight.
• For Frizz fight you can avoid the laser beams by standing on the very top of stacked crates (you still need to run away from the Laser walls).

15) Personal Space – Avoid area attacks while fighting Horrik.

• What you need to do is avoid being hit by Horrik’s cannon fire during the barrage phase of the final boss battle.

So, getting hit by Horrik’s attacks while fighting Mai and Horrik on the ground don’t count against this achievement.

Also, during the barrage phases, other cannons besides Horrik’s are shooting AoE cannon fire. Those other cannon blasts also don’t count against this achievement.

Mark Ketzbach

16) Don’t be Rude to the Brute – Show respect by saluting Horrik

• While fighting Horrik and Mai Trin or Horrik alone, do a /salute on Horrik while having him targeted. If you don’t think you can type out /salute while during combat. Just type out /salute before hand in the chatbox and then just press enter and up arrow to salute him quickly during the fight.
• You can also /salute his corpse or salute him while he and Mai are in a conversation at the very start of the fight.

17) Unfriendly Skies – Use Aetherblade weaponry to bring down the pirate airship.

• You must defeat both Mai Trin and Horrik within 15 minutes. If you have achieved this, you can grab the Aetherblade cannon that drops off Horrik and put it on the Aetherblade Airship docked nearby. You have to do this on your first attempt. If you wipe and start over, you cannot get it even if you see a timer on your screen (cannon cannot be placed on the airship)
• If you finished the fight within 15 minutes, you should see another Aetherblade Airship leaving (should be a timer on top right of your screen) and you can use the cannon you just attached to the docked airship to shoot that one down to get the achievement.
• Again, this is a skill based achievement, something you may not get within the first run.

18) Cornered, Caught, Collared – Capture the criminal behind the Dragon Bash crime.

• You will get this achievement when you defeat Mai Trin and Horrik. This is an automatic achievement that you will get when you complete the dungeon for the first time.

19) Question for Mai – Talk to Mai Trin

• Mai Trin is located in the Fort Marriner cell in Lion’s Arch. You do not need to complete the dungeon or defeat Mai to get this achievement.