Important: If you are a developer, instead refer to Developer: Getting started
Download the gw2cc launcher #
Simply press the Download button at the top of the screen to download the launcher.
Make sure that you have the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable installed. You can also use this direct link: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe
Run the launcher #
Extract the launcher to an empty folder where you would like to download gw2cc to. Make sure that your drive has enough space (at least 15 GB) and that the target folder is not write-protected.
Important: Make sure the folder is empty and not stored in OneDrive or other cloud backed storage solutions!
Accessing the game files #
gw2cc uses the official game files stored in the Gw2.dat for a lot of its functions. In order to get access to these files there are 2(3) ways available.
1. Using the official Gw2.dat #
gw2cc can use the Gw2.dat that is used by your GW2 installation. This is the most space-efficient way if you plan to use attach mode as it only requires you to have the official Gw2.dat on your machine.
If you want to use the official Gw2.dat you will now need to start the launcher as an admin in order for it to symlink the Gw2.dat and the Local.dat into the folder.
Once started the launcher will ask you whether or not you want to link the Gw2.dat. Select “y” and press enter.
gw2cc will now ask you to start GW2 to retrieve the neccessary paths. If gw2cc is unable to find the paths automatically for some reason a file browser dialog should open asking for the Gw2.dat. Browse to where you have installed GW2 and select the Gw2.dat file.
If you have done everything correctly, the launcher should now download the latest gw2cc version and begin importing the GW2 map files.
2. and 3. downloading/Extracting the gw2.dat #
If you want gw2cc to use its own copy of the Gw2.dat simply select “n” when asked if you want to symlink the Gw2.dat. Going this route means you can start Gw2 as before but will require ~70GB of additional disk space.
The first time you can choose between extracting an existing Gw2.dat or downloading it. Updates will always be downloaded by default since it is usually much faster. However, you can force the launcher to extract the Gw2.dat again by starting it with --extract-dat.
WeGame #
WeGame is a bit special. This is because to be able to access your WeGame credentials gw2cc needs to be started through WeGame.
To facilitate this gw2cc needs to patch the GW2 exe in your WeGames folder. You can do this by starting gw2cc normally, creating a WeGame account in gw2cc and then clicking either the Attached or Standalone button. gw2cc will now ask you if you want to patch your WeGame installation. If you choose yes you will need to select the Gw2-64.exe in your WeGame installation (rail_apps/Guild_Wars_2(2001128)/Gw2-64.exe). gw2cc will then rename Gw2-64.exe to Gw2-64.orig.exe and create a new Gw2-64.exe and a gw2cc.cfg. The gw2cc.cfg includes the path to gw2cc and the command line you used to start gw2cc. Note that you may need to repeat this after any GW2 update. Please note that this will not work with the editor version of gw2cc.
After this, if you start GW2 through WeGame with the --gw2cc command line flag, instead of launching GW2 it should launch gw2cc. Without the flag it will launch GW2 as before. If you start attached mode from gw2cc, you will need to login in the GW2 launcher. You can select whatever user data you want here. gw2cc will be the one connecting to anets server with your WeGame credentials.(edited)
ERRORS during installation #
If you encounter any errors during installation, make sure that you are connected to the internet, that http://assetcdn.101.arenanetworks.com/latest64/101 is reachable, and that you have enough disk space.
If the error is about missing files, please make sure that the Gw2.dat you linked is up to date and that you selected the correct Local.dat and Gw2.dat files. You can retry the symlinking step by simply removing the gw2.dat and local.dat file from the gw2cc folder.
Run the launcher again. If you still encounter issues read the faq; and if you still can’t solve the issue head over to the gw2cc channel for support.
Test gw2cc installation #
Once everything is downloaded, the launcher automatically starts gw2cc. The following window should appear:
It might happen that before seeing this screen the client freezes for a while and only displays the red gw2cc logo. This is normal. During this time various static data is loaded.
Also, make sure that no errors are displayed in the console window.
Buy a gw2cc license #
If you haven’t done so yet, head over to the Store and buy a license for gw2cc. Each license allows you to run gw2cc with one GW2 account at a time. I.e. if you want to run two accounts at the same time, you need two licenses as well.