Exploring the Tangled Depths
Tangled Depths is Heart of Thorns at its most uncompromising: a four‑lane underground maze where the roots of the Maguuma Jungle knot around ley‑line energy, and where finding your way is as much of a challenge as anything you actually fight. It sits beneath the canopy zones as the “roots” biome, all bioluminescent fungi, slick stone and pockets of civilisation clinging on between Chak hives and Mordrem strongholds.
The map is broadly divided into four surface pockets, each tied to a faction and a lane that runs down towards the central Ley‑Line Confluence. In the northwest, the Ogre lane leads out of a rugged ogre outpost, where events revolve around holding pens, taming beasts and pushing back Chak incursions long enough to keep their culture alive. To the east, Rata Novus hides in its own crater: the lost asuran city whose abandoned labs, golems and research logs tell you what happened to the last group that tried to study Mordremoth properly. The southwest is SCAR Bivouac, a Pact/Vigil forward base where Special Combat Airborne Recon teams launch sorties into the depths and try to keep supply lines open against constant harassment. In the southeast, Teku Nuhoch anchors the Nuhoch lane, a Nuhoch hylek village built into mushroom towers and caverns where you help rebuild their defences and learn to use their wallows and spore tricks against the Chak.
Getting around is the first real test. Heart of Thorns’ mastery system underpins almost every route: basic Gliding is essential for dropping safely into lanes and crossing gaps, while Updraft Use and Ley‑Line Gliding open shortcuts between layers once you have them. Nuhoch Lore, earned through story and events here and in Verdant Brink, lets you use Nuhoch wallows as living teleport tunnels and grants resistance to the poisonous spores and Chak tunnels that would otherwise choke you off. Itzel Lore, although more prominent elsewhere, still matters via bouncing mushrooms that bounce you between platforms and out of pits. The net result is a map where vertical thinking is mandatory; advice threads about Tangled Depths navigation often boil down to “learn the lanes, unlock the wallows, and don’t be afraid to go down before you go up”.
Meta‑events tie the lanes and factions together. The headline is the Chak Gerent event, part of the “King of the Jungle” meta: four lanes (Ogre, Rata Novus, SCAR, Nuhoch) each rally players to escort NPCs, complete pre‑events and then fight a massive Chak Gerent trying to break through into the Ley‑Line Confluence. Each lane has its own mechanics—stomping mushroom nodules in Nuhoch, feeding power to golems in Rata Novus, handling explosives or enemy waves in SCAR and Ogre—which means success depends on people understanding their local puzzle as well as doing damage. Elsewhere, the “Advancing Across Tangled Roots” chain focuses on securing SCAR Bivouac, with events about regrouping Pact squads, securing artillery and clearing Chak infestations to stabilise the outpost.
Away from the main fights, the map is packed with side content. Strongboxes and mastery insights hide in awkward ledges and tucked‑away branches, often demanding a combination of gliding, mushrooms and wallows to reach. Adventures, unlocked as you push the outpost metas, add bite‑sized challenges: Beetle Feast has you racing as a beetle through a mushroom course eating the right caps for points and abilities while dodging poisonous spores; Drone Race and Haywire Punch‑o‑Matic test speed and reflexes elsewhere around the Ley‑Line Confluence. Achievement tracks such as Friend of the Frogs, Honorary Ogre, Honorary Rata Novan and SCAR Supporter walk you through rebuilding each camp, while “Tangled Depths Mastery” and related achievements prod you into seeing every corner of the map at least once.
What makes Tangled Depths endure, even for players who bounced off it at first, is how strongly it expresses Heart of Thorns’ design philosophy. It refuses to be a flat field of events; instead it’s a layered knot of ecology, faction outposts and ley‑line infrastructure that only really clicks once you’ve spent time learning its rhythms. In return, it offers one of Guild Wars 2’s most memorable spaces: a place where gliding paths, wallows and tunnels interlock, where meta‑events feel genuinely cooperative, and where the struggle against Mordremoth and the Chak is etched directly into the terrain.
