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The final conflict between Scarlet Briar and the united heroes of Guild Wars 2 comes to a head today as The Battle for Lion’s Arch, the epic conclusion of Living World Season 1, releases for free for all players. New story missions, rewards, and a new strike mission await the champions of the city.

To celebrate the launch, ArenaNet released a new trailer showcasing the episode, which you can watch here. For additional screenshots, please click here.

Originally released as a special event in 2014, Episode 5 pulls together the bombastic conclusion of the Season 1 storyline into a new, up to 50-person event that puts the fate of the city of Lion’s Arch squarely in the crosshairs. With a daring attack to liberate the city from Scarlet and her mechanical army, it will be up to the players to drive her Aetherblades, clockwork machinations, and other allies to defeat.

In addition to the story missions, the episode will also ship with a new strike mission, a challenging 10-player encounter against three of Scarlet’s elite Assault Knights in the streets of the city. New rewards in the episode include the Lion’s Champion weapon set, the Lion Captain’s cape and shoulder mantles, and the Breachmaker Micro Mk5 mace.

Season 1 marked the beginning of episodic Living World content nine years ago. Originally conceived as limited time story and gameplay events in the post-launch period, Season 1 introduced Guild Wars 2 players to a wide cast of characters that would form the foundation of Dragon’s Watch over the next several years and begin the epic elder dragon storyline that reached its conclusion with the recently released End of Dragons expansion. With the Battle of Lion’s Arch now available, the complete chronological history of Guild Wars 2’s currently released content will finally be able to be played beginning to end for the first time.

The core Guild Wars 2 can be downloaded for free at http://www.guildwars2.com.