Guild Wars 2 launcher flags

There are different launcher flags for Guild Wars 2, in this guide are the most useful ones Guild Wars 2 players might need occasionally.

Useful launcher flags

There are different command line flags or launcher flags for Guild Wars 2. In this guide are the flags which are useful and might occasionally be useful for a Guild Wars 2 player.

• -verify
  
• -repair
  
• -forwardrenderer
  
• -clientport:443 or -clientport:80
  
• -fps:60
  
• -dx11
  
• -diag
  
• -autologin
  
• -bmp
  
• -provider:Portal
  
• -image
  
• -nomusic
  
• -nosound
  
• -usecoherent

How to add launcher flags in Steam

• Select "Guild Wars 2" in your Steam library
  
• Click the gear icon on the right side
  
• Select Properties

It will open a new window and you should see "Launch Options". This is where to add the different flags for the game.

Troubleshooting flags

Flag: -verify

"-verify" is usually the first step in troubleshooting Guild Wars 2. Game client crashes may sometimes be caused by a game file which was corrupted, did not download properly, or some other unknown cause. By adding the "-verify" flag, the client will launch and perform verification of each and every game file and download a new copy to repair it.

Depending on your gaming rig, the process may take between 5 and 15 minutes, or even longer. Once it completes, it will automatically launch the game launcher.

---

Note: The flag "-provider:Portal" shown in the screengrab above is for existing players who already have a Guild Wars 2 account prior to the official Guild Wars 2 Steam launch (i.e. not the "add a non-Steam game option"). A fair warning, it will not link your existing Guild Wars 2 account with your Steam. Do not buy anything via Steam as those will not be credited to your non-Steam Guild Wars 2 account.

Flag: -repair

The "-repair" flag is very useful when the game client is crashing or there are errors when trying to launch the game. What it does is it will check the game files and fetch a new copy of affected files to repair it.

Depending on your gaming rig, the process may take between 5 and 15 minutes, or even longer. Once it completes, it will shutdown the process without launching the game launcher.

---

Note: The flag "-provider:Portal" shown in the screengrab above is for existing players who already have a Guild Wars 2 account prior to the official Guild Wars 2 Steam launch (i.e. not the "add a non-Steam game option"). A fair warning, it will not link your existing Guild Wars 2 account with your Steam. Do not buy anything via Steam as those will not be credited to your non-Steam Guild Wars 2 account.

Flag: -forwardrenderer

Depending on your gaming rig, it may be better to change your rendering to "forward rendering". To do this, simply add "-forwardrenderer". The only catch is some lighting and shadows might not render properly.

I use this in my laptop while playing Guild Wars 2 in Linux (Pop OS! 22.04 LTS) and Windows 10. On my end, it made the game smoother and I rarely experience delays in rendering (specially when summoning mounts).

Flag: -clientport:443 or -clientport:80

There are ISPs or networks which add restrictions to certain ports or gives priority to the regular browsing ports (:443 and :80). By adding the flag "-clientport:443" or "clientport:80", the game client will connect to the servers through the regular browsing ports.

Port :443 is the SSL port (when you see "https", it is sending traffic through the :443 port). While port :80 is plaintext (when you see "http", it is sending traffic through the :80 port).

Do note that many ISPs monitor :443 and :80 and may interrupt or corrupt your connection to the server … which may cause disconnections or lags. While they do monitor other ports, :443 and :80 usually have a more stringent monitoring settings, like redirecting your connection to their child-abuse monitoring tool.

Flag: -fps:60

While there is an in-game setting to set your fps, it does not apply in the character selection screen. If you need to limit your fps to 60 or 30, add the flag "-fps:60" or "-fps:30" and the fps in the character selection screen will also be limited.

Flag: -dx11

As of this writing, the default of the game is to use DirectX11. This flag was added during the testing of dx11 when DirectX9 was still the default. However, if for some reason you need this, simply add the "-dx11" flag and it will force DirectX11 to be used regardless.

Flag: -diag

If all else fails, using the "-diag" flag will generate a file "NetworkDiag.log" which contains a detailed diagnostic of your game files. It is advisable to include this when contacting the Guild Wars 2 team for troubleshooting concerns as they may ask this as their first reply.

Extra flags

Flag: -autologin

This is useful for players using their regular Guild Wars 2 account (username/password). If this flag is set, the game launcher will automatically login if the username and password were remembered (checkbox).

For gamers using their Steam account, this won't have any effect as the game client automatically logs into the game with your Steam account.

Flag: -bmp

If you want to create lossless screengrabs, add the "-bmp" flag. You can then later edit it and convert it to a better format like .webp.

Flag: -provider:Portal

For Guild Wars 2 players with an existing non-Steam account, add this flag to force the Guild Wars 2 launcher to revert to the username/password login. Do note that it will not link your regular Guild Wars 2 account with your Steam. Never buy anything from Steam as those will not be credited to your regular Guild Wars 2. You've been well-informed.

Flag: -nomusic

If you want to start your game client without any game music, add this flag. Useful if you are already listening to something and does not want to manually go to the in-game sound settings to turn-off the game music.

Flag: -nosound

The "-nosound" flag is different from the "-nomusic" flag. This flag will disable the audio of the game regardless of the in-game sound settings. This is useful if you do not want the game client to process game audio thus clearing up your system for other processes. Turning the volume down to zero is different from disabling the audio entirely, the former still have the audio libraries running (with volume set to zero) while the latter it's entirely disabled.

Flag: -usecoherent

The 2023-03-14 patch replaced the game's browser engine with Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF), some setups/players encountered various errors when the game's login UI appears. As a temporary workaround this flag will force the game client to use the old Coherent engine.

See the official bug report thread: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/128885-chromium-embedded-framework-host-for-guild-wars-2-stopped-to-work-merged/

For more information

And … that's it. Those are the useful commands for Guild Wars 2 players. There are other flags available like "-log", "mce", "-shareArchive", but those are on a case-by-case basis.

If you want to learn more about the command line flags of Guild Wars 2, visit the official wiki at https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Command_line_arguments.

Welcome to Guild Wars 2 and I hope you enjoy the game!

~🐬 I'M YourOnly.One ❄️[im.youronly.one]

[kazerniel]

The -autologin seems to not work in Steam :( My login details are saved in the client, but I still need to press the login button each time.

(Btw the flags don't work for me with colon on Windows, only with space.)

[Papicho]

@yuki thanks, also i'd like to highlight this command DXVK_ASYNC=1 %command%, saved me in a lot of games in linux which ofc included GW2.

It's better if you add this to your guide, previously I had a lot of fps drops and heavy stuttering. This command serves to prioritize creating the frames first before calculating the shaders. A downside some may experience is waiting a little for stuff to appear graphically, rarely noticed it or had problem with it.

[gameshogun]

@messiah For more Linux tips, the best way is the thread in the official forums: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/22771-playing-guild-wars-2-on-linux-performance-optimizations-and-more/?do=getNewComment

Feel free to reply and ask questions there, most Linux GW2 players are reading and replying there if they know a workaround. ^_^

[gameshogun]

@neko-chan The game installation and the accounts are two separate things. As for the account, this is where the mentioned flag comes in (i.e. -provider:Portal).

If GW2 is launched directly (gw2.exe) regardless if it was in the Steam folder or not, the regular username/password will show up, as mentioned. However, if the game is launched through Steam (i.e. the Steam "Play" button), the default is to auto-login to Steam.

To bypass that, you need to add -provider:Portal in GW2's Steam launch options.

Here's what I did on my end:

1. Setup steam to install GW2.
2. After the GW2 download screen showed up, I cancelled it.
3. Then I copied the gw2.dat file from my original GW2 installation into the Steam-GW2 installation folder.
4. Set the -provider:Portal flag in Steam-GW2 launcher settings
5. Login with my ANet-GW2 account (email and password)

^_^

[gameshogun]

@lwholmes This is what you need: Flag: -provider:Portal.

Quoting above: "For Guild Wars 2 players with an existing non-Steam account, add this flag to force the Guild Wars 2 launcher to revert to the username/password login. Do note that it will not link your regular Guild Wars 2 account with your Steam. Never buy anything from Steam as those will not be credited to your regular Guild Wars 2. You've been well-informed."

[Hokkaido_Emi]

lwholmes - It doesn't work the way your asking it to. If you downloaded the game client from arena net, you can only use their launcher to install the game you can't use steam. Conversely if you dowload the steam install of the game, you can't then use it as if you got it from the arena set account, you can only ever install via steam.
There is no way around what your asking for. For all intents and purposes they are two seperate gaming accounts , one that uses the arena net client to install your game and steam which installs the steam version.
Even if you added the game via +add a game, you would still only be able to install the game via arena net's client.

[Hokkaido_Emi]

Why Arena net are messing around updating from dx9 to dx11 is baffling given most people have dx12 capable gfx cards. That being said it's best to just download the dx12 mod. dx12 offers superior fps increases.

[Ren]

Is there anyway to keep it from logging in with your steam account? I have a preexisting account, and I want to use it, but I wanted to have steam manage the install. Also would make it easier to stream to other computers, (I think?).

[Papicho]

Thanks for your guide. Do you have more advice concerning Linux? I'm actually on a weak laptop with Nobara 36 kde (based on fedora).

Now with steam got very slow loading times (loading screen, terrain, characters) and lower fps comparing to months ago using manjaro with lutris. Which I can't go back to because of worse bugs there now.