VvW Anniversary Event 2026 Guide
Published 2026-05-08 · VvW Editorial Team
Complete guide to the 1st Anniversary Event — free gems, exclusive cosmetics, and anniversary dungeon tips.
This guide is based on live Season 3 data and top-player input. Bookmark this page — we update it with every major patch.
TL;DR
Read the full guide below for detailed breakdowns. Every section includes data-backed recommendations and pro tips from Legend-rank players.
When it runs
The Anniversary Event overlaps with the tail end of the Summer Solstice window this year, running through — the longest-day event that doubles dungeon loot for its full duration. If you have been putting off dungeon farming, this is the week to burn every available cooldown, since the loot multiplier stacks with whatever event currency and cosmetic rewards the Anniversary celebration adds on top. Recurring events keep running underneath it as always: Blood Moon still lands on days 13-14 of the month with its usual +25% XP and +20% gold, and if the Anniversary window runs into the first week of a new month you'll also catch Eclipse War, which doubles PvP XP for seven days. Stacking all three is the single best XP-and-gold week of the year for players who can play actively through it.
Free gems and how to actually get them
VvW's economy is built around gems being earnable for free — the game's own description of the currency is explicit that there is no pay-to-win path, and gems drop from daily login streaks, hard quests, seasonal events, and achievements. During an anniversary-tier event, expect the event track to lean heavily on the same systems seasonal content already uses: a themed event currency earned from dungeon clears and daily quests, redeemable in a limited-time event shop for cosmetics, titles, and pet-style vanity rewards, the same pattern the Halloween "Night of Horrors" event used with its Soul Shards currency and cosmetic-only shop. None of the anniversary rewards affect combat stats — cosmetics, weapon skins, and auras are cosmetic-only by design, so there's no competitive disadvantage to skipping the event if your schedule doesn't allow for it.
If you want to convert real spending into more event value, the daily login streak alone is worth checking: day 7 nets 1,000 gold and 10 gems, day 30 nets 5,000 gold, 50 gems, and a random rare item, and day 100 unlocks the "Eternal Warrior" title along with 25,000 gold and 200 gems. Missing a single day resets the streak counter to zero, so plan around the event dates if you're chasing a milestone reward.
Exclusive cosmetics
Anniversary cosmetics follow the same tiering the game uses for every seasonal event: a weapon skin, an armor skin, and an aura, each purchasable with the event's limited-time currency rather than gold or gems. Past seasonal events have priced weapon skins around 300 event currency, armor skins around 400, and auras — the rarest tier — around 500. Expect anniversary-tier rewards to sit at or above that range given the once-a-year framing, and expect them to disappear from the shop the moment the event window closes, since event currencies are not the primary gold/gem economy and typically cannot be earned or spent once the event ends.
Anniversary dungeon tips
Special-event dungeons in VvW have consistently been 6-7 room instances gated at a minimum level around 40, themed around whatever the event's aesthetic is — the Halloween event added a Haunted Crypt, and each seasonal rotation (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) ships its own themed dungeon with a full boss, from Fae Queen to Winter Queen. Expect an anniversary dungeon to follow the same shape: a themed boss around level 70 with roughly 1,200 HP, guarding rare-to-epic gear alongside the event-currency drops. Bring a party if you're under level 60 — these bosses hit for 50+ per attack and are tuned assuming a full clear group rather than a solo run. If you can only run it a handful of times before the event ends, prioritize your first clear for the guaranteed first-clear bonus, then spend remaining cooldowns on whichever difficulty gives the best event-currency-per-minute for your gear level rather than chasing the hardest difficulty you can barely survive.
Making the most of a limited window
The single biggest mistake players make with any time-limited event is treating it like permanent content and pacing themselves. Anniversary-tier rewards are usually one-time-only — once the event currency shop closes, unspent currency is typically lost, so spend it down rather than hoarding it "just in case." If you're already sitting on Ad Rewards' free daily gems, a Moonstone Pass, or a login streak in progress, this is the week those systems compound hardest: stack an XP Boost consumable with the event's own bonus multipliers, run your full daily quest pool across whichever factions you have reputation invested in, and use the Summer Solstice loot doubling on your highest-tier clearable dungeon rather than farming low-tier content out of habit.