Item rarity

In Guild Wars, the rarer an item is, the more valuable and powerful it can be. There are five levels of item rarity. They are, in ascending rarity:
 * White: Common items without an upgrade or modifier.
 * Blue: Common items with at least one upgrade or modifier.
 * Purple: Uncommon items.
 * Gold: Rare items.
 * Green: Unique items. These items don't technically have a place on the rarity spectrum.

On weapons, the quality of the modifier or upgrade on a dropped weapon increases with rarity. It is possible to increase the quality of upgrades on a weapon by applying an upgrade from another weapon. Collector and crafter weapons will typically have maximum quality modifiers. See weapon upgrade and weapon modifier for more details on possible values.

On salvage items, the quality of rune also increases with rarity. White salvage items will never have runes. Blue salvage items contain minor runes, purples contain majors, and golds contain superiors.

Miniatures also have different colors which generally show rarity. However, some miniatures, such as Kuunavang and the Gray Giant, are available to players who had purchased certain products, so their colors do not indicate rarity.

Despite their name and rarity, the names of rare crafting materials are white like common items. The names of dyes are also white regardless of rarity.

White

 * Weapons
 * Contain no modifiers or upgrades.
 * Adding upgrades to white weapons changes their color to blue.


 * Armor
 * All basic armor that has no modifiers aside from basic armor and +energy.
 * Will become blue if a rune of any quality is applied.


 * Salvage items
 * Do not contain runes.


 * Crafting materials
 * Both common and rare.


 * Other items
 * Any item that does not fall into another color category will be white.

Blue

 * Weapons
 * Contain at least one modifier or upgrade.
 * Collector, crafter, PvP, promotion, and quest reward weapons with modifiers or upgrades are always blue (with the exception of Divine Path collectors). Collector and crafter weapons will typically have modifiers of perfect quality.
 * Modifier/upgrade quality will range from 0 to 50% of the maximum possible value, i.e. a Fortitude upgrade can be from +20 to +25. Occasionally this is not the case. A blue item can be observed with +28 or more after identification.


 * Runes
 * Minor runes.
 * Runes with older artwork will be blue, regardless of quality.


 * Armor
 * Have at least one modifier aside from basic armor and +energy.
 * Any armor piece with a rune of any quality.


 * Salvage items
 * Contain minor runes and/or insignias.


 * Weapon upgrades
 * Any salvaged upgrade will be blue, regardless of the color of the weapon it was salvaged from.


 * Insight scrolls
 * Less powerful scrolls which can be bought from merchants.

Purple
Purple items have a 2x multiplier on their sell value to merchants compared to white items.


 * Weapons
 * Contain at least one modifier or upgrade.
 * Modifier/upgrade quality will range from 50 to 75% of the maximum possible value, i.e. a Fortitude upgrade can be from +25 to +28. The various +4...5 Armor upgrades and modifiers can have the maximum value on purple weapons due to their narrow range.
 * Adding upgrades to purple weapons does not change their color.


 * Runes
 * Major runes.


 * Salvage items
 * Contain major runes.

Gold
Gold items, except scrolls, have a 4x multiplier applied to their merchant sell price.


 * Weapons
 * Contain at least one modifier or upgrade.
 * Modifier/upgrade quality will range from 75 to 100% of the maximum possible value, i.e. a Fortitude upgrade can be from +28 to +30.
 * Vampiric and zealous upgrades and the Energy +5 modifier only occur on gold weapons.
 * Adding upgrades to gold weapons does not change their color.


 * Runes
 * Superior runes OR major runes.


 * Salvage items
 * Contain superior runes.


 * Weapon upgrades
 * A Priest of Balthazar will display perfect weapon upgrades as gold in his menu. Actual perfect weapon upgrade items will be blue.


 * Insight scrolls
 * More powerful scrolls which can be bought from a Rare Scroll Trader.

Green

 * Weapons
 * Predominantly drop from bosses, with certain exceptions.
 * Always have the maximum number of modifiers and upgrades possible on the weapon type.
 * Modifiers and upgrades are always perfect (except for green items from Shing Jea Island and Istan).
 * Cannot be upgraded, dyed, or salvaged (except for the Straw Effigy, which can be dyed). They are still able to be customized.