Balthazar Faction

Faction with Balthazar can be used to unlock Heroes, skills, weapon upgrades, runes, various pets in Zaishen Menagerie and insignia for PvP characters from Priests of Balthazar. It is also possible to obtain Zaishen Keys with it. It is shared among all characters on the same account.

All skills purchased with faction on your characters are available to purchase at skill trainers on your other characters of the same profession on your same account.

Acquiring faction
Faction is acquired when your team kills an opposing team member or wins the match. It does not matter if you are dead or alive at the time of the death of an opponent; you are still awarded with faction points. The amount of unused faction you can have at any one time depends on your ranks in several titles: Hero, Champion, Gladiator and Commander. Faction is awarded as follows:


 * Arena:
 * Ascalon Arena
 * Unique kill: 5
 * Victory: 5
 * Bonus for flawless victory: 5
 * Bonus for 5 consecutive victories: 5
 * Shiverpeak Arena
 * Unique kill: 10
 * Victory: 10
 * Bonus for flawless victory: 10
 * Bonus for 5 consecutive victories: 10
 * Codex Arena/Random Arena
 * Unique kill: 40
 * Victory: 50
 * Bonus for flawless victory: 50
 * Bonus for 5 consecutive victories: 50
 * Heroes' Ascent
 * Unique kill: 40
 * Victory:
 * 200 in early missions
 * 400 in later missions
 * 800 in the Hall of Heroes
 * Bonus for flawless victory: 200
 * Guild versus Guild
 * Unique kill: 40
 * Victory: 1,000–4,000 faction depending on guild rating (1,000 at 1000 rating, 4,000 at 1600 rating)
 * Bonus for flawless victory: 200–800 faction depending on guild rating (200 at 1000 rating, 800 at 1600 rating)

If a player joins a new guild the faction earned from winning GvG battles is reduced for two weeks. Initially the player earns 1/14 the normal faction from a victory. The proportion of the faction awarded to the player increases daily by 1/14 of the normal faction reward. For instance, on the fifth day the player will get 5/14 of the faction rewarded for a victory. Faction gained from unique kills in GvG is not affected.


 * Competitive Mission
 * Each kill: 10
 * Alliance Battle
 * Each kill: 10


 * Zaishen Challenge Quests rewards
 * Guild versus guild: 9000
 * Heroes' Ascent: 9000
 * Codex Arena: 6000
 * Random Arenas: 3000


 * Training Arenas, Zaishen Challenge, and Zaishen Elite
 * Unique kill: 40
 * Victory: 50
 * Bonus for flawless victory: 50
 * Bonus for 5 consecutive wins: 50

Training Arenas and Zaishen Challenge share a daily faction cap of 2,000. It is not clear exactly whether the "day" resets every 24 hours at a certain time of day, or consists of the 24-hour window up to the current time.

The daily faction cap for Zaishen Elite is more complicated. The first round appears to share its cap with Training Arenas and Zaishen Challenge, however subsequent rounds appear to have higher caps. So, for example it is possible to gain faction in the third round after you are no longer able to gain faction in the first or second rounds.


 * Items:
 * Flame of Balthazar: 1000
 * Golden Flame of Balthazar: 3000

Faction costs

 * Heroes:
 * Acolyte Jin, Koss, Dunkoro: Unknown, can be unlocked for free after completing the training arenas
 * Norgu, Acolyte Sousuke, Melonni, General Morgahn, Zenmai, Olias: 3000 faction each
 * Goren, Tahlkora, Master of Whispers, Zhed Shadowhoof, Margrid the Sly, Razah: 6000 faction each
 * All Eye of the North Heroes cost 3,000 faction.


 * Runes
 * Minor rune: 1,000 faction points
 * Major rune: 1,500 faction points
 * Superior rune: 2,000 faction points


 * Weapon upgrades:
 * Lowest level: 1,000 faction points
 * Highest level: 1,000 faction points


 * Skills
 * Standard skills: 1,000 faction points
 * Elite skills: 3,000 faction points


 * Tournament Token: 1,000 faction points


 * Zaishen Key: 5,000 faction points

Unspent faction cap
The base cap of unspent faction is 10,000. It increases by 2,000 faction points for each of the first five ranks of the Hero title and 5,000 faction points for each subsequent rank. For each rank of the Gladiator, Commander, Champion, and Codex titles earned, the cap further increases by 5,000 faction points. This brings the maximum cap to 310,000 faction points if all of the mentioned titles are at their highest levels.

Skill availability
Priests of Balthazar in level 20 arenas (Heroes' Ascent, Team Arenas and Random Arenas) have all skills for all professions except Resurrection Signet and PvE Only Skills.

Priests of Balthazar in the lower level arenas (Ascalon Arena and Shiverpeak Arena), which are only accessible to PvE characters, do not have every skill. There is a progression as you proceed from arena to higher level arena. As a rule of thumb, a Priest of Balthazar in a lower level arena will offer the same skills as the skill trainer in the adjacent city. See Priest of Balthazar for details.