Item rarity

In Guild Wars, the rarer an item is, the more valuable and powerful it can be. There are four levels of item rarity. They are, in ascending rarity:
 * White: "Common" items that have no weapon upgrades or modifiers.
 * Blue: "Common" items with low-end modifiers on them.
 * Purple: "Uncommon" items with middle-range modifiers.
 * Gold: "Rare" items with near-max or max modifiers.

There are also two designations that don't technically have a space on the rarity spectrum:
 * Green: Unique items which almost always have perfect stats and modifiers. They are generally considered to be around the value of a similar gold item, depending on the specific skin and mods.
 * Red: PvP rewards. These items will always be customized, and will have whatever mods they are crafted with.

White items, when upgraded, will turn blue, and blue items when stripped of their upgrades will turn white. Gold and Purple items will retain their nature (and their higher merchant price) even if stripped of all upgrades.

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, Epilogue, Throne of Secrets and Domain of Anguish collectors, and Destroyer Weapons). 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.
 * In Nightfall and Eye of the North there are some cases of blue inscribable weapons that can drop which have the same potential when moded with inscription and mods of a Purple or gold weapon
 * 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.
 * In Nightfall campaign purple inscribable weapons can have the same potential of Gold inscribable weapons,the chances of purples being inscribable tend to be much higher than blue labeled weapons
 * Runes
 * Major runes.


 * Salvage items
 * Contain major runes.


 * Other
 * Uncommon miniatures.

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.
 * Max Vampiric and the Energy +5 modifier only occur on gold weapons.
 * Adding upgrades to gold weapons does not change their color.
 * Kryta in the Prophecies Campaign is the earliest area that contains Gold items in chests, this is only applicable with reference to normal mode.
 * Runes
 * Superior 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.


 * Other
 * Anguish Gemstones
 * Charr Salvage Kits
 * Some of the rarer miniatures
 * Passage Scrolls
 * Elite Tomes
 * Zaishen Keys
 * Perfect Salvage Kits

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 (except for the Straw Effigy), or salvaged. The Green labeled weapons can be customized, the Green shields and focuses cannot.


 * Other
 * The items, Deldrimor Talisman, Book of Secrets, Droknar's Key and Amulet of the Mists.
 * Special miniatures
 * The hero armor upgrade items
 * Charr Bags

Red

 * Weapons
 * PvP rewards from Tolkano.