Hall of Monuments: Devotion

[Confused? Start here.]

Devotion offers a total of 8 HoM points: one for putting any miniature in, one for putting any "rare" (gold) miniature in, one for putting any "unique" (green) miniature in, two for adding 20 different miniatures total, and one each for getting to 30, 40, and 50 different miniatures displayed.

Now, 50 different miniatures is a fair number even if you have a number of long-term alts, but you won't need to max this out to get to 30 HoM points, though obviously every point in this category is one fewer you need to get elsewhere. (True for all categories, of course.)

So your goal for this monument is 3 to 5 points. Three points can be gotten either by adding 20 white ("common") and/or purple ("uncommon") miniatures, or by adding a gold and a green (giving you "any", "rare", and "unique"). Five points can be gotten by adding 20 total including a gold and a green.

The first way to get these miniatures is birthday presents, which, as you probably know, come every year each individual character has existed. There's actually a total of 70 miniatures available this way, although drop rates being what they are, chances are you'll get a few duplicates, and you probably don't have 14 different alts that you made five years ago in any event. However, assuming you've played at least one year, you should have that first point already. If you were really lucky, you may even have gotten a green or gold already, giving you another point. And each alt-year you have gives you more likelihood of progress.

If you were around for and participated in Canthan New Year at all in the last few years, you may also already have a "rare" mini, since all the Celestial minis are gold rarity. There's a few other golds you can get in-game as well with some luck: a Polar Bear during Wintersday (so you'll have another shot at that one soon), a Brown Rabbit from Nicholas the Traveler's presents (which you can get weekly), a Smite Crawler from the Underworld Chest (though if you can get that, you probably don't need my help with this), and one of three possible miniatures from Royal Gifts gotten while doing War in Kryta content.

"Unique" (green) minis are also available in game. If you own all three campaigns, you actually can guarantee yourself one of those, though it will take some effort, by doing the Black Moa Chick scavenger hunt. This requires you to fight in the Norn Fighting Tournament and defeat Zho as an opponent (which may take a few tries) to kick off the quest. You then need to get materials throughout the world and put them together and take them to Sorrow's Furnace... where you can simultaneously get your green mini and a statue to display in the Honor monument. It's a long process, but it's worth it for a) one of the cutest minis in the game and b) getting two rewards at once. (Well, strictly speaking you don't have to complete Sorrow's Furnace to do it, but since you have to do the bulk of it, you may as well finish off the boss while you're there.)

Other greens are also available through in-game actions. If you PvP, the Hall of Heroes chest may award you a Ghostly Hero. The Coffer of Whispers available via Nightfall's Domain of Anguish can grant you a mini Mallyx. If you're really, really good at Roller Beetle, you can get a Greased Lightning, but, uh... I wouldn't count on that one. Gifts of the Traveler can contain one of two greens (a Yakkington and a Gwen Doll). The Underworld Chest can drop you a mini Dhuum, but again, if you can get that, you don't need my help. :D And lastly, fighting White Mantle in the War in Kryta can theoretically drop you one of three White Mantle minis, though the drop rate is very, very low. Really, the Black Moa Chick is your best bet.

Unless, of course, you have a fair amount of money. If that's the case, you can buy your choice of miniatures from players, including golds and greens. Remember that you need undedicated minis; mouse over the mini in the trade window to be sure that it doesn't say "Dedicated at the Hall of Monuments" before you give anyone your cash. The birthday present minis are going to be your cheapest option here; even the golds and greens can be reasonably affordable if they come from early years' presents. As I write this, with the HoM rewards being recently announced, prices have gone unstable and much higher, so if you're going to go this route, you may want to wait a while.

If you did get duplicates amongst your birthday presents, you also may be able to find people to trade for one of their duplicates. This is a good way to make at least two people happy.

Incidentally, there are a over 100 different miniatures available in the game, counting some of the rarest ones, so 50 miniatures is not even close to all of the available ones, should you choose to try to fill this monument fully.

Also note: you can, once you've dedicated a mini, sell it to someone else, although the more common the mini, the harder a sell it will be. You won't get nearly as much for an dedicated mini as you paid for an undedicated, but it's a way to recoup back a bit of your money if you need to. Figure on a price somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 (higher for rarer minis) what you spent on the mini originally, and someone may bite eventually. You also may want to make a storage character to hold your extra minis until you can sell them. (If you don't have a character slot free, that $10 for an extra may be worth the time it would take you to unload all the dedicated minis you don't want to keep. And aren't you glad GW2 will have an auction house?)