With the launch of the Halloween event, Shadow of the Mad King, comes the arrival of holiday recipes which are driving demand for certain Guild Wars 2 cooking ingredients.

Farming Pumpkins
Over at Guildwars2riches.com, players are singling out the rising prices of sugar pumpkins, which are used in creating the Spicy Pumpkin Cookie buff nourishment. Spicy Pumpkin cookies are in huge demand right now because of its amazing 30% boost to Magic Find, the statistic that affects the chance for rare drops, and bonus experience and condition damage to boot.

Sugar Pumpkins can be farmed en masse through two explorable zones, according to this official Wiki tip page.

The first farming spot is at the northwestern corner of the iron Marches, a level 50-60 zone, which has a crop of nine gathering nodes. See the map here.

The second farming spot is in Risewild Hills in Bloodtide Coast, a level 45-55 zone, which has a crop of eight gathering nodes.

The limited number of farming spots for this ingredient means that demand could outstrip supply, making it worthwhile to dedicate some farming time in GW2 to these two spots for quick and easy profit. (One player has reported gathering 34 Sugar Pumpkins in one trip on both spots, and selling each Sugar Pumpkin at 1s40c each for an easy half Gold.

Hoarding Candy Corn
Candy Corn is a special ingredient that can be farmed from Raw Candy Corn veins that have popped up all over Tyria. Candy Corn is used to make special Halloween amulets, runes and sigils. Candy Corn is also one of the ingredients to make the Mad King Chests, which is all the rage right now and made via the Mystic Forge.

Once the Halloween event ends though on November, the veins will disappear and the supply of Candy Corn with it. The tactic is to wait for the current stock to run out, watch as the price for Candy Corn surges exponentially, then selling at a high profit.

In terms of where to farm Candy Corn, YouTube user Ezudane shows one in the village of Shaemoor starting area. The thing about is that many players wrongly assume the vein is somewhere in the event area. There is no complete guide on the exact locations, and we don't think there ever will be one, since the veins are planted at different locations per world. It would be much faster in our estimates to ask around in local or guild chat than Google searching for pointers.

Also, forget about using the Haunted Door exploit that has been going around the grapevine. That has already been shut down by ArenaNet.

Selling Gems
For those sitting on a stockpile of Gems, now is the best time to unload it. Prices for Gems are hitting their peaks because of explosive demand for cash shop Halloween items, which can only be purchased with Gems.

In fact, for future events the concept of Gems flipping - that is to purchase Gems for Gold a week or so before the event and to sell them back at a higher price when the event goes live and Gem prices skyrocket - will be a pretty reliable method to earn gw2 coin.