Understanding the Quest System

This guide will go over all of the basic information to understand how the various elements of the Quest System work to obtain quests, find various quest items and how to complete various quests.

Shroud of the Avatar uses a quest system that is very different from most other online, as well as various RPG games. Quests can be given to you in many various ways. Quest Items can be found and acquired also in many different ways. And completing quest can also be done in several different ways. I will go over all of these basics to help you understand how they all work together.

Types of Quests
There are many different types of quest you can find while travelling throughout New Britannia. They can be a one time Side Quest, a Daily Quest, a Repeatable Quest or possibly part of the Episode 1 Main Quest.

All quests in the game can be completed one time, per Character, per account. Daily Quests and Repeatable quests however can be completed either once a day or as many times as you wish.

Daily Quests are quests you will receive and complete and then can return once a day and complete again. Daily quests reset at 6:00PM CST (7:00 PM CST during Daylight Savings Time).
Repeatable Quests are quest you will receive and complete and then can do these quests as many times as you would like.
Side Quests are quests that can only be done one time.
Episode 1 Main Quests are quests that can only be one time.

Of note, using your one time Quest Reset on a character, if you have that available, will allow you to do all of these quests again.

Receiving a Quest
Receiving a quest can be done in several different ways:

1. When speaking to an NPC, they may have a help keyword that shows, and clicking the help keyword will give you a quest.
2. When speaking to an NPC, they may not have a help keyword that shows, but speaking to them further about various topics a help keyword will show up in the list of keywords. And then clicking the help keyword will give you a quest.
3. When speaking to an NPC, they may not have a help keyword that shows at all. If you manually type the word help they will then give you a quest, if they have one to give you.
4. When speaking to a NPC, you may need to type or click on a specific keyword to receive a quest.
5. You may happen to find and pick up an object that is a Quest Item. Upon picking up this item, a Quest is given to you.
6. Some Quests can only be given after you have finished another related quest.

Of note, with older quests, you are never given a choice to receive a quest or not. You are given the quest automatically. Newer quests and quests in the Episode 2 areas, now have an option to receive a quest. Before being given a quest, 3 different options are be given to you. If you do not want to take a quest being offered to you, you can select the last (far right) option and then just return and accept the quest when you would like to.

When You Have Received A quest
When you are given a quest, you will see a text entry on your screen called a Task List, and when you press the J key, you can also find this quest listed in your Quest Journal:


Task List: This will let you know a Quest is still active.
Mouse Hover Over Text: When you move your mouse over a Task List, this will give you very basic information on how to proceed to the next step of a quest.
Journal Entry: Double Clicking on a Task List will open the Journal to that specific Quest Journal Entry, or press the j key to open your journal. Your quest Journal will have much more detailed information on how to proceed to the next step for the current quest. Some quests are very complex, so reading the journal entry will provide you with this information.

When doing Daily or Repeatable quests, you will only receive a task list and journal entry the first time you finish them. You can still continue to do these quests, but no new task list or journal entry will be given when doing these again.

Quest Markers
In your compass at the top of your screen and on the map for a scene, when doing various quests, several different blue markers will be shown. Hovering your mouse over any of these markers will also show you what you need to do as well as the associated quest the marker is for:


All of these markers indicate specific things, and work differently:

Magnifying Glass Markers: These are markers that show where an item MIGHT possibly be found at. These markers DO NOT show the exact location for the item you are looking for. You will need to search each of the areas indicated by these markers until you find the object you are looking for.

Area Indicator: While walking on the Overland Map, if there is an area that has a quest you currently have active within it, it will have this area's icon in blue. This just let's you know you currently have a quest within that scene.

Person Marker: If you need to speak to a specific NPC, this icon will show you the exact location an NPC can be found. Do note, some NPC's can be in a building, and may be at the upper floors of the building.

Location Marker: This marker WILL show the exact location of an item you are looking for, and where it is found.

All of the associated blue markers will clear when completing a quest, that is associated with them.

Keywords
It is very important that you do have keywords showing when speaking to NPC's if you are doing quests.
Clicking this triangle here:


Will make ALL keywords hidden when speaking to NPC's:


So make sure first that you DO have keywords showing for an NPC when doing quests.

It' is also very important you understand how the different keywords show white or grey text, when speaking to a NPC: Keywords in white are only keywords you have not spoken about yet with this NPC. Once you have spoken a keyword to a NPC, the keyword then turns grey.

Sometimes when completing quests, you will need to click on grey colored keywords again.

NPC's can only show so many keywords at a time, click here to to see more keyword options, if the keyword you are looking for is not showing currently:

1. Some quests will have you go speak to various NPC's. When you speak to the specific NPC you need to speak to, you will see a related keyword you need to click on to advance the quest.
2. Some quests will have you go speak to various NPC's. These NPC's will NOT show a keyword needed to advance the quest to the next step when you speak to them. When you press J key and read your journal entry for a specific quest, you may see a word in quotes (For example "Northern History"). This will give you a hint you will need to type this exact word, when speaking to the NPC, to advance the quest to the next step.

Quest Items
Quest Items needed to complete quests can either be regular items you can find in the world, or specific quest items. Specific quest items can have several different properties:

1. Side Quests and Episode 1 Main Quest items, can only be found 1 time. You will not be able to collect multiple copies of these items once you completed the quest that uses them.
2. Most all Daily and Repeatable Quest Items can only be found 1 time, and then you can only carry 1 of these at a time. Arcane Catalyst and 4 of the Love Letter quest items, you can collect multiple copies of these.

Completing Quests
After you have collected a needed Quest Item for a Quest, when returning to a NPC to complete a quest, this can be done in several different ways:

1. While you have all the Quest Items needed for a Quest, the NPC will immediately take the quest items and then give you your reward, and the quest is completed.
2. While you have all the Quest Items needed for a Quest, the NPC will immediately open a Quest Item turn in window, where you can select and drag these items and trade them to the NPC to complete a quest.
   
3. While you have all the Quest Items needed for a Quest, you will need to click on a specific keyword associated with the item you want to give them. This will then open a Quest Item turn in window, where you can select and drag these items and trade them to the NPC to complete a quest.

Returning Players With Very Old Characters
If you are a player that is returning from a very long time ago, you may have some issues completing some of the old quests that are currently shown on your character. This is because many of the quests and various other changes have been implemented since you last played.

At Release 47, they added an option where every character on an account can use a one time Quest Reset. You can use this option to reset your Characters quests completely. Using this option will ONLY remove quest items that are currently in your inventory, and nothing more. See a detailed guide for using that option here: Using your One Time Quest Reset option

Conclusion
I am hoping that by explaining the various parts of the Quest System, this will help you to understand how to finish the various quests that are within the game. If you still have some questions about a specific Quest, please always feel free to ask your question on the forums about a specific Quest.

If I am not explaining something well enough in this guide, please do let me know!

All of the information within this post can be freely be copied and used by anyone, including Catnip games.

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Updates:
*8/29/2021 Information posted is current as of Release 93.
*8/29/2021 Added info about hiding keywords. Thank you Alley Oop!
*8/29/2021 Added wiki links to the Daily and Repeatable quest pages.
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See a listing of all my guides here: Anpu's Guides to Getting Started - The Outskirts and beyond

 

Most excellent post, @Anpu !
You are one of the great ambassadors for SotA.

 

He's on a tear for sure.

 

Wow, super nice guide I'll put this one separately on the resource page in my next pass.

 

just... WOW! Amazingly well done guide Anpu! /bow
Thank you for the time and knowledge you shared here with us.
Very WELL done!
~Janzik