Every role-playing game presents you with a familiar dilemma: should you rush through the main storyline, or take your time exploring every side quest you stumble upon? The answer isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some games punish overeager explorers by auto-failing time-sensitive missions, while others scale content so you can tread your own path without penalty. New Game Plus modes, alternate characters, and occasional quest bugs add even more layers to the decision. This guide breaks down how quest progression works across a variety of popular RPGs, from sprawling MMOs to narrative-driven single-player epics, so you can plan your adventure without fear of missing out.
Balancing Main Story and Side Quests
The ideal moment to tackle side quests depends heavily on the game’s design. In titles like Dark Souls 2, side quests often intertwine with obscure NPC storylines that can be missed if you progress too far without meeting cryptic conditions. Here, a balanced approach is best: explore thoroughly before each major boss, but consult community guides to avoid locking yourself out of critical character arcs.
In the Borderlands series, side quests are a reliable source of experience, cash, and unique gear. The original question “Should I Finish the Main Quest in BL4 First or Do Side Quests?” has a comfortable answer: you can mix them freely, because in Borderlands 4 (and indeed most modern looter-shooters) most content scales with your current level or the point when you first accepted the mission. This means you won’t out-level rewards so badly they become worthless. That said, saving some specific side quests for True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM) or Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode (UVHM) can be a smart min-maxing move: in Borderlands 2’s UVHM, for instance, all side quests automatically scale to the maximum level, guaranteeing top-tier loot. The same principle applies to Borderlands 4’s hardcore difficulty settings: if a unique weapon drops from a side mission, waiting until endgame might yield a more powerful version.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 takes a different approach. Many of its side quests are time-sensitive and will fail if you progress the main story or simply let too many in-game days pass. The journal often warns you with a timer icon, but not always. The best practice here is to complete every available side quest as soon as you receive it, before pushing the main plot forward. Conversely, games like Fallout 76 operate in a persistent online world where “main quests” are just one thread in an endless tapestry. Even after finishing the primary storylines, you can tackle any remaining side quests, repeatable events, and daily challenges at your leisure. There is no rush and no point of no return.
New Game Plus and the Fate of Side Quests
Starting a New Game Plus (NG+) run almost always resets your side quest progress. In Borderlands titles, TVHM and UVHM are essentially NG+ and NG++ modes: every side quest is available again, often at higher levels, and can be replayed for improved rewards. You are never forced to repeat them if you don’t want to, but missing out on that shiny upgraded gear can be a drawback. In Dark Souls 2, NG+ not only revives all enemies but also respawns side quest NPCs, letting you fix any earlier missed steps – though the quests themselves are still easy to fail if you aren’t careful.
Not all games treat NG+ identically. Some, like The Witcher 3, let you keep your gear and character progression but do not reset side quests at all; others, such as recent Assassin’s Creed titles, offer a full quest reset. Always check the specific behavior of the game you’re playing. The core takeaway: if you’re a completionist, NG+ is your second chance to tackle everything you missed the first time around.
Unlocking Content for Alternate Characters
Many players want to enjoy the endgame or explore expansion zones on alternate characters without re-grinding the entire story. How achievable this is varies between games. In World of Warcraft, for example, the Chromie Time system allows alts to level through any expansion of their choice without touching the main story upfront. Dragonriding, map flight paths, and numerous cosmetic unlocks are account-wide once earned on a single character. If you accidentally leave a Dragonflight campaign and can’t find the quests again, simply visit the Stormwind or Orgrimmar embassy and re-activate the introductory questline for the Dragon Isles.
Guild Wars 2 handles map unlocking differently: waypoints and map exploration are per-character, so alts must rediscover the world individually. However, mounts, gliding, and certain masteries are account-bound, significantly speeding up the process. No story quest replay is required to visit any map you own, though some areas are gated behind personal story chapters. If you’re determined to skip the narrative, you can often teleport to a friend already in the zone. The same philosophy extends to other MMOs: check your journal or achievements panel for “account-wide” tags to see what carries over.
Missable and Time-Sensitive Quests
Some quests vanish forever if you advance too quickly, and the only remedy is rolling back to an old save or starting a fresh playthrough. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is notorious for missable content: the “Chenyek’s quests” inquiry highlights how a single misstep or an early main-story milestone can lock you out of entire chains. Always maintain multiple manual saves, and pay close attention to any dialogue that hints at urgency. In Borderlands 4, while most side quests stick around until you leave a planet, a handful are tied to specific story beats and will disappear afterward. Thorough exploration before moving on is the safest strategy.
Other games employ less explicit missability. Elden Ring, for instance, has NPC questlines that progress only when you trigger certain world-state changes, and finishing the main story can permanently block some of them. When in doubt, complete everything you can see before tackling a major dungeon or boss that looks climactic.
Troubleshooting Common Quest Issues
Even well-designed quests can break. The Fallout 76 raider questline for Vault 79, while largely patched, still occasionally glitches for some players. If an NPC becomes unresponsive or a quest objective won’t update, try server hopping or completely closing and relaunching the game. Seasonal quests may seem to disappear because the in-game event has ended or you need to meet a prerequisite, such as reaching a certain level or completing a previous milestone. Double-check the event calendar and your quest log filters.
Another oddity arises in games with multiple interlocking systems, like World of Warcraft’s Scribing quests. Accidentally solving the Riddle of Luminary Fires can happen if you performed a matching action earlier in your session. Usually, abandoning and re-accepting the quest resets the puzzle. In the “shiny quests” scenario from the Pokémon-inspired titles, missing a Spire often means you haven’t visited a location that triggers the questline. Backtrack to all Spire sites and interact with any glowing objects or NPCs. For Chenyek’s quests in KCD2, a known dialogue loop bug might require reloading a save made before the conversation and waiting for a specific in-game time. If all else fails, the classic advice holds: verify game file integrity, disable mods, and consult official forums or patch notes for known issues.
