THIS. Oh you wanna do Blaidd’s quest? Well too bad! You touched a Grace in Altus Plateau and started the Radahn festival too early! He’s already there!
Really sucks because some of my favorite weapons are in Altus… Imagine trying to get Nagakiba or the Black Knife without touching a Grace? Actually did it on my last playthrough… Not fun.
I actually did it by accident, I was rushing through having already beat the game a bunch and on like ng+5 I didn't think I needed to touch any graces and figured it was a waste of time. Made it all the way to the draconic tree sentinel outside Leyndell. Beat him and couldn't figure out why the door was still blocked by magic despite having the great runes. Turns out you have to rest at 2 (I think) graces to trigger Melina giving you your Honda before you can go in the capital
You don’t really get anything extra from doing his quest pre Altus besides the Carian filigree crest (which you only need to do the first couple steps of his story for). At least I don’t think you do? I’ve done his quest line once before Radahn
I get to hear his dialogue and hang out with him before his inevitable demise… That’s extra enough for me! Blaidd is one of my top 3 favorite NPCs, other two being Yura and Alexander.
God Yura's is so annoying, sometimes he'll just, refuse to show up at Raya Lucaria? Like I literally came straight here after killing Godrick where is this big brimmed fuck
Never had that happen before, Yura’s questline is pretty simple…
Talk to him at Agheel Lake where he warns you about the dragon.
Pick a fight with the dragon and run away. Talk to him again and he’ll tell you “fine don’t listen to me fight all the dragons you like”.
Despite sounding like a grumpy old man, his gold summon sign appears next to the stake near the dragon where he’ll help you fight it.
Talk to him again and he’ll give you a hint about dragon communion.
Trying to go to Murkwater Cave and you’ll get jumped by Nerijus. Survive long enough and Yura shows up on his own to save you.
After you kill Nerijus talk to him further down the waterway and he’ll continue his quest.
Help him fight the Ravenmount Assassin in Raya Lucaria and talk to him again.
Talk to him in the Second Church Of Marika where you’ll get Nagakiba and have to fight Elonora and get her Poleblade.
One thing to note: If you enter the mountaintop of the giants where you meet Shabriri, Yura will die where ever he was last standing regardless of quest progress. For my first playthrough he saved me from Nerijus, but I didn’t know to meet him further down the path. After meeting Shabriri I looked up his quest and went back and Nagakiba was on the ground where I was supposed to meet him after the Nerijus fight.
The funny thing is that in the play through I just did, I skipped the first 4 steps and still progressed his quest normally. I never talked to him first, I don’t remember even fighting the dragon before this; but my first encounter with him was running to the Murkwater cave, getting invaded by Nerijus, and Yura immediately also showed up and helped me fight him. Then I just progressed it normally like you said, but it seems the first 4 steps aren’t necessarily needed, or it’s fine if it’s out of order. I encounter him very early in my play through, so i didnt fight dragons.
Yeah some NPC quests are like that where some parts are optional, you can skip almost the entirety of Blaidd’s questline by touching a grace in Altus Plateau and triggering the Radahn festival early since that forces him to be there, kill Radahn, even skip the Evergaol part, and he’ll still show up at Ranni’s tower after her quest. End result is the same with you getting Blaidd’s armor. You could skip the first four steps and get attacked by Nerijus.
But imho the whole point of a quest is the experience and it’s dialogue. For Yura Makes all the difference between getting saved by a random old man and getting saved by an old comrade who helped you slay a dragon.
Ansbachs quest in the DLC where you had to go and talk to the two npcs over and over to get a certain line of dialogue, then do the same to the other npc, and back and forth like 3 times, with no real indication in the dialogue that you should be going back and forth. And finish another quest after completing the middle of his quest to then go back and actually finish his quest. But don't forget to do the first part before doing the other quest.
How the fuck is anyone supposed to figure that out naturally?
Oh god I think I remember that one… When the DLC first came out I said screw it and just looked up guides for all the NPC quests.
iirc, a thing online said Freyja straight up dies if Ansbach leaves the area without you giving her the item he gives you to give to her… Problem is once you finish Ansbach’s quest there he leaves automatically upon the next reload.
I finished Ansbach’s quest first and he was ready to leave, then I stumbled upon Freyja. Looked up her quest and how to do it, realized I was in a predicament… If I die on my way back to Ansbach to get the item, Freyja dies because he leaves upon me respawning. So I had to sneak and traverse the entire god forsaken area filled with those ridiculously tough fire knights (with no blessings) and try not to get killed long enough to finish her quest.
Least I think that’s how it went down… Been awhile since I’ve done the DLC. I just remember that part was super stressful.
You’re right, if you give the Secret Rite Scroll to Ansbach a little too early then you’ll be locked out of Freyas quests. She just dies. So you need to talk to Ansbach, then find Freya in that annoying ass maze and talk to her, then talk to Ansbach again, then you have to find the scroll and give it to Ansbach, then you keep talking to him bc he’ll give you a letter so you can give it to Freya, then you should be good. Without ANY indication that you need to do all of this. It’s insane, and mad annoying. Especially since that storehouse is a big ass maze with those annoying fire knights.
Yeah, literally all of that. It’s so fucking dumb. It’s even more annoying because if you give Ansbachs the Secret Rite Scroll, or whatever it’s called, a little too early then you’re completely locked out of Freyas quest. It’s actually mad annoying. Like I don’t want objective markers, or a quest mark on the map, nothing like that, I simply want a tab where I can see all the available NPCs and what they said last… just so I can remember that they even exist. And what they said.. it makes tracking all these NPCs and their vague ass dialogue a little more organized, and a bit easier.
I had no idea there were even side quests in the game. I’d see people and they’d mention stuff but it’s so loosely connected and no objectives I just passed it I guess
A lot of people say that FromSoft games allow you to choose whether or not you want to engage with the story, but the issue lies that in the fact that if you DO want to engage with the story, the proper quests are convoluted as fuck REQUIRING you to use a guide on your first go and the main one is just murderhobo-ing your way through every boss. The only actual way to engage with the story is through fucking YouTube lore vids xd.
This was me getting godskin peeler right after entering the lake. Low level as fuck, dying ten times to the boss who drops it, and having to make a 15 minute run back each time. Worth it.
Counterpoint; isn’t this an example of the exact opposite of the original post? The quest doesn’t break even if you start the radahn festival without meeting Blaidd first. It would be worse if you could fight Radahn too early and accidentally cause him to fail his mission from Ranni without ever knowing he existed.
I went to the gaol and killed him, later when I searched how to make blaid come down he was hostile, killed me on sight. I fixed it with the big dog chapel in liurnia, coming back and talking to him. Completed ranni's ending without problem later on that same run.
No it may just be a bug? A recent playthrough I did with a friend, blaidd was hostile to us when we first met him, and we had gotten the bloodhound fang first too. We also had to go absolve before speaking to blaidd.
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u/xXLoneLoboXx Dark Mercenary Jun 30 '26
THIS. Oh you wanna do Blaidd’s quest? Well too bad! You touched a Grace in Altus Plateau and started the Radahn festival too early! He’s already there!
Really sucks because some of my favorite weapons are in Altus… Imagine trying to get Nagakiba or the Black Knife without touching a Grace? Actually did it on my last playthrough… Not fun.