Discussion: What Is A Good Quest?

The absolute best quests in my opinion are those that are useful to me. So like quests that unlock dungeons, areas (like the void), and fast travels. I also really like quests with big LE rewards, cuz money.
Then, some quests are just fun.

And then there are the ones that actually level you up a full level instead of making you grind for that extra half-level

 

I need 8 things to consider a quest good:
1. It isn't a pre-cinfras gavel quest
2. It doesn't have half an hour of fetching
3. No quest helmets unlike half of pre-cinfras and cinfras gavel
4. The rewards are good (unlocking some fast travel option, lots of money...)
5. The fighting in the quest is interesting unlike almost all of pre-cinfras gavel
6. Lore is good unlike most of pre-cinfras gavel
7. It doesn't force you to do long travels without fast travels
8. The puzzles aren't the ones in Metal desperation (I hate the color path one) or the one in The heart of Llevigar (the iron and gold one requires more time than brain cells)

What all of this means is that pre-cinfras gavel sucks

 

Counterpoint: Heart of Llevigar

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I disagree strongly

 

An exception in a 20% of the game doesn't save a 20% of the game

There is almost no strategy to it though, just press button and hope it does good
Any time I tried thinking during this puzzle it just ended up making it longer

 

You just reconfigure it so that it would match the pattern if conveyor’d
And then conveyor it (press left, bottom, right, top until it matches)

it’s still the worst puzzle in the quest but I still think it’s better than most of the quests ingame, especially since it’s at least appropriate thematically

 

Yeah but the puzzle is still kinda eh and the quest alone doesn't save the rest of the area

 

My main piece of criteria: replayability. It's kind of a broad term, so here's what I think makes a quest replayable.

Entertaining bossfights (e.g. AHC, Qira Hive)
Fun puzzles (Desperate Metal has a really fun one, although I do find the rest of the quest to be underwhelming)
Engaging story (e.g. Memory Paranoia)
Really good reward (e.g. Ultimate Weapon, Qira Hive, A Journey Further)
Secrets to find (e.g. Misadventure at the Sea)

And most importantly: branching paths. Grookwarts is the best (and only? aside from maybe misadventure) example of this. If I'm doing a quest for the 3rd time, I'd like to do it in a different way than I did it the first time. Wynncraft seems to have the philosophy of "play through the game however you'd like" on a larger scale, but nearly every quest doesn't do that. If a quest has that level of replayability, it's already top tier in my book

 

Yeah, Qira and TOA are my favorites cuz I get to fight bosses. Those are my first real challenges in a playthrough, and I love them. (also Temple of legends for COW fight)

Also, the Desperate Metal pipe puzzle was absolutely excruciating. Never EVER doing that quest again.

 

PUZZLES!!
But seriously any good and preferably non-tedious puzzles make a quest awesome. Like that dojo quest I forgot the name of.

 

Memory Paranoia
I realize it's like a few 3 levels before Cinfras, but it's still before Cinfras.
Also, An Iron Heart Part 2: A not amazing quest, brought up by the most morally gray situation in the whole game.

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I honestly hope that most quest to come will be most similar to Misadventure.
Not that I don't want different kinds of quest, but if one quest embodies what a Wynncraft quest should look like, its probably misadventure.

 

Yeah that one is an exception
Iron Heart is not an exception though, fuck quest helmets, fuck factory helmet

 

a quest that automatically levels you from level 1-100

 

Good story, good puzzles or boss fights if any, and unique content, IMO. Quests that aren't unique get melded with the other unremarkable quests in my brain. I would say compelling characters within the quests too, though this isn't exactly needed? Point of No Return was beautiful and it didn't really have any "characters," unless you count the soul as one, which is a blank slate but it works because the player is supposed to see the soul as part of themselves and project themselves onto it, sort of. Though I think the questlines with reoccurring characters (Dwarves and Doguns, The Envoy, and AJB) could really benefit from having characters with less bland personalities and actual development. I may be misremembering since I haven't done The Envoy in a while, but if I recall correctly Maxie's "development" was getting better at electromagic. Which isn't character development.

 

Unpopular opinion, but when you have a party that knows what they're doing ??? is one of the most entertaining quests in the game. Doing something that requires real coordination and preparation is really refreshing, considering that the majority of quests don't require any preparation (even with bob and qira you can just have an ignis omegatank or cata run in and shred). I would really like to see more quests that require planning and a party. It would also encourage newer players to join a guild.

 

I really like quests that are creative with their story or make me think about them even after I've played them. I think Cluck Cluck is a good example of this. The ending always seems to get a good chuckle out of me, and I like how it subverts expectations. It's a very short quest, but it's entertaining and it managed to get a reaction out of me.

 

Personally, I am a really big fan of ???, as I love all the puzzles with no combat, it's a nice change, even for a short period of time.

 

I've found that quests like Fantastic Voyage, which is interesting and adds some lore into the "fetch" sections, and An Iron Heart II, which is morally grey and adds some replayability. Most of the "boring" quests, like Green Gloop or roughly half of the Level 50-75 quests, where you are just fetching something, sometimes with a few variations, tend to blend into each other. Overall, quests that have replayability (both choices are good) or lore are usually the best.

 

I feel the opposite way, honestly! Guilds should be more of an optional thing, in my opinion. ??? is kind of an "optional" quest, though, so I wouldn't mind more optional quests that require a party and coordination being added, so long as they aren't involved in the main storyline.