15 types · 11 modifiers · 4 difficulty tiers
The bounty boardis always open.
Story, bounty, contract, backstory, expedition — fifteen kinds of quest, each rolled with its own modifiers and a difficulty you pick at dispatch. Send a party, take the risk, keep what you survive with.
How quests work in one paragraph
You pick a quest from a board, you pick a party (1–4 members), you pick a difficulty tier and a tactical approach, and they go. Time passes. They come back with a star rating based on how their party power compared to the recommendation, modified by any modifiers rolled on the quest. 3 stars = full rewards, 2 stars = 70%, 1 star = 40% and likely an injury, 0 stars = defeat and a revenge quest spawns.
The board refresh
The bounty board generates a fresh batch every 4 hours. There are three parallel boards — standard, Underworld, and Noble. New quests appear, old ones expire, and one entry per refresh is flagged as a featured bounty with ×1.5 rewards. At night, one synthetic Moonlit Bounty joins the board at ×1.5 rewards and ×0.8 duration.
Refresh interval
4 h
Every board, every region. Hard-coded.
Entries per board
3–5
Influence-tier perks and patronage can grant extra slots.
Featured bounty
×1.5
One per refresh — take it before someone else's queue does.
The fifteen types
Most players will see four of these in week one: Story, Bounty, Boss Raid, and Travel. The rest unlock as you discover new factions, professions, and Underworld access.
| Type | One-line | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Story | Hand-authored, chapter-ordered. Unlocks regions, NPCs, and most other quest types. | data/quests.json |
| Bounty | The procedural workhorse. 3–5 fresh entries every 4 hours on the bounty board. | Procedural |
| Essence Expedition | Targeted runs for clouded essences. Long timers, rewards capped at 3 essences per quest. | data/expeditions.json |
| Building Mission | Site missions tied to a building. Completing them advances the building's specialization. | data/building_missions.json |
| Boss Raid | Region-bound world bosses on real-time timers. Boss combat auto-resolves at completion. | data/boss_raids.json |
| Profession | Single-member profession chains. Gates on profession level, not party power. | data/professions.json |
| Weekly Contract | Bronze / Silver / Gold tiered contracts. Resets weekly with three contract-only modifiers. | data/contracts.json |
| Backstory | Member-specific story chains. Gated by story chapter; not every recruit has one. | data/backstory_quests.json |
| Smuggling | Underworld board. Heat-gated; pays gold but raises faction suspicion. | Procedural · Underworld |
| Thieving | Underworld board. Faster than bounties but smaller rewards. | Procedural · Underworld |
| Spying | Underworld board. Information rewards — unlocks enemy stats and patrol routes. | Procedural · Underworld |
| Noble | Noble board. Diplomatic favors that grant reputation and unlock court rumors. | Procedural · Noble |
| Training | Internal. Dispatched by training-intensive system — appears in your queue but you don't browse for it. | Internal |
| Travel | Internal. Auto-prepended when your party's current region differs from the quest region. | Internal |
| Convergence | Endgame Titan-alignment chains. Gated by alignment match; boss-heavy; pays gems. | data/convergence_quests.json |
New-player visible · grey · unlocked mid- to late-game.
Difficulty tiers
Every quest can be dispatched at any of four difficulty tiers. Higher tiers multiply power, reward, and duration. The reward scale beats the power scale at every tier — but the injury rates climb fast enough that you'll feel it on your roster availability.
Normal
injury 30% / 0%The default. Use it until your party reliably 3-stars the recommended power.
Hard
injury 45% / 12%The first real grind. Double rewards at +80% power — the cleanest pay rate in the game.
Challenge
injury 60% / 25%For when you've out-leveled your region. Expect a 1-star most of the time and an injured member after.
Nightmare
injury 75% / 40%Endgame. 7× rewards but the injury floor means you'll be rotating your roster constantly.
Modifiers
Every bounty rolls between zero and two modifiers. The default distribution is 50% no modifier · 35% one · 15% two. At dispatch the player can stack one additional modifier on top. Three of the modifiers below only appear on Weekly Contracts, and two only spawn contextually after a defeat — they're not on the random roll.
| Modifier | Power | Duration | Reward | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambush Enemies lie in wait at the location. | +20% | — | +30% gold | Risk-shaped — pure damage spike. |
| Dense Fog Visibility is poor; the party moves carefully. | — | +15% | +20% | Slower, better paid. |
| Allied NPC A local guide assists. The fight is easier; the region remembers. | −15% | — | +3 rep | The friendliest modifier. |
| Bountiful Resources are plentiful along the route. | — | — | +25% | Free money. Take it. |
| Treacherous High risk. High reward. The mark is awake. | +25% | — | +50% / gold +50% | Always on for Elite chain quests. |
| Swift Quick run, lean rewards. | — | −20% | −10% | Trades pay for speed. |
| Revengespawned You owe this fight. Bring at least one member who lost. | +25% | — | 2× (one-time) | Auto-applied to revenge quests after a defeat. |
| Enraged Bossspawned The boss remembers you. Hit harder. | +15% | — | +30% / gold +30% | Auto-applied to boss revenge quests. |
| Contract: Enragedcontract The contract enemies have been waiting for you. | +30% | — | +25% / gold +25% | Contract-only. |
| Contract: Cursedcontract Bad luck follows you; the wages reflect that. | — | — | +30% / gold +30% | Injury risk ×1.5. Contract-only. |
| Contract: Timedcontract Deadline pressure. Done fast pays more. | — | −30% | +20% / gold +20% | Contract-only. |
Tactical approach
A second dial at dispatch, separate from difficulty. Four options that trade reward, duration, and injury against each other. If your tactical approach matches the quest objective type, a +20% synergy bonus applies; mismatched flank/negotiate combinations take a −15% gold penalty.
Assault
- reward: 1.0×
- duration: 1.0×
- injury: 1.0×
Default. No tradeoff.
Flank
- reward: +10% (+20% gold)
- duration: 1.0×
- injury: +15%
Risk shaping. Use when you'll easily win anyway.
Negotiate
- reward: −20%
- duration: 0.7×
- injury: −50%
Speedrun-friendly. Halve risk, lose a fifth of pay.
Fortify
- reward: −10%
- duration: 1.15×
- injury: −60%
When you're under-powered. Slow it down, take the hit on pay.
Chain quests
Chains aren't a quest type — they're follow-up quests that spawn based on the outcome of a quest you just completed. Three flavors:
Elite chain
3-star bounty · 25% spawn
A deep copy of the parent bounty with all rewards ×1.5 and the Treacherous modifier forced on. Same enemy family, harder fight, much better pay.
Rescue chain
1-star bounty with injuries · 20% spawn
A fixed 30-minute mission requiring a Support-role member. Completing it halves the recovery time of the injured party members. No combat — pure rescue.
Revenge chain
Any defeat · 100% spawn
Re-roll of the quest you lost, with Revenge modifier and 2× rewards. Requires at least one member from the failed party. Expires in 5 days; lose it again and a new revenge spawns at original payout (no re-doubling).
The reward formula
For Bounty-type quests, the base payout is calculated at generation, then scaled by difficulty, modifiers, and stars. Many other multipliers stack on top from buildings, perks, traits, and patron shrines.
Base bounty payout
- gold = 15 × scale × rng(0.8–1.2)
- xp = 20 × scale
- rep = 3 + min(level, 50)
- scale = max(1, (rec_power / 200)0.85)
The 0.85 exponent is intentional diminishing returns — higher recommended power pays more, but never linearly.
Stars apply at completion
- 3 stars = 1.0× (party power ≥ recommended, role match ≥ 75%)
- 2 stars = 0.7× (party power ≥ 70% of recommended)
- 1 star = 0.4× (party power ≥ 40% of recommended; likely injury)
- 0 stars = defeat (no rewards; revenge chain spawns)
Stacks on top
- Alliance Brotherhood gold-quest perk
- Patronage gold + essence drop multipliers
- Faction trait modifiers (gold / xp / soulfire bonus)
- Party synergies (matched professions)
- Titan-link resonance (up to +20%)
- Essence affinity (up to +20%)
- Region mastery milestones (10/25/50 quests: +5/10/15%)
- Boss combat outcome (decisive 1.5× / pyrrhic 0.5×)
- Profession yield (best in party)
- Soul tree quest-speed % (best in party)
Queue, parallel quests, and gem-skip
Parallel quests
No global cap — one quest per member. Members on Proving Grounds stages are not blocked. Up to two mercenaries can be hired at any time for temp-member dispatches.
Follow-up chain cap
Per active quest, the queue caps follow-ups by your reputation level: 1 at rep 1 · 2 at rep 3 · 3 at rep 5 · 4 at rep 7 · 5 at rep 10+.
Gem skip
1 gem per minute remaining, minimum 1 gem. Used sparingly to clear a stuck dispatch; almost never economical on long quests.
Quests with bosses are different
If a quest has has_boss = true, the combat system auto-resolves at completion. Power ratio decides the outcome: ≥1.2× decisive (×1.5 rewards), ≥0.8× victory (×1.0), ≥0.5× pyrrhic (×0.5, 40% injury per member), <0.5× defeat (75% injury per member). This is not the live Proving Grounds battle engine — quests auto-resolve at completion.
See also: Errands · Characters · Enemy families · Bosses & raids
Source: scripts/systems/quest_system.gd + scripts/data/progression.gd + scripts/data/enums.gd QUEST_MODIFIER_DATA.