Quest System
From EQ2i, the EverQuest II wiki
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Since the game is called Everquest 2, you shouldn't be surprised that the game is focused on quests. In fact, after creating your character and entering the game world, the first thing you are faced with is a quest. EQ2 is rich with quests (over 5600 quests at last count).
Finishing quests is one of the principle ways of progressing your characters in EQ2, so we suggest that you pick up every quest that you find, even if you don't work on them immediately.
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[edit] Quest Indicators
To work on a quest, you must first receive the quest into your Quest Journal. You receive a quest by talking to an NPC (or, rarely, by inspecting an item in the world).
A glowing feather floats above the head of any NPC who has a quest to offer you. If you open your map window by pressing the M key, you'll also see blinking orange circles showing the locations of all quest starters in your vicinity.
To receive an NPC's quest, talk to the NPC by clicking on them with your mouse button. Notice that your mouse cursor changed to look like a chat bubble when you pointed at the NPC. EQ2 uses branching dialogue with chat bubbles, so click on your conversation choices until the "New Quest" window appears. The "New Quest" window shows you the level of the quest, a summary, and the reward that you'll receive for completing it.
[edit] Outlevelled Quests
The glowing feather is not shown for quests that are very far below your level. You can still pick up these quests and complete them for rewards, but you don't get a visual indicator to help you find them. If you don't want to miss any quests, you can enable quest indicators for outlevelled quests by changing a setting in the Options Window (Options -> User Interface -> Name and Chat Bubble -> NPC Overhead Quest Icons for Outleveled Quests).
[edit] The Quest Journal and Quest Helper
When you accept a quest, it is recorded in your Quest Journal. Press J to bring up your Quest Journal. Here you can read the quest's summary and track your progress through its steps. When you've completed the quest, it will be moved to the "Completed" tab in your journal. You'll usually have several quests in progress at the same time, so each quest will be listed in the upper part of the journal.
[edit] The Quest Helper
In the top corner of your screen is your Quest Helper. The Quest Helper shows the current step in the quest that is highlighted in the journal. When you receive a new quest, the Quest Helper automatically switches to it. Only one quest is shown in the Quest Helper at a time.
When you do something to advance a quest, you'll receive a text message in the middle of your screen. Your Quest Helper will also show the update text for a few seconds, before going back to the quest that's highlighted in the journal.
[edit] Quest Journal Size Limit
EQ2 lets you keep up to 75 normal quests in your Quest Journal at a time. In addition, you can keep an unlimited number of language quests and collection quests. If you run out of space in your Quest Journal, you'll have to delete or complete some quests before you can pick up any new quests. (Deleted quests can always be picked up again later, but you'll have to start them from scratch when you do so.)
[edit] Collections
- Main Article: Collection Quests
While adventuring in the world, you'll come across the occasional sparkling light on the ground, labelled with a '?' question mark. This is a collectable object. Click on these "shinies" whenever you find them. The collectible will be added to your inventory; you can then add it to your collection.
Collectable objects are categorized into collections. When you complete a collection, you can turn it in for a significant experience reward and (usually) an item. Completing collections is a great secondary objective in EQ2, and is an obsessive pastime for some players. There is a very large number of collections to be found in Norrath! Collections are a significant source of experience points and achievement experience, and can improve your character's rate of progress.
To add a collectable to your collection, click its name in the chat window, or inspect it in your inventory. Your quest journal will pop up, showing any collections that the object can be added to. You can keep track of your collections on the Collections Tab in your quest journal.
[edit] Tomes
Another type of collections are Tomes. Tome pages are also found on the ground, but instead of seeing a "shiny", you'll see a flapping piece of paper labelled with a '!' exclamation mark. Pick these up when you find them. Finishing tomes will give you experience rewards just as with other collections, and you'll also end up with a book that you can place in your house.
[edit] Types of Quests
We've already mentioned Collections, which are a special type of quest. Let's describe some more types of quests that you'll run across.
[edit] Quest Series
- Main Article: Soloing Timeline
Some quests are standalone, but a large number of quests in EQ2 are organized into linear series, which are completed in a specific order. These quest series are particularly common in the outdoor areas, but you'll even find some of them in cities and dungeons. Here at EQ2i, we call them "timelines".
If you want a guide on what quest lines are available as your character progresses, you can follow our Soloing Timeline from area to area. If you prefer dungeons and want to do quests while you're exploring them, your group can follow the Heroic Timeline from dungeon to dungeon.
[edit] Creature Catalog Quests
- Main Article: Creature Cataloging Timeline
Not all quests involve killing creatures. Some just ask you to find creatures and make a note of them. You make a note of them by cataloging them. Catalogue Creature is an ability you receive the first time you accept a Catalog Quest. To use it, target the creature and get within 15 meters, then press your Catalogue Creature hotkey to get the quest update. You can also do this while the creature is attacking you, but you might be interrupted.
You obtain Creature Catalog quests by buying books from NPC merchants and reading through the books. See the Creature Cataloging Timeline for directions on where to buy Creature Catalog books.
[edit] Lore and Legend Quests
- Main Article: Lore and Legend Timeline
Books and other objects can be found in various locations that describe specific types of creatures. When read/examined, it will offer you a Lore and Legend quest (for example, The Precious Fairy Book found in Nektropos Castle gives the quest Lore and Legend: Fairy). Completing these quests gives you a Mastery attack which does large amounts of damage to that creature. The more L&L quests you complete, the more creatures the Mastery attack will work on. See the Lore and Legend Timeline for a list of what L&L mastery are available, as well as where to find them.
[edit] City Tasks
- Main Article: City Tasks Quests
City Tasks (also known as Writs) are repeatable quests that can be completed for status points and faction. Each of the five starting cities offers tasks, and most cities have several factions that each offers its own tasks. Each writ gives Status points, as well as improving your faction with the guild that issued the writ.
Each of these city factions has certain special status awards that can be bought from them once the player's faction standing is high enough. These status awards include clothing, house items, mounts, prefix titles, and more.
[edit] Heroic Quests
- Main Articles: Heroic Timeline, Heritage Quest Timeline, Signature Quests Timeline
Heroic quests provide an interesting challenge for groups of players trying to figure out what to do or where to go (note that not all heroic quests are listed here, however). Unlike the quests of the Soloing Timeline, the Heroic Timeline quests are more loosely organized, and are more closely focussed on the dungeons of Norrath.
Heritage Quests are all heroic or epic in nature, and are more difficult to complete than normal quests. The rewards are familiar items from the original EverQuest game. Signature Quests are similar in scope to Heritage Quests, but the rewarded items are new to EverQuest II rather than being familiar items from EverQuest.
[edit] Questing Together
[edit] Browsing Your Friends' Journals
When you're grouped with others, your Quest Journal has an additional tab, called "Group". In the Group tab, you can view all of your groupmates' in-progress quests. A separate category shows you which quests are in common between the members of the group. You can use this feature when deciding how best to help each other with quests.
[edit] Sharing Quests
Quests that have no prerequisites can usually be shared with others. When you share a quest with another person, you're saving that person the trouble of traveling to the NPC who offers the quest. The recipient has to begin the quest from the first step, regardless of how far you've progressed on the quest (and regardless of whether you've completed it or not).
To share a quest, just find the quest in your Quest Journal (in the Quests tab or the Completed tab), highlight it and and click the "Share" button. It'll automatically be offered to every member of your group that doesn't have the quest already.
