Quest

Definition of Quest
Quests are tasks given out by NPCs that involve completion of one of more "adventure instances". After completing all that make up the quest, you can usually return to the NPC for a final reward.

Fighting is done in adventure instances, in wilderness adventure areas, and in player-vs-player tavern pits. Quests give loot, experience points (XP), and favor, whereas wilderness areas do not have favor, and taverns have no loot, XP or favor. Except for the beginning ones, quests have a minimum character level requirement. Quests may be repeated indefinitely; however favor is only awarded for the highest difficulty completed, and XP will start to drop.

Each quest is given by talking to a particular person. A player who has done this can “Share” the quest with party members, rather than having each player get the quest. An NPC with a gold goblet above their head has a quest. When the goblet is grayed out, the quest is not available yet. When the goblet is red, the adventure pack with that quest must be purchased (each party member must pay). A blue goblet means that the quest has been completed and the reward taken.

The best loot and XP is earned when the player is within a couple of levels of the minimum quest requirement. When a player is much higher level than a quest, fewer, or no, XP will be awarded. Other factors that increase quest XP are: completing mission goals, fighting optional monsters, deactivating traps, and smashing breakables. Other factors that decrease quest XP are: failing mission goals, having party members die, reentering a quest before it is finished, repeating the same quest difficulty many times, and entering a quest long after other party members have started. (See here for further details.) Primarily, quests have four difficulty settings. The quest difficulty is set by the first character in a party to enter the quest. If no party member has done a quest, only Casual and Normal settings are available. Once Normal is completed, Hard becomes available. Once Hard is completed, Elite is available. A player who wishes to skip Normal and Hard will look for a party where someone can “open on Elite”. Casual and Epic difficulties are less used, while a few quests are Solo only.

Short quests may take only a couple minutes, while very long quests may take a couple hours. The window to select a quest difficulty and start a quest shows the quest length and possibly a comment about the recommended party. A "balanced party" is one that has a good ability to: fight close-up and at range, find and disarm traps, and heal. Some quests require a party member to have high STR, INT, WIS or CON to complete. (see Specific quest requirements.)

Some quests are played in an order. Confusingly, this happens in quite different ways. In Korthos, for example, it is not possible to access quests in the wilderness area until others are finished. In Waterworks, it is possible to access quests out of the recommended order. In other quests such as the "Baudry Chain", it is not apparent at the beginning that it is a series of quests at all, and you can't skip a quest to jump to the next one. In some story arcs, such as The Sharn Syndicate, an NPC will send you to quests in a certain order, but you can complete them in any order you wish. And in other arcs (Ruins of Gianthold and Sands of Menechtarun, for example) there are groups of quests that must be completed (and player flagged) before the final quest can be started.