Quests
Quests are your guided tour through Ancients. Open the menu with /quests (alias /quest). It shows every quest line you can see, each with a difficulty badge and your progress, plus the contract board.
There's nothing to turn in. Progress is tracked as you play, and every quest line pays its rewards the moment you finish a step, with nothing to claim. The one exception is the Tartarus Rift: a step finished inside the rift pays once you leave it.
The quest lines
Map IV has 17 quest lines. See The Quest Lines for each one, step by step.
First Light is open from your first join and runs through the tutorial. Finishing it opens The Descent, which ends at level 45. Most other lines open once The Descent is done, and a few have a level or prestige floor on top:
| Line | Opens |
|---|---|
| First Light | From your first join |
| The Descent | After First Light |
| The Long Hunt, Ash and Ember, Breachbound, Tartarus Below, The Hollow Forge, Stonehold, Cut Stone, Altar Work | After The Descent |
| The Agora | After The Descent, at level 60 |
| The Old Games | After The Descent, at level 75 |
| The Unbound | After Altar Work |
| The Bronze Ledger | After Altar Work's second step |
| The Long Way Back, The Hundredth Edge | At prestige 1 |
| The Golden Toll (Sacred Way) | At Prestige 2 and level 102 |
A line below its level or prestige floor shows the number on its locked card. A line you've already started stays open even if a prestige drops you back to level 1. The Long Way Back resets each time you prestige.
Talking to a quest guide at spawn also introduces their line and hands over a one-time gift. See Your First Steps for the guides.
Each line carries a difficulty badge:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Starter | New here? Start with these. |
| Core Progression | The backbone of a normal playthrough. |
| Advanced | Gear up first. |
| Endgame | For well-established players. |
Steps that ask for much more than the rest of their line are flagged as endgame steps, so you can tell which ones to save for later.
Rewards and titles
Every quest line ends in a finale that pays a chat title and items. There are 17 quest titles, one per line, and you equip them from Cosmetics. Ancient Energy rewards scale with how long a step takes and how far along you are.
The contract board
The contract board sits at the top of the quest menu. It holds 3 daily and 3 weekly contracts drawn from things you already do, like killing shades, mining, meteorites, boss damage or Hunter XP.
- The third contract of each set unlocks once you've claimed the first two.
- Dailies reset at 11 AM Pacific. Weeklies reset on Friday at 11 AM Pacific.
- Contracts are claimed by clicking them on the board. A contract you haven't claimed by the reset is lost.
- Targets scale with your level: below level 56 you get the smallest targets, from 56 to 99 a bit more, and at level 100 or any prestige the full amount. Rewards scale the same way.
- Daily contracts pay Ancient Energy and Contract Reward Boxes. Weeklies pay Ancient Energy and a Contract Coffer, and the third weekly pays a Contract Vault.
You can't claim a contract inside the Tartarus Rift.
The quest boss bar
A boss bar tracks the line you're working on. During the tutorial it stays on First Light. After that it follows whichever line you last advanced, unless you pick one: right-click a line in the quest menu, or use Track This Line inside it, and the bar stays on that line until you change it. The bar can be turned off in /toggles.
Quest gifts are one per connection
Quest rewards, contract rewards and guide gifts are one per IP address. If another account on your connection already took a reward, yours is skipped rather than paid twice. Accounts paired with /linkaccount are exempt. The check is shared across the whole network.
New here? Start with Welcome to Ancients, then open /quests.
Version history
v4.0.1
- Contract Satchels are now named Contract Reward Boxes.
v4.0.0 (Map 4)
- The quest log is rebuilt: 17 quest lines replace the old quests, each ending in a finale with a title and items.
- New contract board with 3 daily and 3 weekly contracts. Dailies reset at 11 AM PT, weeklies on Friday at 11 AM PT.
- First Light is the opening line, through the tutorial. The Descent opens as soon as you leave and finishes at level 45.
- Every quest line pays its rewards the moment you finish a step.
- New line The Golden Toll, guided by Janus at the Sacred Way pavilion, opens at Prestige 2 and level 102.
- Dolos and The Hollow Bargain were removed.
- You can pick which quest line the boss bar tracks.
v3.0.0
- Quest tracks unlocked automatically the first time you played their content.
- Added Wounds of Erebus, unlocked by the Nyx guide.
- Quest NPC gifts became one per IP, matching quest step rewards.
v2.0.0
- The quest menu was rebuilt to show all lines at once, each with a difficulty badge.