Side quests important to overall story?

dragonmage0313 · November 2020

Hello all! I have played some side quests before on a previous character and was wondering if they are super important to story progression?

If not, I think i might skip them and only do main quests for a while to see the story...

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · November 2020

They are not important to the main story, but I find most of them to be far more entertaining than the main story.

Vevvev · November 2020

Only a few when you get reoccurring characters, but even then they will probably only be found in other side quests. It's more about the main quests and your experiences there that carry over to the DLC stuff.

However there are exceptions with zones like Coldharbour and the Rift. In Coldharbour doing the side quests gives you more NPCs to help you out which was necessary back before One Tamriel, and during the Rift doing side quests to find fragments of Wuthrad made the final boss easier.

Cirantille · November 2020

I remember a few instances where I couldnt advance the story because there was a side quest that needed to be completed.

But I checked them on google and found it, so no, they are not important most of the time.

Mik195 · November 2020

I've been doing the side quests before the main. Most main quests seem to end with a gathering and if you do the side quests first, the people attend the gathering and have dialog on how they are doing. In Elsweyr I was sad that (no spoilers) "Mother" did not attend since I would have liked to hear more comments about her lazy son.

kargen27 · November 2020

I like doing the side quests but that is exactly what they are. They are not important to the final outcome of the story but they do sometimes add to the story. Kind of like Flick getting his tongue stuck on the flagpole doesn't in any way determine if Ralphie gets his BB gun or not.

I have noticed in some cases the side quests make more sense if you do them before the main quests in that zone. Sometimes they are complaining about a problem I already solved by doing the main quest. Other times they seem completely unrelated but still add color to the zone.

dragonmage0313 · November 2020

kargen27 wrote: »

I like doing the side quests but that is exactly what they are. They are not important to the final outcome of the story but they do sometimes add to the story. Kind of like Flick getting his tongue stuck on the flagpole doesn't in any way determine if Ralphie gets his BB gun or not.

I dig the Christmas Story reference! Great answer to this question as well. I have played ESO for a while but have always burnt myself out trying to speed level to do dungeons and all that. This time I want to play for the story and not the endgame.

Thank you, and everyone who has answered so far!!!!

The Elder Scrolls Online

Side quests important to overall story?

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