Oblivion:Quests

Overview

For 100% Completion, we need max out all of the finite statistics in the Accomplishments Tab, which includes the "Quests Completed" statistic. Additionally, there are a few quests that either have no end to them or interrupt other 100% objectives, so these are done up to their final possible journal entry or before losing other 100% objectives. There is also a single quest that cannot be started without losing a faction rank, so that quest is ignored entirely. The totals are as follows:

• 208 Quests Completed
  • These are the majority of all quests in the game, all of which do not prevent the player from completing other 100% objectives.
• 4 Journal-Filled Quests
  • Cast out of the Thieves Guild — This quest automatically loops after reaching its last quest stage, with no actual stage that moves it to the completed section of the journal. It must reach the further stage, stage 40, to be considered complete.
  • Whispers of Death — This quest only has a single stage, and never updates or completes itself, so simply having it in the journal qualifies as advancing it far enough.
  • The Arena — This quest's highest stage is stage 100, but it does not move to the completed section of the journal, so getting it to this stage counts as finishing it.
  • Expelled from the Fighters Guild — This quest's final stage is stage 100, but getting to that stage requires being permanently expelled from the Fighters Guild. Since we need to the run as the max rank of each faction, the highest stage possible is stage 60.
• 1 "Impossible" Quest
  • This quest is Eternal Exile, which can only be started by getting permanently expelled from the Dark Brotherhood. Since we need to finish the run as the max rank of each faction, it is not possible to even start this quest. There is a glitch involving Load Warping that allows for completing the quest, but either way this quest would fail to meet the requirement of a "non-glitched source" as per the 100% Requirements.

Quest Stage Mechanics

Quests are broken up into several stages, which are each represented by a value. Quest stage values are entirely arbitrary, with the only real rule being that each subsequent stage must have a greater value than the previous stage. Some quests start at stage 0 while others start at stage 10, and some quests end at stage 100 while others end at stage 85, 200, etc. A quest's stage is advanced via scripts attached to items, dialog choices, NPCs, etc. Each stage of a quest contains scripts that will run once that stage has started as well.

Certain quest stages will mark a quest as completed and move it to the completed section of the journal, although in some cases such as in Imperial Corruption, the quest can continue to update its stage anyway. Quests can have multiple stages that complete it, with any possible completion stage being a valid since they all increment the "Quests Completed" statistic. For 100%, we ideally want to reach a completion stage in as few actions as possible, making sure to acquire a completion stage that does not block us out of other 100% objectives such as Fame.

It appears that in general, quest stages can never decrease, as indicated by the "Allow repeated stages" checkbox in the Construction Set. Once a stage has been passed, all scripts attached to that stage are unable to be activated. Cast out of the Thieves Guild, Permanent Retirement, and The Ghost Ship of Anvil appear to be the only quests capable of reverting to previous stages.