Lift the Shadow Curse completely broken

[Yin]

No matter what I do, when Halsin goes to the Shadowfell and the party has to hold the line for his return, the second wave never spawns, the timer doesn't appear, and I'm left in limbo forever. Have tried on multiple different campaigns and each time get brick walled by this bug.

[Simbolic]

Not sure there are waves there is like dozen dead soldiers starting off at a distance. With few bats and spirits around the other sides. Not sure how it would bug maybe if killed them to fast. Which shouldn't be possible unless using some OP exploit. Any of them ever reach or hit the portal? They always hit it a few times while I tried to defend it.

[Orion Invictus]

What mods are you using?

[CrackeR]

Never has it "bugged " out for me and iv'e played through it several times! Are you positive you are killing ALL of them? Some are hidden pretty well on that hillside...
Mods?

[Kappa]

Point is the timer should appear on first wave.
The fact the second wave doesn't spawn ( I am not sure whether shadows keep spawning or they are just far from the characters and cannot be seen ) shouldn't remove the timer that would be already existing.

Did you, by any chance, managed to kill all the enemies on the tracker on the first turn ( although the boss shadow should have 80hp )?

[Yin]

The timer does not appear at all. The first wave is all that appears, and even when I sandbag to let multiple rounds go by nothing changes.

I do have a suspicion that a mod I've got that makes it so you level quickly may be the culprit. I've gotten other weirdness that I've never seen unmodded like Act 1 enemies having legendary actions, which shouldn't be a thing out of honor mode.

[CrackeR]

If it's not a mod causing your issue, then you might try verifying game files. Watch it progress to see if it has to re-acquire missing or corrupted files.

[Shadow♥]

I just did this very quest the other day and it worked fine but I do not have any mods currently installed. so maybe mods broke the quest or bugged it out. If you modded the game at some point you may have residual files left over somewhere. I always delete all BG3 files for the game after uninstalling it so i can get a fresh install with no left over mod files.
just a suggestion. hope you figure it out. :]

[DeMasked]

I wrecked this fight and I had zero issues. Never used mods because you don't know how files may impact the game in unintentional ways.

Also doing an Honour Mode run so I don't want to ruin that.

[Armchair]

No Mods, no timer just the portal shown to be taking hits. I had to try more than once as the portal was "killed". But once i remembered about turn undead spell, life was so much easier!

[Yin]

Even uninstalling and reinstalling did not fix the issue.

[Rabidnid]

Originally posted by Yin:

The timer does not appear at all. The first wave is all that appears, and even when I sandbag to let multiple rounds go by nothing changes.

I do have a suspicion that a mod I've got that makes it so you level quickly may be the culprit. I've gotten other weirdness that I've never seen unmodded like Act 1 enemies having legendary actions, which shouldn't be a thing out of honor mode.

I'm using the double XP mod from Malcroix and have none of these issues. Quest has always worked.

[Yin]

Turns out the source of the bug was none of my mods but the base game itself. I would always use turn-based mode to make some quick prep before the fight started. Well, I forgot to do that once and the fight began normally (aside from the clock not appearing for Astarion, but he was hiding at first and joined the fight later and it did show for everyone else)

[PhishersFritz]

Ironically, activating the turn-based mode after Halsin opens the portal but before combat starts, broke it for me in the same way you are describing (but not recoverable). So just letting the combat start "naturally" fixed it for me.

Note: I had mods on (only UI and crafting), but turning them off did not fix it.

[NyteShayd]

Originally posted by Yin:

I would always use turn-based mode to make some quick prep before the fight started.

Originally posted by PhishersFritz:

Ironically, activating the turn-based mode after Halsin opens the portal but before combat starts, broke it for me

This was the winner for me! When I know a fight is coming, I do some pre-emptive tactical setup just like you two, and that almost always involves going into turn based mode.

I NEVER got Shadowheart's comment about Halsin being in the Shadowfell, and the timer never went on the initiative tracker until letting the fight start naturally, and it was bugged 100% of the time.

Can't speak for other folks, but I ran this dozens of times and the only times it bugged were with pre-emptive turn based mode, and the only times it worked were without a turn-based head start.