Completing City of the Sun is an exercise in frustration and a lesson in persistence

[wmgibsonfan]

OK, here we are at the excavation site where we will find Olin and confront him with his part in the plot to kill Aloy. We've destroyed all of the machines and killed all of the cultists - except one. The Focus locates him easily and he's tagged.

Now commences one of the longest and most frustrating slogs I've seen in the game so far. Aloy climbs all over the excavation site and, when she's close enough, can hear the Last Cultist (or LC for short) talking about her and asking "Who's out there?" The tag indicates that LC should be right in front of Aloy, and using the Focus again shows him to be there - but where? Inside the rocks?

I must have spent an hour (real time) prowling around, over, and through every square centimeter of the excavation site. I even left the site, thinking that the LC might be hidden in some cranny that I can access only from the other side of the rocks that form the walls of the site. I'm constantly keying the Focus and looking in every direction (including straight up) and finding nothing new. I knock down all of the logfalls, thinking that doing so just might reveal some otherwise-invisible spot that is serving as LC's refuge. Nope.

I exit the game and comb the Internet for some help, only to find nothing specific to the problem I'm having. No reported bugs in the quest or tips to locate LC. Load the game, set the difficulty to Story and take maybe two minutes to wipe out the machines and cultists. Sure enough, there he is again, same place.

Go back up to the spot where LC appears to be entombed in the rocks of the site's walls. Aloy is standing on a wooden platform that she's crossed many, many times. This time, however, she looks straight down - and there, literally at her feet, is an opening between the platform and the rocks, about the area of a dinner plate. There he is! Scratch one cultist, and the game marks the quest as completed.

I'm now looking for some consolation, some confirmation that I'm not blind and/or stupid, but the game's NPC AI placed the LC object in that very strange position, more or less at random. I sure hope that the game's developers didn't stick that in there intentionally as their little joke!

[Ancient Lich]

woah what a glitch you had. I'm glad I didn't get it.

[juliejayne]

I didn't have that issue, but it does seem that often the direction/location given by the focus is a bit fuzzy. Collecting the metal flowers, both focus and map say that I am on top of the flower and then it is 10 paces off in one direction or another.

[wmgibsonfan]

Originally posted by juliejayne:

I didn't have that issue, but it does seem that often the direction/location given by the focus is a bit fuzzy. Collecting the metal flowers, both focus and map say that I am on top of the flower and then it is 10 paces off in one direction or another.

I’ve noticed that, myself, and I had taken it into account as I conducted my search.
In addition, the Focus can see through solid objects so it was entirely possible for LC to be just about anywhere in the direction of the tag.

In this case, however, the LC was exactly where the tag indicated he was - but it was hidden from view unless Aloy is standing directly above it and looking straight down. His little hidey-hole was about the size of a coffin, just large enough to contain him and nothing else. It’s a tribute to the NPC AI, actually, that he was positioned in a “real” space and not stuck inside the rocks!

[Ancient Lich]

Originally posted by juliejayne:

I didn't have that issue, but it does seem that often the direction/location given by the focus is a bit fuzzy. Collecting the metal flowers, both focus and map say that I am on top of the flower and then it is 10 paces off in one direction or another.

I'm currently collecting the collectibles in the game. I love how they put the marker in just the general spot of where the item may be instead of just putting it where exactly it would be. That would be too boring.

[Zunnoab #931]

I swear one of the corrupters vanished into thin air as I was picking them off and hiding near the entrance. Either that or I killed one when I took off its missile launcher.

It was the same area, but the mission still completed for me.

[blairey]

im on ps4 and i have the same issue :...(

[gaqo]

Sometimes Aloy falls into a hole or through a gap into part of an old building. Maybe it happens occasionally with NPC's.
Thankfully Aloy can usually bound her way out or you can fast travel.

One weird thing I noticed. I was hiding in one of those old wooden buildings and those invisible scrappers kept disturbing the snow inside, but they weren't inside.

[Hotel Security]

Just played it myself on PS4 and escaped that issue. I've seen a few plants growing inside of trees and I can't get at those but not any real glitches that I've seen.

[gaqo]

I think sometimes bugs and glitches are interesting.
One time four Striders went into this sequence of coordinated movements. They all turned 90 degrees simultaneously and just kept on doing it. Bizarre!