Getting Pulley Crossbow without triggering Radahn festival?

[Greywander]

I want to get the Pulley Crossbow from Altus Plateau, and the quickest way to get there is to use the Dectus Lift. However, using the lift is supposedly one of several ways the Radahn festival can be triggered, and I want to hold off on that until later. I'm seeing a lot of conflicting information online, though. Ideally, I'd like to trigger it as part of Ranni's/Blaidd's questline, so what do I need to avoid doing that would trigger it by other means?

[Honk1]

The information on the Fextralife wiki is accurate: You don't trigger the festival unless you activate a site of grace in the Altus Plateau except the sites of grace in Volcano Manor. I'm sure this is true because I sometimes get the invasion finger via Rya's quest by talking to her in Altus without triggering the festival. So if you take the lift and get the bow without activating a site of grace on the way, you are golden.

[Sparhawk 59]

I can drop you one

[Greywander]

Huh, I thought it was on the wiki that I read that activating the Dectus Lift also triggers the festival. There's a strong chance that anyone activating the lift probably also activated the site of grace at the top, but I do seem to remember seeing the lift and the Altus graces being listed as separate triggers somewhere.

Hmm, actually it's on the wiki page for the Dectus Lift. It says collecting both halves of the medallion and riding the lift triggers the festival. But again, most people who do that probably also touch the site of grace at the top, so the lift itself might not be the trigger.

Anyway, if this is right then I should be able to take the lift up to Altus and run past to grab the crossbow without touching any grace along the way. Just to be safe, I think maybe I'll clear Redmane Castle first, and maybe start Ranni's quest in case the might block other triggers.

[Honk1]

If you trigger the festival early, some NPCs will move to a less convenient location (crabshack guy and Brother Corhyn, I think), some doors and the other boss fight in Redmane Castle will be blocked (this gets fixed after you beat Radahn and talk to Jerren). Apart from that, you only miss out on some NPC dialogue. You are not locked out of Ranni's quest or any other quest. So if you get the stuff you want from Redmane Castle first, you can just trigger the festival if you don't care that much about NPC dialogue.

[cridus]

just get kidnapped by the abductor virgin at the bottom of raya lucaria and follow the path there (bring a lightning weapon or spells for the boss). then when you come out you will be in the lower part of gelmir. don't set foot into altus nearby there, and instead go into the ravine. at the end of it you should get to that small fort with fire guys (don't know the names, lol), next to that magma wyrm boss. not long after that there's the shack with the pulley crossbow.

P.S. I have no idea if any of this triggers the festival or not. maybe make a backup of the save before trying.

[Cheato1]

The only thing you cant see if you dont do festival 1st is dialogue from alexander, possibly jerren , blaidd, sellen and selivus i believe. Might be easier tbh to just do the questlines up to that point as its all fetch questy i believe as then it doesnt matter if you hit an altus grace. If im wrong hopefully someone will correct me but radahn only affects rannis group and alexander directly due to their involvement.

[cridus]

maybe he wants the ruin greatsword early. that, and/or the whetblade for fire and flame art infusions.

[Greywander]

I just wanted to pick up the Pulley Crossbow early. I wanted to try off-handing it with status effect bolts while I use the GUGS in my main hand. Saw some videos showing that strategy using sleep bolts and it looked pretty effective.

I did go ahead and clear Redmane Castle first, just to be safe. I can confirm that simply riding the Dectus Lift does not start the festival. I was able to get the Pulley Crossbow and warp out without triggering the festival.

[Yal]

Originally posted by Greywander:

I just wanted to pick up the Pulley Crossbow early. I wanted to try off-handing it with status effect bolts while I use the GUGS in my main hand. Saw some videos showing that strategy using sleep bolts and it looked pretty effective.

I did go ahead and clear Redmane Castle first, just to be safe. I can confirm that simply riding the Dectus Lift does not start the festival. I was able to get the Pulley Crossbow and warp out without triggering the festival.

I can confirm it's effective, I managed to beat the Godskin Duo on a Lv.30 character on a challenge run by running backwards and spamming ice/bleed bolts with the pulley crossbow. (There were more parts to the strategy but that was my primary way of dealing damage)

I strongly recommend getting the bell bearing from Stormhill that lets you buy infinite bones if you haven't already, that crossbow chews through ammo FAST.

[Cheato1]

Originally posted by Yal:

Originally posted by Greywander:

I just wanted to pick up the Pulley Crossbow early. I wanted to try off-handing it with status effect bolts while I use the GUGS in my main hand. Saw some videos showing that strategy using sleep bolts and it looked pretty effective.

I did go ahead and clear Redmane Castle first, just to be safe. I can confirm that simply riding the Dectus Lift does not start the festival. I was able to get the Pulley Crossbow and warp out without triggering the festival.

I can confirm it's effective, I managed to beat the Godskin Duo on a Lv.30 character on a challenge run by running backwards and spamming ice/bleed bolts with the pulley crossbow. (There were more parts to the strategy but that was my primary way of dealing damage)

I strongly recommend getting the bell bearing from Stormhill that lets you buy infinite bones if you haven't already, that crossbow chews through ammo FAST.

Honestly if using any bow/crossbow please do yourself a favour, download the grand merchant mod, use it to stock up on ammo and then use the regular game without the mod...i did it myself for a ranged only run since i already did it legit before and honestly game was so much more fun when i didnt have to spend hours farming ammo just to fight 3 bosses...no consequences so long as you dont add any non vanilla item. Same idea of using cheat engine to give items with anti cheat disabled then turning it back on.