DLC, what/where are the point of no return?

[River Victor]

I've been told that burning the tree using Messmer's flame is the point of no return, but where does this happen? The major areas I have yet to explore are:

the Jagged Peaks, which I know at least is optional, as an NPC told me Bayle the Dread is there;
the underground pit on Cerulean Coast;
the western heights/plateau islands west of the Shadow Keep, which I suspect will loop back to the areas north of Tower Settlement shrouded in shadow;
Northeast field of flowers beyond Shaman's village;
The lowland dead east of the map, around the Jagged Peak where you have to slowly descend from the secret hole behind painting room in Shadow Keep, where I am heading for the map marker and have just emerged from Darklight Tunnel;
The area beyond Scadu Avatar x3, have not yet killed it;

I want to know the location of it so I don't venture too far beyond the point where I cannot complete NPC quests. And if you can tell me without spoiling too much, like what event will make it happen, such as activating something, or answer a certain question from some NPC, please tell me. I accidentally burned Melina on my first run, so I don't want to do that again until I'm ready.

[Mannotaur]

There is no "point of no return"

[Fistraiser]

Originally posted by Mannotaur:

There is no "point of no return"

Not a point of no return but there is a point in the dlc i believe that affects certain characters and making the quests uncompletable.

[Dizzy Ladybug]

I believe it is Church of the Bud for the point of no return, and it's after defeating a major boss

[Krazy Wallet]

Originally posted by Fistraiser:

Originally posted by Mannotaur:

There is no "point of no return"

Not a point of no return but there is a point in the dlc i believe that affects certain characters and making the quests uncompletable.

Yes, NPC quests can be failed. I'm not sure we even know the full extent of when/how all these interactions happen, but burning away the shadows that guard the castle entrance is definitely a cutoff for some NPC questlines.

It should be fairly obvious when this will happen. You'll get a prompt after a boss fight to use a key item that will change the environment of a certain portion of the map.

[Shield]

just like the maingame, burning the tree begins the ending sequence

[Jowain]

What Ladybug said, past the Church of the Bud is a dark tree you have to burn; the point of no return basically means a vast majority of character quests become locked off for you.

I saved Messmer for last before burning the tree, since defeating him is necessary to progress.

[Faust Wither]

after you beat rellana, don't talk to leda and beat mesmer, instead travel and seek other npc, because this is important, after you done with everything you can access on map, talk to her.

[dreminh]

RPG these days are too handheld player , they forget the "Quest fail" and "Quest expired" , "point of no return" used to be a norm

[rparham685]

Originally posted by dreminh:

RPG these days are too handheld player , they forget the "Quest fail" and "Quest expired" , "point of no return" used to be a norm

really? I wasn't even aware that there were quests. My bad for being ignorant. o7

[rparham685]

Just out of curiousity, does any of the land actually change? I burned my tree, but all it seemed to do was open the front door to the tower.
I'll take another look around, since I'm still trying to reach the map fragment in the Northwest, and no idea where else to go.

[Heroic Ryan]

Originally posted by rparham685:

Just out of curiousity, does any of the land actually change? I burned my tree, but all it seemed to do was open the front door to the tower.
I'll take another look around, since I'm still trying to reach the map fragment in the Northwest, and no idea where else to go.

Not that I saw, no. Unlike the base game that has a whole area switched out, all burning the tree in the DLC does is open up the final dungeon. Could totally be wrong but I didn't notice anything of the sort personally.

[CastielArch]

There are 2 events that will affect quests:
1: (minor) Entering Messmer boss arena (will end 1 sub-quest and prevent getting a talisman or ash of war)
2: using the item you get from Messmer to progress the story (will end many quests, make sure you've nasicaly done everything relating to NPC before that point).

[CastielArch]

Originally posted by dizzy ladybug:

I believe it is Church of the Bud for the point of no return, and it's after defeating a major boss

You can actualy do the churche of the Bud at any point, killing the boss doesn't trigger anything, it just lets you access a story trigger you have to interact with.

[P.]

- Visiting Shadow Keep for the first time
- Killing Messmer
- Burning the sealing tree
- Killing Balrog

[skatlan]

Originally posted by dreminh:

RPG these days are too handheld player , they forget the "Quest fail" and "Quest expired" , "point of no return" used to be a norm

Disgressing, but I love those crazily dumb answers, lol xD

My father and me are old enough to have lived all early RPGs eras, and enjoyed them.
When they were no quest system, or even saves, or even clues to anything, and you could softlock yourself pretty easily.

But those games could usually be finished/redone in a few hours tops.
Got barely 3 to 4 NPCs to talk to.
Very small "maps" or things to really do/interact with.
And usually developped by 1 to 5 clueless nerds in their garages.
They weren't cryptic and punitive on purpose.
They were this way because you could see your mistake and fix it in next game rather quickly, or because the part you could fail was like 20% of the whole game, or because the nerds behind it just had no idea about what a cool game or mechanics could be, back then.

It wasn't about a line of text you just missed, lost in entire books of lore, and blocking 1 of 30 characters in a 200h long plays.

And even those very challenging early games quickly evolved into save system, journals, integrated maps and all.
Not to "handheld stuff to players", but because programmers themselves were thriving to deliver more interesting adventures, where sotflocking yourself WASN'T the point and fun of it!

The "taste of challenge and masochism" developped by early/old players wasn't cultivated on purpose.
It came from the many mistakes, ignorance and gaps of early game developers.
(that's what the vast majority of them told us, in their old age, in interviews : "we didn't knew better. Do better, now that you can")

So yeah, always a good laugh, to see the elitism of unforeseen masochists this Crucible era created. xD

Thanks for those answers about the points of no return in DLC !
Will be put to good and careful use while exploring it ;)