Stuck? Can't figure out what to do next? I want to hear about it. (New thread 4/30/2025)

[justkevin]

In the game's open world universe, the player is free to explore at their own pace and direction. While there are plenty of side quests that do not give a lot of guidance, the game's main story line is expected to unfold at a natural pace with organic exploration, providing some hints if the player missed something critical. I.e., if the player can't figure out any way forward for a significant period of time, that's not by design.

During Early Access, there were a number of areas where players reported getting stuck and having no obvious way to advance the main storyline, so I created a thread to track these. That thread is now several years old and is mostly full of issues that no longer exist. So I'm starting a new one.

Here is a list of the known areas/causes of players finding themselves stuck on the main story I've received since Kepler 21506:

• General: The player needed to return to Celaeno to receive a mission update from a member of the command staff.
  
• General: The player accidentally turned off tracking for a mission objective.
  
• Early-game: The player did not investigate an unexplored star near Celaeno.
  
• Early-game: The player was given a hint that the Kaleidoscope Key was for the Heretic Portal. They revisited the portal, but did not interact with it.
  
• Mid-game: The player was directed to talk to the Kyrnan but could not find them.
  
• Mid-late game: There's a sequence of events that unfold after the Aletheia returns. If this sequence becomes blocked, late game narrative can fall behind where the player has nothing to do for an extended period. I am not 100% sure of the root cause, as the submitted save I received did not include a way to contact the player, although from their log it seems that they didn't deactivate the first Raider Factory until very late.
  
• Late game: The player activated the Chariot jump sequence, but departed before the animation sequence triggered.
  
• Late game: The player is told to ask Dolson aboard the Aletheia for some information, but did not know where to find it (it's always near Celaeno).

Some of these will be addressed in an upcoming patch.