PSA: How to prevent Dusty Bear Mission Glitch

[Konsaki]

It's a rather simple, but easy to miss, way to prevent Dusty Bear's mission glitch where he won't start up "The Rendezvous" mission to continue his questline.

Originally posted by THIS IS THE FIX:

EDIT: Only do the Red Eddie and Sour Candy missions until you reach the new sector unlocks for each of them. Don't go any further, as that might also break Dusty Bear's trigger.
But mainly, DO NOT complete ANY of Moon Baby's missions until you've completed Dusty Bear's missions "Job Hunt" and "Dead Weight"

At this point in time, I don't know if the Dusty Bear mission trigger is only after you get the scanner or not but I also had to jump 6 sectors before DB sent me a call over the radio to start up "The Rendezvous".

If you rush the scanner upgrade before completing DB's missions, you might have bricked your save and lose access to the ending of the story and the final sector.

UPDATE: Additional information added to quote from comments from other players at this time. (12 Sep 2024)

UPDATE (14 Sep 2024) - Verified completing any Red or Sour missions past the unlock of the Shock and Heat zones will brick Dusty Bear mission continuation.

[Duke Leto]

Too late, that was 30 hours ago. We need a real fix.

[Konsaki]

Originally posted by Duke Leto:

Too late, that was 30 hours ago. We need a real fix.

I restarted from 30hrs myself to test this theory, though I started a Hardcore game to also see if HC is viable as a difficulty.

Long story short, HC is viable outside of storm clouds which, at max truck upgrade, will zap your shock caps in ~30 seconds.

[Duke Leto]

Originally posted by Konsaki:

Originally posted by Duke Leto:

Too late, that was 30 hours ago. We need a real fix.

I restarted from 30hrs myself to test this theory, though I started a Hardcore game to also see if HC is viable as a difficulty.

Long story short, HC is viable outside of storm clouds which, at max truck upgrade, will zap your shock caps in ~30 seconds.

Hopefully you don't hit another soft lock bug.

One nice thing about shock caps, they are the same price regardless of whether their popped.

But I don't know if I want to play this game again, it gets kinda of repetitive - salvage for money - transport goods for xp. Not sure a taller hill to climb at the start is really that more challenging or just more of a grind.

[Konsaki]

Originally posted by Duke Leto:

But I don't know if I want to play this game again, it gets kinda of repetitive - salvage for money - transport goods for xp. Not sure a taller hill to climb at the start is really that more challenging or just more of a grind.

Don't do salvage for money starting out, do credit deficit trading.

You have unlimited credit to buy batteries, air filters, fuel cans and other truck parts, with a time limit to get out of the negatives or lose your truck (gameover). -$1,000 or -$100,000 doesn't matter, so:
- do enough jumps to get the first cargo expansion
- travel to Tank Town while buying every battery on the way
- travel back to Atlas Prime to sell your batteries for massive profits (for the start of the game)

Trading is the way to make quick money, imo.

[Wolveria]

I think this happened to me. I got the fully upgraded scanner and I still have the Moon Baby and Dusty achievements left to do, but neither of them are calling me :(

[Izargon]

I cant recall if I did on my first game or not, so far I havent seen any issues on my second game...

[Konsaki]

Updated OP with new information:

Completing the Red and Sour story can possibly glitch the Bear line.

[Konsaki]

Update: Just did a new Recommended run, followed the same quest completion as my Hardcore run BUT completed Red's Diner quest before doing Dusty Bear and Moon Baby quests.

Result = Dusty Bear questline broken

[nidodson]

I am amazed a patch for this hasn't come out yet. It's going to start tanking the reputation of the game if they don't fix it soon.

[Knottypine]

Originally posted by Konsaki:

UPDATE (14 Sep 2024) - Verified completing any Red or Sour missions past the unlock of the Shock and Heat zones will brick Dusty Bear mission continuation.

Specifically, does this mean you're advising NOT to do the 'Paint The Town Red' mission right after the sector unlock?

[rkane31174]

Something I discovered:

I followed these instructions as closely as I could, but there's one other important factor.
When it's time to complete Sensory Overload to get the upgraded sensors, create a manual save when you first enter Darkside. Once you do that, it is vitally important that you DO NOT SAVE AGAIN until you complete Sensory Overload AND receive the CB call for Dusty's next mission.

I noticed that when I completed Sensory Overload, my convoy mission tree showed that I needed to wait for the CB call. Then I saved and it immediately changed to the bricked "need to finish previous mission" display. Thankfully I had my autosave to fall back on.

Once you complete Sensory Overload, just warp back and forth repeatedly until Dusty calls you. DO NOT SAVE until he does!

[Skippy The Magnificent]

I'm bumping this thread because I believe I hit this bug also. On one hand I want to restart the playthrough just to finish the story line, but on the other, I already invested so much time and effort in the current playthrough that I am not sure I want to start over.

[Danprro]

I did Sour Candy and Red Eddie entire mission before the scanner and didn't got soft locked. I have finished the whole story

[Sedition]

Originally posted by Skippy The Magnificent:

I'm bumping this thread because I believe I hit this bug also. On one hand I want to restart the playthrough just to finish the story line, but on the other, I already invested so much time and effort in the current playthrough that I am not sure I want to start over.

Yeah I stuck with my playthrough until I maxed all truck upgrades. Ended up being over 37 hours. Have started over with a custom game now and turned all the maintenance crap down so I can focus on actual transport now and getting the bugged quests done slowly.

Would be good if the mods I've heard about will be available on Steam. No updates from the devs for a gamebreaking bug is pretty crap.

[Knottypine]

Originally posted by Danprro:

I did Sour Candy and Red Eddie entire mission before the scanner and didn't got soft locked. I have finished the whole story

Thanks for that.