living ship quest (missing Hardened Shell stage)

[ShepherdBook]

All of the walk-thrus I've seen on the Living Ship quest indicate that the first four ship components (Neural Stem, Heart Node, Impossible Membrane and Hardened Shell) should be fairly straightforward, and will lead to the last component which is very far away and you basically need Portal coordinates to get to. However, after completing the Impossible Membrane stage I got notification that the next step (Fragile/Hardened Shell) is in a different system and after jumping ~4400 light years I don't seem to be any closer to finding it.

Have I somehow skipped that step and moved straight into the Portal step? None of the parts I have are giving me any hints as to what portal glyphs to use (either by description or by number). Confused, out of warp fuel for the moment, and ready to take a break. Any tips or suggestions you may have would be appreciated.

[Biderbeck]

make sure the quest is selected in the log and you should get a location

[Nettle]

How many parts do you have there? Impossible Membrane is the Hardened Shell.

https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Starbirth

[ShepherdBook]

Originally posted by Unarmed Bandit:

How many parts do you have there? Impossible Membrane is the Hardened Shell.

https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Starbirth

Ugh, you're right, I have the offering for the Shell, not the Shell itself. Now I'm lost in a different way because I can't find my way back to the original Plaque that wanted the offering in the first place. I tried a random plaque in a Korvax system and it just did its usual knowledge transfer thing, even with the Starbirth mission actively selected. No trade for the shell or a new, closer mission marker to lead me to the right plaque.

Also, I've checked through my Discoveries tab to see if there are any clues as to which system and/or plaque I should head to and, even with the Starbirth mission selected, none of the systems I've been to have that mission marker.

Any suggestions?

[ShepherdBook]

Originally posted by Biderbeck:

make sure the quest is selected in the log and you should get a location

Hi, thanks. Yes. I do have the Starbirth mission selected, and that's what has led me deep into the galaxy on a wild goose chase. :-/

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by ShepherdBook:

Originally posted by Unarmed Bandit:

How many parts do you have there? Impossible Membrane is the Hardened Shell.

https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Starbirth

Ugh, you're right, I have the offering for the Shell, not the Shell itself. Now I'm lost in a different way because I can't find my way back to the original Plaque that wanted the offering in the first place. I tried a random plaque in a Korvax system and it just did its usual knowledge transfer thing, even with the Starbirth mission actively selected. No trade for the shell or a new, closer mission marker to lead me to the right plaque.

Any suggestions?

If you can, restore an earlier save. Otherwise, back up your save before attempting this: go through a black hole and see if you can restart the mission. If that doesn't work, your best bet is the save editor.

[Nettle]

Originally posted by ShepherdBook:

I do have the Starbirth mission selected, and that's what has led me deep into the galaxy on a wild goose chase.

Look at the egg. If you see a number of different phrases repeated over and over again the next step should be to find a portal and stick the decoded glyph sequence in. Unless something else has gone horribly wrong I'm betting you inadvertently crafted two membranes by mistake.

~~~

Should this not be what actually happened, I suppose the quest might've skipped a step. It just seems unlikely to me. Hey - maybe you travelled halfway across the galaxy before picking up the shell and the route plotter is desperately trying to get you back on track?

There are a couple of random space encounters that can do that.

[wratgaf]

If your Galaxy map doesn't show a route for the starbirth mission, try going to the space station and opening the teleporter. I found a scrolling message with a link to where I left off.