Valencia left before Zerod ever attacks?

[Atari 2600]

I am DYING to unlock the freaking Megalift, and just realized that the wiki says that she leaves after your fight with Zerod. I fought a bounty hunter, then assassins at a starport...but never had the encounter with him. Is she supposed to leave with the Hunna before I face him? Getting super frustrated now. Thanks for any help.

[Tomcat]

It's possible that she can leave before Zerod shows up.

I think you can increase your probabilities if you don't land in any starport and just travel alot. Or perhaps moving in and out of orbit but not actually landing to trigger the whole "Valencia meeting up with Hunna" at the starport.


Just some ideas. I personally stopped caring about this once I've unlocked the achievement but I do know some runs ended up with her leaving before Zerod shows up.

[Atari 2600]

Thanks man, appreciate the input. Considering that an unlock is tied to this, it's pretty crappy that he might never attack. That's 3 playthroughs where I missed out on the Megalift.

[Trese Brothers]

No, you shouldn't have to play chance that she leaves before Zerod shows up.

Did you do the mission she requested for the Hunna?

[Atari 2600]

Yep, I was in the middle of collecting the water purifiers (adv electronics being part 2) for drop-off with plenty of time left to do it. I had just finished being attacked by assassins at a spaceport, after which the cutscene came up and said it was too dangerous for me. Wish I saved the game at that point, but well past it now.

[Trese Brothers]

Played that storyline on repeat for years and have never seen this happen. I've taken this as a bug to reproduce. Should absolutely not happen.

[Atari 2600]

I thought maybe I answered something wrong in the dialogue (pro and anti-Hunna sentiments), so when she left, I reloaded and tried saying different things to make sure, but it ended in her leaving no matter what. I'm on normal difficulty. Does Zerod attack while orbiting a planet or landing? Maybe I'll make a quick run where I never land as Tomcat offered...but I'd have to find orbitals to refuel on, which might still count as landing for the Hunna interaction?

[Trese Brothers]

Do you have a save you can send to me that is before she leaves?

Orbitals count as landing.

[Atari 2600]

No, sorry! I kept going (I'm a 4 save scumming on Normal kinda guy, lol) because I had read that Zerod comes and you can tell him she already left the ship...and he thinks you are lying. I didn't realize she shouldn't have actually left first, haha. I'm running a new game right now, will try it again and hope for the best! Any issues I will send the save your way. Thanks for your input.

[Tomcat]

I would say that this "bug" is reproduceable numerous times. Probably 60% of runs I've done when choosing to baby sit Valencia. She would also leave prior to completing the Hunna storage missions often.

What I suggested is just a suggestion. Something I would try to "game" the system.


I think I recalled one file where Zerod will show up RIGHT after you end a random ship encounter. So you can also fly around and hope your gas doesn't run out.







I think one key factor to consider is that many of those runs, I've done those LAST MINUTE. As in I do what I feel like doing in the game and then would go the Faens to run the story line missions at the very last couple of months. Perhaps there is a hard coded time that Valencia will leave no matter what stage you are at.

[Trese Brothers]

It's on my list to look into.

[Tomcat]

This is probably important to note as there may be an assumption of taking Valencias route.

When taking Valencia's storyline, she doesn't appear to leave early.

If you complete Erik or Zettes line and then later take on Valencia, that's when she has the potential to leave early.

[Ymlâdd]

Necroing this to say it just happened to me too. 51 weeks left in Running Guns, she just took off and ran without ever meeting Zerod. I also took her route, didn't do any of Erik or Zette's quests.

[Marilyn Monorobot]

I saw this the other day. Did Val's story, ratted on Zette to Callagan, Eric cut me off for helping Val, etc. I spent a lot of time in orbit spying and patrolling (and not travelling between systems or landing) so I suspect that maybe I didn't give Zerod enough chances to show up before the timer for the story arc ran out. She left after the second bounty hunter attacked in space. The assassins never attacked on landing, either.

[Trese Brothers]

Still in our list to investigate.

[Imsel]

Just had this happen in two different games. I've been playing as Alta Mesa and both times it happened when I was doing the Moklumnue quest line from Arbiter Brokstrom (Pirates behind every star). The second run I was upgrading my ship when it happened and she left before I could even get to orbit.