Esbern glitch

[Drew_hunt97]

Hey, ive been playing skyrim an got to the part in the story with esbern but ive got a glitch where he doesnt talk, can anyone help? thanks

[Cat]

I encountered that glitch once, thought it was fixed by now. Anyway it's very popular, here are the tutorials on how to fix the technical side of the issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEVVf8twtBo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s48rJEoPsg

And how to fix it once by using the command:

"Use console command setstage MQ202 (stage #) to force Esbern to open the door and talk again. Stage 160 makes Esbern open the door, if bugged. Stage 170 makes Esbern talk again, if bugged. Another easier way to avoid bugs is to type in CompleteQuest MQ202, which would work for any quest value." -http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:A_Cornered_Rat

or this guy who completely finished the quest by using some other commands:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhPM31xyCM

The command is what worked for me,the first set that just makes him open the door and talk, of course you will need to do it again if say you start a new save and get that glitch again.

[Drew_hunt97]

Thanks a lot this has been really annoying me, this is great help, cheers

[Cat]

Yeah since it's part of the main quest it's sort of a game breaking bug. But nothing difficult to deal with especially if you choose the easy route of just typing two lined into the command prompt. No problem man.

[Drew_hunt97]

thanks, just to double check if i use these commands to get it to work will it mean he will be able to talk later on in the quest when you are in the temple with the council because ive done it before and he couldnt talk so it wouldnt get on with the story/quest.

[Cat]

I never encountered that problem, but no the commands definitely won't help fix another Esbern bug, they only trigger the event there and then that causes him to open the door and speak up.

Maybe other commands will help you in other bugs, but I'd say keep going and find out. They aren't always there btw, and some people even went past that very common door bug by reloading and trying over and over again.

Also I hope you are talking about a legitimate bug, because the quest line purposefully has Delphine and Esbern not talk to you later until you get some quest objective done.

[Drew_hunt97]

okay thanks, yes ive had a look into it a bit and other people had the same problem where esburn just wouldnt talk at all and as far as i know i did everything that was needed and delphine would talk, just not esbern, but thanks for the help, much appreciated :)

[Cat]

Okay well I read up on it too, there's a possibility that in the quest "Dragon Hunting" you get a quest "Return to Esbern" and he doesn't actually answer, this command
setStage FreeformSkyHavenTempleB 100
Completes the quest.

[Drew_hunt97]

ok that helpful if it happens, i may use it if it does, thanks very much for helping me. :)

[Cat]

No problem again. Enjoy.

[Jouchebag]

What's funny is that is the oldest game-breaking bug in Skyrim and it still isn't fixed in the official patches.

The Unofficial Patches should fix it, though.

[Cat]

They do. I don't use them though and I've 222hrs clocked on Skyrim without encountering any bugs worth a mention, that one I didn't actually get myself, someone I know asked me to fix it for them.

So to say the unofficial patches probably do a great job and kudos for people that make them, but it's not a must have, and I personally don't care about any mistakes so long as there aren't too many and they can be fixed one way or another.

[No skill...Just hack]

Type this in console : setstage MQ202 160 it will open the door, but the speech is still bad. Still it allows you to continue with the quest and you won't have to download anything.

[Falro the Great]

Originally posted by EvoLvE BlackBird:

Type this in console : setstage MQ202 160 it will open the door, but the speech is still bad. Still it allows you to continue with the quest and you won't have to download anything.

First of all, this is from 2014. Second, this was already posted here. Third, this is not the correct solution, as it only fixes the symptoms, not the problem. The correct fix is to delete skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini from |My Document\My Games\Skyrim|.

[Lyanny]

Ahmmm... I play in xbox, How I open the console thing?

[zero]

Originally posted by Cat:

They do. I don't use them though and I've 222hrs clocked on Skyrim without encountering any bugs worth a mention, that one I didn't actually get myself, someone I know asked me to fix it for them.

So to say the unofficial patches probably do a great job and kudos for people that make them, but it's not a must have, and I personally don't care about any mistakes so long as there aren't too many and they can be fixed one way or another.

I use the Unofficial Patch and nope, it didn't fix the bug for me.
"This post is from 2014!" I don't care in the slightest.

Originally posted by Lyanny:

Ahmmm... I play in xbox, How I open the console thing?

You can't. Only on the PC. Should have made better choices.