Interesting things to do before joining a faction?

[TERRANATURA]

I'm loving just exploring & collecting skills, while doing any dungeons I find

But I wanted to see if there were any special quests or dungeons that y'all think I should hit up before joining a faction?

[Naryoril]

I always do Vendavel Fortress before joining a faction. A timed quest to deal with it will start once you join, but you can also clear it and get your reward before that. You can't do the "peaceful" solution this way though.

In definitive edition, clearing the faction quest line as early as possible is incentivized, because only then can you buy houses in all cities, which gives you a safe space where stuff doesn't despawn.

[TERRANATURA]

Originally posted by Naryoril:

I always do Vendavel Fortress before joining a faction. A timed quest to deal with it will start once you join, but you can also clear it and get your reward before that. You can't do the "peaceful" solution this way though.

In definitive edition, clearing the faction quest line as early as possible is incentivized, because only then can you buy houses in all cities, which gives you a safe space where stuff doesn't despawn.

Is it bad to join a faction early? Does that force me into finishing the story?

[Naryoril]

No, it doesn't. Be aware though that many of the bigger quests are timed. So if you find a quest (i'm not talking about the quests from vendors that ask you to bring them something or deliver something somewhere else), try to focus on that and don't dawdle. This includes faction quests. But whenever you have completed a faction quest they tell you to come back in 3 days. That just means you have to wait at least 3 days, but you can take as long as you want.
There are 2 big quests you have to finish before starting, or was it finishing?, the third faction quest.
I'll give you hints that are as spoiler free as possible: After joining a faction, go to Cierzo (if you haven't cleared Vendavel before joining) and Monsoon. And after something big happens in Berg in the faction story quests, go visit an inn.
Doing these things should trigger the corresponding quests.

[Nobody]

Originally posted by TERRANATURA:

Originally posted by Naryoril:

I always do Vendavel Fortress before joining a faction. A timed quest to deal with it will start once you join, but you can also clear it and get your reward before that. You can't do the "peaceful" solution this way though.

In definitive edition, clearing the faction quest line as early as possible is incentivized, because only then can you buy houses in all cities, which gives you a safe space where stuff doesn't despawn.

Is it bad to join a faction early? Does that force me into finishing the story?

Its quite possible to join a faction early. Just be ready to deal with Vendavel. Also, if you go to Harmattan then Rust and Veng will trigger if you're on a faction. Both of the aforementioned quest lines are timed.

As for main line faction quests in general, anytime you hit a "see so and so in 3 days for more info" sort of journal entry that means you may take as much time as you want, and so and so will wait. In other words, it's 3 days minimum but no maximum.

[Winter's Embers]

Once you finish paying off your Blood Debt and saving your house, but before you speak to Olielle and Yzan, the game is a truly open world. You can go anywhere, do anything, clear any dungeon, map, or area with only a couple of faction-quest specific dungeons and the storyline for the Three Brothers DLC.
I play for hours before even bothering with advancing the story beyond saving the house because there's nothing forcing me to do anything and it allows me to take my time to gather resources for non-perishable potions, equipment from specific dungeons or monsters, and visit any city/map without having to rush back to do this or that.
Then, I can simply move through the faction quest I want, get done the one quest you can't do before starting the faction quest and, by avoiding returning to Harmattan until after I'm done with the faction quest, saving that timed quest for the quiet after faction quest is complete. It's ultimately up to you to decide how much you want to do before moving on with the story.

[GunofBrixton]

If you want the full tour of the game again, I suggest the following.

Loot the town, buy a pack and bring a bandage through the warehouse beach exit to the survivor on same said beach. Loot the fish, blue sand, and depending on your confidence with killing the shrimp you can farm them too all the way up the coast for starter money.
Choose a Faction you'd like to join. Wait to join it until you would like to start dealing with quest timers.
Bring 2 Power Cells to Montcalm to claim your Mefino's Master Trader Pack, arguably the best pack in the game until you get to minmaxing with damage packs. 110 slots, no speed penalty, slow roll though.
Do your first faction quest up until it tells you to wait 3 days for the next quest. Do not start this next quest yet.
Go do the parallel quests in each zone, as they'll become unavailable if you progress too far.
During this time you can find some unique weapons as you run around literally everywhere. Some highlights are, Face of the Ancients, in the Emerkar Forest. It has two of my favorite weapons, Skycrown Mace, an ice mace with good damage and impact. And the Red Dagger, a fire dagger also with good impact. Also in Emerkar, you can get the Thrice Wrought halberd from the Cabal of Wind Temple. If you're cheeky, you can actually kite everything in the zone to the center room at the bottom and close them inside, backtrack, and flip the switch and kill them all instantly without so much as every having to draw your weapon. This is also a fantastic source of resources for crafting other weapons as well as generating a large amount of cash.
It also gets you the Halberd without combat and a lot of chests and loot piles afterwards.
If you're really confident in your combat ability or huge pile of potions, you can go kill the Royal Manticore for the lightning katana.
Heading to Abrassar gets you a lot of unique gear such as the compass staff or pealescent coat

After you feel like you got enough gear and cash and skills, go do the rest of your faction quests and kill any area bosses you're interested in, the various liches.

Head back to Berg, start new sirocco quest line.

Be done with game, absurdly rich and kitted. Wonder about other build ideas. Go decide what Legacy Chest items for your new alt. Loop back to step one, but this time, you play disrespectfully fast and loose because you know how to always stack buffs and keep your gear repaired and sell or store your pack stuff before leaving town every time.

*jazz hands* *Outward*

[TERRANATURA]

Originally posted by GunofBrixton:

If you want the full tour of the game again, I suggest the following.

Loot the town, buy a pack and bring a bandage through the warehouse beach exit to the survivor on same said beach. Loot the fish, blue sand, and depending on your confidence with killing the shrimp you can farm them too all the way up the coast for starter money.
Choose a Faction you'd like to join. Wait to join it until you would like to start dealing with quest timers.
Bring 2 Power Cells to Montcalm to claim your Mefino's Master Trader Pack, arguably the best pack in the game until you get to minmaxing with damage packs. 110 slots, no speed penalty, slow roll though.
Do your first faction quest up until it tells you to wait 3 days for the next quest. Do not start this next quest yet.
Go do the parallel quests in each zone, as they'll become unavailable if you progress too far.
During this time you can find some unique weapons as you run around literally everywhere. Some highlights are, Face of the Ancients, in the Emerkar Forest. It has two of my favorite weapons, Skycrown Mace, an ice mace with good damage and impact. And the Red Dagger, a fire dagger also with good impact. Also in Emerkar, you can get the Thrice Wrought halberd from the Cabal of Wind Temple. If you're cheeky, you can actually kite everything in the zone to the center room at the bottom and close them inside, backtrack, and flip the switch and kill them all instantly without so much as every having to draw your weapon. This is also a fantastic source of resources for crafting other weapons as well as generating a large amount of cash.
It also gets you the Halberd without combat and a lot of chests and loot piles afterwards.
If you're really confident in your combat ability or huge pile of potions, you can go kill the Royal Manticore for the lightning katana.
Heading to Abrassar gets you a lot of unique gear such as the compass staff or pealescent coat

After you feel like you got enough gear and cash and skills, go do the rest of your faction quests and kill any area bosses you're interested in, the various liches.

Head back to Berg, start new sirocco quest line.

Be done with game, absurdly rich and kitted. Wonder about other build ideas. Go decide what Legacy Chest items for your new alt. Loop back to step one, but this time, you play disrespectfully fast and loose because you know how to always stack buffs and keep your gear repaired and sell or store your pack stuff before leaving town every time.

*jazz hands* *Outward*

I died at jazz hands 😂
Thank you for the advice, I was planning on throwing myself at the liches once I finish my 3rd skill tree 👌🏿

[TERRANATURA]

Originally posted by Naryoril:

No, it doesn't. Be aware though that many of the bigger quests are timed. So if you find a quest (i'm not talking about the quests from vendors that ask you to bring them something or deliver something somewhere else), try to focus on that and don't dawdle. This includes faction quests. But whenever you have completed a faction quest they tell you to come back in 3 days. That just means you have to wait at least 3 days, but you can take as long as you want.
There are 2 big quests you have to finish before starting, or was it finishing?, the third faction quest.
I'll give you hints that are as spoiler free as possible: After joining a faction, go to Cierzo (if you haven't cleared Vendavel before joining) and Monsoon. And after something big happens in Berg in the faction story quests, go visit an inn.
Doing these things should trigger the corresponding quests.

Ooooh thank u
I was worried about it, but wanted another house xD