Fixes to some quest-related bugs

How to solve some quest-related bugs, notably the one where Lares won't lead you to the water mages. Hopefully this can spare some poor souls the pain of having to go back to a save from 15 hours earlier.

I might expand the guide over time if I run into more issues that I also figure out how to fix.

The "Gothic Variabeln Editor"

You'll need to download the Gothic Variabeln Editor (GVE), found on worldofgothic.de. This program allows you to edit some internal variables that are stored within saves. I'm sure there are ways to exploit the hell out of the game with this but I've only used it for fixing bugs - try anything else at your own risk.
The first time you run it it'll be in German but as soon as you manually define the path to the game you'll get an option to switch it to English (in the "Sprache" section). Since a lot of the game's internal names and variables are in German, some knowledge of the language is recommended anyway if you're going to experiment.

While I haven't had any issues with the program, if you decide to start messing with other variables you might break the game. At any rate, it can't hurt to have a backup save just in case.

Lares's trip to the Water Mages

I found this solution on the GOG forums; all credit goes to F4LL0UT who posted that.

If you asked Lares to take you to Onar's farm first, chances are the "Let's go" option will be gone so you can't have him take you to the mages and, by extension, won't get his piece of the key (or his help at the forest stone circle, for that matter). This can be worked around by cheating to get the key piece, but using GVE you can get everything to work just as intended.

Solution:
Open the save in GVE, search for "LARES_GUIDE" and "LARESGUIDE_ZUONAR". You need to set them both to 0. Then save the save and you're ready to go.

When you load up the edited save Lares will have the "Let's go" option available again so you can ask him to take you to the digsite. The questline should then proceed as usual.

Nadja won't go upstairs and won't talk about the weed

In "A Package Full of Weed" (or whatever the exact name of the quest is) you need to go upstairs with Nadja and then get the information about who sells weed. However, if you've previously paid for a night (or got it for free), asked her upstairs and then didn't pound her, she'll reset back to the lobby, unable to be invited upstairs again. And she won't talk downstairs.

Solution (to the quest issue):
Open the save in GVE, look for "NADJA_MONEY". It's probably 0. If you set this to 1 she will still be downstairs but will actually talk about the weed, making the quest doable. If you want to get her to be available for "fun" again you might need to mess around with other variables related to her and maybe Bromor, I was content to just finish the quest.

Special Snapper for Lutero won't spawn

If you talk to Bilgot first (or not at all), then get the Snapper Hunt quest from Fajeth and don't talk to Bilgot again before said quest is over, the Snapper pack leader's spawn will never trigger. One of those annoying situations where talking to several people in an order SLIGHTLY different from what the devs expected breaks something.

Solution:
I tried messing around with Bilgot-related variables but that didn't really seem to help, it just enabled the (Keep promise) option to guide him out of the valley (I did that by setting DIA_BILGOT_KNOWSLEADSNAPPER to 1. Doing the same with DIA_BILGOT_JOB gave me the exact same result. Maybe you need to set it to a different number, I couldn't figure it out).
So the best way is to just enter marvin mode, spawn the thing ("newmine_leadsnapper") and exit marvin mode before someone gets hurt.
If you're not familiar with marvin mode: In the stats screen type "marvin", then close it. Now press F2. The cheat/debug console should appear. Enter "insert newmine_leadsnapper". This will spawn the pack leader who will drop the claws for Lutero. Finally, open the stats again, type "42" and close it to exit marvin mode.
While this technically is cheating, I don't see any moral issues with just spawning one thing that should've been allowed to spawn anyway. This way you can fix a lot of missing item bugs, provided you know what you need to "insert".

[BroVuda]

only you have this problem. my entire life i played gothic 2 bugged , gothic 2 moded, gothic 2 with missing files an so much more sht ut there. i have never ever encounter that problem.

[чудак]

If you killed the snapper and closed Fajeths quest without talking to Bilgot you simple have to download Gothic Save Editor from worldofgothic.de (https://www.worldofgothic.de/dl/download_628.htm) , open your save and change the value of variable MIS_FAJETH_KILL_SNAPPER from 2 to 1 (ended to still open). You also have to ensure that the variable DIA_BILGOT_KNOWSLEADSNAPPER has a value of 0. Save the savegame, start game and load it. Go to Bilgot and talk to him. Now you should have the leadsnapper dialog. Kill the leadsnapper and go to fajeth and say that you killed the leadsnapper (quest ends). Talk to Bilgot again and he will go with you.

[m4djoker]

I am playing l’hiver as a mercenary with 2 handed swords and the swords that harad teach you to do are just too good! I wish I could find a way to change to his apprentice...

[m4djoker]

Hey great guide! Do you have any clue about how to change job? I am bosper apprentice but I want to switch to harad, any clues?

[Hansl0rd]

Nice Tips