Starter quests

Raiderism editorial2026-10-03

Every quest in the game hangs off a single dependency graph, and it starts with Shani's Picking Up The Pieces: reach a loot area, open three containers, come home. From there the graph fans out across all of Speranza's traders — the quest ledger shows the chains grouped by who issues them, numbered by their depth in the graph.

Why the early quests matter

Early quests aren't busywork — they gate the systems the rest of the game runs on:

• Workshop unlocks. Several chains hand you station access and the materials to use it. Keep the workshop planner open as you clear them and mark tiers as you build.
• Blueprints. Some of the best craftables are quest rewards — including a healing-spray blueprint from Celeste's chain and a launcher blueprint deep in Tian Wen's. The blueprint tracker keeps the checklist.
• Trader access. Quests are how you meet everyone worth trading with.

Pre-farm the gather objectives

A large share of early quests are collect objectives, and most of what they want drops from machines you'll fight anyway. Before you vendor anything, check the quest ledger — rows flagged items needed — or just use the needed items list, which sums every open quest's requirements into one haul list.

Recurring parts worth stockpiling early:

Branch order

The graph interleaves traders rather than finishing one before the next, and a few quests need two chains done before they open. When a quest page shows a requires line, that's the real gate — follow it backwards and you have your route. Chain depth in the ledger is a good default order; the graph never makes you regret clearing shallow quests first.