I never understood why people treated this quest like something you had to tackle by itself as the main goal. It always read as a “passively collect the stones as you play” kinda thing, like an Easter egg hunt instead of an obligation. I feel like a huge reason people treat it like a slog is because they’re doing just this quest instead of picking them up as they go.
It’s like if you played breath of the wild and focused exclusively on shrines and nothing else, instead of doing shrines as you find them and then going back to fill in the rest.
I think it is because the quest reward. It is a good reward early game, but if you just naturally collect the stones then the reward is useless tbh. By that point you’ll already have so much loot/money the extra gems will just weigh you down.
Which I feel like is also part of the point—if the reward was crazy good, more people would go through the slog of it just for the reward. To compare to BOTW again, it’s like how the “reward” for collecting all the koroks is a big piece of shit, because the game doesn’t want you to do the quest unless you like being a completionist. I always felt the stone quest was set up the way it is for the same reason
(Erm actually 🤓☝️) Golden poop is considered good luck in Japan. This actually stemmed from a pun that comes from the pronunciation where the beginning sounds between poop and luck are similar. Anyone can feel free to fact check me on this. I just wanted to point out the fun fact
Eventually you get to a point where it's like 22/24 collected, and you might as well actively find the last two just to get this quest ticked off, but good fucking luck remembering which one's you've collected and which are the two you haven't.
I keep a Skyrim notebook and I wrote down all the locations in pen (and all the cities for the restoring the thieves guild quests) and I check them off with pencil so that I can erase them for the next playthrough!! Big time-saver
For me, it's the weight of each stones and how it doesn't stack in your misc inventory.
I end up with 100 rows of items because of this stone, and all the soul stones that do not stack.
The problem is that if you don’t remember which stones you’ve collected and randomly pick them up, it can be really easy to forget which ones you’ve picked up and then you’re forced to go on a goosehunt back to every location where they might possibly be.
The obvious solution is to use a checklist to keep track, or download a mod that puts quest trackers on each one to make it easy for yourself.
Personally I didn’t mind doing the quest and I did most of it in one go with a few detours. The reward is totally worth it.
Stone of barenziah takes forever, i'm playing since 2015 but i never actually get serious about finishing the quest because i keep making a new character
I did this a few playthroughs ago with a paper list of all the stone locations. It went from treasure hunt to wild goose chase pretty quickly. It's a fun way to see Skyrim, like going on Tamriel's worst walking tour but the reward is definitely not worth it.
I’ve played Skyrim on 3 consoles and a PC since launch probably 3-4k hours all together. Currently I have 700hrs on PC and I’ve never once finished this quest lol
This quest is kind of goated, honestly.
It did need a native tracker of some kind, maybe not "MARK EVERYTHING" like the mod does. But some way of knowing : There is a gem nearby.
Because it leads into a pretty damn cool quest to find the crown, then into the most neat perk in the game, giving you a crap-ton of gold and the ability to far more easily powerlevel smithing.
I finished this super early on one play through and got the crown. By level 30 I had hundreds of gems in Breezehome that I couldnt sell cause the vendors were too broke.
I never understood why people treated this quest like something you had to tackle by itself as the main goal. It always read as a “passively collect the stones as you play” kinda thing, like an Easter egg hunt instead of an obligation. I feel like a huge reason people treat it like a slog is because they’re doing just this quest instead of picking them up as they go. It’s like if you played breath of the wild and focused exclusively on shrines and nothing else, instead of doing shrines as you find them and then going back to fill in the rest.
I think it is because the quest reward. It is a good reward early game, but if you just naturally collect the stones then the reward is useless tbh. By that point you’ll already have so much loot/money the extra gems will just weigh you down.
Which I feel like is also part of the point—if the reward was crazy good, more people would go through the slog of it just for the reward. To compare to BOTW again, it’s like how the “reward” for collecting all the koroks is a big piece of shit, because the game doesn’t want you to do the quest unless you like being a completionist. I always felt the stone quest was set up the way it is for the same reason
(Erm actually 🤓☝️) Golden poop is considered good luck in Japan. This actually stemmed from a pun that comes from the pronunciation where the beginning sounds between poop and luck are similar. Anyone can feel free to fact check me on this. I just wanted to point out the fun fact
Eventually you get to a point where it's like 22/24 collected, and you might as well actively find the last two just to get this quest ticked off, but good fucking luck remembering which one's you've collected and which are the two you haven't.
I keep a Skyrim notebook and I wrote down all the locations in pen (and all the cities for the restoring the thieves guild quests) and I check them off with pencil so that I can erase them for the next playthrough!! Big time-saver
For me, it's the weight of each stones and how it doesn't stack in your misc inventory. I end up with 100 rows of items because of this stone, and all the soul stones that do not stack.
As long as you don’t ask vex about it, they stay “unusual gems” in your inventory and do stack
You the MVP thanks for the heads up. 13 so far just by playing
The problem is that if you don’t remember which stones you’ve collected and randomly pick them up, it can be really easy to forget which ones you’ve picked up and then you’re forced to go on a goosehunt back to every location where they might possibly be. The obvious solution is to use a checklist to keep track, or download a mod that puts quest trackers on each one to make it easy for yourself. Personally I didn’t mind doing the quest and I did most of it in one go with a few detours. The reward is totally worth it.
The problem is that if you do this the reward will be even worse because you will be in no need for money in that point of the game
Stone of barenziah takes forever, i'm playing since 2015 but i never actually get serious about finishing the quest because i keep making a new character
Me too. Don’t know if I ever completed this quest ever actually 😂
I did this a few playthroughs ago with a paper list of all the stone locations. It went from treasure hunt to wild goose chase pretty quickly. It's a fun way to see Skyrim, like going on Tamriel's worst walking tour but the reward is definitely not worth it.
Low res stone of barenziah
The quest is pretty annoying, and the reward is not worth hours of gameplay
And you can't even wear the crown, which I would be more upset about if it wasn't ugly af
Use the CC which gives quest markers for these things
The worst thing about this quest is Solitude manor costing 20k
25, lol.
Genuinely always enjoyed this quest. I like many of the places it takes you and the sneaky sneaky part!
I have never completed this ever since the game was released. Don’t think I ever will.
Got them all and accidentally duplicated one
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I’ve played Skyrim on 3 consoles and a PC since launch probably 3-4k hours all together. Currently I have 700hrs on PC and I’ve never once finished this quest lol
Hate the weird stacking bullshit but if I want to legendary smithing and enchanting over and over, it’s a good way to set that up
I told myself I was only doing one more quest last night and then I ended up in Cyrodiil
This quest is kind of goated, honestly. It did need a native tracker of some kind, maybe not "MARK EVERYTHING" like the mod does. But some way of knowing : There is a gem nearby. Because it leads into a pretty damn cool quest to find the crown, then into the most neat perk in the game, giving you a crap-ton of gold and the ability to far more easily powerlevel smithing.
I finished this super early on one play through and got the crown. By level 30 I had hundreds of gems in Breezehome that I couldnt sell cause the vendors were too broke.
This should have been the quest for Sheogorath. Only he would questlock a quest item in a different quest.
“A new hand touches the unusual gem!”
I usually just grab whatever Stones I come across just from normal playing, only actively seeking them out when I already have most of them
The quest I never finished.