What Happens When You Abandon an Important Quest in Popular Games?

If you decide to abandon a quest in games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, The Elder Scrolls Online, or Destiny 2, you will lose all progress made so far on that quest. Any items, experience points, or other rewards earned up to that point will be forfeited. You may also be temporarily blocked from acquiring other quests.

However, the option to abandon quests exists for a reason. Sometimes, a quest becomes too challenging, repetitive, or time-consuming to realistically complete. Other times, you might abandon a quest accidentally or because something else has come up IRL.

Thankfully, most online games and RPGs today allow you to recover abandoned quests without losing everything. This guide will cover what exactly happens when you say goodbye to an important quest temporarily…or permanently.

Why Do Games Have Abandonment Penalties At All?

Before diving into the impacts, let‘s discuss why game developers punish players for abandoning quests in the first place:

• Prevent players getting rewards/progress too easily: Players could farm quest items then abandon repeatedly.
• Encourage commitment: Devs want you fully committing to storylines/objectives.
• Promote challenge: Removing quests makes the game easier; penalties keep difficulty intact.
• Fit narrative: Certain quest givers would realistically be upset if you abandoned their task.

However, the penalties tend to be temporary losses rather than permanent setbacks.

What You Lose When Abandoning Major MMO Quests

While consequences vary somewhat by game, abandoning substantial questlines in MMOs like WoW, FF14, and ESO will typically cost you:

Let‘s analyze what gets erased in several blockbuster online RPG franchises when you make the tough call to abandon ship mid-quest.

World of Warcraft

In WoW, abandoning a quest means immediately losing all related XP gains and items picked up. Any foes you took down also respawn.

If it‘s part of the main storyline, reputation loss with that quest‘s faction is possible too. Say goodbye to any shot at cool rewards from completing their full quest series down the road!

Thankfully, growth-oriented systems like player/pet levels are permanent unlocks not lost by dropping quests. But for large raid questlines, be prepared to see dozens of hours of progress unravel if you walk away.

Final Fantasy 14 Online

Interestingly, FF14‘s developers made side quests the only type you can officially abandon. Thus, main scenario quests and job quests must be seen through or else started over entirely…brutal!

For regular side quests, abandoning wipes all current progress as expected, requiring speaking to the original quest giver again.

Any already-unlocked side activities like dungeons or trials remain available though. So ultimately side quests don‘t gate much, hence the abandon option.

Elder Scrolls Online

In ESO, main storyline quests generally can‘t be abandoned. Only smaller side quests offer the abandon possibility once underway.

For these minor quests, all temporary rewards like XP and item drops vanish when abandoned. And unfortunately ESO lacks a general quest recovery system of any kind.

But on the bright side, inventory items, abilities unlocked, and skill tree progress remain with your character regardless. So apart from some wasted time, abandoning in ESO isn‘t too punishing overall.

What About Single Player & Online Co-Op RPG Titles?

Beyond massively multiplayer questing, what happens if you drop important quests midway in epic single-player adventures like Skyrim or online co-op RPGs like Genshin?

Destiny 2

As a looter shooter relying heavily on quest drops, Destiny 2 offers players the ability to recover abandoned quests. Hallelujah!

If you speak to the Quest Archive terminal in the Tower, you can pick back up story missions, exotic weapon quests like Sturm/Drang or Lumina, seasonal content tracks, and more. Only costs some easy glimmer currency too!

I loved this lifeline after accidentally deleting my Rat King crew quest. This archive retrieval method has spared me countless hours redoing tedious prerequisites. So thanks Bungie!

Genshin Impact

In the anime gacha smash Genshin Impact, open world and archon story quests generally can‘t ever be abandoned once started. Only smaller world quests offer players that risky option.

So why might you abandon a major Archon questline unveiling the deep lore of Teyvat? Well if a quest glitches out, support may advise dropping to trigger a reset/refresh.

In this rare case, progress still saves though! So when you restart, the quest remains completed up until the last stage you reached earlier. What a relief…no need to battle Oceanid yet again!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Dropping lengthy quests accidentally in mammoth solo adventures like Skyrim with no recovery options would be positively maddening.

Thank goodness then that in Skyrim, abandoned quests simply restart at whatever prior stage you reached previously. The only downside is losing current quest items, but otherwise no real penalties exist. Huge save there for forgetful dragonborns!

So if you need to pivot to some other pressing adventure, don‘t worry about punting a puzzling Daedric quest or tedious civil war mission in Skyrim. It‘ll be right there waiting later with mostly smooth sailing ahead still!

When Is It Safe to Abandon a Quest You‘re Sick Of?

Between losing hard-earned progress but regaining your sanity, when should you swallow your pride and walk away from an infuriating quest?

Here is my personal rubric:

As shown, I only put up with mandatory slog quests lacking save points or containing long forced cutscenes.

All other annoying quest traits? I now bin those puppies without second thought! My free time is precious, and no XP boost or sparkly weapon is worth that much unnecessary headache.

But I admit this abandonment policy was learned the hard way…including a truly scarring incident I still shudder to recall…

My Traumatic Abandoned Quest Disaster Story

I still have the occasional nightmare about what an abandoning quest catastrophe cost me back playing 2009‘s Aion Online as a spunky young leveling mage…

I had just spent over 15 hours painstakingly gathering materials to unlock an epic staff. The quest involved traversing across 5 treacherous zones about 10 levels too high for me.

I almost lost my coveted rewards to ruthless griefing PKers multiple times. By the final stretch, I was battered, stressed out, and running on fumes from caffeine overdose.

Then right after glimpsing the finish line, some surprise AFK emergency dragged me away from the keyboard unexpectedly. I tried hurrying back…but ended up 30 seconds too late. I had been forcefully booted offline for inactivity.

When I miserably logged back in, I nearly burst into tears realizing that staff quest had vanished without even an abandonment confirmation prompt. All of that excruciating work down the drain thanks to one brief AFK timeout!

In a dazed stupor, I shamefully crawled to bed, not even having energy left to ragequit the game forever. It took me nearly a year to build motivation to quest properly in Aion again after that scarring L.

So needless to say, I don‘t take quest abandonment lightly anymore, even when games now safeguard player progress far better! Once bitten, twice shy as they say…

Key Takeaways – What Happens When You Ditch a Quest

While minor side quests may pose zero issue, dropping pivotal storylines midway through big MMORPGs or RPGs can carry frustrating penalties. But also rest assured the consequences are temporary rather than permanent for most modern games.

Here are the core takeaways on what happens when abandoning important quests to remember:

• Main scenario quests often can‘t be abandoned at all
• You lose all temporary rewards/XP/items gained up to that point
• Monster kills and other completed objectives reset or must be redone
• Time invested is lost, but your overall character development remains
• Support systems allow reacquiring abandoned quests without starting completely over

So ultimately I recommend avoiding abandoning quests unless absolutely necessary. But if you do make that tough call, take comfort that your overall progress won‘t be destroyed forever thanks to most games offering robust recovery systems these days!

What abandonment horror stories or recovery redemption tales do you have to share from your adventures over the years? I‘d love to commiserate about questing catastrophes and triumphs with fellow worn-out world savers out there!