SegmentNextQuests
Our Diablo 4 quest walkthroughs cover twenty-one quests, and only one of them is a step in the main story. The rest are side quests and a single zone event, and the thing they have least in common is how they begin. Some are handed over by the quest before them, some wait on a person with a marker, several start from a scrap of paper you could walk straight past, and one exists only for as long as a timer on the map keeps running. That is the order this guide uses, from the loudest signal to the quietest.
One pattern falls out of sorting them this way. Eight of the twenty-one begin with an object lying on the ground, and seven of those eight finish the same way, with an emote performed in front of a statue, a shrine or a spring. If a quest opens with a note, a book or an offering, expect the emote wheel to close it. Every side quest that itemises its reward on our pages pays 20 Renown for its region along with gold and XP, usually with a cache on top, and the regions guide adds up what that Renown is worth.
| Quest | Starts with | Needs first | How it ends | Pays, per our walkthrough |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Gathering Legions | An orange timer icon at one of five arenas | Arriving before the timer runs out | The Overlord, after three waves and three Servants of Hell | One Greater Radiant Chest, three with mastery, and a chance at the Ghastly Reins |
| Reject the Mother | A Torn Note in Abahru Canyon, Dry Steppes | The Whittling Sanity story quest | The No emote at Lilith's secret shrine | Heretic's Cache, gold, Renown, XP |
| Keeping the Old Traditions | The Lonely Offering east of the Temple of Rot | Nothing | The Yes emote before a praying statue | A chest with gold, XP, Renown and two weak elixirs |
| Secret of the Spring | A parchment on a scaffold in the Frigid Expanse | Nothing | The Wait emote beside a spring south of Forsaken Quarry | A chest |
| Traveler's Prayer | The Pilgrim's letter on the floor of the Hog's Head in Yelesna | Nothing | The Thanks emote at a shrine north of the tavern | Renown, gold, XP, Weak Crushing and Weak Acrobatics elixirs |
| Pilgrim's Footsteps | An Old Book on the Amber Sands shore, Kehjistan | Nothing | The Follow emote at a lone desert shrine | The Boon of the Faithful chest and 20 Renown |
| Traveler's Superstition | A note beside a shipwreck statue in Rotspill Delta | Nothing | The Hello emote to the statue | 20 Renown, XP, gold, two random elixirs |
| In Desperate Times | The book On Caldeum's Defenses in the Imperial Library | The campaign finished | The Help emote at a golden statue in the Imperial Gardens | A mysterious chest |
| Blood and Sweat | A Bloodstained letter beside a corpse in Qara-Yisu | Level 45, Act 3, and the stronghold cleared | Handing the doll Little Tunya to Tuya in Alzuuda | XP, gold, 20 Dry Steppes Renown |
| Brought to Heel | Lumir, hurt on the Forsaken Coast dock | Nothing | A wild red mushroom, picked while dismounted | Gold, XP, a Herb Cache, 20 Renown |
| Bad Blood | Gulya on the Forsaken Coast | Level 61 and The Necrotic Research | Two poisoned cookpots and two hiding spots | 20 Hawezar Renown, gold, XP, a Herb Cache |
| Salt Begets Salt | Jargal on the road into Jirandai | Nothing | A goat carried home from Qara-Yisu, asleep on salt | 20 Dry Steppes Renown, gold, XP, a Salvage Cache |
| Unyielding Flesh | Krystyna in Yelesna | Level 7 and the road to Yelesna | Yulia the Hellbound dead, a dagger pulled from Feodor | The Blood Barbed Dagger, plus Yulia's gold, ring and gloves |
| Votive Passing | Chief Asgail in Braestaig | The Parting Embers story quest | Three Wards of Passing, a torc, and a kind word for Maisie | 20 Scosglen Renown, gold, XP, a Leather Cache |
| The Heretic | Vass in Zarbinzet | Nothing stated | Aneta found in the Forgotten Cave | Rewards the page does not itemise, plus a fix for the cave bug |
| Payment Past Due | Nageed at the southern edge of Tarsarak | Nothing | The lockbox returned; both dialogue choices pay the same | Renown, gold, XP and loot |
| Closing the Book | Elder Akos in Wejinhani, at the end of Desperate Remedies | Eriman's Pyre cleared | Four Smoldering Tomes, the last at the door of Oblivion | XP, Renown, gold, a Salvage Cache |
| Sodden Pact | Roina, the moment Whispers from Below ends | Whispers from Below | Five Sodden Growths, then the wight | Not itemised on our page |
| The Swamp's Protection | Timue at her hovel in Blightmarsh | Timue's earlier quests in Act 4 | Supplies for three villagers, then a bandit camp | 20 Hawezar Renown, gold, XP, a Herb Cache |
| Call of the Ancients | The fourth Bear Tribe quest | Hammer of the Champion | Gharl, Sakoth, a Bloodstone and Cyhrach | An Elixir Cache, 20 Renown, gold, XP |
| Rite of Passage | The guards at the Kyovashad gate | The prologue | Any sin inscribed on a Holy Cedar tablet | 300 gold, XP and the way into town |
A timer you have to catch
The Gathering Legions is the only entry that is not really a quest. It is a zone event that announces itself with a red circle before it starts and an orange icon while it runs, and if you are not standing in the arena when the countdown ends the icon simply disappears. Our page lists five places it recurs: inside Kor Dragan in the Fractured Peaks, Carrowcrest Ruins in Scosglen, Haunted Wreckage and Crusaders' Monument in Hawezar, and Norgoi Vigil on the Dry Steppes shore, with the two stronghold sites only active once the stronghold is cleared.
The fight is three waves of demons, each capped by a Servant of Hell that sits behind a shield of Blood Blisters and Defiled Altars and has to die inside a minute, then an Overlord that varies by arena, a Khazra Abomination at one, a Drowned Seahag at another. Clearing the first wave already guarantees one Greater Radiant Chest; killing everything on time is Mastery and pays three, with Obols and gems inside, and a chance at the Ghastly Reins that unlock the Spectral Charger mount. The wider family of orange circles is covered in how events work.
Something lying on the ground
Eight quests begin when you pick something up, and seven of them are riddles that the game never explains. The clue is in the text you read, the answer is an emote, and the place to perform it is marked once you have the item. Our walkthroughs give the answers: No for Reject the Mother at Lilith's hidden shrine north of the Torn Note, Yes for Keeping the Old Traditions, Wait for Secret of the Spring, Thanks for Traveler's Prayer, Follow for Pilgrim's Footsteps, Hello for Traveler's Superstition and Help for In Desperate Times.
Two of those need preparation. The Wait emote is not on the default wheel, so the Secret of the Spring page has you add it through the customise menu first, and standing by the spring without it does nothing. In Desperate Times is locked until the campaign is over, when the Imperial Library waypoint opens a few steps from the book. Pilgrim's Footsteps has a route trap as well: the shortest path leads into a dungeon with no way through, and the chapel is reached by a side path that branches off just before it.
The eighth ground-start quest is the exception. Blood and Sweat begins with a Bloodstained letter next to a corpse inside the Ruins of Qara-Yisu, which means the stronghold must already be a town, and it ends not with an emote but with a delivery, a crude doll carried across the width of the Dry Steppes to a girl in Alzuuda, past the edge of the Fields of Hatred. It also carries the stiffest gate of the eight: level 45 and Act 3.
A person with a marker
Seven quests start the way most side quests do, by talking to someone. Four of them have no requirement at all. Brought to Heel is a mushroom fetched for an injured man on a Forsaken Coast dock, and our page warns that the plant cannot be picked from horseback. Salt Begets Salt sends you from Jargal outside Jirandai to the ruins of Qara-Yisu for a goat that turns out to be sleeping off a meal of salt. Payment Past Due is a stolen lockbox retrieved for a miner in Tarsarak, with two ways to hand it back that pay identically. The Heretic starts with Vass in Zarbinzet and ends in the Forgotten Cave, where our walkthrough includes a fix for a bug that can stop Aneta appearing.
The other three are gated. Unyielding Flesh asks for level 7 and the road to Yelesna before Krystyna will talk to you, and it is the one side quest here that pays a weapon, the Blood Barbed Dagger taken from her husband's chest after Yulia the Hellbound falls. Votive Passing in Braestaig only appears after the Parting Embers story quest. Bad Blood has the highest level requirement of anything we cover, 61, and needs The Necrotic Research done first, because Gulya brews her potion from what that quest collected.
A quest that hands you the next one
Five quests are not found so much as received. Closing the Book is the last link of the Desperate Remedies chain, and Elder Akos will not send you for his four Smoldering Tomes until Eriman's Pyre has fallen, which makes sense of the fourth tome sitting at the entrance to Oblivion. Sodden Pact begins automatically when Whispers from Below ends, as long as you speak to Roina again on the cliff northeast of Marowen, and its hard part is five piles of black hair hidden in and around houses that the minimap will not mark.
The Swamp's Protection unlocks only after Timue's earlier quests in Act 4, and if the bandit camp at the end is empty, our page's fix is to clear whatever is there, leave by waypoint and walk back without a mount. Call of the Ancients closes the four-quest Bear Tribe line after Hammer of the Champion and is the longest of them, two named ancients, a Bloodstone to place and then Cyhrach, the First Born. And Rite of Passage is handed to you by the campaign itself the moment the prologue ends: the guards at Kyovashad want a sin burned on a cedar tablet, every option on the list gives the same result, and the reward is 300 gold and the town.
What the walkthroughs agree on
Where a page itemises the reward, a side quest is worth 20 Renown for its region, and the caches follow a pattern: a Herb Cache from the Hawezar quests, a Salvage Cache from Closing the Book and Salt Begets Salt, a Leather Cache from Votive Passing, an Elixir Cache from Call of the Ancients. Only Rite of Passage pays gold with no Renown attached, and only Unyielding Flesh pays a named weapon. Two quests contain fights that have their own pages in the bosses guide, Cyhrach and the Gathering Legions' Overlords, and several route you through strongholds covered in the locations guide. What a new character inherits from all this Renown is the subject of the Diablo 4 hub.
Frequently asked questions
Which Diablo 4 side quests need an emote to finish?
Seven of the ones we cover: Reject the Mother (No), Keeping the Old Traditions (Yes), Secret of the Spring (Wait), Traveler's Prayer (Thanks), Pilgrim's Footsteps (Follow), Traveler's Superstition (Hello) and In Desperate Times (Help). All seven start from an object on the ground, and several of the emotes have to be added to the wheel before they can be used.
How much Renown does a side quest give?
Every walkthrough that states a figure says 20 Renown for the quest's region. The exception in our list is Rite of Passage, which pays 300 gold and entry to Kyovashad instead.
Where does the Gathering Legions event appear?
Our page names five recurring spots, one per region: Kor Dragan, Carrowcrest Ruins, Haunted Wreckage, Norgoi Vigil and Crusaders' Monument. The two inside strongholds only run once those strongholds have been cleared, and the icon vanishes if you are late.