Ellie Companion quest is broken (the low crusade)

[Nick Clarke]

I received the quest from Ellie and as soon as I landed on Byzantium it was listed as botched. Any fix?

[Smokedza]

The quest automatically fails after receiving it, When landing on Byzantium Ellie stands by the door and asks if we can go looking for her parents.

Then the quest fails as soon as you receive it. It ends up in the "botched" category and it says "You were unable to help Ellie".

I tried reloading an older save but it's still bugged.

[Adrian Ngiam]

Hello, 

Upon reaching Byzantium and speaking to Ellie in the ship, she gives a quest to seek out her parents. The second I agree to go with her though, the quest insta-botches before I'm even able to finish the dialogue. No reason is given in the journal other than something along the lines of "You weren't able to help Ellie."

Weird thing is, the quest itself still plays out if I go and find them, but no exp is gained and the quest remains botched. They meet in the mansion, argue a bit, and then Ellie decides that she's going to go and loophole her way into taking the insurance money for herself. I didn't proceed past that point, but I think something weird is going on with the scripting rather than myself having made a mistake during a previous quest. 

If I've done something wrong, please let me know.

Does anyone have a potential fix, or am I stuck waiting to progress until a patch fixes the problem? 

Thanks.

[arkhamtheknight]

I talked to Ellie on the Unreliable about her family so that I could accept her 'The Low Crusade' quest. It instantly failed for no reason even before I did anything after accepting it.

How can you fail a quest just by accepting it? This is weird. Also it can only be fixed by the staff as it directly affects the quest.

Edited October 28, 2019 by arkhamtheknight

[NebulaAvenger]

I too have this bug! The moment you agree to go with her the quest fails. Checking it in the Botched section just informs you, "You were unable to help Ellie." Super useful that.

I've tried delaying the quest, going back to an earlier save, or initiating the quest in different locations. It always gives me The Low Crusade quest and always insta-fails it.

Which is awful. Do I ignore her quest for now, or am I just getting further away from some point I'll never be able to go back to in order to fix it?? What if I'm careful not to trigger it, will I be able to start it at some point later? Please, if anyone figures out a workaround, post it here so we can continue with the game. This bug needs to be fixed.

[DakotaH]

I'm also dealing with the same issue. I'm not sure I can advance further in the main story if I don't talk to Ellie, but if I talk to her, The Low Crusade will insta fail. This is an awful confliction.

[NebulaAvenger]

Any help or acknowledgement of this yet?

[Smokedza]

13 hours ago, NebulaAvenger said:

Any help or acknowledgement of this yet?

Not yet. It sucks because I don't want to keep playing until it's fixed. 

[Temetra]

I had a similar problem with Friendship's Due/Felix. I skipped it and finished the game, and the ending acted as if Felix had permanently died (despite being very much alive).

He's the only character I had weird issues with - one time when I exited the ship, he catapulted himself 200m into the map, screaming. He eventually returned, but I think the game state bugged out and thought he was still dead.

[Dovahkiinzord]

Greetings eveyrone, same just happened with myself.

we were talking, she offered the quest and I accepted, and immediately fails, I think tis a bug! 

[nattaggart]

I just came across this problem in my game. No matter what conversation options I take, as soon as I select “okay” the quest fails. I’m saved in orbit above Byzantium just before this conversation, but I’m afraid to progress in case the cue is irreparably bugged. I’d rather not start over, but it appears that most people aren’t experiencing this. I’m wondering if a new file would be clean, or if it’s the whole game that’s bugged.

[Skjefull]

I just came across this bug too.  As soon as I accept the quest, it fails.

The only other time I had this happen was when I was talking to a companion in the Unreliable's kitchen.   While talking I noticed Pavarti performing the ladder "climbing" animation clipping through the ship.  Shortly after her quest failed as if she had died despite being very much alive.  I reloaded and proceeded to talk to the companion again and the same thing happened.  I reloaded one more time, waited for the companion not be in the kitchen and was able to complete the conversation without Pavarti dying through clipping.

Perhaps Ellie also clipped through the ship at some point and died? If it somehow marked her character as "dead" permanently. 

[NebulaAvenger]

Finished game. She died. This made me a sad panda.

[nattaggart]

I did start another game, and I seem to have found a work-around. After getting the Byzantium navkey, I talked to Ellie before going to Byzantium. More specifically, I was on Scylla working on Friendship’s Due. I asked her about Zora and Sanjar cooperating, and she segued to talking about her parents. At the end of the conversation, the quest initiated without failing immediately, and it’s currently listed as an active companion quest, so I think it’s working for me now. It might be because of the new game file, I don’t know, but I’m just glad it’s not my entire game that’s bugged.

Edited November 8, 2019 by nattaggart
Typo — repeated phrase

[Segorath]

I have tried starting the quest by:

Talking to Ellie when arriving on Byzantium.

Talking to Ellie about Zora and Sanjar on another world and segueing to her quest.

Taking Ellie to Fenhill Estate to meet her parents with no prior dialogue.

Enabling console commands and beginning the quest manually.

All resulted in immediate failure. I was able to continue and complete the quest but the "botched" status did not change, I got no XP, and Ellie did not get her perk.

[dragmagpuff]

Unfortunately, the new patch did not fix the issue, either... I was able to get around the issue with Pavarti, but haven't figured out how to get around the Ellie issues.