[PROGRESSION BLOCKER] “Of Rats and Raiders” — Darak will not spawn in the Black Trench after entering the arena area early
Game version: 1.0 (Steam, AppID 1371980) Unity version: 6000.1.15f1 Platform: Windows 11 (Steam, single-player realm) Character: David — level 30 (native cap), HP 874/874 Realm ID: 047f1c0e-e4cd-4188-b18e-715719ee09bd SteamID64: 76561198159919760
Summary
Main quest “Of Rats and Raiders” cannot be completed. The journal objective is stuck at “We must find Darak” while the player is already inside The Black Trench. Darak does not spawn in his arena, no intro cutscene plays on entering, and the quest cannot advance any further.
The softlock occurred after the player entered a later part of the quest area ahead of the intended sequence (reached the arena / deeper section before completing the intended progression path in the Black Trench). Since then the arena trigger appears to be permanently consumed: no boss, no cutscene, no quest update.
This appears to be the same class of issue as the existing report “Darak Boss not respawning after crash (COOP)” (https://forum.norestforthewicked.com/t/darak-boss-not-respawning-after-crash-coop/20939), but here it was triggered by sequence-breaking area entry, not by a crash during the fight. Since the 1.0 release this blocks the entire main questline for the save.
Quest state at time of report
Active main quest: Of Rats and Raiders (CN: 背叛者和袭击者)
Current objective text: “The plague has already spread through these sewers… We must find Darak.”
Other active quests: Servant of God, Blood Flows Like a River, The Speaker and the Silent
Completed: A Small Favor, Sacrament
Description history already recorded in the journal: entered the sewers, freed Rattigan, spoke with the imprisoned rebels / Odessa — i.e. all preceding steps were registered as done.
What happens now
Travel to The Black Trench (Central Chamber) via the Whisper point.
Walk into Darak’s arena from the intended route.
Result: arena is empty. No boss, no cutscene, no quest update, no completion event.
Steps already attempted (none resolved it)
Quit to main menu and use Continue from Last Whisper
Full restart of the game (multiple times)
Teleport away via Whispers (Sacrament, Nameless Pass) and return later
Wait in another zone for an extended period so the area resets (normal enemies and resources respawn, Darak does not)
Die in the Black Trench and respawn from the Whisper
Verified game files via Steam
Loaded an earlier realm BACKUP — not possible: all available backups were created after the softlock occurred
Additional context that may matter
No mods are loaded. MelonLoader is present in the game folder, but the log confirms 0 Mods loaded for every session since 2026-11-02 20:40. All crashes below happened with zero mods active, so they are unrelated to modding.
The title has been crashing frequently since the 1.0 update — 11 crash dumps recorded between 2026-10-27 and 2026-11-03, including 4 on 2026-11-03 alone (00:12, 14:47, 20:35, 23:32) with no mods loaded. It is possible one of these crashes corrupted the realm’s activity state, but note that the quest softlock itself was observed after a normal sequence break, not necessarily after a crash.
The realm save is intact and loads normally otherwise; all other systems (inventory, other quests, vendors) work.
Attachments
76561198159919760_Realm_047f1c0e-e4cd-4188-b18e-715719ee09bd.cerimal (realm state, ~166 KB) — taken from %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\Moon Studios\NoRestForTheWicked\DataStore\29466\
76561198159919760_Character_79ce3b70-39fe-40e3-be71-fcd7442514bf.cerimal (character, ~16 KB) — same folder
MelonLoader\Latest.log and the matching Player.log from the affected session
Crash dumps available on request (backtrace\crashpad\reports\)
Request
Please either
fix the arena/quest trigger so Darak spawns again on re-entry, or
restore/adjust the quest state on this realm server-side, or
confirm whether this save is unrecoverable so the player can restart the realm with clear expectations.
The save above is a clean reproduction candidate: loading it and walking into Darak’s arena in the Black Trench should reproduce the empty arena immediately.
Could you clarify this for me? The game has not been released yet, such a release is usually called 1.0 but No Rest For The Wicked is still in early-access until March 2027.
I am not sure how much support you can expect, since you broke the intended sequence yourself. How did you enter Darak’s arena before extending the iron bridge?
For Moon to look at this, could you submit some files? Which ones and where to find them you can read here: How to Properly Report Bugs!
I am not seeing those attachments you are summing up, you can share the files requested via WeTransfer, Google Drive or you can send them directly via Discord. If you choose the latter option, please let me know!
Hi Silas, thanks for taking the time to look into this.
On “1.0” — you’re right, that wording was wrong. Game Version: 1.0 is just the build string the game reports in its log, not a full 1.0 release. I understand the game is still in Early Access. Sorry for the confusion.
On how I entered the arena — I did not edit the save or use any console command. I reached the later section by climbing the wall in the Black Trench, the same climbing-wall spot already logged as an out-of-bounds defect here: Black trench climbing wall into out of bounds darkness. I climbed/jumped over that wall into the deeper part of the zone before extending the iron bridge, and only realised afterwards that this had skipped the intended trigger. From that point on the objective stayed at “We must find Darak” and the boss never appeared again.
So the sequence break was not a deliberate quest skip on my part — it looks like an existing collision / out-of-bounds defect let me bypass the bridge and consume the arena event. I understand this may change what support is possible. I am not asking for any reward or quest completion, only whether the encounter can be re-armed on this realm — or a clear “unrecoverable”, so I can decide whether to restart the realm.
The files — my apologies, the opening post only listed filenames and I forgot to include the actual link. Here it is:
The archive contains Player.log, Player-prev.log, the complete DataStore folder (including .bak1–.bak5), dxdiag.txt, four crash dumps from 2026-11-03, and the quest-log screenshot. I have also attached the screenshot directly to this reply. If it is easier for you, I can send the archive via Discord instead — just let me know.
Two items from the reporting template that I also missed in the opening post:
Were you able to reproduce the bug? Yes, 100% on this save. Loading it and walking into the arena reproduces the empty arena on the first attempt, every time.
Has this already been reported? Partially — Darak Boss not respawning after crash (COOP) describes the same end state but with a different trigger (a crash during the fight, in co-op). I will add a short link there rather than duplicating this report.
The link post was hidden by community flags and my new account was put on hold, so I’d rather not paste another external link in this thread and risk the same thing happening again.
I’d like to go with Discord, as you suggested. The files are ready: two small archives (2.8 MB and 3.8 MB) containing Player.log, Player-prev.log, the complete DataStore folder with all .bak files, dxdiag.txt, the quest-log screenshot, and four crash dumps from 2026-11-03. Could you let me know the best way to reach you on Discord — your handle, or a channel I should drop them in? I’ll send them straight over.
In the meantime I also emailed the same two attachments to support@moongamestudios.com on 4 November, subject “[Forum account on hold] daiwei20081203 - files for bug report #27304”. If that inbox is easier for QA to pull from, please use it instead — no need for me to send the files twice.
Thanks again for your patience with a new account.
daiwei
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