Black Pearl quest | Nidas dying bug "workaround"

[Goofrette]

Black Pearl quest | Nidas dying bug "workaround"

Hey :welcome:

SPOILERS concerning "Black Pearl" side quest.

In the Skellige stage of the quest, you have to go back to Nidas as soon as you get his black pearl offshore. Since 1.07 (it seems), Nidas keeps getting 1-shot by the 3 drowners that spawn while you're swimming back to the shore, resulting in a quest fail. There are a bunch of workarounds on Youtube, involving slow-motion approach of the shore while swimming then throwing blablabla = it takes a lot of time and didn't work for me.

Here is the way I saved him before he gets killed:

1. Go get the black pearl itself before triggering the dialogue with Nidas
2. Go back to Nidas, trigger the dialogue and follow him to the beach
3. SAVE right after the 2nd dialogue (just in case you fail the Igni casting on step 6)
4. Open the "Quick Access Menu" right after saving and keep the "Quick Access Menu" opened until the drawners spawn (water splashes appear), taking advantage of the slow-motion
5. Choose Igni to close the "Quick Access Menu" and cast it before they attack Nidas
6. If you're high leveled enough (+good signs buff), the three drowners should simultanously ignite
7. Kill them (it's easy now, they should be burning or at least not be focused on Nidas anymore)
8. Talk to Nidas

If you don't know where the black pearl actually is, save BEFORE triggering the dialogue with Nidas then talk to him and do the quest normally a first time: walk with him to the beach, get in the water, swin to the farthest end of the yellow circle on the mini-map, dive and aim at the farthest scallop shell using your Witcher senses. Then fail the quest because Nidas gets killed before you can get back to him :teeth:. Reload and start the workaround described above

Cheers! :cheers2:

 

[Lieste]

Or just swim back to Nidas after collecting the pearl. Then kill the drowners. Then talk to Nidas.

Helps if you can fight more than one. Having at least enhanced Necrophage Oil, and whirl is really useful, as is at least a handful of food &/or swallow queued up.
I've done this on both sword and story and on death march.

You cannot afford to cheese the attacks though, dodging and rolling away won't cut it. You *have* to mix it up with all three drowners to give him a chance, which also means you have to hit them hard, and put at least one down in the first attack sequence. Northern Wind is good to use for CC, as is Axii.

 

[TheCrustacean]

Or just swim back to Nidas after collecting the pearl. Then kill the drowners. Then talk to Nidas.

Helps if you can fight more than one. Having at least enhanced Necrophage Oil, and whirl is really useful, as is at least a handful of food &/or swallow queued up.
I've done this on both sword and story and on death march.

You cannot afford to cheese the attacks though, dodging and rolling away won't cut it. You *have* to mix it up with all three drowners to give him a chance, which also means you have to hit them hard, and put at least one down in the first attack sequence. Northern Wind is good to use for CC, as is Axii.

Are you talking about getting the pearl then talking to Nidas or are you not aware of the 1.07 bug with NPCs dying instantly to enemy NPCs?

I'm really trying to figure out why you're giving him instructions on how to fight three drowners.

 

[Lieste]

I fought the three drowners who were attacking Nidas since weekend/the 1.07 patch. He got a bit hurt, but didn't die. I got a lot mauled but didn't die.

I was at level 17 at the time (iirc, maybe 18?) which made it possible, I think it would have been tougher 'on level' at 13.
Seeing how much damage he took from only a few (or maybe one) hit, I can see why 'instant' kill may be assumed, but it doesn't appear to me to be the case.

 

[MagnarofThenn]

The NPCs are always at the same level as the player. So if you're level 17, then he's level 17, and as a level 17 character he's going to survive attacks from level 11 drowners much better than lower level characters.

 

[Goofrette]

Or just swim back to Nidas after collecting the pearl. Then kill the drowners. Then talk to Nidas. [...]

The NPCs are always at the same level as the player. So if you're level 17, then he's level 17, and as a level 17 character he's going to survive attacks from level 11 drowners much better than lower level characters.

Thanks Captains Obvious. OF COURSE you're not concerned by the workaround I described if you didn't encounter the bug where Nidas dies with one single hit from the drowners.
:facepalm2:

 

[DDjinn]

I think there might be something wrong with NPC spawns in general on games patched midway. They default to level 1 or something.

Fix worked great; was able to deal with the drowners before they could land the one-hit kill on Nidas.

 

[RoBobG]

1.08 will fix this bug confirmed on twitter by momo, release notes coming today.