Warning about Essex Mast

[Oddbeard]

In order to get the plat in a single playthrough (though some save scumming and doing chapter 3 twice is required either way) you'll need to keep an eye out for Essex Mast and complete quests for him throughout the game.

 

Somehow he died during my playthrough (characters mention it during the chapter 3 ending cutscene). I have no recollection of this happening due to anything I did during the playthrough so it's unknown if this was a bug (the game can be a bit janky at times) or if a quest step was perhaps missed somewhere along the line? Either way he was unavailable for the Aid Essex Mast trophy during ch4 (and I would assume it rules out the ending trophy concerning him too). Quite annoying as I now have to do a whole new playthrough as I have no idea at which moment he died. 

 

Just wanted to put this out as a heads-up so others don't experience the same frustration/issues.

[Vault-TecPhantom]

I started off playing this game blind but, honestly, it's become such a chore that I've resorted to looking up a guide so that I don't have to do a second playthrough for platinuum. Problem is I've missed a few trophies already and so at least a partial second playthrough is inevitable so far. 

 

One of the reasons why I'm sick of the game is because of issues like in the OP.  Essex is alive in my playthrough as far as I know. However, in your case - provided that you agreed to his requests - it's highly likely that he died off screen somewhere, probably by running into fire or something because the A.I.  in this game is that stupid. Companions/friendly NPCs sometimes go missing or just run off and do their own thing or leave your party without warning so anything could happen to them during this. They also constantly get in the way in fights so it's easy to commit friendly fire making the combat a mess, and that's not even factoring in the convoluted controls or the isometric view - the latter of which does not work for this style of gameplay. It's either too wide to see what's going or too tight to get any peripheral vision. 

 

It's not just posse A.I. that sucks either; the enemy A.I. is bad too. Stealth is broken - enemies can instantly detect you even when not in line of sight but then sometimes you're right in front of them and they don't see you. Enemies also rubberband all over the place - the amount of times an NPC I was robbing was asleep only to then teleport awake  and instantly detect me is ridiculous. The stealth  A.I. seems to have no actual pathing so reloading when spotted won’t help since they can completely change their route upon loading. Recently I discovered that if an old foe starts a vendetta against you in a town - even if that foe is a bounty you turned in - the town views you retaliating as a crime and sheriffs will come after you which makes no sense. Also, if you use the deposit box in the bank and then attempt to retrieve items from it that’s also viewed as a crime. In fact, I got the jail trophy this way . There are many more bugs but I'd be here forever.

It’s one of those games that I end up playing for hours and hours at a time - not because it's addictive but because it wastes so much of the player's time with tedious tasks like inventory management, forced encounters, resetting certain things when switching to new characters etc that if you play it in small doses you'll never get anything done. The fact that it's technically and systemically broken only compounds the issue.

 

Honestly,  given the history of the developers (ex Arkane Studios members) I’m disappointed. Just goes to show that Arkane needs Bethesda to keep them in check. 

[Jjos]

Essex Mast seems to be allergic to things not going his way. That's the only explanation I have for him.

 

Instead of following the story steps during my first playthrough (I figured that there's stuff I'll be going to miss, so I created a save before every character switch), I went exploring first and was in Quickbend before the game tasked me to.

Freed the town and all - and when returning to meet him the first time he was sleeping in the sheriff office jail (instead of being inside the bank). And on character switch to the second char, in the portrait room, they already mentioned his death right away.

 

Funny enough, when playing the new chars and talking to the old ones, they all mentioned him - without ever having met him as he disappeared in chapter 1.

 

Doing a second play now, which isn't too bad. Intresting to see how stuff turns out if deciding differently, or how the main baddies are involved with the other baddies (like Shelby Cross delivering cattle to Ruth, something you don't see if you kill him in the mine or during his bounty).

Also strictly following the order of events to not have Essex have an allergic reaction.

[MLGBIackbeard]

Yeah, I think Essex Mast is either bugged or just randomly died in my playthrough. Only met him once in Chapter 1, however, when talking to older characters in Chapter 5, they all mention him.

[Vault-TecPhantom]

I got all the Essex trophies and completed the game with both endings. 

 

Some warnings:

 

For the Mystery Machine trophy, there is a bug where one of the people you're supposed to save won't trigger the dialogue necessary for you to start the conflict/banishement. If this happens you need to reload from before you acquired the quest from the children. Also, the quest location is random - can be any town as long as that town has a doctor, bank and school. The one that bugged for me was in Yan Creek but Butte worked fine. Make sure to talk to the doctor first and then the school teacher. Bank owner last. Also, sometimes they aggro and attack the entire town. This is not supposed to happen so if it does reload before you speak to the two victims. Good luck. Quest line is a mess, as is most of the game.

 

Also, the witch in the crossroads won't appear for me anymore to get the slap trophy and I've been travelling around. Not sure if there's a limit to how many chances you get (I started to just skip them when I realised I couldn't win)

[Shiggidy_DoZa]

23 hours ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

I got all the Essex trophies and completed the game with both endings. 

 

Some warnings:

 

For the Mystery Machine trophy, there is a bug where one of the people you're supposed to save won't trigger the dialogue necessary for you to start the conflict/banishement. If this happens you need to reload from before you acquired the quest from the children. Also, the quest location is random - can be any town as long as that town has a doctor, bank and school. The one that bugged for me was in Yan Creek but Butte worked fine. Make sure to talk to the doctor first and then the school teacher. Bank owner last. Also, sometimes they aggro and attack the entire town. This is not supposed to happen so if it does reload before you speak to the two victims. Good luck. Quest line is a mess, as is most of the game.

 

Also, the witch in the crossroads won't appear for me anymore to get the slap trophy and I've been travelling around. Not sure if there's a limit to how many chances you get (I started to just skip them when I realised I couldn't win)

 When I got mystery machine I actually just stumbled on to the house with the wrath in the basement and killed it without speaking to any of the people who were acting weird and it gave me the trophy. So it seems like you can just speak to the kids, then the lady by the River, then go kill the wrath. Worked for me at least.

[Vault-TecPhantom]

Got the plat and couldn't wait to uninstall it. The trophy hunting was fun but the game, itself, is embarrassing with so many time wasting design decisions that I never expected from Arkane Studios veterans; smh.

 

Also, an update of my personal experience with the ‘knuckle sandwich’ trophy: the earliest you can get this is in chapter 4 and I would suggest getting it there rather than grabbing the amulet in chapter 5. This way you have enough room before the end for the ‘What’s in the box?’ trophy. The only time the witch appeared for me in chapter 5 on my second playthrough attempt was when I was on the way to the very last objective at her house and, even then, I had to reload and fast travel around a bit after defeating the two witch ambushes to get it to trigger.

 

 

1 hour ago, Shiggidy_DoZa said:

 When I got mystery machine I actually just stumbled on to the house with the wrath in the basement and killed it without speaking to any of the people who were acting weird and it gave me the trophy. So it seems like you can just speak to the kids, then the lady by the River, then go kill the wrath. Worked for me at least.

 

Cool, wish I had known earlier! I suppose the only way to fail that trophy is if you somehow end up killing the doctor and the teacher but with your method of just skipping them altogether that's probably the safest way to avoid that (especially because sometimes the 'banish' option to pacify them doesn't work).

[PotrikBerger]

On 12/04/2022 at 4:47 AM, Vault-TecPhantom said:

Got the plat and couldn't wait to uninstall it. The trophy hunting was fun but the game, itself, is embarrassing with so many time wasting design decisions that I never expected from Arkane Studios veterans; smh.

 

Also, an update of my personal experience with the ‘knuckle sandwich’ trophy: the earliest you can get this is in chapter 4 and I would suggest getting it there rather than grabbing the amulet in chapter 5. This way you have enough room before the end for the ‘What’s in the box?’ trophy. The only time the witch appeared for me in chapter 5 on my second playthrough attempt was when I was on the way to the very last objective at her house and, even then, I had to reload and fast travel around a bit after defeating the two witch ambushes to get it to trigger.

 

 

 

Cool, wish I had known earlier! I suppose the only way to fail that trophy is if you somehow end up killing the doctor and the teacher but with your method of just skipping them altogether that's probably the safest way to avoid that (especially because sometimes the 'banish' option to pacify them doesn't work).

 

Ok, so I started playing this yesterday and even though I am only a few towns into the game, I had begun to notice some of the issues that are laid out above. Most noticeably is the friendly fire. A couple of times I’ve had my a.i. mate literally run across the screen and (what seemed at least) purposely dive in front of my shooting. And I killed them.

 

ive been advised to change the difficulty to easy mode as friendly fire is removed at that level. But I’m not sure of what other impacts on the game this could have. I’ve been told it doesn’t affect trophies, but can anyone testify if dropping down to easy does actually remove friendly fire, and if you have tried this, does it affect anything else like reduced chances of pick-ups, loot, weapons etc?

[Vault-TecPhantom]

7 hours ago, PotrikBerger said:

 

Ok, so I started playing this yesterday and even though I am only a few towns into the game, I had begun to notice some of the issues that are laid out above. Most noticeably is the friendly fire. A couple of times I’ve had my a.i. mate literally run across the screen and (what seemed at least) purposely dive in front of my shooting. And I killed them.

 

ive been advised to change the difficulty to easy mode as friendly fire is removed at that level. But I’m not sure of what other impacts on the game this could have. I’ve been told it doesn’t affect trophies, but can anyone testify if dropping down to easy does actually remove friendly fire, and if you have tried this, does it affect anything else like reduced chances of pick-ups, loot, weapons etc?

 

On my second playthrough I dropped it to easy and there was literally no difference. Allies still died to friendly fire. May have been a bug but I haven't played the game since launch to see if it's been fixed.

[PotrikBerger]

16 hours ago, Vault-TecPhantom said:

 

On my second playthrough I dropped it to easy and there was literally no difference. Allies still died to friendly fire. May have been a bug but I haven't played the game since launch to see if it's been fixed.

 

Ok, thanks for info

[melodicmizery]

im trying to work on a loose trophy guide to help people as i play through it and holy hell this game has so many consequences. i do absolutely love the game. but even as i work on the guide there is some trophies that im not sure exactly what i did to trigger them or get them. like previous people said sometimes things just happen weather good or bad. i actually had to make the guide for myself to not have to backtrack to much so im trying to put every trophy in order per chapter and hoping i get them while backing up saves to usb just in case. i mean one trophy you have to do a entire useless bad run as the indian to get the wendigo, and then go back to a old save and start all over in order to get a good overall ending with all heroes. this really isnt a game to go into blind if your a completionist or have limited time. the first chapter isnt much to worry about. but the pigman in the second chapter impacting trophies in the chapter after with him appearing at the pokjer table is another confusing trophy. i got it, but dont know exactly how lol. holy moly is all i can say. even after i finish the tip guide i cant be 100% sure its 100% accurate but at this point its better then nothing. xbox has a few tips if you get completely lost. but i really hate when good games make decisions like this that can ruin other trophies. like fallout, its just to much saving. 

[Daemonac142018]

On 10/18/2023 at 9:58 PM, melodicmizery said:

im trying to work on a loose trophy guide to help people as i play through it and holy hell this game has so many consequences. i do absolutely love the game. but even as i work on the guide there is some trophies that im not sure exactly what i did to trigger them or get them. like previous people said sometimes things just happen weather good or bad. i actually had to make the guide for myself to not have to backtrack to much so im trying to put every trophy in order per chapter and hoping i get them while backing up saves to usb just in case. i mean one trophy you have to do a entire useless bad run as the indian to get the wendigo, and then go back to a old save and start all over in order to get a good overall ending with all heroes. this really isnt a game to go into blind if your a completionist or have limited time. the first chapter isnt much to worry about. but the pigman in the second chapter impacting trophies in the chapter after with him appearing at the pokjer table is another confusing trophy. i got it, but dont know exactly how lol. holy moly is all i can say. even after i finish the tip guide i cant be 100% sure its 100% accurate but at this point its better then nothing. xbox has a few tips if you get completely lost. but i really hate when good games make decisions like this that can ruin other trophies. like fallout, its just to much saving. 

I've actually been working on the platinum recently I'm currently at 90%. I've had to reload past saves and actually restart bc I saved over my main saves. I got to the protectors end cutscene when the Heathen had said Essex had been dealt with so I knew I fucked up. I looked it up for Essex Mast and it's actually all 5 characters that need to help him and certain things you do to make sure he could potentially stay alive. As Jane Bell, u have to free him in Quickbend. As Clarence Quigsley you don't recruit Jane into your posse until you get a random encounter from Essex saying to recruit Jane or recruit her but keep her in your posse. I decided not to bc I dont want anyone dying. Essex i believe also says he needs a branch from the tap roots to kill Aleph but i havent had an encounter with him so i gotta figure that one out. The protector is where you need to get a "spirit book" and give it to him. he didn't show up so I didn't see that yet. Desiderio Rios you will have to find him in Grackle after you have talked to NPCs and are tracking Leila. like I said I'm not sure what happens with that quest either but as long as you pay attention to the news and make sure no towns suffer from plagues or whatever JUST to make sure that Essex mast isn't in that said town. and if all is done correctly the last time that you see him would be in the final room over in Foxglove once you have completed the Oneirist Journey. hope that helps. also for the 3rd Journey you don't have to redo the whole playthrough. Collect the Land titles from Mayor weeks place in Galens Crossing and the sheriff's badge and hold onto them til the end. save right before you throw the head into the fire and go sell the land titles back to the farmers standing outside his gates, Dont give them to the farmers for free, talk to a bank, they will say they can give you 500, then you go to the farmers and they ask if they can have them, u just be greedy and say u want the 500 bucks or you can just sell them at the bank and then its a fist fight with them but u have guns. The sheriff's badge can just be sold to any store. then throw the head in, you will get the Dirt and Blame trophy and then reload and you can have the regular ending bc u don't have to sell them nor do u have to do the quest in order to get the better ending. One trophy I had a hard time with was Worker's Rights bc Maximo wouldn't be dead. I killed him without being detected and I still wouldn't get the quest done so I had to reload. Now the real question for me is how the hell am I supposed to get a quest from a ghost. I've tried doing that a lot and still haven't gotten it. it says there are 2 different ways to get a ghost to have a quest and that is going on a killing spree in town and getting a small chance of a ghost from one of the NPCs or to go to the cemeteries and hope to God u can find a ghost wandering around there. if you need any help with the Explorer trophy all you have to do is read the tablets, one is in Cedar Flats, one is at the Blood moon Temple behind the entrance and the last one is in Horsetail Grotto in generally the same place as the blood moon temple, (behind the entrance) but you have to be Constance Driftwood to read them. The only other trophy that I'm having somewhat of a hard time with is This is Sparta bc I don't pay attention enough to remember to kick someone off a rooftop or cliff if im near one but they aren't usually near cliffs or rooftops anyway

[melodicmizery]

19 hours ago, Daemonac142018 said:

I've actually been working on the platinum recently I'm currently at 90%. I've had to reload past saves and actually restart bc I saved over my main saves. I got to the protectors end cutscene when the Heathen had said Essex had been dealt with so I knew I fucked up. I looked it up for Essex Mast and it's actually all 5 characters that need to help him and certain things you do to make sure he could potentially stay alive. As Jane Bell, u have to free him in Quickbend. As Clarence Quigsley you don't recruit Jane into your posse until you get a random encounter from Essex saying to recruit Jane or recruit her but keep her in your posse. I decided not to bc I dont want anyone dying. Essex i believe also says he needs a branch from the tap roots to kill Aleph but i havent had an encounter with him so i gotta figure that one out. The protector is where you need to get a "spirit book" and give it to him. he didn't show up so I didn't see that yet. Desiderio Rios you will have to find him in Grackle after you have talked to NPCs and are tracking Leila. like I said I'm not sure what happens with that quest either but as long as you pay attention to the news and make sure no towns suffer from plagues or whatever JUST to make sure that Essex mast isn't in that said town. and if all is done correctly the last time that you see him would be in the final room over in Foxglove once you have completed the Oneirist Journey. hope that helps. also for the 3rd Journey you don't have to redo the whole playthrough. Collect the Land titles from Mayor weeks place in Galens Crossing and the sheriff's badge and hold onto them til the end. save right before you throw the head into the fire and go sell the land titles back to the farmers standing outside his gates, Dont give them to the farmers for free, talk to a bank, they will say they can give you 500, then you go to the farmers and they ask if they can have them, u just be greedy and say u want the 500 bucks or you can just sell them at the bank and then its a fist fight with them but u have guns. The sheriff's badge can just be sold to any store. then throw the head in, you will get the Dirt and Blame trophy and then reload and you can have the regular ending bc u don't have to sell them nor do u have to do the quest in order to get the better ending. One trophy I had a hard time with was Worker's Rights bc Maximo wouldn't be dead. I killed him without being detected and I still wouldn't get the quest done so I had to reload. Now the real question for me is how the hell am I supposed to get a quest from a ghost. I've tried doing that a lot and still haven't gotten it. it says there are 2 different ways to get a ghost to have a quest and that is going on a killing spree in town and getting a small chance of a ghost from one of the NPCs or to go to the cemeteries and hope to God u can find a ghost wandering around there. if you need any help with the Explorer trophy all you have to do is read the tablets, one is in Cedar Flats, one is at the Blood moon Temple behind the entrance and the last one is in Horsetail Grotto in generally the same place as the blood moon temple, (behind the entrance) but you have to be Constance Driftwood to read them. The only other trophy that I'm having somewhat of a hard time with is This is Sparta bc I don't pay attention enough to remember to kick someone off a rooftop or cliff if im near one but they aren't usually near cliffs or rooftops anyway

thanks im on the last chapter now ill prob finish it tommorrow. i did run into a random death error like others mentioned above. i had to reload my ch4 save because i missed a early quest. and when i did my indian character was dead isntantly at his place it showed a red skull icon. reloaded the save and he was alive. so like others said sometimes the game randomly kills people just like it killed essex for them.

for sparta kicking them off rooftops, theres the one map that i cant remember the name but you visit a few times, the one that i think has the rifle on the wall you can take. i did it on that level. the easiest way i did it is when you first walk through the gate to the far right rooftop i started shooting and then guys ran up there to fight me and i spammed the kick button.  took a couple of save reloads to get it right. 

for the ghost mission to appear i did it in chapter 3 after i got the bark, but you should be able to do it in 4 and 5 i think. what i did was went to every single town and looked in the graveyards. eventually i found a ghost in one. mine was decon point but it seems to be randomized when they appear. theyll also have that blue star thingy icon over their head