A game quest is a mission given to the player that’s framed by the narrative and mechanics. Game quests are rooted in tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, where quests were driven by the storyline and led players on an unpredictable adventure. Modern video games, spanning across RPG and MMO games, use quests as tasks to guide players through the game and progress the storyline in similar ways.
Game quests are designed with clarity in mind as players need to know what to do and why; doing otherwise causes frustration and drop-offs. Tying quests to lore, characters and progression makes quests meaningful, instead of feeling like filler. Combat, puzzles and travel mechanics further help break the monotony.
Game quest types range from fetching items to assasination to exploration. Rotating between quest types helps retain play engagement, as does mixing objectives together, like a hybrid escort-delivery quest. Compare the 17 types of game quests and understand how they’re incorporated into all sorts of video games below.
1. Fetch
Fetch quests are missions where the player needs to retrieve and deliver items, information, or even a person from one location to another. Fetch quests are one of the oldest quest archetypes in both RPGs and adventure games because they’re easy for new players to pick up. Overusing these quests makes games feel grindy, with players running all over for XP and no meaningful objectives.
Fetch quests to retrieve information task players with finding a source of knowledge, secrets or lore, such as by looking through documents or talking to NPCs. Retrieving records doubles as environmental storytelling because players go through multiple documents around a location. Each document is another opportunity to add background lore or enhance the atmosphere while players pursue the main goal. Resident Evil 2 uses scattered notes and keycards to unlock story beats alongside letters written by people descending into zombie psychosis.
Character fetch quests typically involve retrieving and escorting an NPC. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, rescue mission quests involve freeing captured allies and bringing them back. These overlap with escort quests, where the challenge is to protect the characters en route. Skyrim’s Rings of Blood Magic fetch quest in the Dawnguard DLC involved objects, but was made more appealing since it unlocked new abilities and lore, introducing vampire factions.
2. Kill
Quests where players need to terminate enemies or creatures are kill quests. Kill quests are common in RPGs, shooters and MMOs, testing players’ skill in combat and aiding in progression. Layering these quests with narrative points, and including varying mechanics like special buffs or enemy skills, makes them less repetitive.
Player motivations for kill quests include more than just specific enemy drops, as certain players play for the lore rather than meta builds. Writing kill quests so players obtain intel that triggers narrative arcs, for example, helps with engagement. This is similar to how Metal Gear Solid has players eliminate targets to get mission-critical data (these combine with fetch quests).
Killing as part of a larger quest chain makes players feel connected to the world lore, rather than doing filler quests that feel meaningless. The Witcher 3 has contracts with multiple steps, where killing the monster is a part of the investigation rather than the main objective. Players get to use critical thinking skills instead of charging in head-on.
3. Delivery
Delivery quests focus on transportation and safe arrival, where players need to deliver or distribute an item to a destination or NPC. Delivery quests are written into bigger quest chains and act as side quests, with added risk via enemy mobs. Specific delivery methods add tension, like how Assassin’s Creed requires players to avoid detection in stealth missions.
Delivery quests come with different objectives, including carrying a physical object, going through specific terrain, and transporting written records between NPCs. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has a trading sequence with quests where items evolve into better rewards, but only once players find and safely transport the required materials.
Delivering items in terrain filled with hazards or with unique traversal mechanics tests player’ survival skills. Death Stranding’s entire gameplay loop revolves around delivering cargo across dangerous landscapes. Skyrim has players deliver letters between NPCs, revealing narrative points that build on world lore while encouraging wilderness exploration.
4. Escort
Escort quests are any missions where the player has to accompany and protect an item, character or vehicle to a location. Classic escort quests involve protecting NPCs, where players need to actively defend against enemy attacks, alongside dealing with unpredictable NPC behavior. Escort quests are criticized when the NPC AI is weak, where they die too fast under mob attacks, so careful tuning is needed.
Tying escort quests to progression, as seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, where players escort armoured convoys, incentivizes gameplay since it drops special weapons. Escort quests that are a part of larger story arcs, like when Halo 3: ODST has players escort civilians during campaign segments, increase the emotional stakes.
5. Collect
Collect quests involve players gathering or assembling items and information, focusing on quantity. Tasking players with gathering 30 apples across a location is a typical kind of fetch quest. Fetch quests focus primarily on retrieving items and tend to simplify the delivery step. Delivery quests, in contrast, are more concerned with the journey of transporting items safely.
Using collect quests as a way to reveal lore and story arcs makes them feel less grindy. Skyrim tasks players with collecting pages of Kolb and Dragon scattered across the world, which adds to environmental storytelling while encouraging exploration. Designing quests so items are gathered via specific gameplay activities, like foraging and fishing, during seasonal events is another way to encourage playtime.
6. Investigation
Players need to research, and analyze information to uncover clues or trigger events in investigation quests. Investigation quests focus on interpretation and deduction, adding narrative depth by encouraging players to think critically. Poorly designed investigation quests run the risk of feeling like filler, so they have to tie into lore or character arcs. Combining these with combat and fetch quests breaks their monotony.
Tying investigation quests to larger overarching quests in specific locations breaks the problem into manageable stages. Players don’t have to parse tons of information at once with this method. The Witcher 3, for example, has players investigate crime scenes section by section, similar to Ace Attorney, with varying clues like footprints and clothes.
7. Assassination
Assassination quests are related to kill quests, but assassination missions require players to intentionally kill a specific person. Kill quests are broader, like killing 10 slimes, therefore they’re mechanical and tied to combat progression. Assassination quests are combined with stealth, secrecy or consequence systems to make them narrative-heavy.
Players deal with moral dilemmas and make meaningful choices in assassination quests. Skyrim’s Dark Brotherhood questline involves players doing contract kills that come with specific gameplay scenarios, like breaking and entering while avoiding detection. Choice-driven assassination quests tie into morality and player agency, but overusing them desensitizes players, making strong narrative framing necessary.
8. Protect
Protect quests task players with guarding a person, object or location. Protect quests are more stationary, while escort quests focus on guarding someone or something during transportation. One protect quest in Gears of War has players defend quest points against enemy waves. Tasking players with safeguarding well-developed characters or social groups increases the emotional stakes.
9. Puzzle
Puzzle quests are when players have to use clues around the environment or mechanics to solve problems. Puzzles are used to progress the storyline or, in games like Professor Layton, to engage the player’s cognitive skills in bite-sized chunks. Puzzle quests are primarily used to lock up exploration rewards or critical information.
Integrating puzzles as mini-games helps break combat loops, and adding them as side quests serves the same purpose. The Inazuma region in Genshin Impact has puzzles where players need to move relay stones in a specific formation to unlock chests and gain exploration XP.
10. Talk
Talk quests are any missions where the player has to communicate with NPCs to progress, focusing on social interactions within branching storylines. Mass Effect, for example, requires conversations with companions to unlock loyalty missions. These quests are used to give players additional information after a main arc is completed. Certain games specify how conversational quests work, like those in Skyrim requiring the speech skill for persuasion.
11. Timed
Timed quests add a sense of urgency, putting pressure on players to force them to combine efficiency with speed. Players need to either complete objectives within a time limit or under regulated conditions. Mixing timed quests with other types, such as kill or collect quests, adds variety.
Timed quests come in the form of speed runs, survivals and countdowns. Speed runs are combined with fetch and kill quests, like collecting 40 elemental orbs in 60 seconds. Adding buffs, such as speed-up orbs en route to the next objective, aids players and evens the playing field.
Timed survival quests task players with surviving an enemy or boss for a set time. Using timing as a core mechanic rather than just a side quest is another possibility. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask uses a repeating 3-day timed cycle for the entire game. Quests require players to track moving NPCs’ locations across multiple days.
12. Destroy
Destroy quests require players to obliterate an object, place or symbol. Unlike kill quests, destroy quests focus on non-living targets. Destroy quests are flexible, helping to progress the main narrative arc or being integrated as side quests.
Destroying a route or passageway in order to block enemies is the objective in Halo: Reach’s destroy quest, where players blow up bridges to slow Covenant forces. Assassin’s Creed gets more symbolic with its destroy quests, having players burn historical documents to erase someone’s biography and destroy their legacy, for instance.
13. Survival
Survival quests are where players have to stay alive while surrounded by hostile environments and enemies and dealing with resource scarcity. Survival quests test player endurance and resource management while adding constant tension.
Resource scarcity in survival quests is built into specific mechanics. Rust uses detailed survival mechanics like hunger and thirst, which adds complexity and realism. Players need to hunt for food and build shelters while avoiding both predators and other hostile players. Poorly balanced mechanics where players don’t have breathing room to recover, or buffs, feel frustrating.
Combining survival quests with timed events increases risk, such as in Fortnite’s limited time survival modes. Writing survival quests into a larger quest chain adds extra motivation to progress the storyline. The Witcher 3, for example, requires players to survive the wilderness before reaching a destination.
14. Negotiation
Negotiation quests are where players need to facilitate an agreement between parties. Negotiations differ from talk quests in their focus on communicating for additional information. Negotiation quests focus on resolving conflicts via compromises and diplomacy, with choices affecting alliances and endings. The stakes need to be made clear, otherwise the quests feel inconsequential.
Integrating negotiation quests into larger quest chains sets the stakes high, so players are careful with their choices. Mass Effect 2 has a negotiation quest where players have to negotiate with a mercenary named Darius to get access to mining on an asteroid. Players aren’t able to kill anyone before or during the negotiations, but failure results in violence.
15. Exploration
Exploration quests require players to navigate areas for lore or secrets, and come with minimal combat. Adding hidden chests around the world gives players incentive to explore, but integrating exploration quests into larger quest chains doubles the incentive. Both hidden treasure chests and larger quest chains reward players’ curiosity and environmental interactions.
Exploration quests tied to uncovering hidden lore or records bring in narrative hooks, increasing players’ investment. Combining exploration with investigative mechanics reels players in further, as it encourages critical thinking while uncovering new areas. In Outer Wilds, players investigate ruins to uncover old civilizations and end time loops.
16. Attainment
Attainment quests are where players have to reach a specific milestone, as opposed to fetch quests (retrieve a guarded or distant object) or collect quests (gather multiple items). Attainment quests are tied to either personal or narrative progression, giving players a path to reach a state of being.
Attainment quests unlock new abilities or build up to a moment of personal realization. Final Fantasy XVI uses attainment quests to mark personal and narrative achievements, with Clive gaining new powers via story progression.
17. Vehicle
Vehicle quests are missions where players temporarily take control of another unit or machine, acquiring unique skills or buffs based on the vehicle. Vehicle quests act as power trips, since players are able to wield powerful abilities, or as extra, constrained challenges where players need to adapt to unfamiliar controls.
Giving players overwhelming abilities via vehicle quests adds to the power fantasy but trivializes difficulty, so it needs to be done sparingly. Vehicle quests in World of Warcraft come with siege engines that have cooldown-based abilities. Adding these kinds of debuffs forces players to adapt and develop strategies instead of just button mashing.
Combining vehicle quests with other types, like escort quests, breaks the monotony and adds more motivation. Gears of War 2 combines the two by requiring players to escort convoys with mounted turrets. Transformation quests, where players turn into dragons and machines (that act as vehicles) and then manoeuvre them, deepen immersion by letting players personally experience a larger-than-life aspect of the game world.
