This is the most missable trophy in the game because of the nature of stronghold adventures. Stronghold adventures are part of a series of random events that occur once you become the lord of Caed Nua. These random events are: strong hold visitors, attacks from random enemies, and, of course, adventures. These events are influenced by your stronghold's security and prestige levels, which are determined by what you've built, who you decide to employ, and how you decide to deal with visitors.
The Pillars of Eternity Wiki sums up these two ratings nicely:
- Prestige – increases the taxes collected and quality of "good" random events occurring (rare item offers, prestigious visitors, etc).
- Security – reduces the taxes you lose to banditry, frequency of "bad" random events occurring (attacks, chances of guests being attacked on the road or guests being kidnapped, etc.).
Unfortunately, of the three events, adventures aren't very common, are the most missable, and are subject to RNG. They can only appear during turn numbers that are divisible by eight, they expire after a set number of in-game hours, and a party member must be on standby at the stronghold in order to complete them. In order to understand how the game's RNG system works, and how it affects stronghold adventures, it's important to understand how Pillars of Eternity's turn and time systems operate.
The time system is fairly self explanatory: time is constantly ticking in the game, whether you're just chatting in a bar or traveling across Eora. Whenever an adventure is made available, there is a limited amount of in-game time that you have to assign an idle party member to it and start the adventure. If you don't start the adventure in time, it will expire, and you'll have to wait until another turn number that is divisible eight comes around again.
Turns, on the other hand, function quite differently. Turns, which are also known as stronghold turns, are the units of time that govern stronghold events--both how long they last and when they occur. Unlike time, turns don't occur naturally just by playing the game, but are actively influenced by actions taken by the player. Those actions being the accumulation of experience points by advancing through tasks and quests. Depending on the length of the quest or task, you may actually receive experience points several times. This is because quest and tasks are divided into sections, with experience points being distributed after you've completed each one. Meaning that, for example, if you happen to be working on a particularly long quest, you may actually advance through multiple turns because you'll be completing several sections and gaining experience points. While there isn't a set number of experience points required to move on to the next turn, completing one section in most quests--and completing entire tasks--will, generally, result in the advancement of one turn.
Regardless of how powerful the companion that you assign to a particular adventure is, it doesn't change how long that the adventure will take to complete. The adventure's duration is determined by it's type, and they fall into one of five categories: Minor, Average, Major, Grand, and Legendary.
| Number of Turns Required to Complete | Type of Adventure |
|---|---|
| 1 | Minor |
| 2 | Average |
| 3 | Major |
| 4 | Grand |
| 5 | Legendary |
The biggest reason why this trophy is so missable, and why you should be paying close attention to it from the very beginning, is because of the RNG involved in actually being assigned these adventures. Each adventure is assigned a number range based on their type, and, on a turn where an adventure is assigned, whatever number that you happen to roll will determine what type of adventure that you receive. The formula that the game used to determine your number is as follows: 2 d50s + Prestige = X. This means that the game will randomly roll two 50-sided dice, add those two numbers together, and then add your stronghold's prestige rating. Here's an example:
| First d50 Roll | + | Second d50 Roll | + | Your Stronghold's Prestige Level | = | Your Total Score (Adventure Type) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 31 | 10 | 68 (Average) |
Here are the score ranges for each adventure:
| Your Total Score | Adventure Type |
|---|---|
| 1 - 25 | No Adventure |
| 26 - 50 | Minor |
| 51 - 75 | Average |
| 76 - 100 | Major |
| 101 - 125 | Grand |
| 126 - | Legendary |
Based on the table above, there are a few key things to note:
- It's possible to not roll an adventure at all, especially at the beginning of the game when your prestige level is low.
- You need a Prestige level of at least 25 to guarantee that you'll roll, at least, a minor adventure.
- The lowest Prestige level you can have and roll a legendary adventure is 26.
- If your Prestige level is higher than the top end range of an adventure, you'll never be able to roll it (i.e. if your prestige level is 50, you'll never roll a minor adventure).
In order to avoid missing this trophy, follow these steps:
- Create a spreadsheet, or document, to record which adventure types that you've completed.
- As soon as you become the lord of Caed Nua, raise your stronghold's prestige to 25 as soon as you're able and hire an adventurer from an inn and have them, or another party member, remain at Caed Nua.
- Before raising your prestige level any higher than 25, make sure that you've completed a minor adventure first.
- Raise your prestige level to 50, and don't raise it any higher until you've completed an average adventure.
- Raise your prestige level as high as you possibly can in order to maximize your chances of rolling a legendary adventure, making sure that you don't lock your self out of any adventure types.
Here is a full list of the available, named, adventures (Note: if you run out of named adventures, you may be assigned a generic one):
| Adventure | Type |
|---|---|
| A Court of Spirits | Minor |
| A Forgotten Hollow | Minor |
| Black Waters, Broken Tombs | Minor |
| Clerical Errors | Minor |
| Sacred Skin | Minor |
| The Ivory Horn | Minor |
| The Night Mirror | Minor |
| The Sky Breaker | Minor |
| Witch's Walk | Minor |
| A Wreath of Ashes | Average |
| Bound and Buried | Average |
| Skulls for Mother | Average |
| Still as Stones | Average |
| The Mourning Circle | Average |
| The Page Unturned | Average |
| The Weaver's Song | Average |
| To the Waterline | Average |
| A Curse of Cold Clay | Major |
| A Whistling in the Reeds | Major |
| Ring Finger | Major |
| St. Ifen's Knot | Major |
| The Celebrant's Dirge | Major |
| The Unworn Path | Major |
| What the Well Holds | Major |
| A Place of Great Silence | Grand |
| Lavender and Lye | Grand |
| Lovers' Light | Grand |
| The Crossed Eye | Grand |
| The Wax Maker | Grand |
| They Who Woke the Stars | Grand |
| A Solitary Mark | Legendary |
| At the Edge of All Known Things | Legendary |
| Liminal Spaces | Legendary |
| The Coal Eater | Legendary |
| The Glass Tree | Legendary |
Prestige is raised by:
- Upgrading Caed Nua
- Hiring Warriors
- Appeasing Visitors
Unfortunately, if you made a mistake and need to lower your prestige level, things aren't quite as easy. After firing all of your warriors with a high prestige rating, all you can do is wait for random events. You can either intentionally harbor bad visitors, or allow Caed Nua to be attacked--hoping that the raiders destroy a building or two. For a list of all potential attacks, visitors, and general information about random events, refer to the Pillars of Eternity Wiki.
