Guide:Experience rewards from Rescue the Gnome

Author: User:TitanstringEnjoyer

This guide explains the different outcomes in term of experience gains during the Rescue the Gnome quest. It's one of the very old quests that was already available at the launch of Early Access on October 6, 2020 (for context, the game was fully released on August 3, 2023), which might explain a few "quirks" when resolving the quest peacefully.

Also, this quest used to have two optional endings (they are still in the files but don't actually happen during a walkthrough): One option ended the quest by inviting Barcus at the campsite (this now happens later on), and the other one just ended the quest without inviting him. Both options rewarded as much XP as the current single ending (45 XP).

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Experience rewards

The group of goblins includes:

•  Fezzerk: 50 XP
• Two  Goblin Devouts: 20 XP each
• Three  Goblin Trackers, one  Goblin Sharp-Eye and two  Worgs: 120 XP

Attacking and defeating all of Fezzerk's group gives 210 XP (50 + 20 + 20 + 120).

Instead, the party can convince Fezzerk and his group to leave. As per the usual rules (see Experience), solving the encounter peacefully should give the same amount of XP than defeating it, so 210 XP. Then killing them afterwards should give 0 XP. It is however a rare case (the only one?) where the game does not include all the enemies XP when solving the encounter peacefully: Fezzerk and the two Goblin Devouts are excluded, so solving the encounter peacefully gives only 120 XP instead of 210 XP. However, if the party kills the two Goblin Devouts and Fezzerk after solving the encounter peacefully (by going into Turn-based mode just before the group leaves and attacking them), the party gets the missing 90 XP (50 + 20 + 20), so a total of 210 XP as if they effectively killed everyone. Note that, after killing Fezzerk, the remaining enemies flee on their next turn, so the party must kill the two Goblin Devouts first, then Fezzerk, in that order. All the other enemies can be ignored since they are worth 0 XP (the party already got their 120 XP from solving the encounter peacefully).

Solving the encounter peacefully also completes a quest step of "Stop the windmill" worth 70 XP ("It took some convincing, but the goblins left. If we want to help the gnome, we'll have to stop the windmill").

Once the encounter is solved, the party can stop the windmill, which rewards 15 XP if Fezzerk surrendered, then unbind  Barcus Wroot to complete the quest and gain 45 XP.

To sum up, the best outcome (340 XP) requires the party to:

1. Resolve the encounter peacefully (70 + 120 XP)
2. Kill the two Goblin Devouts (40 XP)
3. Make Fezzerk surrender
4. Kill Fezzerk (50 XP)
5. Stop the windmill (15 XP)
6. Free Barcus (45 XP)