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This will likely get updated with future patches (bug fixes and post launch content). Last update: 08.10.23
Disclaimer - I try to make it spoiler free, and when it isn't, it's hidden under spoiler text. I'll still talk about mechanics and current issues that can ruin your day, when it's applicable
So if you want it completely spoiler-free, maybe don't read the whole thing.
Current Issues List - scroll down to Main Quests - Chapter 3 tab, some of the more important ones will be on top of the page. I did my best to mention them here though.
Suggested mods
F4SE, Buffout, PapyrusMaxOps help SS2 drastically.
Interior Navcut Fix, due to a vanilla issue discovered during development. It helps most during later quests if NPCs stop moving or scenes are not triggering.
“No BloodWorm MoleRats Scorpions Teleport-BugFix” generally for HQ so beginning with Chapter 2 but still, this resolves another semi-rare vanilla bug that's more prominent with SS2 installed due to how many interiors are added.
Long Save Fix may help.
Any “wait anywhere” mod, or you could use “passtime X” command.
Generally not an insanely built up and modded save would result in a better experience.
“Special Zapper” - again, mostly for HQ and fast and efficient recruitment, this is more of an “all chapters starting over” suggestion.
Any flag pack – Anarch's Leader Almanac, Blue's Minutemen Flags, Cross-dimensional flags. Completely optional but you'll be placing a lot of flags, might as well make them really cool
If it's possible without disabling/removing mods, I would suggest to turn off any "settlers are mortal" settings (for Better Settlers or SKK Combat Settlers etc), for reasons explained below.
Some notes
Do any vanilla or mod content related to Quincy before "Resurgence" or after chapter 3.
Some settlements are used in chapter 3 and having them heavily built up and settled can currently create issues. This may be fine for you and I may be overreacting but generally, make some manual saves between quests, it will help. And - very important - you should be aware that if your own settlers start attacking you, that will go away after some time and you don't have to kill them.
The worst offender is probably Egret Tours, I personally would advise to not build or recruit anyone to it (or send settlers away temporarily when "Resurgence" or the quest after it starts). Some other settlements (Oberland, Warwick's and likely several others) to a much lesser extent - it's fine to use those as much as you want as long as you keep this potential issue in mind.
This may also get fixed by the time you get to that point. You can also try tweaking the policies in your HQ meeting room so settlers don't join combat, when you get the chance.
On alternative endings mods
If you're using mods that change main factions and their outcomes drastically, that's not currently accounted for when it comes to SS2 story. But! There are commands that you can use, more on that in “Under one Banner”. It would make more sense to depose the faction's vanilla leader instead of killing, if applicable, anyway. Also vanilla main quest is still completely optional, though I'd say recommended.
On quest skipping
Holotape skipping chapter 3 quests still needs work and testing but if you're here, this likely won't interest you anyway. Skipping up to and including Resurgence should be fine though.
Quest guide
You can find info on all the quests on wiki, here are just some tips.
https://wiki.simsettlements2.com/en/gameplay/main-story/chapter3 - Wiki quest quide
Flickering Lights
Do this one without companions, for immersion. Play through it slowly. If an NPC is stuck at any point, you could try travelling out and back. If the quest doesn't start when all prerequisites are met (it should), skip to it from Commonwealth Rising being active and wait 72 hours.
Resurgence
I'd suggest to take the Castle with minutemen before doing this, and finish Old Guns. This will minimize the risk of issues with the minutemen questline (uncertain if it causes any but just in case).
A Faction is Born / Me and This Army / Art of War (mechanics spoilers ahead but this is pretty much unavoidable)
1. It's very important to not skip any explanations of the new mechanics. Once you've unlocked flare gun and binoculars, you're gonna be using them a lot. If nothing happens when you use them, it's likely script lag and will be resolved by waiting.
2. If you're ever struggling with marking a location, try pointing the flare gun in its direction, that should mark it. If you fire it and get an autosave some time after (though this can be turned off too), that means you've successfully triggered an assault.
3. If you cleared a location and got a message about reinforcements coming (or not) and they didn't, this is likely also resolved by standing still.
4. The story will make you do a lot of assaults so I'd suggest to just roll with it and not go ham on assaulting everything in sight.
5. There are holotape options to assign a fixed number of guards to territories and outposts. Guards can't come on assaults (unless you override that with a setting) so you might want to send a limited number of soldiers to locations. If soldiers are injured or you don't have outposts in range, they also won't come to assaults – both of those options can be overriden too.
6. If you want to prevent some settlements from getting captured, by beefing up their defences - generally, don't bother, at least some of them are scripted. Though assigning some guards to them from your soldiers may help. Things should return to normal some time after you recaptured them and stayed for a bit in the settlement.
7. If you don't want plots to get destroyed and turned to martial after reclaiming, use the holotape settings (War - Gameplay) to allow for other plots in outposts.
8. Auto-recruitment for outposts can be turned off in the holotape, and should at some point, or you will eventualy get 100-150 soldiers in one place.
Internal Affairs
During reinforcements waves, stay close to the location you're assaulting, this should get rid of issues with this quest.
If you don't have any staff for the department, TGM can be a workaround, as always. But when you're looking to find some ranked up soldiers, click “Manage soldier” on them and the pop-up menu will show their rank, also lets you change their role and loadout (if you have an armory plot).
Hostile Waters
Stock up on rad-away!
State of War
This quest lasts for most of chapter 3, and many other quests are triggered when you make progress in it. You will also see some branching paths pretty soon.
In general, it wants you to capture Outposts and Territories.
Outposts are Settlements controlled by the gunners.
Territories are specifically NOT Settlements.
Mysterious Benefactor
I would suggest to check this one out immediately, it will help. Pick your capital city when prompted.
Under One Banner
This is your opportunity to get allies for your group, and you have plenty of time to do it (until the quest “When It Rains” is complete). Generally for allies you have to complete or almost complete their story, this includes vanilla main groups. So under vanilla conditions, only one group out of 4 can be present, and this requires blowing someone up. This can however be changed if you use the following command at any point:
startquest
For those who started Under One Banner prior to 3.0.2, you may need to complete NLTC and CPD before anyone else shows up.
MAKE A MANUAL SAVE, Use the commands, leave HQ (if you're in it), you should receive a radio call (if you haven't earlier), come back to the meeting room.
Alternate endings and faction mods will likely need specific instructions (or trial and error - PLEASE save first), guide for Subversion is in the next post.
Respective faction leaders (vanilla NPCs) and companions must be alive and enabled for this though.
Unique content added with alliances (their quarters, soldier units, etc) is not currently in game and is planned for post-chapter updates.
Disclaimer - I try to make it spoiler free, and when it isn't, it's hidden under spoiler text. I'll still talk about mechanics and current issues that can ruin your day, when it's applicable
So if you want it completely spoiler-free, maybe don't read the whole thing.Current Issues List - scroll down to Main Quests - Chapter 3 tab, some of the more important ones will be on top of the page. I did my best to mention them here though.
Suggested mods
F4SE, Buffout, PapyrusMaxOps help SS2 drastically.
Interior Navcut Fix, due to a vanilla issue discovered during development. It helps most during later quests if NPCs stop moving or scenes are not triggering.
“No BloodWorm MoleRats Scorpions Teleport-BugFix” generally for HQ so beginning with Chapter 2 but still, this resolves another semi-rare vanilla bug that's more prominent with SS2 installed due to how many interiors are added.
Long Save Fix may help.
Any “wait anywhere” mod, or you could use “passtime X” command.
Generally not an insanely built up and modded save would result in a better experience.
“Special Zapper” - again, mostly for HQ and fast and efficient recruitment, this is more of an “all chapters starting over” suggestion.
Any flag pack – Anarch's Leader Almanac, Blue's Minutemen Flags, Cross-dimensional flags. Completely optional but you'll be placing a lot of flags, might as well make them really cool
If it's possible without disabling/removing mods, I would suggest to turn off any "settlers are mortal" settings (for Better Settlers or SKK Combat Settlers etc), for reasons explained below.
Some notes
Do any vanilla or mod content related to Quincy before "Resurgence" or after chapter 3.
Some settlements are used in chapter 3 and having them heavily built up and settled can currently create issues. This may be fine for you and I may be overreacting but generally, make some manual saves between quests, it will help. And - very important - you should be aware that if your own settlers start attacking you, that will go away after some time and you don't have to kill them.
The worst offender is probably Egret Tours, I personally would advise to not build or recruit anyone to it (or send settlers away temporarily when "Resurgence" or the quest after it starts). Some other settlements (Oberland, Warwick's and likely several others) to a much lesser extent - it's fine to use those as much as you want as long as you keep this potential issue in mind.
This may also get fixed by the time you get to that point. You can also try tweaking the policies in your HQ meeting room so settlers don't join combat, when you get the chance.
On alternative endings mods
If you're using mods that change main factions and their outcomes drastically, that's not currently accounted for when it comes to SS2 story. But! There are commands that you can use, more on that in “Under one Banner”. It would make more sense to depose the faction's vanilla leader instead of killing, if applicable, anyway. Also vanilla main quest is still completely optional, though I'd say recommended.
On quest skipping
Holotape skipping chapter 3 quests still needs work and testing but if you're here, this likely won't interest you anyway. Skipping up to and including Resurgence should be fine though.
Quest guide
You can find info on all the quests on wiki, here are just some tips.
https://wiki.simsettlements2.com/en/gameplay/main-story/chapter3 - Wiki quest quide
Flickering Lights
Do this one without companions, for immersion. Play through it slowly. If an NPC is stuck at any point, you could try travelling out and back. If the quest doesn't start when all prerequisites are met (it should), skip to it from Commonwealth Rising being active and wait 72 hours.
Resurgence
I'd suggest to take the Castle with minutemen before doing this, and finish Old Guns. This will minimize the risk of issues with the minutemen questline (uncertain if it causes any but just in case).
A Faction is Born / Me and This Army / Art of War (mechanics spoilers ahead but this is pretty much unavoidable)
1. It's very important to not skip any explanations of the new mechanics. Once you've unlocked flare gun and binoculars, you're gonna be using them a lot. If nothing happens when you use them, it's likely script lag and will be resolved by waiting.
2. If you're ever struggling with marking a location, try pointing the flare gun in its direction, that should mark it. If you fire it and get an autosave some time after (though this can be turned off too), that means you've successfully triggered an assault.
3. If you cleared a location and got a message about reinforcements coming (or not) and they didn't, this is likely also resolved by standing still.
4. The story will make you do a lot of assaults so I'd suggest to just roll with it and not go ham on assaulting everything in sight.
5. There are holotape options to assign a fixed number of guards to territories and outposts. Guards can't come on assaults (unless you override that with a setting) so you might want to send a limited number of soldiers to locations. If soldiers are injured or you don't have outposts in range, they also won't come to assaults – both of those options can be overriden too.
6. If you want to prevent some settlements from getting captured, by beefing up their defences - generally, don't bother, at least some of them are scripted. Though assigning some guards to them from your soldiers may help. Things should return to normal some time after you recaptured them and stayed for a bit in the settlement.
7. If you don't want plots to get destroyed and turned to martial after reclaiming, use the holotape settings (War - Gameplay) to allow for other plots in outposts.
8. Auto-recruitment for outposts can be turned off in the holotape, and should at some point, or you will eventualy get 100-150 soldiers in one place.
Internal Affairs
During reinforcements waves, stay close to the location you're assaulting, this should get rid of issues with this quest.
If you don't have any staff for the department, TGM can be a workaround, as always. But when you're looking to find some ranked up soldiers, click “Manage soldier” on them and the pop-up menu will show their rank, also lets you change their role and loadout (if you have an armory plot).
Hostile Waters
Stock up on rad-away!
State of War
This quest lasts for most of chapter 3, and many other quests are triggered when you make progress in it. You will also see some branching paths pretty soon.
In general, it wants you to capture Outposts and Territories.
Outposts are Settlements controlled by the gunners.
Territories are specifically NOT Settlements.
Mysterious Benefactor
I would suggest to check this one out immediately, it will help. Pick your capital city when prompted.
Under One Banner
This is your opportunity to get allies for your group, and you have plenty of time to do it (until the quest “When It Rains” is complete). Generally for allies you have to complete or almost complete their story, this includes vanilla main groups. So under vanilla conditions, only one group out of 4 can be present, and this requires blowing someone up. This can however be changed if you use the following command at any point:
startquest
SS2C3_SQ03_A_BoS
SS2C3_SQ03_C_Institute
SS2C3_SQ03_E_Railroad
SS2C3_SQ03_G_Minutemen
(so "startquest SS2C3_SQ03_A_BoS" etc - you can type startquest and copy-paste)
SS2C3_SQ03_C_Institute
SS2C3_SQ03_E_Railroad
SS2C3_SQ03_G_Minutemen
(so "startquest SS2C3_SQ03_A_BoS" etc - you can type startquest and copy-paste)
SS2C3_SQ03_M_Nightingales
SS2C3_SQ03_N_NLTC
SS2C3_SQ03_O_CPD
SS2C3_SQ03_H_DiamondCity
SS2C3_SQ03_N_NLTC
SS2C3_SQ03_O_CPD
SS2C3_SQ03_H_DiamondCity
SS2C3_SQ03_K_Wise
SS2C3_SQ03_L_Sickle
SS2C3_SQ03_L_Sickle
SS2C3_SQ03_I_Berman
MAKE A MANUAL SAVE, Use the commands, leave HQ (if you're in it), you should receive a radio call (if you haven't earlier), come back to the meeting room.
Alternate endings and faction mods will likely need specific instructions (or trial and error - PLEASE save first), guide for Subversion is in the next post.
Respective faction leaders (vanilla NPCs) and companions must be alive and enabled for this though.
Unique content added with alliances (their quarters, soldier units, etc) is not currently in game and is planned for post-chapter updates.
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