So I'm gunning for the 10 sidequests completed achievement and when I look at my general stats I realize that it says I only have completed 3 sidequests. I am pretty far into the game and about 50 hours in so I find it hard to believe. I haven't been able to find an answer to this but what exactly counts as a sidequest? I figured it was anything that is in your quest log that is not part of the main story or under misc.

Do sidequests only count if you finish a whole branch? Like does completing all of the Dark Brotherhood quests count as one sidequest?

What? How have you not done more than three?

I think any quest that appears in your log that isn't tied to the main story is a side quest. Or maybe it's the miscellaneous ones.

I would consider finding out if this is a glitch or something. This seems crazy.

@MooseyMcMan said:

This seems crazy.

That's what I'm saying. Hopefully it's not an unfixable glitch. I was looking forward to potentially S-Ranking this because it doesn't seem too difficult.

@MasturbatingestBear: How many completed quests are there in your log? If you scroll down enough, all the completed ones should be there. If there are a lot more than three, then you may have a problem on your hands.

Yeah there are a lot more than three there. I have been completing a lot of sidequests. Thats why I was so confused. I see so many completed quests in the log but the stat tracker only lists 3.

Does sound funky.

I believe that sidequests and miscellaneous quests are counted as two different things, though. Also, a completed sidequest is when you've finished a storyline. See how the main quest has "Unbound", then killing the first dragon is a separate quest, then finding the Greybeards is the next, then finding that one thing is the next, and so on? Yeah, the main quest counts as 1 quest. Same for sidequests - you have to finish the entire ordeal before it counts.

It's entirely possible that you've spent 50 hours dicking around and haven't realized it. No shame in that, I've done the same, but I would think that if this is the case then it's time to get crackin'.

EDIT:This might help.

They count all guild and daedric quests seperately and misc dont count either. The main game it goes without saying also does not count

Ahh great that's what I was wondering. If it was just due to the fact that I am kind of doing each questline one quest at a time, then trying another line, then another. Hopefully its just a matter of finishing an entire branch and then I will get it. Thanks a lot.

Each quest in Skyrim is seperated and segmented in categories (main, side, daedric, misc, civil, faction/guild, questline). Most quests you will stumble across are written in the misc category and not sidequest. According to the wiki there's 32 sidequest in total that will fill in with the "sidequest completed" section. For the "questline completed section": Completing a whole set of quests (i.e a guild) will grant you 1 in the "questline completed", and with each completed quest in the quest set will grant you 1 each in the "guild quests completed". It's confusing at times, but in your case it's probably not a glitch and you shouldn't be worried. However if you think it is a glitch I recommend you check out this list of sidequests and see if you've completed many of them to compare.

Wicked thanks a lot. And I am well aware that Misc quests are not the same as side quests. It's just that the game never properly labels sidequests.

If you look at the title of each quest in the quest journal there is a graphic on each side of it. Just typing out a crude example, it looks something like this: "<===|| Blood on the Ice |===>" Each quest "line" in the game has a specific piece of artwork associated with it. Dark Brotherhood has a skull in the graphic, the main quest line has a dragon's head, daedric quests have the Oblivion symbol, and so on. Side quests have a generic three straight lines.

Hope this helps, and I hope you're not bugged.

Some that does not have anything to do with a faction, or the main storyline.