10 Impossible Video Game Side-Quests That Cost You 100%
6. No Stone Unturned - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
What induces a sense of trepidation with collectibles isn’t always the number. Sure, 420 flags in the first Assassin’s Creed is definitely its own beast but something with simply 24 can be just as unobtainable. At least most open world games will mark collectibles on the map…
In Skyrim, picking up your first unusual gem starts off a quest for the Thieves Guild. The Stones of Barenziah are important to them, as gemstones once a part of a crown. The Dragonborn is then tasked with tracking them all down, with no information to go on beyond that.
Skryim is not exactly a small map but more than size it’s got lots of places to explore, investigate and inspect. What are the chances you put over a hundred hours into the game and manage to find all 24 stones? Pretty low, particularly since a few of them appear in areas you can only access a handful of times.
The reward isn’t even worth it anyway as it merely increases the chance of finding gemstones. Since any players who managed to do this without a guide will have done so by checking out every nook and cranny of the world, you’re likely to already be pretty minted.
Then again it may be worth finishing once you’ve started just to make inventory space, since the Stones of Barenziah don’t even stack. Rude.