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01 — Core Concepts

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Quests and objectives are data

A quest (UQuestData) is a UPrimaryDataAsset you create in the Content Browser: a name, a description, a list of objectives, optional prerequisites, and rewards. An objective (UQuestObjectiveData) is its own data asset: what the player must do, how many times, and an identifier used to match it against gameplay events.

Nothing about a quest is hardcoded. Designers build content entirely as assets; see 03 — Authoring Quests for the full property reference.

Quest lifecycle

A quest moves through these states (EQuestState):

State Meaning
Locked Exists, but prerequisites are not met.
Available Prerequisites are met; the player can start it.
Active In progress.
Completed Finished — rewards were given.
Failed Failed (time ran out, or the game explicitly failed it).

Each objective inside an active quest has its own state (EQuestObjectiveState): Inactive (not started yet — used for sequential objectives), Active (currently trackable), Completed, or Failed.

IsQuestReadyToTurnIn() is a different question from IsQuestCompleted(): the former is true once every required objective is done (turn-in prompt should show); the latter is true only after CompleteQuest() has actually run and rewards were given.

One component, two locations

There is a single component class, UQuestManagerComponent. What it manages depends entirely on where it is attached:

  • On a PlayerState → manages that player's Personal and Individual quests.
  • On the GameState → manages Shared quests for the whole session (the "party manager").

In both locations the quest arrays replicate to every observer of the host actor — a player's own quests on a PlayerState reach all clients, not just the owner. That is a deliberate consequence of one class serving both locations; see 06 — Multiplayer for why owner-only scoping isn't possible here and what to do if you need it.

You never need to create these components yourself — see 02 — Zero-Config Integration. IsPersonalQuestManager() / IsPartyQuestManager() tell you which one you have.

Sharing modes

Every quest has a QuestSharingMode (EQuestSharingMode), and it decides everything about how the quest behaves in multiplayer:

Mode Where progress lives Behavior
Personal The player's own PlayerState A solo quest. Each player who starts it gets their own independent copy; other players don't see it and can't contribute.
Shared The GameState One collective objective count for the whole party. Every participant's progress adds to the same number. Individual contribution is still tracked (for leaderboards, bonus rewards, etc.).
Individual Each player's own PlayerState Every participant tracks their own copy of the objectives. The GameState only keeps the roster and knows when everyone has finished.

Do I need Shared to support both single-player and multiplayer?

No — all three modes work whether the level is played solo or with several players. QuestSharingMode does not decide whether a quest works in multiplayer; it decides how it behaves once more than one player is present:

  • Personal works fine in multiplayer too — it's just never collective. Each player who talks to the giver gets their own independent copy, with zero interaction between players. In a solo session this is indistinguishable from "the only player"; in a multiplayer session it's just several players doing the same quest in parallel, unaware of each other.
  • Shared and Individual are what you reach for when you specifically want one instance that automatically scales to the party — started via StartPartyQuestForAllPlayers() (see 06 — Multiplayer), which enrolls "whoever is currently connected." In a solo session that's a party of one; nothing about the quest or the level needs to change for multiplayer.

So the real decision isn't "which mode lets this run in both modes" (all of them do) — it's "does progress belong to one collective counter (Shared), to each player separately with a shared finish line (Individual), or fully independently per player (Personal)". DemoMap deliberately mixes all three on one level to show the difference side by side — open it in the editor and compare DQ_CrystalWarmup (Personal) against DQ_PartyHarvest (Shared) and DQ_Pilgrimage (Individual).

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