What you can actually lose forever

1. Everything in the prologue

All 10 prologue side quests disappear when the prologue ends and cannot be recovered. The single exception is Bandits’ Treasure Map: Laslea Glen, which can be finished afterwards.

There is not enough time to do all of them. That is deliberate — it is the game teaching you what it is about. The prologue planner exists to let you choose what to drop instead of finding out at sundown.

2. Esme’s life

The single most consequential missable in the game, and it happens before the 30-day clock even starts. During Withering Away you must brew Anca’s medicine correctly — hot water, three spoonfuls of herbs — and get it back in time. IGN and GameSpot say that if you fail either half she dies at the Blood Mass, and PC Gamer notes her absence in the epilogue; Polygon found no major consequence in its testing. Every choice in Withering Away is on its own page.

3. Time-sensitive objectives inside started quests

Marked with a blue clock in the journal. These are the ones that expire, and only after you have opened the quest they belong to. If you see a blue clock, finish that thread before you wander off.

4. Content locked to the wrong phase

Sun-marked and moon-marked activities can only be started in their phase. 16 side quests are affected. This is not permanent loss — you can come back in the right form — but it will cost you a trip. See day and night.

5. Specific named traps

• A Mother’s Plea — it only opens once Song of the Mountain gets you into the Uriash village, which follows A Friend Like This. Its Ocha half, The Heart Wants What It Wants, can be started early in a Svartrau tavern, and GameSpot warns that climbing Andrei’s balcony by day breaks it.
• Home Sweet Home — a hidden quest in Silts Tower. The Together Forever achievement requires deliberately failing its loop repeatedly, which is the opposite of what you would do by instinct.
• Good Home — the unmarked first quest of the Sanzhani line, near the Sandy Gorge Shrine. Polygon warns that skipping the search of Heile’s old house in Oghasti locks out one of its endings.
• Killing non-hostile NPCs or quest givers. It locks you out of their content permanently. In the prologue, attacking a friendly NPC gets Coen arrested and consumes every remaining segment.
• Duelist difficulty completion. The Uphill Battle achievement requires finishing the whole game while saving the people of Laslea, so the two “early exit” endings do not qualify for it. Changing the preset or its assists partway through also rules it out; the difficulty settings page explains what Duelist changes.

6. One achievement, if you take too long

Going past 30 days forfeits In the Nick of Time. Nothing else about the run is lost — see what happens after 30 days.

Esme, expiring quests and doing it all in one run

Can you save Esme in The Blood of Dawnwalker?

Yes, but only during the prologue quest Withering Away. You have to brew Anca's medicine correctly — hot water, three spoonfuls of herbs — and get her to take it before nightfall. IGN and GameSpot say that if you get it wrong or run out of time she dies at the Blood Mass, and PC Gamer notes her absence in the epilogue; Polygon found no major consequence in its own testing.

Do quests expire if I leave them alone?

No — and this is the rule that catches people out. After the prologue, a quest stays available indefinitely until you start it. Only once started can its objectives become time-sensitive and fail. The risk is opening quests early, not leaving them untouched.

Can I do everything in one playthrough?

No. Game8 states plainly that the time mechanic means you cannot complete every quest in a single run, and that includes the prologue. The prologue is where this bites hardest.