How do you successfully complete The Charlatan quest in GreedFall without getting into too much trouble? Like many of GreedFall's quests, it can be completed in a few different ways depending on which talents you've chosen for De Sardet. During The Charlatan you'll have one major juncture where your talents will come into play to determine your path..

After introducing yourself to Ambassador Sahin from The Bridge Alliance to announce your departure for Teer Fradee, the ambassador will ask a favor. He needs help shutting down a man he calls a 'charlatan' masquerading as an alchemist. He's giving true alchemists a bad name, so, the first order of business is to pay him a visit.

Confront The Charlatan

You'll find The Charlatan's stall marked on your map near the center of Serene. On arrival you'll listen to his sales pitch and then attempt to force him to prove the effectiveness of his cure in front of a crowd. You'll fail to convince him, unfortunately. Your companion, Kurt, has the bright idea that you should steal a potion from The Charlatan's wagon behind his stall and force him to drink it.

Take the path to the right and through the metal gate leading to the merchant's wagon just behind his stall. There you'll face a small group of ruffians first. After dealing with them, check the two notes found lying nearby and pick up one of the potions. When you return to The Charlatan and force his hand, he'll flee the scene.

Find The Charlatan in the tavern

Fortunately, one of the notes found in The Charlatan's wagon mentions that he's staying at the inn above a nearby tavern. Head there and make your way upstairs to confront him again. It turns out you've been taken for a fool. The Charlatan was a true alchemist who became a whistleblower calling out the unethical practices of other alchemists. This is why Ambassador Sahin wants him dealt with. After learning to truth, you have a few potential options:

• Arrest The Charlatan and return to Ambassador Sahin to turn him in. This will successfully end the quest and gain you +3 Bridge Alliance reputation (But it also makes you kind of a jerk).
• Help The Charlatan escape by dispersing the angry mob waiting for him outside the inn.
• Help The Charlatan escape by finding a way to sneak out the tavern.

Disperse the crowd

If you choose to deal with the mob, you have three ways to disperse them:

• Order the crowd to disperse: This will result in a fight. Be careful: you and Kurt will be quickly outnumbered by the angry and surprisingly well-armed locals.
• [Intuition 1]: Convince the mob that they need to seek out a doctor immediately or suffer the side effects of The Charlatan's potion. They'll leave without a fight.
• Negotiate a settlement: Offer to bring the crowd new health potions. With this option, you'll need to either craft six health potions yourself if you've invested a talent point in Science, loot all six needed potions from crates around the city, or buy them from the nearby merchant.

After dealing with the crowd, return to The Charlatan to let him know his path is clear and he should leave the city immediately. Jump down to the section on returning to Ambassador Sahin.

Sneak out of the tavern

To sneak out of the tavern discreetly you'll need to leave The Charlatan's room and pick up the Storeroom key in the room next door. Through the kitchen downstairs this key will unlock a door where you can find a chest containing yet another key. This innkeeper's key unlocks the back door. 

Now return to The Charlatan and tell him you've got a way out. Be warned, this starts the escort mission portion. You'll need to make it back to The Charlatan's wagon either by sneaking or fighting your way there as all of the angry customers are still hanging around the area looking for a fight. Lead The Charlatan out the back door and hop over the back fence at the wooden boards marked with white.

The path of least resistance is to the west away from the crowd waiting at the front of the inn, but, either way, you'll still encounter violent customers. The Charlatan implies through his dialogue cues that you may be able to sneak past them, but it's a difficult prospect. Hostile NPCs aren't visually different from regular townsfolk and GreedFall doesn't communicate well what objects can be used for cover. We sneaked up behind NPCs facing the opposite direction and opted for a stealth kill. Once you manage to sneak or fight your way back to The Charlatan's cart, he'll skip town and you're free to turn in the quest for your reward.

Return to Ambassador Sahin

When you return to the ambassador you'll have two dialogue options to choose from  to complete the quest:

• Cover The Charlatan's escape, which will net you +1 Bridge Alliance reputation.
• Call out Sahin on his lie, which will net you -1 Bridge Alliance reputation (specifically, +1 for completing the quest and -2 for letting The Charlatan escape).

And there you go, that wraps up all of the possible ways to complete The Charlatan quest in GreedFall.

Where is the Naut disguise in GreedFall? Y'know, the one that you need to complete that pesky GreedFall Coin Guard Merchandise quest? How do disguises work in GreedFall anyway? Fortunately, there are two answers to the first question and a surprisingly easy (but easily overlooked) answer to the third. 

We've got the details for you on how GreedFall's disguise system works and how to go about obtaining your first one: that Naut disguise.

Where is the Naut disguise in New Serene?

In one of GreedFall's first quests, Coin Guard Merchandise, you'll want to find a Naut disguise to avoid fighting a bunch of sailors on their own turf. There are two places to score a free Naut disguise on Serene's docks:

• In a chest inside a building called the 'Storeroom' at the southwest corner of the docks.
• In a chest on the second floor of the Harbormaster's Office.

The sailor's coat in the Storeroom is easy enough to find. No one will prevent you from entering the building, so it's the quickest and easiest way to find one. If for some reason you need a second Naut disguise, you can also nab one from a chest in the Harbormaster's Office. 

This one is a bit trickier and requires sneaking (if you aren't already wearing the disguise from the Storeroom, that is). On the east end of the docks, find the Harbormaster's Office. Instead of entering the front door, sneak around to the back door. Once inside, a set of stairs immediately to your right lead to the second floor. Watch out for the two Naut guards in the building: one on the first floor where you enter and the other in the room at the top of the stairs. 

On the second floor, ignore the chest near where the guard is patrolling; That's not the one you need. Take a U-turn around the stair's handrail to enter the bunk room in the back. Directly to your left when you walk in is an unlocked chest with another Sailor's Coat that qualifies as a Naut disguise.

How do disguises work in GreedFall?

Early in GreedFall you discover that you can get into areas owned by other factions by dressing up as one of their own. With plenty of armor types available, it can be difficult to parse which pieces count as a disguise, apart from guessing based on the piece's look and name. A Sailor's Coat is easy to peg as Naut uniform, but what about an Old Doublet? There's an easy way to tell which armor serves as faction uniforms for disguise purposes if you know where to look.

Only torso armor pieces count as disguises. Each one has a small symbol in its equipment details that marks the faction it belongs to. You're looking for the small heraldry symbol at the bottom of the equipment's details just to the left of its cost and weight. Unfortunately, there's no accompanying text, so you'll just have to memorize the faction symbols. Here's a refresher if you don't have them down yet:

• Congregation of Merchants: A blue chevron and gold coins on a white field
• Coin Guard: Two white sabers on a blue field
• Nauts: A gold symbol on a blue field
• Natives: A white spiral inside a diamond
• Bridge Alliance: A gold lion on a blue and green field
• Theleme: A gold sun on a red field

That's everything you need to know about GreedFall's disguises and where to get your first one. Just make sure you equip that Sailor's Coat before strolling uninvited into the Nauts' private docks.

What's with the GreedFall Coin Guard Merchandise quest? There are typically a few ways to approach a quest in the fantasy RPG depending on both your play style and the 'talents' in which you've invested. Unlike skills and attributes—which both relate to your character's effectiveness in combat—talents are points that you invest in non-combat skills like charisma, lockpicking, and intuition. 

Some will give you extra dialogue options while others will give you additional ways to traverse the environment like climbing tall cliff faces. GreedFall's early quest, Coin Guard Merchandise, is an introduction to these systems and how they play off each other. So how do you actually complete it? We've got the details for you below.

Negotiate with the vendor

When you first leave your family's manor, your master-of-arms, Kurt, approaches you before leaving the continent and sailing to Teer Fradee. His superiors in the Coin Guard have asked him to ensure that some merchandise makes the crossing with your party. The first thing to do is head for the vendor currently holding the crates of merchandise and negotiate their return. Based on where you've placed your first talent point during character creation, you will have a few options:

Charisma: Whip out your title and threaten to have the vendor arrested as an accomplice for extortion. The base success rate for this check is 50%. But if you've invested a point in Charisma already, you'll have a 75% chance. You'll receive +1 Coin Guard reputation by taking this route.

Intuition: With a point here, you'll can bribe the merchant and stage a robbery to get your goods back while he agrees to look the other way. You'll get +1 Coin Guard reputation.

Threaten: If you don't have points in either of the above, you'll have to take the crates by force. Run around the back of the vendor's stall and beat him and his colleagues until they surrender. You'll lose -1 Congregation of Merchants reputation.

Now run back to the Coin Guard barracks to tell the quartermaster of your success. He won't care which method of persuasion you chose. He tells you that you need to ensure the cargo gets on the ship.

Doctor the ship log and clear the guards

When you run back to ship captain, Vasco, he'll be understandably miffed when you explain the situation. He does let slip that the only way for goods to make it onboard is by it being registered in the ship's log and stored in the appropriate warehouse. Here are the ways you can break in: 

Sneak: Be careful when entering the Naut faction's designated space on the docks: Only members of their faction are allowed inside and you'll be attacked on sight for trespassing. That said, it's not difficult to sneak to the back door of the Harbor Master's office and head upstairs to alter the shipping log book. If you do get caught and are forced to fight, you'll lose -1 Naut reputation.

Sleeping potion: You can also buy or create a sleeping potion that will knock out the Nauts while you sneak around their compound. If you've invested a talent point in Science, you can brew the potion yourself. If not, it costs 16 gold at the local merchant. 

Disguise: By far the easiest method is to walk into the Nauts' warehouse area disguised as a sailor. Obtain a sailor's coat armor piece from a chest in the building marked 'storeroom' in the southwest corner of the docks. By equipping it to your torso armor slot, you can walk into any Naut area without trouble. Only De Sardet needs to be wearing a disguise. Kurt is just fine dressed in his own armor.

Next, head further east to the warehouse where the goods need to be delivered. If you're in disguise, you can speak to the guards at the door and convince them that you are relieving them of their shift. Without a disguise, you'll need to fight them.

Sail to New Serene and mark the crates

After having the goods delivered to the warehouse in Serene, wrap up your business on the continent and sail to the new world. When you arrive, talk with the local Coin Guard representative in New Serene. He will inform you that the goods are now stashed in another Naut warehouse, and that they need a special marking so the Coin Guard will know which ones to pick up. 

Hopefully you haven't binned that sailor's uniform for this bit. Head to New Serene's docks and hop over the fence (you'll know spots that can be vaulted by their white markings) into the Naut's warehouse district. Search both buildings marked on your map. Interactable objects are indicated by their red glow. After marking the merch, head back to the Coin Guard barracks in New Serene to turn in and complete the quest.

Coin Guard Merchandise isn't terribly tricky, but you may not immediately realize that you're required to sail to the new world in order to complete it. Understanding the fundamentals of how GreedFall approaches quests with various solutions is key, and this mission sets you up nicely for the rest of the game.

GreedFall's systems parrot those of successful RPGs, but they're all a bit thin. It has a tactical pause system that lets me queue up an action for my protagonist, but not other party members. I can assign armor and weapons to my party members, but not manage their skills or combat tactics. I can pursue a romance with my companions, but it takes the form of three personal quests followed by the makeout-time dialogue button and a quick bedroom cutscene. GreedFall contains all the things I like in RPGs. I wish that I could pick even one of them to praise without caveats.

In one bit, I'm interviewing a grizzled member of the mercenary faction, the Coin Guard, as I investigate the disappearance of a talented young soldier. Sweet-talking and browbeating people with my title is a large part of my job as the ambassador of my own faction: the Congregation of Merchants. To drag information about a secret training program out of him I choose between three dialogue choices: convince him with my charisma, bribe him, or allow my companion, Kurt, to do the talking. I've invested my attribute points in charisma, so I'm able to persuade him.

I like that I have multiple options in each interaction, but as always in GreedFall, something is a little off: His mildly uncanny lip movements are a distraction shared by many of GreedFall's characters, and the quality of the voice acting varies, with one of my favorite merchants constantly belting his lines out.

Later, I'm breaking my way into a Coin Guard training camp to further investigate. Kurt requests that we avoid combat so that we won't have to kill any members of his faction. GreedFall's stealth system is bare bones, composed only of my ability to crouch and eye indicators over enemies' heads that begin to fill with yellow if I'm close to being seen. I don't know what objects provide reliable cover or have any indication of my enemies' lines of sight. I have to reload twice to infiltrate the camp totally unseen because I don't want to make Kurt sad.

Roll for imitation

If one of GreedFall's systems deserves a callout, it's the ability to approach most of its quests with a mixture of stealth, disguise, charisma, and force. If I've chosen to invest talent points in science, I may be able to bomb a hole in the basement of a warehouse to gain entry, or I could talk my way in with charisma, or stroll in unquestioned by wearing the armor of the faction whose space I'm invading. Even if they're not difficult to decipher (my companions often eagerly give away all the possible solutions to the situation as we approach), I did enjoy weighing the possible effects each choice might have on my relationships with companions and factions. 

When it comes to blows, combat is divided into the standard strength, agility, and magic modes of attack, while weapon choices are setting-appropriate things like rapiers, maces, and rifles. I created a build focused on agility for dealing out high damage with one-handed weapons and accuracy with firearms. My usual two party members: Siora the native mage and Vasco the ship captain, supported me well with healing and ranged attacks, but at around level ten I hoped to micromanage their skills a bit, which GreedFall weirdly doesn't allow for.

Despite its simplicity, GreedFall's combat does encourage a sort of rhythm. Executing standard light strikes builds up my "fury" meter which can then be spent on heavier strikes. For large groups of enemies I place down a couple area of effect traps, use my rifle to lock on and take out those closest to death, and then begin weaving together light and fury attacks. 

A few larger bestial enemies have area of effect attacks or charge forward to knock me off my feet, but the vast majority of animals lunge forward at my party without finesse. The occasional human group of enemies mix swordplay with rifles. I'm not able to entirely mow through enemies on the normal difficulty level, but very few challenge me to alter my quickly-established routine.

What I found myself doing most was kicking my enemies. A swift kick has the potential to stagger an enemy and also chips away at their armor which, when entirely depleted, makes them much easier to take down with physical strikes. GreedFall's combat is not particularly exciting, but I enjoyed that kicking enemies in the rear quickly became the cornerstone of my combat choreography.

Storybored

The overarching narrative concerns colonists of the four main factions all seeking a cure for the fatal "malichor" disease and abusing the native people of Teer Fradee in search of it. The Bridge Alliance (scientists) and Theleme (the church) are constantly at war, and exploit the native people as either test subjects or converts. 

There are moments when GreedFall takes on a self-important kind of sympathy, portraying the native people as simple and superstitious, initially violent only because they're frightened. Add to that the over-acted accents of every native character and you get a clumsy portrayal of a colonized society. GreedFall acknowledges that all this is terrible, but only with overt displays of evil that fail to say anything about systems of oppression beyond noting their existence.

As a distraction from the horrors, you can make a move on one of your companions, but the whole thing is quite dry. Three of my five companions are romanceable as a woman: ship captain Vasco, mercenary Kurt, and native island princess Siora (feisty scientist Aphra called me "not her type"). Completing side quests for each will increase our relationship from "suspicious" to "friendly" until I'm able to make bedroom eyes at my chosen paramour. Both the verbal overtures of love and the sexy cutscenes are serviceable rather than spicy. I mostly found them to be boxes to check in GreedFall, and rather than feeling drawn into the story, a talent bonus and a Steam achievement are my most lasting memories of those stolen nights of passion.

Where GreedFall's story does shine is in the cinematic cutscenes marking pivotal story moments, which bring the drama and gravitas that I wish its romances enjoyed. As its story climaxes, these emotional scenes grow closer together, as do the consequences of decisions I've made in earlier quests. GreedFall catches its stride in the last several hours, nearly enough to make me forget the first thirty hours that were so decidedly average.

GreedFall is not the heir to the Dragon Age throne, but it is, in a word, adequate. Rather than planting its flag in one truly standout, unique system, it spreads itself thin across all of the systems one might expect from a Dragon Age-type game. If Dragon Age is a veteran gone on sabbatical, GreedFall is keeping its seat warm without making a mess of the office in its absence. It's a decent RPG, but not the new darling of the genre by any stretch.

How long does it take to beat GreedFall? GreedFall is a narrative heavy RPG with lots of dialogue, exploration, and plenty of questing. How invested you are in its fantasy colonial setting, the island's factions, and your companion characters will determine how many hours you exist in this dark, war-torn world.

There isn't too much busywork in GreedFall, so play times will be extended not by collectibles (there are precious few of those), but on how badly you want to have all the possible options available to your protagonist. If you want to get a sense of how it plays, keep an eye out for our review of GreedFall before diving into the world of Teer Fradee.

How long is GreedFall?

There are six factions and five companions in GreedFall and naturally, they all want your help achieving their own agendas on the island. Though you'll have plenty of opportunity to gain experience and level up—even if you don't choose to invest time in one or two of the factions or companions—you'll set yourself up for better dialogue options at pivotal moments by befriending everyone you can. There are a few extra activities in GreedFall on top of the main and side quest lines which we've laid out for you below.

In a rushed playthrough, avoiding side quests that don't interest you and factions that you don't care for, you'll likely still have about 30 hours of gameplay in GreedFall. GreedFall is heavy on dialogue, all of it fully voice-acted. Just getting through the main quest and enough side content to keep you properly leveled will should see you through those 30 hours. You may be able to do it in less if you relentlessly skip through dialogue, but what's the fun in that?

In a casual playthrough—where you're just taking on the side quests that interest you—you may decide to romance a companion and complete all of the personal quests for most of, if not all five of, your party members. Depending on how much time you spend exploring, reloading saves to try out different approaches to quests, or attempting to nail that charisma check, you may add anywhere from five to ten extra hours. A casual playthrough will likely come in around 35-40 hours.

If you really want to complete every side quest, explore every nook of the map, and even nab some Steam achievements, you'll likely spend 45 or more hours in GreedFall. Here are some of the tasks you may get up to in GreedFall if you're willing to spend that amount of time in Teer Fradee:

• The Arena: The Coin Guard runs a (literally) underground fighting ring where you can take on five challenges consisting of three rounds of enemies alongside your companions. They get more difficult, naturally, so you'll likely have to visit several times before you can check it off your list.
• Campfires: You don't need to visit all these fast travel points to complete the game, but there's a quest for locating all 41.
• The professor's notes: Professor Serafeddin has left a number of notes scattered across Teer Fradee. There's a quest for finding 16 of them, each detailing information on the legendary creatures of Teer Fradee.
• Mission boards: GreedFall's smaller villages and outposts have mission boards where basic fetch quest-style contracts can be obtained. They can improve relations with a faction if you're struggling to woo a certain group. Be careful, though, many of these missions will fail if you do not address them within a reasonable amount of time.

After completing GreedFall's story, there's still value to be had in going back for round two to see how aligning with various factions affects your journey. If you need another RPG to sink your blades into after beating GreedFall, check out our list of best RPGs of all time to find your next adventure.

Spider has released several Greedfall trailers showcasing what to expect in the new colonial-era RPG when it comes out this month, and this newest trailer teases fleeting moments of the political, religious, and colonial conflict that will lie at the heart of its story. 

Spider explained previously that Greedfall’s story will morph and change with the player’s decisions regarding “diplomacy, deception, and force,” and players will make strategic decisions that ripple outward and impact the rest of the world.

Previously, the companions trailer showcased some of the diplomatic and romance elements of the game as well as the emphasis on building alliances and their effect on quests. The gameplay trailer also showed off a combat system that involves magic, melee, and a “tactical pause option” allowing you to pause the fight to switch abilities and targets.

Spider's previous game, The Technomancer, was only so-so, but the developer keeps taking ambitious swings at the RPG genre. Here's hoping it hits its mark when Greedfall releases September 9. 

Spiders' newest RPG Greedfall releases on September 10, and I for one am pretty exciting about it. Inspired by 17th century colonization, the game is by no means based on true stories (it has monsters and stuff), but its strange amalgam of fantasy and history is fascinating. The video above shows the most substantial chunk of gameplay footage we've seen yet, and I've got my fingers crossed that Spiders nails it with this one. It looks great.

As you'll see, the combat borrows equally from The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's possible to use a tactical combat pause, and like Geralt, the protagonist will be sniffing out clues regarding the whereabouts of their larger foes. But in a lot of cases, you'll be able to stealth your way out of encounters, which is welcome news for this sook.

The game world isn't a single open world sprawl, but instead a series of open-ended areas, and if the video above is representative of the whole game, these areas will be packed with consequential discoveries and encounters. The game launches September 10.

GreedFall, if you hadn't heard yet, is the new action RPG coming next month that looks like it will have a lot of elements familiar to hungry Dragon Age fans. One of those features is, of course, companion romances. Spiders (the developer, not actual spiders) has teased the inclusion of romance in GreedFall already but gave us a few more details on the available companions in the trailer at Inside Xbox at Gamescom 2019.

In GreedFall, your character will be a diplomat arriving on the island of Teer Fradee to navigate relationships with different factions. Your companions will all have their own alliances, which will affect how they react to your choices on quests. As has been shown off in some of GreedFall's trailers already, acting against a party member's faction may result in tense situations where your they force you into a violent conflict you can't talk your way out of. 

As for romance, the trailer mentions the ship captain Vasco, Teer Fradee native Siora, and the scientist Aphra, and your master-of-arms Kurt. They're aligned to the factions Nauts, Natives, Bridge Alliance, and Coin Guard respectively. Presumably, these varying alliances will intersect and conflict with each other out in the world, not just with non-party NPCs. 

We get just a quick look at the sexy bits of GreedFall in a shot with Siora and the protagonist about to get to business. The trailer also specifically calls out the ship captain Vasco as being secretive and closed off, though he'll open up to those who invest time in his personal quests.

Once GreedFall is out, I'm sure fan favorites among the romance options will emerge (and it seems opinions are already forming on the Focus forums). Until September 10th, you can wishlist GreedFall on Steam.

GreedFall, a pseudo-historical action RPG coming on September 10th, has a new gameplay overview trailer out today. And it is quite the overview, giving a mention to everything from character creation, to classes, action and stealth, and (oh yes) romance with party members. 

It's an ambitious list that, as some of the comments below the trailer on YouTube have pointed out, gives off some serious Dragon Age: Inquisition vibes. Not just for the smooching, either. The trailer starts off with the character creation screen, giving us a look at all the pomp, circumstance, and brass buttons of the fantasy island. 

GreedFall's combat system involves magic, melee, and a "tactical pause option" that puts the breaks on the fight and allows you to choose a target and ability. Hopefully that points to some good RPG fundamentals at play giving you the ability to micromanage the rest of your party during difficult fights. 

The trailer continues with a laundry list of other features including dialogue that can affect how encounters play out, skill trees that allow you to approach quests in different ways (like using lockpicking or crafted bombs), and customizable weapons and armor. It's a combination that will be impressive if pulled off, though I do wonder if it will manage to balance stealth action and RPG-style combat in a way that makes both feel like equally viable and rewarding options. 

Companions seem to play an equally important role. The trailer shows what appear to be some quest cutscenes where the protagonist is able to choose dialogue to encourage or stay the hand of their party members. You'll be able to pursue romances with them as well but if they don't care for your leadership style you may wind up enemies instead.

We pointed out previously that Spiders has a decidedly mixed track record, with The Technomancer and Bound By Flame falling solidly in the "fine" range, while Mars: War Logs was more successful. That concern remains, though today's trailer does show much more gameplay than previous videos which were more cinematic. 

We'll find out on September 10th if GreedFall can put its systems where its mouth is in this tale of fantasy colonialism.