[How do you escalate the Guild's quests? I tried to run one but the players chased me away claiming they escalated that job. Is that even possible? Do they have the right to chase me away? The NPC told me it was a D-rank mission but when I got there it was C-class.]

If this didn't make it obvious, waiting a little longer and reading the article first won the 'what to do' contest. And it might be worth the extra mile because they have some good answers. As it turns out, it's a game mechanic that players started to abuse recently.

[They have no right to chase you away, in fact, nothing stops you from stealing their quest. If they attack you in a Blessed City, the GA will fuck them up. Let them cry, it's an exploit anyway, I'm sure they will patch it soon.]

The first response didn't answer the main question but addressed some interesting points. Yes, the guys also asked me to leave the mission for them, yet at one point before midnight, I could have stolen their Exp. Before the rats respawned, - on paper, - they finished the job.

Since Selena gave me the same contract, I could run back to the Guild and claim the reward. I didn't do it because they were with the Pharmacy, and well, Little Red was nice enough, but others could. It's something to keep in mind while running double-booked jobs.

The whole reason they exist is because others never turned them in. Whether they forgot, didn't care, or tried to do this escalation trick, it's a constant danger. So when will they explain how this works? Let's look for replies with the most likes.

A familiar name shows up, DragonS wrote a few comments into this thread. It's a rare exception that someone else's answer earned more votes though. They explain the same method, except in half as many words.

Yeah, I'm not reading Dragi's long-winded answers when in such a hurry to procrastinate more. This other user gets straight to the point, and judging from the responses he knows what he is talking about. Let's see.

[You pick a task from the Guild, - no other errands work, - and start it. Kill one mob, or enter and exit, it doesn't matter, as long as the timer starts. The next step is both the riskiest and the simplest one. You wait.]

So far it does sound simple enough. He even included screenshots that make me wonder if you can make them with the headset. He might be a PC gamer, but from the answer's perspective, it doesn't matter. So what's next?

[Once the timer runs out, return to the scene. If you were lucky, and nobody else took the mission, it will escalate to the next rank. It's important to note that others can take the same job after the clock reaches zero.]

Oh, wait a second. So this is what that timer is about? At least on the Guild's quests. The government's one would likely time out and fail, rather than escalate. He did say that it only works with Guild jobs though.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

[Yeah, that's why it's worth picking the lowest-ranked ones. Only the newbies take it and the NPC avoids double-booking tasks as long as she has extra. Other players aim for the highest class available, so they might run yours if you escalated those.]

This sounds very true, even if it comes from another user. It got quite a few likes too. Selena also mentioned that if she can help it, she doesn't hand out double-booked tasks. But she also hinted at them being better than the regular ones.

That woman knows way more than she lets on. Thank God she's always helping me, even if she can't explain some things. The thread continues, but it's easy to guess where this is going. If you could do it once, you could do it again.

[You can repeat it as long as it reaches the highest possible rank for that type of mission. For the ratting line, it's the C-class Ratpocalypse. It used to be the B-rank Death Wave for zombies, but it counts as A-class now, and only spawns through specific events.]

Right, before the rats there were zombie missions in Origin. Selena mentioned that they attacked farms before I reached the standing to take them. Or role? Class? They use all these terms mixed up.

[It's another lazy dev mistake, I found a typo in their code. They wanted to give the missions a 2% chance every hour to escalate. Instead, once the timer runs out, there is a factor of ten. So rather than giving 12% after 6 hours, it's 120% and automatic success.]

Where do they get these sneak peeks into the code? Even if they have the game installed on their PC and have access to the files, these parts are on the server side, right? At least it would be dumb to send the modifiers to the players who could manipulate them at home.

[Whether it's a mistake or they did it on purpose, I don't care, this is a tried and tested method. It takes one day to escalate a basic F-class 'Infested Basement' into a C-rank 'Ratpocalypse'. And since there are so many of them and you can pick as much as you want, why wouldn't you?]

The comment dates back to a week ago and didn't age well. It makes sense though. The Guild Assistant even mentioned it. Players sometimes take dozens of contracts and never return them. She called me reliable for finishing everything so fast but looking at it now, it was dumb.

Of course, it's different if you're not limited like me. Take three missions, let them escalate for an entire day, and then return to find most of them finished. Things are easier when you can take as many as you want, and there isn't a clock ticking over your head.

I bet none of these jobs would survive a day anymore, and neither would my character. The feds will kick me out in seventeen hours. Well, this quest could escalate to the plague one in less than three... It might be worth a shot.

With the browser's window closed, start with the rat-tails.

[Quest: Rat Infested Home. Importance: Low. Difficulty: Easy. Progress: 0/36. Reward: 30 Copper and 300 Exp. Common Rats infested a villager's house. Kill the rats, and avoid damaging his property. The rats are in the basement, kitchen, and attic (3/6 hours left).]

This is the last one that gives more Exp on completion than for the kills. Thirty-six common rats only pay a hundred and eighty points and the contract double. Once they escalate into plague rats, they give eighteen hundred, and the errand only five.

Even if someone beats me to it in those three hours, I'd lose three hundred Exp. Or I can win two thousand extra, not counting farming the rats after their midnight respawn. It's tempting. The Guild will run out of quests to give and those might be even lower class.

This is already here; if the other one is the same, I'll have almost five thousand Exp in three more hours. Then farm them three times, and the dreaded quest will finish with over twelve hours to spare. No more running around, or randomness, and no risky quests either.

All right, let's do this.