Why won't the Silver Key quest start in Example Game?

Why it happens

The Silver Key quest has two triggers, and both have to fire. First, The Old Mill side quest must be complete. Second, you have to talk to Mara at the Millbrook inn at night, between 8pm and 5am in-game. Mara works a market stall during the day, so talking to her in daylight only gets her market lines.

Before patch 1.4.2, a third problem blocked the quest for many players. If you finished The Old Mill while Mara was walking from the market to the inn, the game never switched on her night dialogue, and she repeated her market lines forever. According to the 1.4.2 patch notes, Example Studio fixed this for new saves and for saves where Mara hasn’t been spoken to since the mill.

Players report that saves stuck before the patch still need one of the fixes below. The patch repairs her dialogue only the next time the game checks it, and that check runs when you load a save or when the mill quest completes.

A quick way to tell which problem you have: talk to Mara at the inn after 8pm. If she greets you with “Back again, mill hand?”, the quest is ready and only the night trigger was missing. If she offers to sell you bread, her dialogue never switched over, and you need Fix 2 or Fix 3.

Fixes

Try these in order. Each one takes a few minutes, and the later ones only matter if the earlier ones fail.

Fix 1: Finish The Old Mill and wait for night (all platforms)

Open your journal and check that The Old Mill is in the Completed tab, not Active. The last step, returning the ledger to the miller, is easy to skip if the mill burned down. Once the quest shows as complete, wait or sleep until 9pm and talk to Mara inside the inn, behind the bar. The quest starts with her line about “a key that sings”.

Fix 2: Update to patch 1.4.2 and reload (all platforms)

Check that the game is on version 1.4.2 or later. The version number is in the bottom left corner of the title screen. After updating, load a save from before you last spoke to Mara, then talk to her at night. The patch notes say this repairs saves where her night dialogue was never set.

Fix 3: Reload a save from before the mill (all platforms)

If your save got stuck before the patch, reload one from before you handed in The Old Mill. Finish the quest again, then go straight to the inn at night without fast travelling. Players on the community forums report that this works even on saves the patch didn’t repair, because the game sets Mara’s dialogue at the moment the mill quest completes.

Fix 4: Reset Mara’s schedule (all platforms)

With no older save, leave Millbrook, travel at least two regions away and wait 24 in-game hours. Coming back resets the schedules of every Millbrook resident, and players report that Mara’s night dialogue often appears after the reset. This fix is less reliable than a reload, so use it only when you have no save from before the mill.

Fix 5: Check the game files (PC and PS5)

A damaged install can stop quest scripts from loading, and players report that this sometimes shows up first as a quest that never starts. On Steam, right-click Example Game, open Properties, then Installed Files, and choose “Verify integrity of game files”. On PS5, open the game’s Options menu from the home screen, choose Check for Update, and restart the console afterwards. Then load your save and talk to Mara at night again. Xbox players can skip this step, because the Xbox app repairs files automatically when an update installs.

PC console command

On PC, you can force the quest to start. Open the console with the tilde key (~), then enter:

setstage SQ_SilverKey 10

The quest appears in your journal right away with Mara’s first objective. If the quest starts but Mara still won’t talk about the key, enter this command too. It repeats the step that sets her dialogue:

setstage SQ_SilverKey 15

Console commands aren’t available on PS5 or Xbox. Opening the console turns off achievements for that save, so keep a save from before you used it if achievements matter to you.

If nothing works

If the quest still won’t start after a reload and the 1.4.2 update, your save may have a different problem. Check two things first.

Make sure Mara is alive. If she died during the Night Market raid, the quest can’t start at all, and the wiki lists no way to get it afterwards. Then check that you haven’t started The Last Lantern, the final main quest, which closes several side quests including this one.

If neither applies, report the bug to Example Studio through the feedback option in the pause menu and attach your save. The 1.4.2 notes say the studio is collecting stuck saves to fix in a later patch.

When you report it, include your platform, your game version and the last quest you completed before trying the Silver Key quest. According to the patch notes, reports with an attached save get looked at first, and the studio replies by email when a fix for that save type is ready.

In the meantime, you can still reach the Silver Key’s hiding place without the quest, although you can’t open the wall in front of it until the quest is active. See where the Silver Key is for the route, and the missable quests checklist for the other quests that close when The Last Lantern begins.