The main story after the debt

Paying off Bill is not the end. The bandits turn up next wanting protection money in gold bars, a government beef contract leads you to your father’s name in a ledger, and the road to the bandit camp runs through a canyon you have to blast open. This page follows the Journal quest by quest, so it spoils the story as it goes.

Every screen on this page comes from a build that creators played before launch, so details may have changed since. The Journal’s quest titles do not always match the achievement names, so both are given. Where a step is only known from the Russian version of the game, the English wording here is a translation. The opening quests, up to finding Margaret, are on quest order and achievements.

1. Paying off the debt

The gold comes from Sand Storm: 100 bars smelted from gold ore, which founding Sand Storm covers from the first caravan to the refinery. Once you have them, the Debt Owed quest has one line left: pay off your debt at the Town Hall in Dust Creek. (Shown in Making Sausage And Mining Stone, EA4 (Surtr Plays, YouTube)) The bars are made in the desert, so the creator in that video had to send them home by caravan before he could pay. Bill takes the gold and leaves, and the Debt Has Been Paid card closes the chapter. Gold and the debt has the story of the loan itself.

Achievement: Always pay their debts, held by 3% of players.

2. Freedom

A single objective: celebrate freedom. (Shown in Making Sausage And Mining Stone, EA4 (Surtr Plays, YouTube)) It is the quiet stretch before the next threat, and a good moment to catch up on side quests. Bit Boring Here, Partner shows up around here, asking for decorations at three buildings; it is on the side quests page.

Achievement: Freedom!, held by 2% of players.

3. The End of Peace: the bandits want gold

The Journal asks you to find out what the bandits want. Their leader, Stephan, introduces himself: “Who I am is not important. All you need to know is that I'm a man of business and opportunity, and I see both right in front of me.” (Shown in Making Sausage And Mining Stone, EA4 (Surtr Plays, YouTube)) What he wants is a protection payment. The Extortion Payment objective asks for 50 gold bars for protection, with a timer running, and the card warns that your residents may be harmed if you refuse.

They come back. The next card opens with the vagabonds returning like clockwork, and a later card calls them weekly payments. So the gold chain in Sand Storm does not stop mattering once Bill is gone: keep the mine and the refinery running.

Achievement: This means war, held by 2% of players.

4. Government orders and your father’s trail

A telegram arrives with a beef contract: the government wants you to breed cattle to its specifications and deliver the beef to a reservation, paying for each shipment. (Shown in Making Sausage And Mining Stone, EA4 (Surtr Plays, YouTube)) The Government Orders quest then sends you to talk with Mason, the general store owner, and to load the cattle and send them off.

Mason’s ledger is where the story turns personal. Reading the names of the cattle herders, your character stops: “That's my father's name! But why is he listed as one of the cattle herders?” A new quest, Father’s Footsteps, asks you to find out what happened to your father. (Shown in Making Sausage And Mining Stone, EA4 (Surtr Plays, YouTube)) The achievement list calls the last main quest Where Is My Father; whether it is the same quest under another name is not confirmed. Cattle need a ranch in range of a barn; see iron, stone and wooden parts.

5. Dirty Play: if you break the contract

The contract has a catch. In that playthrough the natives complained that the cattle arrived thin, and the telegram turned out to have asked for half feed on purpose. Your character refuses to keep going and breaks the contract, and the natives offer to buy proper cattle themselves, for half the government’s price. (Shown in Making Sausage And Mining Stone, EA4 (Surtr Plays, YouTube))

The Dirty Play card spells out the cost: “By breaking the government contract, we cut ourselves off from a steady supply of gold that could have been used to pay off the bandits.” The new objective is to find a way to get rid of the bandits for good. The Cattle for Natives side quest, which asks for 30 cattle, looks like part of the same thread; see the side quests page.

6. Blocked Passage: blasting Deaf Canyon

The way to the bandits is blocked by rocks. In the Russian version the Journal asks you to gather 20 dynamite, 50 wooden parts and 20 men without jobs, then blow up the rocks to clear the way in Deaf Canyon. (Shown in Wild West Pioneers, Episode 5 (Maestro, YouTube, Russian interface)) The playtest changes already mentioned the settler part: Blocked Passage “now asks you to gather 20 settlers”. (Changed in Steam announcement: Playtest Hotfix) After the blast a card confirms the canyon is clear and the next objective is to find the bandit camp.

Stock up before you start. In the launch build a single medium rock already takes 10 sticks of dynamite and a specialist, and the wooden parts come from the Carpenter’s Workshop; both are on Sand Storm.

Achievement: You shall not pass!, held by under 1% of players.

7. The End of Bandits Is Close

The Russian Journal’s next line, translated: check the area that was blocked by rocks and find out where the bandit camp is. (Shown in Wild West Pioneers, Episode 5 (Maestro, YouTube, Russian interface))

Achievement: Follow the White Rabbit, held by under 1% of players.

What comes after

Several story quests named in the achievements have not been shown yet, and where each falls against the steps above is not confirmed: Order from Behind the Desk, Retired Bandit, On the Trail of Bandits, End of Bandits, Government Swamp and Where Is My Father. One more achievement, Father's friend is my friend, marks the end of the Early Access content. (Listed on the game's Steam achievements page)

Suspicious Customer, another story quest, has a known start: a stranger in Dust Creek asks, “Help me find a bag of money I buried somewhere around here, then I'll give you a hint you need.” (Shown in Making Sausage And Mining Stone, EA4 (Surtr Plays, YouTube))

Related: quest order and achievements for every story achievement and how many players hold it, the officials, and crashes and bugs if a quest will not trigger.