I'm taking this game real slow, but enjoying the heck out of it. I haven't even started chapter 3 yet.
Funny story about doing Yelv's affinity quest this weekend (the one to get him as a party member)... Mission C had me hunting down 5 Metal Blattas. Pretty simple-sounding until I saw the quest markers on the map. I spent HOURS looking for a way to reach Headwater Summit (by way of... Fallshorn Isle, I think it's called?). Well, Fallshorn Isle has a bunch of bridges connecting it to the larger landmass, but all the bridges that are reachable from NLA (as a starting point) are guarded by level 30-40 Grexes that can 1-shot a level 15 scrub like me.
Anyway, I soon figured out that getting past the Grexes was pretty much impossible. So I explored around Fallshorn Isle probably 4 separate times from all angles, getting really salty the whole time because why are they handing out an un-abandonable quest like this to someone who is clearly too low-level to reach the destination?
So then the funny part: I actually managed to cheese my way up to the top of the Isle by finding one tiny climbable area of the cliffs (that I'm sure was in the game unintentionally). I snuck my way past all the level 50-ish beasts and crossed the final landbridge to Headwater Summit. Then I reach the quest marker spots, and... NOTHING. There's NOTHING THERE, after hours of trying to reach this dang lake. I wandered around the area for a full 24-hour cycle to make sure.
That's when I realized, my destination wasn't Headwater Summit at all. There's a cave right under my virtual feet that was totally reachable BENEATH the cliffs, meaning I never needed to reach Fallshorn Isle at all, let alone Headwater Summit.
lol...