There are so many interesting stories that are intricately wrapped around the giant plot that is in Honkai: Star Rail. While the main quest is called Trailblaze Mission, the side quests that you can find around the world are called Adventure Missions. The ‘Guide Paradox’ is one such quest, but triggering it takes a few steps and we don’t want you to feel trapped while doing this mission!
Like many of its other missions, ‘Guide Paradox‘ isn’t one that requires fighting, but it’s definitely filled with content that tells you about the people of Space Station and the characters that reside within it, namely Asta and Arlan. It’s a scavenger hunt revolving around Sheila’s memory.
Guide Paradox
The steps to completing ‘Guide Paradox’ can be a bit complicated, but here’s the summary:
- Ask Esther about the videotapes (Master Control Zone)
- Find the lost videotapes (Supply Zone)
- Follow Joanne to the medical cabin (Base Zone)
- Head to the room from Sheila’s memory (Supply Zone)
- Find the security monitor in Sheila’s memory (Supply Zone)
- Tell Sheila about the secret you found (Base Zone)
- Get into the Medical Cabin to save Sheila (Base Zone)
- Give instructions to Sheila, who is back online (Base Zone)
- Tell Gunn how to deal with Prototype 157 (Base Zone)
- Check the status of Prototype 157 (Base Zone)
- Return the videotapes and go back to where you started (Base Zone)
Now here’s the problem: there isn’t a fixed method to trigger the quest. What’s definite is completing ‘Lingering Shadows’ Trailblaze Mission. Mine came in together with Asta’s Companion Mission ‘You Already Know Me’ but I’ve also completed my first Trial of Equilibrium which is equal to World Ascension quest in Genshin Impact.
If there’s something that can feel a bit unnerving about the quests in Honkai: Star Rail compared to Genshin, it’s how many of the quests rely on the people chatting you directly. Which means, sometimes you don’t know if you’re not doing the right thing to trigger them or missing out the right cues.
How to Trigger ‘Guide Paradox’ Mission
Whereas most quests in Genshin Impact are in the forms of icons and all it takes is finding them. And this is where many players got stuck because they don’t know what they’re doing wrong.
But you’re probably not doing anything wrong – all you have to do is wait.
The quest triggers randomly after you finish the mission and it can trigger after you, say, finish another Adventure Mission. You know you’re getting it when Arlan texts you about a missing videotape.
After you accept the mission, you will be asked to head to the Master Control Zone and meet Esther located at the uppermost part of the Central Passage. Talk to Esther, who’ll talk more in depth about the videotapes and you’ll have to find three of them. The tapes are marked on the map and they are all in Supply Zone, here are the locations:
- Doomday Tape: Spare Parts Warehouse
- Justice Tape & Dim Blue Dot Tape: In the Safe Zone of Railway Platform
Your character will watch all three tapes but upon watching the third one, they pass out. You’ll find yourself in a medical cabin and Joanne will explain what happened. Those tapes you got and watched were information about Sheila and she’s taking you to meet her. After you meet Sheila and Gunn, she will ask for your help to find her memory fragments which is in the Supply Zone’s Electrical Room. Because she’s experiencing short-term memory loss.
Head to the Supply Zone’s Electrical Room and one of the monitors will have the content you want for the mission. At this point, you’ll realize that something was wrong with Sheil and your guess may not be very far off from the truth.
Confront Gunn for what he’d done and talk to Joanne and Sheila. You’ll be made to pick a command for Sheila to prove that she’s not as human as it seems. When he said he can “fix” her, he meant he was resetting her memories over and over again because Android Sheila was starting to doubt her own existence after she gained awareness that there’s another Sheila.
The choices fall in your hand now and it’s definitely one with moral dilemma:
- Tell Prototype 157 the truth about her life.
- Fix and factory reset Prototype 157.
- Destroy Prototype 157 and erase all records of this dangerous experiment from the history of the space station.
If you tell Sheila the truth, you’ll start talking about her previous life and she’ll share how she felt like she’s been dreaming about her “previous” life and that gave her an existential crisis. This causes her cognitive module to burn.
If you “fix” Sheila’s cognition, she’ll have her memory wiped and forget about you. She’ll introduce herself, the machines would never be able to tell she’s not a human, and at least she’s somewhat alive. Joanne remarks that this might be for the best.
If you destory Sheila, you’ll never actually see her being destroyed, but she’ll be nowhere to be found. Joanne will wonder if Gunn will stick to his words and destroy her.
Whicever option you take, you’ll have to head back to Esther to give her the tape who’ll then tell you of a story that once was, where a man had to watch his love die along in the deep space from asphyxiation. It’s definitely a depressing story, but it really gives a depth to what seem like mere NPCs of Space Station backstories and dark tone to Honkai: Star Rail, a theme Hoyoverse does a lot with their games.
The reward for this quest are 100 Trailblazer Experience, 30 Stella Jades, 3 Adventure Logs, 50 Hertareum, and 5000 Credits. There are no hidden achievements, so it’s really just your moral value at stake.
ALSO READ: Honkai: Star Rail – Road to Revival Guide
