Most of the quests in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey are interesting and worth doing, but “Dagger to the Heart” just sucks. It’s not boring or poorly designed in a mechanical sense, it’s just a sad quest with a terrible ending. If you prefer to kill bandits and mythological creatures in a happier, more lighthearted fashion, you might want to skip this quest altogether.
No? You’re going to get that sweet 75 XP come hell or high water, huh? Alright, we’ll show you how. PS: Actually, there is a way to end this quest happily, but it requires quick reflexes and a bit of out-of-the-box thinking. Read on to learn how.
If you need more guidance, we have a complete list of all the other hard choices in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey.
Discovering the Quest
If you’ve already undertaken the “Sharp Tongue” sidequest, then “Dagger to the Heart” is already in your quest log. If you haven’t, you’ll need to find and talk to Agapios in the Dirfi Foothills region of Euboea to start “Sharp Tongue.” “Dagger to the Heart” is part of it, along with two other quests.
Ask the Theater Owner for Information on The Dagger
Agapios will send you a few towns over to talk to some guy who owns a theater about The Dagger, a small but influential gang that has been causing problems around Euboea for some time. Follow your quest marker to the theater and you’ll see a man and a woman arguing backstage.
The man will tell you that he’ll give you information on The Dagger’s leader if you kill one of the gang’s lower-ranking members that owes him money. Ask him for more details if you wish to, then agree to his request.
Assassinate the Thug
Your target isn’t far away—he lives in a house in Chalkis, southwest of the Temple of Poseidon. Jog over there and call Ikaros to pinpoint his exact location. Talk with the thug to get his side of the story. You can try to persuade him to make amends with the theater owners, but he won’t listen to reason. No matter what, you’ll have to kill him.
Option 1: Getting the Bad and Terrible Endings
Return to the theater and you’ll find that Agapios’s plan has worked, but not as you or he probably hoped it would. The entire Dagger gang has been drawn out of hiding and they’ve taken the theater owners hostage. Approach the gang members to trigger a dialogue scene.
The thugs will make an ultimatum: One of the theater owners will die, and you can choose which one. If you try to attack the thugs in an attempt to save both of them, both will die, and their kids will understandably be quite upset. The best you can hope for here is to choose which parent dies. The other will live, and you’ll get to kill the rest of the gang members, but the kids will still lose one parent.
Option 2: The Semi-Secret Good Ending
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey railroads you so often that it’s easy to start feeling like your choices don’t have much of an impact on the world. Even when there are two or three different ways to resolve a quest, the game makes it clear that the options it puts on the table are the only ones available to you.
“Dagger to the Heart” is the only quest in the game we know of that actually acknowledges and rewards you for saying, “Screw both of these bad choices, I’m doing it my way.”
After you kill the lone smuggler in his home, return to the theater, but approach from the southwest. DON’T get close enough to trigger the dialogue scene with the gang. From here, you have a few options.
If you’ve unlocked the Rush Assassination abililty from the Assassin tree—and if your Assassin damage is high enough—you can chain-kill the two thugs guarding the couple, then quickly dispatch the rest of the enemies before they kill their hostages. Alternatively, if you’re more of a Hunter than an Assassin, you can quickly headshot them from a distance.
Either way, if you’re fast enough, it is possible to wipe out the Dagger members and save both parents. If you pull it off, you’ll get a different (and much happier) resolution.
Conclusion
For completing the quest, you’ll receive a piddling amount of XP, some cash, and a rare dagger—and a glowing review from the theater owners and their kids, if you managed to save them all. “Dagger to the Heart” isn’t nearly as hard as some other quests in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. If you could use some help taking down Medusa, the Sphinx, the Cyclops, or the Minotaur, we’ve got in-depth guides to give you a leg up.