What is the best early side quest in Gothic 1 Remake?

Horatio the Peasant. It hands you a permanent +5 Strength for free, with no Learning Points or ore cost. Claim it early while your Strength is well under the 100 cap, because the bonus is wasted if you cash it in above roughly 95 Strength.

Should I join a camp before doing side quests in Gothic 1 Remake?

No. Do the quests you want from all three camps first, then join. You keep the XP and rewards from every camp's early tasks, and committing too soon can lock you out of quests in the other factions.

Which early quests give the best rewards in Gothic 1 Remake?

Horatio gives +5 Strength, the camp admission quests pay large XP (2,450 to 3,850), Special Pieces gives 750 XP plus 1,000 ore, and Whistler's Sword nets you a usable early sword. Prioritize the permanent stat boost and the high-ore quests first.

Gothic 1 Remake Best Early Side Quests Worth Doing First

Do the right quests first, in the right order

Gothic 1 Remake does not hand out free power often, so the early side quests you pick matter. Some pay in ore you’ll need for training. Some hand you a weapon. One gives a permanent stat boost you cannot get any other way. This page is the shortlist of early quests worth doing first, with the reward and why it earns the spot. I only list quests I could confirm, so if a reward is vague here, that’s on purpose.

Before the list, one rule that shapes everything: do not join a camp yet. The smartest early route is to finish the quests you want from all three faction areas first, then commit. You keep the XP and rewards from every camp’s tasks, and joining early can lock you out of work in the others. Once you’ve cleaned out the early tasks, the camp decision guide helps you pick.

Horatio the Peasant: a free +5 Strength

This is the standout, and it should be near the top of your list for any melee or hybrid character. Horatio is a farmer in the New Camp rice fields, a small area where he is always moving around. Ask him for training and he refuses at first. To get past that, head to Silas’s tavern on the dam and talk to Jeremiah until he tells you that Horatio is the one person who could stand up to the Rice Lord. Go back to Horatio and tell him you want training to overthrow the Rice Lord. That motivation flips him, and he teaches you the Power Strike for a permanent +5 Strength, with no Learning Points and no ore.

There are two catches. First, it is a one-time thing per save, and being rude to Horatio or skipping the dialogue steps can lock it out for good. Second, the Strength cap of 100 rounds aggressively. Claim this while your Strength is comfortably under 95, because above that the bonus is partially or completely lost. So for a Strength warrior, grab it early rather than saving it for later.

Five free points is a full bulk training session you never have to pay for. That is the best return of any early quest in the game.

Whistler’s Sword: an early usable blade

Whistler in the Old Camp asks you to recover his sword. You buy it back from Fisk for around 110 ore nuggets and return it, and Whistler rewards you, with around 100 ore changing hands in the process. The real prize is having a proper sword in your hand early, which matters a lot before you can afford better gear. It’s a clean Old Camp quest that pairs with talking to Diego and getting your first Strength bumps.

The high-ore and high-XP quests

Ore is the currency that funds every trainer, so quests that pay in ore are quietly some of the most valuable early on:

Special Pieces pays 750 XP plus 1,000 ore. That is a serious ore injection, enough to cover a weapon mastery tier and then some.
Beasts of Khorinis IV pays 1,000 XP plus 250 ore.

The camp admission quests are the biggest single XP payouts in the early game, and you only get to keep doing the others’ early tasks if you delay these:

Joining the Swamp Camp pays 3,850 XP plus Novice’s Armor.
Joining the New Camp pays 2,950 XP.
Admission to the Old Camp pays 2,450 XP.

Because joining a camp is the final step, treat these as the cap on your early run. Do everything else first, then turn in the admission quest for the faction you actually want.

A few more worth grabbing

These pay in gear, reputation, or progress rather than raw stats, and they are low-effort enough to be worth it:

The Lost Apprentice pays 1,000 XP plus the Judgement Staff.
The Swampweed Harvest pays 1,150 XP plus a Sleep scroll, useful even on a melee build for a free crowd-control option.
A Ring for Fingers (steal Scatty’s ring) and The Vanished Warder (recover an amulet from Nek outside the south gate) build reputation and XP in the Old Camp without much risk.
Baloro’s Weapon in the Free Mine trades a few food items for a weapon reward.

How to sequence your first hours

Here is the order that gets the most out of the early game:

Start in the Old Camp. Talk to Diego, then work through Whistler’s Sword, A Ring for Fingers, The Vanished Warder, and the other low-risk Old Camp tasks.
Detour to the New Camp rice fields for Horatio. Claim the +5 Strength while you are still under the cap. This single quest is worth the trip.
Pick up the high-ore quests like Special Pieces, since that ore funds your first real training.
Mop up the other camps’ early tasks, banking XP and any gear or scrolls along the way.
Only then turn in a camp admission quest for the faction your build wants, after you’ve drained the early tasks from the other two.

Quests fund the rest of your character. The ore pays your trainers, the gear keeps you alive, and Horatio’s free Strength is a head start nothing else gives you. Do them in the right order and you’ll walk into your faction far stronger than a player who rushed to join one.