How to Start & Advance Quests in Skyrim (setstage)

When a quest won't trigger, an objective bugs out, or you simply want to skip ahead, the console can drive any quest from start to finish. The key is the QuestID — the quest's editor ID (for example MQ101) — which you can find on each of our Skyrim quest pages.

How to start & advance a quest

1. Open the console with the tilde key (~). See the opening the console guide if you need it.
2. List the stages first with sqs <QuestID> — for example sqs MQ101 — so you know which number to jump to.
3. Set the stage with setstage <QuestID> <stage>. setstage MQ101 10 starts and advances the quest to stage 10.
4. Teleport to the objective with movetoqt <QuestID> if the next marker is far away.

Completing & resetting quests

• completequest <QuestID> — instantly marks the quest finished (it does not always grant rewards mid-quest).
• resetquest <QuestID> — clears the quest's progress so you can run it again or repair a stuck state.
• sqs <QuestID> — re-check stages at any time to confirm where you are.

Notes & tips

• Skipping stages with setstage can leave required items or NPCs out of position — always save first, and prefer the lowest stage that fixes your problem.
• QuestIDs are case-insensitive but must be exact. Copy them from the quest list to avoid typos.
• To set the quest target manually, use the stage numbers from sqs rather than guessing — jumping too far ahead can break later objectives.

Frequently asked questions