Duolingo Friend Quest Discussions

[ILoveFatBurbs]

Talk about friend quests here!

I have a question:

How do you choose your friend for the friend Quest? (Sorry I just registered so IDK if I'm posting this in the right place or not.)

[Saperlipopette!]

It would be great if Duo had a FAQ on FQ but they don't.

I believe the selection screen occur on Monday after you do your first lesson on the app. Unless someone picked you, you get to pick anyone of your friendstgat are not paired up.

[Saperlipopette!]

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[SansEspoir]

But I don't think everyone can select their FQ mate for the week.... I can, and I always get them. But there's no way that my telepathic powers are so great that the mate always selects me when I select them. I think the other person just "gets chosen."

I could before, but I can't anymore. I wonder if it's a random selection that they reset every few months or something?
Or maybe they're punishing me because I used to select the same person all the time in order to make sure they got done

[Saperlipopette!]

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[Saperlipopette!]

I got a new friends quest goal this week. 2000 XP. It's easily attainable, but it's just different. The targets used to be 1450 for the longest time, and 1500 more recent.

The other targets I usually get are 75 lessons or 60 lessons at 90%. I haven't gotten 50 lessons at 100% in while - but those are the four goals I usually get:
1) XP targets,
2) 75,
3) 60 at 90,
4) 50 perfect.

[SansEspoir]

I got a new friends quest goal this week. 2000 XP. It's easily attainable, but it's just different. The targets used to be 1450 for the longest time, and 1500 more recent.

omg same. Luckily I know it can be donw because I got to select my partner again, and chose the one I know will do their half as usual. But it's getting high.

[Saperlipopette!]

In my news feed, I am starting to see notifications about people who have a FQ streak. This week I have four notifications of people who hit 80. I think this is the highest for an Android App User. I have one follower who is close to 100, but they have an IOS. IOS got FQ about four months before they rolled it out to everyone.

[Saperlipopette!]

The 50 perfect lessons quest is a lot easier than it used to be. I found that I get credit for a perfect lesson by the quest if I do RR and run the table on the questions I get before the timer runs out.

[SweNedGuy]

The 50 perfect lessons quest is a lot easier than it used to be. I found that I get credit for a perfect lesson by the quest if I do RR and run the table on the questions I get before the timer runs out.

Doing your daily stories also count as perfect lessons (unless you screw it up which few learners do, I suppose).
The challenge: get 250 bonus XP would be harder (only real lessons count). But then again, because of the double XP inflation, it is no longer a level playing field. Is it ever?

DL is providing both the challenges and the loop-holes.

[Saperlipopette!]

Stories are good to nerf for 50 perfect lessons, so are the grammar lessons. There's thirty grammar lessons in the en-fr course.

[Saperlipopette!]

Friends Quests Targets are one of these four possibilities:

• 2000 XP
• Complete 75 lessons
• Complete 60 at 90%
• Complete 50 perfect lessons

That's it. The XP totals crept up from 1450 and 1500 due to gaming XP inflation.

I think I can get all of these targets on my own every week, so I don't care who I get paired with. The one time it bothered me was one time I got paired with a punk that sent me three nudges (two snooty ones & none with timers) and the totals on Thursday night were me 37, him 23.

The things that bother me about FQ:

• Being paired with punks
• If you opt out you lose your streak when you opt back in.
• All social features, including this, are not available to those who go private to get out of leagues.
• 50 perfect lessons quests--Discourages experimentation, encourages nerfing such as story reading & doing easy lessons.

It does seem that you choose your FQ partner after 1) you do a lesson on the app (or, I suppose, iOS) after one pm and 2) you have unpaired friends, and 3) you haven't been chosen by someone else earlier. I'm not totally sure on that but that seems to be how it works. I expect the time to change back to noon on Marathon Sunday.

[Saperlipopette!]

I didn't get to choose my FQ partner and my guess is that's because someone chose me before I did a lesson on the website on Marathon Sunday.

[SweNedGuy]

How much any of the two partners contribute to the friend quest may depend dramatically on the type of quest.
This week the quest was completing 55 lessons with a score over 90%.

Two stats:
XP running total for the week:
Yours truly : 3253 (15%)
Quest partner : 18557 (85%)

Lessons at +90%
Yours truly : 44 (80%)
Quest partner : 11 (20%)

I have been paired with an excellent XP farmer. Note that most of his XP were on Wednesday and Thursday (not before the quest started). Also note that I had my 3 days of SuperDL after my streak got to 1600. My XP total is quite flattered as compared to 'normal'.

[SweNedGuy]

If your weekly quest is with an inactive or impaired friend, DL often tweakes the friend quest goal to make up for this. In the below example I only had to do 35 lessons with a 90% accuracy (which I needed to complete on my own).

My anonimized friend was active every day, totaling substantial XP, but unfortunately unable to complete a lesson without at least a few errors. The SUPER user subscription is designed for this kind of learners. I kind of feel sorry for them. Duolingo is not a good method to learn a language for many users, but especially for those who can't cope with the lessons.

(As for the titles in Spanish: I am learning Portuguese and Catalan from Spanish)

[MoniqueMaRie]

@SweNedGuy so I should try to get you as a partner in a friend quest?
Last week I also had to do almost all the work (even spending gems on it).

But I remember a friend quest in the past when I looked into it on Wednesday and it had already been finished by my gaming partner before I had noticed it.

[SweNedGuy]

@SweNedGuy so I should try to get you as a partner in a friend quest?
Last week I also had to do almost all the work (even spending gems on it).

But I remember a friend quest in the past when I looked into it on Wednesday and it had already been finished by my gaming partner before I had noticed it.

How fast the friend quest ends depends as much on the partner as on the type of quest.

A few examples:

• You are coupled to a serious XP farmer for a 2000 XP friend quest. If you are lucky you may go first and total a few hundreds XP. The quest will most probably end on Wednesday.

• You are coupled to a diamond league friend for the quest of completing 60 lessons at 90% accuracy. But unfortunately your friend suddenly starts faltering and then flatlining. You end up finishing the quest on your own by Saturday morning.

Both have happened to me recently. My flatlining friend has lost his 800+ days streak by now. He still shows in 'diamond league'; this both means he has not logged on to DL for at least two weeks and his profile is still public. People get health issues or other personal problems prevent them from continuing.

[SweNedGuy]

Yesterday evening I found myself without a friend to start a quest with. Duo was suggesting new friends, but they were not really appropriate: users suggested are followed by several of my friends. They have a massive number of followers but are following back only few.
In the end I befriended some of my followers and that worked out well. Now I'm making the 70 lessons quest with an emerald league friend.

[MoniqueMaRie]

Yesterday evening I found myself without a friend to start a quest with. Duo was suggesting new friends, but they were not really appropriate: ...

So it's really just another method to get us to connect with new people.

I'm now in my third week in a row without a friend quest partner, and as far as I know, I'm following you and you're following me.

In the first week I chose a new "friend". Last week I did nothing and was suddenly automaticly partnered with a total stranger. This week I also didn't react.

[duome]

Yesterday evening I found myself without a friend to start a quest with.

I found myself without a partner as well a few weeks ago and I didn't go look for a new friend - this is how I lost my friends quest streak ... at least I didin't make anyone unhappy

[SweNedGuy]

Yesterday evening I found myself without a friend to start a quest with. Duo was suggesting new friends, but they were not really appropriate: ...

So it's really just another method to get us to connect with new people.

I'm now in my third week in a row without a friend quest partner, and as far as I know, I'm following you and you're following me.

In the first week I chose a new "friend". Last week I did nothing and was suddenly automaticly partnered with a total stranger. This week I also didn't react.

In a not too distant past, Android users could select a friend to start a quest with. (My sister used to select me several weeks in a row. None of her other acquaintances were decent quest partners.) I doubt this is still possible. As far as I know, the selection procedure of DL assigns a 'friend' among those who have entered a league: they have been active on Monday. The friend quests start on Tuesday at 6 pm (7pm in summer). A friend wiill be assigned to the user after his first lesson.

So either you are assigned as quest partner to a user who finished a lessan after 6pm on Tuesday or you get a friend assigned to you if you do your first lesson after 6 pm. The above problem may arrise for a user starting his lesson well after 9 pm. DL may have assigned all friends available and you were not assigned to any of them while they did their Tuesday lesson. This is what happened yesterday.

[MoniqueMaRie]

In a not too distant past, Android users could select a friend to start a quest with.

Then I sometimes chose someone, sometimes not and was always put together with someone of my friend list.

As far as I know, the selection procedure of DL assigns a 'friend' among those who have entered a league: they have been active on Monday. The friend quests start on Tuesday at 6 pm (7pm in summer). A friend wiill be assigned to the user after his first lesson.

So either you are assigned as quest partner to a user who finished a lessan after 6pm on Tuesday or you get a friend assigned to you if you do your first lesson after 6 pm. The above problem may arrise for a user starting his lesson well after 9 pm. DL may have assigned all friends available and you were not assigned to any of them while they did their Tuesday lesson. This is what happened yesterday.

In all of the last weeks I started DL on Monday. So I was always in a league and visibly active.

I guess they just tell me that none of my friends is available on Tuesday to get me chose someone new. I won't. I feel that I have now been linked to far too many people whom I did not actively choose, simply because I was added to someone's group account for three days at a time.

[SweNedGuy]

For the last few weeks, I get actively chosen by one particular friend; she's kind of an overachiever. Since I make my Tuesday lessons after 6 pm, I start first. Unless I resume after midnight, doing my Wednesday lessons, there won't be a second chance. My quest partner generally finishes the friend quest by Wednesday afternoon.

[Saperlipopette!]

Since they changed Friends Quest to starting at Sunday night 11 pm about a month ago, I think the screen to chose my FQ partner comes up on a Saturday. The few weeks I don't get the chance to choose my partner, I assume it's because someone chose me before I got to do a lesson on the app on Saturday in the pm. There's one girl, or some user with a girl's name, who occasionally chooses me as a FQ partner.

I generally pick someone who I haven't been partnered with for a while. There was one guy who send me nudges and I never chose him again. I thought it was ridiculous that he was sending me nudges but I was the one doing the perfect lessons & I was clearly going to complete the FQ in time. He used to be a daily quest partner until I dropped him by unfriending & re-friending him for the same reason. I've got a seven-year streak and 1.3 million XP so I don't need you to tell me what to do. Don't send me nudges !

Otherwise, I don't care what they do; I've always been able to complete the quest by myself. Until this week.

With the new energy rules, and the obscene 15 energy penalty for doing a beat the clock lesson, I don't think I can do the XP-based FQ this week. A seventy-five week FQ streak down the tubes. Yogi used to say it ain't over till it's over but sometimes you can't control feeling pessimistic.

I tried working with the ads but some are too intrusive and some just screw up the app without giving me a reward. I didn't used to get bored doing beat the clock lessons for fifteen minutes & now I am because I can only do a few beat the clocks in fifteen minutes and the ads screw up the system so I have to restart.

I send a bug report of the "Duo isn't working the way I expect it to" variety but it's really a complaint that they gave me an XP target under the old rules & it's unfair. I also told them that there big draw is gaming & fun but it's not much fun anymore when the games seem unachievable & the ads screw up the app. It's no fun doing Duolingo when you're restarting your system all the time

2000 XP isn't a lot when you can do a lot of beat the clock lessons but it is a lot when I do 5 lessons on the web and maybe 5-10 on the app & feel like beat the clock lessons are interminable ad-watching. Geez, ten to fifteen lessons a day and that isn't enough ?!

There's no double XP for radio lessons even though it's promised and that doesn't help either. I think the only hope for me to make it 76 is that the girl, or the user with the girl's name, comes through with doing lessons. Since her FQ streak is zero, I think that happens when donkeys fly.

BTW, it is in your benefit to choose a FQ partner who will complete the task even if you don't use the thirty minute XP timer because it's 100 gems in the bank. Or a net of 85 if you send me a timer.

[Saperlipopette!]

I finished this FQ today mainly because I was in a better mood and I discovered a few more pitfalls with the energy system to avoid today like the bug in unit 7 beat the clock lessons where they just steal energy.

• I achieved the two quests on the web for the double XP timer in the morning, did the third quest on the web, then used the rest of the time for beat the clock. I think I got in three with all the ad watching.
• I used the NO to do more beat the clock and ad watching in the morning.
• In the evening I used the EB for more beat the clock and ad watching
• Found my friend sent a timer so I did a few more & eventually achieved the FQ.
• Screwed myself over for the next day by completing the last lesson after 12.

It was the least fun 1000 xp day I've had on Duolingo. I doubt I'll do a beat the clock the rest of the week unless they try to test that supposition with an XP-based weekend quest. That won't go in forever, though. When it's not fun, you tend to cut bait instead of fish. I might even take the mulligan I get on ten lessons per day tomorrow.

The other person did help by collecting 300 XP out of the 2000.

[Mymowersbroke]

For the last ten days my friend's quests are not showing up at all, last week a friend completed a friend quest I did not see it so could not help. Have I missed
something. It the same on my desktop and lap top both are Macs. using Safari. I have tried removing the bookmark and signing back in but it made no difference

[johnw]

Maybe because of this?

Since they changed Friends Quest to starting at Sunday night 11 pm about a month ago, I think the screen to chose my FQ partner comes up on a Saturday.

Btw, thank you, Saperlipopette, for this news. I haven't had friends quests at all since around that time. At first, I thought it was just me because I didn't do lessons before Thursdays, but now it seems like they're trying to punish people who start lessons later in the week to avoid the Mondays highachievers leagues.

[Saperlipopette!]

It's hard to pin down what's going on with Friends Quest but it appears Duo is making some changes & of course there is a mountain of bugs and unintended consequences that go along with every change. Duo's blog is where they should talk about this but it's for cheerleading and Curious Polyglot drivel

For over month I've found no access to FQ on the web. I use duck duck go on an a Andoid but I think it is like this for any browser. After friends quest is finished it says on the web I should friend people to get a FQ Partner which I don't recommend doing because it still won't work.

The only access I have to FQ is through the app on my droid. It's probably on the app on tablets too but I've never on owned one so can't provide practical insights.

On Saturday afternoon the first time I go on the app I can either select my partner unless someone else selects me first.

On Sunday starting 11pm EST I can see the challenge on the app & each person's contribution.

None of this appears on the web. The web shows nothing about friends quest. But I do know that lessons done on the web count for FQ . You just can't sée it until you go on the app.

Notification of achieving the qu'est is on the app and you do get 100 gems and the t yimer. The Notification gets replaced by the new Weekend Quest for the duration of that. There's nothing about the weekend quest on the web..

There's no news from Duo so we're left to our own hypothesis. Mine is that their trying to turn web users into a leper colony reduced to begging for scraps because they can't put ads and energy on it. My only suggestion here is to check in on the app on your device to monitor Friends Quest.

[Murt_O_Se]

I use the Android app and pay the annual subscription to avoid ads. The FQ experience has changed a lot in recent months. Previously the pattern was to get a choice every second week and be chosen the other weeks. Usually my choice was from about half my mutual followers and the other weeks I'd get chosen by one not in that half. But some weeks broke the pattern. Now it's quite different. The choice, if I get one, is usually on Saturday evening and the list to choose from is much smaller. But then sometimes I get a choice on Monday instead. If I'm chosen I'll see it on Monday. There are some friends (we write to each other) that no longer get a chance to choose each other. It's as if Duo is channelling us to broaden our selections.
Either way I enjoy the challenge. Often a question of trying to do my fair share before a speedster finishes it!

[Saperlipopette!]

Uh, a few weeks ago they switched FQ to start on Sunday evening at 11pm. But maybe this is just certain users to test out the weekend quest, which I've had for a few weeks. Just in case...

Today I got a chance to select my FQ partner on Saturday morning. I don't know if I want to do it. I'm ok with 50 perfect lessons or 60 at 90 or 75. But the XP challenges are too boring with all the ad-watching required for the beat-the-clock high XP options. Maybe try a lesson this morning & see if you get a chance to select s/o ?

I just find it frustrating that I'm doing 10-15 lessons a day & I'm having to worry about making quests. But most of my partners don't contribute much. I've always been ok with that because it's up to the individual how they want to use Duo but this 15 energy penalty for doing beat the clock lessons is I think exorbitant.