Forest Zone Sidequests

Route A or Route B

Lord of the Valley - 1500 EXP, 5,000G, 4x Memory Alloy, 6x Clean Nut, Last Stand +3, Vengeance +3, Taunt Up +3

To start this quest, you need to reach the bottom of the canyon in the Forest Zone. From the Forest Zone: Center access point, go forward until you reach a huge chasm by the waterfalls, where you must find a ledge that leads down to the bottom of the canyon.

Talk to the machine then follow the passage to the end to find a large group suicidal machines. Destroy all of them including the level 50 goliath-class biped, which can be quite the challenge if you decide to do this mission early. Don't forget to grab the Phoenix Dagger from one of the item boxes while you're here as well. The client will open a shop that lets you fuse plugin chips after you complete this quest. This is the only shop in the game that lets you fuse chips up to their max level (+8). Also, you can jump off the side of the rope bridge leading to the commercial facility in the City Ruins to get to this area quickly.

Animal Care - 600 EXP, 3,000G, 5x Beast Hide, Quality Sachet

Tucked away in a secluded corner of the forest is a shack that belongs to the animal-loving machine. Both he and his animals will attack you on your first meeting, to which the machine will eventually beg you to spare the lives of his animals.

Agree and you should get this quest from him the second time you visit. Here, you need to bring him medicine to treat the sick moose so head to the commercial facility at the City Ruins, and locate the Medical Journal. Take it back to the machine.

Camp Development - 320 EXP 5,000G, 5x Natural Rubber, 5x Torn Book, Large G-Luck+, Down-Attack Up +3

This one unlocks after you've spoken to Pascal about A2. Go to the Resistance Camp and speak with Anemone to receive this mission, then proceed to the designated hotspot in the Forest Zone to clear out all the hostiles. Report back to Anemone afterward.

Turf War - 1,750 EXP 10,000G, 5x Animal Bait, Auto-Heal +5 Chip, Full Recovery

This is given by the Animal-Loving machine after completing Animal Care. He needs help dealing with some extremely territorial machines that have taken over sections of the forest. Head over to the designated spot near the castle entrance and defeat the target. This one is another difficult mission if you were to take it on early. Mainly because of the normally docile moose and boars becoming very aggressive. There's a log/ledge around the area that you can stand on to stay out of reach, and shoot the enemies safely so as to thin out their ranks. You'll also receive an archive for defeating the hostile machine.

Treasure Hunt at the Castle - 1,280 EXP 10,000G, 3x Giant Egg, 2x Moldavite, Large Recovery

After reporting to Pascal about A2, return to the Forest Zone and you'll find a Wierd-Talking Machine at the castle front. He'll say something about treasures inside the castle. You are of course tasked to go search for this treasure.

What you're looking for are three pieces of parts belonging to some machine lifeform. The location of the first two parts are shown in the images above, while the final piece is on a ledge high above the library. Once you have all the pieces, it's time to find the door the new key is for.

Go to the library once again and move along until you reach the ladder going up. There should be ladders leading down in this area as well, so use those to go down two levels and enter the doorway. Beyond here is a massive door where a unique enemy is waiting inside. Defeat it then report back to the Wierd-Talking Machine to complete this quest.

Culinary Researcher - 600 EXP, 5,000G, 2x Various Enhancement Items, 2x Large Recovery

For this quest to become available, you must first complete Camp Development. After some time has passed (before going to the abandoned factory near the end of Route A for me), return to the Forest Zone and the resistance should have a camp all set up. Talk to the man to help him gather Moose Meat and Boar Meat. There should be plenty of these animals in the forest for you to kill and get their meat.

Route C (9S)

Reconnaissance Squad - 2500 EXP, 25,000G, Various crafting materials

You'll find Unit 4S in the library of the castle. He is currently gathering enemy data, and depending on your progress with enemy intel this quest can take a while to complete. You must get your Unit Data completion up to 95% before your fellow Scanner is satisfied.

You'll unlock most of the entries naturally as long as you engage in fights often. Others are found through side quests, while the rest are considered hidden enemies. You can find a complete list here: http://nierautomata.wiki.fextralife.com/Enemies