What are Discord Quests? A complete guide

If you have opened Discord in the last couple of years you have probably seen a small banner above your user panel offering a free cosmetic, a pile of Orbs or an in-game item for “playing 15 minutes” of some game. That banner is a Quest. This guide explains what Quests are, why they exist, the different kinds you will run into, and how to get the most out of them, whether you do them by hand or not.

What a Quest is

A Quest is a short, time-limited task inside Discord that pays out a reward when you finish it. Most of them are sponsored: a game studio or another brand pays Discord to put its game, trailer or app in front of people, and part of that budget comes back to you as the reward. Discord launched Quests in 2024 and has been adding new types, platforms and reward kinds ever since, including its own currency, Orbs, in 2025.

The deal is simple: you give a sponsor a few minutes of attention, they give you something in return.

The kinds of Quests

Every Quest is built around one task, and the task decides what you need to do and on which device. These are the ones you will see most often:

Video Quests

You watch a short video, usually a trailer, from start to finish. Video Quests are the easiest to do and usually work on both the desktop app and mobile. Some are mobile-only. Progress only counts while the video is actually playing, so skipping ahead does not finish it faster.

Play Quests

You play a specific game for a set time, typically 15 minutes, with the Discord desktop app running. Discord tracks this through the same game detection it uses for your “Playing” status, so the game has to be detected, and it has to be the game the Quest asks for. The browser version of Discord cannot see your running games, which is why Play Quests need the desktop app.

Stream Quests

A variation on Play Quests: you stream the game to at least one other person in a voice channel for the required time. These need a friend online with you, which makes them the hardest kind to fit into a day.

Activity Quests

You play an Activity, one of the small games that run inside Discord itself, in a voice channel or a DM call, for a set time.

In-game achievement Quests

Rarer, and different: the sponsor’s game tells Discord when you have reached a goal inside it, such as finishing a match or a tutorial. Only the game can report these, so they always have to be done by actually playing.

Where to find Quests

• Quest bar (desktop): when there is a Quest you are eligible for, a banner appears just above your user panel in the bottom-left corner. Hover or click it to expand the details.
• Quest Home (desktop): open Discover and choose Quests to see every Quest currently available to you, with its reward, task and end date.
• Mobile: Quests live in Settings → Quests, and some versions of the app also show a Quest bar.

Accepting is one click: Accept Quest on a Play or Activity Quest, Start Video Quest on a Video Quest. Progress only counts after you accept, so if you play the game first and accept later, the time you already played will not count.

What you can win

Rewards fall into three groups:

• Orbs, Discord’s own currency, which you spend in the Shop. See Discord Orbs explained.
• Discord cosmetics such as avatar decorations and profile effects, added to your account as soon as you claim them. These are often available for a limited time only.
• In-game items for the sponsor’s game: a skin, a spray, currency or a bundle. These usually come as a code that you redeem on the game’s own website or launcher.

Finishing a Quest does not hand you the reward by itself: you still have to press Claim Reward. How that works, and where codes end up, is covered in How to claim Discord Quest rewards.

Time limits, regions and eligibility

Three rules catch people out more than any other:

1. Every Quest has an end date. Most run for one to two weeks. Once a Quest ends you cannot finish it, even if you were at 95%.
2. Claim windows can be different from Quest windows. Some sponsors give you extra weeks to claim or redeem a code after the Quest itself has ended; others do not. The Quest’s details show both.
3. Not every Quest is offered everywhere. Sponsors target regions, and a Quest outside your region simply does not appear. If a friend sees a Quest that you don’t, region is the usual reason.

Getting more out of Quests

• Check Quest Home once or twice a week. New Quests arrive regularly and the best rewards tend to be the shortest-lived.
• Do Video Quests on your phone while you are doing something else; they are the quickest wins.
• Claim straight away. Cosmetic rewards and codes have their own deadlines, and an unclaimed finished Quest is the most common way people lose a reward.
• Keep an eye on what you already have. Claimed in-game codes stay in your Gift Inventory until you redeem them.

Where Disquest Helper fits in

Play and Video Quests mostly ask for time: 15 to 30 minutes with a game or a trailer running. Disquest Helper is an unofficial service that accepts those Quests for you and reports their progress from our own server, so nothing has to run on your computer. It handles Video, Play and Activity Quests; Stream and in-game achievement Quests still have to be done by hand. It is not made or endorsed by Discord, and automating a user account goes against Discord’s Terms of Service, so read Is automating Discord Quests allowed? before you decide whether that trade is right for you.