Lost Lydia during Thieves Guild questline. How do I retrace my steps to find her?

[katieegervari]

I'm playing a vanilla version of the Anniversary Edition on Series X. Two nights ago, I was doing the Thieves' Guild questline, and at some point Lydia stopped following me - the game dismissed her as a companion. Unfortunately, I just assumed she would come back after the quest because that happened several times in the past with other quests. This time, she was actually dismissed.

 

I know she could end up in Breezehome or Dragonreach when this happens, but despite multiple weeks passing in-game, she's still not there. I have not run into a courier letting me know she died, so she's alive somewhere. In fact, I would have preferred that she died so I could at least loot her items and get some closure.

 

I went back to the Snow Veil Catacombs where I started that quest with Mercer, and she's nowhere to be found. I don't remember if she joined us in this dungeon, but I explored it 2 more times after the quest just to make sure she wasn't stuck or dead somewhere inside. Then, I retraced my steps from that dungeon all the way to Whiterun manually, hoping to run into her and I never found her along that entire path.

 

I'm positive I had Lydia before this - I have very clear memories of her with me in the East Company Warehouse, the quest before the one where Mercer joins as a follower. I don't know if Lydia ever came back after that just because Karliah, etc. were also followers.

 

The reason I really want to look for Lydia is that she was wearing some pretty good enchanted Dragon armor and I also gave her the Mace of Molag Bal with a bunch of soul gems. I absolutely don't want to lose that mace :sad: I need to find her.

 

I'm on Xbox Series X. How do I find her? I'm really discouraged that all of this happened without my consent. Definitely the game's code letting me down here. I tried getting married about 10 times, and she never showed up at my wedding.

 

Is there a mod that will teleport me to her live or dead location so that I can learn where she is in the game world? If I knew where she was, I could disable the mod afterward and use an unmodded save to go get her so that I could keep earning achievements. I did try a few mods with no success, such as Flute Finder. It sounded pretty great - quest markers for all companions - but it didn't actually work. Lots of people said the same thing in the comments.

 

Please help. I don't want to lose my items. Thank you.

Edited January 4, 2022 by katieegervari

[Gorgopis]

Well, we're rusty at this (two of us), but here are some best ideas. Are you playing on PC.? When Lydia dismisses herself, she often returns to Dragonsreach--not necessarily to Breezehome, though she may go there, too.

 

If you have kept all saves from before you lost her, load each of those earlier saves one by one, as if you intend to replay it, for example, and find the last save where she was still with you. (It's not likely you deleted in-game-menu saves?)

 

Next, with Lydia in front of you during a loaded earlier save, use the keyboard tilde key to bring up Skyrim's helpful console, and position the Skyrim cursor on Lydia, and left-mouse click. Write down Lydia's current NPC ID number that pops up.

 

The first two digits of NPC ID numbers change as you progress through quests.

 

Now, exit that save, load your last and latest save, stand in Breezehome, or somewhere with no combat, and bring up the console window with the tilde key and then typing "Help Lydia" without the quotes.

 

The window should next read Lydia NPC and show one or more 8-digit ID numbers. One is a base id, while the other is an individual reference ID. If one of these matches the number you noted, then you can next use Skyrim's placeatme console command, or movetoplayer commands + the ID to move an NPC to you, or to move to the NPC.

 

That should get her back, or move your character to her location. If your character moves to a new Skyrim location, but you can't see her, or find her, then she may be "dead," or under Skyrim's terrain. You can also try using the console coc (Tamriel World-space) codes to move your character to Skyrim's dead-body clean-up room to see if her body is there, which you can loot, or else resurrect with console codes.

 

You can find all the console commands at the Skyrim Wiki, and how to accurately type them, as we did not do it above. We would need to look it up to get the exact typing. GL.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Gorgopis

[69mAnU96]

if you can use console commands, then:

 

player. moveto 000A2C94

 

where 000A2C94 is Lydia's ref id

[brown66]

As far I remember, if you lost your follower for more than 3 days (in game...), he/she will leave your service and return to his/her home. Lydia's home is Dragonsreach, until you buy Breezehome. Unless you've married Lydia, in which case her house will be the last one you choose.

[possumjrf50]

I ran into this problem not long ago with Mjoll. I took on a Companion quest, was assigned a follower, and saw the message 'Your follower will be dismissed' or something to that effect. I reloaded an earlier save and got her back

 

and haven't attempted that quest yet. Did you dismiss the new follower that quest gave you after completing it? If so I think she comes back. The only way I still have Lydia as well as Mjoll now is because I made Lydia a Steward.

[papa1952]

Sometimes if you haven't had too many saves, I just go and reload an earlier dame