Catching One's Breath A New Challenge

Catching One's Breath is a Dark and Darker quest assigned by the Goldsmith merchant, part of the A New Challenge quest line. There are 2 objectives to complete: Bring 5× Gold Ingots; Bring 5× Pearl.Shining. All progress requires a successful extraction — items retrieved or kills made during a failed run do not count toward quest completion. Once every objective is fulfilled, return to Goldsmith in the lobby to turn in the quest and receive the reward. This quest requires completing Balance and Judgement before it becomes available from Goldsmith. Completing Catching One's Breath rewards 250 XP, 🪙 250, Random Epic Armor. Merchant quests in Dark and Darker are one of the most consistent gold and experience sources in the game, independent of loot luck on the Trading Post. Completing the full Goldsmith quest chain unlocks higher reward tiers and increases merchant affinity, which can affect prices and open additional quest tiers in future seasons. The A New Challenge chain provides a structured progression path through the Goldsmith quest tree, and finishing each quest in order is the fastest route to the higher value objectives later in the line. Use the MetaBot Dark and Darker quest tracker to check all open objectives across every active merchant before extracting, so you can turn in multiple quests from a single run and get the most value out of each session.