If there’s one thing that absolutely slaps in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, it’s when a side quest goes from “meh” to personal crisis real quick. Enter the side quest “Dagger to the Heart” where you’re tasked with unraveling The Dagger’s influence in Chalkis, and end up deciding the literal fate of two lovestruck theater owners with a terrifying ultimatum.
Let me walk through all three possible dialogue outcomes and reveal a Reddit-sourced secret method that lets you save both Idyia and Prexileos without crying into your controller. Yes, it’s possible. Yes, it’s absurd. And yes… it took me way more tries than I’m proud of.
What Happens in Dagger to the Heart
Here’s the TL;DR of the quest if you skipped the cutscenes to sprint straight to combat:
- Talk to the couple in the theatre about The Dagger menace.
- Track down The Dagger smuggler guy. You can try to talk, but you’ll almost always end up killing him.
- Return to find Idyia and Prexileos held hostage by Dagger thugs. Now the real drama begins.
At this point, the game throws you three choices:
- Spare Idyia (Prexileos dies)
- Spare Prexileos (Idyia dies)
- Try to be dramatic and kill the Dagger thugs right away which hilariously results in BOTH lovers dying
So yeah, it’s basically the emotional equivalent of choosing who gets the last slice of pizza.
Can You Save Them Both?
Short answer: Yes. But it’s not in the dialogue.
Longer answer: If you walk up normally, you trigger the cutscene, and the game forces you into the grim “choose a spouse” decision. But clever players on Reddit figured out that by approaching from behind and engaging the bandits before that dialogue triggers, you can actually wipe out all the enemies without the hostage choice ever happening.
Some tips from the community method:
- Stay just far enough away that the hostage cutscene doesn’t start.
- Use ranged attacks or Rush Assassination to clear the guards quickly.
- Knock out or kill all the thugs before they can even think about threatening the couple. If you do it right, both Idyia and Prexileos survive. Boom! Happy ending.
Just be ready for that weird moment when their kids are still crying in the background because even AC Odyssey can’t let a perfectly good emotional moment go un-dramatic.
Why This Quest Hits Hard
Beyond the goofy choices and the “I swear I’m a hero” attempts, this is one of those quests that makes you feel like your decisions actually matter and then promptly reminds you that in ancient Greece, adults were about as emotionally stable as toddlers with swords. The theatrical setting, the hostage stakes, the forced choice, it’s like Shakespeare if he used machetes instead of metaphors.
So yeah…you can save both Idyia and Prexileos, but only if you bypass the forced choice and jump straight into opportunistic chaos. That’s the Odyssey way, honestly.
Hit play below to see the quest unfold, every outcome tested, and the secret save-both strategy in action.
If you want more awkward moral choices and accidental emotional trauma from AC Odyssey, follow me on Twitch and catch me next time I stream!
