GreedFall: How Long to Beat It – Story, Side Quests, 100%

If you are trying to decide whether GreedFall is a weekend game or a month-long commitment, the honest answer is that it sits in the middle, and your own habits move the number more than the game does. Here is what to actually plan for.

The short version

• Main story only: about 25-30 hours. HowLongToBeat clocks the Main Story at roughly 23.5 hours, and a rushed run lands near 30.
• Balanced first playthrough: about 30-40 hours. This is the realistic target for most players and the one to plan around.
• Near-completion / 100%: around 50 hours. HowLongToBeat lists Completionist at about 52 hours; gamepressure puts 100% near 50.
• Replays for other endings: well beyond a single run. GreedFall has multiple endings driven by your decisions, so seeing the outcomes you care about can mean a second file.

GreedFall is a mid-length action-RPG, not a tiny weekend game and not a hundred-hour open-world sandbox. The reason any single number is misleading is structural: optional content is woven tightly into progression, so your route, your build, and how much side work you take on swing the total by twenty hours or more.

What “beating GreedFall” actually means

The 25-30 hour main-story figure assumes you stay on critical quests, keep detours short, and only take the side content needed to stay leveled. It does not mean speedrunning, skipping dialogue, or under-leveling yourself on purpose. PC Gamer pegs a rushed main-only run at about 30 hours, which is the ceiling of this band, not the average.

A balanced first playthrough is the version most people should plan for: main story plus a fair share of side quests as they appear, some exploration, and the companion content you stumble into. That lands at 30-40 hours, and it is the band that lets the RPG systems actually function instead of feeling decorative.

A near-completion run is where GreedFall pushes toward 50 hours: companion and faction quest lines cleared, broad map coverage, and a low tolerance for leaving the journal half-finished. If you clear every region before moving on, plan for 50 and expect to drift past it.

Where the hours actually get added

The opening stretch does not decide your total. The real split happens once the game opens up and the quest log fills past the critical path. From that point GreedFall becomes a routing game: how many companion quests you accept, how much faction business you handle, and how aggressively you explore between story beats all stack up.

A run stays short when you mostly advance the main quest and dip into side content selectively. It expands fast when you clear every category the moment it appears. The longer route is not wasted time, though. GreedFall’s side quests award experience that feeds skills and abilities, so a too-efficient run can actually get slower in practice when you hit tougher fights underprepared and have to retry them.

A time budget for each playstyle

Focused story run: 25-30 hours

This is the target if you just want to finish. The catch is that even a story run benefits from selective side content, because skills and abilities scale on quest experience and skipping too much makes later sections rougher than the time you saved. Take companion or faction quests when they overlap your current destination, use fast travel, and skip the full journal sweeps. You are cutting low-value detours, not starving your character of progress.

Balanced first run: 30-40 hours

This is the most realistic estimate and the safest one to trust if you are unsure. It includes a meaningful amount of side content, some exploration, and enough companion or faction work that the world feels coherent. It is also the pacing sweet spot: you get the story without the role-playing systems going to waste, and enough extra progression that difficulty spikes do not cost you repeated retries. If you want a strong build to back that pacing, see our GreedFall best builds guide.

Near-completion run: around 50 hours

This fits players who want to see most of what GreedFall offers in one file: broad map coverage, companion and team quests, more faction lines, and a low tolerance for leaving content behind. HowLongToBeat’s Completionist average is about 52 hours and gamepressure lists 100% near 50, but the upper edge is soft. Slow readers, thorough explorers, and players who double back often will go past it, and that is normal rather than inefficient.

Why side quests matter more here than in some RPGs

GreedFall’s side content is not filler that pads the clock. Side quests support progression directly, and that matters because GreedFall is a story RPG where diplomacy, faction involvement, companion ties, and character development sit beside combat rather than behind it. Strip too much of that away and you technically reach the ending sooner while choosing a harsher, less complete version of the game.

There is also an endings factor. GreedFall has multiple endings and decision-driven outcomes, and companion and faction involvement shape how your run resolves. So “how long is GreedFall” depends partly on whether you mean one ending or the outcomes you actually want to see, which for many players matters more than the raw first-playthrough total.

What changes your total time the most

• How much side content you do: by far the biggest swing factor.
• Build and combat comfort: harder fights and retries stretch the clock.
• Exploration habits: thorough map coverage adds time quickly.
• Dialogue pace: reading and listening to every scene runs noticeably longer than skipping.
• Crafting and looting: small inventory pauses add up across a long RPG.
• Replay goals: different endings and decisions push total playtime well past a single run.

Common mistakes when estimating your run

• Trusting the main-story number as your real total. Most first-time players overshoot 25-30 hours because they naturally pick up side quests. Plan for 30-40.
• Skipping side quests to save time, then stalling on a hard fight. The experience you skip is the experience you needed; the retries cost more than the detour would have.
• Assuming completion ends near 50 hours. That is a floor for thorough players, not a ceiling. Slow, exhaustive runs go well past it.
• Counting one ending as “done.” With multiple decision-driven endings, seeing the outcomes you care about may mean a second playthrough.
• Reading base-game estimates as a full-package time. If your copy includes DLC, treat the standard 25-50 hour figures as the base game and add to them. See our Gold Edition and DLC guide for what the extra content adds.

Practical takeaway

Plan for 30-40 hours unless you already know you are going to rush or fully complete the game. Reserve 25-30 hours if you only care about the story, 30-40 for the full RPG experience without obsessing over every objective, and around 50 if you like clearing the journal and exploring broadly. Those figures cover the base game, and longer totals are entirely plausible for slower or more exhaustive players.