The Broken Bonds quest in the From the Ashes expansion for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a compact story beat that quietly pivots several character arcs. It sends So'lek back into the Ravines to look for Ri'nela and forces Nor to cross a line he has spent the story arguing against.
Where Broken Bonds fits in From the Ashes
Broken Bonds unfolds in the Ravines region after earlier story missions about tracking the Mangkwan Warband and protecting Arana survivors. At this point, Ri'nela is missing, Nor has recently reappeared, and tensions are rising over how far Na'vi should go in using human technology against the RDA and their Mangkwan allies.
The quest is brief from a gameplay perspective – one focused trip into a cave and back – but it carries heavy emotional and thematic weight. It clarifies Nor’s relationship to RDA weapons, puts Ri'nela in direct danger, and gives So'lek a moment to choose how much space these two need from one another.
How to start Broken Bonds and find Crying Grotto
The quest begins once the story objective updates to continue searching for Ri'nela near the Ravines. The HUD places a yellow objective marker in that region, and there is no separate interaction or dialogue needed to accept the mission.
Step 1: Open your map and locate the active main story objective in the Ravines. Set it as your tracked goal, so the yellow HUD marker appears clearly in the world.
Step 2: Travel toward the marker on foot or by Ikran until the waypoint shifts to a specific point on the terrain and a cave mouth comes into view. This is the entrance to Crying Grotto.
Step 3: Approach the cave entrance until the objective text changes to indicate that you should search the cave for Nor and Ri'nela. Once that happens, step inside to transition fully into the Broken Bonds quest space.
Exploring Crying Grotto and navigating the cave
Crying Grotto is a vertical, bioluminescent cave system. Despite being underground, the space is brightly lit by glowing Pandoran flora in multiple colors, which helps with visibility and platforming.
Step 1: Move forward from the entrance and immediately start using the yellow HUD marker as your orientation tool. The cave branches and loops, but the marker consistently points you toward the correct direction of travel.
Step 2: Climb vines and natural handholds when you see them highlighted. The route generally pushes you upward: short ledge runs, vine climbs, and jumps between rock outcrops form most of the traversal.
Step 3: When you encounter a waterfall, push through it rather than searching for a way around. The marked path continues on the far side, and the water does not damage you.
Step 4: Keep an ear on the ambient audio. As you progress deeper, the soundscape shifts – eventually, you begin to hear distinct noise ahead, signalling that you are closing in on the story moment that anchors this quest.
The confrontation with Ka'sem and Nor’s gunshot
The heart of Broken Bonds is a cutscene that triggers once you reach the upper chamber of Crying Grotto. The game takes control away at this point and plays out a staged encounter.
In the chamber, Ka'sem of the Mangkwan Warband has Ri'nela pinned. He breaks her bow and is physically choking her, underlining how immediate the threat to her life has become. So'lek reacts instinctively, drawing his bow and aiming at Ka'sem in an attempt to stop him the Na'vi way.
Before So'lek can loose the arrow, a gunshot cracks through the cave. A bullet strikes Ka'sem and kills him outright, ending the assault on Ri'nela. The shot comes from Nor, positioned elsewhere in the chamber with a clear line of fire. This is not an accident: he has deliberately used an RDA rifle to save her.
That single shot pulls several tensions into focus. Nor has been critical of Na'vi who lean on human technology, yet here he chooses a firearm over a bow when seconds matter. The scene reinforces the running conflict between traditional Na'vi identity and the pragmatic use of enemy weapons, and it leaves Nor and Ri'nela with a complicated debt between them.
Escorting Nor and Ri'nela out of Crying Grotto
Once the cutscene ends and control returns, the immediate danger is over. Ka'sem is dead, Ri'nela is alive, and the quest objective changes to focus on leaving the cave with both her and Nor.
Step 1: Wait for Nor and Ri'nela to fall in alongside you. You are no longer searching alone – the three of you move as a group for the remainder of the cave section.
Step 2: Turn back toward the path you used to enter Crying Grotto. The yellow marker now points back toward the exit rather than deeper into the cave, and the route is essentially the same in reverse.
Step 3: Descend carefully using the same vines and ledges you climbed earlier. Platforming is lighter on the way out, but the geography is familiar, so it is easy to retrace your steps.
Step 4: As you travel, listen to the conversation between Nor and Ri'nela. The dialogue is strained: she is processing what happened, he is trying to justify or explain his actions, and both struggle to connect in the wake of the assault and the gunshot.
Step 5: Continue following the marker until the cave opens back out into the Ravines. Once all three characters cross the threshold into open air, the game transitions into a final cutscene.
The final cutscene and what Broken Bonds changes
Outside Crying Grotto, So'lek’s role shifts from rescuer to observer. Nor and Ri'nela clearly need space to work through what has just happened – the attack, the breaking of her bow, the killing of Ka'sem with a human weapon, and all the old grievances that come flooding back in that moment.
So'lek recognizes this and steps back, allowing the two of them a private moment rather than forcing an immediate resolution. That choice is the closing beat of Broken Bonds: the quest ends not with another fight, but with an acknowledgment that some wounds and arguments cannot be resolved in a single scene.
From a story perspective, the quest cements three threads going forward in From the Ashes:
- Nor’s line crossed: He has now used an RDA rifle, not in training but in a live encounter, to kill an enemy and save someone he cares about. That complicates his hard-line stance on technology.
- Ri'nela’s trauma and agency: She survives an execution attempt, loses her bow, and gains a life-saving intervention she never asked for. Her conversations on the way out hint at how difficult it will be to accept both the event and Nor’s methods.
- So'lek’s leadership: By facilitating the rescue, then deliberately giving Nor and Ri'nela room, he acts less as a lone warrior and more as someone holding space for others’ paths to unfold.
Mechanically, once the final cutscene completes, the objective updates to the next main mission in the expansion, and Broken Bonds is marked complete. There are no branching outcomes here: whether or not you agree with Nor’s shot, the story always proceeds with Ka'sem dead, Ri'nela rescued, and the three characters changed by what happened in Crying Grotto.
