Line in the Sand is a Buried City investigation handed out by Celeste, asking you to piece together what happened to a train carrying thruster valves that never made it to Marano Station. The objectives are written vaguely on purpose, which is the main reason players get stuck wandering the western half of the map looking for prompts that never appear.
Before you drop in
Load into Buried City. The entire quest plays out on the smaller central map, despite Riven Tides adding a new region to the rotation. You don't need a specific weapon or tool, but you do need to survive the run with the Marano Market Business Card in your inventory. Move it into your safe pocket the moment you pick it up. Dying with it in your backpack is the fastest way to reset progress, and there's a known issue where improper extraction can also revert the quest state.
Objective 1: Find the derailed train
The clue is that the train never reached Marano Station, so it isn't at the station itself. Head to the rail line and follow the tracks south and west. The wreck is half-buried in sand in the open stretch between the Warehouse, Maintenance Depot, Grandioso Apartments, and Piazza Roma.
You don't need to interact with anything specific. Walking up to the derailed cars is enough to tick the objective and move you to the next step.
Objective 2: Find who orchestrated the robbery
From the train, look northeast for a small watchtower at the end of a low wall, slightly west of Piazza Roma. Climb up the metal frame to reach the platform inside. There's a search prompt next to a bush on the floor.
Step 1: Interact with the search prompt to spawn the clue item on the ground.
Step 2: Pick up the Marano Market Business Card.
Step 3: Open your inventory and drag the business card into your safe pocket immediately. If you're killed before extracting, anything outside the safe pocket is lost, and the quest cannot be completed without delivering this item.
Objective 3: Locate where the thruster valves were stashed
The business card points to the Marano Market, but no location with that exact name appears on the in-game map. The match is the Market Ruins, sitting northeast of the Hospital. Look for the building with a raider hatch on its north side.
Approach the exterior of the ruins. The objective updates automatically the moment you get close enough, so you don't need to enter or search for anything inside.
Objective 4: Search the basement of the merchant's nearby apartment
Continue northeast from the Market Ruins toward the upper edge of the map, just north of Dune's End. You're looking for a building with a zipline running down an open elevator shaft into a basement.
Step 1: Enter the building and approach the shaft.
Step 2: Use the zipline prompt to ride it down to the basement level.
Step 3: Walk up to the pile of boxes at the bottom and trigger the Take Photo prompt. The flash confirms the action registered.
Once the photo is taken, all four objectives are checked off. The zipline can also carry you back up if you don't want to look for another route out.
Extract and turn in
Get to an extractor and leave the map cleanly. Quitting the run, dying, or disconnecting can roll back the photo and search progress, which means repeating the entire chain. As long as the business card is still in your safe pocket on the post-run screen, the quest is ready to claim from Celeste.
After turning it in, the business card has no further use and can be sold without consequence.
Common reasons the quest doesn't complete
| Issue | Cause |
|---|---|
| Business card lost on death | Item was carried in the backpack instead of the safe pocket. |
| Photo objective not registering | Standing too far from the boxes; move directly in front of them until the prompt appears. |
| Progress reset after extraction | Improper exit from the run; only standard extraction points reliably preserve quest state. |
| Market Ruins step not triggering | Approaching from too far away or skipping past the building exterior; circle the structure until the objective ticks. |
The full loop runs short if you don't get sidetracked, since every objective sits within a tight cluster on the western and northern sections of Buried City. The bigger risk is other Raiders, ARC patrols around the Market Ruins, and the temptation to keep looting on the way out before securing the business card.