How to solve the ‘Reject the Mother’ side quest riddle in Diablo 4

“Reject the Mother” is one of Diablo 4’s tricky emote side quests in the Dry Steppes. Unlike most of Diablo 4’s side quests — which send you to one corner of the map or the other to eliminate all life — “Reject the Mother” asks you to put your thinking cap on for a moment and tackle a riddle.

In order to unlock this quest, you’ll need to progress through the main story. If you can’t find the riddle location, beat a few more campaign missions and come back. It’s worth keeping in mind that all side quests, including “Reject the Mother,” are much faster once you’ve unlocked your horse.

In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ll show you how to find the “Reject the Mother” quest and how to solve the note’s riddle.

‘Reject the Mother’ Quest Location

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

East of Ked Bardu, the capital city of the Dry Steppes, you’ll find yourself in the winding area of the Tusmaa Rift. In a sub-region called Abahru Canyon, you’ll see two paths on the map, with a third jutting off to the side. Take the path with the circular opening in the middle and kill all the nearby enemies.

With everything dead around you, you should notice a blue exclamation point on your map, and a small journal resting on a rock. Walk forward and click on the journal to receive the riddle, which reads:

Shout your rejection, ‘no Mother of mine,’ at her towering statue in the rift’s hidden shrine.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

Now that we have an objective and a location, let’s go on an adventure. Track the quest and then go to the objective listed on your map. It’s in the Rift of a Thousand Eyes sub-region, right next to the Dark Ravine dungeon.

How to solve the note’s riddle

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

Once at the Rift of a Thousand Eyes and the entrance to the Dark Ravine, you’ll notice that your camera pulls out a little bit from your character. There are two reasons for this as far as we can tell: so you can see the statue and so you can see all the enemies that are going to ambush you. Before you do anything, clear out the beasts and demons that pop out of the ground looking for a fight.

After they’re all dead, you’ll need to “reject the mother,” which, in this case, just means emoting at the statue. The problem here is that you may not have the proper emote on your emote wheel. As you may have guessed, you’re looking for the emote “No” for this quest. But there’s a distinct possibility that “No” isn’t one of the preset emotes on your wheel, and you’ll need to go digging in a menu.

Open up your emote wheel and hit the customize button. This should pull up a menu with your full list of emotes, including more simple ones like “Yes” and “No.” Place “No” somewhere easily accessible on your wheel and hit confirm.

How to emote in Diablo 4

Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Polygon

Now that you’ve got the proper emote ready to go, here’s how to use it and finish this quest:

• Open your emote wheel
• Change pages with your mouse wheel or the bumpers on your controller until you’re on the page where you placed your “No” emote
• Select “No” on the emote wheel and hit confirm

As long as you’re in front of the statue of Lilith when you hit no, your character will do the emote and a little treasure chest will just appear next to the statue. Open the statue to get some decent gold and XP. Much more useful than both of those resources, however, is the +20 Renown for the Dry Steppes that you’ll also receive for finishing “Reject the Mother.”

There are a few of these tricky emote quests in Diablo 4. And while they initially might give you some trouble, they’re actually a very quick way to pick up some Renown if you know what you’re doing. If you’re looking for more, you can check out our guide to the “Keeping the Old Traditions” side quest (also in the Dry Steppes) and the “Secret of the Spring” side quest all the way in Fractured Peaks.