Update first — the developer patched fast during the late-August 2026 player surge. The loudest workarounds players found: the Xer base fire/water/grass puzzle wall clears if you close and reopen the game; blank move slots clear if you set your moves, save, and reload; and do NOT level a Dokimon past its evolution level with crystals — players report it can block the evolution entirely. The Windows Defender flag on the game's exe is a reported false positive with no developer statement; verify files through Steam before excluding anything.
- Answer
- Update the game, then check the list below — most issues have a player-found workaround, and each one links its Steam thread.
- Evidence
- Player symptoms and workarounds are quoted or summarized from the game's Steam discussion threads, each linked in Sources. Patch timing comes from the developer's Steam announcements as archived on this site's news page.
- Rule
- Check your build date before troubleshooting anything here — the game patches quickly and player threads go stale within weeks.
- Confidence
- The reports are real players' words at their linked URLs, but none of these bugs has been reproduced by this site, and which patch fixed what is mostly not stated by the developer. Everything here is 'as reported'.
- Updated
- 2026-08-30
Update the game first
Dokimon Quest patched fast during its free-to-keep surge in late August 2026. The developer's 26 August announcement — titled "Tiny QOL Additions and some Tiny Bug Fixes" — opens by noting the game went from a previous peak of 167 concurrent players to 1,700, and says of the new players' reports: "some issues and new suggestions came up, which have been applied".
If Steam has not pulled the latest update, nothing else on this page is worth trying yet. Several of the problems below were reported in the days right around that patch, and some may already be fixed on current builds.
Stuck at the puzzle wall in the second Xer base
Players report reaching the wire puzzle in the second Xer base and finding the wall will not open even with the puzzle apparently solved.
The workaround from the thread: close the game completely and reopen it. Players in the thread confirm the puzzle then registers as solved. The tell that the puzzle is in its fixed state is that the wires are attached to the fire, water and grass symbols.
This is a player-reported workaround, not a developer statement — but it is the single most linked-to fix in the game's recent forum history, and it costs nothing to try.
A Dokimon's moves go blank after healing or catching
The loudest bug of the launch surge. A player reported it on 26 August: "i caught Luna added her then went to attack and the only option was a 0 so i set her skills attacked and went to rest and got back into another fight only for it to say 0 again. when you go to the skills page it says error m-1 where the skill description should be". A separate thread described the same thing as "having to remap the dokimons moves everytime you heal and if you forget you just enter battle without attacks".
The workaround the reporting player found themselves: "set your skills, save the game, log out then back in and it should fix that issue of it being blank". A bug-fix patch shipped the same day these reports were made; if you still see blank move slots on a current build, it is worth a fresh report.
Replaced moves cannot be relearned
A narrower movepool problem, reported separately from the blank-slots bug: some moves, once replaced, do not appear in the relearn list again. The thread names Siren Screech and Soul Drain on the Casper line (Casper evolves into Deathscye — the game's spelling — at level 16) and Dark Toll on Gloombud and Noxy.
All three moves exist in the game's data — Siren Screech is a Ghost move at 80 power, Soul Drain a Ghost move at 70 power, Dark Toll a Dark status move — so the reports are about access, not about cut content. No workaround is given in the thread. If a move you care about is on that list, think twice before overwriting it.
Evolution never triggers after over-leveling with crystals
A player reports that leveling a Dokimon past its evolution level in one jump — using crystals to take an Aoimon from level 28 to 30 — left it unable to evolve at all afterwards.
The game's own data says Aoimon evolves at exactly level 28, which fits the report: the evolution appears to check the level-up crossing the threshold, and skipping over it skips the check.
Until the developer addresses it, the safe pattern is simple: if a Dokimon is close to its evolution level — every evolution level in the game is listed on that Dokimon's page here — level it the last step through battle rather than jumping it with crystals.
The Thief! achievement will not unlock
The confusion is about when it triggers. Players report the achievement unlocks when you USE a Theft Captal against another trainer's bound Dokimon — not when you obtain the item. The thread's worked example is the ranger standing outside the Yor flight school.
The item itself is real and expensive: the Theft Captal costs 4,000 coins and the game's own item text reads "Lets you steal monsters from other trainers. The battle ends on use." In the achievement data the entry appears as "Thief!", with a global unlock rate of 4.2% as of 27 August 2026.
Cannot re-enter the Gad'riel fight after losing
A player reports losing the Gad'riel fight, leaving the area, and then being unable to re-enter to try again. The thread contains no workaround and no developer response as of its capture.
This one is worth knowing about in advance rather than after: before starting the Gad'riel fight, make sure you are ready for it, and be careful about leaving the area if you lose. A separate negative Steam review reports a softlock "by teleporting at certain times", which suggests the game's area-transition state can wedge in more places than this one.
Windows Defender flags the game's exe
A player opened a thread titled "windows defender keeps flagging the game exe" during the August surge. It has no developer response, so there is no official statement to point at.
What can be said: the game ships through Steam, it is built in GameMaker, and small GameMaker executables with few downloads are a well-known source of heuristic false positives — the detection is based on the file being unfamiliar rather than on anything found inside it.
The safe order of operations is: right-click the game in your Steam library, Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files. If Steam reports the files intact, you have a file that matches what the developer shipped. Only then consider adding a Windows Security exclusion for the game's install folder. Do not disable Defender to play a game — exclude the one folder, or nothing.
Complaints that are not bugs
- Unclear quest direction — a recurring theme in Steam reviews. The game gives sparse guidance by design; the walkthrough page here lists the full area order as a substitute.
- No custom keybindings on PC — another recurring review complaint. There is no in-game remapping; Steam Input can rebind controller layouts, but keyboard keys are fixed.
- The "98%" achievement showing at 2.8% — the achievement for completing the main story is NAMED "98%". The 2.8% is its unlock rate. Nothing is broken.
How to report a bug usefully
- Say which build you are on and whether Steam has updated since you saw the problem.
- Say whether you are in permadeath mode — several reported issues are specific to it.
- Name the area and the Dokimon involved. "The wire puzzle in the second Xer base, after reopening the game" is actionable; "the game broke" is not.
- Post in the game's Steam discussions — the developer shipped a fix patch within days of the surge reports.
Quick answers
Is the Windows Defender warning on Dokimon Quest a virus?
There is no developer statement, but the pattern matches a common false positive on small GameMaker executables. Verify the files through Steam first; if they check out, the file is what the developer shipped.
Why won't my Dokimon evolve?
Check its evolution level on its page here. If you leveled it PAST that level in one jump with crystals, players report the evolution can be skipped entirely — level the final step through battle instead.
Why are my Dokimon's moves all showing 0?
A widely reported launch-surge bug. The player-found workaround: set the moves again, save, quit to the menu and reload. A bug-fix patch also shipped on 26 August 2026 — update first.
How do I unlock the Thief! achievement?
Use a Theft Captal (4,000 coins) against another trainer's bound Dokimon — players point at the ranger outside the Yor flight school. Merely buying or holding the item does not unlock it.
I'm stuck at the wire puzzle in the Xer base — is it broken?
Players report the wall sometimes fails to register the solved puzzle. Close the game completely and reopen it; the solved state has the wires attached to the fire, water and grass symbols.
Sources
- Dokimon Quest Steam discussions — The forum all player symptoms on this page come from.
- Xer base puzzle wall thread — Symptom, the close-and-reopen workaround, and the fixed-state tell.
- Theft Captal achievement thread — How the Thief! achievement actually unlocks.
- Move relearning thread — Specific moves reported unrelearnable after replacing them.
- Evolution blocked by over-leveling thread — Crystal-leveling past the evolution level, reported on Aoimon.
- Gad'riel fight re-entry thread — Losing and leaving the fight, then being unable to re-enter. No fix in the thread.
- Yanako RPGs announcement, 26 August 2026 — "Tiny QOL Additions and some Tiny Bug Fixes" — the patch shipped during the player surge.