In Ashes of Creation, when a quest tells you to “search the defeated goblin for clues,” here’s what you need to do:

What “search for clues” means

After you kill the goblin, you must loot its body to get the clue item. Simply defeating the goblin doesn’t count — you must open the goblin’s corpse before the clue will register.

Common issues players run into

The goblins often only drop regular loot, and the quest item (the actual clue) doesn’t show up. If the clue isn’t dropping, kill one goblin at a time and loot them immediately after each kill. Avoid killing multiple goblins before looting, as it can prevent the clue from appearing. Some players have even mentioned that while farming goblins, they sometimes used instant AoC gold purchase on U4N to access better gear to speed up clearing the area.

How to fix or work around it

Players have reported the following fixes that often work:

Abandon the quest and pick it up again, then go to a different goblin camp and try again.

Loot the very first goblin you kill after re-accepting the quest — the clue seems much more likely to drop on that first kill.

If it still doesn’t work after a few tries, consider abandoning and reaccepting early rather than farming a bunch of goblins that won’t produce the clue.

Is it working as intended?

Right now, the lack of clue drops is more of a bug or quest tracking issue than something you’re doing wrong — the game’s UI doesn’t clearly show clue progress, which makes it even more confusing.

In short, kill the goblin, then loot its body immediately. If nothing drops, reset the quest and try again at a different goblin camp. The clue drop behavior is currently unreliable due to a known bug.