There is a critical bug in Qfg4 that, unfortunately, wasn't ever fixed and may prevent you from finishing the game. Richard Cobbett was so kind he described the problem and workaround in detail, I'll quote him on it:

"They’ve included a fan-patch for QFGIV that cleans up the major issues – that one included. Though IIRC it doesn’t fix the Domovoi bug. This is a character you need to meet with within the first 5 days or he stops appearing and the game becomes unwinnable. That’s not a huge issue as long as you know about it – just go downstairs at the Inn after midnight – but… yeah.

I’ve not played it for a long time, and always got it out of the way to avoid running into the bug once I heard about it. I *think* you just have to talk to him the once, but I’m not sure. Never tested the alternative.

To be safe, when you go to town, rent a room at the inn, rest until after midnight and go and meet him on Night 1, then in the morning head over to the old Monastery in town to help out another domovoi who’s inside. There’s a guardian, but you can get past it very easily, and the only other thing you need to help him is also in the town. (He said cryptically to avoid spoilers). Once you’ve done this, go back to the inn, rest until midnight again and go back downstairs to meet the domovoi again. He’ll tell you a story about the innkeepers’ daughter, Tanya, and about a doll. Take that, and you’re done with him whether he shows up again or not. Either way, without the doll, you’re screwed later on, so make sure you get it early.

(Note: The Monastery is a dangerous place, but you can at least do that part without any real risk whatsoever, assuming you get past the… cough… doorman. And you’re not sequence breaking or anything by going there immediately, so don’t worry about that. It’s a big scary building you’re repeatedly told to avoid – they knew full well people would make a beeline for it :-))"

What you need to do in the Monastery can't be done until day 3 at the earliest. A crucial item becomes available only then.

To be safe, just make sure to sleep at the inn for the first 5 days, or until you meet him, as Cobbett says. I'm pretty sure the game will wake you up to go meet him at some point during those initial days as long as you're sleeping at the inn. Wasn't sure if you can also meet him by manually resting until after midnight, but apparently you can.

I don't think you need to worry about the monastery, that shouldn't be time-limited. The key is just to not miss that first Domovoi meeting at the inn.

I've heard about the Domovoi bug but in my three playthroughs of the game never encountered it. The first time I took a whopping 28 days before I even knew I was supposed to speak to one, and when I did was able to do so without trouble. Then again I also torched the monastery long beforehand, so during one of my next couple runs I had waited a week before doing anything domovoi-related (I almost never slept in the inn either) and was still able to make it through the game just fine.

About the only thing I did consistently was purchase a room at the inn during the first or second day. So I guess it's good to do that at least? Dunno, odd is all I can say about this.

I've actually never hit this bug, and I never rest in the inn until day 7. Usually it shows up on night 7 for me just fine.

However, I did discover that if you grab the doll before you're told about it, a later note will never show up which is required to start the last part of the game. Supposedly it was patched in the first patch that was released, but to be safe I never grab the doll until I'm told about it.

I didn't know you could get the doll before the Domovoi tells you about it

You can in the diskette version of QFG4 (the non-talkie one). That one isn't sold or packaged through GOG or Steam. You could grab the doll only after saving the dehydrated domovoi, but you didn't have to talk to the domovoi at the inn to get the doll, so you technically never heard about it. It was likely fixed in a patch.

You could just grab it once it was saved.

(Also, the doll was in a red dress in the diskette version.)

Yeah this is one of the worst bugs still not fixed even in fan patches (although there is a new fan patch being worked on so fingers crossed!). Also what doesn't help is that there's a lot of misinformation going around about it. Some have already hinted this is not true here but so many people out there no matter how many friggin times I correct them on it just say that you have to visit the Domovoi before day 5 which is NOT true. Even the bloody Sierra help site says this grrr. Considering certain prerequisite events at the Monastery can't be done until day 3ish saying it this way is putting unnecessary fear and stress in players that they can trigger a game ending bug if they don't do something within a 24hr or so window lol.

You could visit the Domovoi on day 995 for all the game cares and he'll still be there AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT STAY AT THE INN. If you stay at the Inn every night until day 5 without visiting the Domovoi then yes you will trigger the bug. If you sleep next to the staff in town or leave town and sleep at Erana's peace you will NOT trigger the bug and can can sleep at the in till midnight and speak with the Domovoi on whatever day you feel like it. It was like day 30 by the time I bothered in my game and sure enough he appeared the first night i stayed at the inn instead of elsewhere.

Do you have to complete the whole Domovoi quest right away, by the way, or do you only have to see the Domovoi after sleeping there? Btw can you sleep there once without seeing him, like once or twice before Day 5, or does the bug trigger if you haven't met the Domovoi by Day 5 if you've slept at the inn by that time?

From what I understand, the bug is that the Domovoi just never shows up at the inn at midnight like he's supposed to. But the way everyone describes it is still confusing to me.

The only item you really care about getting is the doll, which you NEED in order to beat the game. You can only grab the doll after rescuing the Domovoi and meeting him again at the inn, where he enables your flag. You can rescue the Domovoi from the monastery as early as Day 3 when you get the item you need, and without ever talking to him. Once you have the doll, you're in the clear.

I can't get the bug to trigger at all. I've never even seen it during my 25 years of playing this game. In my '97 Collection CD, no matter how many days I sleep at the inn in a row, he's always there when I go down at midnight. Either there's a certain order of actions that people take, or the bug is present in some versions of the game but not others.

Here I am, almost exactly one year after this post and I've just encountered this bug. Thank God for this thread.

I had the diskette version of this 25 years ago, and never got far at all, so now I'm playing through it on Dosbox.

Playing it now on an actual 486, but using the ISO that came from GOG.

I played the game a long time ago, and was wondering just now why I hadn't met the domovoi yet. I thought I should have by now. I don't know the specific requirements to cause him to appear, but I had the idea that I needed to be at the inn after midnight. I was under the impression I'd be woken up automatically when he was ready to appear.

Because of this, I slept at the inn most of the time. Reading this thread (and others like it) scared me. Did I break my game?

At this point, I was on day 8. Except for sleeping once at the staff and once with the gypsies, I had stayed at the inn every night thus far. Every night there I had just slept through till sunrise.

Worried, I went back to town and stayed up till after everyone else went to bed, then went downstairs at the inn. The domovoi was there. He wouldn't tell me much, though, just saying that he was a domovoi, and that he used to bring luck, but now does not. He did tell me that we will speak again soon, though.

After exhausting the conversation tree, I went back to bed, and was woken up by the crying scene.

I believe that's all the necessary flags, right? But it's definitely day 8, so I'm not sure how I "escaped" the bug, nor am I sure exactly what triggers it. Because the domovoi definitely appeared at the inn on day 8, even though I hadn't seen him before, and even though I'd slept at the inn 5 out of 7 nights so far.

My n-th time doing QFG4 and the first time encountering this bug.... after one week of playing and completing everything else ... many thanks for sharing !!!

The domovoi bug is fixed if you play the game with ScummVM.