I just can't enter the castle, so the DLC is locked. There is nothing I can do.
I won't return to the save game before I visited the castle, because I've played a lot since and don't wan't to do all again.
Just downloaded patch 1.0.9 and a SIMPLE bug of a gate close was NOT solved. Came on, this is very frustrating.

Why don't you do your job properly and FIX this simple bug? Came on!

IF (isSerenaRescued) {
OPEN_THE_F###ING_GATE();
}

I can't belive you released a patch and did not solve it. Very amateur work at bethesda. You are selling a DLC that don't work. Stop selling.

Or at least put a warning:

DUE TO BETHESDA EXTREME INCOMPETENCE, DO NOT VISIT CASTLE VOLKIHAR BEFORE STARTING THE DAWNGUARD QUEST.

...some people on these forums i say...

if your too lazy to load an earlier save, thats your problem, just dont do the questline on this character and do it on a new one

Beth's not being lazy, most people aren't getting this bug. Don't get your panties in a bunch just because you can't be bothered to reload, that's the entire reason you save (and save often, as you don't seem to get) in the first place.

You say to do a reload like that is just 1 or 2 hours of game. But its not... I don't even remember when I swimmed to castle Volkihar.

If I go to a early save, I'll have to do all the main questline again and all the dragonborn dlc again. Its too much...

If I start a new char, I'll have to do all the thives guid again (extremely long and boring), all the dark broderhood again, etc...

And all because bethesda just don't correct a SIMPLE bug of a gate closed...

Most of the fun of Skyrim is to explore the world, to find new dungeons and quests randomly and now I am punished because I found the castle before starting a quest.

ok... when you go to the castle with Serana, are you certain you used the BOAT to get on the island and did not swim!?

edit:fixed a typo

I tried both swimming and boat.
Tried to ask Serana to leave and tried Serana to follow me.
She does not talk the dialog that starts the quest and make the guy to open the gate.

have you tried attacking her at the gates til she gets hostile, then yield by sheathing your weapon

Rodrigo, all of us here certainly understand your frustration. Pretty much all of us have had glitches. Yours is pretty rare and I don't even think it is a glitch. I went to the Castle 3 times, once on Xbox and twice on the PS3--one was a reload because I didn't like how Serana reacted to my dialog-- and gatekeeper opened every time, although his dialog was not always the same.

I guess you didn't even start Skyrim until you got Dawnguard because there was no such castle until the DLC. A lot of people broke quests in the early days of Skyrim because of the choices they made and then they came here to blame Beth. It's been 17 months of Skyrim moaning. You should know to play smarter and #1 is save often and keep your saves. I lost 8 hours because I didn't notice I dropped a mask. I used only 1 save file that whole day so I had to dump a whole day's play. I keep a better eye on my inventory now. #2 rule of Skyrim is your choices have consequences, and a few of these consequences are permanent. Play smarter.

I also understand that you don't want to start over. No way am I going to start over because my game is 17 months old and has over 600 hours. I would quit Skyrim forever if my game was broken. I take many precautions so my game is still good.

Try Litter's suggestion. I attacked Serana in the Soul Cairn when she wasn't responsive, starting with Fus Ro Dah'ing her and then trying to kill her. Worked. Warning: I also attacked her once right after arguing with her about her vampirism. She turned hostile and killed me. I loaded an earlier save.

Also warning: you'll encounter many more glitches if you keep free-roaming dungeons. Your choice.

I never have any problems getting into Castle Volkihar.

Also the game autosaves every time you wait, sleep, or go in or out of a building. Unless you disabled that.

Just reload from there.

Yes. Gate still closed

1) Its not rare. I′ve seen a lot of the same bug on the forums.
2) I don′t think you understood. I went to Castle before I met Serana. I have Skyrim with the 3 DLCs and played with this character. I was swimming, saw something big, swimmed there, found the castle, talked to the guard and he said I could not enter. Then I played lots of hours, did the whole Dragonborn DLC, all quests. Then I did the main quest, killed Alduin. Then I joined Dawnguard and found Serena. She asked to go home. I took her to the Castle and the guard dont open the gate.



I don′t know what you mean with "play smater". Should I look on the internet before make a quest? Whats the fun on that?

I understand that a big game like skyrim have lots of bugs, but I don′t understand how they make a patch and don′t correct this simple bug that is affecting lots of people. A bug at the main quest of Dawnguard, that does not allow me to keep playing the DLC.


In my opiniong free-roaming is the best thing of Skyrim. If I can′t do this, I′d rathed not to play this game.

Really? I can load an auto-saved game? WOW!

I′m just joking, You had a good intention at the reply, but It does not help me, because I visited the castle A LOT OF GAME HOURS before I started the Dawnguard quests. So I would have to play everything again.

I will have to wait bethesda fix this bug before playing skyrim again.

I think Dawnguard DLC is running poorly at the PS3 and its better to stay off the game until it is not properly fixed....

you should concider losing the bad attitude, for start...

now there is one thing you may try, however, back up your saves that you currently have on a separate usb drive just in case!!

1. load ANY save game you have before starting the specific quest where you have to go to the castle

2. replay to the point youve saved Serana and exit the cave she was in

3. make a new save, in a new slot (do not overwrite anything!)

4. Delete the file named "Skyrim - Update" in Data folder in XMB

5. Start the game and re-download the patch, but dont reinstall the dlc's just yet

6. load the save file you had made with serana in tag, and make a yet another new save, in a new slot again

7. exit the game, reinstall all dlcs you had (in same order you first got them preferreably!)

8. load the save game you had made just recently, and then, travel on foot to floatwater Jetty (do not use fast travel! using any boat driver in any seaside city docks may be fine tho), use the boat to go to the castle, make sure serana gets to finish all idle talk before approaching the gates, move in walking slowly until serana starts the dialogue with you, once you exit the dialogue move to the gate to hear the gatekeepers dialogue


---- a friend of mine had the very same glitch just last week and this is what he did and by surprise it worked for him, so atleast worth a shot if this questline is really all that important for you to finish on your current character

I said I was joking, and aprecieted the response of the guy. And explained again why it does not work for me.

But if he (or you) got offended, i'm sorry.

People are so sensitive these days...

Anyway, thanks for your response, I will try it tomorrow and if it works I'll post it here.

ahh i mustve missed that part anyways, good luck

I tried, but had no sucess...


When I save at this point, the game has no DLCs. Then when I load it, Serena disapeared. Even after reinstalling the DLCs.

I think I′m missing something...

hmm maybe i got some parts wrong myself lol, ill give my buddy a call tomorrow to ask the specific order he did it in