I have a tendency to fully explore areas before I tackle main missions. Essentially I did so many side missions/activities that I maxed out the resistance meter in the first area before venturing to where Nick Rye is located. Upon reaching his location, there was NOTHING there. No baddies to kill and no specialist to help. It's just empty.
I really don't want to start over, but if this is a game breaking bug...I'm gonna have to and bee-line it there ate the beginning and hope it doesn't happen again.
Hi all!
Thanks for reaching out to us. You're saying that you've finished so many missions that your resistant mission was maxed out, and despite having finished the Atonement mission, you were still unable to find Nick Rye? I'd first recommend trying these troubleshooting steps and getting back to us with whether they solve the issue of his absence or not.
The OP hasn't finished Atonement (main mission) of the area yet.
The reason the OP, and others, have this problem is because they didn't realize that when John announced (upon reaching 3rd tier Resistance level) "I have all your little friends here with me", he was talking about -all of them-, including Nick.
Players, if you want Nick Rye back to do his side-quest, you'll have to go rescue him from the Chapel! (Atonement)
I hope that was as spoiler-free as possible.
spoilers below...
Sorry to say, but I have the same problem (and did the same thing... level up before getting him as a friend) and finishing the mission did not bring him back.
His icon on the map has disappeared.
I guess that is because the whole Atonement mission was one big bug.
First I had the respawn bug, driving to the ranch, worked around that one.
Then I had to shoot the plane down, something I didn't succeed in, I just can get that plane to do what I want. So I decided to take a helicopter. They can't get high enough to shoot at the plane, so that didn't work. As I was hovering and figuring out what to try next, John decided to crash the plane himself. Al of a sudden, the 'going down' message was played and a yellow marker where he crashed was visible on the map. Going there, found him, killed him, got the key.
Still no Nick.
Played some side missions, did some stahses
Stil no Nick.
Guess I have to wait for the first patches to come out and see if those fix anything. If not, I'll just restart the game.
Playing on a PlayStation 4Pro
Seems I’m in a similar situation. I joined to find help. I cannot progress on the game at all and I’ve completed everything there is to find. Nick Rye isn’t even an available character and my mission status in John Seeds region says 36/52. Nothing at the hangar, chapel, ranch, I’ve liberated the other regions. All I keep getting is the same radio break over Rye’s Aviation saying “Damn it, it’s Nick Rye, the cult is at our door step....” but no one is ever there. By now I’ve spent way too much time searching, trying different ways to get gameplay to spawn, etc., someone please help.