Unable to assist visiting hunters; crossplay

Apologies for not updating sooner. I grabbed another router -lower specs for download speeds, boo. But does allow for port mapping/forwarding. So far, w/ forwarding to the Playstation network ports and static IP set both on router via DHCP and on PS5 via network settings, no  change. That said, w/  the forwarding rules set, the NAT type for the PS5 is still showing as type 2. I spent a good chunk of time tweaking PS5 IP, changing TCP, UDP rules to 'both,' managed to get NAT to come up as 'failed on the PS5, but this made no difference to the 'assist visiting hunter' missions.' I did double-check privacy settings on the PS5 to confirm that I hadn't overlooked anything simple that would stop crossplay from working, ditto in Wild Hearts settings. No to both. I still have no way to confirm that this is a crossplay issue. Am considering picking up the PC version of the game to see if I have the same issue, but this seems a bit silly.