The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Walkthrough (X360 and Enhanced Edition)


(click on the name of the mission below to jump to that part of the guide…)

Indeed, naught is more repulsive than these monsters that defy nature and are known by the name of witcher, as they are the offspring of foul sorcery and witchcraft. Unscrupulous scoundrels without conscience and virtue, they are variable creatures from hell, capable only of taking lives…

PROLOGUE

(The Dungeons of the La Valettes)

 
The Floating Prison

The next two chapters are continued in another page, click on the following links to go there… 

CHAPTER 2 & 3 – ROACHE'S PATH

CHAPTER 2 & 3 – IORVETH'S PATH

 

 

The Witcher Medallion and Exploration

One very important asset in the game for Geralt is his Medallion. The Medallion he wears is of a special make and everyone who comes from his school (although few or none remain) has a medallion like his. The Medallion was crafted from Witcher magic and vibrates at the slightest hit of Magic or Danger. You can see the medallion vibrating on your screen – it blurs out.  Perhaps the most important usage of the medallion arises from it's tendency to vibrate near places of power. They are magical areas where several powers collide as they flow about the world and this forms a vortex of helpful magic. The vortex look like red mist – you need to use the medallion (by hitting the use button) near a vortex to activate it and see it. There are different places of power which give a temporary boost to your vigor, vitality, power, damage or anything else.

Your medallion can also be used to highlight items of interest around you within a small area, the object glow orange if they have something of interest within which may be a little piece of twine to a secret key or a great sword and the medallion also highlights the herbs in places around you which you can pick. Here in the guide, I will mention all the important places you get stuff from but you should be constantly searching for herbs or any other useful thing with your medallion. The medallion is shown here –

It also makes a sound when it vibrates so you don't have to constantly look at it for magic.

Weapons and armour

Of course the main weapons for a Witcher are his two swords. Geralt always has a Silver Sword and a Steel Sword with him. The Silver Sword is used to kill monsters which range from Nekkers, Rotfiends, Endregas to more deadlier creatures like Wraiths, Gargoyles, Bullvores and a lot more. You cannot use a steel sword on monsters and likewise, a silver sword does not work on human. A Witcher lives in a world of danger and danger is constantly around him – Geralt even has to fight humans so that's what the steel sword is for – Human, Elves and Dwarfs. The Swords Geralt has may have rune slots on them. Just look into your inventory and see if there's small circles beside the sword which Geralt is currently wielding. The number of slots is equal to the number of runes you can use – the max is three and runes give the sword a variety of effect but remember that once a rune is placed in a slot, it stay there permanently. You can find runes in the world or buy them from several shopkeepers who sell them. There are also some oils which you an put on the sword which give a short term benefit to the sword – these oils should be made like potions. Apart from the two swords, Geralt can use throwing knives and bombs. You should make bombs just like potions – check the alchemy part of this guide. You ought to buy diagrams for throwing knives and bombs from the shopkeepers in the world and there are craftsmiths who craft the throwing knives for you.

Geralt also has the ability to use traps. You ought to buy the diagrams for traps and craft them with any craftsmith.

There are several pieces of armour Geral gets to wear but the most important is the torso armour and then there's also boots, gloves and trophies which give some extra minor bonuses. Like swords, armours have slots also which can use some armour improvements. You get better armour as the game progresses – I have written how to get all the best armour in the walkthrough itself.

Tips for Fighting, Powers and Signs

The most important part of the game…..

Here's a picture showing Geralt's health and vigor points –

Use the proper sword for monsters and humans. Sometimes Geralt draws the wrong sword so you need to make sure you are using steel swords for humans and silver for monsters.

The normal attacks (swift blow) do lesser damage but faster blows. Use these for faster monsters like the Nekkers or Rotfiends and also Scoi'atel because all elves are fast. The power attacks (power blow) do slower but greater damage and you ought to be using these for the most part in your fights – especially if you are laying in the higher difficulties but a good combination of both is the best way to go.

You can block attacks from enemies and do not underestimate Geralt's capability to block attacks. You can also upgrade Geralt's blocking ability so that he doesn't take any damage from blocking. To block an enemy's attack you need vigor points so if you run out of vigor points you cannot block anyone. You can also parry their attacks by hitting the block button just before they strike you, you ought to hit the button when enemies are in the middle of their swing. By parrying an opponent you can put them off balance and then make successful hits. By unlocking the Riposte ability from the character tree (swordsmanship path), you can also counter-attack the opponents. You can do this by holding the block button and then hit the swift blow button when you see an icon showing two crossed swords on the enemy.

Another very important part of combat is the ability to dodge away from an enemy. Hold any direction and then hit the dodge button the make Geralt roll out of the enemy's way. You ought to use this when surrounded by enemies or when fighting larger enemies so they don't hit you. The dodge ability can also be upgraded.

The Witchers have five specific signs which represent five kinds of powers which use up one point of Vigor each time –

AARD – This is a Telekinetic wave which is used to throw back opponents or destroy weak walls made of bricks or wood, when you upgrade this you can push back opponents with more force and to a greater distance.

YRDEN – The second most important sign, when the YRDEN is cast, Geralt makes a magical trap on the ground in which anything can trap anything that steps into it. The YRDEN is especially popular since it's need in battling the first boss in the game. The YRDEN's power is also underestimated and can be used to great benefits, when upgraded, Geralt can cast three traps which make an impassable barrier

IGNI – This sign casts fire out of Geralt's fingers and can do instant kills when upgraded

QUEN – The most important sign, QUEN is a protective shield around Geralt that lasts 30 secs in the basic level and more as you upgrade it and when fully upgraded, it reflects 50% of the damage the enemy causes to the shield. Also the times falls with each hit of the enemy accordingly with the power of the hit.

AXII – The most useless sign; cannot be very useful in battles and is only useful in conversations.

Geralt can use bombs, traps and daggers and when you use them in unison, they can cause large damages. You can put in an exploding trap on the ground and then use the Dragon's Breath bomb which is just explosive gas and then use the Grapeshot to burst both the trap and the gas and this gives a lot of damage, you can also set multiple traps for more damage.

Potions are very useful and should be constantly in use for higher difficulties of play. You can buy the formulae for potions from the various shopkeepers in the world around you.

Geralt has the ability to access three super powers which represent the highest echelon of a Witcher'sAbilities. They are –

  • Combat Acumen – This is present in the swordsmanship tree in the character map. This allows you to instantly kill three enemies.
  • Berserk – This is in the Alchemy tree and when activated, Geralt deals an amazing amount of damage for a short period of time.
  • Heliothrope – This is a sign and when used it slows everyone within a sphere around Geralt. This is obtainable in the Magic Tree.

To be able to use the above three powers, Geralt needs to fill his adrenalin bar which shows after you unlock one of the above skills. You can have enough level points to unlock two of the three skills and they can be used at the same time in conjunction – you can use both berserk and heliothrope on enemies at the same time.

Alchemy and Potion Usage

The first step in Alchemy is the collection of reagents which you can do by collecting the many herbs and remains of monsters which Geralt kills. Each item has a chemical reagent in it so as such you are not using the herb itself, you are using the chemical inside it and the same chemical can be found in multiple herbs or things. So when you are making some potion the ingredients show and you can change them if you want to – this is very important as some ingredients are rarer than others and you will need to keep the rarer ones with you (they may be used in a quest later in the game).

Then you'll also need to collect the formula for potions or oils or bombs. You can buy them from various shopkeepers or craftsmiths in the game.

Then go into meditation from the quick menu and select alchemy. You will see a list of all potions or other things you can make to the left and a list of all ingredients to the right and also the chemicals in the ingredients are shown at the top right and if you select a chemical, you can see which ingredients the chemical is present in. This way you'll know what ingredient can replace the one you want to save up and also you will see the present ingredient which is being used in the center of the screen and if you select them, you can change them. Look at the picture below explaining all the things on the screen –

So, make what potion / oil or bomb you want here then go back to the previous meditation menu and you can see the drink potion option which you can use and a list of all the potion you have will be displayed here.

Each potion has some toxicity level associated with it. Geralt can take a maximum of two potions at once in the beginning an if you upgrade the skill from the Alchemy tree then he can drink three. You can use oils to coat your weapons.

Character Level up, Mutagens and Character Ability Trees

NOTE: To unlock all the character development paths, you will first need to spend at least 6 points in the Training path.

Geralt can reach a maximum of 35 levels in the game and for each level he gains one point which can be used to unlock or upgrade a previously unlocked ability in the character tree.

Mutagens can be collected rarely from the dead bodies of your enemies. There are lesser and greater mutagens and some mutagens which exists only in one level. Mutagens are associated with the character tree and when you upgrade your character's abilities and as you unlock abilities, some of them may have a circle on them which signifies that, that ability can be mutated. Once mutated, it cannot be changed so never use lesser mutagens or the ones you think are useless, only use greater mutagens and the ones which come in only one level. The abilities which can be mutated are –

Abilities

Geralt can gain additional permanent abilities if he does something during a part of the game – that something will be mentioned in the walkthrough itself when you can do it.


WALKTHROUGH

PROLOGUE

The game starts off in a Dungeon with Geralt chained, we are forced to listen to the rants of two Guards who are playing Dice Poker in front of us, soon we're taken to the interrogation room where we are to explain everything that happened to Roache. You can select any dialogue but choose the first one just so we can do things in an order…

Day of the Assault: Dawn

Yeah, that was a great cutscene but believe me, there's better you can look forward to, I already love this game…

During the course of the game, you'll need to choose dialogues and depending on your choices, the game will change so be careful while choosing. Also, the lines which are in brown will take us further in the conversation whereas the ones in white are just small talk. So, talk all you want with Triss here and before going out, use your medallion (look at the controls map) and you'll see an orange glow on a box nearby, go near it and you'll see a use icon, use it and it displays the contents of the box, there's a few orens here, now you can use your medallion like this throughout the game to show items of interest around you in a small radius. The glow fades away after a few seconds though, but you should make a habit of using the medallion so that you can pick everything up, there's also the matter of picking herbs for alchemy, there are thousands of plants you can get useful herbs out of and all these plants have flowers in them, you can pick them but it's safe to use the medallion so that you do not miss out on anything. Get out of the tent, and you can pick herbs from plants to your left and right.

Go down the slope and you'll see a temerian recruit to the right, you can speak to him about things and also ask him the 200 orens. After that, you should also see a couple of burly people ahead and they call you as you near them –

This conversation will lead to a very interesting quest later on in the game, so speak to them and you'll need to speak in order here, first ask about the rape then the problem and finally where they got the pendant from (tell them it's trouble), when they ask you to take it, accept it. You now have the Melitele's Heart quest.

Go left and near them camp fire, you'll see that your medallion is reverberating or something, it gives out a strange noise too, use your medallion and you'll see you first place of power in the game. There are a lot many scattered in the game and each gives you a distinct bonus for a small time after you activate it, you can activate them as many times as you want to, this is the Circle of Vigor, it regenerates your health faster –

Move back and onto the main path, go on and you'll see a door to the right and there are some training dummies inside here. Go on and slice down all the five dummies, you need to destroy ten dummies to unlock an ability, you can find the remaining five later. I hope you are collecting all the herbs too, take them whenever you come across some –

There's a campfire nearby and a guy caller Strongarm, he's a arm wrestler and you can wager on yourself against him which starts a the arm wrestling mini-game, read the mini-game section of the walkthrough above to know how to play these games, to the right here, some guy is sitting with a dice poker board in front of him, you can play with this guy too. After you are done, go out thru the door and continue to the right, you'll see the marker (King Foltest) moving ahead, keep going till you meet and talk with him.

The King's Will

Follow the King around and you'll be on one of his priced Ballistae soon, to hit your target, point the ballista at 1.5 degrees near the bottom middle of the Barricade (make sure the centre of your spyglass points there), it does not matter even if you do not hit the target but hey, let's start the game in a winning position shall we, here's a pic of where you need to point at…

Now, inside the Siege Tower follow the king and go up all the stairs.

Day of the Assault: Morning

NOTE: Do not use Silver Sword against humans – they do not affect Humans and the Normal Swords do not affect monsters, so make sure you are using the right swords when fighting.

Barricade

Run out of the tower and start killing some enemies, the first button will do fast and low damaging hits and the second button will so slower but more powerful hits. You can use the button to block them and just after they are done attacking, use the right button to do deal high damage. After you kill the ones here and after the cutscene, go down right but do not go near the door where you an see the fire arrows come down, they'll kill you. There's a broken part of the wall to your left, jump down and again, jump to the ground from the right. As soon as you go down, three enemies come at you, kill them, to know all about combat, read that section of the waltkhrough above, you'll want to know all the mechanics of combat before you run into the fray. Then move left and to the left of the dead body is another Circle of Power –

Use it and move ahead, there are two arbalists behind the barricades to the left and the right and a Knight and some other guys ahead, Run and kill the Arbalists first so that they don't keep shooting at you throughout the fight with the Knight. Kill everyone and move ahead, don't go near the Ballista yet, move ahead and to the right, you'll see a dead guy with a White Robe (this is actually a representation of the Assassins Creed games). As soon as you look at the body, you'll unlock a new ability "ASSASSIN", this allows us to deal more damage from behind enemies, this is an extremely useful ability, so whenever you are in battle, just move behind a guy and hit him for more damage.

Go back to the Ballista and use it, keep mashing the button till the bar fills and then another round of enemies to kill. After that, use the Ballista again and kill the remaining guys. Use the Ballista for one last time to put a hole into the door above and move ahead to the far end. There are two soldiers here and go up the stairs to find two more soldiers and an Arbalist, again kill the Arbalist first. There's another arbalist above the next set of stairs so kill him too. After you are done killing everyone, move to the right from the first Arbalist and climb up the wooden platform, go right and climb the wall to the left and go thru the door.

At the Fore

Kill the enemies here and follow the King to the left. Inside the room, there's a Knight with heavy armour on and more small fries, take out the Knight first, you can trap him in a Yrden or some thing and roll behind him and slash on his back. After everyone here is dead climb up the stairs here and you'll catch a glance of Aryan La Valette. Run across and there are a few arbalists waiting for you there, kill them and proceed to the top from the rigth, climb the stairs and go up and climb the wall. Now, you can choose to either slaughter all of the guys here (a bit difficult) or if you ask Aryan to surrender you can then ask him to make this a Mano-e-Mano, or you can ask him to drop his sword again and let him off (which is a good thing to do), but your game, your choice. Also, if you let aryan go off now, you can unlock a great ability later in the game. If you are fighting him then be sure to use a lot of Quen.

Day of the Assault: Noon

Just run into the sheds to the left or the right, kill the enemies here and move ahead to the gate and kill the rest. Run ahead and across the burning bridge, there's not much to do here.

Day of Assault: Afternoon

NOTE: if you level up now then look at the Character level up and Training trees section above for help.

Into the Temple (part 1)

After speaking to the King, go down from behind you all the way till you get to some houses. Now, you can go in almost all of the houses and each of them has something, either a book or some Orens and stuff. As soon as you are down the stairs, if you go to the right, you will find the diagram of Oil inside the house (this tells us how to make oil which is useful to craft several items). There 's also some Orens and a book. Go back near the stairs outside and you should see some soldiers and innocents, nearby are four houses you can go into. To the left of the people here in between the houses is a dead soldier and wood planks covering the path ahead –

You can destroy the planks by casting AARD, you'll come to an area which has a well which leads to the next area, but we can catch a couple of quests while we are still here so let's look around a bit. Go right from the people here and you'll see some lady getting shot by an arrow, this opens a new quest.

Woe to the Vanquished

Go into the house and talk to the soldiers, you the various methods at your disposal here and talk them out of this. Move straight from this house and talk to the commander here, beat him in a duel and go into the house nearby and speak to the people inside, this completes the quest. 

Into the Temple (part 2)

Now, go back out again and explore the remaining area if you need to, keep moving and you'll come to a place where soldiers are fighting each other, kill the enemies and read their orders. There's a gap between the houses ahead, go thru and you'll come to the same place which the wooden planks you broke earlier lead to. Pick up all the herbs around this place and go into the well here. If some enemies block your way here then go back to the wooden plank area and go thru here, kill the enemies and go down the well.

As soon as you fall down move to the next room ahead and jump down the hatch here, when you are in the sewers, go into Meditation and drink up the Rook potion (alchemy and drinking potions are a very important part of the game so I suggest you read that section of the walkthrough before you start making and using potions) and now it's time to use your silver sword. You'll face what's called a Drowner, to the right here is a Circle of Life, activate it. Go across to the other end and use your medallion, you'll see that the wall to the right is glowing, use AARD on it and go in and pick up the Temerian Sword, go into your inventory and drag it in place of any long sword you may have now since this deals more damage – 

Go thru the place to the right here and you'll soon come into a large area with more Drowners. There's a door to the left which you can open, go thru and climb the stairs in the end to come up to a new location. Go into meditation and make some Samum Bombs, move along and open the door, cast QUEN and start using the bombs on them or you can just kill them too. Go up the stairs nearby and when you reach the top, climb the wall to the right. Move left and fight the enemies here, kill them and pick up all the stuff around here and go into the door. There are two guys inside, kill them and go thru the next door. This area has a lot of enemies, your best bet is to use the Samum Bombs to stun them and kill them quick, kill the minions first and fight the Knight at the last. After killing the Knight go back into the room which you came here from and go thru the gate to the right and pull the lever. Go back outside and meet the king.

Day of the Assault: Night

Blood of his Blood

Once inside the Monastery, after you speak to everyone you can go to a lower level which has a few things for you, the door is nearby, You should see a Guard stand in front of it, go in and down the stairs and pick up everything you can. Go back up and outside. Now, we face a very large flying creature. As soon as the cutscene starts keep mashing the power attack button so that you don't miss it, also as soon as the screen gets black, hold the analog stick down so that you start moving as soon as the screen comes back to normal, as you move, you'll be asked to hit the power attack button again so keep an eye on it, do not release the analog stick yet keep holding it down. You may get killed a few times but hey, keep trying, there is no trick here.

The Dugeons of the La Valettes

After you speak with Roache (You choose to find the kingslayer one way or the other), you are back in your prison, move the camera to show Geralt's Back and you'll get an option to either mock the guards or unshackle yourself, one way or the other you'll be in your first fist fighting game you only need to do the appropriate button when it shows on the screen, pick up the key and exit your cell, there's a weapons rack here, take the Blackjack from it. Now, you can either fight your way thru the dungeon or sneak (this is better). Just extinguish all the torches as you move past and when you are facing a guard's back, stun them (power hit button) and kill them. Go up the stairs and at the end is a locked door, remember this door. Now, go right up the stairs and take care of the three guards, pick up the key and open the locked door and fall down from the trap door. Move ahead and you'll soon hear Aryan La Valette (if you did not kill him earlier). You can jump up the wall here and kill enemies inside. Help Aryan La Valette and doing this will earn you a Ability (you can carry more weight which is very useful).

Pick up Aryan and head out, Geralt will put him down soon, now go out and up the stairs to the right all the way and kill everyone here. Go back for Aryan and he takes you to a secret passage and soon you'll come outside. If you told Newboy that the Talisman was trouble and took it from him earlier in the game then he comes and speaks to you. He tells you that he will distract the guards so you can go off, if you did not take the amulet from him then he attacks you here. Anyway, go up the stairs and keep going till you see Triss, follow her into the boat and you will have completed the Prologue of the game.

If you killed Aryan then you will get to speak to his mother and also once outside you can explore the area a bit and collect all the items around, if you cross newboy you will have to kill him though.
 

CHAPTER 1

 

A Rough Landing

Follow Triss and Roache out of the boat and keep going behind them. As soon as you step down keep looking to the left and you should see a chest glowing, inside is the Witcher's Silver Sword Diagram –

Take it because it is needed for a quest and is very very important. Keep going ahead and after a long walk you'll come to Iroveth. After the talk, whatever you say, you'll get into a fight. You should stay inside the barrier at all times, if you can complete this quest without going out of the barrier, you'll unlock the COVER ability which reduces all damage taken by 10% so try to stay inside the barrier all the time. Kill the Scoi'atel who come inside the barrier, you have a long way to walk so just keep at it, when you reach the town, the squirrels pull back and you are safe.

By the Gods – Stringing up Sods

The marker shown on the map takes you to the town square where you see the hanging of two of your pals. You can stop the execution in a peaceful way or in an aggressive manner, just figure out the dialogue lines but when you see the commandant come, agree to his invitation for peaceful talks at his home. Speak to the older guard to the left of the steps and start the fighting minigame. Then you'll fight again and that's about it here.

After you free them follow your two friends into the inn but before going in, look to the right and you will see a notice board –

Read the board and accept all the quests, there should be three contracts, the Nekker Contract, Endrega Contract and Troll Trouble. Head inside the inn and after speaking to your friends, after speaking to them some guys shouts about a monster and a new quest comes up, ignore it for now, the monster is not going anywhere. Go down the stairs and you will come into the lower area of the inn which has dice poker and fist fighting players, both involve quests.

A Sword for Monsters

Before you do anything, let's get us a silver sword first. Look into your map and you should see this when you zoom in –

Go to the nearest smith who is right across from the inn a bit to the right and buy two pieces of silver ore from him and then ask him to craft you the silver sword, that ends it here. While coming to this craftsman, you should have see a small blue dot on the minimap and two guys dressed in all black to the left of the shop –

Speak to them and they give you a mutagen, read the mutagen section for more info on that.

Poker Face: Flotsam

Read the mini games section of this walkthrough for detailed explanation on all mini games. Talk to the guys ahead –

If you speak to Zindarb then he asks us to beat the other two guys here, just beat them and then defeat Zindarb, remember to save the game before you start to play so that you can reload if you lose too many times, also you only need to win once no matter how many times you lose. Einar Gaunsel, the next guy to defeat is in the house opposite to the nearest craftsmith. But open your Journal and choose to track this quest and you should see the house pointed on the mini map. GO there and defeat Gaunsel and he points you to the last player, but before you go away, be sure to buy four books from him which are on – Nekkers, Rotfiends, Harpies and The Kayran, they are important for later. Again, if this quest is tracked, you will see the marker outside the town, that area is the village Lobinden. You can go there by going straight across from the inn and thru the door, it's this place on your map –

As you go thru here, you will see two more training dummies, destroy them now so that you can unlock a new ability later. Go on out and into the players house and defeat him. After you defeat him though, you can choose to ask some traps instead of coin, I chose the poofbanger.

One on One: Flotsam

To the right of the poker table is the fist fighting ring of Flotsam, speak to anyone and defeat all three contenders to become the champ, however, this serves a greater purpose, after you beat two of the guys here, King Ziggy extends an invitation to another tournament, accept it for now.

Bring it On: Floatsam

Talk to Zoltan (your dwarf friend) and ask him whether he's still got it and arm wrestle him, you get this quest after that. There are three more players sitting by the table near the door, after defeating them all, the last one asks you to find Bartholemew Bargee in the village – the local champ.

Bargee is in the village outside Flotsam – Libonden. Go there and defeat him (you can see where he is if you track this quest from your journal).

Near Bargee's house is an elf being surrounded by guards, interrupt them and tell them you'll take care of it and this gives you a new quest.

Melitele's Heart (part 1)

You get this quest in the prologue of the game if you take the talisman from Newboy in the camp.

Now, outside Flotsam is the town of Libonden, go there and visit the only shop here and speak to Anzeka. Ask her about the medallion and then say that it must be precious to her, then persuade her that a customer like you does not come along too often, even if you fail to persuade her keep trying. She tells you about the talisman and the ritual, tell her you are interested in the ritual and she gives you a list of ingredients to collect, here's the list – Essence of Death, Troll's Tongue, Eyes of Arachus and Endrega's Fetus – perfect…

The ingredients are very difficult to find and you get them during other quests in this area, you get the Troll's Tongue while doing – Troll Trouble which you get from the notice board. The Endrega's Fetus is also from the Endrega Contract again from the notice board. The eyes if the Aracus come from the Rose of Remambrance quest much later in the game and the

Malena

You'll see an elf surrounded by guards just behind the house of Bargee the local arm wrestling champ.

Interrupt them and tell the guards that you will look into the matter then you should go to the cave entrance which is marked on your map, look into your map and keep going in that direction till you get to the cave, you will need to go out of the west exit of Flotsam here and as you go there you should see two more training dummies, destroy them.

Go into the cave but be very careful since there are dozens of Nekkers here and they all come at you once at the same time. To avoid being torn to shreds, just run back and the Nekkers won't follow you, they disperse one by one but you can just move forward so that one or two come at you, then kill them and keep doing this till all the Nekkers are dead. Use your medallion and the trail of blood is highlighted, you need to follow this trail all the way to the other end of the cave and you will find the bodies and Scoi'atel arrows nearby. Go back outside and speak to the guards, if you want to be nice then don't tell the soldiers that they were shot of if you want to get rid of Malena, tell the soldiers that they were shot.

If you choose to save Malena then she asks you to come near the waterfalls, you can see the fall in your map (the large body of water) but you'll just be attack when you go there. You can find Malena hiding behind a wall in the ruins of the old hospital here which you come across during the quest "In the Claws of Madness" but all that's for nothing, you can just end the quest by telling the soldiers that their friends were shot and you still get the same exp.

Troll Trouble

NOTE: This quest gives us an important ingredient – the Troll's Tongue which is required for the ritual by Anzeka in Melitele's Heart, so after you get the troll heart, do not sell it or throw it away, keep it with you since it is one of the rarest ingredients in the game. Also, if you cannot manage to get the Troll's head from Cedric then you better go back and kill the Troll and take it's tongue or you will miss Melitele's Heart which gives us a great talisman.

You get this quest from the notice board beside the inn of Flotsam. Track this quest by going into the journal and selecting it, the marker will be somewhere in the middle of the forest so you can just make your way there. When you get to the broken bridge, you'll see some guy being attacked by a few Nekkers, kill them and he talks to you. Now, you can either go ahead and kill the troll and take your reward or meet Chorab – chief of the village Lobenden. The marker for Chorab is now shown on the map, go speak to him. After you do that, go to the troll and talk, you'll start fighting soon and after you get it's health down to half it talks again, if you say "Not Good Enough" then you get into a fight again and you'll kill it but if you choose the other option and ask it why the binge drinking, he tells us his troubles.

Troll
Fighting a troll is a bit hard on higher difficulties. If you are near him then he just slaps you and you lose a lot of health, if you are far from him then he charges at you and you lose more health or he throws a boulder at you which nearly kills you. The most effective way to take down a troll is to run a bit as soon as the fight starts and then cast YRDEN behind you so that the Troll runs into it. When it gets trapped just roll behind it and start slashing on it's back – do power hits, this way you can take down a lot of health before it recovers. When it does recover, use another YRDEN and keep going, the troll should be down in two or three uses of YRDEN.

Now, if you went ahead and killed the Troll then just collect the Troll's Tongue and go to the town square for your reward – you need to go inside the large house directly opposite to the inn – the one which has two clothes stores in front of it. But if you decided to help the Troll then you need to go find the female troll's head. Go to the inn and speak with Zoltan, he'll tell you that a peasant with a Troll's head can raise a lot of skirts, then Geralt tells him that he'll look around in Lobenden. So go to Lobenden and into the local craftsmith's place (not Cedric) – this is the same guy you would have beat at the dice poker finals, you should see the Troll's head on a trophy mount. Speak to him and tell he that you'll take the Troll's head, beat him at poker ( you may need to beat him once or twenty times – this sucks but it's the only way and it's completely random) and you'll get the head and the Troll's Tongue – again keep the tongue safe with you since you need it for another quest. Now go back to the inn and to the bottom floor (the games room). Look for Pinto here and either intimidate him or fist fight him and he gives you the location of Dimitri. The location is now shown on your map go there but before you go down to Dimitri, save the game. As Dimitri is a troll killer – you should obviously expect more trouble than a Troll. The best way to win this fight is to use traps, potions and what not. Kill everyone else before concentrating on Dimitri. Keep parrying and rolling away – read the tips for fighting section of the walkthrough above for information on fighting. Use QUEN or YRDEN or any power of your choice frequently for better results. After everyone is dealt with – take the hideout key from Dimitri and the important document from the dead guy whom Dimitri killed, then go to the Troll. Speak to the Troll now and tell him that you took care of everything and his wife's killers, he gifts you too, then go back to the chief and take the reward.

Before we go to another quest, let's look up the bandit's hideout (you have the key after you killed Dimitri). Go back to the Troll's Lair and after you jump down the two ledges, go right and you should see a slope to the left. Go up here and all the way to the north west of the forest where you'll fight a few bandits and find a house with a ton of traps around it – use your medallion to highlight the traps. Go into the house and take the Cutlass which is the best sword for now.

Nekker Contract

NOTE: Before you do this quest, it is advised that you explore the forest, just run around so that the map opens up and when I put in pics here for locations, you can get there with ease.

NOTE: Also, you will come across tons of Nekkers here and you ought to kill them all but after you kill Nekker Warriors, you can pick up their blood (Blood of Nekker Warrior) from the remains. The blood is used in many alchemic recipes but I strongly advise you to save at-least a couple of the blood since they are required for a quest in the last chapter of the game and this is your best chance of getting the blood of a Nekker Warrior (you cannot get them anywhere else in the game) – you need it for "The Encrypted Book" quest in chapter 3.

You get this quest from the Notice Board beside the inn. Before you start this quest, you had better bought the book on Nekkers from the guy who lives in the house opposite to the craftsmith in town square (I already mentioned this during the poker face quest). Read the book on Nekkers and you'll know that you have to blow up their nests – you absolutely have to read the book to get this or you'll never finish this quest – you can also get that info after you kill a few dozen Nekkers but this is better. So, you have to destroy four nests to take care of the Nekker problem. To destroy the nests you'll need Grapeshot Bombs. You may not have them now so you can buy them from the the Craftsman Cedric in the village out of town – climb the ladders nearby to get to him. You'll see a short cutscene when you go to him for the first time, you can ask Cedric if there's work for a witcher here and he gives us a quest – In the Claws of Madness. Anyway, buy the formula for Grapeshots from him and make at-least four, read the alchemy section for help, if you did not pick enough stuff for the ingredients then just buy four bombs from him, note that they are very costly and it's best to make some. And now we turn to hunt. I'll just give the map locations of all the Nekker Nests here so here's one –

Just move along by constantly looking into your map you should see the line of water shown in the map while walking, it's just a small stream of water, but like I said, keep looking into the map as you move and when you get near the spot use your medallion so that it can highlight the nest, that's one and this nest is right next to a tree, walk around the tree and you will see another nest just use your medallion, both nests are just around the tree a few paces from each other so you should not miss them. The problem with the map is that they just show a larger perspective of things so as you near your goal, the main map and even the mini map will look different but thankfully we have the Medallion – use it when you get nearby where I've shown and it should highlight the nests. A lot of nekkers come out as soon as you get near the nests so just interact with the nests and Geralt sends down a bomb himself, take a few steps back and let it blow, take care of any Nekkers who might have surfaced. Since two nests have been taken care of, we'll go to the third, here's the location –

Just keep looking at your map to get here, it is a bit difficult to find them but hey, where's the fun? Just use your medallion again and kill the Nekkers before destroying the Nest, the last nest is here –

You should stop this one with ease and if you go here for the first time, you'll see a couple of dozen Nekkers fighting Scoi'atel and Drowners also join in, so be very careful here. After destroying the nest you can go to back to the Town Square to collect your reward. You need to go inside the large house directly opposite to the inn – the one which has two clothes shops in front of it.

Endrega Contract

NOTE: Before you do this quest, it is advised that you explore the forest, just run around so that the map opens up and when I put in pics here for locations, you can get there with ease.

NOTE: After killing the Queen Endregas, you can pick up the pheromones of a Queen Endrega from their remains – do not use these in anything (check properly when you are trying to make any alchemic mixtures – make sure the ingredients do not include the pheromones as they are needed for two very important quests later in the game and you cannot get the pheromones anywhere else in the entire game. You need them for a quest in the next chapter too so just do not use them – you need one for "The Encrypted Book" quest in chapter 3.

You get this quest from the Notice Board beside the inn. Before you start this quest, you had better bought the book on Endregas from the guy who lives in the house opposite to the craftsmith in town square (I already mentioned this during the poker face quest). You need to destroy six cocoons and kill two queen Endregas to finish this quest. Endregas are large scorpion like creatures which can sting really nasty, you definitely need QUEN to deal with them and the Queens can get really annoying on higher difficulties. Before I share a few tips on killing the Queen, I'll give you the location of the first set of cocoons, you'll always find three cocoons nearby, so if you see one, the other two are close, use your medallion to highlight them. Interact with them and they open up, then just keep slashing at them till they die, also collect the cocoon's remains for ingredients – they are very rare and the Queen gives a fetus when she dies, make sure you have them for the quest Melitele's Heart, here's the pic of the first location –

As you can see, when you reach the place and look into your map, the Geralt can be seen standing right on top of the tree (in the map). I'll show you what the cocoons look like –

You'll need to kill the smaller Endregas which guard the cocoons first, then destroy the three cocoons and the Queen will show herself. The Queen Endrega can be a very dangerous creature on the higher levels of difficulty. You need to be very careful while dealing with here, I'll give a few tips on killing a queen now; firstly, if you are anywhere close to the queen, you better have the QUEN on you or one shot can deal a great amount of damage to Geralt. Never take the queen head on, keep dodging her constantly and once a while she charges at you and rams into something and pauses for a second or two, this is when the Queen is most vulnerable, get to her quickly or use bombs if you are too afraid and hit a couple of times and move away 0 she recovers quickly too. Just take your time killing these things and you'll not have any problem. The second area with cocoons is here –

All three cocoons are close by, just destroy them and kill the Queen to end this, go to the town square and collect your reward. You need to go inside the large house directly opposite to the inn – the one which has two clothes shops in front of it.

Fight Club

You can meet King Ziggy (if you won at-least two fist fights in the inn) outside the inn to the left of the door at night –

You can just meditate till night if you want to and talk to him, talk to him and agree, then just keep following him into Loredo's Compound and when you reach there, agree to your stuff being held outside the gates and you'll be in four fights. After you beat three of them, Loredo asks you to take a fall on the fourth, you can agree or disagree – if you agree to take a fall, then you gain 250 orens and if you disagree then you gain 200 orens and some of Loredo's thugs come at you later but nothing too much, after you are done with the fights you are back outside the gate, just take your stuff from the box to the left and while we are here, let's finish another quest.

Indecent Proposal

NOTE: you can see two training dummies here in Loredo's compound destroy them and if you destroyed all of the dummies till now you will unlock the EXPERIENCED ability which gives you 10% extra exp for everything you do – this goes a really long way as the game progresses. This quest also includes the ballista quest

If you are already outside Loredo's compound then just go in, track this quest and you will see the marker. To do this quest, it need to be night so just meditate till night if not so. Speak t the guards outside and they let you in, Roache joins you too. After pissing himself looking at the Ballista, Roache wants to go Berserk but Geralt calms him down and tell him that he'll take care of the situation. Walk around and you'll find Margarita leaning on the left wall –

Speak to her and ask her about her specialty and if you don't want to spend any money then just tell that you are willing to do something else. She asks you to humiliate Myron and Alphonse (both of who are nearby at the table, look around in the compound if you can't see them at the table). Just go to them and defeat them at arm wrestling and go back to speak to her or just pay her up. She goes to the guard by the Ballista and well, encourages him to take a break. When the guard is away, go to the ballista and interact with it to take away a piece of the ballista rendering it useless. Speak to Raoche who is nearby and you'll go to see Loredo. After coming back down, speak to him again and some bum interrupts you and says that Loredo is in possession of a special part of a trap made for the Kayran. This joins into the final quest of this chapter so let's do it. Roache distracts the nearby guard, just go to where he was and Geralt goes back to sneak mode again. I made a video for you to take you thru the whole sneaking thing, here it is –

Firstly, there are two things you can do here. After getting into sneaking, go past the two guards (watch the video) and climb the wall to the right of the door and jump down on the other side. You will see a marker here and the game shows us a woman thru a window. You need to get to that window. There are stairs nearby below the window, climb them and climb the boxes and listen to what they are talking about inside. Then go past the remaining two guards and up the last wall and go to the corner of this area and you should pick up a Metal fragment (which is needed for making a trap in the Kayran quest) and some sword design. Also, if you fail to sneak at any point then remember that it will not affect your game in any manner what so ever, you can still kill the Kayran without the trap so don't sweat it if you cannot sneak past everyone. Go back and speak to Roache and then to Loredo. Try to take a neutral stance now with Loredo. Then get out of his compound and this quest will be done for.

Hung Over

This is more of a fun quest with the Blue Stripes. You can meet them in the house to the left of the inn (next to the gate), there's a guy standing below the house, speak to him and then take the package and go into the house. Speak to everyone and then to Ves, this starts a Knife throwing competition. You should try to win this since it unlocks a new ability. It really does not matter if you win or not, do anything you want in this quest and after it ends, take you things which are in chest in the room next to the one which you wake up in.

NOTE: You have a tatto after this quest, you can remove it by speaking to any Scorceress in the game. Triss now or Phillipa or Sile later on.

The Scent of Incense

NOTE: This quest includes the little shop of dreams quest

Go out the back door and down the stairs, go to the right (facing the inn) from the bottom of the stairs and you'll come to a guy leaning on the wall –

He'll whisper to you as you go near him, speak to him and he'll mention something about getting a formula from a shopkeeper in the town square. Go towards the Town Square to the marked location shown on the map and you'll see a group of villagers, speak to them and they ask you to get rid of the shop because they think the keeper is selling drugs. Go to the shopkeeper and talk to him, as him for the formula and get it one way or the other and also, you can intimidate him to get out of here, go back and speak to the townsfolk to receive your reward. After getting that formula (real or fake one) go back to the guy beneath bridge and he'll ask you to meet him outside the town. Go meet him and you can agree to go with him or ask him to screw himself at which point he'll give you the location on your map so you can visit him – choose anything – doesn't matter. Once inside the place, do whatever you want to, it's just a small quest, just remember that if you are trapped inside the cell you can use AARD to blow the door. If you need swords they are right in front of your cell door and if you are in a fight, just kill everyone and make your way out the cave.

In the Claws of Madness

NOTE: The wraiths you kill drop off the "Essence of Death", pick them up and keep them safe since they are used for Melitele's Hearth and this is the only place you can get some now.

You get this quest if you speak to Cedric and ask him if there's any job for a Witcher, he'll tell you about a nearby hospital ruin, go there and speak to the person there. Go inside the ruin by going down the stairs, keep going and you'll see a lot of ghosts, keep going further and go down into the next room, and kill the two Wraths here, they can be tricky so keep dodging and kill them. There's a letter in a box nearby and there are three more like this, look in each room you go to so you can read about all that happened in the hospital. As you keep going you'll find another guy who went looney, there's a potion for him in the next room, get it and kill the two wraiths again. Go back and speak to him and then go towards the way the Nilfgaarian soldier's ghost went and you'll meet him shortly.

The ghost will ask you to help it, now you can either kill the ghost or go back outside and talk those two guys into coming here so that the ghost can kill them and the curse will be lifted.

The Kayran

This quest starts the first time you go inside the inn in Flotsam. After you speak with your friends for the first time, some peasant comes in and starts shouting about a monster. Go out the back door of the inn and you'll see what he meant. Go down the stairs and towards the group of people, disperse the crowd in any manner you wish and speak to Sile. She wants to work together to kill the Kayran and then points us towards the merchants. Go to where the merchants are shown and hex this guy into giving you double the amount.

Triss asks you to speak to Cedric after that so go meet him now and ask him about the Kayran, he gives us the location where the Kayran was last seen and also, if you stole the iron frame from Loredo's compound during Indecent Proposal then buy the Kayran Trap diagram from Cedric and make him craft the trap for you. If you did not get the iron frame then do not worry, just forget about the trap for now – you don't really need it.

Go to the site of the Kayran's last appearence and you'll meet Triss here, go down and some drowners attack you, use your medallion to highlight the mucus and collect it and this ends the first part of the Kayran quest.

Before you go anywhere, go into the ship's wreckage and use your medallion to highlight the things you can pick up here, you can take a key from a skeleton, take it and use it on the chest which is at the other end of the ship and you'll get some notes. This gives us the Mystic River Quest.

Mystic River

This is the longest quest in the game and spans all three chapters of the game. You get this when you go the shipwreck in the Kayran's lair and open chest in the wrecked ship using the key from the skeleton nearby. You need to post the letter so go the Loius Merse's home – he's the guy who was handing out the rewards for the Nekker and Troll and Endrega contracts, his home is directly opposite to the inn behind the two clothes shops. Go upstairs and you will see the postbox glowing, speak to him and hex him into giving you the key. Then open the box and take the letter and you are done for the first part of this quest, the next is continued in the next chapter so stay tuned.

The Kayran: Ostmurk

When you ask Cerdic about the Ostmurk, he points you to a cave in the forest. The entrance of the cave is behind the walterfall and the cave is filled with nekkers. You will find the Ostmurk at the end of the cave, take it and make a mongoose potion so you can use it while battling the Kayran, remember to use the potion just before the battle.

The Kayran Battle

Go to the town square and to the upper floor of the inn, speak to Sile who's in the left room and you will be near the Kayran's Lair. It's time to drink the Mongoose potion now and then go down to the lair by jumping down the ledges to the right here. Once you go down, Sile summons the beast.

I made a video fighting the Kayran on HARD difficulty, it will help you understand better on killing the Kayran, here's the video –

NOTE: The Kayran battle is a careful blend of the usage of both QUEN and YRDEN, so remember to use those powers.

As soon as the fight starts, move to the left or the right so that you are not smashed by the giant tentacles. You need to move in one direction throughout the fight to avoid the tentacles. Now, if you have the trap with you then you will see two golden glowing trap markers on the ground, you can set the trap near one of the markers. Choose the left marker and use QUEN now, go to the marker and let the kayran hit the ground as you pass it, then set the trap and (you should have QUEN on) dodge as soon as you set it, the Kayran will try to hit you and if you were still nearby the trap after setting it, the Kayran should hit the trap and lose one of its tentacles. If it did not hit the trap then just stand near the trap so it tries to hit you again and dodge as it brings down the Tentacle.

If you do not have a trap(it is only good for one tentacle anyway, you have to destroy two more anyway) then you'll need to trap the Kayrans tentacles by using YRDEN. Just run around and remember the places where the Kayran hits the ground and cast a YRDEN here and wait for it to get it's tentacles down, roll away and after it gets trapped start power hitting it, Geralt will sever the tentacle after a few shots. Repeat this for a total of three tentacles and after three, you will be in a few quick time events depending on your difficulty. The broken part of the bridge above the Kayran collapses on it, totally trapping the beast. Now, go to the left most part of the trapped Kayran and you will see the Bridge fell down in a slope that we can use to climb. Climbing the slope is very tricky since the Kayran keeps slapping it's tentacles onto the bridge and even one hit can be very lethal. The Kayran hits the bridge a total of five ways and then repeats the first five ways after that, the first shot is with the large tentacle and the second is with the smaller one, both these shots can get you if you try to climb the slope. So, use QUEN everytime you go up the slope so that even if it hits you, you can start over again. After the first two ways, the Kayran hits the top part of the slope in three ways, so as soon as it finished hitting the slope the first two times, you should start climbing the slope and you will be at the top by the time it finished it's three strikes on the top of the slope – you just need to get to the top and a cutscene shows after that.

After the Kayran is dead, do not forget to take it's remains – the Kayran trophy increases our health by 50 points and the other ingredients can be put to good use too.

Go back to the port and take your reward from the merchant for killing the Kayran.

The Assassins of Kings (part 1)

After you finish the above quest, Triss comes to you and tells Geralt about an elf being held prisoner in a nearby boat, go there and speak to the guards so they can let you in. Go to the lower level of the boat and cast axii and speak to the elf here, just the various techniques at your disposal to get him to talk – hex him when you see the option. That's it with him for now.

The Rose of Remembrance

Geralt has been getting visions occasionally about his past, the wild hunt, Yennifer, his death among other things. To gain all of his head back though Triss speaks of a Rose of Remembrance, the location of which Cedric seems to have told her. You can either go alone or go with here, I suggest you go with her since you will have a chance to unlock an Ability (and also see a scene). Follow her to the ruins and some dumbos attack you, kill them and you'll fall into the lower area of the ruins with a pool in the middle. Now, save the game and first speak to Triss and tell her she could use a bath (and watch the cutscene – wooohooo) then reload the last save and don't tell her that she could use a bath, just go along with the other conversation lines, this will unlock an ability (since you resisted her charms). After Roache comes down, speak to him and go up or just cast AARD at the weak wall here and climb up. If you took a bath with Triss then some Scoi'atel came and went away or they are still here if you did not. You can talk them out of a fight though.

Go to the inn in Flotsam and speak to Zoltan and ask him about his Soci'atel ties. He takes you to the meeting place of the squirrels and then leads you into a trap (which the Scoi'atel prepared for us) and you get to fight an Aracus. The aracus is also a large scorpion like creature with a shell on it's head. It fights similar to endregas. So if you are playing the game on higher difficulties then keep running around till it charges you and when it hits something else, go slash it for a bit and run around again. Conversely, you can use traps or any other method you want to. After killing it, Iorveth comes out and speaks to you, be polite to him or you will be killed. Tell him how Letho wants him dead and all that, he asks you if you want to go with him now to the ruins, just tell him that you have something to take care of first. Now, use your medallion to highlight the Aracus remains and pick up it's eyes amongst other things. We now have all the ingredients needed for the ritual in Melitele's Heart.

Melitele's Heart (part 2)

After the last mission above, we have all the ingredients we need, if you don't then you missed something and if you already did all the quests then there is very little chance you can get the ingredients back, read the first part of this quest above for info on the ingredients. Go back and speak to Anzeka and ask her about the ritual, she asks you to meet her at the shrine of Veyopatis to conduct the ritual. This is my favourite quest in the entire game, it's short and does not involve much but it's full of eerie and melancholy. The shrine of Veyopatis is here –

The large head on the map is the shrine and when you get there you'll see how the shrine is. Wait for Anzeka here, if she stops in the middle somewhere (the marker points her) then go near her and she starts moving again. Speak to her again near the shrine and the ritual starts. Anzeka keeps chanting near Veyopatis which you are attacked by three Wraiths at a time and after you kill one, another takes it's place. You'll need to kill about a dozen Wraiths here before the ritual ends. Keep moving around and make effective use of the QUEN sign, take your time or the Wraiths can kill you with ease. After everything is done, you get a nice speech from Anzeka and the Melitele's Heart (which generates vitality aka health each second). The Melitele's Heart is one of the most useful things in the game and you don't even need to equip it, it just stays in the inventory and does it's job.

The Assassins of Kings (part 2)

NOTE: Before you do this quest, finish any other quests you might have left over and visit any shops or craftsmiths you want to and buy things now itself. You should have diagrams for a robust silver sword, make it since you'll need it for later.

Go meet Iorveth near the ruins and you will go to see Letho. Talk to him and whichever dialogue lines you choose, you'll end up in battle with him. At the final dialogue you'll need to choose wether to help Iorveth or Roache, make your choice – the next mission will vary by a minor bit according to your choice but nothing too much, you can still recover for this option so no harm done and you will not miss anything.

Fight Letho
This is a tough fight on Hard and Insane difficulties, not as much as the Kayran though. Letho being a former witcher too has all the same powers as you. He can cast Agni, Aard and Quen during the fight. You cannot hurt him when he uses Quen so just run in circles till it wears off. Use your Quen to attack him at all times and do not approach him without Quen on. He can really hurt you and to avoid his powers just run around in this place. When you are about to kill him….

After the fight depending on whether you helped Roache or Iorveth, the person you helped comes down to meet you. If it's Roache then you can follow him back to town square and if it's Iorveth then just run to the inn back in town. Depending on your choice, the town is in ruins or is celebrating.

Where is Triss Merigold?

If you helped Roache then the town is celebrating the fall of the Squirrels or it's a riot if Iorveth escaped. You can save the non-humans here from certain death by interrupting the mob (this happens if you helped Iorveth). Go inside the inn and speak to Dandelion and follow him to Sile's room. Look at the wall to the right of the megascope and you see a peep hole. Go into the next room and speak to the woman here. If you helped Roache and Iorveth got captured then you meet some random woman or if you helped Iorveth then you meet the Madame herself. Speak to whomever is here and they tell you the story, whatever conversation lines you choose will not matter but if you choose them in this order – 1,2,4,3 then you can ask all the question and when the mage tells that he will answer only one question ask the third one (he does not answer to the other two). If you helped Roache the choose the lines in the order of 2,3,1 and then choose 3 again.

After that if you helped Roache earlier, the Madame is missing, go into the inn and to the game room on the lower floor. There's a door to the left of the poker table here, go in and into the first door to the right, you'll find margot here and there's a letter near her feet, pick it up and read it.

You'll need to find Cedric now no matter what option you chose earlier. There are blood prints leading out of the inn which you can highlight by using your Medallion. You can follow these prints (which eventually branch off), or you can just run to the waterfall in the forest (the large body of water on the map). Speak to Cedric and next we need to make the most important choice in the game which will affect the rest of the game from this point forth.

At a Crossroads: Vernon Roache (or) Scoi'atel

You have both quests now, you can choose only one option – help Roache or the Scoi'atel. This is the most decisive option in the game and the rest of the story differs (along with the missions) depending on this choice. So you'll have to play the game again from here with a different choice for the second time to get the whole story from both sides, do what you want with the save. You can just reload from here after completing the game with a choice and make a different choice later. Just track the quest of your choice and go to the marked location.

At a Crossroads: Vernon Roache

Death to the Traitor

There's two possibilities before you start this quest, one is that you helped Roache in the elven ruins and smacked Iorveth. Roache now has Iorveth in custody. The second scenario is that Iorveth is free after you gave him his sword in the ruins earlier, Roache is now pissed at you and wants you to help him take down Loredo. Either way the following quest will be the same for either options.

Roache wants to attack Loredo's compound at night and take care of the buttclown once and for all. Track this quest and go speak to Roache then go to the next location – it's Loredo's compound wall. Go there and if it's not night then meditate until night and climb the stairs. You can either sneak your way thru the compound or just get things done faster and kill everyone. The Keep killing every last enemy here and one of the guards drop a key (it shines) pick it up and open the last door in this area. Talk to the hooker and then climb the stairs to the left here and go thru the window into the mansion. Go right and you'll come to Loredo's mother sniffing Fisstech. She tries to stab you and on high difficulty you need to do a quick time event to kill her. After she's dead, get the key from her and climb to the upper floors. Kill the guards and grab the key which is in the chest in the corner. This key opens Loredo's door. Go in and kill the runt. Untie Ves and everything else will be taken care of. You'll need to fight your way out now and there's a lot of guards. Just kill all of them and exit the mansion and go down and kill every enemy in the courtyard too and that ends this chapter. you'll see a fight between Iorveth and Roache (you get to be Roache in the fight), it does not matter if you win or lose this.

At a Crossroads: Scoi'atel

The Floating Prison

If you helped Iorveth earlier then he's waiting for you at the elven ruins. Speak to him and you get in the middle of a Squirrel and Guard war. You can choose to go in quietly or do a frontal assault on the ship having the prisoner. If you choose to go in quietly then watch how you go. You will go into the ship but still need to kill everyone on the ship to release the other elf.

If you helped Roache earlier and let Iorveth get captured then he is being held on the prison barge. Your dwarf friends are waiting at the ruins. Tell them that you will help and go with them. If you do this then it's just like making a frontal assault in the previous option. The elves lead you to the boat, go then and kick every guard to hell and get into the boat and kill everyone. If you are having too much trouble then remember that you can let the elves fight the soldier and you can move behind them and attack the soldiers. Try to kill all the soldiers as you pass them so that the elves can come with you onto the boat. You will eventually free Iorveth and see that Loredo is running.

Now, you can choose to save the Elven woman or go after Loredo. If you choose to save the woman then you can get a very special gift from one of them in the next chapter, I suggest you save the woman. Go to the house and kill the guards outside and climb all the stairs. As soon as you get into the last floor, quickly run to each woman and release them and run to the window to jump out. If you want to kill Loredo then follow him and you'll fight him with reinforcements in the town square. Either way, you can ask Iorveth what happened to Roache and you'll see a fight between Iorveth and Roache (you get to be Iorveth in the fight), it does not matter if you win or lose this.

If you helped Roache then you will continue the game in Roache's Path or if you chose Iorveth instead then you will get into Iorveth's Path, the following are the links to the continuation of this guide on those two paths…

Chapter 2 and 3 of Roache's Path is continued here
Chapter 2 and 3 of Iorveth's Path is continued here