FAQ/Walkthrough by pprincess

Last Updated 2012-05-30

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Chapter 2--Iorveth's Path (Continued)

Siege of Vergen

When you return from the ritual, the city is preparing for a siege. The Inn is closed and shops have been dismantled. Nothing to do except move forward to Zoltan. Using potions and equipping bombs and traps will be useful.

First you'll have to run up the stairs on the right to activate the hot oil. It's a large wheel along the walls where the oil is stored. After this, you can help defend the ladder near the end of the walls if you want, the Kaedweni are infinite. It's just funny to use Aard on them and send them flying off the wall. Otherwise, run back down and join Zoltan. Run back through the town past where the shops were to the large door. Then you'll go up over the door closed behind you and defend this wall. The ladders make it easy to spot enemies as they are coming up. You can roll away to the sides and chuck bombs. Use Aard to throw enemies off the wall. Next Saskia wants you to check out a series of tunnels.

Tunnel of the Founders

You've already been here before to get the Blood Sword. First you'll fight two groups of soldiers, but you can see them from a little ways ahead. Use Red Haze Bombs and the soldiers will start attacking each other, which will wear them down a bit. Saskia cannot be harmed so let her tank and you deal with soldiers one at a time if possible.

Boss: Dethmold and Soldiers

Let Saskia deal with the soldiers and you focus on Dethmold who will be teleporting and hurling magic. Use Aard as soon as you have a Vigor bar to knock him down so he can't cast. If you can recognize his teleporting pattern you may be able to set physical traps at the spots. Once he's worn down, he'll knock you over, and the cutscene that follows is one of the most awesome in the game.

Head back outside and you'll be defending the wall again. Red Haze bombs work well. After this, you'll follow Zoltan down a ladder and lead him to a wheel that will close the gate.

After the cutscenes, search Philippa's house. You can pick up a Poisoned Zerrikanian Saberra. It's not going to be as good as your beefed up Gwyhyr, but more of a trophy.

Poisoned Zerrikanian Saberra--Steel

Weight 7 Damage 30-34

Poison +18%
3 Rune Slots

Chapter 3--Iorveth's Path

Defeat the Harpies on the way down the hill. You'll have a cutscene at the bottom. Don't follow Iorveth into the cave immediately. Move forward and defeat the two Arachas. Loot the items along this path all the way to the end. You'll be rewarded with finding a nice sword.

Deithwen--Silver Sword

Weight 8 Damage 44-48

Damage dealt to large monsters +25%
Damage dealt to gargoyles +25%

This weapon needs some beefing up with runes, but it will be handy shortly against some very valuable side quests with these important stats.

You have a choice whether to follow Iorveth into the caves or check out the Order camp. Without a Witcher 1 file or Roche with you, it's impossible to get past these guys. You can fight them, but they respawn infinitely. Their loot bags don't contain anything good, just cloth and wire mostly. The city gate won't open if you're fighting these guys. You can run away and potion up again and fight them for experience if you want but otherwise you'll have to follow Iorveth.

You'll fight an arachas and a couple of endrega, as well as harpies back out on the road from the cave.

Loc Muinne--For a Higher Cause/Gargoyle Contract

Inside the city, you'll be ambushed by gargoyles. Equip the Deithwen and use Aard on them. They are weak to ice so if you have Talgar Winter traps you can put these down. The fight will be around a square area that heads downstairs and into a gate. Inside there is a chest surrounded by runes. You can wait to do the rune puzzle until you buy books that decipher runes, or you can solve it now with trial and error or read on.

Extinguish the runes with the pattern that matches the rune on the upper left wall. Upper Left, lower left, center, lower right. The chest will contain a manuscript and a diagram for Elder Boots which are the best in the game aside from Dark Difficult gears.

Follow Iorveth through the doors until you have a cutscene. He suggests you head into the sewers. Geralt suggests he could get arrested. Either way will work.


Get arrested: this option will put you in prison with Philippa, but all your gear will be taken from you and you will NOT get it back. Ever. If you really want to try this option, I suggest you carefully sneak to the Inn and shop area as I describe further below and store everything except gear you don't mind losing.

Sneak through the sewers: you will keep your gear but will have to fight through monsters to reach the prison where Phillipa is.

But first, we can try and get to a shop to sell gear.

If you want, a side quest resulting in an armor piece will be convenient on our way to the shops. I suggest completing it now. If your gear is overweight, just drop a bag of stuff and pick it up afterward.

The Gargoyle Contract

Optional: Go directly to your right until you see a stairway heading down. You'll encounter a golem inside here. Defeat it, and solve the rune puzzle.

Solution: Counterclockwise starting with the first rune LEFT of the doorway. In the chest you'll find the diagram for Elder Gauntlets, the best gloves in the game.

You're probably well overweighted now and need to sell some gear. You can sneak past the guards and put off doing the main quest if you're careful. Leave the area where you fought the gargoyles and golem and hug the right wall as you go. Duck into the first doorway on the right where people are playing dice.

Surprise! Silard has a score to settle.

A Score to Settle

You'll have to fist fight Silard if you beat him back in Vergen. He's not hard to beat. You can talk to him afterward about the situation in Loc Muinne. You can also do the Dice Poker quest here if you want.

Otherwise, leave the room with the dice players and stay to the right to not be seen. You can defeat these guys if you want. Set some traps and use bombs at a distance. When you defeat all the guards, a mage will appear. Defeat the mage with Aard to prevent casting. When the mage is defeated, loot the corpse for two arrest warrants.

Go forward and up a ramp into a doorway. You'll be attacked by a group of harpies. This spot respawns harpies throughout Chapter 3 so you can get a little extra EXP or items from them.

Head down from the harpies but check your mini map. Stay to the left around the block/house, otherwise you'll run into soldiers on the right. Basically just hug the left wall all the way and go toward the misty city square.

You'll see a cutscene, and then you'll run into the two scientists from way back in Chapter 1 at the Insane Asylum if you let them go rather than killing them. Or you will see mages instead. They will have a quest for you, which you can put off and come back to it later. Sell what you need to sell with Felicia Cori. You can also head to the Inn and pick up side quests on the notice board outside. Inside, you can access your storage.


Felicia Cori: books, herb/oil formulas, crafting diagrams herbs. Main square.

Bras of Ban Ard: crafting, armor/weapon diagrams. Sits by the Inn.
Marcus: herb/oil formulas, herbs. Near tower on map.
Incredible Lockhart: crafting, diagrams, herbs, books. Main Square.
Earso: traps and bombs, near the Inn

Head out of the Inn, and stay to the right. You'll see a rather dapper looking gentlemen leaning against the wall, it's Bras Ban Ard, the crafter of the armor you found in the Kaedweni tunnels in Chapter 2. He is the main craftsman for Chapter 3. Have him craft the Elder Gauntlets and Boots for you right away. Access your storage if you need to so you have the ingredients for the Enchanted Manuscript you found in the first crypt in Loc Muinne you visited with Iorveth. If you have the ingredients, it will reveal a diagram for the Caerme sword.

If you don't have the ingredients, the only way to get them now will be "The Secrets of Loc Muinne" side quest.

Caerme Sword--Steel

Damage 50-55

Vitality Regen +2
Oils +4
Instant kill +4%

Ysgith runes will add to the damage as well as adding Bleeding, and you can throw on a Fire rune too if you want.

Ban Ard also sells the Rune books you can use to solve the Gargoyle Contract rune puzzles you've seen already, unless you already figured the puzzles out.

Next, let's get a decent set of armor.

Leave Ban Ard and stay to the right past the musician and go to the right around the tower. You'll see the Mighty Numa and his herb seller on the right of the tower. Past them is a door into the sewers.

Defeat a few rotfiends and continue along the path to a new set of prison-type iron bar doors. There is a chest and dead body in the water in this room. You'll find the Ysgith Armor and the diagram for the Vran Armor, which uses the Ysgith Armor as a component. If you're on a Magic path, you might want to keep the Ysgith intact and not use it to make the Vran armor. Making the Vran armor does get you an achievement.

Best Armor

Ysgith Armor--Base Stats

Weight 20 Armor +26
3 rune slots
Reduction of Damage from Magic +50%
Resistance to Incineration, Bleeding, Poison +60%
Vigor Regeneration during Combat +15%
Damage Bonus on Signs +8

Vran Armor--Base Stats

Weight 22 Armor +30
3 rune slots
Vitality +40
Reduction of Damage from Magic +20%
Resistance to Incineration, Bleeding, Poison +70%
Vitality Regeneration +2

Best Enhancements--pick any 3.

Vran Armor Attachment Vitality +15, Resistance to Bleeding 5%

Elaine Bledd Vitality +15, Armor +1
Dhu Bledd Sign Damage +4 or +5, Armor +1
Magic Wrap +3 Sign Damage, Armor +2
Dwarven Enhancement Vitality +10 or +15, Armor +2
Runic Armor Enhancement Sign Damage +2, Armor +1 (Poker Face reward)

Crafting the Vran will complete the Mystic River quest. If you sold or didn't get the Vran armor enhancement you need to make the armor, you can probably buy another one from Ban Ard. It's a random shop item. If you need Studded Leather, you can buy leathers from the Incredible Lockhart or the diagram from the Felicia Cori in the courtyard and then have Ban Ard make the leathers. Hardened leathers for the diagram can either be bought or got as a rare drop off the re-spawning harpies on the east side of the city. If you want the Runic enhancement, complete Poker Face in Chapter 3 before using the last slot on your armor and take an enhancement as your reward.

Unless you're on a Dark Difficulty Path and using Kingslayer gear, the Ysgith/Vran is the best armor in the game. We're just missing the Elder pants. Let's get those now.

Gargoyle Contract

If you followed this guide, you already have killed 2 of the 3 areas with gargoyles and got Elder gear diagrams as rewards from solving the rune puzzles in those areas.

As you exit the Inn, take an immediate left around the corner. You'll pass Earso the trap seller. Pick up a couple of Talgar Winter traps unless you want to make them yourself. You'll have to detour slightly to the left past Earso because the path is blocked with rubble. Just go straight ahead out of the detour area with the dead body to a wood door.

You'll be inside the Amphitheatre. We need to head to the right past soldier tents, so go behind the two mages talking, and head for a doorway frame at the end of the path. Take care that you're not seen by hugging the right side and stay behind the tents. Inside the doorway frame, you'll be ambushed by gargoyles. Set the Talgar Winter traps which will freeze a gargoyle or two and then you can kill them in one hit.

Now let's head down to the crypt and solve the rune puzzle. You can figure out the solution using the Rune books, or by trial and error.

Solution: counterclockwise starting at upper right when you enter the room.

You'll get the Elder Trousers and the Addan Deith sword.

Addan Deith

Silver Sword

Weight 8 Damage 45-50
Bleeding 30%
Damage to wraiths +4%
Adrenaline generation when hitting +2
Chance for Instant Kill +2%

Hm, decisions, decisions, so many good swords.

Go back to Ban Ard and collect the reward for the Gargoyle Contract and have him make the Elder Trousers for you.

At this point you can either go on with the story or keep sneaking around the finish up the arm wrestling and dice poker quests. The arm wrestling is only one opponent so it's easy to get it done.

Bring It On: Loc Muinne

Luckily the arm wrestling portion of Chapter 3 only involves playing 1 guy. That would be the Mighty Numa near the sewers entrance. Play him once and you'll see that the fatigue bar is impossibly small. Accuse him of cheating. You'll get an Intimidate option to find out how he's cheating.

If you are successful, you can play him again and the bar will be easy. If you can't Intimidate him, talk to Marcus the seller standing next to Numa. You can buy the Anabolic Steroids potion. Consume it and then you'll be on a level with Numa and can beat him this way. If you're still sneaking around you might have to enter the sewers stairway to Meditate and use the Steroids. Numa will give you a crafting diagram for trousers, but they aren't as good as what you have on already.

Poker Face: Loc Muinne

Start the poker quest by finding the room of players near the front gate area. First we'll need to beat the two elves. Then beat the Sorcerer and the apprentice in the room. Finally, beat Incredible Lockhart the bookseller in the main square. When you beat him you can take orens, a Magic Wrap diagram for the design, 1 fire rune and 1 earth rune as the runes reward, or 1 Runic Armor enhancement which has Armor +1 and Sign Damage +2.

For a Higher Cause--continued

You now need to decide how to find Philippa. Either you get yourself arrested or sneak through the sewers. The arrest will result in your gear being taken forever. If you want to try this, go to the Inn and store everything except some gear you don't mind losing. Or, just make another save so you can reload and do the sewer part too.

Arrested: fight with any soldier guard and let your health drop to nothing. You'll wake up in a cell next to Philippa. Your gear is gone. You'll have to fist fight your way out.

Sewers: Enter the sewers back by The Mighty Numa near the tower. Set your quest to For a Higher Cause and follow the easy path to get there. Eventually you'll have to fight some guards, and then the prisoners in the cell next to Philippa. You can prepare ahead with bombs or traps.

Talk to Philippa for another choice moment.


You have to decide now whether you want to go save Triss or help Saskia. There is no way to do both. Keep in mind that one of them will lose out as a result. It's unavoidable. Make another save if you want see how both choices play out.

Where is Triss Merigold?

Leaving Philippa where she is, you'll take a hostage from the cell next to her. Lead the hostage out of the prison. Along the way, the guards won't touch you. But once you reach the Nilfgardian Camp, that situation will change. You'll have to defeat a lot of soldiers in the camp.

Once they are all defeated, you'll have to get out of the camp using a corridor next to the entrance you just used. Defeat more soldiers along the way. You'll eventually reach the square, and after a conversation you'll fight Matsen and his men.

Boss: Matsen

Hopefully you have a full Adrenaline bar which will make things easier. Otherwise, use spells to push enemies away and keep Quen on yourself. Use traps and bombs and anything you have in your pockets. When Matsen is defeated, loot his corpse for the key to Triss' prison cell.

Rescue Triss and after a conversation you'll both leave. But she'll want to split up for now, so you're free to go do side quests before the Summit starts.

The Spellbreaker--help Saskia

If you decided to help Saskia instead of Triss, you'll have to lead Philippa to her house. Shortly after you start, Iorveth will appear and help so you can focus on defeating monsters. The path isn't really that far, but in the process you'll have to defeat a LOT of rotfiend monsters. Whatever has worked for you before will work now to defeat groups of undead. You'll get overwhelmed quickly if you don't roll out of the way. Traps or bombs with Fire are good ways to deal out some damage.

Up in Philippa's house, get ready for a handful of gargoyles. Talgar Winter traps are a godsend. Use the doorway between rooms or the stairwell as a choke point and set traps in front of you. Hit the gargoyle quickly after it is trapped to shatter it. Loot the two rooms for Philippa's notes and read them, they will be needed shortly. If your potions have worn off, meditate now and use them. I suggest equipping the Deithwen if you haven't already.

Head upstairs. You'll have to light the candles in one of the correct formations using the notes. This may be randomly one of the three, but I got clockwise, starting with the one closest to the stairs, and then ending in the middle.

Boss: Guardian

This is basically a souped up golem. Dodging and backstabbing work well because it's slow. Take the dagger from the chest when you're done. It's more of a trophy piece but will have a use later on. You can enhance it if you want and use it.

The Secrets of Loc Muinne--Xbox Enhanced Edition or DLC

You may have met up with the scientists in the city square market if you spared them at the Insane Asylum in Chapter 1. Or you will meet up with mages instead. Speak to them and they will wait for you in the tower in the middle of the square.

Head down to the door close to the bottom of the stairs. You can agree to help the group or kill them which will fail the quest, but is a choice. Loot the pillar in the middle of the room for 370 orens.

Follow the mages, the path is linear. The mages are handy with their spells, and can't die so let them tank the larger mobs while you work on the smaller ones. Very quickly you'll meet up with rotfiends and then endregas, along with a Queen Endrega. Hopefully you will get her Pheromones if you need them for the Caerme sword. If not, reload.

Head into the next room after the endregas and on the left you can pick up another sword.

Gynvael Aedd

Silver Sword

Weight 7 Damage 43-45
Bleeding +25%
Damage dealt to insectoids +4%
Damage dealt to necrophages +4%
3 Rune slots

In the small doorway on the left you can loot a cutlass and a book "Monstrum" off a corpse. You'll reach a guardian that can only be passed by answering a riddle. The riddle is random, Fate and Time were ones I passed. There may be others.

Enter the hallway and then the first door on the right. Kill the Nilfgardian soldiers, and watch out for friendly fire from the mages. Loot the room for books.

The next guardian has a riddle that must be solved using the books, and the frescos which have symbols on the floor that must be lit up. You'll have to guess 3 of the frescos. This may be random. The frescos you pick will require 3 people to stand on them.

I got dragon, full moon, and mine in the mountainside.

In the next room is a golem who requires a password. If you can talk to him and get him to give you the password, you won't have to fight. Otherwise, you'll have to fight 3 golems. Keep on the roll and fight from behind them.

The Talking Golem will drop the Golem Trophy. The one I got has Armor+10 and Vitality+15. The Witcher Wiki (witcher.wikia.com) lists the Golem Trophy as having Damage+12 in addition to those stats. But mine didn't have that damage stat. Not certain at this time whether this is the PC DLC version only of the quest that has that extra stat, or if it's random, or if something else has to happen for the trophy to be the "better" one. As of right now my theory is that the Xbox Enhanced Edition has "The Secrets of Loc Muinne" for free, whereas the PC version required extra payment for this quest as a DLC. Perhaps the paid DLC version of this quest had a better Golem Trophy.

In the Laboratory, talk to Cynthia after she dispels another spell. Do all the conversation points, you'll find out information about Geralt that tells who he is.

You'll end up having to fight one of the mages, who does copies of himself as a spell. As usual, knock down the mages with Aard to keep them from casting. Cynthia will be the only one left. You can then use the artifact to view one character and what they are currently doing. Loot the room for notes and other artifacts including the Eclipse Sword which is rather awesome.


Silver Sword

Weight 8 Damage 33-43
Vigor Regen during combat +20%
Damage bonus on Signs +12
Two Rune slots

That Sign damage bonus is an eye-opener. Add two more Moon Runes to get a whopping Signs +20 and you have quite a weapon for Magic path players. Or Ysgith Runes just to up the hit damage more, but that would sorta be a waste because it still wouldn't take the hit damage up to where other swords are. Too bad there is so little left of the game by the time you get this sword.

A Tome Truly Rare

Choose to stay in the laboratory after defeating everything. We'll now go explore another room the tower. You could do this before the main quest if you want.

Head out of the lower levels and back up the winding circular stairway and enter the other door near the top. You'll be attacked by 3 wraiths. Defeat these but be careful not to hit the Resonating Crystals in the walls or you'll die quick.

After the wraiths are gone, you'll have to solve the crystal puzzle. The solution will involve casting Aard on two of the crystals, and IGNI on the other two. If you get it wrong the crystals will reset. It's correct if two turn red and two turn blue. A door will be opened below. Use potions before you go.

Explore the room and then take the Forgotten Vran Sword from beneath the statue. Get ready for a nasty fight.

Boss: Guard

This is a mage apparition that takes OMG a long time to defeat. Aard is about the only thing that works on it. It has several phases and special moves. It will raise wraiths that you have to fight. It will hit you with fire balls. It will teleport. It will put hex signs on the floor that knock you down. It will get tossed back into walls and re-emerge. It has a regenerate move when it hits 1/4 health that it will do only once, but you can lose your progress quickly. You'll have to climb onto the ledge or use bombs to knock down from that spot. I used a Grapeshot to knock it over when it was in Regen.

This is the last side quest in Chapter 3. The only thing left is The Mage Summit story event.

Big Sell-Off

The game has an achievement for holding 10,000 orens. You have the best gear in the game. Can you get 10,000 orens by selling off everything you have? You can make a save and try it: you can always reload your save and get everything back whether or not you pop the achievement. You can also keep the money after your sell-off and buy books to round out your journal.

The Mage Summit

Iorveth is inside the amphitheatre, so talk to him to start the Summit. The Summit participants and events are more dependent upon Roche's Path and choices made in that section of the game. The only choice that comes to bear is what you did with Prince Stennis in Royal Blood in Chapter 2.

The Tower

You must reach the top of the tower. Before you reach the tower you should be able to meditate. Try using Falka's Blood Oil on your silver sword to add damage, you can always do this from the Items menu without meditating. The tower stairs and walls will get wrecked as you go. You can die if you fall through the stairs, and from fire damage. The best way is to not stop, just keep running. You have a choice whether to remove the diamond crystal from the megascope. There is an achievement for not removing it, but you will also die and get a game over. There is also an achievement for removing it.

==-Boss: Saesenthessis--=

Avoid doing any attacking on the stairs, it's risky because you can fall through the stairway. Magic is not effective except for Quen on yourself. The boss will blow fire and when in the air you can't hit except with daggers. You'll have to climb up the broken walls. Wait until it lands partly on the platform and use strong blows from the side. You can use the Items menu to refresh Falka's Blood Oil if it wears off.

After the boss fight, you'll get the chance to automatically use the magic dagger if you picked it up in the Spellbreaker. You don't need to equip it. I had it equipped and in fact the game switched it out on me for the first steel sword I had in my inventory instead, and then it appeared after the boss fight. If you didn't get the dagger, you'll get two other choices of how to deal with Saskia.

Iorveth will meet you after the fight to walk through the ruins. I won't spoil the ending. Be sure to watch after the credits too.


Dark Difficulty

You must play through the game on Hard before you can unlock Dark Difficulty. I recommend playing through both Roche's Path and Iorveth's Path on Easy or Normal so you can compare the two and decide which one you would find easier on Hard/Dark.

Another advantage of the easier playthroughs is you will know what fights you can avoid by conversation or persuasion. You will know what side quests you don't have to bother with because you aren't chasing other achievements. You will also know what to expect from the enemies, and where they are located so you can prepare in advance.

Dark Difficulty is about the preparation. Traps can be stacked in numbers to do massive damage, and can be followed up with bombs so you don't get hit. You will know where narrow choke points are to funnel enemies in one at a time. You will know where to put your skill points. Alchemy is one of the best paths to invest points for traps, bombs, and effectives of oils, potions and mutagens. In Magic, having upgraded Axii, Aard and Quen can get help with your defense.

Dark Difficulty Gear

Each chapter has a set of armor and two swords that have very high stats. They are expensive, and you'll spend a lot of time farming money for them. The swords are cursed, and will sap Geralt of Vitality unless you have the entire set of armor that goes with the swords. You can't be missing a piece. You can make up for this somewhat using potions. Hitting with the cursed swords drains vitality from enemies and transfers it to Geralt.

The diagrams for the armors can all be bought from the blacksmith in each of the chapters.

Chapter 1 Blasphemer's Outfit, Anathema and Ultimatum Swords

Chapter 2 Oathbreaker's Outfit, Virgin and Black Unicorn Swords .

Chapter 3 Kinslayer's Outfit, Weeper and Mourner Swords


Except for the sources quoted and noted, this is my game walkthrough and you have to get permission to reprint it.

pprincess 2012