• Witcher 3 Assassin Quest Line Guide

If the writing was as consistent as Witcher 3 in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, and the badly written, uninteresting quests didn’t push the impatient gamer (the ones who didn’t stick around.

The Witcher 3 is huge. Our guide and walkthrough will help you tackle one of the greatest RPGs of all times.

The Witcher 3 guide contents

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is divided into a prologue and three acts, spread across multiple locations. The story begins with a tutorial in Kaer Morhen, then a wander through White Orchard as Geralt searches for his lost love, Yennefer, and copes with troubling premonitions regarding his adopted daughter, Ciri.

On our adventures we’ll take in the sights of Velen (No Man’s Land), Novigrad and Skellige before we even make it out of the first act. It’s a lot to take in all at once, but don’t worry – our guide is here to show you what you need to do and when the best time to do it is.

Like you, we were a little daunted by the scope (and majesty) of CD Projekt’s RED’s first go at open world gaming, but it’s all perfectly manageable if you tackle it sensibly.

Below you’ll find a couple of general guides you may want to glance at early in the game. Beyond that, we move into questlines divided by story act and region. As well as the lists here, you can click through to walkthrough pages with key details for individual quests.

The DLC packs, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, are listed after the vanilla content; although you can do them at any time, they are standalone modules and do not interact with the critical path and associated side quests in meaningful ways, so it’s safe to leave them for after the main game, as the level of their content expects.

If you follow these checklists, including the secondary questlists linked out in their own hubs, you’ll see everything in The Witcher 3. We would say “good luck, witchers; you’ll need it”, but you won’t. You have us.

General guides

Witcher 3 Assassin Quest Line Guide

Just a few handy guides on a range of Witcher 3 topics, to help you get started, get finished, or get out of the hole you dug for yourself.

• How to get the best ending in The Witcher 3

  You can start here. There’s no shame to it. Spoilers, yes, obviously – but also potentially saving yourself dozens of hours in a second playthrough to get the ending you wanted.

• The Witcher 3: what quests do I need to do?

  Oh, what, you don’t have 200 hours spare? Okay, here are the bare essentials. This is a spoiler free guide; it tells you when the key decisions occur but not what they are.

• How to kick ass at Gwent

  Not to be confused with the standalone CCG of the same name, Gwent is a fantastic little card-battler. It’s much easier to win than a real, live card game!

• Collect ‘Em All – How to get every Gwent card

  People still tweet at Brenna asking for advice on how to track down a specific card. She still answers, too.

• List of Witcher Contracts

  These non-critical missions offer some of the toughest and most interesting combat challenges in the game. We haven’t written walkthroughs for all of them, but we will guide you to them.

• Tips: 12 things you didn’t know you could do in The Witcher 3

  Some little tips to make your life easier, more fun, or just slightly superior to your less knowledgable mates. That’s the stuff.

• Should you simulate a Witcher 2 save to start The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?

  An explanation of the first choice you’ll have to make in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Prologue

The Witcher 3 starts with a modestly-sized map. Feel free to run through the story as quickly as you like if you don’t have any problems with difficulty, but pause before the very end of The Beast of White Orchard to do any secondary quests you want to complete, as you’ll then be automatically transported to the next area, failing some unfinished quests.

The Witcher 3: Prologue Critical Path (Kaer Morhen, White Orchard)

Follow Geralt’s quest to track down the sorceress Yennefer, ridding White Orchard of a troublesome monster along the way.

White Orchard Witcher Contracts

There’s only one Witcher Contract to be had in White Orchard, but it’s a great introduction to these challenging but ultimately super rewarding secondary quests.

• Devil By The Well

  How to kill the Devil by the Well easily, how to make Specter Oil, how to find the ingredients for Specter Oil, and more.

White Orchard secondary quests

Complete every secondary mission before leaving White Orchard for loads of treasure and XP – plus a lot of fun.

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Undiscovered Locations: White Orchard

Destroy every monster nest, find every guarded treasure and raid every smuggler’s stash, and you’ll be well-prepared to tackle the next section of the game.

In Ciri’s Footsteps

Act One of The Witcher 3 is called In Ciri’s Footsteps, and includes three main story threads, each of which is broken down further into multiple main quests. Each of these takes place in a particular location. The easiest one is spread across the wilds of Velen (No Man’s Land), while the next most difficult takes place in and around the city of Novigrad, with the third and most difficult focused on the islands of Skellige. You must attack all three in order to complete the quest In Ciri’s Footsteps and Act One.

Act One – Velen (No Man’s Land)

After visiting Vizima, you’ll be dumped down in The Witcher 3’s huge open world map; if you thought White Orchard was big, you’re in for a shock. Don’t freak out; you don’t need to see and do everything hear just yet, as much of it is too hard for baby witchers on their first visit to this sprawling landscape. We suggest sticking to Velen quests before heading up to Novigrad or across the sea to Skellige.

The Witcher 3: Act One – Velen (No Man’s Land) Critical path

On the hunt for Ciri, Geralt seeks information from a Nilfgaardian agent in Velen, which leads him to two possible sources of information on his protege’s whereabouts.

Velen (No Man’s Land) Witcher Contracts

Witcher Contracts pay well and hand out lots of EXP but they do require your best skills. Never attempt them unprepared.

Velen (No Man’s Land) secondary quests

Complete every secondary mission in Velen for lots of extra treasure and XP.

• Keira Metz’s questline:

• Letho’s questline:

• Baron’s questline:

• Thou Shalt Not Pass

  This quest only triggers if you attempt to cross the Pontac to Novigrad or Oxenfurt before obtaining a pass. You can earn a pass through story missions, or by completing either of the following quests: Fake Papers – Bitter Harvest

• Love’s Cruel Snares

• Gwent: Velen Players

• Gwent: Playing Innkeepers

• Races: Crows Perch

Act One – Novigrad

The Novigrad questline of Act One takes place in a much more contained map than the Velen quests, and offers increased XP rewards despite fewer battles with monstrous foes. Explore the twisting streets to discover well-equipped merchants, reunite with old friends, and untangle the mysteries of your bestie’s disappearance.

The Witcher 3: Act One – Novigrad Critical Path

Geralt hopes his ex-girlfriend Triss, a powerful sorceress, may have information on Ciri. Their awkward reunion is complicated by the religious fervour gripping the city, and the notable absence of the minstrel Dandelion.

Novigrad secondary quests

• Statue quests (complete before Triss’s quests):

• Triss Merigold’s quests:

• Dandelion’s quests:

• Zoltan’s quest:

• Assassin quests:

• Novigrad, Closed City

Act One – Skellige

Skellige is a difficult place to explore cross country thanks to an enthusiastically vertical attitude in the local landscape. Skirting the coastline in a boat is much more satisfactory (although you need to beware of storms, monsters and pirates) and merchants will sell you guidebooks to unlock new fast travel points. Investigate local leads with your former lover as you put together the final pieces of the puzzle of Ciri’s disappearance.

The Witcher 3: Act One – Skellige Critical Path

Geralt’s former lover Yennefer heads to Skellige, where a strange magical occurrence may be linked to our much-sought child of the elder blood. The white-haired Witcher follows, becoming embroiled in local politics and fending off threats from shapeshifters.

Skellige secondary quests

• An Craite’s quests:

• Yennefer’s quest:

Act Two

Having exhausted all possible leads in Velen, Novigrad and Skellige, Geralt and Yennefer have just one more clue to the whereabouts of Ciri – a cursed individual known as Uma. Reporting in to Emhyr on their progress – or rather, lack of it – the pair retire to the witcher stronghold at Kaer Morhen to attempt to break the curse.

The Witcher 3: Act Two Critical path

Learn more about the witchers of the Wolf school as you make preparation to free Uma from a powerful curse – and to battle the Wild Hunt. Gather your allies from Velen, Novigrad and Skellige to face the mightiest foe Geralt has ever tackled.

• Ugly Baby

Act Two and Three secondary quests

All the secondary quests which only become available in the latter half of the game are listed through the link above to avoid repetition on this page.

Act Three

Having faced down the Wild Hunt at Kaer Morhen, but not come through unscathed, Geralt and Ciri are at a loss: they can’t keep running and hiding forever, but they obviously cannot hope to destroy the Wild Hunt through conventional means. Yennefer and Triss opt to gather allies in Novigrad, while Avallac’h believes the answer lies with his people. Meanwhile, Ciri has grave doubts about her future.

The Witcher 3: Act Three Critical path

Act Three kicks off directly after Blood on the Battlefield, with Ciri and Geralt making for the Sabbath at Bald Mountain. Their actions there give them some confidence for the future and nurse their wounded hearts, but also inspires them to tie up loose ends and prepare to meet their destiny.

• Final Preparations

Act Two and Three secondary quests

All the secondary quests which only become available in the latter half of the game are listed through the link above to avoid repetition on this page.

Hearts of Stone

The first major expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Hearts of Stone is a terrific romp with a compelling antagonist, some playful adventures and a few wicked fights.

Blood and Wine

Wild Hunt’s second and final expansion, Blood and Wine introduces a whole new landmass, a fresh-faced cast, and a deadly beast. Bring joy to Toussaint – or leave chaos in your wake.

That, as they say, is that. All good things must come to an end, even though The Witcher 3 feels a touch endless. That’s just about everything you need to know about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – the side quests, the main story, all of it. Or… almost all of it, we think. We hope. It’s always a bit hard to know with a game that’s this massive in scope and size.

Are we missing something? Let us know in the comments and we’ll do our best to tackle it – not that we need much excuse to dive back in to spend some more time with Geralt.