The Wild Hunt: Retirement

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

With the Hunt destroyed and no tactical genius like Radovid to oppose them, Nilfgaard conquered the rest of the Continent, apart from the vassal state of Temeria which Ves and Vernon fought so hard for. Having realized his vision the Emperor did as he had initially promised, and abdicated his throne to his daughter - Ciri.

You mean I have to wear more fancy shirts?

Thanks to her, the Skellige Isles too were left alone and prospered under Queen Cerys, who stopped their raiding ways. Meanwhile Zoltan helped Dandelion run his new cabaret at Novigrad and Letho surprisingly inherited Kaer Morhen which presented an opportunity for rebuilding his school of the viper there. As for Geralt, he and Yen eventually retired far away to a place of solitude to live out their days together in happiness. 

Of course, this doesn't mean they never saw Ciri again, for the girl could teleport to anywhere at will and on occasion would sneak out to play Gwent with the White Wolf, much to the annoyance of her handlers.

Insight: As expected, this is but one of multiple endings to this game. It's great when your choices matter!

The Wild Hunt: Conjunction

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

With Radovid out of the way, Nilfgaard turned its attention directly to Skellige. Among their massive armada sailed Geralt and company, with an Emperor approved plan to lure the Wild Hunt into battle for one final confrontation.

As Avallac'h expected, they took the magical bait and arrived right into the prison dome maintained by the lodge sorceresses where Geralt, Ciri, and the Nilfgaard army ambushed them. Not one to sit out of a fight, the Skellige fleet also arrived with Crach and Hjalmar at the helm.

None could match the King of the Hunt though, with even Crach falling victim to his blade. Unfortunately for him, the White Wolf's reflexes were better than his magic and the witcher avenged his fallen friend with style.

His death did not end the threats though, as their arrival had begun another Conjuction of Spheres - where the gateway to other worlds opened to let numerous creatures teleport in. The worst of these was the White Frost, a world killing magical storm who prophecy claimed could only be defeated by a child of the elder blood. Ciri.

So this is what it's like inside a snow globe...

Having been trained by Avallac'h for exactly this purpose, Ciri stepped through a gateway to face this unstoppable threat... and won.

Insight: The King of the Hunt is a pansy compared to his generals. Just dodge often and igni his frost armor off to deal some good damage.

The Wild Hunt: Politics

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Upon his return to Novigrad, Triss and Yen enlist Geralt in rescuing the few remaining sorceresses they can track down. One is freely released by the Emperor of Nilfgaard, one saved from Radovid's dungeons in Oxenfurt, and one about to be murdered by Dijkstra.

Freeing the last one comes with a price: the witcher is forced to agree to aid Dijkstra's conspirators, which surprisingly include Vernon and Ves, to assassinate King Radovid. However the mad king is no fool, easily foiling the plan but an unexpected attack ends him on the spot.

Regrouping at the hideout, Vernon reveals the conspirators had made an arrangement with Nilfgaard - kill Radovid and become a vassal state and in exchange the Black Ones would take the war elsewhere. Of course, Dijkstra openly declares to renege on that deal - intent on taking Radovid's place instead. Naturally that also means killing Vernon and Ves.

Well, that's not going to happen.

Dijkstra invites Geralt to leave since witchers don't get involved with politics, but the White Wolf opts to stay with his allies who helped him at Kaer Morhen. The battle is short and bloody, and at the end of it Dijkstra and all his goons lie dead.

Insight: If you opt to fight skull level baddies, make sure you use the appropriate preparations first. I still think it's not worth it however.

The Wild Hunt: Allies

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Once everything is prepared, Yennefer's magics finally lift the creatures curse - revealing him to actually be an elf sage named Avallac'h, who happens to be Ciri's mentor. The elf tells Geralt how find Ciri at the magically hidden Isle of Mists.

Vesemir warns them that they'd need a plan first though, as no doubt the Wild Hunt would be nipping at their heels the minute Ciri leaves that island. Geralt agrees, and states the plan is to bring Ciri home - luring the hunt into a battle at Kaer Morhen.

While the others prepare, Geralt goes to seek other allies first - being turned down immediately by Dijkstra, Crach, Cerys, and the Emperor of Nilfgaard. Fortunately Zoltan, Vernon, Ves, Hjalmar, Vigi and Folan all agree to fight. Surprisingly so does the Skellige druid Ermion, who is zen enough to put aside his hate of Yennefer.

The White Wolf then sails to the Isle of Mists, and without too much fanfare finally locates Ciri.

Been looking for you, kid.

Insight: Ahh this part is great, as it is one where all of your previous decisions either pay off or bite you in the butt!

The Wild Hunt: Junior

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Since an assault on the temple is out of the question, Geralt hunts down Whoreson Junior next with the aid of Cleaver's dwarves but the wily scum always seems to just be out of reach - with his clowns thwarting any takeover Cleaver had in mind.

Skilled in brawling and in make-up application.

It takes contacting the spy, Vernon Roche, hiding out with what's left of his Temerian company and saving his favored soldier, Ves, from an unsanctioned suicide mission against a Nilfgaard unit to finally find Whoreson at a safe house provided by King Radovid himself in Oxenfurt. He had been passing the time by murdering strumpets in various ways.

During his beating, Whoreson divulges that Dandelion, Ciri, and the doppler Dudu were to bring him Dijkstra's hoard as payment to repair a phylactery. The robbery didn't go as planned and Whoreson admits to exchanging blows with Ciri. Unimpressed, Geralt mercilessly kills the bastard who attacked his "daughter" before taking the repaired phylactery for himself.

Insight: Ciri's charge up attack is very powerful, just make sure you dash away to give you time before using it. Despite teleporting everywhere you will always finish right where you start.

The Wild Hunt: Letho

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Having completed his mission of destabilizing the North for the Emperor of Nilfgaard, Letho was now a loose end that the Nilfgaardians wanted silenced.  It was by pure chance Geralt happened upon his hiding spot, but it was greed and loose lips that led the pack of soldiers there too.

The shit we go through for each other...

While eliminating them would have been easy for the witcher pair the only way for Letho to be free of the endless stream of bounty hunters was to fake his death, so Geralt helped him with that. When the coast was clear he subsequently sent his once mortal enemy to the sanctuary of Kaer Morhen.

Letho was grateful for this and advised the White Wolf to ask the "Bloody" Baron, ruler of these parts, about Ciri as his many hired goons would have no doubt run into her. Of course, some of the said goons had already tasted the end of the Geralt's blade due to their many mistreatments of the local villagers. Their friends at the keep, having heard about this, would only greet Geralt with steel in hand.

Insight: Despite being an open world, there are really strong foes lurking some parts of the map which effectively block off regions. As a result it's not too fun to explore in this game since you can't "clear" all the extra locations until you are higher level. Worse, you can't tell what places you shouldn't go yet because these enemies are just peppered at random it seems.

The Wild Hunt: Vultures

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Yennefer gave Geralt a task he couldn't refuse: finding his old ward, Ciri. While officially they were working for Ciri's father, the Emperor of Nilfgaard, Yen had discovered that the malevolent force known as the Wild Hunt was also after her for some mysterious reason.

To cover more ground the two decide to split up with Geralt heading Velen, a no man's land between the territories of Nilfgaard and Redania. Knowing it would be easier to move around with a pass, the witcher accepted a job to assist a forger and his "vulture crew" to pick clean a nearby battle field of all the free loot just lying with the dead.

The local vultures are also pretty monstrous.

As expected, the necrophages are here too and while the ghouls are more numerous this time and led by a rotfiend (zombie that explodes) they still aren't a problem for the veteran monster slayer. What he didn't expect was for a nearby mounted bandit patrol to get involved, resulting in the deaths of all the vultures - the forger included.

Insight: The fire sign, Igni, is effective in startling horses to throw off mounted enemies.

The Wild Hunt: Yen

[Part of the Wild Hunt story]

Geralt wiped away the ghoul blood from his silver sword as he scanned the battle field. The corpses of the soldiers that died in the recent battle had drawn the necrophages here, a fact the witcher used to his advantage by bombing their nest first before finishing the exposed monsters.

The victors of that battle, the Nilfgaardians - also known as the black ones thanks to their armor, now garrisoned near the village. The populace was understandably shaken by recent events, going so far as to fight each other simply because some perceived others to be willingly aiding "the enemy", even if it wasn't the case.

He had only made it a few steps back into the village when a group of Nilfgaarian soldiers blocked his path. In their midst, a ravishing woman in black and white attire. A woman he knew all too well.

"Yen?!"

Insight: Meditating with high quality alcohol in your pack will refresh any potions and bombs you've used, so you don't need to carry around all the ingredients to make them again.