Something Ends, Something Begins (II)
How to Get & Beat All Endings in Witcher 3
Quest Locations: White Orchard, Abandoned Village
To get this ending you must have made three of these five previous choices during your roller-coaster ride that has been The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt adventure:
- During ‘Blood on the Battlefield’, you chose to engage in a snowball fight instead of drinking with Ciri.
- During ‘Blood on the Battlefield’, you refused to take coin from Emhyr when visiting with Ciri, instead of taking it.
- During ‘Final Preparations’, you decided to let Ciri talk to the Lodge of Sorceresses alone instead of going with her.
- During ‘Battle Preparations’, you allowed Ciri to ransack Avallac’h’s laboratory instead of giving her Lara Dorren’s necklace.
- During ‘Battle Preparations’, you made time to visit Skjall’s grave on Hindarsfjall, instead of refusing Ciri’s request.
If you made three or more negative choices, Ciri is dead, and Something Ends, Something Begins (I) occurs instead of this option. Sorry but that’s the way the decision tree cookie crumbles.
For this ending, the following must also have occurred (I know what you’re thinking right now. This better be worth it):
- During ‘Blood on the Battlefield’, you agreed to visit Vizima and presented Ciri to Emhyr.
- During Act II, you completed The Assassins’ Quests (‘An Eye for an Eye’, ‘A Deadly Plot’, and ‘Redania’s Most Wanted’). And then during Act III you completed ‘Reason of State’, killed King Radovid, and sided with Vernon Roche.
- Oh and also subsequently, the Emperor and Nilfgaardian army won the war over the Redanians and King Radovid.
Geralt’s starting objective for this final quest is to go talk to the hunter, you’ll want to head towards the huntsman’s cottage. You’re going to be heading in a roughly westward direction out of the village, toward the hunter’s cottage on the outskirts. Best way to spot it is you’ll see Mislav just outside it tanning a hide.
If the player had any romantic involvements with either Yennefer or Triss then they will be joining you at the table. If you decided against any romantic distractions on Geralt’s adventure then there will be an empty chair at the tavern table instead.
The player now has three new objectives:
- Find Ciri.
- Go to the Griffin’s nest.
- Slay the Forktail.
Ciri is over the frozen field, to the west of your current location. She’ll be sitting on a little pile of boulders, staring into the snow. She’ll then tell Geralt that she’s dying to go and see the Griffin’s nest, the one that he did a number on all those months ago at the start of your journey. You can answer her in whatever way you fancy, the Witcher will be taking her to go and see the Griffin’s nest either way.
Follow the path south and then begin your climb up the stone ledges just like you did at the start of the game up to the Griffin’s lair. Jump the big gap and you’ll finally be standing at the nest at the top of the hill. Geralt and Ciri now have a bit of a father/ daughter moment. You’ll warn her to take care, but she won’t listen and is about to land you in a spot of trouble. She’s just pissed off the Forktail that has taken up refuge in the nest… shit!
Slay the Forktail that is now charging at you. If the Forktail takes to the air, use your crossbow bolts or Grapeshot to get the beast grounded and then proceed to dish out some heavy damage. Your best bet for slaying the Forktail is to equip Draconoid Oil to your blade and use Aard to give the Forktail a bit of a blast in between slashes of your blade. The tail-tip stingers of the Forktail are also highly poisonous, so to remedy this Golden Oriole is pretty essential to stop your health from draining away too fast. Keep sidestepping and dancing around the Forktail to not only avoid the poisonous tail, but also to put you in a convenient attacking position for some critical hits.
Once the beast is slain, you’ll warn Ciri of how close she was with death, but she doesn’t seem too bothered. Geralt will offer to take her fishing and four new objectives will pop up.
- Go to the lake.
- Get rid of the bear.
- Fish with Ciri.
- Collect the four fish.
The player will then want to head northeast toward the lake. To get through the lake Geralt will head through the Abandoned Village. Once you’ve passed through here you’ll hit the iced-over lake and your objective location. The Witcher will spot a bear that is trying to get the pollack on the ice. You’ll need to get rid of him for the quest but you have a choice of how you do this. The player can either kill it and gather up all that loot, or frighten it away with a bomb or a crossbow bolt. Depending on your current items and health, getting all those usable items could come in handy with post- main quest armor crafting. Otherwise play it safe and just scare the bear away.
Now simple common sense comes into play and says that trying to fish at an iced-over lake isn’t going to be successful. Geralt has a plan for this. It’s called the Vesemir technique. Choose a bomb, aim, and throw it into the fishing hole- Kaboom! The hole will crack open, and four Pollack are blown out of the water and onto the ice. Head on over to the dead fish and pick them all up. If you’re having troubles finding them all then use your Witcher senses for that handy yellow glow.
Following your triumph at fishing, Geralt will go for a walk with Ciri. During the walk the two will begin talking about past adventures, and Geralt will give Ciri that long awaited piggyback you promised her all that time ago. It’s time to head back, simply follow Ciri on a northerly path as she talks about her youth and all the training she used to do at Kaer Morhen.
Ciri the forgetful lass almost didn’t notice that today was the day she rode to Nilfgaard to see her father Emhyr. She goes on about how she must be sitting on a throne to enact the change she wants to see in the world. Geralt will ask her if this was her choice, and that she should have told you that this was her decision, instead of keeping you in the dark. Finally the Witcher will ask her if this is what she wants.
She’ll say it is. You can answer this in whichever way you see fit. She’ll hand you back over the sword and give you a long hug. Bless ‘er, sometimes a potential Witcher must just rule the world instead! That’s a wrap on the second alternative ending of The Witcher 3.
Again the credits will roll on this one and some, but not all side quests are available. The main quest of The Witcher 3 has finished.
