The Witcher - Chapter 2 - Vizima Temple District

Click here for a list of all our walkthrough posts for The Witcher (Enhanced Edition).

Because there is already an official Enhanced Edition walkthrough from CD Projekt RED and an extensive database at The Witcher Wiki, we will only be touching on aspects of the game that are not documented there in-depth, or that you may not have thought about doing.
Decision-consequence videos are at the end.

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General

• Jail - Potions in your quick-potion slot are not taken from you at the start of this Chapter.
• When you first exit the Sewer, both the Order Armourer and the Dwarven Blacksmith will trade with you. They have essentially the same inventory and services at this time. Later this can change due to unknown triggers and you can use only one of them.
• Since they both sell two blue meteorite ores, you can buy a total of four, plus another from Thaler. You can get two in Chapter 1, so you really only need 1 more to make a 3-blue-ore sword. Since you can get the powerful Harvall sword in this chapter, however, it is actually not important to make a 3-blue-ore sword at all.
• Sell your armour early to the Order Armourer because no one else will buy it. Later, when you have 5000 orens, buy the improved leather armour. The same armour is available in Chapter 3 if you can't pick it up in Chapter 2.
• Many characters have the Gift option during dialogue long before you know what to get them or what it is for. It is easiest to just leave it alone instead of experimenting.
• Salamandra assassins prowl the nonhuman quarter (per the random rumours you get when you talk to the people there). Some time after midnight. Chance of good loot plus almost always a unit of fisstech.
• Prostitutes (variously named, but not Carmen) - Accepts orens (210) or jewelry (silver ring is probably the cheapest) or gems (amber resale value is only 8) or flowers if you complete Carmen's quest. You can trade food for Roses with the Gardener near the Hospital.
• This is the same in Chapter 3 -- Gifts of things you found are cheaper than a cash bribe or buying something.
• A Fleder randomly (?) appears at night in the city, either in the wheat fields beside the hospital or in the or Hairy Bear Inn area. Two ghouls appear at the Cemetary gates at night.
• Gossip - Keep asking about the witcher. She randomly repeats some dialogue. Eventually you will get one where you identify yourself as Gerald of Rivia. She will ask for a gift (shawl or gem; but gives it back) and asks for gloves instead (or you could directly give her gloves). If you give her the gloves (one pair can be found in St. Lebioda's Hospital), you can have sex with her.
• Old Woman - May randomly have a dialogue with her where you can give a beer (any mug type alcohol?) to get information on the Golem and the Mage's Tower in the swamp, and information on some monsters. Limited selection.
• Vertz residence - Opposite the fish stall near the nonhuman quarter. These are NPCs for an incomplete quest that did not make it into the game.

Hairy Bear Inn

• Conrad, Boozer - No prize for winning a drinking contest with them (?)
• Random (?) Thug in the Hairy Bear area talks about Berengar and you get a Ramsmeat journal entry.

Sewer

• The easiest way to kill the Greater Cockatrice is to stun it with Aard and use a finishing move. Otherwise, Siegfried can really help here to draw attention.
• Lionheaded Cultists - If they are right behind a wall that you can blast down with Aard, you can instead use Igni first to kill them while safely behind the barrier. If you head north from the entrance in their area, you will come to a breakable wall with a lot of cultists behind it. Fry them all with Igni before breaking down the wall.
• Same with Drowners behind the iron bar doors in the Sewer, but there is only one location where you can use this, and there are only 1-3 Drowners.

Swamp

• Bloedzuiger
• Safest way to kill them is probably with Igni incineration at range and let them burn to death. They move slowly, so it is easy to outdistance them.
• They hit hard and can stun. Group Silver at a distance, by striking a less dangerous creature, is also an option to help reduce their health before burning them with Igni so that they explode at a safe distance.
• Strong Silver to cause bleeding can also kill them, but be careful.
• If you do kill one accidentally in close range, pause the game immediately. Rotate to a good visual angle so that you can run right away after you unpause. If you just dodge, you will typically get as far as the edge of the explosion but still be hit. On Hard difficulty, the explosion inflicts two 40+ damage hits.
• Their explosion can kill nearby enemies, in which case you do not get any XP for those kills.
• A random Lumberjack will offer to sell some goods, including a Red Meteorite Ore. You will need one for a side quest in a Warehouse in Chapter 3, in the Trade Quarter.
• The Vodyanoi Altar changes appropriate offerings into one unit of Hellbore at midnight. The Bricklayers say they offer Beggartick, but you don't get anything special from offering that.
• Wolf-headed Scoia'tael in the Scoia'tael encampment in the Swamp: She speaks only during the day. She can offer a lore book once. If you give her the correct herb, she can teach you to identify and harvest 1 herb (starting with "burmarigold", which is not added to your Glossary). Each day, you can repeat the conversation to learn up to 3 types of plants. You can still talk to her in Chapter 3. She does not teach about new plants in Chapter 3.

[A Long Way From Home] > [The Sacrifice]

• When Yaren Bolt gives you his axe, it is not an inventory item but a weapon. If your large weapon slots (you have 2) are full, you will drop your secondary weapon. You are then at risk of losing that weapon due to the game not saving loose inventory items on the ground after an area change. Stash one weapon at an Inn first, or remember where you dropped it and go back for it quickly.

[Anatomy of a Crime]

• The game makes an autosave for you when you enter the Hospital. Do not erase this as the autopsy is very unforgiving of curiosity. If you follow a line of investigation out of curiousity, you can end with an incorrect conclusion. If you already know who the murderer is, all the "wrong" lines of investigation are removed.
• Even if you do not have enough information, you can investigate the Crypt in the cemetary or question Raymond to arrive at the correct answer.
• Whether you have the correct answer or not, the fight at the end of Chapter 2 is essentially the same, with only different beginning and ending dialogue.

[The Drowned Dead Contract]

• If [Force Recon] is available, Siegfried will move to the Swamp but Quest Tracking for this quest will still point to his post. He will acknowledge the quest in the Swamp.

[The Echinops Contract]

• This can be fulfilled right away with any rootstalks, including the ones acquired during Chapter 1. However, you would have needed to get the echinops bestiary entry from an Old Woman in Chapter 1 in order to harvest rootstalks from the echniopsae in the Cave.

[Flowers and Gold]

• Once you have 5 Beggartick flowers, you cannot ask anyone about them.
• Once you have started [A Pilgrimage], you cannot ask Gramps about them. You cannot ask him about them after [A Pilgrimage] either.

[Force Recon]

• Since this battle takes place at the Golem Burial Ground, you can use the Pylons to kill a lot of combatants quickly, but you get no XP. Just don't draw your sword.

[A Ghost Story]

• The Half-Elf's house is one of the few places to get Wolf Aloe.

[A Mysterious Tower]

• If you defended Haren's goods from the Scoia'tael, the Scoia'tael that Haren betrayed are hung at the gallows near the Order stronghold. Vivaldi is in jail and when you bail him out he gives you both books that you need to advance this mission.
• After getting the Sephirot from a Melitele shrine, you can continue to donate fruits to exchange for 1 Mistletoe per fruit.
• Even without the books and Kalkstein's notes, you can place Sephirots in the monoliths in the Swamp, but apparently you do not receive +100 XP each until you have Kalkstein's notes.

[A Pilgrimage]

• Do NOT accept / start this quest until you have gotten the quest from Jaren Bolt of the loggers to get Beggartick blossoms. You can then talk to Gramps about Beggartick. If you are already on [A Pilgrimage], Gramps won't talk about the flowers.
• For a full tour of the Swamp, take Gramps to: Clay Pits, Tower, Druid Grove, Cave (don't have to go inside), trio of islands with Oth Obelisk.
• Gramps flees from all encounters so it is unlikely that he can be killed, but he can take damage. His targeting ring is green so you cannot harm him.
• You will probably encounter the Cocciacidium. It is very dangerous to engage because of its incredible damage output and attack frequency. Instead, retreat immediately out of range, but not so far that it burrows back into the ground. Use Apprentice-level Igni to hit it safely from range.
• He has the quest book "Ain Soph Pur" in his home which you can take for free, but you can also buy that / get that from Golan Vivaldi at the same time you get the other book from Vivaldi.
• If you are on this quest and you enter his house, you will break the quest that is supposed to trigger AFTER you have successfully brought him to the Altar. After escorting him to the altar, he invites you to his home. You are supposed to enter his home at that time to trigger the quest there.

[Old Friend of Mine]

• You can start this quest by speaking with Shani anywhere. If you can't get past Grandma in her house or can't get into the Hospital yet, just wait till morning and talk to her when she heads to the Hospital.
• Grandma:
• Has random dialogue so the requirements for getting past her can change. The easiest way is to get a ring from Bootblack: Drink with Thaler for the book "Shadow People, or the story of His Majesty's Secret Service". Gift it to Bootblack for the ring.
• Note that if you use this on her even once, her response to you will be locked. You may want to hold off and experience her various responses as well as the sneaking about during the party.
• Appears to be a healer. If you enter the house while injured, during the cutscene where Grandma approaches you, you should receive healing.
• To get into the Hospital without any hassle, get the City Guard Ring from Vincent Meis if you have enough evidence to find him innocent of working with the Salamandra against you.
• Party:
• Once [Force Recon] is available (after you deliver Yaevinn's letter to Vivaldi in [Worth Its Weight In Gold]), you can no longer invite Siegfried as he will not leave the Swamp for the rest of Chapter 2, and [Old Friend of Mine] cannot be continued in Chapter 3.
• Go to the party at night. After Shani's party, you need to speak with her again to properly close the quest. If the party ends during the day, she will resume her routine instead of going to sleep and you will have to wait until she comes home from the hospital to close the quest.
• During the party, you will need to get a quest item from downstairs. However, these items are available even before the party, so you could grab them before heading up.

[Suspect: Leuvaarden]

• You can get a clue (and the sword Harvall) in the Swamp. Northwest of the Collapsed Tower and west of the Scoia'Tael camp there is a flight of wyverns and a Messenger's Corpse.
• To fight the Wyverns, move forward slowly to cautiously draw one at a time. Lead them to a Yrden and let them hurt themselves repeatedly running into/through it. When they are weak, hit them with Aard to stun, then kill them with a finishing move. Aard enhanced with a Ritual of Magic has a decent chance of stunning them. They have a limited pursuit radius, so running away will eventually shake pursuit.

[Suspect: Thaler]

• Click on the "Mysterious Man" who shows up outside Thaler's door at 11.30pm to receive XP and another clue.

[The Rat] > [Ghosts]

• Against the two wraiths, Group Silver can work, but it is hard because they move back quickly and very far. Instead, dodge around and burn them with Igni. If it is safe to do so, use Fast Silver.

[Vizima Confidential]

• If you let the Scoia'tael take Haren's goods in Chapter 1, then they will kill Coleman in the Hairy Bear Inn. This happens after you have seen Raymond at least once, and the next time you enter the Hairy Bear. Once the dialogue cutscene is over, Coleman's corpse lies on the floor near the entrance. However, you can also find "remains" in the same room where Ramsmeat sits (if not, save the game and reload to see if it appears). These remains have 350 orens you can take.
• Entering the Mage's Tower locks you into ending Chapter 2, which also closes off some quests. Clear all the quests you can before entering the Tower.
• You can plant a Yrden outside before going into the tower and it will be active when you get out. A good place is to the left of where Raymond is standing when you first meet him at the Tower.
• You don't have to do a lot of fighting: Depending on your skill with Yrden, one or two will kill the Ifrit for you. It can also keep Azar and The Professor at bay. Use Axii on the Professor and he will fight Azar for you. When either of them take too much damage, the escape cutscene will appear.
• Because Azar and The Professor are still plot critical, neither of them can be stunned or killed. You cannot also push them with Aard or attacks into the fire barriers. They cannot be pushed close enough to take fire damage.
• Golden Oriole will not affect the outcome of the cutscene.

[Witcher's Secrets] > [The Private Eye]

• You won't leave till midnight when you talk to Raymond for the first time.
• If you let the Scoia'tael take Haren's goods in Chapter 1, after seeing Raymond Coleman will die. Also, since Haren did not betray the Socia'tael, there will be no corpses at the gallows near the Order stronghold.