The Witcher - Chapter 5 - Old Vizima

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

• Starting with this Chapter, Aard starts to lose effectiveness as bosses have a lot of protection against it so you can't get cheap kills (although you can do it on Mutant Rayla). Yrden is still a boss killer, Igni still does good damage. Effects from oils cannot be relied on to trigger.
• There are a lot of enemies in Old Vizima initially, but you do not have to clear them all in order to use doors or other area transitions -- only if an enemy is attacking / has selected Geralt as the target. When that happens, you are "in combat" and cannot use area transitions.
• After going to the Swamp for the first time, the fighting in Old Vizima ends. At that point, nurses (human) and paramedics (elf) wander around helping the wounded.
• A random paramedic asks for Honeysuckle in exchange for Ifrit bestiary entry.
• Random Nurse needs Swallow potion, tells about Ifrits.
• Random Nurse needs Naezan Salts and Wine Stone. Gives nothing.
• Random Paramedic needs White Raffard's Decoction, tells about Ifrits.
• In the hospital:
• Diseased patients might as for aid (1 oren); they do not appear to give anything in return.
• A patient might ask for food and give you the Garkain bestiary entry.
• The Swamp spawns a lot of Drowners and Drowned Dead. For the most part, you can simply run away from the monsters, especially if you have the Red Ribbon. You may have to kill monsters if they are too close to an area transition because you cannot use an area transition if a monster has selected you as its target.
• The Chapter ending transition is under your control for a change. Before you leave for Vizima you can clean up any remaining quests.

[Armor: Part Two]
> [Armor: Gnomish Device], [Armor: St. Gregory's Litany], [Armor: Magic Formula]

• Regardless of which side you chose (Scoia'tael, Order, or Neutral), the secret locations and components are all accessible, although you will only be able to forge one version of the armour.
• The  can grant you any of the armour versions, so If you want to follow a particular path but have a different suit or armor, you can get it from the Genie in the Many Items mod.

[Her Highness the Striga]

• You learn early on that you can make a potion with the Striga's Heart. This mod lets you buy the required ingredient instead.
• Amazingly easy to keep her alive by just running around the sarcophagus: She gets tied up at the corners negotiating the turns properly. Cast Quen for insurance.

[Sweet Revenge]

• Koshchey
• Fast and annoying. Throw up a Quen early. You might still get knocked down but you shouldn't take damage. Aard it to get some breathing room then lay a Yrden trap and lead it into it. You really don't want to go toe-to-toe in melee here unless you like drinking potions.
• Azar Javed
• The final encounter with Azar Javed is in two parts. In the first, he escapes and leaves you to fight two minions. After the fight with the minions, you are teleported to the lab area, and after what you need to do at the lab, the cutscene takes you outside. Remember to go back to the room where you fought the minions to loot the two containers there.
• Same tactics as with the Koshchey will work on Azar, except Azar has wide-area spells and an excellent chance of Blinding you regardless of what defensive talents you have. Keeping your distance seems to greatly reduce the chances of him casting some sort of area blinding effect.
• Couldn't seem to inflict bleeding or poison from oils, or get any Pain effect. Bombs for Fear, Stun, and Blind also seemed to be useless.
• It is supposedly possible to keep Berengar alive (and he says something afterwards) but I have not been able to. In the unlikely case where he survives, you do not get any different Quest or Journal update, and all he says is, "I needed to think."