Part 9 - The Witcher 3 - 2nd playthrough - Death March

"Sure, Roach, put your head through wood, whatever works for you."

Welcome back to Blackbough where the Wild at Heart quest can be started. I noticed some men fist fighting and thought maybe I could make money if I entered the contest, then realized I had no coin to bet... I asked the locals about Hanna then headed for the forest where she had disappeared.

On my way there, I accidentally found the pellar's home. I convinced the thugs to leave him alone by telling them how to cure their sick friend.

After this, I continued Wild at Heart and ran into a pack of level 7 wolves which for a while seemed impossible to kill. I tried all signs before I found axii was the most useful. I froze one wolf then kept rolling back to lure another away so I could kill them one by one. Important to remember: Wolves should be fought with steel, not silver.

This place is pretty for a cave, but I still hate caves. Killing the few level 2 wolves that protect the werewolf was OK, and I could save once they were dead, but the fight against the werewolf with nowhere to run and him regenerating health was a pain. After dying more times than I care to admit, I looked for help online. Someone explained the werewolf starts regenerating health when it is down to half, so that is when you need to make sure you are close to him and hammering him down with your sword. That is not the time to be covering in a corner munching on bread like I did during those failed attempts. If you do that, the werewolf's health will be full again in less than a minute. It is also very important to use fast attacks as strong attacks are way too slow for the speed at which the monster is regenerating its health.

When I finally managed to get his health low enough for the cutscene to start, it was after overdosing Geralt on potions (Tawny Owl, Thunderbolt, Petri's Philter), using Cursed oil, Samum bomb and the Axii sign, but most importantly, being very careful and patient. First, I blinded him with the bomb, rushed to him and slashed him 4-5 times, then rolled back quickly before he could hit me. Then I used Axii, rushed back to him, hit him again 4-5 times etc. It felt great to finally win, and then I made a mistake...

When the werewolf threatened to kill Margaret, I let her escape, so I had to continue fighting the monster. At that point, I was exhausted and not ready to deal with his speedy health regeneration bullshit again, so he killed me. And there is no checkpoint at that cutscene, so I had to start the whole fight from the beginning! I was frustrated but managed to quickly defeat him again, so I thought, okay, let Margaret escape again, and then I will finish killing the werewolf. But his health was full again in what seemed like a blink of an eye! This time, it took many tries until I got to the cutscene again, so meanwhile I decided that Margaret should die just to save me from the rest of that f---ing fight. If you killed the werewolf in a fight, I admire you.

Geralt, exhausted, looking at the dead werewolf with disgust.

I had wanted to kill him in a fight to get his werewolf mutagen but decided it was not worth the trouble. There will be more opportunities during the game to get one of those.

Hiding in the late Niellen's (he was the werewolf) house. There's a raging storm and a level 6 bear lurking outside, so I spent some time relaxing in here. When it was time for me to leave, the bear was still there. I decided to fight it and nearly killed it, but when his friend joined him I decided, f-- it, and ran away.

It was then I noticed a new ability slot had opened back when I reached level 4, and I also had 2 points available... Using these may have made the werewolf fight easier. Though not by much I'm sure. I used the points to improve Quen and Axii and activated Delusion.

A yellow exclamation point on the map caught my eye, and I went to investigate. On my way there, I noticed this lone, unguarded chest and a blood soaked mattress next to it... Just one of the many reasons I love this game: The world is packed full of interesting little things to discover.

The exclamation point turned out to be the place to pick up the Defender of the Faith quest which is level 10, so I'll have to save that for later.

I made the decision to visit as many places of power as possible in Velen to collect ability points. Meanwhile, I chatted with a friend of mine who is on his third playthrough of this game, and he suggested getting more oils, potions etc. and upgrading them as soon as possible, so I decided to try this as well. I went to Keira to buy recipes, but found she would be unavailable as a trader until I finished Wandering in the Dark. And so I continued Family Matters and visited the Pellar.

Sadly, he didn't have too many useful recipes. I created like two new bombs and that was it. Better than nothing I guess.

From here I went to Oreton with the aim of jumping on a boat to travel to places of power. I picked up another red skull level quest on the notice board, looted residents' homes and made good money by selling their broken rakes and other junk. Now I have better swords and a few hundred monies. :)